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"It is really difficult to become a person like Buffett. In fact, if most people can have his level of status and wealth, it will be absolutely difficult to continue doing one thing without distraction for decades," Eric said. Looking at Caroline's pretty face, he said, "However, I found that you have some potential similar to Buffett."
Ordinary people always have too many distracting thoughts and desires in their hearts, which actually become the biggest obstacle preventing a person from moving forward. Eric failed to see these things from Caroline. From the first meeting two years ago to the present, the simple and pure temperament of this girl has not changed much. In addition, she is smart With an unusually small brain, Eric believes that if Caroline concentrates on developing in the direction of an investor like Buffett, she will definitely be able to achieve extraordinary achievements in the future.
Caroline was a little embarrassed by Eric's compliment. She was not as familiar with Buffett as Eric was, so she didn't know that she and Buffett had any similar potential. The little hand under the desk squeezed the professional suit She was still not ashamed to ask, and said, "Eric, if there is nothing else, I'm going back to work."
With a smile on the corner of Eric's mouth, he couldn't help but tease: "You don't want to chat with me?"
Knowing that Eric was joking with her again, Caroline couldn't help shaking her head solemnly: "But, it's working time now."
Eric liked Caroline's somewhat old-fashioned appearance very much, and continued: "You are my assistant, and any of my needs can become your work content, chatting is also counted."
"Of course not," Caroline retorted, blinking.
However, saying so, Kelly's shadow suddenly popped up in Caroline's mind, thinking of the occasional intimacy that this mature but charming female boss showed with Eric. As well as the not-so-secret relationship between the two, Caroline couldn't help but have a very absurd idea in her little head: Is this also the job content of a female assistant? If so, then if he proposes to himself...
With the deepening of thoughts. Caroline's little face had turned red unknowingly, her bright eyes sneaked a glance at Eric, and quickly avoided it.
Seeing Caroline's inexplicably rosy face, Eric asked with some amusement, "What bad things are you thinking?"
"No, no." Caroline shrank her neck, then stood up immediately: "I'm going back to work."
After finishing speaking, before Eric could answer, Caroline turned around and escaped from Eric's office, as if she was about to be held down by the big devil if she slowed down for a second.
Alas, for daring to neglect the boss so much, it seems that the salary will be deducted as punishment.
Eric thought unscrupulously, and pressed the call button on the landline next to him, summoned the secretary outside, and asked the other party to send her the memo that Caroline had left on his desk.
July. Most companies have begun to count the revenue performance in the first half of the year, and Firefly is no exception. With the rapid recovery of the U.S. economy, Firefly’s movies, TV, theme parks, peripheral stores and other businesses have maintained a very strong growth momentum compared with the same period last year. There is no suspense that the revenue will exceed 10 billion US dollars.
At the same time, "Fortune" magazine released the list of the world's top 500 companies for the first time in July. Before that, "Fortune" magazine only counted the top 500 domestic companies in the United States.
Although the bubble burst in the early 1990s, Japan still occupies six places in the top ten of the world's top 500, and General Motors, which ranks first in the United States, can only rank fifth in the entire list. The top four are all Japanese consortiums. Firefly Group's annual revenue of about US$20 billion is very inconspicuous in front of the US$175.8 billion turnover of Mitsubishi Corporation, which is the first on the list.
Although Eric lamented the huge gap with these world-class corporate oligarchs, he would not underestimate himself. As long as all the enterprises in the entire Firefly system fully grow, they will definitely be giants that everyone needs to look up to. Moreover, with the rapid development of high-tech, this day will not be too far away.
In Angle Manor, Eric sat on the sofa by the curtain wall and was flipping through Fortune magazine. Natasha walked in with Amy Pascal, helped them make coffee, and the twins walked upstairs quietly. Today is July 9th, and the Yahoo annual meeting will officially start tomorrow. Eric will be there soon. Drew and the twins were upstairs helping themselves to pack for their flight to Boston.
Amy sat down on the sofa opposite, took a sip of coffee, glanced at the magazine in Eric's hand, and said with a smile: "Eric, I decided that you should like "Forbes" more."
Eric knew that Amy was referring to the Forbes rich list, and said: "Always stare at those who are easy to lose their ambition, or face the reality to motivate yourself."
Amy shook her head and sighed: "You have already left everyone behind. It's really hard to imagine where you will go in the future."
"Anyway, I don't have a good habit of stopping and waiting for others," Eric smiled, and asked, "Drew said that you talked to Kevin Costner about the sequel to "Mission: Impossible" yesterday, and it turned out How about it?"
"Future Water World", which cost US$175 million, was officially released the day before yesterday, and the box office on the first day was only more than US$6 million. Although this figure is almost the same as that of "Forrest Gump", the heavyweights of the two films are also very different. What's more, after the release of "Future Water World", it also received a lot of negative reviews. It is impossible for the box office to go out of the long-term. In addition, the living space is squeezed by many blockbuster films that are still in theaters and are about to start production. The prospect can be described as extremely bleak.
After the box office was released on the first day, Kevin Costner's last sliver of hope was shattered, and he took the initiative to contact Huahua Pictures, hoping to start the sequel of "Mission: Impossible" in order to maintain his popularity.
"It's just a preliminary contact," Amy replied: "I hope to sign two sequels at once. Kevin Costner is only willing to sign one, and in terms of salary, they are not willing to make a deal." Too much concession."
Although "Law Enforcement Titans" and "Water World" are two blockbusters in a row, "Mission: Impossible" was just a big success last year, and its popularity is still at its peak. Kevin Costner is unwilling to make too much The concession is no surprise.
"But the initiative is always on our side, let's talk slowly." Eric said after listening.
Amy nodded, and said again: "I met Joe Silver yesterday, and he asked me to ask you if the agreement last year still counts."
Amy's tone was a little puzzled. Evidently Joe Silver hadn't made things clear to her.
Last year at the "True Lies" celebration banquet, Eric and Joe Silver met. It happened that the other party 'used' to be the producer of "The Matrix". Intend. Eric talked to Amy about the ins and outs of the future, and said: "Although "Fair Game" failed. But it is undeniable that Joe? Silver is a producer who is very good at making action movies. I think he is very suitable to be in charge. "The Matrix" series."
After hearing this, Amy shook her head and said, "Eric, I don't think this is a good idea."
"Why?" Eric asked puzzled.
"You remember Peter Cooper and Jon Peters?"
Eric nodded. After the two left Columbia, they faded out of Hollywood. After all, few people would be willing to invite these two prodigal sons to be producers. However. With a 'brilliant track record' that wiped out more than two billion dollars in Colombia, few in Hollywood will forget the two of them.
Amy continued: "At the beginning, Sony recruited Peter Cooper and Jon Peters from Time Warner to Columbia as CEO and president, but at that time they still had contracts with Warner, and Sony spent 200 million dollars to buy them. They got off the studio affiliated with Warner, but because of the contract, they paid Time Warner another 800 million U.S. dollars in compensation. Joe? Silver has a closer relationship with Warner than the two of them. His production company is also affiliated with Warner, and he has signed a long-term contract with Warner. He has not even participated in the production of any films other than Warner in these years. Time Warner is in a very bad situation now. In this case, If Firefly took the initiative to poach people, they will not let go easily, and the price Firefly will pay will not be much lower than that of Sony."
Eric listened to Amy finish. He could only shake his head regretfully. If Joe Silver could transfer Firefly, he would not mind paying Time Warner an appropriate liquidated damages, but Eric would never be taken advantage of like Sony.
Speaking of it, although the summer file is not over yet, Warner's release strategy of replacing quality with quantity in this summer file in order to improve performance seems to Eric to be doomed to fail.
Three of the planned five films have already been released. But except for "Batman Forever" which is decent at the box office, "Fair Game" at the end of May and "Waterworld" just released have ended in failure, although there will be Arnold Schwarzenegger's " Evaporation Order" and Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's "Firewire", but in Eric's memory, neither of these two films had a high box office.
The box office results of "Vapor Secret" are likely to be similar to Fox's "Die Hard 3" in May. But the film's nearly three-hour run time will also largely limit its box office size.
Because none of the five films has a special effects blockbuster that is likely to explode overseas, and Batman's overseas box office appeal is not even as good as that in North America at this time. Calculated in this way, the total global box office that the five films can get in the future is only About US$1 billion, this figure is only a little more than Firefly's "Jurassic Park 2" at the global box office.
Relying on the excellent word-of-mouth and popularity accumulated in the first film, although the global box office of "Jurassic Park 2" does not reach the global one billion of the first film, it is almost the same. What's more, the total production and publicity cost of "Jurassic Park 2" is only about 150 million US dollars. The box office alone has already made Firefly a lot of money, but the average production cost of Warner's five films is already close to 100 million US dollars. US dollars, the total production and distribution expenditure even reached 700 million US dollars, and the global box office of 1 billion US dollars is far from allowing Time Warner to recover such a huge cost. Due to the drag, Time Warner's loss this year will further expand.
Perhaps, it's time to test whether Time Warner's board of directors has the possibility of splitting up the business. Relying on the advantages of the second largest cable TV operator in the United States, several well-known paid cable TV stations in the future will basically have a more or less shareholding relationship with Time Warner. But this one happened to be the short board of Firefly Group.
"Eric, what are you thinking?" Amy's voice suddenly came from my ear.
Eric withdrew his thoughts, smiled apologetically, and said, "It's nothing, let's talk about MGM."
We chatted casually just now, but the main purpose of Amy's visit today is the acquisition of MGM by Flower Pictures. Taking advantage of the gap before Eric left Los Angeles, Amy came here to discuss this matter with Eric.
Amy nodded, and did not ask Eric why he was distracted just now, and said: "Vivendi, Kerkorian, and us, the three forces that want to acquire MGM, all offer around 1.5 billion U.S. dollars for the time being. After the news that the film industry and DreamWorks production may cut off the cooperation with MGM, the other two did not make another offer. Both Vivendi executives and Kerkorian contacted me and hoped to cooperate with MGM. When you meet, they know that Huahua Films does not have enough acquisition funds, so they all hope to cooperate in this acquisition. On the side of Lyon Credit, they offered US$1.8 billion, and everyone is at a stalemate for the time being. .”
Eric held a coffee cup and listened to Amy quietly, thinking quickly.
Even if the final purchase price is maintained at around 1.5 billion US dollars, it will not be easy for Huahua Pictures to spend this money.
In Eric's plan, Firefly Group will buy out the distribution rights of "Forrest Gump" overseas, video tapes, and TV broadcasts with US$300 million in cash. The income from "Mission: Impossible" released by Huahua Pictures at the end of last year will be used to repay the production financing of the previous films. The income it brings is also limited, not to mention that the income settlement of "Night at the Museum" will probably wait until the end of the year.
Calculated, the funds available to Huahua Pictures are only the domestic box office revenue brought by "Forrest Gump" and the buyout funds of Firefly, which is roughly around US$400 million, which is still a big gap from US$1.5 billion. .
Ps. Children’s shoes who are chasing updates, do you still have free appreciation tickets and starting coins? The countdown to the 515 red envelope list is counting down. (To be continued.)