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We had a meeting all morning, had lunch with Katzenberg at noon, and discussed some trivial matters. It was not until the afternoon that Eric found time to learn about the auction of mobile communication operating licenses that he accidentally saw on CNN yesterday.
Any country has radio control regulations, whether it is television media or mobile communications, they also rely on radio wave transmission. Just as different TV stations have different radio wave frequencies, different telecom operators are also restricted to operate within a certain range of radio wave frequencies. American TV stations or telecom operators obtain radio frequency information from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). The authorization to operate business in the wave frequency range is the so-called 'licence'.
In Eric's office at Firefly's headquarters, looking at Eric who was carefully reading the basic information, Kelly, who was sitting on the other side of the desk, introduced softly: "In the 1980s, wireless spectrum resources for mobile communications were provided by operators. The FCC applied for and then accepted its allocation. However, in recent years, the mobile communication industry has risen rapidly with the support of digital technology, and the spectrum resources that most operators used to obtain from the FCC are not enough. With the number of applications for spectrum licenses The substantial increase, the Clinton administration realized that this is a good time to generate fiscal revenue, and divided the spectrum resources required by telecom operators into three different segments of operating licenses, A, B, and C, for auction. You saw it on CNN yesterday What we saw was the auction of segment A and segment B licenses, mainly for traditional telecom operators, and the auction of these two segment licenses brought a total of US$3.75 billion in revenue to the Ministry of Finance.”
Eric raised his head and asked, "What about Section C?"
Kelly said: "According to the plan given by the Clinton administration, the main auction targets for segment C licenses are those emerging telecom operators, which are used to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the early stages of entrepreneurship. However, the license auction for this segment is arranged in In three months."
After pondering for a moment, Eric understood the joints, and smiled mockingly, the world is really as black as crows.
In his previous life, Eric noticed that China Unicom publicly complained about getting the license later than China Mobile and missed the 4G deployment period. The situation in his memory is very similar to the present, and the difference is just a political game. The other is purely an economic game.
Right now is the critical period for the U.S. mobile communications industry to upgrade from analog signals to digital signals. Traditional telecom operators already have a strong advantage. big. [ㄨ]Those emerging telecom operators who have obtained the C-segment license will not even try to catch up. Eric can imagine that even if they get the C-segment license, the relevant small and medium-sized enterprises will only be swallowed up by the old telecom giants.
Noticing the expression on Eric's face, Kelly could also guess what he was thinking. Then he smiled and said, "You must have guessed it. The FCC must have been influenced by the old telecom operators like AT&T and Sprint. However, is there something more outrageous next?"
Eric wondered: "What?"
Kelly rummaged through the thick folder on the desktop, found a document and handed it to Eric, saying: "Look, this is the FCC's detailed bidding document for this spectrum license auction, turn to page 12, I drew the red line."
Eric turned over the page number that Kelly said. I saw a paragraph marked on the red line: Section C licenses will be auctioned separately in order to give more opportunities to ethnic minorities, women, township operators and small businesses, so that they can obtain a more level playing field.
Eric read it several times, but didn't find any problems. He raised his head curiously and asked, "What's wrong with this passage?"
Kelly smiled and said: "You must not have imagined that, just after the auction ended yesterday, someone made a fuss about this sentence. About six small companies that submitted bids for segment C licenses filed lawsuits in the federal court at the same time. , claiming that the description of race and gender in the FCC bidding document violates the U.S. Constitution’s clause on national equality. It is suspected of discrimination and requires the FCC to amend it and apologize for its offensive words.”
Eric was really taken aback this time.
You can still play like this.
After being reborn for so many years, Eric also has some understanding of the rules of legal proceedings in the United States.
Now that someone has filed a lawsuit against it, this matter is definitely not something that the FCC can simply revise the bidding document. Everyone must gather lawyers together to study the U.S. Constitution and see if this passage is really unconstitutional. The constitution is so thick that it may take a month or two to go through it. This is the so-called evidence-gathering stage. When the evidence is collected, the two parties still need to fight each other in court. Even if the local court gives a verdict, if one party refuses to accept the verdict and continues to appeal, then the lawsuit will continue.
In the end, after such a toss, when the lawsuit is over, it is estimated that more than half a year has passed.
The license auction for segment C was already three months later than segment A and segment B. Now that this kind of lawsuit has appeared again, it is estimated that the so-called emerging telecom operators will have to wait until at least next year to get the license.
"Okay, let's not talk about this," Eric put the tender beside him, reached out and gestured to the office he was in, which was not luxurious but equally exquisite, and said with a smile: "I think we discuss these The position of the question is a bit wrong, I am a capitalist now, the kind that has no conscience."
Kelly was amused by Eric's words, and Eric's words were actually true. This incident was only because it happened in the telecommunications field that had little connection with them, and it was a little unfair to see this situation. But if a similar thing happens in Hollywood, the Big Seven will definitely unite without hesitation to kill latecomers who may threaten their status in the cradle.
"So, Eric, are you going to get involved in mobile communications?"
Seeing the news about the auction of mobile operating licenses yesterday, Eric was really excited. Right now is the beginning of a big explosion in the mobile communication industry. Investing in the telecommunications industry will definitely bring huge returns, but it can also be seen from the case of the C-segment license auction. It turned out that the water inside was too deep, and Eric didn't intend to venture into it until he figured out the situation.
Shaking his head regretfully, Eric rubbed the folder in front of him and said, "Don't think about it for now, by the way, Kelly, have you contacted Qualcomm?"
"Oh, I was just about to tell you." Kelly took out the memo and flipped through a few pages, handed a note to Eric, and said: "Qualcomm CEO Owen Jacob is very interested in our contact, It's just that he's been in Korea recently. He won't be back until next week. He called me and said he'd fly straight to Los Angeles and hope to talk to you face to face. Hey, this is Erwin Jacobs in Korea The phone number where he lives. He said you can call anytime."
Eric took the note and looked at it, and said with a smile: "Qualcomm is so eager, this is not a good habit, aren't they afraid that the sheep will fall into the tiger's mouth?"
"Qualcomm's current situation is very bad. So far, they have only won the opportunity to build a CDMA network in South Korea, but the telecom market in South Korea is too small, and it will not have much impact on the overall global communication technology standards. Moreover, a week before the spectrum license auction, AT&T just announced that it will build a GSM network nationwide. As the largest telecom operator in the federal government, the communication technology standard determined by AT&T will definitely drive a group of followers. GSM The technology maturity of CDMA is much higher than that of CDMA. Once most operators switch to GSM, Qualcomm may even face bankruptcy." Speaking of this, Kelly paused, and said: "The Qualcomm stock that Firefly Investment has absorbed will soon go bankrupt. To exceed 1 million shares, if you continue, Eric, once Qualcomm goes bankrupt. These shares become worthless."
Qualcomm issued a total of 6 million tradable shares in its first IPO in 1992, accounting for 30% of the total share capital. Due to the rise of GSM, Qualcomm's development has lagged behind in recent years. There is no further financing.
At present, Qualcomm's stock price is only hovering around $17, and its total market value is only 340 million.
To be honest, if he can eat all of Qualcomm, Eric will not have any hesitation at all. After all, it is only the income from the video tape of the Victoria's Secret show. It can bring him more than 300 million US dollars in income, and the entire Firefly Group, because there is no large-scale expansion plan for the time being, with the leading profitability in Hollywood, one of the very happy troubles that the Firefly Group is now facing is money. Too much.
"One million shares is only 17 million," Eric said to Kelly: "I plan to absorb at least 3 million shares, so that only 50 million US dollars will be spent, which is equivalent to the investment of a medium-sized production." It’s just a movie, it doesn’t matter if it loses all of it.”
"Yeah, it really doesn't matter to you," Kelly also realized that she was a little concerned, and $50 million was really nothing to Eric's current net worth.
The two were discussing when Eric's mobile phone on his desk rang.
After connecting, Elizabeth's voice came from the other side.
Eric said a few words and hung up the phone.
Kelly also heard some information from the conversation between the two, and asked, "Miss Murdoch?"
"Well, regarding the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Braveheart" collided together. Liz asked me to talk about the public relations of the two film awards."
Eric said and stood up, Kelly took his coat thoughtfully, Eric stretched out his hand to put on the coat, and looked at the female assistant who was softly buttoning himself with downcast eyes, Eric Inexplicably, there was an illusion that his wife was sending her husband to date another woman. She put her arms around Kelly's waist and said with a smile, "It's strange, why do I feel a little guilty all of a sudden?"
Kelly smiled sweetly, and the movements of her hands didn't stop. She said with a bit of a little woman's emotion: "It's just to make you feel guilty."
"Uh, you can use this trick yourself, don't spread it to the outside world."
"Will it be troublesome for you to spread it?"
Eric nodded vigorously: "It's very troublesome."
After the popular New Year's schedule, the most important thing for Hollywood is undoubtedly to deal with the current awards season.
Compared with last year's Oscar year, this year's awards season in Hollywood also does not have the so-called film works that are expected by the public. Instead, there is a confrontation between "Saving Private Ryan" and "Braveheart".
Although the Oscar nominations have not yet been released, the two films coincidentally won the best drama film, best director, best actor, best screenplay and best soundtrack at the same time in the more important film and television Golden Globe nominations Five nominations. Mel Gibson's performance can only be considered average. Eric remembered that he hadn't been nominated for Best Actor in the original time and space. Now that there is such a nomination at the Golden Globe Awards, it should be regarded as Weinstein's public relations achievement.
As early as more than a year ago, Eric and Elizabeth had discussed the award-winning strategies of these two films. However, the plans were always unable to keep up with the changes, and many things still needed to be changed according to the current situation.
Under the reasonable operation of Miramax, "Braveheart" is undoubtedly more successful at the box office than the award-winning but lost box office version in the original time and space.
"Braveheart" has been released on a small scale since the beginning of December last year, and has continued to accumulate word-of-mouth and box office. During the Christmas period, Miramax increased the scale of screenings to 2,000 in one fell swoop, relying on the advertising effect and long-term release of the Golden Globe Award nominations. With the accumulation of word-of-mouth in the operation, the film earned more than 26 million US dollars at the box office that week. Now it has just entered the first week after the new year, and the total box office of "Braveheart" has approached 60 million. Driven by the continued hot topic during the awards season However, the box office of many films scheduled for the end of the year has dropped sharply, but the weekly box office of "Braveheart" has maintained a weak decline of about 20%. If this situation continues until the Oscars, the total box office of "Braveheart" is conservatively estimated at At around $120 million and with an Oscar on its side, "Braveheart" is likely to recoup its full cost at the box office through overseas distribution.
Eric left the Firefly headquarters and went to an open-air restaurant in Beverly Hills that Hollywood celebrities frequented according to the address given by Elizabeth. Although it was working in the afternoon, there were still a lot of guests in the restaurant who were drinking coffee and chatting leisurely. There are some familiar faces. Seeing the waiter leading Eric in, many guests stood up and greeted Eric.
After exchanging pleasantries through the crowd, Eric met Elizabeth and Harvey Weinstein on the restaurant patio.
Sitting down at the table, casually ordered a cup of coffee, Eric looked at the gentle slope covered with shrubs outside the railing beside him, the Beverly mansion scattered in the field of vision like chess pieces, and the unobstructed view of downtown Los Angeles in the distance, nodded and said: "The scenery here is really good, no wonder there are so many guests."
Harvey Weinstein said with a smile on his face: "Eric, if you like, you can come here often in the future. The owner of this restaurant is my friend, and I asked him to give you a free order."
Eric gestured to his eyes, which still frequently glanced at them, and joked: "Free bills are definitely not enough. If I come here often, your friend may have to pay me for advertising."
Both Elizabeth and Harvey laughed. If Eric really frequented this place, the number of customers trying to get close to him in the restaurant with all kinds of thoughts would definitely increase exponentially, which is really more useful than a billboard.
The three chatted casually for a while before the topic gradually turned to the awards season. (To be continued.)