Nine Hundred and Ninetieth Chapters Sudden Temptation

"Of course not, you're just slandering. According to the Hong Kong Island movie routine, I'm going to sue you," Eric joked, then changed the subject and said, "You, this year's Victoria's Secret University. The show should have already started preparations, right?"

"Well, I have already started to choose the theme," Emily said without bothering about what happened just now, "We just opened the Victoria's Secret store to Europe in the first half of the year, and this year's big show is going to be in London."

Eric has paid little attention to the specific operation of the Victoria's Secret show. Hearing that, he just hugged Giselle to his side and said, "Just remember to give Giselle an opening."

Emily nodded and said, "Of course, there are also wings, and this year, apart from Cindy and the others, only Giselle can get the theme opening."

Although Emily has a good relationship with Joanna and Virginia, she also takes Joanna's sister Eva by her side as an assistant. However, Emily has become accustomed to Eric's careless behavior. Out of some women's thoughts of embarrassing women, she didn't have any prejudice against Cindy, Gisele, etc. because of her relationship with Joanna, but she would habitually tease Eric a few words.

This year will be the fifth year of the Victoria's Secret show, when Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelinsta, Kristen Turrington, Diane Kruger and Tyra Bank The five-year endorsement contract signed by these five and Victoria's Secret is five years.

After this year, Cindy and Linda will both quit the ranks of Victoria's Secret spokespersons and concentrate on their TV shows. Christine Turrington is married and will also choose to quit being a housewife. Only Diane Kruger and Tyra Banks remained in the original quintet.

Giselle is only participating in the Victoria's Secret catwalk this year, and will officially sign an endorsement contract with Victoria's Secret next year.

While chatting, the host of the party tonight, John Mark, came over again and said hello. John Mark said to Eric, "Eric, can we talk alone?"

Eric was a little puzzled, but did not refuse, and said, "Of course."

John Mark made a gesture of invitation, and the two of them walked through the crowd in the hall together, along the spiral staircase of the duplex apartment, to a reception room on the second floor.

Signaling Eric to sit down on the sofa casually, John Mark walked to the wine cabinet by the wall, took out a bottle of wine and poured two glasses, and took two ice cubes from the small freezer and put them in, holding The cup came over and handed it to Eric, saying: "Try the johnnie-walker I have in my collection, although the whisky does not taste better with age, but this 50-year-old bottle of johnnie-walker is rare in the world. bottle."

As soon as Eric picked up the glass and brought it to his mouth, he smelled a strong aroma of wine, with some peat smell unique to Scotch whisky, took a small sip, nodded and said, "Great, but, I don't quite understand that."

John Mark sat on the single sofa opposite Eric, with a gentle smile on his face, said: "It seems that you don't drink often, but it's actually a good habit."

"I just prefer to stay awake," Eric said, shaking the glass in his hand lightly, looking at John Mark, waiting for the other party to offer his intentions.

John Mark took a few sips of the whisky in his glass before saying, "Eric, have you thought about speeding up Yahoo's IPO process?"

"This kind of thing is usually Chris's responsibility."

Eric replied calmly, and at the same time considered John Mark's intention to bring this up suddenly. Chris didn't mention this to him. Come to think of it, it should be John Mark's surprise attack. Compared with the more professional Chris, the other party may feel that he is an easier breakthrough point.

Thinking of what Chris said just now, the former Morgan executives failed in the power struggle of the new company after the merger of Morgan Stanley and Dean Witt, perhaps, John Mark and others want to bring it with Yahoo ipo as soon as possible The performance highlights recovered the decline in the company's power struggle.

Yahoo's IPO strategy has been adjusted. Initially, Eric hoped that Yahoo would be able to issue stocks equivalent to about 30% of the total share capital at the end of this year or early next year when the Nasdaq index remained at a relatively high level. In this way, you can get enough money to support Yahoo's development for the next five to ten years at one time.

However, with the deepening of the understanding of the company's IPO-related information, Eric also realized that this is not realistic at all.

Yahoo's valuation at the beginning of this year has reached 15 billion US dollars. According to the average increase of technology stocks in the past six months, Yahoo's current valuation should grow to about 25 billion US dollars. As long as the Nasdaq index does not collapse in advance, the valuation will be completed by the end of the year. Maybe even closer to $50 billion.

Therefore, Yahoo will issue a one-time 30% stock issue, and the theoretical financing scale will reach 15 billion US dollars. This number has broken the record of the size of all corporate IPOs in the history of the US stock market before 1998. Before that, the largest IPO target of the US stock market, Deutsche Telekom, only raised $13 billion when it went public in 1996.

Deutsche Telekom's position in Germany is comparable to that of at-t in the United States, and neither the size of its net assets nor its annual turnover is comparable to that of Yahoo. Eric is full of absolute confidence in the future of Yahoo, but it does not mean that everyone is like this. The capital bubble brought about by the new wave of technology has been paid more and more attention by more and more people.

Although Yahoo's performance has grown very rapidly in recent years, its annual revenue last year was only more than $600 million. Even if this year's annual turnover can exceed $1 billion, it is absolutely not enough to support a market value of $50 billion. .

It is a well-known fact that the Nasdaq index is high. If Yahoo shows too much appetite during the IPO process, coupled with investors' fear of the bursting of the stock market bubble, it will eventually only lead to the failure of Yahoo's IPO.

Therefore, in this Yahoo IPO, Eric only intends to issue about 10% to 15% of the stock, and he does not have too high expectations for Yahoo's valuation. According to the issue price at that time, as long as Yahoo's valuation exceeds $30 billion will do.

Of course, even so, Yahoo is still able to raise $3 billion to $5 billion at one time, enough to support Yahoo's expansion in the next three to five years, and to survive the "cold winter" of Internet business development after the stock market bubble burst.

The financing scale of 3 billion to 5 billion US dollars, even if it cannot be compared with Deutsche Telekom two years ago, is definitely a very large-scale IPO in recent years. Once successful, Morgan Stanley, which is responsible for the underwriting and issuance, will not only be able to get rich profits. It can also further enhance its influence on Wall Street and attract more companies that are expected to go public in recent years to cooperate with it.

And the original Morgan team that operated the Yahoo IPO listing can naturally gain more voice in the new company.

Hearing Eric mentioning Chris, John Mark said: "Eric, you are the owner of Firefly Investment, so I think it is more suitable to discuss this matter with you first."

Some of the instigation hidden in John Mark's words made Eric a little unhappy, but he just smiled and said: "I always like to leave professional things to professional people to do, which is why Firefly can develop to the current scale. reason."

John Mark deliberately mentioned that Eric is the "owner" of Firefly's investment, just to provoke his desire for control, and thus make a decision that is in line with his own intentions.

Seeing that this move was useless for Eric, John Mark immediately changed his mind and said: "Eric, many investment institutions on Wall Street now believe that the Nasdaq has a very serious bubble component. Take America Online as an example. When the company went public in 1995, it was valued at $5 billion, but now, in just two and a half years, its market value has exceeded $40 billion, an increase of 800%. And Microsoft, compared to 1995 , Microsoft’s market value has more than doubled. Other technology companies such as Cisco, Oracle, Intel and other technology companies have also increased their share prices to an exaggerated level. Therefore, in recent months, it should be the last and most popular listing of Yahoo! Good timing. Our preparations are very sufficient. As long as we start, we can successfully complete the IPO plan before September. If we wait until the end of the plan or the beginning of next year, even if the Nasdaq bubble does not burst, major investment institutions will buy technology. The stock performance is very cautious, which is very bad for Yahoo's IPO."

John Mark's words are undoubtedly very convincing. If it weren't for Eric's extraordinary understanding of the trend of the Nasdaq index, he would have agreed with the other party's point of view out of prudence. .

However, after listening patiently to John Mark, Eric just shook his head and smiled: "John, I understand your thoughts, but I also have my own plans. Yahoo's current valuation has not yet reached my ideal. Therefore, the plan to go public at the end of the year will not change. Moreover, although I hope that Yahoo can successfully implement the IPO, in fact, I am not afraid that Yahoo's IPO will fail. Even if Yahoo fails to go public, the Firefly system can be Provide sufficient funds for the development of this company."

John Mark thought for a while, he didn't know if Eric said 'I understand what you mean', whether he wanted to use Yahoo ipo to gain the initiative in the company, or whether Yahoo ipo could success worries.

However, John Mark's face did not show any strangeness at all, saying: "Eric, then, what about Microsoft's 30% equity subscription rights, once Yahoo's IPO fails, it will conduct equity transactions with Microsoft in a non-listed state. , Yahoo will suffer very much. Just like now, Microsoft's market value is almost ten times that of Yahoo's valuation. Microsoft can exchange only 3% of Yahoo's shares for 30% of Yahoo's shares. I think you definitely don't want to see this. Let that happen. I think if Yahoo were in a public market, it would be at least as valuable as AOL.”

Eric's expression was still relaxed, and he said: "John, the time when Microsoft can exercise its equity subscription rights is July next year. According to what you mean, if the Nasdaq bubble bursts at the end of the year, Yahoo will not be able to successfully IPO, but in the same way, Microsoft will definitely not be able to IPO by then. It is impossible to keep the stock price as high as it is now. Also, even if Microsoft and Yahoo are trading now, although I will feel very depressed, selling 3% of Microsoft's stock will still give Yahoo $ 67 billion in funds, and at the same time , Firefly Investment still retains absolute control of Yahoo."

Eric's initial assumption when he reached a deal with Damen was that when the two parties fulfilled the equity subscription agreement, even if Microsoft's market value could reach the peak of 600 billion US dollars, if Yahoo went public successfully, the market value should be close to 200 billion.

At that time, 30% of Yahoo's equity value will reach 60 billion US dollars, and Microsoft will never be able to come up with this huge amount of cash. If the other party still wants the 30% stake in Yahoo, it can only acquire it by exchanging shares, but if it is exchanged for shares, Microsoft also needs to pay about 10% of the equity, so Firefly Investment may directly become an important company for Microsoft. shareholders. In this case, Microsoft is likely to automatically waive the subscription rights.

However, if the situation described by John Mark really happens, as long as the Microsoft stock can be sold in time, Firefly Investment will not lose anything. The only regret is that it cannot become a major shareholder of Microsoft.

Due to frequent contact with Chris Hansen, John Mark also knows that he has a very clear idea about the Yahoo ipo, and it is very difficult to make the other party change his decision, so tonight he hopes to find a breakthrough point from Eric.

However, seeing that Eric's attitude was firmer, John Mark quickly gave up his thoughts.

He invited Eric tonight with the idea of ​​having a good relationship with the other party, and naturally he would not make the scene stiff.

Giving up the idea of ​​lobbying Eric, John Mark took the initiative to change the subject, and the two chatted for a while before leaving the reception room together.

Eric did not return to the downstairs hall with John Mark, and under the guidance of the other party, went to the bathroom at the end of the corridor. When he came out again, he saw the stairs leading to the rooftop of the apartment building next to him. After thinking about it, Eric walked up, intending to get some air, and it was still very troublesome to get along with a smart person like John Mark.

Pushing open the hidden iron gate on the roof, Eric just came out when he saw a slender figure standing by the fence in the northwest corner of the roof, as if he was looking at the dark Central Park in the dark night to the west.

Hearing a voice behind him, the figure turned around, but it was Stephanie Seymour.

Stephanie Seymour's expression was obviously a little surprised, with a bit of ridicule in her tone, and said, "Eric, you didn't come here on purpose, did you?"

Although it was a question sentence, judging from the slightly mean smile on the woman's face, the other party seemed to be certain of this fact.

"You wouldn't believe me if I said it wasn't," Eric shrugged nonchalantly, walked over to Stephanie Seymour, leaned on the fence and looked at the lights on Fifth Avenue not far from the next door, and more Farther away, Central Park, said, "What are you looking at?"

Stephanie Seymour shook her head, put her hands on the fence, and said, "It's nothing, it's just a breeze, it's too stuffy down there."