MovieChat Forums > Working Girl (1988) Discussion > Don't understand the whole 'deal'

Don't understand the whole 'deal'

posted 15 years ago by Punctuality
7 replies | jump to latest

I actually first saw this movie in the theatre when it was originally released & have seen it on TV a few more times since. I've always enjoyed it, but one thing always puzzled me, how does the whole Trask radio deal work? What does Katherine's company have to do with them and then how does Jack Trainor's company get in on the deal? Are they just independent consultants? It doesn't seem to make sense.

-----------------------------
THIS is from Congo Jack!

[–] villageboy13 15 years ago

katherine works in the "mergers and acquisitions" department of an investment bank; Trask Industries is a client of the bank.

Trask Industries is looking to branch-out into the media industry, in which case they would use katherine's investment bank to finance the deal. Trask wants to buy a television station, but tess realizes that it would make better business sense to start in radio, and presents this idea to katherine.

jack is some kind of consultant who would bring his expertise in on the logistics of the Trask deal...he works at a different company that would partner with katherine's investment bank and share the deal.

[–] jacenterprise 15 years ago

Jack is not a consultant; he has the same job as Katherine doing mergers and acquisitions at another investment bank. In deals like the one portrayed in the movie, one firm acts as a lead underwirter while several other firms participate as well. This is what was being shown in Working Girl although somewhat inaccurately.

[–] roboh-1 11 years ago

I would assume that on a deal this size (what was it, $68 million?), there would have to be a fair bit of paperwork between the two investment banks before anything actually happened. Did Tess forge this paperwork, or did they have some sort of ongoing agreement between the banks?

=*=*=*=*=
The main reason that Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live

[–] hansenmv2002 11 years ago

I thought it seemed overly simplistic - but then not the point of the flick: everyone else would know about radio/foreign ownership/etc. Bare minimal fig leaf to enable the plot.

was it 68M$??? weird - NOW - it would have to be 680M or 6.8B .

John: ...yeah, yeah, yeah. Russell: ...no, no, no
John: Ill drive Russel Ramis: OK.

[–] irvberg2002 10 years ago

What's unclear about it is that Jack has no contact whatsoever with Katharine about it. And he even goes to Katharine's office to meet with Tess without having a clue that it's the office of the woman with whom he has been serious, albeit having decided to dump her. And why didn't Katherine contact Jack about the idea as soon as Tess disclosed it to her? At that point he was the man she was sure she would marry.

[–] LeiaKat 10 years ago

Katherine just transferred down to NYC from Boston, so Jack might not have visited her yet. Especially if he was trying to break it off with her.

The look on his face when she almost 'fell' at the meeting might have been to show he was aware of her games and didn't want to work with her.

[–] northsouth1 9 years ago

She emailed him about the idea without being specific. She wanted to set up a meeting. She probably meant to bring it up during the ski weekend, thus combining business and pleasure (and turning it into a write-off)..