To Pixar and Beyond by Lawrence Levy

Author:Lawrence Levy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

14

Hollywood Cred

It did not take long for my excitement at securing Robertson Stephens as the lead investment bank to wane a little. We still had no one who would certify Pixar’s credibility as an entertainment company, and we needed that if we were to convince the investment community we had what it took to make it.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs would have been perfect because they had stellar reputations in Hollywood. But Robertson Stephens was unheard of in those circles. I liked Keith Benjamin, the Robertson Stephens analyst who would write the reports on Pixar that Wall Street would read. He was thoroughly engaged in Pixar, inquisitive, smart, and enthusiastic. But few in the entertainment industry would know him. We needed somebody whose word would give Pixar immediate credibility in Hollywood.

I was sitting in my office one day when I was struck with an idea. I had read and reread Hal Vogel’s book Entertainment Industry Economics. I remembered that his experience in entertainment came from being an industry analyst. I checked the book, which said he had been the senior entertainment industry analyst at Merrill Lynch since 1977. He had also been ranked as a top entertainment industry analyst by Institutional Investor magazine for several years in a row. This would make him one of the best, if not the top, entertainment industry analysts on Wall Street.

I didn’t expect that Hal Vogel would have much interest in Pixar, especially because it was his book that described the perils of financing film companies through the stock markets. Still, he’d know the field well, and maybe he’d have some ideas. I thought it might be worth talking to him.

I gave Todd Carter at Robertson Stephens a call. Todd knew I was on the lookout for some entertainment clout in our deal and he was eager to help. It didn’t take long for Todd to discover that after seventeen years at Merrill Lynch, Hal Vogel had left just a short while earlier, at the end of 1994. He was now managing director and senior analyst of entertainment, media, and gaming at Cowen and Company, a boutique investment bank based in New York that I had never heard of.

“Would you like me to reach out to him?” Todd asked.

“That would be great,” I responded. It was not uncommon for the lead investment bank to solicit interest from other banks. That would spare me the embarrassment of taking any rejection directly.

“Do you know anything about Cowen and Company?” I asked Todd.

“Not a lot,” Todd answered. “They’re a very small player in the IPO business but they’ve gotten more active in recent years. They’re unknown out here.”

Todd placed the initial call to Hal Vogel, who indicated he was happy to have a conversation. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but at least I hadn’t been dismissed out of hand. We arranged a time to talk over the phone. I began the conversation cautiously.

“Thanks so much for talking,” I said. “I learned a lot from your book.

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