Chapter Nine Hundred and Ninety First Good Start
The last big-budget film at the end of May was Jim Carrey's The Truman World, produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Next will be "The Day After Tomorrow" by Firefly Pictures, so Eric is quite concerned about this film by Jim Ricky.
Despite the failure of "Cable TV Repairman", in recent years, Jim Carrey has been sitting firmly in the first-line position in Hollywood. Even in the literary "The Truman World", Jim Carrey still got 1200 The first-line salary of 10,000 US dollars, because of this high salary, "The Truman World" has also been piled up into a big production with a cost of 60 million US dollars.
On a plane to New York on Monday.
Eric sat relaxed by the porthole looking at last weekend's box office report in his hand.
"The Truman World" grossed $31.19 million in its three-day opening weekend, which was comparable to "Lethal Weapon 4" and "Patriot" in the previous two weeks.
As long as it can maintain a good box office curve, Paramount can still make a small profit. As for the other "Lethal Weapon 4" and "Patriot", due to the average weekly decline of about 40%, it has no threat to "The Day After Tomorrow", which will be released this Friday.
The new version of "The Day After Tomorrow" is directed by Michael Bay. Eric has already seen the finished film. Since he wrote the script himself, compared with Roland Emmerich's version, the new version is no longer as protracted as the original in terms of plot. , Moreover, the explosive shell, which pays attention to the visual experience, made the frozen pictures of the whole North America more shocking. In addition, this is the only blockbuster of the Firefly Group this summer, which has concentrated most of the company's marketing resources. No one doubts that this special effects blockbuster will become a blockbuster that ignites the entire summer.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Eric's Boeing 767 landed at MacArthur Airport in central Long Island, sending Caroline and Mayer to Manhattan as usual, while Eric rushed to East Hampton. He plans to spend two weeks in New York, one week on business and one week with women and children.
However, although he wanted to rest first, Chris rushed over from Manhattan the next day.
In the morning, on the lawn of the manor, the weather is not bad today.
When Chris led Joanna to the lawn in the backyard, he saw that Eric was bringing his three children to make taxidermy insects. Kevin and Emma were very excited to play, and Hawaii was obviously absent-minded. Seeing that his mother brought Chris here, Hawaii immediately got up and greeted sweetly: "Good morning, Uncle Chris, do you want to talk to Dad about something?"
The little girl's eyes flickered, and she almost said something like, 'Uncle Chris, take my dad away'.
With a smile on his face, Chris shook his head solemnly: "No, I'm here to accompany you to make insect specimens."
Hearing this answer, Hawaii frowned, very distressed, how could these adults be so boring, and what's even more hateful is that they have to pull themselves.
Eric put down the tool in his hand, got up and hugged Chris, and said to Joanna, "Joan, you can play with them."
Joanna nodded and watched Eric and Chris leave before sitting down in Eric's seat, fondling her restless daughter, and said, "Xia Xia, you promised mother, Get along well with Dad and don't always act so impatient."
"But Mom, these things are really boring. Can I go back to reading now?"
Joanna shook her head and said: "No, I said hello to Manny, she won't come over to help you in class this week, I also put away your books, oh, and Steve gave you Numpad. You've freaked your dad out, so, at least this week, be good."
"Well."
The delicate little girl with beautiful big eyes who just turned five years old snorted in distress, laying lazily on the table full of handmade props, and suddenly felt that life was boring.
On the other side, Chris followed Eric back to the living room of the villa and sat down on the sofa.
He smiled and asked, "Are you surprised again when you come back this time?"
"If you mean seeing a five-year-old girl holding a copy of "Differential Topology" with relish," Eric shrugged, nodding with a wry smile: "That's true, if it weren't for Xia Xia's tutor Explain to me what differential topology is, and I have no idea what my daughter is reading. Although, well, even if she does, I still don't know what it is."
"Haha," Chris couldn't help laughing, and after a while, he said, "I really look forward to seeing what Xia Xia will look like when she grows up. Well, maybe I should let Daniel and Xia Xia get along more now, and the future will be better. Marry home as a daughter-in-law."
Eric still smiled helplessly. Of course he expected his children to be very smart, but now it seems to be too much.
After chatting and laughing, the two quickly turned to the topic.
"Including our original holdings, in the first half of the year, with the purchase of Firefly Investment and Clover Fund, we now hold a total of 35.7% of AOL's shares. At present, AOL's outstanding shares have basically been swept away by major investment funds. It is impossible for us to increase our shareholding. During this time, I have been in contact with other AOL shareholders, but the results have not been very good. Steve Case's achievements are obvious to all, great Some shareholders are more inclined to the development strategy of the existing management."
Since its establishment, AOL has been financing various investment companies. It was not until Firefly Investments entered the market that AOL's equity structure was basically stable. The current situation is that AOL's management, including Steve Case, holds less than 10% of AOL's shares in total. Except for Firefly, the major shareholder, other equity is concentrated in the hands of major investment funds.
According to yesterday's closing price, AOL's current market value has reached $39.6 billion, an increase of 1.77 times compared with the beginning of the year. That is to say, every percent of AOL’s shares are now worth nearly $400 million. Even if major investment funds are willing to continue to transfer AOL’s shares, Firefly will not be able to spend enough money to buy it.
Taping his fingers lightly on the armrest of the sofa, Eric considered for a while and asked, "If we showdown now, what are the chances of taking control of AOL?"
Chris thought about it and said: "50%, there is already rumors of AOL merging with Time Warner. If the news is confirmed, our side is more likely to lose, and many people are very happy to see it. AOL merges with Time Warner."
Although it is the largest shareholder of AOL and holds 35.7% of the shares, the possibility of failure is indeed very high when Firefly wants to initiate a shareholder vote to oust the existing management when the situation in AOL is very good. big. Because most of AOL's shareholders are institutional investors, and the number is not large, it is very easy to twist a rope to resist the major shareholder of Firefly Investments.
Of course, Firefly is not without its own trump card, which is to threaten other shareholders on their side by selling stocks. The AOL stock held by Firefly System, once sold off in a big way, is enough to crash AOL's stock price.
However, Eric would never use this method unless he had to. Doing so would not benefit anyone, and it might even have a chain reaction that would cause shocks in the entire Nasdaq market.
The Nasdaq is now approaching 2,000, which may seem like a long way from its 5,000-point high, but in reality, the stock index is full of bubbles.
Take Microsoft, the most representative of the Nasdaq market. In 1995, when the Nasdaq index remained at around 1,000 points, Microsoft's market value was only more than 40 billion US dollars, but now, the Nasdaq index has risen. By 2000, Microsoft's recent market value has exceeded 250 billion, which is more than six times higher than three years ago.
If Firefly Investment is trying to make AOL shareholders succumb, it will really hit AOL stock. As the leading star stock in the Nasdaq market, Eric is very worried that the fall in AOL's share price will become the fuse for the entire Nasdaq market to collapse in advance. If this happens, then Firefly may face the hostility of the entire Wall Street. .
As for why AOL insisted on the development route of network service providers, Eric has discussed with Chris in detail.
The number of AOL users has grown very rapidly in recent years. It is estimated that by the year 2000, AOL's broadband installed users will reach 20 million, which is far more than that of several traditional network service operators such as at-t and verizon.
Therefore, basic Internet services are the foundation of AOL. As long as it can have 20 million users, based on the average monthly tariff of $30, these users will bring AOL a stable revenue of $7.2 billion a year.
Under such a good situation, if it can go a step further, annex a traditional telecom operator, further consolidate its position in the industry, and expand other basic service businesses, even if the Internet bubble bursts in the future, AOL can still sit on the Diaoyutai.
However, according to Steve Case's development ideas, building AOL into the largest Internet media giant in the United States is equivalent to completely chasing the end.
Past history has also proved this. When the Internet bubble burst, the bubble of the Internet media empire accumulated by America Online quickly disappeared. Due to the various personnel and financial crises brought about by the bursting of the bubble, the lack of internal attention to basic network services, and the joint strangulation of several traditional giants, AOL's more than 20 million network users also quickly flowed to several other companies. In the end, when Time Warner sold AOL again, the Internet giant with a maximum market value of $180 billion was left with a meager $4 billion.
In fact, Eric felt that AOL shareholders were very lucky in the previous transaction. When the company's stock price peaked, they converted their stocks into 'AOL-Time Warner' stocks, so , when AOL disappeared, they actually still own shares of Time Warner, so they won't be empty-handed. As for the shareholders of the original Time Warner, hehe.
Speaking of which, if AOL's acquisition of Time Warner can still be reached this time, even if it is based on a 50-50 ratio, Firefly Investments' shareholding in Time Warner will be close to 18%, which is definitely a new 'AOL'. -Time Warner's largest shareholder, also in line with Eric's ambitions to expand throughout Hollywood.
However, giving up the opportunity to become the largest Internet service provider in the United States in exchange for an 18% stake in Time Warner Group is definitely a big loss business, and Eric does not want to see this kind of expansion anyway.
"50% is 50%," Eric said in the end. "Time Warner has been in contact with AOL's executives very frequently, so we must make a decision as soon as possible, and we can't delay it like this."
Chris nodded and said again: "So, Eric, it's good to succeed, but if you fail, what are you going to do?"
Eric didn't hesitate too much this time, saying: "If we fail, then we will gradually withdraw from now on, and sell as many stocks as we can."
Chris naturally knows what Eric means. The Nasdaq market will crash sooner or later. Once the stock market crashes, these Nasdaq market star stocks from AOL will definitely bear the brunt. Firefly can only sell as many stocks as possible to cash out before this date.
As for becoming a shareholder in the new AOL-Time Warner in the future, Eric is not interested at all.
Once the Nasdaq crashed, Time Warner was a complete mess. Even if Time Warner's market value is calculated at $50 billion, taking an 18% stake is only worth $9 billion. Even now, the value of Firefly's 35.7% stake in AOL has far exceeded this figure. What's more, 18% of the shares are not enough to seize control of Time Warner.
The two chatted for a whole morning without knowing it. After lunch, Chris left in a hurry and began to prepare for the showdown planned at the end of this month. At that time, Eric may come to New York again.
While Eric stayed in East Hampton to stop his daughter from becoming a cloud, the working week passed quickly.
On Friday, June 5, the first special effects blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow" this summer was officially launched on 3,370 screens in North America at the same time.
The first day of the film received 23.5 million US dollars. Eric's carefully revised script and Michael Bay's good visual effects made the film's reputation also popular. Most of the media gave an evaluation of about 8 points, far exceeding the previous one. Roland Emmerich version.
Following the opening day of 23.5 million US dollars, the film won the box office of 73.75 million US dollars in three days in the first weekend, becoming the first blockbuster movie in the summer to cause a movie craze. According to the box office data of the first weekend and three days, Michael Bay will also have no suspense to obtain his first first-week box office breaking 100 million film.