"Now many people on Wall Street are gnashing their teeth at us. In a week, Yahoo's stock price rose by 17%, and major short-selling funds lost more than 3.1 billion US dollars as a result. Many highly leveraged short positions were directly liquidated. It is simply a tragedy."
Firefly Studios, in a small meeting room.
Just connected to the video conferencing equipment, Chris who was far away in New York said so.
Eric sat on the leather chair and waited for the secretary to serve coffee for himself and Katzenberg, who was opposite him, before looking at several monitors. At this time, the conference room is connected to Yahoo headquarters in Boston, ABC headquarters in New York, and Chris's office.
"But there must be someone who is grateful to us, 3.1 billion US dollars, this is not a small amount," Eric picked up the coffee, noticed Emily behind Chris, and greeted with a smile: "Hi, Eric Mi, today is Saturday, aren't you at home looking after the kids?"
Emily reached out to take a folder from Chris's desk, threw a blank stare at Eric at the camera, and said, "Vicky and Joan already know about the fact that you secretly asked Edward to sign that girl, you still want to How do you want to explain it to them? Vicky said that the sofa has been prepared for you, and you can sleep on it when you come over for Easter."
Eric immediately raised his hand to beg for forgiveness: "Stop, Amy, I'm the boss, please save face."
Listening to Emily unhesitatingly revealing the boss's lace, everyone laughed again.
Emily ignored him, and disappeared into the camera with the folder she had just picked up.
When his wife left, Chris rarely showed some gossip, lowered his voice and said, "Speaking of which, Eric, what's going on between you and that girl?"
"This," Eric said helplessly, "Do you think that if you lower your voice, everyone can't hear it?"
There was another burst of laughter.
After making a few jokes, Eric clapped his hands and said, "Okay, let's get down to business. First of all, about the acquisition plan submitted by Yahoo."
Eric said, opened a document in front of him, his expression became serious, and said: "I remember I said before the IPO that the current bubble in the Nasdaq market will burst sooner or later. Once this happens, the entire new The tech industry is going to be in a capital winter. Although we got a massive IPO of more than $5 billion, that's basically the equivalent of Yahoo's 'winter' rations, so I hope every penny of it is paid for. Well worth the money. Look at the acquisitions you've submitted, like this one, a software solution that speeds up the loading of web pages in your browser, and that's really good stuff. But, for $20 million, you're dealing with me Are you kidding me? Take ten people from the Yahoo engineering team and give them a month, I don’t believe they can’t make this thing. Ten people, one month, who will help me figure out how much it will cost?”
In the conference room of the Yahoo headquarters in Boston, Ian Grenier did not expect that Eric, who was joking with Emily Brydon just now, would show signs of losing his temper in a blink of an eye, so he could only take the initiative to explain: "Eri Gram, this also involves patent issues.”
"Then find a way to go around, or find other alternatives, or if you can't do it, why should I hire you?" Eric reprimanded unceremoniously, and threw the folder in front of him out, Said: "In short, I will not approve any of these proposals you submitted. I know that the entire industry is very impetuous now, and everyone is burning money. You think that since the company is listed, it must abide by the rules of listed companies. It needs to be crazy. Burning money, crazy mergers and acquisitions, and crazy expansion, otherwise you may be criticized by the market and investors. But you are wrong, let me tell you, Yahoo only needs to follow the established route steadily and steadily, and does not need to be responsible for the stock price. You need to be responsible to Wall Street, and if you must be responsible, you only need to be responsible to me alone.”
Hearing the sound of rattling papers after the documents flew out from the speaker, Ian Grenier nodded with a sly expression, and Steve Mitnick, who was still casually typing on the laptop in front of him, also sat up straight , Tina Brown lowered her head slightly, gently twisting the rolled up corner of the document in front of her with her fingertips, as if she wanted to flatten the paper.
No one sitting here is a rookie in the workplace, and everyone has encountered such a thing as a boss or boss getting angry.
In comparison, Eric is definitely a very gentle boss.
But at this time Eric broke out suddenly, and everyone realized that he was really angry in his heart, so no one dared to contradict him unwisely.
Eric took a sip of the coffee next to him, eased his emotions, and continued: "In recent years, the pace of Yahoo's expansion has indeed been a bit large, with 6,000 employees, surpassing all other pure Internet companies. , Many people have become millionaires or billionaires, and they will definitely feel slack in their hearts, thinking that they can enjoy life, or feel that they have millions of dollars, and their current positions are no longer comparable to their net worth. These I It is understandable, but I will not tolerate it. Therefore, I need you to prepare in advance. After the tech stock bubble bursts, Yahoo will also conduct layoffs to remove those who want to enjoy life. Yahoo still has a long way to go If we want to leave, we can’t tolerate slack people who can’t keep up with the pace of the company. Of course, they have made their own contributions to Yahoo, so the company will definitely buy their stocks at that time, so that they can enjoy their lives to the fullest. Or start a new career."
After saying these words, Eric took over the careful office secretary and rearranged the documents handed over, without waiting for the response from the three of Ian Grenier, he continued: "Okay, let's start the next topic, Regarding the merger of America Online and Time Warner. The situation is now very delicate. You must have read the article on the Washington Post. Since this week, the stocks of listed companies in the entire Firefly system have risen. However, AOL’s share price has risen even higher than that of Yahoo. Obviously, many people are optimistic about the prospect of the merger between AOL and Time Warner. They believe that after the merger of these two companies, Firefly will have a strong competitor. There are also benefits. But at the same time, we must also change the established strategy. At least, in the public media, we need to firmly oppose the merger of AOL and Time Warner. It may be smaller. Then, let’s talk about it, what should we do specifically?”
With the release of this year's Forbes rich list, Eric's personal wealth of more than 300 billion US dollars finally caused some emotions accumulated in North America to be stimulated by the continuous skyrocketing of Eric's net worth for several consecutive years.
Although capital is chasing profit, superstition and Eric's amazing investment vision, almost all stocks related to the Firefly system in the market have skyrocketed, but at the same time, voices about the need to limit the continuous expansion of the Firefly system are becoming more and more loud.
Of course, in such a mature capitalist society, no matter how huge Eric's personal wealth is, the federal government would never dare to use any brutal situation to directly deprive private property, which involves the fundamental institutional problems of a country. However, according to the current situation, it is not difficult to foresee that every step of expansion of the firefly system in the future will be subject to very strict scrutiny and restrictions. This is also not because the Federation is too afraid of private wealth, but because other capital forces in this society Instinctive counterattacks made in order to protect their own rights and interests.
In the short term, fostering a strong competitor of the Firefly system, such as AOL-Time Warner, is destined to be something that many people are very happy to see.
In all fairness, Eric also very much hopes for such an opponent, one that he can predict and control to a certain extent.
As for the longer term, if he wants to continue to expand the firefly system, what Eric has to do is either eliminate the opponent or pull the opponent into the camp of the firefly system.
In addition to Yahoo's business strategy and discussions on how to reversely promote the merger of AOL and Time Warner, there are also some media control issues recently discussed about Eric's personal assets, and other various things, large and small, discussed all morning. In fact, it was already afternoon on the East Coast before the meeting was over.
Walking out of the conference room, Mayer handed over a mobile phone, indicating that Paul Rowland was already waiting online.
Eric and Katzenberg walked towards the big ship together, intending to have dinner together. At the same time, they took the phone and chatted with the other side, then hung up.
Thinking of Emily's reminder before the meeting in the morning, it was really difficult.
At the beginning, it was just a whim to promote Carmen Kess, but Eric ignored the possible thoughts of the women. Virginia and Joanna have always seldom asked him about his affairs outside, but last time Carmen Kess Kath's presence really frightened the children a lot.
After struggling for a while, Eric put these thoughts aside.
The soldiers came to cover the water and soil.
As the saying goes, if there are too many lice, you are not afraid of biting.
Moreover, under the influence of recent outside discussions, Eric still has a lot of pressure in his heart.
Came to the restaurant on board, ordered lunch, and Katzenberg brought up the matter of "The Blair Witch".
"The box office in the second week was 61.51 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office in the two weeks was 82.78 million US dollars, but the production cost was only 60,000 US dollars. In the next few weeks, the total box office is likely to exceed 150 million US dollars. Now everyone is saying, maybe this is you Why did he become the first super-rich man whose personal wealth exceeded 300 billion US dollars? In this world, I am afraid that there is no movie that can create a higher return on investment than "The Blair Witch."
Eric took the bottled water handed over by Amy Adams, smiled at the girl, and said to Katzenberg: "This is not necessarily true, Hollywood is always full of miracles, by the way, speaking of this, now We can also give those two young directors a bonus, as well as the small online marketing team last time."
Katzenberg nodded and said, "Actually, Kenneth just asked me to ask what you mean? I think it's enough to give them $1 million each. After all, the box office success this time is mainly due to the effect of our marketing plan."
"Give them 5 million dollars, 1 million is a bit small," Eric shook his head and said with a smile: "If you are reluctant, I will write a check to them personally."
"Okay, then 5 million. However, since this is the case, although we don't plan to launch a sequel to "The Blair Witch" in the short term, it is still no problem for the two of them to re-sign two film contracts. After all, "The Blair Witch" won If they are successful at the box office, even if they are making traditional films, they will definitely be more likely to attract the attention of the market than new directors."
"This is about you and Kenneth, I don't have that much energy now."
"Speaking of which," Katzenberg nodded and said, "Are you going to the Oscars ceremony tomorrow?"
"I'm not interested. There aren't many good films in this year's Oscars."
"Actually, I mean," Katzenberg said, "About the promotion of "Iron Man", Eric, everyone is a little bit at a loss now. According to the normal process, a big-budget movie, now the leading role should be I started to participate in various TV programs to warm up the film."
"I also regret it now, I really shouldn't have taken this role," Eric said with a wry smile: "After such a commotion in the media these days, everyone must be more hostile to me, a super rich man, and I don't know if I will come again Watching the movie I starred in, I wondered if I should adjust the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan and marginalize Iron Man."
"Well, if necessary, we really have to do this." Katzenberg also expressed some agreement, not even the regret in Eric's tone.
After all, Iron Man was originally just a second-line superhero of Marvel. The reason why the original time and space was so successful that the fame of Iron Man was comparable to that of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and X-Men series was mainly due to opportunity.
But now, since the situation has changed too much, temporary adjustments are also necessary.
Eric also hesitated for a moment, and said: "Well, what should be done is always to be done. I will attend the Oscars tomorrow. In addition, let Bowei start planning the promotional activities according to the normal flow. I will try my best to Let's cooperate."
"Okay." Katzenberg responded, and Amy brought up the lunch for the two of them. The conversation paused for a moment, and Katzenberg said again: "Do you have any plans for the evening? If you are free, I will prepare at home A small party?"
Eric shook his head with a smile, and said, "I'm going to San Francisco in the afternoon to discuss the equity incentive plan of Firefly Electronics, and I may not be able to come back tonight."