The tech giants stomped Hollywood this past week: Amazon.com Inc. revealed its plan to acquire the storied MGM studio for almost $8.5 billion, including debt.The story of outsiders attempting to take on Hollywood is one of many sequels. Since the mid-20th century, companies in sectors as far-reaching as soft drinks and oil fields have come to Los Angeles hoping to strike it big in the film business. Long-gone players have included Coca-Cola Co., Gulf & Western, and General Electric Co.Almost all the outsiders have ended up creeping out of town, beaten. There is a reason producers often refer to outside financing as “dumb money”. Take the example of owners of studios through time, for instance, and larger corporate trends appear, from the postwar supersizing of industrial conglomerates to the increase of Japanese players in the 1980s and ‘90s. When Sony Group Corp. brought Columbia Pictures in 1989, the cover of Newsweek declared “JAPAN INVADES HOLLYWOOD.” Very little at what is now Sony Pictures changed, outside of the installation of the sushi bar, but similar concerns were raised when the Chinese investment started flooding into Hollywood around 2015.