Word: matsushita
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Last Monday the trio met with MCA-Universal boss Lew Wasserman, at 81 still the Godfather of Show, and his deputy Sid Sheinberg. Wasserman and Sheinberg were rankling under the ownership of Matsushita, the Japanese conglomerate. MCA was home to both Geffen, whose current music company is housed there, and Spielberg, whose Amblin films are distributed mainly through Universal; the director regards Sheinberg as a mentor of nearly 30 years. "Lew and Sid's intentions were to get back control of their company," says Katzenberg, "and they hoped we'd be an ally to them. We assured them we would...
Richard Liebhaber, MCI's chief technology strategist, notes that the company is not alone in its support of Nextel. In addition to MCI, Nextel is backed by Motorola, Comcast, Northern Telecom, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone and Matsushita. "We're part of the telephone version of a dream team," says Liebhaber, dismissing Nextel naysayers. After all, once there was another start-up company that began as a radio dispatcher for truckers and also defied the odds: MCI itself...
...them acknowledge the existence of gays? "We're not asking Hollywood to make Gone With the Wind or Jurassic Park. They don't have to bankrupt the company or defraud the stockholders. We're talking $10 million or $15 million -- less if you try hard. To Matsushita or Sony or Disney, $10 million is toilet-paper money...
...this fight will almost certainly be a loser because the winner will overpay. Overpaying is a major symptom of show-business fever. Whatever the wishful rationalization of the day -- magazines and cable TV need the synergy of movies and records (Time and Warner, 1989); hardware needs software (Sony and Matsushita buying Columbia Pictures and MCA/Universal, 1990-91); the information superhighway needs content (everyone, 1993-94) -- it is almost axiomatic that when people come down with show-business fever, they pay a premium of 20% to 40%. QVC and Viacom are each offering nearly $10 billion for Paramount, which is about...
...covered by McCaw Cellular , Communications, the nation's biggest cellular operator, which is being acquired by AT&T for $12.6 billion. Even though it will cost at least $2.5 billion to rebuild the SMR system into a cellular network, Nextel, which is backed by Comcast Corp. and Japan's Matsushita & Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, intends to have a coast-to-coast wireless network up and running...