Eric said: "According to what I have noticed recently, after the second round of harvest in Southeast Asia in the first half of the year, the major hedge funds have shifted their targets to the ruble. Once the ruble falls, outside of Southeast Asia, Russia, the last Emerging economies in recent years will also be destroyed, the European economy is stagnant, the US dollar has started an interest rate hike cycle, and the Nasdaq market is booming. Where will the trillions of capital withdrawn from Southeast Asian countries flow? There seems to be no suspense. In my opinion, the Nasdaq 2000 is just the beginning."
As the president of Morgan Stanley, John Mark naturally has a very deep insight into the world economic situation, and he also understands why Eric mentioned the ruble at this time.
Although he was also very optimistic about the future of technology stocks, John Mark retorted at this time: "Eric, this is just your opinion. Many people just think that the Russian economy is recovering and it is a very good investment target. As far as I know, Mr. Soros invested a large part of his earnings in Southeast Asia in the Russian stock and bond markets. And the Nasdaq market has generally reached an unbearable price-to-earnings ratio for technology stocks. Any bull market in the past would be crazy, and we are now buying AOL stock, but we have to take a lot of risk."
Eric knew about his big investment in Russia when he met Soros last year, and he discussed it with Soros at the time.
However, Eric didn't intend to persuade John Mark, but said: "John, this is my attitude. I don't intend to make any concessions on the transfer price of AOL stock. You only have one month, one A month later, Firefly Investment will launch a public shareholding reduction procedure. I believe that the stock price of AOL will rise to a higher level in the next month, and maybe the market value will break through 50 billion US dollars. Although the price-earnings ratio of AOL is indeed a bit high, he The revenue and growth rate of the company are very good. For many investors, this company is still a valuable investment target. I am not worried that no one will buy the shares sold by Firefly.”
"However, Eric, what you do is not good for everyone. The shareholding of Firefly Investment is too large. Even if you reduce your holdings by 1% every month, it will take three years. Only we have enough strength to take you The stock in hand will be taken over."
The Internet bubble can last for less than two years at most. Eric never thought of being able to reduce his holdings of AOL stocks, and he didn't plan to sell them to the secondary market little by little.
What he is now comparing with other AOL shareholders is who can't help but give in first.
If AOL's stock price starts to fall, other shareholders will naturally not easily agree to Eric's request, but the current situation is that the stock price has been rising all the way. The higher the stock price rises, in order to keep the profits already obtained
interests, the more likely it is that other shareholders will not be able to hold on first.
John Mark discussed with Eric repeatedly for more than half an hour. Seeing Eric's firm attitude, he had to leave disappointed.
After seeing off John Mark, Eric greeted the twins, and went upstairs alone, planning to take a shower first.
In his heart, he was a family lover. In a familiar environment, Eric naturally relaxed a lot, lying in the big bathtub in the bathroom of Shell Villa, soaking for a long time without knowing it, and even a little drowsy.
The bathroom door was suddenly pushed open, and a girl wearing a light blue T-shirt and white slacks barged in with a smile on her face. She threw herself into the big bathtub without taking off her clothes, and groaned and whimpered around Eric. kiss.
Eric indulged the girl for a while, feeling that the girl was nibbling on his neck like a little beast after kissing him, and then he reached out and took off a few thin clothes on the girl and threw them aside .
After a while, holding a soft and slender body in his arms, Eric turned his neck sideways, smiled and said softly: "Okay, don't gnaw any more, there is a mark on the neck How can I meet people."
The girl seemed to have a sudden epiphany, and her thin white neck moved to Eric's mouth: "Eric, give me a bite."
Eric dodged and said: "Don't bite, if I turn you into a vampire, my identity will be exposed and I will be burned to death."
"Hehe," the girl laughed for a while, feeling that Eric had a reaction, and didn't care if it was in the bathtub, she sat up regardless, and then her body was soft on Eric's body again, whining like a kitten : "Eric, I miss you so much."
Eric put his arms around the girl's waist and said, "I miss you too."
Leaving New York half a month ago, Eric has never had a woman again. At this time, holding the same emotional girl, the two of them tossed heartily for a long time. After changing their clothes and going downstairs, it was already eight o'clock in the evening, and the twins were already ready. good dinner.
Instead of dining in the restaurant, the two set up a small table by the swimming pool on the terrace, sitting opposite each other, enjoying the cool summer night breeze in Los Angeles, chatting about recent events while eating.
"I went to Washington last week. Seeing Mr. President swearing in court that nothing happened between him and the intern, it was so ridiculous that several people around me almost burst out laughing."
During this period of time, the most lively current event that attracted the attention of the whole people was undoubtedly the zipper door. In order to fight for the seats in the mid-term elections of the US Senate and Senate, Clinton’s political opponents seized this matter and pursued it fiercely. extraordinary.
However, hearing the girl's schadenfreude, Eric put down the red wine in his hand, picked up the knife and fork, and couldn't help laughing at the same time: "You are really boring, and you went to Washington to watch the president's jokes. "
"I'm not that free. It's because of the TV station license. We plan to add a sub-channel to E! Entertainment."
Eric smiled unabated, and said: "Then you shouldn't watch the president's jokes, be careful that he wears small shoes for us."
"No, Amy said that now is the best time to apply for a photo shoot. The president needs public support at this time. How dare he offend us."
With the integration of American media groups, the power of Hollywood is becoming stronger and stronger. No politician would do the opposite if he could have a good relationship with Hollywood.
Eric just nodded with a smile, stopped mentioning the matter, and asked instead: "How about the midnight pre-sale of "Charlie's Angels 3"?"
The girl knew why Eric asked this, and said: "It is estimated that it can break through 10 million US dollars. It is definitely no problem to exceed "The Matrix 2". The drop of "The Matrix 2" this weekend is 53%. Zhou's "Charlie's Angels 3" is not a threat."
Eric just came back in the afternoon, and he still doesn't know the box office data of last weekend. However, hearing what the girl said, my heart was completely relaxed.
This week, only Disney's low-cost family-friendly comedy "Born Together" was released. It can be said that it will not have any impact on "The Matrix 2", but the decline of this film is still more than 50%. It is conceivable that the next For "Charlie's Angels", the decline of "The Matrix 2" will only be more ugly.
After all, it is a series from the Firefly Group, and Eric didn't take too much gloat. Katzenberg even asked Eric in private if he wanted to do something to limit the announcement of "The Matrix 2", but Eric refused. .
The next day was Wednesday, perhaps because John Mark was rejected by Eric, some shareholders of America Online considered the possible impact of Firefly Investment’s large-scale public reduction of holdings on the stock price, and chose to advance Sell and cash out.
However, the management headed by Steve Case and its supporters also chose to enter the market to maintain the stock price. After a sharp drop in the morning, the stock price was quickly pulled up again.
After a whole day of turbulence, as of the close, AOL's stock price still managed to maintain a high of $261.33, and its market value remained above $43 billion.
On Thursday, while AOL's stock price was still volatile throughout the day, it ended the day with a solid 1.6% gain at the end of the day.
Throughout the whole process, although all the media paid the most attention to the reaction of Firefly Investment, the largest shareholder, since the three of Chris announced their resignation from the board of directors of AOL at the press conference last week, the top executives of the Firefly system have never expressed any concern for AOL. Express any public opinion.
Even the news about AOL released by the media under the Firefly system is basically a well-known news release.
However, there is no impenetrable wall in the world. Although most of the people who participated in the video conference last week tried their best to conceal the news that Firefly Investment was trying to reduce its holdings of AOL by 10% at one time, relevant information was inevitably leaked out. , but it has not been officially confirmed, and the regular media have chosen a cautious stance and have not reported it publicly.
As for the Internet platform with the freest dissemination of information, among the three major Internet portals, the first two happened to be the "participants". Neither Yahoo nor AOL could allow similar news to spread indiscriminately, so there was no disturbance.
After the contact between John Mark and Eric failed, all aspects fell into a temporary stalemate and wait-and-see state.
Eric also gradually put aside the impact of the AOL incident, returned to Los Angeles, checked Joss Whedon's rough cut of "Iron Man", Eric began to officially prepare for "Gravity" "The filming started.
Although there will be a full year between now and the release at the end of next year, "Gravity" will involve a lot of new shooting and special effects technologies, and it will also take into account the promotion of 3D and IMAX screening formats. After careful calculation, A year and a half is not at all lenient.
However, before that, the first thing Eric will attend is the premiere of "Charlie's Angels 3" in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Last year's "Casino Royale 007" officially opened the assembly of MGM's agent movie universe and it was a big success. The strong expectations of countless fans of the Three Secret Agents series.
Although it has the weakest foundation among the three series and is a female action film with natural disadvantages, after several years of comprehensive and meticulous operation, the popularity of the "Charlie's Angels" series is not weaker than the other two.
Even, because Eric designed a very complete story background for "Charlie's Angels" from the very beginning, through peripheral comics and other forms, the story branches related to the three protagonists brought a series of various foreshadowing extensions that fans talked about, Unknowingly, it gathers the attention of fans, making the core fan group of the "Charlie's Angels" series far exceed the other two.
"Mission: Impossible" series actor Kevin Costner will also appear in this film.
After "Dances with Wolves" that year, most of Kevin Costner's works outside of the "Mission: Impossible" series ended in failure. The box office failure of "Future Water World" almost destroyed his acting career. A recent replacement for Mel Gibson in "The Patriot" is also tepid, which makes Kevin Costner more and more aware of the importance of "Mission: Impossible" to him.
Last year, Eric's strong posture in Pierce Brosnan's salary negotiation process also made Kevin Costner's attitude less strong in salary negotiations and participating in the agent movie universe crossover.
In "Charlie's Angels 3", Kevin Costner only took $5 million in salary.
Although the other party also insisted that his role in this film should not exceed five minutes, this is enough to completely connect the three series.
At the same time, the production budget of "Charlie's Angels 3" not only reached the highest of the three series so far, 160 million U.S. dollars, but the scale of the film's announcement and distribution is even stronger. It is only General Motors that is the joint promotion of its Buick brand and "Charlie's Angels 3" Invested 100 million U.S. dollars in advertising budget, and MGM's own advertising budget has reached 50 million U.S. dollars. In total, the total scale of the film's production and announcement is close to 300 million U.S. dollars, even surpassing "Titanic" three years ago.
Buick is undoubtedly the most successful advertising cooperation brand of "Charlie's Angels 3".
Although a joint advertising budget of 100 million U.S. dollars was invested this time, and a record-breaking 30 million U.S. dollars was paid to MGM for placement advertising in the early stage, as a Volkswagen brand with global annual sales of more than 2 million units, Buick's gains far outweighed its costs.
It’s just that the same Buick sports car in “Charlie’s Angels” launched last year with a price of about 30,000 to 50,000 U.S. dollars for young people. The annual sales exceeded 160,000 units. This alone added more than 6 billion U.S. dollars to GM. turnover.
An article published by "Business Weekly" magazine shows that in recent years, the direct economic benefits brought by the "Charlie's Angels" series to Buick are equivalent to 12 times the profits brought by the film to MGM. The potential brand value-added effect is even more limitless.
In the past few years, several major automakers in Europe and Asia have tried to compete for this brand implantation opportunity, offering prices no less than Buick, but MGM chose to refuse out of prudent considerations.
The Los Angeles premiere of "Charlie's Angels 3" started at five o'clock in the afternoon. However, since the day before, a large number of movie fans have gathered near the Chinese Grand Theater.
By Thursday afternoon, the streets hundreds of meters near the theater were already packed with fanatical crowds. Eric was taken aback when he got off the car at the entrance of the red carpet with the girl.