Chapter 367: First Meeting

Chapter 367: Chapter 367: First Meeting

# Note

Hello guys, we finally reach the latest Chapter with original source material, so update will follow accordingly 😇🙏

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By the time the morning light of New York illuminated the Statue of Liberty, Irene was already prepared.

Lisa, Robert, and two senior lawyers were already waiting downstairs at Irene’s apartment building in New York. This was a new property Irene had purchased in Manhattan last year, a 140-square-meter apartment that served as a gift to herself for Facebook going public.

She didn’t come here often. After all, she spent two-thirds of the year on set, and for the rest of the time, she preferred the sunshine of California.

Today was the day of the Marvel annual shareholder meeting, and she had flown to New York a day early to prepare.

"Has the information on CEO Isaac Perlmutter been organized?" After getting into the car, Irene took the documents handed to her by Lisa and flipped through them quickly.

"It’s all here." Lisa nodded in response.

"Isaac Perlmutter is a core member of the Perlmutter family and the current Marvel CEO. The Perlmutter family holds a 20% stake in Marvel through their holding company, MacAndrews & Forbes, making them the largest shareholder group besides you.

However, these shares are scattered among various family members, meaning decisions require collective deliberation. Their actual decision-making power is far less concentrated than the 13.5% stake you hold personally."

She added: "It is worth noting that the Perlmutter family acquired Marvel for $82.5 million in the late 80s and once used leverage to send Marvel’s stock price soaring, but this left behind lasting consequences.

In the 90s, to alleviate financial pressure, they sold the film adaptation rights to many core heroes, including Spider-Man to Sony, the Hulk to Universal, and the X-Men to 20th Century Fox.

This is the key reason why Marvel’s film business is weak today. Since Isaac Perlmutter took over as CEO three years ago, his biggest move has been to stop selling copyrights, attempting to preserve the remaining IP assets."

Irene closed the file. "Stopping the sale of copyrights is a wise move, but playing only defense won’t save the Marvel of today."

After a half-hour drive, the vehicle arrived at the Marvel headquarters building in Manhattan, New York.

This office building standing in a bustling district was not exactly top-tier, but the Marvel logo at the entrance still carried the childhood memories of countless fans.

Walking into the building, the corridor walls were covered with comic book covers of superheroes, from Spider-Man to Iron Man, from Thor to Captain America. Unfortunately, behind these glamorous images lay the company’s continuously declining performance and precarious stock price.

The shareholder meeting was set in a large conference room on the 18th floor. When Irene walked into the venue with her team, all eyes instantly focused on her.

There were about thirty shareholder representatives present, including institutional representatives holding large amounts of shares as well as scattered individual shareholders. Everyone’s face carried complex emotions: curiosity, scrutiny, and a trace of undetectable anxiety.

Isaac Perlmutter was already seated in the main position. He was around fifty years old, his hair combed meticulously, dressed in an expensive custom suit, with eyes as sharp as a hawk’s.

Seeing Irene enter, he merely nodded slightly without any extra expression, as if he had only seen an ordinary shareholder. There was no sign of the grudge from having previously rejected her copyright request, nor was there any hostility toward this "uninvited guest."

His assistant, Peter Cooper, stood to the side, respectfully distributing meeting materials to the shareholders.

Irene sat down in the middle section of the venue, with Robert and Lisa sitting on either side of her, while the lawyers took their seats in the back row.

She was in no hurry to speak, simply taking out a notebook and calmly observing everyone present. The institutional shareholders had their brows furrowed, clearly dissatisfied with Marvel’s current situation, while the small shareholders whispered to each other, their eyes filled with worry.

At nine in the morning, the shareholder meeting officially began.

Isaac Perlmutter tapped the table, and the venue instantly fell silent. "Thank you, shareholders, for attending this annual shareholder meeting amidst your busy schedules. Next, we will report on the company’s operating status, financial data, and future plans for the 2003 fiscal year in order."

The first to speak was the Marvel Chief Financial Officer. Holding the financial statements, his tone was slightly heavy.

"For the 2003 fiscal year, the company’s total revenue was $320 million, a year-on-year decrease of 8%. Net profit was $21 million, a year-on-year decrease of 15%. Among this, revenue from the comic publishing business was $110 million, basically flat year-on-year, and it remains the company’s core source of income.

Revenue from toy and merchandise licensing was $150 million, a year-on-year decrease of 12%, mainly affected by the sluggish global toy market and the decline in the popularity of some hero IPs.

Revenue from the film and entertainment business was only $60 million, a year-on-year decrease of 20%, mainly relying on copyright dividends from works licensed in earlier years, with very few film projects in which the company participated independently."

He paused for a moment and continued: "As of the end of this fiscal year, the company’s stock price closed at $12.3 per share, a 21.6% drop from $15.7 per share in the same period last year, and the market capitalization has shrunk to approximately $2.8 billion.

Currently, the company’s debt-to-asset ratio is 45%. Although this is within a safe range, cash flow is tight, and it is difficult to support large-scale IP development and film production in the short term."

As soon as the financial data was announced, a wave of whispering immediately broke out in the venue.

An institutional shareholder from a hedge fund was the first to lash out. "Mr. Isaac Perlmutter, we invest huge sums of money every year to hold Marvel shares, not to watch the stock price continue to fall! As the core channel for IP monetization, why has the film business shown no improvement? Must we shareholders continue to pay the price for the aftermath of the Perlmutter family selling off core hero copyrights back in the day?"

Another elderly individual shareholder also chimed in.

"Yes, Mr. Isaac Perlmutter. The popularity of Hollywood superhero films is getting higher and higher now. Sony’s Spider-Man trilogy has broken global box office records, but these earnings have nothing to do with Marvel.

Why can’t we develop our remaining hero IPs, like Iron Man or Thor, ourselves? If this continues, the shares in our hands will sooner or later become worthless scraps of paper!"

"And the toy licensing business," a female shareholder added. "The Marvel toy styles on the market now are old and lack innovation. They simply cannot attract young people. Can we cooperate with some well-known toy manufacturers to launch co-branded or limited-edition products? If we continue to stick to conventions like this, licensing revenue will only decrease more and more."

The shareholders’ questions rose one after another, pointing directly at Isaac Perlmutter’s management strategy.

Isaac Perlmutter’s expression gradually became ugly. He clenched his hands tightly, his knuckles turning white, struggling to maintain a surface-level calm.

"I can understand the concerns of all shareholders. But film projects involve large investments and high risks. Given the company’s current cash flow situation, it is simply impossible to support large-scale film production. As for the toy licensing business, we are currently negotiating cooperation with several manufacturers, and relevant plans will be launched subsequently."

"More ’subsequent plans’?" The hedge fund shareholder who had lashed out earlier said with dissatisfaction.

"We have been listening to ’subsequent plans’ for three years, but the company’s performance has not only failed to improve, it has gotten worse and worse! Mr. Isaac Perlmutter, as the CEO and as the representative of the Perlmutter family, do you actually have a feasible plan? We need action, not empty promises!"