In the evening, in the meeting room of WM Company.
WM executives and several signed models discussed the schedule of Paris Fashion Week all afternoon before announcing the end of the meeting.
Today is March 1st.
Paris Fashion Week kicked off on March 5th. Kate Moss and other pillars of WM Company had already rushed to Europe before the opening of London Fashion Week. Apart from arranging a few newcomers, the meeting was basically just It was held for Carmen Kath alone.
Everyone got up and left the conference room one after another. Carmen Kath was stopped by Paul Roland again, and he personally gave her a few words before letting her go.
Walking out of the conference room, Carmen Kath originally planned to return directly to the apartment, but was stopped by a group of girls just now.
"Carmen, everyone is going to have dinner, do you want to join us?"
The leading girl is named Carolina Kokova, from the Czech Republic. She signed a contract with WM company a little earlier than her last year, and is also a key training object of WM. However, this girl is only fifteen years old this year, her career has just started, and she has great potential. If it was in the past, the other party was far from being comparable to a 21-year-old girl like her who would never have a chance to make a difference if she couldn't take a step forward.
In the past six months, WM has concentrated resources to turn her into another Gisele Bundchen-style supermodel, which has aroused dissatisfaction among other models in the company, so her popularity in WM company has not been very good.
It's just that people are always like this. When others are better than themselves, it is easy to feel jealous. But if you are left far away by others, you often don't have the desire to compare, and instead want to make friends with the other party.
In recent days, after she suddenly became the spokesperson of the Victoria's Secret brand, she clearly felt this change within the company. Even Kate Moss and others in Europe enthusiastically called her back to congratulate her. The change in attitude towards her from other models in New York was even more pronounced.
Feeling the expectant gazes of several girls, Carmen Kath hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, that's it, I invite everyone to take care of me."
Although she has her own pride and stubbornness in her bones, she has never been a lonely person. During the few years in Europe, she got along very well with the models of her agency.
The girls were naturally very happy. When they heard that she was going to treat her, they were not polite, and surrounded her and walked out.
The group found an English restaurant nearby. The English restaurant sounds a bit weird. Is there anything you can eat in England? But this was recommended by an English girl among them, and the reason is very good. British food is notorious all over the world. If you choose this restaurant, you will not lose your appetite.
I am about to fly to Paris, and no one dares to eat more at this time.
After ordering some simple food, a group of beautiful girls who attracted the attention of the diners in the restaurant began to chat while eating. We all come from all over the world, and there are actually very few common topics. Unknowingly, it involves the recently very popular Blair Witch.
"New Line Films issued a statement yesterday. It turns out that this incident is just a promotion for a movie. It seems that the movie is scheduled to be released on March 5, which is the same day as the opening of Paris Fashion Week."
"No wonder, my mother lived in Maryland when she was a child. I even called her back to ask her. She said that she had never heard of any rumors about the Blair Witch."
"That's not true at all, I've heard, it's a cover-up by the state government of Maryland. The film company took it up and advertised it as fiction so people wouldn't hold Maryland accountable for handling it. It was a mistake. It is said that many people have died over the years, if the investigation continues, many people will have to bear the responsibility."
"I think so too. New Line Cinema has only arranged 200 screening halls for this movie. Obviously, it doesn't want more people to see it. Think about it, if it is really a movie, according to the current movie's high At least 2,000 screening halls can be arranged.”
"It will be released on March 5th, but unfortunately we can't catch up. However, maybe we can go and see it when we come back from Paris."
"Well, we'll be together when the time comes. I just don't know if tickets will be available. There are only 200 screening halls in the entire United States, and there may not be a few theaters in Manhattan."
The girls chattered and chattered, but Carmen Kath was silent, only echoing a few words now and then.
A few days ago, she also paid attention to this matter.
It's just that I've been too busy the past few days, so I haven't bothered to pay much attention to this matter.
Isn't New Line Cinema a subsidiary of Firefly Group
Suddenly I thought of that man again.
Not sure what he's doing now.
Have you thought about yourself
When this thought came to her mind, she suddenly panicked. How could I have such a strange idea!
"It must be a lie."
Without thinking, this sentence just blurted out from her mouth.
At the dining table, the girls who were discussing enthusiastically stopped when they heard her words, noticed her embarrassment, and thought that she might not like to talk about it, so they all changed the topic wisely.
A discussion about the Blair Witch in an English restaurant in Manhattan is just an inconspicuous detail in the tide of social debate.
After more than a month of brewing, the rumor about the Blair Witch has truly turned into a viral topic storm, and its influence is no longer limited to the Internet, and many traditional media have participated.
Due to being 'poisoned' by too many conspiracy theories, coupled with the "Blair Witch" team secretly continuing to conduct discussions after New Line Films released clarifications, most of the public did not believe that this matter was all about a movie. propaganda.
As a result, in the following days, discussions on this matter in the entire Federation became more heated.
While ordinary people are talking about the Blair Witch, AOL and Time Warner finally officially announced their long-awaited merger plan.
March 3rd.
AOL and Time Warner executives formally held a press conference at the AOL headquarters in Manhattan, announcing that AOL would acquire Time Warner Group through equity replacement at a price of US$63 billion. After the merger, AOL will hold 55 percent of the new company, while Time Warner's original shareholders will own 45 percent.
At the same time, according to AOL's market value of 77 billion US dollars, the total size of the merger will reach 140 billion US dollars. Although far lower than the $100 billion transaction scale in history, this super merger, the first super merger in the history of corporate mergers with a total transaction size of more than 100 billion US dollars, still caused a sensation in the whole world.
On the day of the press conference, stimulated by Steve Case’s impassioned outlook speech, the stock prices of AOL and Time Warner both soared. It soared by 26%.
AOL and Time Warner stock prices soared, but also led to the entire Nasdaq market.
In the following two trading days, while the stock prices of AOL and Time Warner continued to rise, the Nasdaq index also created a new high again, breaking through the 2900-point mark, only one step away from 3000 points.
3000 points, which happens to be the peak of the Nasdaq index predicted by most Wall Street investment institutions.
Therefore, when the Nasdaq index broke through 2900 points, the restlessness in the entire technology stock market became more obvious.
According to the information Chris received from Wall Street, many investment institutions have already cleared all the technology stocks they hold at this time. At the same time, a large number of funds poured into the stock index futures market and began to build a large-scale technology stock futures position.
Although maintaining a super-high growth rate, Yahoo Internet Corporation, whose price-to-earnings ratio has exceeded 600 times, has undoubtedly become the most enthusiastic short-selling target of a large number of hedge funds.
As of the close on March 5, the number of Yahoo stock futures sold by hedge funds has exceeded 76 million shares, equivalent to 6.1% of Yahoo's total equity ratio, and the amount involved has reached 7.7 billion US dollars. Whether it is the short-selling ratio or the value, it far exceeds other technology companies in the Nasdaq market.
However, stock index futures is a zero-sum game, so selling such a huge short order naturally means that long contracts of equal size will follow up.
then.
AOL merges with Time Warner.
The Nasdaq is approaching 3,000.
Yahoo! Networks suffered massive short selling.
The potential influence of any of these is enough to turn the entire technology stock market upside down.
Three things happened at the same time. There is no doubt that this March of 1999 will become the most turbulent month in the history of Nasdaq.
The technology stock market was in turmoil, but Eric returned to the West Coast again, and first rushed to San Francisco to attend the annual meeting of Firefly Electronics.
Firefly Investment has obtained a large amount of cash by reducing its holdings of AOL stock, Yahoo Networks has also successfully completed the listing operation, and has accumulated enough development funds to consume in the next three to five years. Eric is completely sitting on the Diaoyutai at this time. attitude.
Even if the Nasdaq index really collapses early, the large number of technology stocks hoarded by Clover Fund cannot be cashed out, and the development of the entire Firefly system will not be affected in any way.
With the release of the annual financial reports of various companies in the Firefly system, Eric's investment in new technology companies that has spared no effort over the years has finally received more substantial returns on substantial profits.
Among the various companies, Nokia, which holds 51% of the shares of Firefly System, had a net profit of US$1.96 billion in 1998. Cisco, which holds 26% of the shares, had a net profit of US$1.35 billion in 1998. Only the profit sharing provided by these two companies is enough to support the Firefly system to continue to invest in other new technology companies that are still in the discovery stage, and there is no need for blood transfusions through the Firefly Group as before.
However, what Eric did not expect even more was the annual financial data of Firefly Electronics.
Throughout 1998, Firefly Electronics' final shipment of Fireflyer players worldwide reached 23.75 million units.
Among them, the shipment of Fireflyer 1st generation players was 4.05 million units, the shipment volume of Fireflyer 2nd generation 1G capacity players was 8.3 million units, and the shipment volume of Fireflyer 2nd generation 2G capacity players was 11.4 million units.
In the end, the electronics company, which had just one device focused on portable music players, had annual sales of $8.252 billion.
Moreover, although the company's initial marketing investment is very huge, in addition to the MP3 player, it also has to undertake additional huge R&D funds related to tablet computer operating systems, processor chips, touch solutions, etc., but in 1998 , After withholding taxes, Firefly Electronics still achieved a net profit of US$811 million.
If the financial data are made public, it means that this electronic product company, which has been established for only about four years, has successfully squeezed into the ranks of the top 500 North American companies, and the ranking is quite high.
According to the list rules of "Forbes" magazine, unless they voluntarily declare or have detailed public financial data, non-listed companies will not be included in the list of top 500 companies. In just a few years, an electronics company with a profit scale close to 1 billion US dollars has been formed. If possible, Eric even hopes that the financial data of Firefly Electronics will not be leaked.
But this is obviously just delusional.
Although after operation, Forbes Group has agreed not to track the financial data of Firefly Electronics, nor to add Firefly Electronics to the top 500 list. However, the sales data of the global portable player market is not something that the Firefly system can cover up.
According to the data given by a third-party statistical agency, in 1998, the total size of the global portable music player market reached 87 million units, a 6% increase compared to 1997. Among them, the Fireflyer digital player given by the other party was 2,300 The sales data of 10,000 units is almost the same as the actual shipments within Firefly Electronics.
Just based on these data, it is not difficult for the industry to speculate on the revenue and profit scale of Firefly Electronics. Even, considering that the tablet computer research and development plan is still in a state of secrecy, the outside world’s estimate of the profitability of Firefly Electronics is definitely higher than the actual situation. many.
In two years, Fireflyer players have taken a 26% market share in the global portable music market, which is a miraculous achievement.
But at the same time, it also means that Firefly Electronics, which enjoys huge profits almost alone, will face competitive pressure from all parties.
After all, even if a closed patent wall is poured around the portable digital music player in advance, in the face of huge profits, other electronic manufacturers will undoubtedly try their best to enter this market.
With the gradual disclosure of the 1998 portable music player market shipment data, Sony, which has just completed a patent exchange with Firefly Electronics, can't wait to announce that it will release its first digital music player product in June this year.
Speaking of which, the technical difficulty of digital music players is indeed very low. Some electronic manufacturers with strong technical strength may be able to understand the technical details of Firefly Electronics Fireflyer players in just a few weeks. If it is not blocked by patent barriers, at this time, There are sure to be plans for more manufacturers to release digital music players.
Facing the expected strong competition, even though Firefly Electronics has multiple technological and industrial advantages, everyone has to cheer up and make more efforts to maintain the leading edge of Fireflyer players.