I’m in Hollywood Chapter 1006: Conditions for exiting
Remember [lnmao.org] in one second, fast update, no pop-up window, free to read!
Eric ignored the people with different expressions across the screen, and seemed a little careless. "So, Steve, you won. I officially announced that starting today, Firefly investment will not intervene in any internal affairs of AOL. You can take care of this company according to your own ideas. "
In the New York meeting room, everyone was relieved to hear the words Eric.
However, listening to the cold tone of Eric in the loudspeaker, although Steve · Keys was also relieved, it was followed by a panic.
No one knows better than his CEO. The importance of the Firefly system to AOL is definitely more than the identity of the largest shareholder.
In recent years, in addition to financial support, the Firefly system has spared no effort in favoring AOL ’s resources in media and technology.
AOL's web portal not only has the same treatment as Yahoo in the Internet press rights of Firefly Group and News Corp's media, but also, AOL has also received Yahoo in email, instant messaging and browser software With 2000 patents of various types, the cooperation between the two parties on specific projects such as built-in search engines and online payment platforms is even more intertwined.
For most of the cooperation, the resources obtained by AOL are far more than the price paid. On the face of it, AOL takes a big advantage, but it also unconsciously deepens the dependence of AOL on the Firefly system.
It is not difficult to imagine that after parting ways, once the Firefly system cuts off the various cooperations established by both parties, AOL is far behind the Internet media business of Yahoo, and may even fall into collapse directly.
Not to mention, this situation is definitely not the most serious situation. The Firefly system is ultimately the largest shareholder of AOL, which is the source of deep-rooted pressure for everyone on the scene.
A series of possibilities flashed in my heart. Steve Case ’s panic even turned into fear. He could not help saying: "Eric, I think I need to explain."
"I just said, I said, you guys listen," Eric interrupted the other party mercilessly, waiting for Steve · Kes to speak, and closed his mouth embarrassedly after Steve · Kes, Eric continued: "Secondly, I hereby promise that within two years, several companies in the Firefly system will cooperate with AOL in all aspects, and nothing will happen. And, in order to eliminate that happened just a few days ago, The impact, Chris · Hansson, Ian · Gnier and Robert · Eiger will announce their resignation as director of AOL Board of Directors at tomorrow's press conference. So, Steve, you won again, and I will not use it A way to damage the interests of this company to seize control of AOL. "
In the initial capital injection process, Eric promised not to intervene in the management of AOL for three years. The three-year period expired in 1995. In order to cooperate with the listing, AOL reorganized Board of Directors.
The Firefly system obtained three positions from the 11 Board of Directors seats of AOL.
Chris took a board seat as a shareholder representative, and YahooCEOIan · Gnier and ABC Group CEO Robert · Iger won two other board seats as independent directors.
Eric originally wanted Katzenberg to enter AOL Board of Directors, but Katzenberg was resident in Los Angeles, and Headquarters was moved from Virginia to New York on the eve of the AOL listing, so a single director seat for Firefly Group was handed over to Robert · Eiger.
The directors of large companies Board of Directors have declared that their role is to provide constructive advice for the development of this company, but in fact, they are basically the representatives of the interests of the major shareholders or management. Even if they are independent directors, it is absolutely impossible to actually remain independent.
Normally, Board of Directors, a public company held by Volkswagen, is actually the core of a company ’s power. They have the power to appoint and remove company management. Therefore, every Board of Directors seat is full of games of all parties. Which party controls the Board of Directors seat means that which party actually controls the company's control.
I heard that Eric will abandon the three director seats of the Firefly system in AOL Board of Directors. Far from being in the New York meeting room, it is difficult for everyone to calm down. This news for everyone present was more surprising and restless than hearing Eric guarantee that the cooperation status with AOL will not change within two years.
Although even if Firefly investment abandons its seat in AOL Board of Directors, it is impossible for anyone to really ignore the influence of this largest shareholder.
However, abandoning these seats means that Firefly investment has given up the power to directly influence the decision-making layer of AOL, and the rights and interests of Firefly investment, a large shareholder, will therefore be difficult to obtain sufficient protection.
As long as you are willing, other shareholders and management of AOL can easily unite, take measures such as mergers and acquisitions, additional issuance, and the introduction of other investors to gradually dilute the shareholding of Firefly investment, the largest shareholder, and invest Firefly step by step. Marginalization may even take some edging methods to directly damage the interests of Firefly investment.
But now the fact is that Firefly Investment really intends to do so.
So, no one would think that Eric Williams made this crazy decision because of his stupidity. There was only one possibility. Firefly planned to withdraw from AOL, and it quickly withdrew in a short period of time.
From what Eric just said, it is not difficult for everyone to speculate that the time limit for Firefly investment sell-off stocks to exit AOL is about two years.
For AOL, a listed company with a market value of 40billion USD, the largest shareholder with more than 30% of the shares took two years to reduce all the stocks in his hands. This is definitely very fast and short-lived.
At least, it can be expected that if Firefly investment continues to sell a large number of shares to the open market in the next two years, even if the market is optimistic about this company again, AOL's stock price will definitely not think about any improvement.
Considering these, I just excitedly wondered how to seize the AOL shareholders and executives of the three Board of Directors seats after the exit of Firefly investment.
"So, the above is my guarantee. Next, you will do it," Eric looked down at the file in his hand, then looked up, noticed the face on the screen, and said: "If you want to come, you must guess Some. The current situation is that Firefly Investment holds 32.6% of AOL shares, a total of 53.79 million shares. Since 1992, in order to express support for AOL, even if the company was listed three years ago, Firefly has never reduced its shareholding After any stock of AOL, it has continued to increase its holdings. However, now that everyone cannot agree on the direction of the company ’s development, Firefly will no longer insist on its identity as the largest shareholder. "
Actually, AOL shares held by the Firefly system totaled 58.9 million shares, accounting for 35.7% of the total share capital of AOL1.6500 million.
However, another 3.1% of the stock is in the hands of the clover fund of Firefly Group.
The shareholding amount is less than 5%. According to the Federal Securities Exchange Act, Firefly does not need to report to Federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is also not necessary to inform AOL other shareholders and management when it is unnecessary.
Although there is no shortage of people on the scene, some people know that the Firefly system also holds a large part of AOL stocks, but since Eric ignores this part of the shares, everyone will not take the initiative to mention it.
However, even so, I imagined that there might be a rush of stocks that account for one-third of AOL's total share capital.
Historically, the stock market disaster that caused the entire United States economic depression in 1929 was caused by the mad reduction of cash holdings by major shareholders. After the stock market crash that year, in order to maintain market stability and protect the interests of small and medium shareholders, the SEC imposed very strict restrictions on the reduction of major shareholders of North America listed companies.
The largest shareholder of AOL, such as Firefly investment, if you want to reduce the holdings of your stocks through the secondary circulation market, you must first submit a share reduction report to the SEC, and disclose the share reduction and the reasons for the reduction information. Secondly, the investment of Firefly must also disclose the operating status and financial data of AOL in the recent period to prove that the major shareholders did not obtain inside information in advance to reduce their holdings,
However, these restrictions, in the final analysis, are only to prevent major shareholders from deliberately infringing the interests of other shareholders and investors.
But stocks are ultimately private property. As long as the majority shareholder ’s shareholding reduction is formal and legal, even if it may cause the company ’s share price to plummet or even crash, others have no power to block it.
All AOL stocks held by Firefly investment are freely tradable common stocks. At the same time, AOL was listed three years ago, and the stocks held by Firefly investment have passed the six-month lock-up period. Underweight selling.
Imagine the various situations that may be faced. Someone in the conference room soon took the initiative to say: "Eric, you want to sell all the stocks on the hand in a short time. This is not realistic at all. Have you considered this consequence? "
Eric listened to the sound from this stereo, looked at the display, and spoke of a middle-aged man with some baldness. Eric vaguely remembered seeing each other during the listing of AOL three years ago. One Chairman of Boston investment bank.
Ireko did n’t ask the name of the other party, but just said: "Of course I have considered it. All the words I said today are well thought out."
Thoughts were interrupted, and Eric looked down at the document again before continuing: "My current decision is that Firefly investment will be the first batch of 16500,000 shares, and this part of the stock, I want you to follow. As for How many parties are you going to undertake? This is your business. I will give you a month. If you do n’t get a positive answer after one month, Firefly will choose to sell to the open market. "
16500,000 stocks, exactly equal to 10% of the total share capital of AOL.
According to the current stock price of AOL, the value of this batch of stocks is around 4billion USD.
For the major investment banks and funds that hold AOL stocks, 4billion USD, they will definitely not be able to get it out in the short term. However, if it is apportioned, although it is still a big business, they can still afford it.
However, this is not what everyone thinks about.
Reduction of 16500,000 shares, but Firefly investors still have 3more than 7 million shares remaining. How does Eric Williams intend to rationalize this part of the stock, should they continue to take over the next two years?
The Nasdaq index is now close to 2000 points, and everyone understands the serious bubble cost.
Not talking about others, only AOL.
According to the recent market value and profit expectations of AOL, this company's price-earnings ratio has reached 131 times, which was absolutely unimaginable a few years ago.
In the past years, even for companies with very good development prospects, the price-earnings ratio often does not exceed 30 times. For many investors, a company's price-earnings ratio exceeds 30 times, the investment risk becomes very large, and now, AOL's price-earnings ratio has exceeded 131 times, the risk is self-evident.
Although countless media and investors are preaching that investing in technology stocks is investing in the future, the current profitability of these high-tech companies cannot be used to determine the prospects of this industry. But in fact, everyone knows the frightening bubble component behind these companies' high stock prices.
According to the 30 times price-earnings ratio, the market value of AOL should be only 9billion USD, even though it is already overestimated, the market value of AOL is now about 40billion USD, which is more than four times higher than the normal state.
Under this severe bubble background, no one knows how long the current high stock price of AOL can last.
Therefore, although all the shareholders in the New York AOL Headquarters meeting room have obtained substantial book gains from the continuous rise in the stock price of AOL in recent years, at this time, let them spend 4billion USD to buy the 16500,000 shares thrown by Eric, which is large Some people are still very resistant.
In the eyes of many people, this money is actually enough to buy half of the AOL.
However, if they are not willing to take over, then they will face a public sell-off of Firefly investment.
They also know that Firefly investment will not throw away all stocks at one time in desperation, but the kind of long-term continuous sell-off will be even more grievous. In the face of long-term uninterrupted influx of buying orders, AOL ’s It is simply impossible for the stock price to think about any improvement.
The crowd was silent for a moment, and Morgan Stanley Chairman John · Mark, who was familiar with Eric, asked: "Eric, at what price do you plan to sell this batch of stocks?"
"If you agree now, 4billion USD." Eric looked at it and said: "If you plan to consider a month, then it will be settled at the stock price after one month."
John · Mark shook his head immediately: "Eric, this is too expensive. Everyone knows the actual situation of AOL, not to mention such a large stock transaction. If you are willing to give a discount, I can represent it now. Morgan Stanley subscribes to the 3 million shares. So, I think that a 30% discount is a price that everyone can afford. "
The voice of John · Mark fell, and everyone in the meeting room nodded their heads.
They also know that if they want to avoid the continued reduction of Firefly investment and lead to a long-term downturn in AOL's stock price, it is inevitable that this part of the stock sold by Firefly investment will be sold. But if Eric is willing to sell their stocks at 70% of the current price, they are still very willing to take over, even if Eric sells more stocks, it will be no problem.
According to the market value of AOL 180 billion USD in the peak period in memory, the total value of AOL stock held by the Firefly system will exceed 60 billion USD.
However, even if Firefly invests 1% of AOL stock in the circulation market in a day, it may crush AOL stock price, let alone sell all 35.7% of the stocks at the highest point of the stock price. Tan.
Eric has never been a greedy person. For the AOL stock in his hands, as long as he can cash out an 20 billion USD in the next year, he will be satisfied. After all, the actual value of AOL, in Eric's opinion, is not even worth a 10 billion USD.
If you do n’t know the potential of AOL ’s share price growth in the next two years, Eric is indeed willing to sell its stocks at a lower discount price. Of course, he will certainly not accept the 30% discount.
But at this time, Eric did not intend to make any concessions, but shook his head firmly: "In this case, then you can consider a month, come here today, the rest, you can talk to Chris . "
Just about to hang up the video, Steve · Kies, who has been sitting opposite meeting table and has been silent for a while, finally spoke again: "Eric, what about the remaining stocks other than 16500,000 stocks, what are you going to do with it?"
Eric glanced at Steve · Keith, and then glanced at the people in the opposite conference room and said, "The rest of the talks will be held next year, it will be half a year later. It is still 16500,000 shares. Do you choose to pick up or not? Yes. I just said that I will not act too aggressively, but you must also pay the due price in order to maintain this state. "
Throwing away these words, Eric no longer ignores everyone, and turns off the video call.