John Mark did not look at the trend analysis report of the Nasdaq index, but directly found the stock price data of AOL.
As of today's close, AOL's stock price has fluctuated for a week, and finally settled at $26.522 billion, with a market value of $43.6 billion. Compared with the highest market value of US$46.1 billion last week, it has fallen again by a full US$2.5 billion.
Morgan Stanley has always been on the sidelines and has no plans to sell their stocks, but John Mark knows that many shareholders who are worried that AOL's stock price will collapse under the pressure of Firefly Investment's large-scale reduction of holdings have already begun to sell. Sell the stock in hand.
According to the data on the documents in hand, just this week, the trading volume of AOL stock reached 5.6 billion US dollars, more than one-tenth of the market value of AOL.
Obviously, while some people left the market, many investors who were bullish on AOL stock quietly entered the market.
In the past, John Mark has been focusing on Morgan Stanley's core businesses such as stock and bond issuance, and has not paid much attention to the international foreign exchange market. However, this week, after learning more about the Russian economic situation and the Southeast Asian economic crisis and other data, he also began to agree with Eric's analysis of the future trend of Nasdaq.
After all the Southeast Asian countries have been searched, the huge profits earned by the major international hot money need to find an investment target as soon as possible. Originally, he thought that the investment target was likely to be Russia, whose economic situation was recovering, but now he realized that Russia’s economic recovery was just an illusion, so these funds could only flow back to North America, which is currently in the Fed’s interest rate hike cycle.
North America is at the moment when the wave of new technology is surging, and it will naturally become the best investment target for these hot money.
Then, the Nasdaq index breaking through 2000 points is likely to be just the beginning, as Eric said.
Facts have also proved Eric's judgment. After the Nasdaq index successfully broke through 2000 points last week, the growth rate has not slowed down, but has obvious signs of acceleration. Only this week, the highest Nasdaq index has already Close to 2070 points, an increase of 3.5%.
Aside from these general economic trends, John Mark's attention soon returned to the affairs of America Online.
Except for Yahoo, which will be listed at the end of the year, among the high-profile star technology companies on the Nasdaq market, shareholders of companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, and SUN have no plans to reduce their holdings on a large scale. , The original 30% new share issuance ratio has been compressed, and the final new share issuance ratio may only be 10% to 15%. It is impossible for Wall Street investment institutions to invest heavily in these companies in a short period of time.
So, ignoring the hidden risks, it is not difficult to find that Firefly's plan to reduce its holdings of AOL stocks on a large scale is not a threat to Wall Street investors, but an opportunity.
After carefully weighing the pros and cons again, John Mark finally made a decision.
He plans to unite a group of investors to buy all the stocks held by Firefly Investment at one time.
According to the current market value calculation, 32.6% of AOL shares directly held by Firefly investors are worth about 14.2 billion US dollars. It is impossible for any investment institution on Wall Street to fully undertake such a huge stock asset.
However, if it is dispersed and taken over by a dozen or even dozens of investment institutions, then it is very feasible to digest this $14.2 billion worth of stocks.
Considered from another perspective, this behavior is actually very similar to corporate IPOs. The issuance of shares happens to be one of Morgan Stanley's basic businesses.
Of course, the value of AOL stock held by Firefly Investment is too high.
The US$14.2 billion has surpassed the US$13 billion IPO record set by Deutsche Telekom a few years ago for the largest IPO in history, so it must be difficult to actually implement it.
However, as long as they can take over the stocks held by Firefly Investment, the sword of Damocles that has been hanging over AOL will disappear, and AOL's stock price will completely get rid of the risk of major shareholders reducing their holdings. Without the constraints of Firefly's investment, coupled with the rapid development momentum of AOL itself, the company's stock will undoubtedly take advantage of the wave of new technology to soar all the way.
Having made a decision, John Mark did not hesitate, picked up the phone on the desk, and began to summon the executives of Morgan Stanley. He planned to hold a meeting overnight to discuss how to implement the plan.
Morgan Stanley's interim high-level meeting was held until late at night, and even Morgan Stanley's new CEO Philip Purcell called to ask about John Mark's intentions.
Although Morgan Stanley has merged with Dian Witt for more than half a year, the dispute over the management rights of the new company from the original management systems of the two companies has also followed the appointment of Philip Purcell, the original helm of Dian Witt, as the CEO of the new company. After the dust settled, however, the executives of the former Morgan Stanley system never gave up their plans to fight for the initiative. At present, the businesses of the two companies have not yet started a large-scale merger due to various reasons.
Although John Mark did not hide his plan from Philip Purcell, he did not intend to invite him to participate.
The next day, John Mark, who only rested for less than five hours, flew to Los Angeles again with the plan discussed by Morgan Stanley executives last night.
Eric received an invitation from William Hearst III of the Hearst family, and originally planned to take Aniston to Hearst Castle in San Simeon on Saturday. When I got up in the morning and received a call from John Mark, I had to temporarily cancel the trip and stay in the Angle Manor.
At this time, in the study room on the basement floor, Aniston, who was casually dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, was obviously in a bad mood. He drew an ugly head of Eric on the large writing board that occupied the entire wall, and threw it away. Like a restless kitten, he glanced over at the fountain pen, lying on the back of the leather chair and wrapping his arms around Eric's neck.
Eric put down the "Gravity" storyboard draft in his hand, stretched out his hand and pulled Aniston behind him to his lap, hugged the chick's waist and kissed her on the cheek, sorry: "This is really an accident Well, we'll go to San Simeon together this afternoon, and come back on Monday, shall we?"
"Didn't you say that "Gravity" will start on Monday? How can it be delayed?" Aniston said, leaning comfortably on Eric, and said: "It's just a date, it's a pity, I am I just bought a skirt."
Eric said: "Oh, then you can change it now, let me see."
Aniston said angrily: "I won't change it, I won't show it to you."
Eric smiled and said, "Okay, if you don't change it, don't change it, anyway, I don't like the way you wear clothes."
"Ah, you bad guy," Aniston was confused for a moment, then understood, laughed and cursed and bounced off Eric, but didn't run away, just turned around and sat on the large desk in front of him, and raised his foot Lightly kicked Eric on the leg.
Eric didn't dodge either, and looked at the girl with a sweet temperament in front of him with a smile. Over the years, Aniston's appearance has hardly changed, just like the first time he saw her. Thinking about all the things he has experienced over the years, Eric can't help feeling a little bit emotional.
Aniston felt Eric's gaze, but suddenly felt a little embarrassed. After insisting on staring at him for a while, he picked up the "Gravity" storyboard sketch that Eric had just placed next to him to block between the two, and said shyly, "Don't look at it."
His vision was blocked, and he noticed Aniston's little hand holding the drawing board. Eric suddenly remembered something, got up and said, "By the way, I suddenly remembered that there is a gift for you."
"What?" Aniston, who was pretending to be an ostrich, immediately became interested and jumped off the desk to follow.
Eric walked to the wall, removed the decorative artwork to reveal the safe in the wall, and then said to Aniston with bright eyes, "Hey, close your eyes first."
"Tch, I don't care about your safe code." Aniston said, turning around and dragging his voice: "Is that all right?"
Eric was not worried that Aniston would see the password of the safe, but that she would see the whole set of rings inside, which would be bad.
Opening the safe, Eric selected from the box containing the set of rings and took out one. After closing the safe, he turned around and pulled Aniston's left hand, which was still facing away from him, and tried it, and it happened to be worn on the left hand On the ring finger.
Seeing Eric wearing a rose gold ring on his hand, Aniston first raised his eyebrows, then took the ring off again, skillfully checked the engraving inside the ring, and then said dissatisfiedly: "I'm Don’t fall behind that girl’s Q of hearts.”
Eric was a little surprised: "You know this?"
Aniston said angrily: "That girl has shown off in front of me many times, how could I not know, and, I have also seen people wearing such a ring in public and being photographed more than once."
Having said that, Aniston glared at Eric again, returned the rose gold ring in his hand, and said, "I want a K of Hearts too."
Eric was still digesting the information that Aniston had just revealed. With the girl's character and her tit-for-tat relationship with Aniston, she would indeed show off the ring she got to Aniston.
As for the one who was photographed, it should be Julia. Among the women who got this rose gold ring, Julia was the only one who wore it on her hand without any shyness all day long.
Subconsciously taking the ring handed back by Aniston, Eric smiled wryly: "There is no red heart K, every ring is unique."
There was a little more cunning in Aniston's eyes: "Then I want the king."
"This won't work," Eric shook his head immediately, and added: "Xiao Wang can't either."
Aniston already knew in her heart that this was unlikely, otherwise the king would definitely fall into Drew's hands, and it would be her turn: "Or, Eric, you open the box and I will pick it myself."
Now that Aniston already knew about this set of rings, Eric stopped covering up, opened the safe, took out the box containing this set of rings, and showed it to Aniston.
Aniston saw that there were seven missing rings in the box besides the big and small kings. He blamed Eric a lot, but in the end he took the club K, and said that in this way, the rings could be worn out directly. A rose gold ring with black diamonds, even if people saw it, they probably wouldn't think of it like an engagement ring.
Seeing Aniston who was playing with the ring in his hand with great interest, Eric put the box away again, then walked over and put his arms around the girl's slender waist, and said, "Jenny, you must know that this ring wears up, but you can’t take it off.”
Aniston just saw the rose gold ring, but she was far less indifferent than Eric saw it.
Hearing what Eric said, Aniston leaned into Eric's arms, slammed his chin on his shoulder, was silent for a while, and said, "Why am I so unlucky to meet you."
"Well," Eric nodded softly.
Aniston lightly hammered Eric on the back, and said angrily, "What are you doing?"
"I was thinking how lucky I am to make you so unlucky."
Aniston moved his chin on Eric's shoulder, breathed hot air in his ear, and threatened like a kitten with bared teeth: "Your ear is right next to my mouth, believe it or not, I will bite it off it."
Eric suddenly fell silent, and the two hugged tacitly for a while, until the communicator on the wall turned on the warning light, and Eric knew that John Mark must have arrived, so he let go of Aniston.
"Eric, I'm so sorry, I'm still here to disturb you on weekends. Oh, and Miss Aniston, my wife likes to watch your "Friends" the most." Sure enough, it was John Mark who arrived. , the two sides exchanged warm greetings.
"It's okay, I actually don't have anything special on the weekend," Eric subconsciously maintained an oriental politeness, which made Aniston roll his eyes.
After gently shaking hands with John Mark, Aniston took the initiative to make coffee for the two of them. She had already seen the maids in the manor, but the chick was absolutely unwilling to let those girls in.
After a while, when a pot of coffee was served, Aniston avoided it again, and Eric and John Mark, who chatted casually for a few words, were considered to get to the point.
Taking out the plan that he had been busy until late at night last night, John Mark handed it to Eric and said, "Eric, you can take a look at the plan we made first, we will talk about it later."
Eric nodded. The reason why he gave up taking Aniston to San Simeon for the weekend and agreed to this meeting was because he had already heard John Mark briefly introduce his ideas on the phone, but he must still It is necessary to understand the other party's thinking in detail before we can continue to discuss this matter.