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Under Eric's strong insistence, the capital injection negotiations with Qualcomm were finally finalized on the day of the Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 21.
Qualcomm's shareholders and management also understand that the sooner they reach an agreement with the powerful Firefly, the better it will be for the promotion of CDMA technology. Therefore, they did not open their mouths because of Firefly's urgent attitude. The final capital injection amount.
After the news of Firefly’s contact with Qualcomm came out, Qualcomm’s stock price soared 21% in just one week, reaching $23.8 per share. Firefly’s investment will eventually need to pay $238 million for the 10 million additional shares of Qualcomm’s private placement. It was not beyond Eric's tolerance, so he rushed from Los Angeles to San Diego early in the morning.
After the signing ceremony in the morning, Eric, Chris, Qualcomm's Owen Jacob and other high-level executives went into the conference room to discuss the next step.
After discussing in detail the lobbying strategy for telecom operators and Qualcomm's CDMA equipment factory construction plan, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.
Chris and Owen Jacobs had already made an appointment with Verizon's CEO for tomorrow's meeting. After the meeting in the afternoon, they couldn't wait to board the plane to the Verizon headquarters in New York. Eric sent Chris and Owen Jacobs away, and returned to Los Angeles by car with his entourage.
Winning Qualcomm, Eric once again laid an important chess piece in the high-tech industry that has begun to rise.
In the original time and space, although Qualcomm was much more unknown than high-tech companies such as Cisco and Yahoo, which once had their heyday, in fact, Qualcomm is the one with the deepest foundation among these companies, because it has almost completely monopolized the entire generation. Even if the advanced mobile communication technology accidentally encounters the day of decline, it can still respond to the old saying that there are still three thousand nails in a broken ship, relying only on the licensing fees of thousands of patents held in hand, it can be stable every year. reap large profits.
Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help but turn his thoughts to the Cisco, Yahoo, Nokia and AOL companies that Firefly Investment already owns. If the original historical development process is followed, except for Cisco, the remaining three companies will gradually decline in the next few years.
Eric read the later articles about why Nokia suddenly declined, and these high-tech companies are in the process of development. There is neither a lack of funds nor a lack of technology. The root cause of its decline is a major mistake in the direction of enterprise development. As long as he can maintain sufficient control over these companies in his opponents, Eric is confident that at least in the next two decades with the advantages of the reborn. He was able to keep these companies on the right path.
A black Rolls-Royce was speeding on the Pacific Rim Highway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and the setting sun was crumbling on the distant sea level, dyeing everything in the field of vision a magnificent orange.
In the carriage, Eric kept his eyes closed and meditating all the way, while Kelly, who was sitting next to him, didn't disturb him, quietly flipping through a document in his hand.
I don't know how long it took, and noticed Eric suddenly opened his eyes and straightened his body, Kelly raised his head and asked, "Eric, what's wrong?"
Eric turned his head and asked Kelly, "I remember seeing a merger and acquisition plan submitted by Cisco executives a few days ago, do you still remember?"
Kelly nodded: "Yes. Over there, they plan to acquire a network switch company located in Seattle. The initial negotiated price is 1.9 billion U.S. dollars, and it will be acquired through a share swap."
"What is our stake after this transaction?"
Kelly thought for a moment, and said: "Cisco's current stock market value is about 16 billion U.S. dollars. After the merger, it will exceed 18 billion U.S. dollars. Our shareholding ratio has dropped from 23% to 20.5%."
Eric shook his head. Although the shareholding ratio has dropped to 20.5%, Firefly is still the largest shareholder of Cisco, but its control will become weaker and weaker, although Cisco has always maintained a strong industry position in the previous life. Eric will not deliberately intervene in the management of the company, but he also realizes that he cannot continue to let Firefly Investment's Cisco equity be diluted, even if this diluted share will still be a huge fortune in the future.
"It can't be lowered anymore, no. Not only can it not be lowered anymore, we have to increase our holdings of Cisco shares again. You can contact Chris tomorrow and ask Cisco's management to change the way of this acquisition and convert it into a cash-increasing shareholding method to ensure our The shares cannot be diluted again. In addition, you can discuss another shareholding increase plan. It is best to increase our shareholding ratio to 30%.”
Kelly wondered: "Eric, don't you plan to invest in the telecommunications industry? According to the current scale of Verizon and Sprint, any one of them agreeing to the investment of Firefly will require more than 1 billion US dollars. If you follow your It is said that Cisco’s shareholding ratio will be increased to 30%, considering the premium factor, it is likely to need to invest 2 billion U.S. dollars, and there may not be any investment institutions willing to transfer their shares.”
Eric couldn't help saying generously in his heart, 2 billion US dollars, which is more than ten times the amount that Firefly invested in Cisco initially, but at this time he can only get less than 10% of the shares. It seems that the good days of "leakage" will come Gone forever. But considering the value of Cisco in the future, the additional investment at this time is absolutely worthwhile.
The Firefly Group has just experienced a profitable financial year. Eric was still lamenting that he had too much money a few days ago. Now he finds that if he wants to continue to expand, the funds in his hand are still far from enough. In the past, Eric had the idea of investing large sums of money, but he always subconsciously felt that the benefits were not high enough and he resisted. Not correct investment thinking, but speculation. Just like the war in the era of cold weapons, it is okay to send out a few surprise soldiers occasionally to fight a few battles with fewer wins. If you keep thinking about winning by surprise, you will only be defeated in the end.
"Firefly Group's profits should be able to cope with these plans. Even if it is not enough, I will consider financing from other sources. You just need to do it."
Kelly nodded, wrote down Eric's instructions in the memo, looked out the window, and was about to enter downtown Los Angeles, and asked, "Eric, the Golden Globe Awards ceremony should have started, do you want to Are you going to the Hilton Hotel?"
It was already dim night outside the window, Eric looked at his watch, it was half past seven. In his capacity, even if he rushes over at this time, he will not be stopped outside the banquet hall, but there is really no need for this. Looking at the female assistant who was wearing a black suit and skirt, Eric smiled and asked, "I won't join in the fun, is Nina at boarding school today?"
Kelly blushed and nodded slightly.
"Then let's find a place to have dinner first, and then go to your place."
The female assistant pinched the corner of her clothes. Her cheeks were pink and her voice was like a mosquito: "It's better, go to my place directly, it's easy to be bumped by people when you eat outside..."
"No problem, listen to you."
…
"There is no doubt that it has nothing to do with the movie. This is just another male victory. "Braveheart", a self-righteous film full of fictional facts, completely defeated "Saving Private Ryan" which was 10 times better than it. , the reason is just because the director of "Saving Private Ryan" is a woman, and it once again proves the deep-rooted sexism in Hollywood. There, as long as you are a woman, even if you do things that men may not necessarily be able to do, you Still not being recognized. In the end, I just want to ask very weakly, is it really going to continue like this forever?"
The day after the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, a well-known female commentator in the "Los Angeles Times" published such a rhetorical comment in her personal column, and got a lot of media discussion about sexism. There are also many questions and discussions mixed with various Golden Globe shady scenes. The cause of this incident was at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards Ceremony. The much-anticipated "Saving Private Ryan" lost to "Braveheart" in all four nominations for best picture, best director, best screenplay and best soundtrack, and only Tom Hanks successfully won the best Leading Actor Award.
Although many professional film critics know that the two films "Braveheart" and "Saving Private Ryan" can be said to be equal in art, but instinctively. There are still many film critics who prefer "Saving Private Ryan", which has a stronger sense of cultural identity, because there is no strong competitor, and it is almost certain that Tom Hanks will win the best actor. Before the awards ceremony, the focus of most people's discussions was on the nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.
After "Saving Private Ryan" got nothing, some people's original sense of identity turned into disappointment and doubts because of director Catherine's gender. Many feminists also protested angrily to the Golden Globe Awards jury, and even called on Hollywood actresses not to participate in the Golden Globe Awards ceremony.
As for the media's questioning, the Golden Globe Awards judging committee, like many times in the past, has taken a completely non-responsive attitude. This kind of questioning of the award happens almost every year. If the trouble is not out of control, not responding is the best way to deal with it If you respond in a different way, you will appear guilty instead, which will make things worse.
In the next few days, the nomination list for the 67th Academy Awards was announced, and "Braveheart" once again aroused heated discussions in the media. The focus of the controversy this time was on Mel Gibson's nomination for Best Actor. The best actor nomination for "Braveheart" at the award has already made many film critics slander, thinking that Mel Gibson's performance can only be regarded as a few, and there is still a large part of the distance from being nominated for the award. The media felt that the Oscars would not award Mel Gibson a Best Actor nomination like the Golden Globes did, but the facts made many people feel like they were eating flies. The film critics hadn't finished expressing their anger because of the injustice of the Golden Globe Awards. At this time, they pointed their guns at Oscar without hesitation, and it was another discussion on the fairness of Oscar.
Ordinary people certainly don't know how many things happened during this period, they just followed this controversy with relish. With the increase in topicality, more and more media have begun to follow up, changing their tricks to attract viewers or readers.
Most people didn't notice that with the upsurge of discussion, "Saving Private Ryan", which had been out for a long time, silently sold 670,000 videotapes in the following week, equivalent to the sales volume of the previous two weeks. In total, it brought Firefly $20 million in video sales in a week.
At the same time, the weekly box office of "Braveheart", which is still in theaters, suddenly rose by 60% from more than 7 million US dollars before the Golden Globes, reaching 11 million, and the cumulative box office easily broke through the 73 million US dollar mark. The Weinstein brothers were naturally happy, and their small actions became more frequent.
In the whole thing, Mel Gibson is undoubtedly the most bitter. The controversy caused by the nomination of the best actor and the media controversy about sexism in Hollywood have reduced his hope of winning the best director to almost nothing. .
"He's already paid $18 million, and he's going to take another 10% of the profits in the future. Fox doesn't owe him anything. Harvey wanted to spread the word about his tendency to discriminate against Jews. He was stopped by me, hum, if it wasn't for the fact that everyone is Australian, I wouldn't care about it."
In Beverly Julia and Elizabeth's mansion on the hilltop, Elizabeth was wearing a crisp white shirt and jeans, wearing sunglasses and leaning on a beach chair by the swimming pool. K said.
Eric turned a page of the script in his hand and just nodded. Said he heard it.
Elizabeth curled her lips with some dissatisfaction, and said, "Eric, I heard that you hired two new directors and handed over "The Matrix" to one of them. Aren't you afraid of screwing up?"
"To be more precise, it's three," Eric corrected casually.
"Of course I know, well, the Wachowski brothers, eh. Is there anything special about them?"
Listening to Elizabeth's small voice becoming thieves, Eric smiled and said: "Don't worry about it, two of them, oh, three of them, have signed three film option contracts with Firefly, For at least five years, I will definitely not accept films from other companies, of course. Unless I take the initiative to release people."
Now that he decided to use the Wachowski brothers and Michael Bay, Eric certainly would not give them a chance to leave after making a film that hit the box office. Instead, he signed a Hollywood option contract with the three in advance, stipulating that They have to direct at least three films for Firefly before they can move on.
certainly. In order to maintain a good relationship with the three directors who have good appreciation potential in the future, Eric did not stipulate the low director's remuneration in advance like many option contracts. Although Eric advocates suppressing the super-high salaries of Hollywood superstars, he will not let the film creators just work and not get the pay they deserve. A win-win situation is the fundamental principle of a virtuous circle in an industry. The option contract given by Eric was not harsh, and the Wachowski brothers and Michael Bay signed it readily.
Elizabeth thought that Eric was talking about the traditional option contract, and hummed twice. Said: "I think you're the 'greedy Jew' that Mel Gibson said."
Eric didn't mind this kind of racial ridicule at all, and shrugged: "Who knows, don't everyone who goes to Hollywood want to be Jewish."
The two were chatting, and Julia came over with a plate of cut fruit lightly, placed it on the small round table on Eric's right, and gently pushed Eric aside, and Eric huddled together and lay down comfortably on the large beach chair.
Elizabeth dissatisfied: "Julia, where is my fruit plate?"
Julia put her arms around Eric's waist, twisted her body to find a more comfortable position, felt Eric's heartbeat and the warm sunshine, and lazily said, "Do it yourself."
"Tsk tsk, it looks like a cat, but it's still a cat in spring."
Julia ignored it, and Eric smiled and touched Julia's face on his chest: "Little cat, meow."
"Meow… "
"Uh, I'll forget you guys are disgusting," Elizabeth made a retching motion, looked impatiently at the script in Eric's hand, and said, "When did you finish it, and what do you think?"
"You know, I've never been able to get excited about things that I'm not interested in."
"Is this script terrible? I have spent a lot of effort, and I have also checked a lot of information about small animals."
The script in Eric's hand was an idea similar to "Robbing the Nut Shop" that Elizabeth brainstormed in a short period of time after he and Elizabeth saw a little squirrel in the open-air restaurant. During this time, Elizabeth Find a few screenwriters to work out the story together.
"It's not bad, but it doesn't have any eye-catching feeling at all. If you want to see it, I will ask someone to give you a copy of the story script that Disney Animation is preparing, so that you can see what imagination is. force."
Elizabeth leaned hard on the recliner, and said: "Since you don't like this story, why do you ask Chris Wedge from Blue Sky Studio to come over to do something? I read the resume of that studio, although he has done some big names. The special effects of movies, but he has not set foot in the field of animation, and he can't compare with the Pixar gang."
Eric closed the script in his hand, picked up a piece of apple in the fruit plate and ate it, and said: "Although your story is so-so, it can be used for them to practice. Make a short film to exercise the team."
"You might as well give me some people from Pixar, just like Disney animation."
Eric shook his head and said, "Don't worry about Pixar, but I don't give this studio to you either. The two of us will share equally. I've already thought about it, leaving 10% of the shares to the management. That leaves Firefly and Fox with 45% each."
"You already have two animation studios!"
Eric laughed: "If it wasn't for some animation ideas that didn't fit Disney's style, I wouldn't mind having another animation studio under Firefly."
"Whoah, you greedy Jew!" (To be continued.)