Chapter 272: Film Company

Because Chen Feng had to go to work, he didn’t accompany Guo Mengyao to travel around for the next two days. However, after work at night, Chen Feng would go back to the Lakeside Villa to spend the night.

For these two days, Chen Feng basically stayed in the planning department because this was his old territory and he was more familiar with it. He also directly participated in some of the planning department’s activities and gave a lot of his own suggestions, which were unanimously praised by the entire planning department.

In addition, as the director of operations, he of course also went to other departments to have a look. The main one was the sales department. He chatted with a few gold medal salesmen and also encouraged the new employees.

Although he had no experience as a company leader before, he had seen pigs run even if he hadn’t eaten pork. Now, he was also very skilled and adept at being a leader.

And for Dianchuang Culture Planning Company, these two days had been a major personnel earthquake.

On the second day after the announcement of the layoffs, the company laid off 20 people. Basically, they were all people with nepotism who had been left over from the company before, and their personal work ability was relatively average.

Before noon on the third day, all departments had also submitted their layoff lists. After Chen Feng and Liu Meijun reviewed them and interviewed some of the employees on the list, except for a few who were kept, the rest were all laid off. This time, more people were laid off, more than 30 people.

As a result, the entire company, which originally had more than 120 employees, was left with only about 70 people, almost half of whom were laid off.

This was not a small effort!

Therefore, everyone in the company was very nervous. At the same time, they all cheered up and worked hard, especially the sales department and the planning department, who took the initiative to work overtime. The sales department laid off five people this time, and the planning department directly laid off 10 people.

The planning department originally had three groups, with a total of more than 20 people. Now, with this layoff, there were only more than ten people left, which meant that each group had been laid off by more than one-third.

However, this layoff instead stimulated the work enthusiasm of the planning department.

Because most of the people who were laid off were those who had no ability and were just muddling along. Among them, at least five were old loafers who had been in the company for more than three years. They were already used to the comfortable life of muddling along in the company and getting paid. They were not very enthusiastic about their work. For the projects assigned to them, they would delay as much as possible, and the completion rate was not very high. The planning proposals they made often failed to satisfy the customers and were sent back.

Although this kind of thing was very common, especially when encountering difficult customers, it had happened many times that they were sent back. But if different customers were often dissatisfied with their proposals, then it was very likely that it was their personal ability problem.

Many old customers were slowly worn down by the unqualified proposals of these old loafers and changed to other planning companies for cooperation.

Chen Feng had been in the planning department for so many years, so of course he was very clear about this. So after he became the boss, he hated these colleagues who used to muddle along in the company and laid them off without hesitation.

It was precisely because the company had laid off so many people in the planning department without mercy that the people who were left in the planning department were all in awe of Chen Feng, the second boss. The manager of the planning department, who had just been in office for less than a year, was even more trembling with fear in front of Chen Feng, this old colleague.

The manager of this planning department was named Gao Xiangyu. He could also be considered an old employee of the company. He had joined the company a little more than a year after Chen Feng, and was about the same time as Yan Jun, so he could be considered his junior. At the beginning, their relationship was quite good. After all, Chen Feng was valued by the boss at that time, and he was also a group leader in the department, at the deputy manager level.

But later, as Chen Feng was suppressed, he of course kept his distance from him to protect himself. Sometimes he even helped Yan Jun, who was in power, to say a few words about him. Although it was not too much, he could be considered an accomplice of Yan Jun.

When Yan Jun fell from power, he was a group leader of one of the three groups. Later, when Yan Jun fell, another group leader was dismissed for being involved in the case, and another group leader resigned because he was not clean. He, the only remaining group leader, was promoted to department manager because his background was relatively clean.

From this point of view, he really had to thank Chen Feng for putting Yan Jun in prison. Otherwise, if Yan Jun had been in the manager’s position, how could he have had a chance to get ahead?

But now Chen Feng had become his immediate superior and boss, which caused him too much psychological pressure. It made him unable to sleep or eat well for the past two days, and his dark circles were obviously more serious.

In his opinion, now that Chen Feng was in power, he would definitely not be soft-hearted towards those who had suppressed him or had been his accomplices. This was human nature.

Originally, he was prepared to be dismissed and fired. But two days later, after the layoffs, he was still sitting in the manager’s position. Chen Feng had no intention of firing him as a manager, let alone firing him.

This made him both fortunate and puzzled.

This evening, Chen Feng invited a few colleagues who were still left in the planning department to dinner. There were about ten people in total.

At the dinner table, Gao Xiangyu took the initiative to drink three glasses of white wine to apologize to Chen Feng, thanking Chen Feng for his “mercy” and apologizing for his actions as a tiger’s accomplice.

Chen Feng accepted his apology with a generous smile, and Gao Xiangyu’s heart, which had been hanging in the balance for the past few days, finally relaxed.

The other “old colleagues” had no conflict with Chen Feng. Because those who had conflicts were basically Yan Jun’s former confidants. When Yan Jun was sentenced, they were basically implicated. They were either sent to prison with him or were fired by the company.

Even if there were a few who slipped through the net, Chen Feng also took the opportunity to fire them during this layoff. Chen Feng had no psychological burden for this.

For example, the fat supervisor he had met last time was directly fired by Chen Feng in the first wave. Others had some compensation, but this one not only had no money, but also had his salary deducted for a month.

The reason was simple. As a small supervisor in the administrative department, this guy had taken kickbacks and embezzled during his time in charge of logistics and miscellaneous affairs. Chen Feng did not come forward, but directly had someone from the human resources department “remind” him. He could only resign himself to his fate and leave obediently.

The remaining “old colleagues” in the planning department were relatively clean in comparison. So, Chen Feng was also willing to treat them to a meal to deepen their relationship.

Everyone was very satisfied with this meal, especially Gao Xiangyu, who was drunk and happy after confirming that Chen Feng really had no intention of using him as an example.

And after this meal, Chen Feng began to let things go. He no longer went to the company to work, but concentrated on accompanying Guo Mengyao and her daughter to the amusement park for a day, and then returned to the Lakeside Villa to spend a night with Guo Mengyao.

He wanted her to have a very perfect experience before she left.

The next morning, Chen Feng drove them to the airport. Guo Mengyao was very reluctant to leave, but she, the boss, could not ignore the company’s affairs. In the end, she could only hug Chen Feng deeply at the airport and then turned to board the plane with her daughter.

After Guo Mengyao left, Chen Feng finally returned to his previous normal life. When he had nothing to do, he would stay at home and browse his phone and read novels.

However, he did not stay quiet for long. At Wu Mengting’s reminder, the background investigation reports of the three film companies had all come out, and he had to make a decision.

Chen Feng carefully read the three reports. The investigation was quite detailed. The company’s history, asset structure, organizational structure, and operating conditions were all written in detail, with pictures and texts.

The most important thing was that this report also listed the detailed information of the company’s shareholders and several senior executives, including some of their social backgrounds and educational backgrounds. This was very rare. It was no wonder that it took so long to get it done.

This money was well spent.

After reading the detailed background information of the three film companies, Chen Feng had a general idea in his mind. None of these three companies were large-scale film companies. One of them had a capital injection of only 3 million, and the one with the largest capital injection was only 10 million. And the common feature of these three companies was that they were all currently in a state of loss.

The largest film company currently had a debt of more than 10 million, of which 6 million was from the bank, and the rest were from individuals in other units, including the wages of directors, actors, and other film staff, which also amounted to several million.

The specific reasons for the losses of the three companies were basically the same, that is, the failure of film and television project investment. Especially the largest one, which had invested in a popular BL novel adapted costume drama last year. For this, they had carefully selected two pretty boys to be the two male protagonists, and had also signed them. In addition, they had invested 20 million in this project.

As a result, after the filming started, things went wrong. One of the signed pretty boys had a car accident less than a month after filming. His face was injured and he needed to undergo cosmetic surgery. It would take at least two or three months for him to recover.

It was obviously not feasible to replace him temporarily. It had been almost a month since the filming started, and it was not so easy to find another pretty boy with decent acting skills.

So, they could only wait for this pretty boy to recover before filming his scenes.

Thus, after more than two months, the other scenes of the crew were almost finished. They finally waited for this pretty boy to be discharged from the hospital and rushed to film his scenes. The filming was relatively smooth. It took about a month to finish.

Then came the intensive post-production. They hired the best post-production team in the industry to create it. It took nearly three months to finally complete this ambitious costume drama, and the production was excellent.

The next step was of course to submit it for review. Then the bad luck began. It failed to pass the review several times. It was modified in many places according to the requirements, and even a lot of wonderful pictures and shots were cut, but it still failed to pass.

Everyone actually knew the reason. Because this costume drama was actually about a male-male love story, which was obviously not recognized by the mainstream in the country. Even if friendship was used to replace love in the TV series, some pictures and shots were still quite explicit.

In the end, although the company reluctantly cut a lot of explicit and ambiguous clips and shots, it still failed to pass the review.

What was even more tragic was that at this time, the authorities issued a ban on ancient costume dramas, which further compressed the market for ancient costume dramas.

This made this film company on the verge of death. Their ambitious costume drama was still stuck in the review process.

This project alone had caused this film company to lose a lot of money, so much so that the company intended to sell it as a package, including the debt of more than 10 million.

It was just that everyone was not a fool. This hot potato had been released two or three months ago, and no one was willing to take it over so far.

However, among the three companies, Chen Feng was the most interested in this company. The reason was simple. This company was the largest, and its internal organizational structure was the most mature. In addition, the company also had contracts with several good-looking new-generation artists.

This included the two very promising pretty boys. They had each signed a five-year contract before filming the company’s investment in “River and Mountain Order”.

In the background information of the investigation, there were detailed introductions and photos of these two pretty boys. After Chen Feng saw them, even as a man, he had to say that these two men were really beautiful.

It was no wonder that this company was so ambitious before and was determined to become famous with “River and Mountain Order”. As a result, man’s calculation was not as good as heaven’s calculation. The review was stuck. And because of insufficient funds, the company was suddenly in a difficult situation.

After reading the three detailed reports and making a comprehensive comparison, Chen Feng decided to contact this company first, Xinyao Film and Television Culture Company.

The headquarters of this company was in Xiuzhou. Wu Mengting immediately contacted the person in charge of the other party. When the other party heard that they were interested in acquiring their company, they immediately agreed to meet. He was in the company today and could go to see him at any time.

Chen Feng and Wu Mengting had nothing to do anyway, so they went directly to the company’s location, a low-to-mid-range office building, with a size of more than 100 square meters. It was hard to imagine that this film and television company, which had a capital injection of 10 million and had invested 20 million in filming a costume drama, would have such a shabby office space.

When they came over, they saw a for-rent sign at the door. The two glass doors were not closed. After entering, there was no one at the front desk. After passing through the public office area, there was no one.

Chen Feng shouted a few times inside but no one answered. Just as he was about to let Wu Mengting contact the other party by phone, he saw a middle-aged man rushing out of the innermost room. His clothes were wrinkled, his hair was a little messy, his face was pale, and his expression was not very good.

He was the boss of this company, Chen Xinyao. The company’s name was his name. He was a rich second generation. When he was young, he chased stars and liked TV and movies. So after he inherited the family business, he invested in and established this film and television company. He owned 85% of the company’s shares. The rest of the shares were generously distributed by him to attract talents when the company was first established.

The company had been established for nearly ten years and had produced several popular film and television dramas before. It was not profitable, but it was not losing money either. But in the past two years, the company had started to have bad luck, and its performance had been declining year by year.

This was what made Chen Xinyao determined to make a big move last year, and then he directly killed himself.

The company now owed nearly 20 million in debt. If it were a few years ago, he still had other businesses and family businesses, so it would not be a problem to turn around. But in the past two years, his other businesses were not good either. Not only did he not make money, but he also lost a lot of money.

Under such internal and external difficulties, he had no choice but to sell this Xinyao Film and Television. If someone was willing to pay 50 million, including nearly 20 million to repay the debt, he would transfer the company.

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(End of chapter)