After Sophie left, Eric also hurriedly washed up and went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.
The affairs of the past few days have been extremely complicated. Not only the Firefly Investment Company team led by Chris will come to Paris today to discuss the acquisition of the Nokia Group, but Eric also has to give these European local film forces have some sweetness, so that these local snakes will not come forward to obstruct the negotiations of the GATT. Moreover, he is unlikely to let go of the promotional work of "Jurassic Park" completely.
As Eric's first assistant, Allen, as usual, sorted out some pages in today's newspapers that need Eric's attention in advance, and when he saw Eric appearing in the restaurant, he put a stack of newspapers on his table superior.
"Eric, I think you should read this." Allen pointed to the top weekly magazine.
Eric picked it up. This is a weekly news magazine in France. Although Allen only made English comments on the key pages, Eric can still understand the reason why he let himself pay attention to this newspaper.
Because the newsweekly used an entire page to publish a picture, a picture of a Tyrannosaurus rex rampaging in downtown Paris, and the headline was prominently marked with 'Culture: America's Attack'.
Eric doesn't need to read the content, 〖□, he can almost guess what this article is talking about.
"Sprout", known as the most expensive film in history in France, failed miserably at the box office in front of "Jurassic Park". With an investment of more than 160 million francs, it only recovered 1 million francs at the box office on the first day, and the box office is expected to be only 500 in the first week. It is around 10,000 francs, which is not as much as the box office of "Jurassic Park" in France on its first day. There is nothing wrong with the French reacting in this way.
Eric quickly flipped through the next few pages of the newspaper. I lost the mood to read. Today, both French and English newspapers in mainland France are basically talking about the box office of "Jurassic Park".
However, thinking of the party last night, Eric couldn't help but sneer with a hint of sarcasm. Even the film forces in France are going to turn against Hollywood in private. What's the use of these media clamoring desperately? .
Putting today's newspaper aside, Eric ordered: "You call the manager of the French branch. Let him conduct proper crisis public relations, and we don't care about the rest."
Allen quickly wrote down Eric's instructions in the memo, and said: "Mr. Hansen's flight will arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport at about ten o'clock. I have already arranged several cars. Do you want to pick up the plane yourself? "
"I'll go there myself," Eric nodded.
…
In the waiting hall of Charles de Gaulle Airport, the flight of Chris and his party landed at the airport nearly a quarter of an hour later than expected.
Noticing that Chris' figure appeared at the exit of the VIP passage, Eric smiled and waved at him, and greeted him. After approaching, Eric found that Chris' followers were following him. Walking side by side with him was a middle-aged man who had nothing to do with Firefly Investment.
The middle-aged man is about forty years old and wears a pair of rimless glasses. The mediocre appearance will give people a clumsy feeling at first glance.
However, Eric did not despise this middle-aged man at all, because he had seen the photo of the other party on relevant materials more than once. This person is the current CEO of Nokia, Jorma Ollila. Jorma Ollila's resume is not mediocre at all. This person not only has a double master's degree in political science and economics, but also served as an executive of Citibank in his early thirties. In the original time and space, Nokia was exactly Under his leadership, from a company on the verge of bankruptcy to the status of global communication equipment hegemony.
"Eric, long time no see." Chris hugged Eric, and quickly introduced him: "I think you must know him, Mr. Jorma Ollila."
Jorma Ollila took the initiative to take a step forward and shook hands with Eric: "Mr. Williams, I'm Jorma Ollila, nice to meet you, I like your movies very much."
"Thank you, just call me Eric," Eric let go of Jorma Ollila's hand, not paying attention to the slightly scrutinizing gaze in the other's smile, and turned to greet the team members of the Firefly Investment Company brought by Chris .
After everyone left the airport, Eric took Chris into his car. As soon as the car started, Chris couldn't wait to open his suitcase: "Eric, according to the information you sent back to New York, I once again Let people make an evaluation of Nokia as a company... ”
Eric interrupted Chris, and pointed to the car behind him with a smile: "You haven't told me what happened to Jorma Ollila, why did he come to Paris with you?"
Chris smiled, temporarily closed the suitcase, and said, "I almost picked him up from New York."
"I know that Jorma Ollila went to Wall Street to invest in Nokia, but the situation shouldn't be as bad as you said, right?"
"As far as I know, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are not interested in investing in Nokia, because the Boston Consulting Group published a report more than a year ago, claiming that Nokia's mobile phone business is completely unable to compete with Motorola. Competing with Japanese mobile phone manufacturers, Lehman Brothers, who had just gotten rid of the control of American Express, wanted to invest in it. However, Lehman Brothers itself is very short of funds, and the terms of the offer are relatively harsh. When I contacted Yola Ollila, He has been negotiating with the manager of the investment department of Lehman Brothers for a month, and he has not yet negotiated with the other party. From this point of view, this person is indeed very capable, but at the same time he has become an obstacle to our acquisition of Nokia. , since he will not easily compromise with a giant like Lehman Brothers, that means he will not easily compromise with us either."
Eric asked, "Then have you got the content of his negotiations with Lehman Brothers?"
Chris nodded slyly, "Of course," he said, Chris opened the suitcase, took out some documents and handed them to Eric.
"The dispute between Jorma Ollila and Lehman Brothers mainly focused on the scale of capital injection and the time of listing. Lehman Brothers initially only agreed to inject 50 million US dollars, but wanted to take away 10% of Nokia's shares. In addition. Lehman Brothers The conditions given by the brothers were to help Nokia go public after three years. But Jorma Ollila hoped that Lehman Brothers could directly go public with Nokia and extract development funds from the stock market.”
Eric read the document in front of him, wondering: "What is he rushing to go public for? If Nokia's development prospects are good, wouldn't it be possible to get more benefits by going public later?"
"I also had someone do an analysis on this aspect," Chris explained: "Most of Nokia's current equity is concentrated in the hands of a few banks in Finland, which means that any major business adjustments made by Nokia will require With the approval of several bank shareholders, this situation also leads to a very narrow space for Nokia's management to exercise autonomy. However, if Nokia can be listed in North America, Nokia will become a public company, so that the management will own With more space to play, we only need to be responsible to the majority of shareholders, and we don’t have to follow the instructions of several bank shareholders in everything.”
"At the end of the day, he still wants more power, right?"
Chris nodded: "Yes, so, when I first came into contact with Yorma Ollila. He was not too enthusiastic about investing in Firefly. I was worried that he would suddenly reach a cooperation if he continued to negotiate with Lehman Brothers. He revealed some information about Cisco, and he agreed to go back to Europe with me."
Although Firefly Investment disperses and hides Cisco's equity among several investment funds, it is still the largest shareholder of Cisco. However, except for the necessary personnel and financial supervision of Cisco, Firefly Investment does not have much involvement in this company. Eric understood that Jorma Ollila should have taken a fancy to this.
"Speaking of which, Cisco completed the merger of Coc Communications last week, expanding Cisco's business into the field of catalyst5000 switches. After this merger, our equity fell to 31%. However, according to the stock price before the close last Friday, Cisco The current market value has reached 5.3 billion US dollars, and the detailed information is still being sorted out at the headquarters, and will be sent to your mailbox after completion, I just briefly tell you."
Eric nodded to express his understanding. Since the Clinton administration came to power and announced the information superhighway plan, the stock prices of companies related to computer networks have risen rapidly in the past six months. Although the craziest time for Internet technology stocks is far from coming, this tendency has attracted the attention of a large number of Wall Street investors.
After Chris said this, he quickly took out a beautifully wrapped gift box from the suitcase: "Hey, the second thing is, someone asked me to bring you a gift."
Eric didn't notice the smirk at the corner of Chris's mouth, and opened the wrapping paper with some doubts, only to find that there was a 32-carat photo frame inside. In the photo, two chubby little guys were sitting on the sofa, and the little boy stared at him. A pair of eyes stared blankly at the camera, and the little girl whose brows and eyes resembled Joanna restlessly stretched out her little hands as if trying to grab something.
When Eric saw the photo, he remembered that the two little guys were born on April 10th. A few days ago was the three-month anniversary of the birth of the two little guys, but he forgot about it. I haven't called back for the past few days. It seems that Virginia must be very angry, which is why I asked Chris to bring me a 'gift'.
Chris said from the side: "Emily and I also went on the day of Kevin's baptism. I am the godfather of the little guy now. I thought you must know, so I didn't inform you. The day before yesterday Emily went to visit two Little guy, I brought this thing back and asked me to deliver it to you, so I know that you haven't called back these days."
Western children are usually baptized a few months after they are born. Eric didn't expect Virginia to deal with the matter without discussing it with him. He smiled awkwardly, and Eric realized what it was, and asked : "Kevin's baptism, what about Xia Xia?"
Chris spread his hands: "This should be something you and Joanna discussed." Noticing Eric's puzzled expression, Chris said again: "Joanna is a Jew, and Jews come from their mothers. Traditionally, summer Xia should also be considered Jewish, and she can also be considered English in terms of blood, and the British generally believe in Christianity, so it is up to you and Joanna to discuss which sect the little guy should believe in."
Eric felt a little weird, and murmured, "My daughter is a Jew."
Having known each other for so long, Chris also realized that Eric is a person who is very insensitive to race, so he also knew that what Eric said just now did not mean any discrimination, and said with a smile: "Yeah, if you let If Xia Xia takes your class, she will definitely be very popular in Hollywood."
"It just feels a little strange," Eric also laughed: "What about you, Chris, what ethnicity is your family from?"
Chris said: "My family is a Norwegian immigrant who migrated in the Age of Discovery, and it should be considered an American nation now."
"Norway, I thought Hansen was also a British surname," Eric laughed.
"The arrogance of the British people," Chris joked, before explaining: "The surname Hansen means 'Son of Hans', if you read fairy tales, you will find that Hans The name Norway often appears in Nordic fairy tales, and Norway is one of the five Nordic countries."
Eric put away the photos of the two little guys and said, "Okay, let's not talk about this for now, let's go back to Nokia."
Chris nodded, and took out a few more documents from his suitcase: "This is some comparative tests I entrusted Cisco's technical department to do. The communication method used by Nokia completely suppresses most mobile communication devices at this stage. Now the mainstream Most mobile phones use analog signals. Because they use pulse signals, they are easily disturbed during transmission, resulting in distorted call quality. In fact, many mobile communication equipment companies are researching new communication standards. From Cisco's According to the test results given by the technical department, the digital signal used by Nokia's 1011 mobile phone is very stable. This signal uses the same binary principle as the computer, and there is no problem of distortion during transmission. If the gsm network adopted can be promoted, it will cause a huge change in mobile communication equipment, and Nokia, which first launched the gsm mobile phone, will also gain a great advantage. If we don't want our investment to go to waste, after the acquisition is completed, we The first thing to do is to lobby European countries to fully adopt the gsm standard."
Eric said: "This seems to be something to be done after the acquisition is completed?" (To be continued...)