Friday 4 June 2010

Hollywood Babble On & On #527: Just A Quick Note...

Welcome to the show folks...

Just a quick Friday note for now kiddies. According to The Wrap.com Disney has entered into exclusive negotiations with troubled film financier David Bergstein and his backers to buy the moribund mini-major Miramax.

Now in case all this is new to you Mr. Bergstein is currently being sued by.... well....
everybody. I'm talking about every investor, creditor, union, casino, and corporation that he has ever done business with. So I'm sure that Item #1 on Disney's agenda for this deal is to get cash up front. It also shows that some of the reports of Disney being concerned with the condition and structure of the Weinstein Company weren't exactly accurate, considering, unlike Bergstein's ThinkFilm and Capitol Film ventures, they haven't had any bench warrants put on them in bankruptcy court. It had to have been over money and Disney's hope that they can squeeze some out of Bergstein's backers.

Of course this story also shows that Bergstein doesn't go out of his way to read an obscure entertainment business blog written by a Canadian literally thousands of miles from Hollywood, because if he did, he'd have read my advice on the matter. If you're too lazy to click the link I recommended that any other parties interested in buying Miramax do one thing:

WALK AWAY

To make a long post short, I advised to walk away, force Disney to sell Miramax to the Weinstein Brothers / Ron Burkle group, wait for it to all fall apart, which it will, and then feast upon the corporate entrails like vultures.

Well, now these folks might have to wait a little bit longer, but this adds a whole new aspect to the plan. Now wait for the Bergstein Group to fall apart, let the Weinstein Bros. / Burkle Group buy it, wait again for that to fall apart, then dive in.

It's a pain in the butt, but it's a method, that could save even more drastic corporate butt pain in the future.

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