Noticing that Julia was pointing at him, Holly Hunter and the others who were chatting took the initiative to come over.
Eric exchanged a few pleasantries with the other party, and when they left, he glared at the innocent Julia.
Julia shrank her neck, her eyes were full of expectation, and she whispered: "Eric, you are angry, aren't you, are you going to clean me up?"
"No," Eric shook his head, and said, "I will treat you well, in the most gentle way in the world."
"Hmmmm."
Julia Xiaomi nodded like pecking at rice, obviously not disgusted with this method.
Well, it's over.
It was a Monday morning routine to have breakfast with Katzenberg and discuss recent company matters.
Elizabeth hasn't finished her 'quarrel journey' yet. Eric talked to her on the phone yesterday and found out that the cause of the incident was about the Fox TV network. Murdoch wants a certain strange woman to work on the Fox TV network. Elizabeth naturally disagreed.
For this kind of family affairs, Eric is not very good at intervening.
Waking up early in the morning in Julia and Elizabeth's mansion on top of Beverly Hills, I thought Julia would stay in bed. Eric planned to leave first, but Julia also got up. Ke Firefly headquarters is still a little confused.
"Morning, Eric," Katzenberg seemed to be always energetic, walked into the restaurant in a hurry, shook hands with Eric, and greeted Julia warmly: "Morning, Julia Leah."
Julia cheered up and nodded to Katzenberg: "Jeffrey, good morning."
After saying hello, Eric and Katzenberg sat down at the table, and Julia sat lazily next to Eric.
Katzenberg probably understood Julia's state, and he didn't need to shy away from what he was going to talk about today, so he didn't care. After ordering breakfast from the waiter, Katzenberg couldn't wait to ask: "Eric , have you read AOL's quarterly earnings report?"
Most of the listed companies' quarterly financial reports will be announced in the late month or early second month after the end of the quarter. Today is only January 18. Eric really didn't expect AOL to announce the quarterly financial report in advance. However, I think Considering the situation facing America Online during this period, it is not difficult to understand Steve Case's behavior.
In the past year of 1998, the Nasdaq index was finally fixed at 2733 points.
As of December 31, the stock prices of a series of technology companies in the Nasdaq market have reached record highs. Among them, the market value of Microsoft has successfully exceeded 400 billion U.S. dollars, reaching 418.5 billion U.S. dollars, firmly occupying the first place in the global corporate market value list. Location. Cisco, the best-performing technology company in the Firefly system, also has a market value of 166.6 billion US dollars, occupying the tenth place in the global corporate market value list.
After Yahoo went public, its stock price has been in a very unstable adjustment state. However, before the end of last year, the market value finally remained at a high of 106.7 billion US dollars.
At the same time last year, the assets of all the technology companies controlled by Firefly Investment were less than 200 billion US dollars. Now, only two companies, Cisco and Yahoo, have a market value of more than 270 billion US dollars. In addition, compared with last year, Nokia’s The market value also doubled to $66.5 billion.
Including Firefly Group, a media conglomerate that is not listed but is definitely valued at more than 100 billion U.S. dollars, the Firefly system is equivalent to owning three corporate giants with a market value of more than 100 billion U.S. dollars.
If the NASDAQ index collapses earlier this year as Eric expected, this year will also become the peak year of Eric's personal wealth. The Times' wealth was 265 billion U.S. dollars, and Eric's latest net worth data will definitely easily exceed 300 billion U.S. dollars.
It is conceivable that after the collapse of the Nasdaq index, it will take at least ten years for Eric's personal net worth to reach the current level according to the development trajectory of the new technology industry.
However, at that time, once Eric's personal worth reaches this year's level again, at that time, the bubble component of Eric's assets will definitely not be as serious as it is now.
These messages flashed through his mind, Eric shook his head and said, "Not yet, so, what's the situation now?"
Katzenberg beckoned to his assistant not far away to bring him a laptop, opened it and showed it in front of Eric, and said: "AOL just released the data, in the fourth quarter of last year, AOL's The revenue was US$1.1925 billion, a 46% increase compared to the same period last year, and a 21% increase from the previous quarter’s quarter-on-quarter. The single-quarter profit was US$190.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 41%. All relevant data Both far exceeded Wall Street's expectations."
This is the internal restaurant of Firefly's Burbank headquarters. Eric deliberately laid out the WIFI network here in advance. As Katzenberg said, he switched a webpage skillfully and came to the AOL stock price display page.
It was nearly eleven o'clock Eastern Time, and Eric saw only a steep upward curve.
In just over an hour after the market opened, AOL's stock price rose 11%, and its market value reached 73.6 billion US dollars in one fell swoop.
Eric looked at all the data on the browser carefully, and then smiled: "This is a good thing, AOL will buy back the 3.1% stock held by the Clover Fund next month. With such a rise, we will There are hundreds of millions more dollars in income." Eric said, he turned on the calculator that came with the laptop and did a simple calculation, and said: "According to the current stock price, it should be 2.28 billion US dollars, maybe in the next few days Weeks will go up a lot more, and we may even end up with $2.5 billion.”
"$2.5 billion," Katzenberg couldn't help feeling a little bit emotional. Although the Clover Fund bought the stock at a high price, if it can recover $2.5 billion, compared with the initial investment, it has already been realized. After several times the profit, Katzenberg suddenly remembered something, and said again: "It just so happens, it's enough to buy Hasbro."
Although Hasbro has not yet announced its financial report for the fourth quarter of last year, and because the Star Wars prequel was released at the end of December, even if it is announced, the loss of sales of Star Wars peripherals will not have much impact on Hasbro's financial report for the last quarter of last year. Influence, however, more than half a month later, the news of the failure of sales of Star Wars peripheral toys has also spread. During this period, Hasbro's high stock price has also begun to show a downward trend.
Hearing Katzenberg mentioning Hasbro, Eric asked again: "Speaking of which, did the Consumer Products Department come up with a report on the failure of Star Wars peripheral sales?"
Katzenberg nodded and said: "I've been watching, and I can transfer the detailed documents to you in a few days, but the basic problem is also very clear. Hasbro's failure this time is mainly because they performed too much. Greedy. The authorization fee of 100 million US dollars, correspondingly, has almost obtained the authorization of more than half of the peripheral products of Star Wars. According to the survey of the Consumer Products Department, Hasbro launched a batch of characters based on the latest characters in the Star Wars prequels. Toys are still very popular, but because there are too many types of products, consumers’ shopping choices are affected. Afterwards, only a core batch of toys are popular, and most other products are in a state of slow sales. I think that in the future We should carry out a more precise and detailed classification of the company's movie peripheral products, and strictly limit the types of peripheral products."
Eric listened carefully, and finally said: "This year, our "Iron Man", "Cars" and "The Lord of the Rings" all have a very rich potential for peripheral product development, so you'd better keep an eye on it yourself, I You don’t want a consumer products department to just take lessons and not practice them.”
"I understand," Katzenberg agreed. The waiter brought the breakfast for the three of them, and the conversation paused for a while. After the waiter left, Katzenberg said: "Also, regarding the '4200' plan, Eric, North America, although the final contract is still In negotiations, however, it is basically confirmed that 2,000 3D screens and 100 IMAX screens can be rolled out across the board when "Gravity" is released at the end of the year. However, overseas, I think, there may be a delay of one to two months. Delay."
Eric originally hoped that the promotion of 3D and IMAX screens could be synchronized globally, but after a year of preparation last year, he gradually realized the reality. Affected by various complex factors, it is basically impossible to achieve synchronization.
Of course, the IMAX auditorium that is completely controlled by the Firefly Group may be able to do this, but it is even more difficult to spread the other 2,000 3D screens in overseas markets at the same time. The 100 IMAX screens distributed in other countries around the world are obviously not enough, and it is impossible for Firefly to release "Gravity" and "Lord of the Rings" on these few 100 screens in advance.
Eric didn't doubt that Katzenberg didn't do his best on this matter, and since he raised it at this time, it basically proved that things couldn't be done.
"Since this is the case, just ensure that North America is synchronized." Although he was a little disappointed, Eric said quickly: "As long as North America can succeed, I think overseas expansion will definitely be very fast."
"However, on the North American side, I met with representatives of several major theater chains last week. They still have some hesitation, mainly about the source of the film," Katzenberg nodded, and said: "From the November "Ground There is only one month between Gravity and The Lord of the Rings in December. Because of the popularity of the two films, theaters are also very optimistic that the two films can last for two months in the 3D movie market. However, from December The "Lord of the Rings" to our confirmed another 3D source "Sleepy Hollow", but there is a gap of more than three months, even if "The Lord of the Rings" can support the two-month schedule, the 2,000 The 3D screening hall will also lack film sources for a month, so the cinema operators need us to provide at least two more 3D film sources.”
According to the current level of technology, the main difficulty of 3D film sources is cost, and the time cost is second. According to the scale of 2000 screens, only the conversion cost and copy cost can add millions of dollars to a movie. If it is a medium-to-low-cost production of less than 50 million US dollars, these two costs alone may reach 10% of the production budget.
Even, this is not the more expensive IMAX version. Compared with ordinary 3D film copies, the cost of IMAX-3D film copies is equivalent to ten times that of copies. If both formats are available, the distribution investment of that film will be even more huge.
However, since he made up his mind to promote it, there was no room for retreat at this time. Eric took a sip of the mineral water next to him and asked Katzenberg, "What do you mean?"
Katzenberg said: "It is too risky to put a big-production hard disk in the unpopular schedule of February and March. If you choose a low-cost production, it will not be able to highlight the visual advantages of 3D and IMAX movies. I think maybe we can start from the movie. Curry selected some classic blockbusters for transformation, which can not only reduce the risk, but also ensure the visual effect."
Hearing what Katzenberg said, Eric immediately thought of a series of 3D reset blockbusters in the original time and space, but he quickly shook his head and said, "No, now is not the time."
Although many 3D reset movies in memory have achieved very good box office, they are generally things that have happened ten or twenty years after a movie was released.
The rise of Hollywood special effects blockbusters is less than ten years old. Before the 1990s, Eric really couldn’t think of too many blockbusters that had to be converted into 3D. After the 1990s, there were too many.
Only under the Firefly Group, the "Jurassic Park" series, "Terminator" series, "Tornado", "Independence Day" and other films all have the potential for 3D conversion. However, compared with the past, the release period of these films is too short to reach the point of selling feelings. Moreover, although he is very satisfied with the 3D movie system developed by Firefly, Eric still hopes that this technology can be developed for another ten years before the 3D versions of these classic movies can be released.
Katzenberg didn't expect Eric to refuse straight away, and asked: "Eric, according to the 7-year re-screening rule of Disney animation, it is actually okay. Although it is a movie for adults, it has been released in North America for 7 years. Generating a whole new audience is actually the same reason.”
"That's not what I mean," Eric shook his head, and said, "It's true that it's re-screened every seven years, but I don't want to urgently tap the commercial potential of these films now, maybe wait another ten years or so, When these films have become classic memories in the hearts of a generation, and then re-screened in 3D, we will reap better market effects. Now, just to fill the vacancy in the schedule, it would be too unfair to take out these classic films It's worth it."
"In this case," Katzenberg was obviously persuaded by Eric, "We can only cash out from the existing films. Speaking of which, the "Underworld" is not bad, with a stern gothic style. , the violent gun battle scene, if it is made into 3D, it will definitely achieve very good results, but New Line has already set that movie as a summer file.”