On the other side of the phone, Paul Roland spoke something quickly, and Eric's brows gradually frowned.
After Paul Roland finished speaking, Eric turned around and asked Caroline who was standing not far away: "Carly, Estonia seems to be next to Finland, right?"
"Well," Caroline nodded, and said, "Helsinki is across the sea from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and the distance is less than 100 kilometers."
"Help me answer Oli Karassuo's call," Eric ordered, then turned his attention to the phone again, and said to Paul Roland: "You must be too late to fly to Europe now, and I will arrange it over there." People go, you just stay in New York and take care of the coordination."
At the end of last year, Yorma Olia officially resigned from Nokia.
On the recommendation of Jorma Ollila, Nokia's former chief financial officer, Oli Karassuou, took over his position as Nokia's new chairman and CEO.
Caroline didn't understand why Eric suddenly contacted Oli Karassuo, but she immediately picked up the cordless phone from the secretary's room and dialed a series of numbers skillfully. After a while, the phone was connected, and Caroline said a few words to the other party, then walked over and handed the cordless phone to Eric.
Edgar Bronfman didn't expect Eric to spend half an hour just answering a phone call. As time passed, he even began to wonder if the other party was deliberately hanging himself out.
The dissatisfaction in his heart gradually accumulated. Just as Edgar Bronfman was hesitating whether to get up and leave, Eric finally pushed open the office door and walked in.
"Sorry, Ed," Eric still held a mobile phone in his hand, walked over and sat down on the sofa, put the mobile phone on the coffee table in front of him, and said, "I have encountered a very troublesome thing temporarily, let you Awaited."
Edgar Bronfman smiled as gracefully as he could and looked curious.
Eric didn't mean to explain to the other party, and said: "Then, let's continue the topic just now. Ed, frankly speaking, it is definitely not a good idea for Seagram to take a stake in Firefly Electronics. You know, Firefly Electronics There is no shortage of money, so for a long time in the future, not only will this company not go public, but it will not even have a dividend plan. Moreover, the current valuation of Firefly Electronics in the industry is generally around 30 billion US dollars. I think Seagram will definitely It is also unacceptable to buy shares at this valuation.”
"Okay, Eric," Edgar Bronfman suppressed his dissatisfaction again, and said: "Then, Firefly should show some sincerity in wanting Universal Music to join the digital music store, but until now So far, I have not seen your sincerity at all."
"Ed, you should understand that as long as Universal Music joins the Yahoo Music Store, whether it is Yahoo, Firefly Electronics, or even Firefly Group, they will devote as much resources to Universal Music's music content as possible. It is incomparable to other record companies. Of course, we also have our own record business, but everyone knows that Firefly Records is small and does not have much impact on the overall situation," Eric said here, pausing After that, he continued: "But, of course, I will definitely show my sincerity. The ratio of the Yahoo Music Store to the record company is 37%. This cannot be changed. However, as long as Universal Music agrees to cooperate, in the next few years , Firefly Electronics can return a certain percentage of sales to Universal Music through marketing subsidies."
In fact, as long as Universal Music agrees to open content authorization, Eric is even willing to return all music sales CDs to Universal Music in the next few years, even if there is an extra discount.
Compared with the huge profits from hardware sales, the sharing income of digital music stores can be temporarily discarded for the Firefly system.
Of course, the Yahoo Music Store is a business under the Yahoo Internet Corporation. Since Yahoo is already listed, Eric can only subsidize the record company through Firefly Electronics for the sake of financial reports and stock prices.
Edgar Bronfman was silent for a moment. From Eric's tone, he could basically hear how big the other party's so-called subsidy might be.
However, thinking about the recent analysis of Firefly Electronics' revenue data by various commercial media, Edgar Bronfman is still a little unwilling.
Among the five major record companies, Universal is the largest, but its annual revenue is only about 5 billion U.S. dollars, and its annual profit is about 500 million U.S. dollars.
However, according to the general analysis of the media, Firefly Electronics, which has just released its products for two years, has an annual profit twice that of Universal Music. How can this not make the entire record industry feel jealous. Many people even think that the money made by Firefly Electronics is entirely the profits lost by the overall recession of the recording industry in the past two years.
Edgar Bronfman didn't really want to work with Eric Williams at all, if possible.
However, the current situation of Seagram Group is not good.
In recent years, as the Seagram Group has completely turned to the media industry and has made multiple acquisitions including MCA, PolyGram, and cable television, the company's total liabilities have reached 12 billion U.S. dollars . Moreover, since Edgar Bronfman devoted most of his resources to the record business and wanted to build the world's largest record group, although his goal had been achieved, with the sudden decline of the record industry, Seagram The operation of the group is also in trouble.
Last year, although the Universal Pictures Group under the management of Michael Eisner achieved a good profit, due to the loss of the record business, the Seagram Group's full-year loss in 1998 still exceeded 1.3 billion US dollars.
Due to the unsmooth running-in and merger of Polygram Records and Universal Music, Seagram Group may continue to lose money in the next few years if the overall situation of the record industry does not reverse. The Bronfman family, which controls the Seagram Group, even has the idea of selling the company while blaming Edgar Bronfman.
Of course Edgar Bronfman didn't want to do this. Although there was a bit of self-will in his character, he definitely couldn't be regarded as ignorant.
After a detailed discussion with Universal Music CEO Doug Morrison, the two agreed that this cooperation with the Firefly system is very necessary, and may even become the key to reversing the current situation of the Seagram Group.
"Eric, that's not enough." After thinking for a moment, Edgar Bronfman shook his head and said, "Yahoo Music Store wants Universal Music's content, and Firefly has to pay more."
Eric subconsciously pressed his left hand on the bandage on his right arm. He has acquired this habit unknowingly recently, but his expression remained calm, and he said, "So, what does Seagram want?"
"A zero-interest loan," gritted his teeth, Edgar Bronfman remembered the huge cash reserves of the Firefly system disclosed by the media, temporarily changed the original number, and the lion opened his mouth, "3 billion US dollars."
Due to unrestrained expansion and huge losses, Seagram Group's current capital chain has reached a very dangerous point. Not to mention other things, just the 12 billion US dollars in debt, the debt interest that needs to be paid every year reaches 600 million US dollars.
Although the overall economic situation in North America is thriving, it is difficult for Seagram Group to obtain external financing at this time.
"3 billion US dollars, it's impossible," Eric rubbed the bandage under the shirt fabric, shook his head and said, "I will give you up to 500 million US dollars, and it must be repaid within three years."
I don't know if Edgar Bronfman could hear the ease in Eric's tone, but his attitude suddenly became resolute.
Eric naturally couldn't let go so easily.
The Firefly system is indeed not short of money, but $3 billion is definitely a huge sum of money.
Since he is willing to give up all the digital music sales in the short term, Eric will naturally not care too much about the interest generated by giving up the 3 billion US dollars. But with such a huge sum of money, what he is more worried about is that once the Seagram Group is in trouble, the other party may not be able to repay it.
It is an exaggeration to say that if the Seagram Group goes bankrupt, Eric has no interest in its recording business assets. As for Universal Pictures, 3 billion U.S. dollars can't be eaten, and other creditors can't easily give up the most high-quality assets of Universal Pictures to Firefly.
The two sides argued over various details for more than an hour, and the meeting failed to reach any results after all.
However, while no agreement was reached on the loan, Edgar Bronfman left with the agreement that Universal could begin initial contact negotiations with Yahoo and Firefly Electronics.
Sending off Edgar Bronfman, it was almost noon. Seeing that Europe hadn't called yet, Eric was about to take the initiative to call, when the phone rang again.
…
The nine-day Paris Fashion Week is drawing to a close.
Carmen Keith was kind of shining at this year's Fashion Week, thanks to one guy's arrangement.
However, I don't know if it was in response to the words of extreme joy begets sorrow, she was preparing for the last few catwalks in the next two days, when she suddenly received a call from her sister from her hometown.
Mother was kidnapped.
Hearing the news, Carmen Kess was immediately taken aback.
kidnapping.
How could this kind of thing be connected with myself
Because of poverty, Eastern Europe is actually very chaotic, and she knows that.
In the past few years of turmoil, she has heard of many things, such as various kidnappings, extortion, and even assassinations, Estonian gangsters went to Finland to grab territory but were beaten back by Russian gangsters, and so on. It's just that she has always felt that ordinary people like herself are far away in these things.
Then it happened suddenly.
Then it felt like the sky was falling.
Her mother divorced her father when she was very young, and she worked hard to bring up the three siblings alone. She still remembers that when she was a child, her mother worked until late at night and came home late at night, secretly hugging her tiredly. At that time, her mother thought she was asleep, but she was actually awake. What to say, so continue to pretend to sleep.
The extra extortion offered by the kidnappers was 10 million Estonian crowns, which is actually not much, about more than 600,000 US dollars. However, although she has signed a huge endorsement contract with Victoria's Secret, it is naturally impossible to pay the money immediately. She was cheated out of all her savings not long ago, and now she has no money at all.
For some reason, the first thing I thought of was the man who was bitten by me.
Then he woke up and finished calling Paul Roland in a panic. Paul Roland quickly wrote back and asked her to provide her brother and sister's contact information, and then asked her to wait patiently and not do anything stupid.
How could she wait, she just wanted to go back as soon as possible to save her mother, so she frantically borrowed money from familiar and unfamiliar people around her.
However, although many models under WM have good incomes, it is impossible for everyone to have too much cash, and she dared not explain why she borrowed money. In the end, she just scraped together more than 200,000 pounds and hurried on the plane. Flight to Tallinn.
In any case, we must rush back as soon as possible.
However, it was okay when she left London. When she arrived at Tallinn Airport, she forgot to declare the cash she was carrying due to negligence, so she was detained again.
Although the European Union has been established at this time, Estonia has not yet joined, and the security checks for entry and exit are still very strict.
After this period of exposure, she was already considered a celebrity in Estonia at this time, or in other words, she was already the most famous person in this small country with a population of just over one million. Therefore, the customs staff did not embarrass her too much, but hoped that she could explain clearly the ins and outs of the cash.
How dare she explain!
Although she has never encountered a kidnapping case, she also knows that this kind of thing must not be a big deal, otherwise...
When the customs officers saw her look of being absent-minded, they naturally became a little more suspicious, so they didn't dare to let her go easily. They could only report to the higher-level person in charge and wait for the higher-ups to come and deal with it.
As a result, she was trapped in the airport detention room like a stubborn and panicked little beast.
I look forward to it.
If at this time, someone can come and help me.
That.
Then I would rather let him bite back.
In the end, I only thought of that man.
She would never admit that she was an insecure girl, but at this moment, she realized that the man had unknowingly given her a great sense of security that she had never had before.
After the person in charge of the customs arrived, she still didn't dare to reveal anything, she just hoped to make a phone call.
After getting permission, the call was made to New York.
Paul Roland, who hadn't been able to contact her for several hours, heard that she was stranded at the Tallinn airport. It's safer to stay in the airport lockup.
Only half an hour later, a group of people came to pick her up.
In addition to her brothers and sisters, she also saw her mother's figure, and her heart suddenly let go.
Then came the group of strangers. One of them took the initiative to introduce him as a manager of the Nokia Group's public relations department.
Nokia.
Of course she knew.
Not only because this is the largest company in Finland across the sea, but also because it is his industry.
I suddenly felt very bad.
There seemed to be a terrible thought in my heart.