On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Entertainment – the beleaguered movie studio suffering under withering cyber attacks – unconditionally surrendered to North Korea.
The studio’s controversial upcoming picture, The Interview, a raucous comedy about two journalists tasked with entering North Korea and assassinating its living – and very real – leader, Kim Jung-un, was pulled from the schedule. Its release into theatres was cancelled.
The decision represents a staggering loss of revenue and a gigantic waste of advertising dollars, with billboards and television commercials now uselessly selling audiences on a movie they cannot see.
North Korea is also known as the Hermit Kingdom, thanks to its closed-off society and cult-like obsession with keeping the rest of the world at a distance. And because it’s so creepy and secretive, we don’t really know for certain if North Koreans had the technical competence, or, frankly, the imagination, to pull it off.
What we do know, however, is that when Sony Pictures announced the movie months ago, the North Koreans went a little crazy. That’s understandable, I suppose: it’s one thing to be mocked by a puppet, as the former leader of the country (and the current leader’s father) was not too long ago in the rude, hilarious puppet comedy Team America: World Police. It’s quite another to actively depict the exploding head of the sitting head of a country’s government. North Koreans are weird in a lot of ways, but in this way they’re pretty much like everyone else.
When whoever broke into the computer servers of Sony Pictures – and for the record, the official position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is “Hey, it wasn’t us, but we sure are enjoying this” – released copies of some upcoming Sony movies and some juicy salary information about Sony’s top executives, it was hard to imagine there was worse to come.
But there was worse to come.
A few weeks later, private and free-spirited emails were released, in diabolically-timed batches, showing studio executives bickering, saying insulting things about movie stars, making racist jokes about President Obama, and – much worse, in Hollywood – making terrible decisions about which films to green-light and why.
Everyone makes mistakes in business. Everyone says things off-the-cuff. Honestly, if you’re any good at your job at all you’ve probably engaged in some ill-thought-through banter or trash-talk.
But Sony executives made the biggest fundamental mistake of the digital age: they told the truth to each other in unvarnished language, indelibly, in the worst possible way, electronically, in a method that both records everything forever in searchable format and that is ridiculously easy to break into.
So, if you work at a studio or a network – or, let’s be honest, if you work anywhere where people tend to email each other – and you’ve ever been tempted to have a frank and maybe slightly rowdy exchange over electronic internet channels, I’d like to introduce four words to your vocabulary: “Call Me to Discuss.”
Someone wants to vent or rant or find out what’s really going on in a production or with a star or why a deal isn’t getting made, and they email you with a question? Someone wants an unvarnished reference on a job-seeking colleague? Someone wants to joke around about how stupid this or that CEO is?
You simply respond to this request by replying, “Call me to discuss.” Meet them for a totally analogue conversation over a coffee or even the phone and have at it. Say whatever you want however you want, say what you need to say to get a deal closed or a client landed because – and this is crucial – as long as no one’s recording it, it’s all deniable later.
The humming engine of worldwide commerce doesn’t run on people saying things that they can’t take back, or deny, or change later, and Hollywood is no different.
Every single television show or motion picture you’ve ever seen had its origins in a constellation of lies and half-truths and double-back-able commitments. And that’s not a criticism. That’s how things get moving.
But if every utterance and joke and half-promise is saved, forever, in the cloud – easily hacked, easily recalled, easily tossed back in the speaker’s face or, worse, aired out for the world to see, you might as well shut the global economy down right now.
And please don’t tell me that we need efficient communication technology in today’s marketplace. In their heyday, the two major studios that make up Sony Pictures Entertainment released a hundred movies a year. And they did it with black bakelite desk phones tethered to the wall and Western Union telegrams. Why? Because then you get to say stuff that’s true and deny it later if you have to. Or say stuff that isn’t true and get away with it.
“Call me to discuss,” is the only smart way to do business, especially if your business involves mocking possibly insane dictators.
Wait. Did I write “insane dictators?” Let me take that back.
Rob Long is a writer and producer based in Hollywood
On Twitter: @rcbl
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Mica
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Stars: Zakaria Inan, Sabrina Ouazani
3 stars
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Avengers: Endgame
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin
4/5 stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5