Chapter 1005: Sudden Attack

In the face of the high box office of "The Matrix 2" in the first week, the cynicism of the media only brought a wave of schadenfreude to Firefly, but it did not have any substantial negative impact on Firefly. The odd angle has boosted sales of Firefly's upcoming corporate bond next month.

The management of the company has always been under Eric's control, and there will be no problems. Eric hopes that the small shareholders of the group can express some opinions, and it is best to sell the stock in his hand in anger, but unfortunately this did not happen.

So Eric doesn't actually care at all about the media's various opinions on the box office of "The Matrix 2" and the consequent bad look at Firefly.

However, after arriving in Queenstown, New Zealand, and just settling down, Eric received a message that made him very angry.

Steve Case completely put aside the tacit understanding formed by all parties, and stabbed the dispute between the management and Firefly Investment, the largest shareholder, to the media.

The time of the incident was on the east coast of North America on Tuesday morning. Steve Case was interviewed by CNN. Eric arrived in Queenstown. The local time in New Zealand was Wednesday morning. However, the time zone on the east coast of North America was 16 times behind New Zealand. Hours, when Eric received the news, it was still Tuesday afternoon, and the New York Stock Exchange had just ended a day of trading.

In a private resort on the outskirts of Queenstown, Eric hung up the phone call from Chris himself and said to Tim Saunders, Firefly's resident New Zealand-based producer of the "Lord of the Rings" project: "Tim, Go back to work as usual, I may not be able to go to the set today, and I'll give Peter a call in person later."

New Zealand is in the coldest month of the year, but that didn't affect the filming of The Lord of the Rings in the slightest.

The basic expenses of the entire crew of hundreds of people reached hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. Therefore, before Eric came, he specifically told Peter Jackson that he did not need to change the shooting schedule for his arrival. At this time, Peter Jackson was taking the crew to film locations near Lake Wanaka, more than 40 kilometers north of Queenstown.

Tim Sanders was next to Eric just now, and he heard something roughly, nodded and said, "Then I'll leave first, Eric, if you have anything, you can call me at any time."

Sending Tim Saunders away, Eric went back to the living room of the holiday villa behind him. Caroline was standing by the fax machine in the corner of the living room and was talking on the phone. Mayer came over with a notebook and showed him in front of Rick.

A video of CNN's interview with Steve Case is playing on the laptop screen.

"I am very grateful to the Firefly system for its unremitting support to AOL in all aspects over the years. However, this does not make us give up on our own corporate development philosophy. Companies should have their own culture and soul, without these , then it is destined to be just a puppet of capital. All facts have proved that such a company is destined to fail to grow. Over the years, it is precisely because we have a clear planning idea for this company that AOL has been able to grow from less than 100,000 people. The user's small company has developed into an Internet giant with nearly 15 million users in the United States." In the picture, Steve Case spoke with a serious expression: "So, if the shareholders insist that we give up our own business philosophy, then There is no need for us to continue to persist in this company.”

In the studio, the host with black-rimmed glasses nodded in approval and said, "So, Steve, when you say 'we', do you mean those people?"

"Myself, President Robert Pittman, and 12 directors of the company's operations, marketing, finance and other departments. If we cannot reach an agreement with shareholders next, then we will choose to resign collectively."

The host showed a surprised expression on his face, leaned forward slightly, and asked, "Steve, as far as I know, you are also a shareholder of AOL. I think you must know that if the company's management resigns collectively,

It will definitely have an immeasurable impact on the company's stock price, which will also harm your personal interests. Have you considered this result? "

"Yes," Steve Case said, "but I'd rather stick to my ideals than wealth."

On the screen, the host smiled appreciatively, nodded, and then said, "So, next, let's take a look at AOL's legendary rise over the years through a video."

Eric stood on the spot, frowning slightly at the laptop screen that Mayer silently held in his hands. The phone he had just put in the pocket of his windbreaker rang again.

Signaling that Mayer can take the laptop away, Eric connected to the phone, but it was Morgan Stanley President John Mark.

Morgan Stanley also has a large-scale stock investment department. They are also one of AOL's major shareholders, holding about 2% of AOL's stock.

Some time ago, under the lobbying of Chris, Morgan Stanley has agreed to stand on the side of Firefly Investments during the voting process of the shareholders' meeting. However, in the face of Steve Case's face-breaking surprise attack, Morgan Stanley obviously couldn't maintain a calm attitude.

Eric chatted with John Mark, and Caroline handed over a document that had just been sorted out. This is the AOL stock price chart on Tuesday in the United States.

As the founder of AOL and a key figure in making AOL today's market value of more than 40 billion US dollars, Steve Case has a very strong influence on AOL, and this influence also covers a large number of American online. Online's shareholders, not to mention, the entire AOL management that claims to be with Steve Case.

So after CNN's interview with Steve Case, the Nasdaq market reacted violently directly to the risk that Steve Case and AOL's management could resign en masse.

Throughout the trading day, AOL’s stock price fell sharply by 6.5%, and its market value fell from $41.5 billion at the opening to $38.9 billion. During six hours of trading, the market value evaporated by $2.7 billion.

Even the Nasdaq index, which was originally predicted by the media to break through 2000 this week, was also affected. The entire market fell from 1973 to 1935 throughout the day. Many technology stocks that have been in the limelight during this period also accompanied the United States. The decline in online stock prices has seen various degrees of decline.

Eric listened to the slightly anxious tentative words in the tone of the opposite John Mark, and said: "John, Morgan Stanley may have lost more than 50 million US dollars, but according to the shareholding ratio, Firefly lost one billion US dollars today, Do you think I'll be indifferent?"

The total share of AOL shares held by the Firefly system is 35.7%, which means that Steve Case’s action directly brought a book loss of nearly $1 billion to Firefly.

Even though it is clear to many that the actual value of AOL is not worth so much, the loss of hundreds of millions of paper wealth in a day is still a bit painful. Those Wall Street funds whose main business is stock investment, facing millions of losses in a short period of time, reacted much more intensely than investors like Eric, who valued more long-term development.

I chatted with John Mark patiently for a while, and just hung up the other party's phone, the phone rang again almost without interruption. This time the caller was even bigger, and the Vanguard Fund with more than $200 billion in Wall Street assets The founder of the company, John Bogle, although the other party was euphemistic, he clearly expressed his hope that Eric could change his original ideas and calm down the matter as soon as possible. At the end, John Bogle also expressed his appreciation to Nasda Fears that the gram index may collapse due to shocks.

Eric naturally also has this concern, so his sense of Steve Case's actions is even worse.

Not because of today's $1 billion stock loss on paper, but because of the other party's complete disregard for the overall situation in order to maintain its own power. The two parties had already reached a tacit agreement to limit this matter to AOL.

Next Monday, the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on June 29, no matter which party wins, the other party must withdraw voluntarily in order to maintain the development of AOL.

However, Firefly Investments itself holds a 35.7% stake in AOL, a shareholding ratio that, for many other companies, has been able to firmly control the control of a company, just like News Corp and Viacom behind the scenes The Murdoch family and the Redstone family hold about 30% of the two media groups.

Therefore, Firefly Investment's winning rate in shareholder voting is actually very high. If it weren't for Steve Case's identity as the founder of AOL and his outstanding achievements in his position over the years, Firefly would not even need to hold a meeting. Shareholders' meeting to oust Steve Case.

But even so, Firefly only needs to win the other 15% or so shareholders on its side, and it can easily seize control of AOL.

During this time, because of his close relationship with Wall Street, Chris managed to get a promise from a large number of fund managers who hold AOL shares to side with Firefly. Perhaps it was because he felt that his disadvantage was becoming more and more obvious, Steve Case made the move today.

It is indeed a wreck.

Because of this, in the face of the pressure of the collapse of AOL's stock price, most shareholders may have to temporarily compromise with AOL's management, but Steve Case's reckless behavior to harm everyone's interests is also doomed. He will be severely remembered by Wall Street investors, and it will be even more difficult for him to gain the goodwill of Wall Street in the future.

Of course, if AOL can continue to be strong, Steve Case can put on the image of a tough corporate manager, and he doesn't need to pay attention to Wall Street's face. They bring real benefits to people.

But others don't know, but Eric knows how tragic the collapse of the next few years will be if America Online continues to develop according to Steve Case's ideas.

On his first day in New Zealand, Eric basically spent his time on the phone.

It is impossible to take proper measures to deal with this matter immediately. In order to prevent AOL’s stock price from continuing to fall sharply the next day, the board of directors urgently applied to SEC for a temporary suspension of trading, and promised the media and investors to hold a press conference before next Monday. , announcing the final outcome of the incident.

Flying back to New York from New Zealand, although the journey is a little closer than the UK to New Zealand, it still takes 20 hours, basically a whole day, so Eric didn't rush back, just checked the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy All aspects of the production progress, while frequently maintaining close contact with Chris and others in New York by phone.

Until Saturday morning in New Zealand and Friday afternoon on the East Coast of the United States, after several days of intensive negotiation and negotiation, AOL's major shareholders, board members, and management sat together at the company's headquarters meeting in New York. In the room, Eric participated in the meeting via video call.

Shocked by AOL's management's publicity that the collective resignation would cause the stock price to plummet, in just three days, many shareholders who originally preferred Firefly Investments changed their positions.

If it's just Steve Case's departure, AOL won't be affected too much, as long as it's properly arranged. However, all the main management personnel have resigned. For a long time to come, AOL will fall into a state of chaos without a leader. Even if the airborne managers are excellent, it is impossible to restore AOL to its previous state in a short time. .

Under the circumstance that several traditional telecom operators in North America and the operating system giant Microsoft are all laying out ISP business, if AOL has a turbulent time for a year and a half, it is likely to be narrowed by these very powerful competitors. , AOL's advantages accumulated for many years in the ISP field may also disappear, and even never recover.

Firefly Investment's technology companies, Eric didn't pay too much attention to AOL from the very beginning. He only cared about using AOL's stock price far exceeding its actual value as a 'currency' when the technology stock bubble was at its peak. An old-fashioned telecom operator, which has completely consolidated the foundation of AOL, and provided the most stable underlying service support for the initially determined information industry alliance plan.

However, given the current situation, the original plan was out of the question, and Eric also decisively made the most beneficial choice for himself.

In the study room of the holiday villa, the monitor on the desk was turned on, and the opposite was the large conference room of AOL New York headquarters. More than a dozen representatives of various aspects were sitting on both sides of the oval desk, and Eric could just see the desk. Steve Case on the other side, and more than a dozen people on the opposite side also looked over.

Taking the prepared folder from Caroline, Eric opened the folder, glanced at the screen, and said lightly: "I'm a little tired these days, and there are a lot of things to do today, so let's make a long story short. Oh, I said it, listen up."

The conference room in New York was using a large-screen projector. Chris, who happened to be sitting next to the screen, heard Eric's words and shook his head slightly and smiled.

Other business elites from all walks of life looked at the somewhat condescending young man on the projector screen. Although they were a little dissatisfied, they were more apprehensive. This meeting is related to the future of AOL, and it is also related to whether the stock in their hands can continue to appreciate. Even though a lot of things have been agreed in advance, many people are still worried that Eric will suddenly change his mind, and the other party has the capital. Even Steve Case, who is forcefully calm, has a faster heartbeat than usual. a lot.