The next day, the comments in the media that the Federal Ministry of Justice should impose restrictions on the Yahoo browser really became more and more turbulent.
Although the whole incident has been basically determined to be provoked by Microsoft behind the scenes, other Internet companies that have been suppressed by the Firefly system obviously also regard this incident as an opportunity. Almost all Internet companies feel that if they can force Yahoo to give up its monopoly in Internet browser software, they will definitely be able to gain more market share.
Now, companies such as At-Home are taking the initiative, and other Internet companies are naturally willing to follow suit and contribute to the flames.
Although the Ministry of Justice's hearing on Yahoo's browser was scheduled for 2:00 pm Eastern Time, Yahoo's stock price plummeted 3.3% just after 9:30 am due to the media's comments.
As Eric expected, AOL-Time Warner, At-Home and even Microsoft and other new technology companies that have business competition with Yahoo have seen their share prices rise to varying degrees.
The entire Nasdaq market also continued to rebound in the previous two weeks in the next hour or so.
However, at eleven o'clock in the morning, following an announcement on the official website of Firefly Investment, many executives of Internet companies who were secretly excited turned from extreme joy to sorrow.
The announcement stated that in order to raise funds for the company's next development, Firefly Investment will appropriately reduce its holdings of Yahoo, Cisco, Qualcomm and other companies' stocks in the next week.
Although this announcement was short and even somewhat perfunctory, after counting the tens to millions of stock reduction plans of various companies announced by Firefly Investment, countless people were shocked to find that Firefly Investment’s lightly reduced shareholding plan involved The total amount of the stock reached 3 billion US dollars.
If it was at the peak of the Nasdaq market a few months ago, 3 billion US dollars of funds were cashed out within a week, as long as the operation was done properly, it would not have much impact on the Nasdaq index. In the process of reducing holdings in the last few weeks, more than $3 billion was cashed out from the Nasdaq market every week.
However, everyone knows that the situation now is different from what it was a few months ago.
The Nasdaq stock market has just experienced a shocking crash, and countless people have suffered heavy losses. In the past two weeks, although the Nasdaq index has begun to rebound under the manipulation of various parties, investors who have just experienced a stock market crash are basically a group of frightened birds. Moreover, although the broader market is picking up, the Nasdaq market is far less active than it was a few months ago.
At this time, the Firefly system, which plays a pivotal role in the entire new technology industry, changed its attitude of supporting the Nasdaq market for several months, and suddenly announced a plan to reduce its holdings with great fanfare, and one time was 3 billion US dollars.
Even though many people understand that this matter is likely to be related to Yahoo's upcoming hearing of the Department of Justice, a strong panic is brewing in the Nasdaq market.
After reducing holdings by US$3 billion in one week, what about next week
Will Firefly Investment continue to reduce its holdings
You must know that despite the collapse of the Nasdaq index, the value of the technology stock market directly controlled by the entire Firefly Investment Company still exceeds 200 billion US dollars. The $3 billion share reduction plan will not even affect the proportion of Firefly's investment holdings in various technology companies.
Then, after Firefly Investment reduced its holdings in the first week, it is entirely possible to continue to cash out.
Although the Nasdaq market has begun to rebound but is actually fragile inside, how many times can Firefly's investment in the scale of 3 billion US dollars be reduced
Various ideas flashed through the minds of countless small and medium-sized investors. After the Firefly investment announcement, a number of technology company stock sales appeared in the market, and many people almost subconsciously followed suit and sold.
As a result, the uptrend of the Nasdaq index, which had rebounded for two weeks, came to an abrupt end.
Firefly Investment issued an announcement at 11:00 a.m. and immediately began to sell stocks. In the next hour, the Nasdaq index took a sharp turn with the emergence of a large number of panic-selling stocks, falling from the highest point of 3677 points. to 3612 points.
The stock prices of technology companies in the Firefly system, such as Yahoo, Cisco, Qualcomm, and Amazon, have plummeted one after another. Yahoo’s share price has fallen by as much as 13.3% in two and a half hours since the opening of the market.
However, this is clearly just the beginning.
In the afternoon, some investors who were still on the sidelines felt that the situation was not good, and joined the ranks of selling, which inevitably led to the further spread of the selling trend to new technology companies outside the Firefly system.
Looking at the decline curve of the Nasdaq index that seemed to be pulled down by a giant hand, the entire new technology industry couldn't sit still and began to make various responses.
Subsequently, Internet media platforms including AOL and MSN portals issued press releases one after another, accusing the Firefly system of reducing its holdings.
AOL Portal pointed out sharply that Firefly Investment has accumulated cash of at least US$9 billion through the sale of AOL stock last year and the transfer of Fireflyer shares this year. In terms of profits, Firefly Investment's current cash reserves even exceed the level of tens of billions of dollars.
In addition, AOL directly revealed that Firefly Group's Clover Fund also hoarded a large amount of cash, and the amount was no less than that of Firefly Investment.
With such a strong cash reserve in the entire Firefly system, there is no need for Firefly Investment to sell its technology stocks.
The reason why Firefly Investment did this was to use the entire Nasdaq market as a threat to force the Federal Department of Justice to give up its intervention and investigation of the monopoly market share of Yahoo browser.
Although many people know that the statement in AOL's press release is completely true. However, America Online's 'outspoken' attitude still makes many people sigh secretly that this is a young company after all. At least, the editor-in-chief of the AOL portal who allowed this article to be published must not be so well versed in world affairs.
There are many things that everyone is doing, but they absolutely cannot be said.
Sure enough, less than 10 minutes after the article on the AOL portal website was published, the lawyer's letter from Firefly Investment was sent directly to Steve Case.
At the same time, Firefly Investment also counterattacked unceremoniously on the Yahoo portal, saying that every step of Firefly Investment’s shareholding reduction plan strictly abides by relevant federal regulations. The company not only reported to the Federal Trade Commission in advance, but also announced the This is enough to show Firefly Investment's responsible attitude towards the majority of investors. Therefore, AOL Portal's speculation on the purpose of Firefly's investment reduction is completely malicious smearing. Firefly Investment Company requires AOL Portal to immediately withdraw the relevant draft, and at the same time, the editor who wrote this article and AOL will be punished on the grounds of violating the right of reputation. The portal filed a formal complaint.
When many people were secretly expecting that AOL would forcefully confront the Firefly system, within half an hour, the article on the AOL portal disappeared.
Although the AOL portal did not make any apology, the active retreat of AOL has made many other smaller news portals restrained.
Some people even noticed that, although it has reduced its shareholding several times, after the last merger, Firefly Investment is still the major shareholder of AOL-Time Warner Group, with a shareholding ratio of 4.3%.
Moreover, with the continuous reduction and withdrawal of many investment banking institutions at the beginning, Firefly Investment's ranking among the major shareholders of AOL-Time Warner has gradually risen, and its shareholding ratio at this time has been second only to Ted Turner's 6.5. %, unknowingly, became the second largest shareholder of AOL-Time Warner.
Although due to a series of reasons at the beginning, Firefly Investment did not occupy a seat on the AOL-Time Warner board of directors at this time, and even authorized the voting rights of the stocks in its hands to the management of AOL during the merger process of the two companies.
However, after this small episode, the outside world once again realized that even if it is just an external shareholder who is completely unable to intervene in the management of AOL-Time Warner Group, Firefly Investment is, after all, the second largest shareholder of AOL-Time Warner. It is impossible to ignore the existence of such a major shareholder.
When the Nasdaq market was in mourning with Firefly Investment's shareholding reduction plan, the hearing of the Ministry of Justice in the afternoon was held as scheduled.
According to the implementation of the agreed strategy, Yahoo CEO Ian Grenier responded loudly to the Department of Justice's investigation of Yahoo's browser in front of Attorney General Janet Reno, who personally supported the hearing, and dozens of reporters from various parties attending the meeting. Various doubts about the device.
In response to the Ministry of Justice's accusation that Yahoo's browser restricts the development of Internet companies in the same industry, Ian Grenier even responded accordingly.
Besides the Yahoo browser, whether it is portal business, email business or search engine business, Yahoo is a pioneer in the industry.
In other words, many Internet companies of the same type are completely imitating Yahoo's various business models, and some of the imitators directly copied many of Yahoo's technical patents, which largely violated Yahoo's core interests.
In the face of these imitators, Yahoo not only did not fight back, but took the initiative to authorize a large number of technical patents with a very open attitude, which promoted the development of the entire industry. This is enough to show that Yahoo is a company full of social responsibility.
During the two-hour hearing, Ian Grenier almost completely controlled the rhythm of the entire hearing through careful preparation and skillful on-the-spot performance.
Although Janet Leno did not directly announce the decision of the Ministry of Justice in the end, even those who were not very knowledgeable at the hearing had a premonition that the Ministry of Justice would not be able to take any substantive action against the Yahoo browser.
After all, as Ian Grenier said at the hearing, unlike Microsoft’s expensive Windows operating system, Yahoo’s browser is completely free, and this software will not increase users’ expenses. Not only that, A unified interface standard is also more conducive to users surfing the Internet more smoothly.
Moreover, Yahoo has invested tens of millions of dollars in this free browser every year, and the company has enough reasons to enjoy the platform benefits brought by this product. Yahoo has maintained enough openness, and has no obligation to further accommodate those companies that imitate Yahoo's business model.
After the hearing, Yahoo immediately published the full content of the entire hearing and released a complete video.
At the same time, the media platform of the entire Firefly system also made efforts at the same time, and began to discuss and control the field. From the afternoon of that day, the situation began to lean towards the entire Firefly system almost overwhelmingly.
After all, Eric still didn't rush to Washington to join in the fun, but that afternoon, he received a call from Janet Reynolds. The modest female minister of the Federal Department of Justice said that the Department of Justice will officially announce the hearing tomorrow. At the same time, I hope that Firefly Investment can cancel the shareholding reduction plan to avoid further affecting the trend of the Nasdaq market.
Along with this almost one-sided hearing, the Nasdaq index also showed a one-sided attitude throughout the trading day on Monday.
In just one day, the Nasdaq index fell 177 points. Many technology stocks even fell back to their lowest point two weeks ago within six and a half hours.
However, although the Ministry of Justice has made a statement on the Yahoo browser, Eric does not intend to give up this reduction.
After all, once the holding reduction is temporarily given up, it is simply a confessional admission that Firefly Investment's holding reduction behavior is putting pressure on the Ministry of Justice. This will not only slap Firefly Investment itself, but also the Ministry of Justice.
Therefore, the next day, although the Ministry of Justice held a press conference on time at nine o'clock in the morning, it announced that as long as the Yahoo browser maintains a consistent operating strategy, the Ministry of Justice will not intervene too much in this software.
However, after the market opened in the morning, the firefly system's holding reduction action continued.
A siege that was originally intended to be launched against Yahoo almost ended hastily before it even started. Now, many people have experienced the feeling of stealing chickens but not losing money.
During the entire trading day on Tuesday, the Nasdaq index fell again by 97 points. Although compared with yesterday's decline, today's decline has begun to slow down, but the rebound trend of the entire Nasdaq market has obviously terminated.
Wall Street, which was expecting the Nasdaq to rebound back to a high of 4,000 points, looked at the Nasdaq index that had fallen back to 3,403 points, and felt like crying without tears. After all, just after the crash, Wall Street has been cautious in reducing its holdings during this rebound. In just two weeks, it is far from enough for the major investment bank funds on Wall Street to fully cash out their technology stocks.
Now, the situation is starting to turn around again, and it will only be more difficult to cash out the stocks in hand.
Moreover, what is more serious is that the last Nasdaq rebound was largely the result of a series of good news from the Firefly system.
But in this situation, the Firefly system, which has just been put together by some competitors, obviously will not make any moves to support the Nasdaq market. So, besides the firefly system, who else can take on this role
The answer is, no.
Another Microsoft antitrust case that could be exploited has now been settled.
In addition to Microsoft, in the entire new technology market, only the Firefly system still has this kind of strength.
However, no matter how you look at it, it is impossible for the Firefly system, which has a strong capital accumulation, to be influenced by Wall Street to do such things.