I’m in Hollywood Chapter 1167: Cancel dividends
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Eric only stayed briefly at Ventura Airport and completed the handover with Steve Ballmer, and the Boeing 747 took off again to Australia.
For the entire 16-hour journey from United States East Coast to Australia, Eric spent most of the time reading the IMG materials that Cindy handed him last night. As the understanding deepened, Eric became more and more interested in this comprehensive agency.
It can be said that the entire IMG Group is a perfect agent-broker industry chain from the cultivation of the lowest-level talents to the distribution of the most terminal products.
The IMG Group started its career as a sports star agent.
In the 1960s, IMG founder Mark · McCo Mark, who was a lawyer at the time, became acquainted with some well-known golfers in the industry because he loves golf. Occasionally, the idea of setting up a professional Brokerage Firm to help these golfers in commercial operations came into being, and IMG was created accordingly.
After 30 for many years, IMG developed step by step.
While unable to get involved in the mainstream sports star agency of rugby, basketball and football, IMG manages the most successful sports stars in the world in terms of relatively niche golf and tennis. Even if he is not interested in golf, tennis and other sports, Eric can recognize sports stars such as Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, and Anna Kornikova from the IMG agent roster.
Moreover, IMG has established a comprehensive sports academy with an area of more than 500 acres in Florida. While recruiting students from the society with IMG's own brand to achieve profitability, the company also taps the potential talents through the global sports scout network. Personally cultivate.
Russia tennis star Anna Kournikova is the most typical operation case of IMG.
The Russia girl born in 1981 was discovered by IMG's sports scouts at the age of ten, and then trained at the Nick Politi Tennis Tennis School under the IMG Sports Academy.
Under the careful packaging of the IMG Group, Anna Kournikova, who just turned eighteen this year, is not the most powerful tennis player, but with its beautiful appearance and the operation of IMG, it has become a commercial value One of the highest tennis stars, the annual income exceeds 10 million USD.
Although it started late, IMGprofessional model is still strong in terms of fashion agency.
Take the supermodel income rankings launched by Forbes in recent years. Although the members of the Victoria’s Secret Corps have completely occupied the top ten positions on the list, in terms of behind-the-scenes Brokerage Firm, compared to the elite with many people, The IMGprofessional model company, which has only about 300 agents, has the same number of people as the Elite in its supermodel annual income list.
Moreover, unlike the statutory 10% of Hollywood Brokerage Firm, the commission rate of the star and professional model can be up to 30%, which undoubtedly also greatly increased the income level of IMG.
The reason why IMG's talent agency business can be so strong is mainly because it holds the right to host sports events and fashion events under IMG-College. Unlike IMG Sports Academy, IMG University has nothing to do with education, but is a subsidiary that acts as a concessionaire for hundreds of sports fashion events worldwide.
In addition to countless college league championships, Wimbledon Tennis Championships, World Golf Championships, Universal Miss Contest, United States Miss Contest and other world-renowned fashion sports events, IMG Group is closely involved.
Through the hundreds of various types of events throughout global every year, IMG Group can not only directly obtain rich contractors ’income, but also rely on these platforms to promote its sports fashion and even music stars very easily, and rely on its own Brand advantage wins more endorsement contracts for its stars from the sponsors of major events.
In addition, IMG Media has also produced a large number of sports fashion event documentaries to further tap the commercial potential of related events and fully maximize the interests of the IMG Group.
Whether it is Hollywood or the Internet, Eric pursues a whole industry chain layout concept, which can be said to be his personal investment philosophy formed over the years. The IMG Group happens to be fully in line with Eric's pursuit of the ultimate model of an enterprise.
So, still on the plane, Eric contacted New York's Cindy again to discuss whether he could buy the entire IMG group in addition to the McCormick Mark family holdings.
There is a 14-hour time difference between the east coast of Australia and the east coast of United States. Eric took off from Long Island airport on the morning of August 7th. Sixteen hours later, the private plane landed at Canberra International Airport. The local time is already August 8. Four o'clock in the afternoon.
Women and children have been living in the Kenzester area north of Shiny for more than two months. However, on the plane, Eric learned that everyone had rushed to the Perisher ski resort in southern Canberra in advance. So he temporarily changed the itinerary and chose to land in Canberra.
August is the best time for skiing in Australia. The executive meeting of the Firefly system was held at a private resort near Perisher. This is different from the previous times. The family brought it by the mouth, and it was a holiday while having a party.
The Perisher Ski Resort is just over a hundred kilometers away from Canberra. However, due to the winding mountain roads everywhere, when Eric and his party arrived at their destination, it was already dark.
The official event of the party will begin tomorrow, and most people have arrived early. The private resort across the hill from the Perisher Snow Field was also packaged by the Firefly system.
When Eric and his party arrived, everyone had prepared barbecue party in the resort in advance.
When the first girl who ran over to greet him forcibly, Eric hugged her timid son and then greeted everyone.
Firefly Group, Yahoo, Nokia, Cisco, Qualcomm and other core executives of the Firefly system are counted as family members, and hundreds of people have come here this time.
It took more than ten minutes just to talk to each other.
After a simple settlement, everyone gathered on the open space in the center of the resort to have a barbecue.
Although it is winter, the resort is surrounded by hills on all three sides. More than a hundred people live around the bonfire and do not feel too cold.
"Follow the cable car on the north side and past the mountain is the ski resort. Everyone has already gone to play. Eric. Guess who of us is the best skier?"
Eric and Katzenberg, Ian · Gnier and others sat around a campfire, still holding Kevin on their legs, and holding a tray with barbecue in their other hands to watch the little guy eat, Listen to Katzenberg saying this without thinking, "Are you sure it is Frank?"
Although it is over sixty years old, Frank · Wells is a very adventurous person. If it is not the Eric "butterfly", Frank Wells should have died because of a helicopter crash during a skiing several years ago. Too.
"Yes, I suddenly found that we young people are not even as good as a old man, and everyone has been frustrated in these two days," Katzenberg said with a smile, looked at the little guy in Eric's arms, and laughed again: " Kevin, you are now a little man. It's not good to always rely on Papa. "
When I first came over, Eric noticed that Vicky Niya took the initiative to push Kevin to her side and understood the woman ’s thoughts, so she kept holding her son until now.
Because of Joanna between Kevin and Hawaii, many Jewish seniors on the Hollywood side have always shown a certain sense of identity with Hawaii. The habit of actively holding groups among Western ethnic groups is very common, and the Jews are the most obvious. , Eric can't change anything.
Moreover, because of his superior IQ, Hawaii has unwittingly won the favor of Firefly investment such as Jeff · Bezos, Steve · Mitnick and even Chris couple.
It is conceivable that following this way of thinking, as the heir of the Williams family, in the future Kevin will have little competitiveness except for a little gender advantage in front of Hawaii, but Westerners do n’t really value the heir ’s gender. .
Now, Cindy is about to bring another little guy to the Williams family, and the insecurity in Virginia can be imagined.
Not far away, Hawaii, who was seriously discussing with Jeff Bezos, and Emma who played with several girls of the same age, Eric smiled, and his face was upset with the words of Katzenberg Looking down at his son, he touched the little guy's head and said: "Go to Mama, and after a few days Papa is busy, I will accompany you to ski."
Looking at the little figure who politely took the initiative to say goodbye to everyone without the reminder of Eric, Ian · Gernier smiled and said, "A very sensible child is just too shy."
Eric picked up a string of grilled meat in the tray and said, "It's better to grow up a little bit, and it was the same when I was a kid."
Everyone chatted for a while, Eric finished the roast on the plate, got up and walked to the barbecue grill, Katzenberg also took the opportunity to follow, said: "Eric, I saw you let Carolyn draw up a profit distribution plan .. I think that we can cancel the dividend completely, and this money can just support the Group ’s next expansion plan. "
The Carolyn that Katzenberg said is CFO Carolyn · Elliot of Firefly Group.
Eric took some food and placed it on the barbecue grill. He personally fiddled with it and said, "Actually, I am also hesitant now, and everyone just discussed it in recent days."
According to the established plan, the next major expansion target of the Firefly system is the operator system, mainly including the telecommunications operator and the cable TV operator, in order to make up for the short platform of the Firefly system in the Internet, mobile communication and cable TV board.
However, with the development of the Firefly system, it is simply impossible to pick up leaks with a small blog.
The two major operator systems in the plan, no matter which one, requires a real investment of 10 billion USD. Adding the two together, if the equity acquisition is not considered, the scale of capital required for the Firefly system will reach hundreds of billions of USD.
From this perspective, the amount of 10 billion USD capital that Clover Fund has just cashed out from the new technology market is completely insufficient. After all, in the next few years, if you want to continue to consolidate your foundation in the Internet industry, the Firefly system also needs to continue to inject large sums of money into new technology companies.
Moreover, Eric also has another worry.
The scale of the Firefly system is already very large. In addition, the Firefly system has not yet been completely stabilized in the Internet industry. At this time, it continues to expand unrestrictedly. Once the enterprises that have eaten cannot be successfully digested, the entire Firefly The system may be involved or even fall into chaos.
Therefore, Eric has been considering the next step in the Firefly system before it will be more secure.
Katzenberg also selected a few kebabs on the barbecue grill and said: "I heard some news recently that AT-T has planned to split the remote communication and sell it. Comcast also happened to show its own scale again. Intention. If we do n’t take action, AT-T will most likely sell remote communications to Comcast. "
Comcast and telecom can be said to be the two largest cable operators in North America. There are only some impressions about Comcast in Eric's memory, and there is basically no understanding of telecom. Listening to Katzenberg saying this, I understand roughly that in the past, remote communication was probably annexed by Comcast.
The movement of turning over the food paused for a moment, Eric asked: "Did AT-T offer a price?"
"The official quotation is not yet available," Katzenberg shook his head and said: "However, the industry estimates that it will be between 40billion and 50billion USD. If we participate in the bidding, the price will likely exceed 50billion USD."
Eric remembers that the market value of Comcast was only about 30billion USD a year ago, and the peak period between the previous sections was only more than 60 billion USD. The scale of long-distance communication is smaller than that of Comcast, but the valuation is now more than 40billion USD, which is obviously affected by the new technology bubble that has not been completely exhausted.
If you can wait another one to two years, the Nasdaq index fell to the bottom, Comcast plus remote communications, the total market value of the two companies may only be 60billion USD.
However, once the two companies merge, Firefly Group would like to initiate an acquisition, whether at the capital level or antitrust level, the difficulty will definitely increase significantly.
After thinking about it for a moment, Eric said: "Let ’s follow up secretly, do n’t do anything for now."
Katzenberg nodded and said again: "Will we continue to carry out dividends?"
If Comcast really wants to initiate the acquisition of remote communications, Firefly Group can only enter the game early.
After all, the entire Firefly system, AETV Network, FFMTV Station, ESPNTV Station, ShowtimeTV Station, BraovTV Station, E! Entertainment TV Station and even several cable TV Stations on the Fox group side, such a huge layout of the cable TV industry, without the support of the operator platform, The future development will definitely suffer more and more constraints.
Compared to this, the Firefly system is not so urgent for the layout of telecom operators.
Of course, this is only relative.
The target of Eric is Sprint Group, which is also the easiest target of Firefly system acquisition.
The next few years will happen to be a critical period for the transformation of 2G communication networks to 3G networks.
If Sprint cannot be held in its hands and fully invested in the layout of the 3G network, Sprint is likely to be thrown away by the more powerful AT-T and Verizon operators. Once it is thrown away by other competitors in this critical communication network replacement process, Sprint will fall into an endless loop that is one step behind, and it will be more difficult to catch up with the competitors.
In the final analysis, Eric wants to expand the Firefly system step by step for the camp, but in this era of technology explosion, he did not have enough time.
"Cancel the dividend plan," without much hesitation, Eric made a decision again, and then smiled at Katzenberg: "However, it is up to you to notify shareholders of this decision."
Although no detailed financial information has been announced, the news that the Clover Fund has successfully cashed out large sums of money has been heard.
Among the small shareholders of Firefly Group, whether it is Berkshire Hathaway, which is accustomed to drawing dividends from its shareholding companies and invests on its own, or the State Street Universal fund, which suffered heavy losses and needs supplementary funds in this stock disaster, it is expected that Firefly Group will be able to carry out dividends.
Now, with the sudden cancellation of the dividend plan, these shareholders must have trouble.
For the rejection of others, the tough Katzenberg is obviously the most suitable.
"No problem," Katzenberg nodded, grinning at some broken teeth, and quickly put away his expression, seriously said: "Eric, there is another thing, all my bonuses this year will also be retained Well, in the Clover Fund, I hope to be able to replace the company ’s stock during the next acquisition process. "
The salary contract of Katzenberg is a fixed annual salary of 750,000 USD plus a 2% annual net profit dividend of Firefly Group.
According to this contract, he will be able to get a huge dividend of 800 million USD from the total profit scale of Firefly Group 40 billion USD this year, which is enough to create a salary peak for professional Manager people again.
Now, Katzenberg actively gave up this salary and chose to replace it with Firefly Group stock in the future, which is tantamount to completely bundling its own interests with Firefly Group.
After all, Firefly Group is not a listed company. Once you choose to buy shares, it will be very difficult for Katzenberg to cash out again. If the company's performance declines, this share will depreciate significantly. Moreover, Katzenberg's shareholding ratio in any way cannot affect Eric's absolute control over the entire Firefly Group.
It can be said that this already has a name.
Looking deeply at Katzenberg, Eric said: "So, did you really decide?"
"Of course," Katzenberg smiled and nodded, saying: "Unless you have any problems here."
"I am very happy."
Eric said, left fist lifted sideways, Katzenberg clenched fist tacitly, and gently touched Eric.
Put some charred meat skewers in front of you into the dinner plate, Eric said: "Actually, I came here this time, there is another very important thing to discuss with you. I plan to set up the Williams trust fund recently, although For the time being, we will not inject too many assets into the foundation, but it is still necessary to determine the members of the fund's board of directors in advance, Jeffrey, I hope you can join in. "
Katzenberg is a bit unexpected, and even lowered some voices: "Eric, is this necessary, you are not 30 years old?"
Although there are many kinds of pre-life trusts in the West, Katzenberg understands that the trust fund to be established by Eric must be of the nature of a heritage trust. In other words, once something happens to Eric, his personal assets will be directly transferred to this trust fund.
Involving the inheritance of huge wealth, many rich people often make their wills, and behind them there will still be various unexpected situations such as child disputes and even wealth divided by outsiders. The pre-life trust model can maximize the possibility of avoiding the occurrence of asset inheritance behind the principal.
However, under normal circumstances, only Redstone, Murdoch, and the elderly who have passed the sixtieth year will start to set up family trusts,
Feeling the tone of concern of Katzenberg, Eric is very calm and said: "Jeffrey, you should understand that the wealth I have now is completely different in this world. If no one covets this, then It is completely impossible. So, I hope that even if something unexpected happens, the entire Firefly system will not collapse. So, Jeffrey, are you willing to join the council? "
Katzenberg completely forgot the scorched meat skewers that had been grilled in front of him, and nodded solemnly, and said, "Eric, I assure you."