I’m in Hollywood Chapter 1005: Sudden attack
Remember [lnmao.org] in one second, fast update, no pop-up window, free to read!
In the face of the high Box Office in the first week of "The Matrix2", the media's cynicism only brought about a wave of gloating on Firefly, but it did not have any substantial negative impact on Firefly. Some strange angles have promoted the sales of Firefly's upcoming corporate bonds next month.
The company's management has always been under the control of Eric, and there will be no problems. Eric hopes that the minority shareholders of the group can express some opinions, and it is best to sell the stock in their anger, but unfortunately this has not happened.
Therefore, Eric actually does not care at all about the various views of the media on "The Matrix2" Box Office and the subsequent decline in Firefly Group.
However, after arriving in Queenstown, New Zealand, just after settling down, Eric received a news that made him very flamboyant.
Steve · Kies completely put aside the tacit understanding formed by all parties, and squeezed the dispute between management and Firefly investment, the largest shareholder, into the media.
It happened on the east coast of North America Tuesday morning, Steve · Kies accepted an exclusive interview with CNN, Eric arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand local time is Wednesday morning, but the time zone of North America east coast is 16 hours behind New Zealand When Eric received the news, it was still Tuesday afternoon, and the New York stock exchange had just concluded a day of trading.
In a private resort on the outskirts of Queenstown, Eric hung up a call from Chris personally and said to Tim Sanders, producer of Firefly's The Lord of the Rings project in New Zealand: "Tim, you Go back to work as usual, today I may not be able to go to the set, I will call Peter in person later. "
New Zealand is in the coldest month of the year, but it has not affected the shoots of the "The Lord of the Rings" crew.
Hundreds of people in the entire crew have a basic daily expenditure of hundreds of thousands of USD. Therefore, before Eric came here, he specifically told Peter · Jackson that he did not need to change the shoots schedule for his arrival. At this time, Peter · Jackson was taking the crew to the location of shoots near Lake Wanaka, more than 40 kilometers north of Queenstown.
Tim Sanders was just next to Eric, and he heard something. He nodded and said, "Then I will leave first, Eric. If you have anything, please call me at any time."
Take away Tim Sanders, Eric returns to the living room of the holiday villa behind him, Carolyn stands next to fax machine in the corner of the living room, making a phone call, and Meyer walks over with a notebook and displays it in front of Eric.
A video of CNN ’s interview with Steve Keyes is playing on the laptop screen.
"I am very grateful that the Firefly system has spared no effort to support AOL in all parties over the years, but this cannot be the reason for us to give up adhering to our own corporate development philosophy. The company should have its own culture and soul, if Without these, it is destined to be just a puppet of capital. All the facts prove that such a company is destined to fail to grow. In these years, it is precisely because we have a clear planning idea for this company that AOL has been able to reach less than 100,000 from the beginning. The user's small company has grown to the Internet enterprise giant with entire US users close to 15 million, "in the picture, Steve · Kesi said with a serious expression:" So, if shareholders insist that we give up our own business philosophy, then we will There is no need to continue at this company. "
In the studio, the host with black-framed glasses nodded in agreement and said, "So, Steve, what do you mean by" we "refer to those people?"
"Myself, Chairman Robert · Pitman, and 12 directors of the company's operations, marketing, finance and other departments. If we can't reach an agreement with shareholders next, then we will choose to resign collectively."
The host showed a surprised expression on his face, leaning 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 management resigns collectively, It will definitely cause an inestimable impact on the company ’s stock price, which will also damage your personal interests. Have you considered this result? "
"Yes," said Steve · Keith: "However, compared to wealth, I am more willing to stick to my ideals."
On the screen, the host smiled appreciatively, nodded, and then said: "So, next, let us take a video to understand the legendary rise of AOL over the years."
Eric stood on the spot, frowning slightly at the laptop screen that Meyer was silently holding in his hand. The phone he just put in his trench coat pocket rang again.
Indicating that Meyer can take the laptop away, Eric connects to the mobile phone, but it is a call from Morgan Stanley Chairman John · Mark.
Morgan Stanley also owns a large-scale stock investment department. They are also one of the major shareholders of AOL, and they own about 2% of AOL ’s stock.
Some time ago, under the lobbying of Chris, Morgan Stanley had agreed to stand on the side of Firefly investment during the voting process of the shareholders' meeting. However, in the face of the sudden attack of Steve · Keith's nearly torn face, Morgan Stanley obviously couldn't maintain a calm posture.
Eric chatted with John · Mark, and Carolyn handed over a document just sorted out. This is the AOL stock price chart of United States over Tuesday.
As the founder of AOL and a key person who firstly made AOL more than 40billion USD in market value today, Steve · Kes has a very strong influence on AOL. This influence also enveloped a large number of AOL shareholders What's more, there is the entire AOL management team that claims to advance and retreat with Steve · Case.
Therefore, after CNN aired the interview with Steve · Kies, the NASDAQ market directly reacted violently to the risk that Steve · Kies and AOL management might collectively resign.
Over the entire trading day, AOL ’s share price fell sharply by 6.5%, and its market value slipped from 41.5 billion USD at the opening to 38.9 billion USD. During the six-hour trading time, the market value evaporated 2.7 billion USD.
Even, the Nasdaq index, which was originally predicted by the media to break through 2000 points this week, was also affected. The entire market fell from 1973 to 1935 points throughout the day, and many technology stocks that have been in the limelight during this time have also been popular. With the decline in the stock price of AOL, there have been various degrees of decline.
Eric listened to the slightly anxious test words in the opposite John · Mark tone, saying: "John, Morgan Stanley may have lost more than 50 million USD, but according to the shareholding ratio, Firefly today is equal to the loss of 1 billion USD, you think I will Indifferent? "
The total share of AOL stock held by the Firefly system is 35.7%, which means that the action of Steve · Kes directly brought Firefly a book loss close to 1billion USD.
Even though many people know that the actual value of AOL is not so much at all, the loss of hundreds of millions of book wealth in a day is still a bit painful. Those Wall Street funds whose main business is stock investment face tens of millions of losses in a short period of time, and the response is much more intense than that of Eric, an investor who values long-term development.
Patience chatted with John · Mark for a while, just hung up the other party's phone, and the phone rang almost without interruption. This time, the caller was bigger. The founder of Pioneer Fund with Wall Street assets exceeding 200billion USD Person John · Bogel, although the other party is euphemistic, but clearly expressed the hope that Eric can change the original idea, as soon as possible to quell this matter, in the end John · Bogel also expressed some concern about the Nasdaq index Concussion and collapse concerns.
Eric naturally also has this kind of worry, so the sense of Steve · Kes's behavior is even worse in my heart.
It ’s not because of the loss of 1billion USD ’s stock book today, but because the other party completely ignored the overall situation in order to defend its own power. At the beginning, the two parties had already reached a tacit agreement, limiting this matter to AOL.
Next Monday, at the June 29th Extraordinary General Meeting, no matter which side wins, the other side must take the initiative to withdraw in order to maintain the development of AOL.
However, Firefly Investment itself holds AOL35.7% of the shares. This shareholding ratio, for many other companies, can already firmly control the control of a company, just like Murdoch behind News Corp and Viacom. The family and the Redstone family hold about 30% of the two media groups.
Therefore, the winning rate of Firefly investment in shareholder voting is actually very high. If it is not the status of the founder of Steve · Keys ’AOL and his outstanding achievements in his position over the years, Firefly does not even need to convene. Shareholders' meeting can oust Steve · Case.
But even so, Firefly only needs to attract about 15% of other shareholders to stand on their own side, and they can easily seize control of AOL.
During this time, due to the close relationship with Wall Street, Chris successfully obtained a promise from a large number of fund managers holding AOL shares on the side of Firefly. Perhaps it was felt that his disadvantages became more and more obvious, and Steve · Kess made the move today in Drastic Move.
It is indeed Drastic Move.
Because of this, in the face of the pressure of AOL's share price collapse, most shareholders may have to temporarily compromise with the AOL management, but Steve · Kes' desperate behavior that harms the interests of everyone is also destined to be invested by Wall Street He remembered the last thing hard, and he wanted to get the favor of Wall Street in the future, but it was even more difficult.
Of course, if AOL can continue to be strong, Steve · Keith can completely put on a tough corporate manager image, and don't need to pay attention to Wall Street's face. After all, Wall Street's fancy is always able to bring them People with actual interests.
But others are not clear, but Eric knows that AOL has developed in accordance with the Steve · Kies idea, and how terrible the collapse will be in the next few years.
On the first day of New Zealand, Eric was basically spent in making and receiving calls.
This matter cannot be properly dealt with right away. In order to avoid the AOL stock price from plunging the next day, Board of Directors urgently applied for a temporary suspension from the SEC and promised to the heated media and investors that it would be held before next Monday. Press conference to announce the final processing results of this incident.
Flying back to New York from New Zealand, although the journey is slightly closer to New Zealand than United Kingdom, but it also takes 20 hours, basically a whole day, so Eric did not rush back, just check the three parts of "The Lord of the Rings" The production progress of various aspects of the song, while frequently maintaining close contact with Chris and others on the New York side by phone.
Until Saturday morning in New Zealand and Friday afternoon on the east coast of United States, after several days of intensive consultations and negotiations, the major shareholders of AOL, members of Board of Directors, and management sat together at the company ’s Headquarters in New York In the large conference room, Eric participates in this meeting via video call.
After being shocked by the AOL management ’s propaganda that the collective departure caused the stock price to plummet, in just three days, many shareholders who were originally inclined to invest in Firefly changed their positions.
If only Steve · Kies leaves, AOL will not be affected much as long as it is properly arranged. But all the main management left, and then for a long time, AOL will fall into a chaotic state of headless dragons. Even if the airborne managers have excellent abilities, it is impossible to restore AOL to the previous state in a short time.
In the case where North America's major traditional telecom operators and operating system giant Microsoft have deployed ISP services, AOL will likely be pulled by these very powerful competitors if there is a turbulent time of one and a half years Close to the gap, AOL's advantages accumulated in the ISP field for many years may also disappear, or even collapse from now on.
Firefly investment technology company, Eric has not valued AOL from the beginning, he cares, but at the moment when the technology stock bubble is the most expanding, the use of AOL far exceeds the actual value of the stock price as a "currency", the acquisition of an old brand Of telecom operators, thoroughly consolidating the foundation of AOL, and providing the most stable underlying service support for the information industry alliance plan that was originally determined.
However, in the current situation, the original plan has been lost, and Eric has also made the most favorable choice for himself.
In the study room of the holiday villa, the monitor on the desk is turned on, and opposite is the large conference room of AOL New York Headquarters. More than ten representatives from all walks of life sat on both sides of the elliptical desk in sequence. Eric just can see the other side of the desk Steve · Kies, more than a dozen people across the street also looked over.
From Carolyn, the folder prepared earlier was taken over. Eric opened the folder, glanced at the screen, and said lightly: "I am a little tired these days, and there are still a lot of things today, so let's make a long story short. Oh, I said, you listen. "
In the conference room of New York, a large screen projector was used. Chris sitting next to the screen heard Eric and shook his head gently and smiled.
Other business elites from all walks of life looked at the overwhelming young man in the projector screen. Although they were dissatisfied in their hearts, they were more disturbed. This meeting is related to the future of AOL, but also to whether their stocks 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 this capital. Even the Steve · Kes, who is complacent and calm, has a faster heart rate than usual.