Chapter 463 AOL

"Eric, even if you don't participate in the Oscars, you can't leave Los Angeles at this time, right? After the Oscars, there is a Firefly Films theme party. This is the first time for Firefly?" Lying on the big bed, looking at the two people who were packing their luggage. ",

Tina Fey folded Eric's clothes. Hearing Drew's words, he looked up at Eric who was taking clothes from the closet. She is now Drew's assistant, and she is basically inseparable from Drew, and even lives with Drew. When Drew wanted to send Eric out of Los Angeles, she followed.

Eric handed a suit to Tina Fei and said, "Michael and the others will arrange this."

"Why don't I go with you?" Drew stood up and said expectantly.

"I'm not going out to play, so you'd better stay in Los Angeles and don't mess with me."

Drew snorted in dissatisfaction, the soft body in the striped knitted sweater wriggled to the side of the bed like a big bug, jumped down barefoot, and leaned over to Eric's suitcase to help fold it together Clothes, looked at Tina Fei, who was quietly wearing black-rimmed glasses, Drew suddenly said: "How about, let Tina go with you, anyway, I don't have much to do during this time?"

When Tina Fei heard these words, a trace of anticipation flashed in her heart, and she glanced at Eric's figure secretly, but she quickly shook her head a little embarrassedly and said, "I won't go, I won't know anything."

"I don't need you to know anything," Drew leaned into Tina Fey's ear, as if whispering secretly, but didn't lower his voice at all: "With you by Eric's side, he won't provoke other women. "

Tina Fei instantly understood what Drew meant. His face suddenly turned red.

Eric took out the last few clothes and handed them to Tina Fey. He knocked on Drew's forehead and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Also, when I'm not here, I'm not allowed to do anything messy in the manor."

Drew covered his head and called out, and said in a long voice dissatisfied: "I see."

After packing up, Eric refused Drew to send him, and took Allen and four bodyguards to Los Angeles Airport by car. Boarded a small Boeing private jet. The passenger plane was originally leased by Disney for executives. After Disney was acquired by Firefly, the right to use the passenger plane was also signed to Firefly.

After the plane took off, Eric instructed Allen to take out the documents, went to a lounge at the airport alone, sat beside the desk by the window and opened the folder in his hand.

After Chris returned to New York,

According to Eric's previous instructions, Firefly Investment began to pay attention to and collect information and materials on computer and network-related industries. And a few days ago, I sent some investment projects I liked to Eric, and this pile of information. A company caught Eric's attention, which is why he made a special trip to New York.

The company's name is America Online (). It was the original time and space, which merged with Time Warner Group and AOL in 2000. At that time in his previous life, Eric was just twenty-five years old, and he had graduated from college a few years ago. , Like many young people, he was very concerned about this merger involving 180 billion US dollars, and the market value of the merged Time Warner Group at that time even exceeded ** US dollars. Eric remembers it very clearly. In contrast, the mainland's GDP in 2000 was only 9.9 trillion yuan, equivalent to 1.3 trillion US dollars. That is to say, the market value of a company in the Time Warner Group at its peak reached 26% of the mainland's GDP.

Now, the information in hand shows that although AOL has been established for seven years, it is still only an inconspicuous Internet service provider in Virginia. The company is valued at only $300 million, has 120 employees and 15 10,000 users, and only 10% of the network service market.

After Eric carefully read the information that was not too thick in his hand several times, the plane had landed at JFK Airport.

"Eric, here," Eric saw Chris in a long black trench coat beckoning to him as he walked out of the airport hall. Although it was the end of March, the temperature in New York was still only about ten degrees. Eric, who originally only wore a thin coat in Los Angeles, had to put on a trench coat.

"Chris, how are you doing?" Eric and Chris hugged and exchanged greetings.

"It's okay, oh, this is Mr. Steve Case," Chris nodded, and then introduced Eric to the middle-aged man beside him to pick up the plane.

Eric has read the profile of Steve Case many times. Steve Case is the founder of America Online. He wears a khaki trench coat, has a round face and looks a little shy.

"Mr. Williams, it's a pleasure to meet you. I like your films very much," Steve Case offered to compliment Eric. Although he started from scratch and has accumulated hundreds of millions of wealth, but Compared with Eric, it still pales in comparison.

Eric smiled and shook hands with the other party, and then introduced the entourage beside him before getting into the car and returning to Manhattan.

Eric and Chris got into the car, and after the car started, they asked, "How was your talk with him?"

Chris shook his head: "It hasn't been negotiated yet. He hasn't completely given up on the listing and financing plan, but he promised to talk to you."

Eric breathed a sigh of relief. When Chris collected the information, the other party had been preparing for half a year for listing and financing. However, in Eric's view, now is simply not the best time to go public.

"As long as we can talk."

Chris looked at his watch, Eric set off from Los Angeles at nine o'clock in the morning western time, according to the four-hour time difference between east and west, it is now more than nine o'clock in New York: "By the way, I will take you back to your place first, Or go directly to the company?"

If Steve Case didn't come to pick him up, Eric wouldn't mind going back to his Manhattan apartment first: "Let's go to the company."

"Okay," Chris ordered the driver. Then he said, "Come to my house for dinner at night. Emily cooks herself."

"Okay." Eric nodded cheerfully, not seeing the guilty conscience and embarrassment in his eyes when Chris said this.

...

"If you don't pay attention to user experience, no matter how advanced a company's technology is, it is often eliminated by the market. Therefore, AOL's business strategy is to focus on users, and we will conduct statistics on the satisfaction of all users every quarter. .And collect users' suggestions to improve..." In the conference room of Firefly Investment Company, Steve Case explained his business ideas with passion.

After Firefly Investment contacted him, Steve Case had the idea of ​​introducing Firefly investment funds. After all, if he chose to go public, AOL would have to accept a lot of supervision, which would definitely limit a company to a certain extent. The pace of development of the enterprise. However, the reason why he has not spoken up to now, and also proposed to interview Eric, the owner of Firefly Investments, is nothing more than up for grabs. I want to get more benefits from Firefly.

"Mr. Case, I heard. You are still more inclined to make AOL listed, right?" Eric asked after waiting for the other party's speech to end.

Steve Case nodded without hesitation: "Yes, if you choose to go public, AOL can more easily draw development funds from the capital market. In our development plan, AOL is very thirst for funds. of."

Eric smiled. If Steve Case insisted on choosing to go public, he would not be here at all today. However, there is no need to expose things that everyone knows well.

"I have no objection to AOL's listing," Eric said. "However, I don't think now is the best time to go public."

Steve Case showed a puzzled look.

Eric said: "If you pay more attention to current affairs, you should have noticed the recent election speeches of Democratic presidential candidate William Clinton, who proposed a plan for an information superhighway."

"I did hear some," Steve Keyes nodded. "However, while I support some of Clinton's claims, I don't think he has a high chance of winning. The victory in the Gulf War last year brought President Bush There is a lot of prestige, and the Democratic Party where Clinton is a mess is also in a mess, if Clinton cannot be elected president, many of his governing ideas will be just empty words."

"It can't be said that the reason why Clinton proposed the information superhighway plan is precisely because his campaign team saw the huge development prospects of computer networks. I think this is an irreversible trend of the times, even if Clinton loses the election, Bush The re-election of the president will not change this trend, so it is very unwise for AOL to choose to go public so early."

"Mr. Williams, although I am also very confident in the popularity of computer networking, but..."

"$60 million."

"What?" Steve Case was stunned and asked uncertainly.

Eric said: "I know that AOL plans to sell 30% of the shares this time, and plans to raise $5,000 in funding. I can give 60 million, and, in the next few years, if AOL lacks funds, Firefly can still be carried out. invest."

Hearing that Eric started the quotation directly, Steve Case said: "Mr. Williams, $60 million seems to be a little less, although our company's plan is to raise $50 million, but if the market reflects it well , the scale of financing is definitely more than that.”

"Very good," Eric smiled: "It seems that you have agreed to discuss the capital injection with Firefly, so the specific amount can be negotiated by our teams."

Steve Case was stunned for a while, and soon realized that Eric had led himself into a ditch: "Mr. Williams, I was just talking about a possibility and didn't agree."

"It's okay, then let's talk about it," Eric sat up straight, the smile on his face still unchanged.

Chris also smiled and said: "Mr. Case, Eric not only has to take care of Firefly Pictures, but also has a few movies to work on, and it will be Oscar in a few days, so you said you want to talk face to face. , he canceled attending the Oscars and came to New York specifically, so you should be able to see that we are very sincere."

"Okay," Steve Case also felt that being hypocritical might be self-defeating, and said, "However, regarding the scale of Firefly's capital injection and the management rights of the organization, I have some conditions of my own?"

"Please?" Chris stretched out his hand.

"First of all, Firefly cannot interfere in the day-to-day management of AOL."

"You can rest assured," Chris replied. "You should know that Firefly Investments is also the largest shareholder of Cisco, but we do not interfere in Cisco's management except for major corporate matters."

Steve Case was obviously aware of this matter, nodded and said, "Another thing, I hope Firefly can give me the voting rights of the shares it holds."

Hearing this condition, Chris looked at Eric. Not interfering in the daily management of AOL and the right to transfer the voting rights are two different things. If you give up the right to vote, it means that Firefly will completely lose the power to control the direction of AOL. Steve . Case can do whatever he wants.

Eric thought quickly in his heart, then raised three fingers and said, "Three years, within three years, Firefly will give you the voting rights of the shares it holds."

"Three years is too short, at least five years," Steve Case bargained.

"No, five years is too long," Eric shook his head: "Three years at most, and I hope AOL chooses to go public after three years."

Three years later, it happened to be 1995. At that time, it was the beginning of the Internet explosion, and it was also the beginning of the formation of the Internet bubble.

Because of the merger of AOL and Time Warner, Eric still paid a lot of attention to AOL, and AOL's most glorious period was only five years after 1995. This is because AOL's main business is dial-up Internet access services. After 2000, with the bursting of the Internet bubble and the popularization of broadband Internet access, AOL declined rapidly at a rapid rate, and its market value fell in just a few years. It has shrunk by more than 90%. Therefore, the reason why Eric attaches so much importance to AOL now is entirely because of the net worth of AOL in the five years between 1995 and 2000. After the golden period of these five years, AOL is worthless.

"Steve, we can talk about the amount of capital injection, but I will never give in in three years." (To be continued..)