Faced with the high box office of "The Matrix 2" in the first week, the cynicism of the media only brought a wave of gloating towards Firefly, but it did not have any substantial negative impact on Firefly. The odd angle has boosted Firefly's sales efforts for its upcoming corporate bond offering next month.
The company's management has always been under Eric's control, and there will be no problems. Eric hoped that the small shareholders of the group could express some opinions, and it would be best to sell their stocks in anger, but unfortunately this did not happen.
Therefore, Eric actually doesn't care at all about the media's various views on the box office of "The Matrix 2" and the ensuing pessimism about the Firefly Group.
However, as soon as he arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand and settled down, Eric received a piece of news that made him very angry.
Steve Case completely put aside the tacit understanding formed by all parties, and brought the dispute between the management and Firefly Investment, the largest shareholder, to the media.
It happened on Tuesday morning on the east coast of North America. Steve Case accepted an exclusive interview with 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 hours 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, the producer of Firefly's "Lord of the Rings" project in New Zealand: "Tim, You go back to work as usual, I may not be able to go to the set today, I will call Peter myself later."
New Zealand is in the coldest month of the year, but it has not affected the filming of the "Lord of the Rings" crew in the slightest.
The daily basic expenses of hundreds of people in the entire production team reached hundreds of thousands of dollars. Therefore, before Eric came, he specially told Peter Jackson that he did not need to change the shooting schedule for his arrival. At this time, Peter Jackson was leading the crew to shoot exterior scenes near Lake Wanaka, more than 40 kilometers north of Queenstown.
Tim Sanders was just next to Eric, and he roughly heard something, nodded and said: "Then I will leave first, Eric, if you have anything, you can call me at any time."
After seeing off Tim Saunders, Eric returned 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 it to Eric. In front of Rick.
A video of CNN's interview with Steve Case is playing on the laptop screen.
"I am very grateful for the Firefly system's support for AOL in all aspects over the years. However, this cannot be the reason for us to give up our corporate development philosophy. An enterprise should have its own culture and soul. Without these , then it is destined to be just a puppet of capital, and all the facts prove that such an enterprise is doomed to fail to grow. Over the years, it is precisely because we have a clear plan for this company that AOL has been able to grow from less than 100,000 The user’s small company has developed into an Internet enterprise giant with nearly 15 million users in the United States.” In the screen, Steve Case talked 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 in this company.”
In the studio, the host wearing black-rimmed glasses nodded in deep agreement, and said, "So, Steve, do you mean those people when you say 'we'?"
"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, 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 personally. I think you must know that if the company's management resigns en masse, It will definitely have an immeasurable impact on the company's stock price, and it will also damage your personal interests, have you considered this result?"
"Yes," Steve Case said, "however, compared with wealth, I am more willing to stick to my ideals."
On the screen, the host smiled appreciatively, nodded, and said, "Then, let's learn about America Online's legendary rise over the years through a video."
Eric stood where he was, frowning slightly and looking at the laptop screen that Mayer silently held in front of him. The phone he had just put in his windbreaker pocket rang again.
Indicating Mayer to take the laptop away, Eric connected to the phone, but it was Morgan Stanley President John Mark who called.
Morgan Stanley also has a stock investment department with a large business scale. They are also one of the major shareholders of AOL, holding 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 Steve Case's sudden attack, Morgan Stanley obviously couldn't maintain a calm posture.
Eric was chatting with John Mark, and Caroline handed over a document that had just been sorted out. This is the AOL stock price chart on the US side on Tuesday.
As the founder of AOL and the key person who single-handedly made AOL to a market value of more than 40 billion US dollars today, Steve Case has a very strong influence on AOL, and this influence also covers a large number of American online companies. Online shareholders, not to mention the entire AOL management who declared that they would advance and retreat with Steve Case.
Therefore, after CNN aired the interview with Steve Case, the Nasdaq market reacted directly to the risk that Steve Case and AOL management might 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. In 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 points this week, was also affected. The entire market fell from 1973 points to 1935 points throughout the day. Online stock prices fell, there have been varying degrees of decline.
Eric listened to John Mark's slightly anxious probing words on the opposite side, and said: "John, Morgan Stanley may have lost more than 50 million U.S. dollars, but according to the shareholding ratio, Firefly has lost a billion U.S. dollars today. Do you think I'll be indifferent?"
The Firefly system holds a total of 35.7% of AOL's shares, which means that Steve Case's actions have directly brought Firefly a book loss of close to 1 billion US dollars.
Even though many people know that the actual value of AOL is not worth so much, the loss of hundreds of millions of paper wealth in one 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 their reactions are much more intense than investors like Eric who pay more attention to long-term development.
Patiently chatting with John Mark for a while, just after hanging up the other party's phone, the phone rang again almost without a break. John Bogle, the founder of NASDA, although his attitude was tactful, he clearly expressed the hope that Eric could change his original mind and calm down the matter as soon as possible. The gram index may be worried about the collapse of the shock.
Eric naturally also has this kind of worry, so the feeling of Steve Case's behavior in his heart is even worse.
It's not because of today's loss of 1 billion US dollars in stock books, but because of the other party's behavior of completely disregarding the overall situation in order to maintain their own power. At the beginning, the two parties had already reached a tacit agreement to limit this matter to AOL.
Next Monday, that is, the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on June 29, no matter which party wins, the other party must voluntarily withdraw in order to maintain the development of AOL.
However, Firefly Investment itself holds a 35.7% stake in AOL. For many other companies, this shareholding ratio has been able to firmly control a company, just like News Corporation and Viacom behind the scenes. The Murdoch 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 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 any meetings Shareholders meeting, Steve Case can be removed from office.
But even so, Firefly only needs to woo the other 15% or so shareholders to stand on its side, and it can easily seize control of AOL.
During this period of time, due to his close relationship with Wall Street, Chris succeeded in obtaining a promise from a large part of the fund managers who hold AOL shares to stand on the side of Firefly. Perhaps feeling that his own disadvantages were becoming more and more obvious, Steve Case made today's move in a desperate manner.
It is indeed a dead end.
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 behavior of recklessly harming everyone's interests is also doomed He will be severely marked by Wall Street investors, and it will be even more difficult for him to win the favor of Wall Street in the future.
Of course, if America Online can continue to be strong, Steve Case can completely put on a tough image of a business manager, and he doesn't need to pay attention to the face of Wall Street. After all, Wall Street will always be able to serve They bring real benefits to people.
But others don't know, but Eric knows how tragic the collapse of America Online in the next few years will be if it continues to develop in accordance with Steve Case's thinking.
Eric spent his first day in New Zealand mostly on the phone.
It is impossible to come up with a proper solution to this matter right away. In order to prevent AOL’s stock price from plummeting the next day, the board of directors urgently applied to the SEC for a temporary suspension of trading, and promised to hold a press conference before next Monday to the buzzing media and investors. , announced the final result of the incident.
Flying back to New York from New Zealand, although the journey is slightly shorter than the UK to New Zealand, it still takes 20 hours, basically a whole day, so Eric didn't rush back, just watching the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy Production progress in all aspects, while maintaining close contact with Chris and others in New York by frequent phone calls.
It was not until Saturday morning in New Zealand and Friday afternoon on the east coast of the United States that after several days of intensive negotiations and negotiations, the major shareholders, board members, and management of AOL sat together at the company's headquarters in New York. In the room, Eric participated in the meeting via video call.
Frightened by AOL's management's announcement that they would resign collectively and cause the stock price to plummet, in just three days, many shareholders who were originally inclined to invest in Firefly changed their positions.
If it's just Steve Case leaving, AOL won't be affected too much as long as the arrangements are made properly. But if all the main management members leave, then for a long time, AOL will fall into a chaotic state without a leader. No matter how good the airborne managers are, it is impossible to restore AOL to its previous state in a short time. .
With several major traditional telecom operators in North America and the operating system giant Microsoft all deploying ISP business one after another, if America Online experiences turmoil for a year or so, it is likely that the gap will be narrowed by these very powerful competitors. However, America Online's accumulated advantages in the ISP field for many years may also disappear, or even never recover.
Firefly invested in technology companies under Firefly. Eric didn't value AOL too much from the very beginning. What he cared about was using AOL's share price far exceeding its actual value as a 'currency' to acquire An old-fashioned telecom operator has thoroughly consolidated the foundation of America Online and provided the most stable underlying service support for the original information industry alliance plan.
However, with the current situation, it is impossible to talk about the original plan, and Eric also decisively made the choice that is most beneficial to him.
In the study room of the holiday villa, the monitor on the desk is turned on, and opposite is the large conference room of America Online’s New York headquarters. More than a dozen representatives from various fields are sitting on both sides of the oval desk. Eric can just see the desk Steve Case on the other side, and more than a dozen people on the opposite side also looked over.
After receiving the folder that had been prepared earlier from Caroline, Eric opened the folder, glanced at the screen, and said lightly: "I'm a little tired these days, and I have a lot of things to do today, so let's make a long story short .Oh, I said, listen up."
In the meeting room in New York, a large-screen projector was used. Chris, who happened to be sitting next to the screen, shook his head and smiled slightly when he heard Eric's words.
Other business elites from all walks of life looked at the condescending young man on the projector screen, and although they were a little dissatisfied, they were more apprehensive. This meeting is related to the future of AOL, and also related to whether the stock in their hands can continue to increase in value. Even though many things have been agreed in advance, many people are still worried that Eric will suddenly change his mind when things come to an end, and the other party has the capital, even Steve Case, who is trying to calm down, has a heartbeat faster than usual a lot.