Martha's Vineyard, located about 100 kilometers northeast of Long Island, has the title of "star garden", but in fact, the residents on this small island accommodate almost all types of billionaires, movie stars, politicians, artists, etc. American high society elite group.
Eric bought a manor on Martha's Vineyard so that Cindy and her unborn baby would not be disturbed by the outside world for the next few months.
In recent days, although the media and the public have been clamoring for a series of incidents in the Firefly system, Eric left Manhattan and rushed to stay with Cindy at the manor on the island.
However, even if you can avoid most of the work, some things are still difficult to avoid.
David West, President of State Street Global Fund, and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock Fund, another asset management company on Wall Street, got off the car outside a manor in the middle of the island, looking at the blonde who came to greet them The German girl couldn't help secretly envious of Eric, and they naturally regarded Catherine Neumann as a model.
Catherine Neumann welcomed the two guests into the living room of the manor villa, served coffee to them, and said, "Please wait a moment, Mr. Williams accompanied Miss Crawford for a physical examination, and he will be back soon."
David West and Larry Fink also made a surprise visit, and they all nodded to express that they didn't mind.
After Catherine Neumann finished speaking, she politely asked the two guests if they had any other needs, and then quietly exited the living room.
The two middle-aged men chatted in a low voice for a while, and there were some noises in the yard, knowing that Eric had returned, they stood up together.
Eric walked in with Cindy, whose stomach was already bulging, and everyone exchanged pleasantries. Cindy left the living room and went upstairs, and the three men sat down again.
Recently, news about Firefly Group's Clover Fund taking large sums of money before the Nasdaq market crash has gradually spread.
Although this income was not reflected in Firefly Group's second-quarter financial report, even if some financial means can be used to continue to hide the revenue of the Clover Fund for a quarter, the final annual financial report for next year must still be disclosed These.
The number of external shareholders of Firefly Group is small, but it is not a minority. After trying to hide it for a period of time, as more and more relevant news appeared in the media, Eric no longer had any expectations of finally concealing the detailed data of this income. He just hoped that it would take as long as possible. After all, at the beginning of next year, many people should have recovered from the pain of the Nasdaq crash. When they hear the news that the Clover Fund has cashed out tens of billions of dollars from the Nasdaq stock market, the chances of various reactions will be less Go up a lot.
However, the proposed non-dividend plan has not changed.
However, as many investors suffered heavy losses in the Nasdaq crash and urgently needed to replenish funds, Eric did not give up this opportunity to buy back the shares of Firefly Group. In his last meeting with David West, he said that as long as the minority shareholders of Firefly Group are willing to sell their stocks, Firefly Group can liquidate this year's profits at the same time.
Although shareholders such as Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway still have no intention of selling the shares of Firefly Group, some small shareholders still choose to sell.
David West and Larry Fink, another minority shareholder representative, just came here today to discuss this matter.
Speaking of which, the Blackrock fund represented by Larry Fink can be literally translated as Black Rock Fund. Similar to State Street Global, this fund was also born out of another well-known investment company in the United States, Blackstone Group (Blackstone).
The men were chatting downstairs. After Cindy went upstairs, she came to a living room on the second floor of the villa. She leaned comfortably on the sofa with a magazine in her hand and flipped through it casually. Golden sunshine on the terrace.
Although it was already early autumn, the sunset in the evening still looked a little blazing, but as a summer resort that was more comfortable than Long Island, the villa on Martha's Vineyard didn't look hot at all.
There were slight footsteps behind her, and Cindy raised her head to see Catherine Neumann walking in holding a small tray. After the girl put the tray on the coffee table in front of her, Cindy took out the porcelain plate from the tray. After eating a piece of snack, he signaled Catherine Neumann to sit down beside him, and said, "Eric said that I can also participate in the management of Elite in the future. Can you give me some advice these days?"
Catherine Neumann sat on the single sofa next to her with a straight posture, shook her head and said, "Mr. Williams bought Elite is not a good choice. This company has many problems, bloated organization, overexpansion, financial chaos , and there are still many hidden dangers in moral aspects.”
"I have also stayed at Elite before, of course I know its problems. In fact, I also understand that the problem is rooted in John Casablanca. Over the years, Elite has developed to the extreme, and he, the founder, has nothing. I am self-motivated. Elite has been quickly caught up by IMG's modeling department in recent years because John's management ideas have not kept up with the development of the times," Cindy said, then suddenly changed the subject, saying: "However, you You should know, just like those rich people like to buy football teams, Eric is obviously more interested in modeling agencies."
Catherine Neumann said: "In this case, John Casablanca should be replaced before Elite can be rectified and revitalized."
Cindy shook her head and said, "That's not okay, Eric didn't think about replacing John. You should also understand his temperament, Eric prefers to use gentle means to reform a company, like, um , Boil the frog in warm water."
Catherine Neumann nodded insignificantly and stopped talking.
Cindy finished eating a piece of snack in her hand slowly, turned sideways, reached out and took off the black-rimmed glasses on Catherine Neumann's nose, and looked at the girl whose temperament suddenly changed significantly with great interest. He smiled and said, "Are you confused, why is Eric, a person with many personality flaws, able to achieve the current success?"
Catherine Neumann brushed back the blond hair that fell on her forehead after Cindy took off her glasses, but she still didn't speak, but her blue eyes looked over curiously.
Cindy played with the black frame in her hand, and said, "Actually, after you stay in this circle for a long time, you will find that many rich people are far from being as smart as you imagined, and some people can even say Very stupid, but they are able to accumulate a huge amount of wealth, maybe because of family background, maybe because of luck, or other things. If you have to find a reason, then, in short, this is an unfair world. "
Catherine Neumann had a thoughtful look on her beautiful face.
Cindy looked at the girl's expression, smiled, reached out and put the black-rimmed glasses back on her, covering up Catherine Neumann's extroverted temperament, and said, "So, even if you are smart, even if you are far away Far smarter than many other people. But if you want to get ahead, you still have to learn to not look so smart. We are women, and in this patriarchal society, we should understand this even more. "
Catherine Neumann frowned, as if thinking of some not-so-good memories.
Cindy was even more relaxed. She twisted her body, leaned comfortably on the sofa, looked at the girl beside her and said, "Actually, if I hadn't insisted, you would not have been hired at all. You are so smart, you must be able to." Guess some reasons. But you still came to me, this is your chance. You are a girl with ambitions, but to achieve it, first of all, you have to completely forget about your ambitions and put yourself 100% in your present in position."
Catherine Neumann's eyes flickered slightly, but she quickly whispered: "Miss Crawford, I understand."
Cindy nodded with satisfaction, and said: "Then, the first thing you need to do next is to help me gain more initiative in the two companies IMG and Elite. Compared with beautiful vases, Eric has always been They all prefer women with outstanding abilities.”
In the living room downstairs, Eric was not aware of the private conversation between the two women. He focused on discussing with David West for an hour before finally finalizing the matter.
According to David West's two-person plan, after completing this acquisition, Eric will probably be able to repurchase about 5% of Firefly Group's shares.
In terms of price, Eric still made some concessions. Counting the dividends that need to be paid, he will need to spend a total of 7.5 billion US dollars this time, which is 500 million US dollars more than the original estimate.
After completing the repurchase, Eric's shareholding in Firefly Group will rise again to about 78%.
The repurchase plan was roughly finalized, and David West and the two were sent away. Eric came to the villa's own study, picked up the phone and notified Katzenberg in Los Angeles, and asked him to follow up on the next thing.
After hanging up the phone, Eric turned on the computer and checked the recent financial data of Firefly Group and Firefly Investment.
As expected by the outside world, before last week's reduction of holdings, the total cash held by Firefly Investment Company did reach tens of billions of dollars, the exact amount was 13.6 billion U.S. dollars, much higher than the statistics of many Wall Street analysts. For the Firefly Group, after withholding taxes, only the Clover Fund brought the Firefly Group $36.3 billion in free cash flow.
Adding the two together, the cash reserve of nearly 50 billion US dollars seems huge, but if the expenditure of the Firefly system is calculated in the future, this amount of money is still far from enough.
With the further decline of the Nasdaq index, at this time, both Firefly Group and Firefly Investment have begun to secretly implement the next expansion plan.
Firefly Investment's next major expansion target is Sprint.
Currently, the share price of Sprint, the third largest telecommunications operator in the United States, has fallen from its peak market value of US$109 billion a few months ago to less than US$40 billion now.
Although there is still room for decline in Sprint's stock price, Firefly Investment has begun to enter the market and continue to absorb Sprint's stock.
Chris plans to expand his stake in Sprint to 30% before launching an acquisition of the company.
Then, according to Sprint’s current market value, on the basis of Firefly Investment’s original 10% shareholding, if you want to absorb an additional 20% of the stock, you need to invest between 7 billion and 8 billion US dollars, which has already occupied Firefly invests a significant portion of its cash reserves.
Moreover, once the acquisition is officially launched and the other 70% of Sprint's shares are bought, it is conservatively estimated that at least another 20 billion US dollars in cash will be needed.
The money from the Firefly Group has been determined to stay in Hollywood, so by then, Firefly Investment will have to raise a huge debt financing of up to 20 billion US dollars. But that was just the beginning. After completing the acquisition of Sprint, in order to further expand the company, the Firefly system still needs continuous blood transfusion.
In addition, on the side of Firefly Group, the company has also begun to absorb the stocks of Comcast and Hasbro at the same time.
For the smaller Hasbro, Firefly Group intends to win all within this year.
Hasbro’s current market value hovers between 2 billion and 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, and Firefly Group has made a budget of up to 3 billion U.S. dollars. As long as it can buy Hasbro within this year, billions of dollars in financial expenditures can also be indirectly Bring a lot of tax relief to Firefly Group.
But with Comcast, there are just too many things to consider.
After the expansion of the cable TV industry in the 1990s, although with the collapse of Nasdaq, Comcast, which also belongs to the new technology industry, will not have a good life in the next few years, but the company's operating conditions However, it has gradually stabilized and the scale of profits has gradually increased. This is why Comcast wants to further annex AT-T's cable TV business and further expand itself.
When the company's development momentum is good, Comcast's shareholders and management will be much less enthusiastic about the acquisition invitation, and may even show resistance.
Moreover, although there is a merger case between America Online and Time Warner, but with the current size of Firefly Group, if it wants to annex Comcast, the anti-monopoly aspect is still an important hurdle that the company needs to face.
In addition, Eric actually wants to launch a series of serial acquisitions, and at the same time take down Comcast and At-T's long-distance communications, and integrate them into a giant cable TV operator. Once the plan is formed, Firefly Group will see What seemed like a huge cash reserve turned out to be powerless in a blink of an eye.
Eric sat in the study thinking about these things, and occasionally a flash of inspiration made a call to Chris and the others. It was not until night fell outside the window that Cindy knocked on the door and came in to ask Eric what he wanted for dinner.
After chatting with Cindy for a while, Eric turned on the light in the study when the woman left. He heard the notification sound of new mail in the computer, so he turned it on curiously.
The email is from Los Angeles, and the content is the approximate box office statistics of the past summer film.
Entering September, the North American summer vacation has come to an end. Considering that in recent months, I have been focusing on the Nasdaq market and Firefly Investment. The report was printed out, briefly bound, picked up, left the study and walked downstairs, intending to take advantage of the time before dinner to roughly look at the report.
There is almost no suspense. This year's summer box office champion finally fell on "Iron Man". Since its release in early May, in four months, "Iron Man" has basically been on the verge of downgrade. There are only a few dozen in North America. The film's final cumulative box office was more than 387 million U.S. dollars. Although it regrettably failed to break through the 400 million U.S. dollar mark, it was enough to make other summer films envious.
In addition, the most surprising thing about this summer file is undoubtedly the miracle that the box office of "Shrek" by Blue Sky Studios reversed. In the end, this animated film, with an investment of only US$60 million, has a North American box office of more than US$267 million, ranking third in the entire summer box office list.
The second place is "The Mummy 3" of Universal Pictures. The current cumulative box office is more than 311 million US dollars.
However, in addition to the top three, there are still many films in this summer that are very eye-catching at the box office.