Michael Eisner was furious!
Pearl Harbor had tanked at the box office, and to make matters worse, the "fraud scandal" had erupted, dragging Disney's reputation through the mud.
Since the turn of the century, Disney's stock price and brand value had been on a steady decline.
A big part of that? Their movies just weren't cutting it anymore.
Last year, Disney could at least come up with excuses. But this year's Pearl Harbor? There was no defending it.
A scandal on top of everything else—what was there left to say?
Sure, Disney had been scrambling with PR moves lately, but the sliding stock price was still gnawing at every shareholder's nerves.
Michael Eisner had been running Disney for nearly 20 years, and this time, the pressure felt like nothing he'd ever faced before.
Movies might not bring in the biggest chunk of revenue, but they were the heart of Disney's business.
If the film division stumbled, it'd ripple through the whole kingdom, shaking up the entire company.
At the board meeting, Roy Disney—the number two guy Michael had kept under his thumb for over a decade—finally snapped. He straight-up grilled Eisner: Can you fix this movie mess or not?
Eisner leaned on his decades of clout to calm the board down quick, but the writing was on the wall.
The Disney family had spoken. They weren't happy with him.
The family didn't own much stock anymore—just Roy Disney holding a small slice—but their influence? Undeniable.
Plenty of Disney old-timers still felt loyal to the family name.
If Roy raised the flag, things could get ugly fast!
"Jerry Bruckheimer's a total hack!"
Michael Eisner sat in his office, grabbed a book off his desk, and chucked it hard.
The place was a mess!
To make Pearl Harbor a hit, he'd gotten involved at every stage—production, promotion, the works. A guy at his level shouldn't have had to micromanage likeді that.
He'd personally visited the set and post-production team three times, just to keep an eye on things and ensure success.
After Dunn Films humiliated Disney last year, this summer was their shot at redemption!
Jerry Bruckheimer had sworn up and down that Pearl Harbor would be a groundbreaking classic—on par with Titanic, a film for the history books!
Two weeks after release, North America box office hadn't even hit $100 million.
Market buzz? Forget matching Titanic. But making history? Oh, it did that alright.
The "fraud scandal"… Pearl Harbor's stink was now a legendary stain in movie history.
Disney was just collateral damage!
No wonder Eisner was losing it—humiliation like this was next-level.
Still, he'd been in the game for decades. He'd even dodged death in the '90s. Bigger setbacks than this hadn't broken him. He was disappointed, sure, but not unhinged.
"Some half-dead geezer who won't just enjoy retirement—he thinks he can grab power? Let's see if he's got what it takes!"
Eisner snorted, brushing off Roy Disney with disdain.
Back in the '80s, Roy was president, and his brother-in-law Ray Miller was CEO. The two of them spent all their time fighting over control, running the company into the ground.
That was Disney's darkest hour—cash flow dried up, nearly bankrupt.
If Roy hadn't caved first and the board hadn't swooped in to hire a pro like Eisner, Disney might've ended up worse off than MGM.
From day one at Disney, Eisner had run things his way, barely giving Roy a second thought.
His focus? One thing: Disney's stock price!
With Pearl Harbor getting crushed by Never Sinking at the box office, plus the scandal, Disney's stock had dropped 7%. Eisner's top priority was winning back the confidence of shareholders and Wall Street.
"Disney… we need a new cash cow!"
Eisner leaned back in his chair. He didn't have time to mess with Dunn right now—stabilizing the stock was job one. Eyes half-closed, he mulled it over for a while, then sighed. A determined look crossed his face.
He sat up straight, grabbed the office phone, and dialed a familiar number.
"Who's this?"
"Rupert! Haha, it's me—Mike! Michael Eisner!"
Eisner's voice was warm and cheerful, a total 180 from the fury on his face.
"Oh, it's you!" Rupert Murdoch chuckled lightly. "If this is about the Fox Family Channel again, I'm sorry, but anything under $5 billion—I can't justify that to my shareholders."
"No, you can justify it."
"Oh?"
Eisner said calmly, "I'm good with the $5.3 billion deal!"
Murdoch went quiet for a moment before replying, "$3 billion in cash, plus a billion in debt?"
"Exactly!"
"Heh, word is you've hit some rough patches lately?"
Eisner's brow twitched, his tone shifting. "Rupert, you're not trying to take advantage of me, are you?"
"No way!" Murdoch laughed heartily. "Business is business—reputation first. The deal we agreed on? It's solid!"
…
Roy Disney had been ghosting Dunn for months. Now, with the stock tanking, Pearl Harbor bombing, and the scandal blowing up, the old man couldn't sit still anymore. He finally asked to meet.
But seriously…
Meet when he felt like it, ignore Dunn when he didn't?
Talk about full of himself!
Hollywood wasn't the same place it was when Roy was in charge.
Sure, as a Disney shareholder, Roy didn't want the stock to keep sliding. But what did that have to do with Dunn?
Dunn shot back a reply: "Let's talk after Atlantis: The Lost Empire comes out!"
He respected his elders, but Roy Disney's high-and-mighty attitude? That rubbed him the wrong way.
Even media titans like Redstone and Murdoch shook Dunn's hand with enthusiasm. Who did Roy Disney think he was, treating Dunn like some errand boy?
Dunn headed straight to New York!
It was June now, and that big chess game he'd been playing? Halfway done.
Wall Street papers had already sniffed it out: over the past six months, Dunn Capital had been aggressively shorting stocks on NASDAQ and the NYSE.
Dunn, dubbed the "Stock God" and "Little Stock God," was at it again, and the industry was buzzing!
Last time he shorted, it landed him on the Forbes rich list.
This time?
The results were jaw-dropping.
He'd lost!
And not just a little—he'd lost big.
Rough estimates said that in March and April alone, Dunn Capital shorted 207 stocks, got margin-called, and was forced to close out. Losses? Over $400 million!
And that was just the tip of the iceberg!
An anonymous Businessweek report claimed Dunn Capital had shorted 5 stocks in January, 56 on NASDAQ, and 527 on the NYSE.
So far, 207 had been forcibly closed. What about the other 276?
Sure, a few might've dipped— the dot-com crash wasn't fully over yet.
But the NYSE? That was a different story!
With Bush's tax cuts kicking in, companies were seeing bigger profits, and NYSE stocks were climbing fast.
In other words, that $400 million loss might just be the start. Dunn Capital could be staring down an even bigger hit!
Dunn made the trip to Manhattan himself to sit down with Scott Swift, the guy running his financial ops.
"The stuff they're saying out there—it's not good for us!"
Scott Swift's face looked grim.
Losses this huge at any other company? The head of that division would be toast.
Even if this was all Dunn's call, it still stung.
For years, Scott had been Dunn Capital's GM, managing billions and living large in Manhattan. He was a Wall Street hotshot.
Plenty of young, gorgeous women had thrown themselves at him—some of his best memories.
But the last couple of months? A total nosedive.
Industry peers were smirking at him now, whispering that he was torching Dunn's fortune.
Scott couldn't explain it. He just had to eat it and sulk.
Dunn, though, grinned like nothing was wrong, totally unbothered by the bad press. "Scott, you look deflated," he teased.
Scott shook his head bitterly. "Dunn, what are you even doing? Money… you don't lose it like this."
Dunn laughed. "You've gotta lose to win! Especially in the markets—nobody makes money every time."
Scott didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
How could Dunn be joking at a time like this? Guy's got guts!
Dunn glanced at the office door. Scott got up, locked it, then turned on the radio, cranking the volume. He flipped on a signal jammer too.
Dunn slid over next to Scott. "Relax. Everything's under control!"
"Under control?"
Scott's eyes went wide.
Dunn smiled but held back a little, playing coy. "The tax cuts? That's just a band-aid. What really drives the economy is the dollar's exchange rate. It's sky-high right now. If the Fed doesn't raise rates and let it drop, a crisis is coming—it's only a matter of time."
Sure, it was hindsight. During the NASDAQ bubble burst, every economist had spouted that line a million times.
But Scott caught the deeper meaning. "So… you think the U.S. stock market's about to take a big dive?"