"Kyle Page, a net worth of only ten billion dollars?!"
Jordan, Paramount's head of distribution, twitched his lips. "Do the editors at Global Times have a problem with the word 'only'? Are they saying ten billion isn't enough?!"
Tina, his assistant, felt her beautiful face twitch as well.
Kyle's fortune was simply staggering.
"Mr. Jordan, I read the same article. I knew Mr. Page was rich, but I never imagined he was this rich!" Tina exclaimed.
Jordan nodded blankly.
All Hollywood knew Kyle had money.
But until now no one knew exactly how much; his companies were private and under no obligation to publish accounts. Now Global Times had laid it bare.
And the amount defied everyone's imagination.
For Jordan it was a thunderbolt.
He had known Kyle four-plus years, watching him rise from nobody to billionaire.
Back then they'd haggle for days over a paltry million-dollar film rights fee, arguing tooth and nail.
Back then Kyle had been pure small-time.
Nothing hinted he'd become a tycoon.
Yet facts speak louder than words.
Kyle's present stature far outstripped Jordan's wildest guess.
"Damn it, Kyle, you call us old friends? When you bought Yahoo, Amazon, Microsoft stock, why didn't you tip me off? Even with my limited capital I'd have cleaned up!"
Jordan was green with envy.
Anyone would feel the same.
Jordan ground his teeth. "With Kyle's shameless, penny-pinching style, I always knew he'd succeed—but this level of success smashes my frame of reference."
"I've never heard of anyone amassing ten billion in just four years—not even Bill Gates."
Assistant Tina bobbed her head like a woodpecker.
And Jordan wasn't the only one stunned.
…Pixar Animation Studios
"Kyle, you bastard!"
"Last time at your farm you claimed you were broke—now the media's exposed you. What do you say?"
"You owe me big time. Remember, last month at my place you swiped three bottles of Pétrus Merlot while crying poor. I've never seen such a cheapskate friend."
"Deal? First voyage of your new yacht belongs to me for a few days!"
John Lasseter, leader of Pixar's "Five Tigers," haggled nonstop over the phone, flecks of saliva flying as he wrung concession after concession out of "Stingy Kyle."
Of course, only John Lasseter could pull that off.
They were tight; anyone else would be shown the door.
"Hey, Lasseter, does that guy Kyle really have ten billion?"
Andrew Stanton, another Pixar Tiger, wandered over to ask.
"Not quite!"
Lasseter grinned. "I just got off the phone—he claims 9.36 billion, not the crazy figure Global Times printed."
"Still basically the same!" Andrew shouted.
The difference was negligible.
But Global Times' valuation of Golden Dawn Entertainment diverged sharply.
Goldman Sachs pegged it at 3.26 billion;
Global Times, after gathering data, put it at 7 billion.
The paper noted: "Page Pictures' library now exceeds 2,300 titles. Aside from twenty-odd in-house productions, the rest were bought for roughly 100 million."
"So here's the question."
"Most of those 2,300 films are non-hits or even non-theatrical."
"Hence many insiders sneer that Page's vault is a garbage dump for unwanted rights."
"Yet!"
"In the first half of this year DVD-player sales are surging ninety percent monthly; DVD disc sales are up 165 percent."
"Viewer appetite for DVDs is exploding."
"With 2,300-plus films—ranking eighth in Hollywood, far above DreamWorks' 600—Page is primed to cash in."
"We project Page's 100-million catalog has already tripled to 300 million."
"And still climbing."
"In three years those rights will top 800 million."
The article also praised UPN and WB, rating them above Goldman's estimates.
Citing hits like Prison Break, The Walking Dead, The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, and comparing them to HBO, Global Times valued Golden Dawn TV at over 2 billion—double Goldman's 1 billion.
"Tsk tsk—are Global Times editors ex-Agents?" Lasseter clucked. "Kyle's firms aren't public, yet they pinned the numbers pretty close."
Andrew nodded. "And this is pre-IPO. Imagine once Golden Dawn lists—what multiple will the market slap on it?"
Lasseter's face turned grave.
The gap between listed and unlisted companies is vast.
The very day the story broke, several Wall Street heavyweights phoned Kyle promising the fastest IPO path.
Kyle turned them all down.
Retail investors drooled at the prospect of buying in.
"What's Kyle Page waiting for? Why won't he list?"
"Exactly—Golden Dawn would easily hit ten billion on day one."
"Look at Time Warner—1,500 billion market cap—all thanks to going public!"
Across the America people talked, reporters hounded, and Kyle was driven half-mad.
Yet the exposure brought perks.
Page's recent films saw DVD sales spike;
UPN signed up new subscribers;
WB's ratings jumped several points;
across the board, the trend was stellar.
Bang—!
Kyle slammed the desk and laughed. "So I'm exposed—nothing to hide. Alexander, tell Hashimoto Taro we're moving the bratz dolls launch forward."
"Brilliant, boss!"
Alexander grinned. "Riding the Global Times hype will save us a fortune in marketing the dolls."