The lawsuit filed by Sony Records, BMG, and EMI on the grounds that Fireflyer facilitated the dissemination of pirated music was dismissed by the San Francisco Federal Court, which indicates that this electronic product has a formal legal market position. With the unstoppable development momentum of Fireflyer players, traditional portable music player manufacturers are almost doomed to be strongly or even destructively impacted.
Stimulated by this news, the New York Stock Exchange had just opened in the morning, and the stock prices of traditional portable music player manufacturers led by Sony fell significantly. At nine o'clock in the morning Western Time, the San Francisco Federal Court officially held a press conference Shares of Sony had fallen 2.7 percent on the announcement, wiping out nearly $1.5 billion in market value within hours. Coincidentally, the industry's authoritative financial newspaper "Wall Street Journal" has a potential valuation of Firefly Electronics at US$1.5 billion.
Although Firefly Electronics is not a listed company, this news is still reflected in the stock market in disguise. That is Seagate Technology, which first developed the 1-inch micro hard drive in the industry.
The original entrusted development agreement stipulated that Firefly Electronics had the exclusive right to micro-hard drives for three years after the company released its first product related to micro-hard drives. Correspondingly, Firefly Electronics had to give priority to purchasing micro-hard drives from Seagate Technology.
As the largest mechanical hard disk manufacturer in the original time and space, Seagate's strength at this time is far from being comparable to traditional technology giants such as IBM, Hitachi, and Toshiba. In the whole of last year, Seagate’s mechanical hard disk shipments were only 5 million units, less than 10% of the overall market share of mechanical hard disks.
Although the research and development of micro hard drives is not difficult, hard drive manufacturers with deep technical background such as IBM may only need half a year to come up with mature products, but because they have taken the opportunity in advance and have priority supply with Firefly Electronics According to the agreement, Seagate Technology is destined to become the main supplier of Fireflyer's built-in micro hard drive in the next few years, and to what extent Fireflyer's sales capacity can explode, almost no one can be sure now. Although the price of micro hard drives is much cheaper than that of traditional hard drives, Seagate Technology's micro hard drive business will even reach a scale comparable to that of traditional hard drives by virtue of its quantity advantage.
After a series of news releases that day, while the stock prices of Sony and other traditional portable music equipment manufacturers fell across the board, the stock price of Seagate Technology was a blockbuster. It soared 12% in just one morning, perhaps to further stimulate the stock price. The CEO of the technology company specially held a press conference at noon that day, showing the media the 2G capacity micro hard disk sample that Seagate has successfully developed, and said that this product may be used in the next-generation Fireflyer player.
When the market was fluctuated by news related to Fireflyer, an unexpected episode happened. A newspaper in New York actually dug up the news that Firefly Electronics first contacted IBM and hoped to entrust the other party to develop micro-hard drives. As a result, Due to IBM's arrogant and slow response, the cooperation invitation was eventually dropped.
In recent years, under the leadership of the new CEO Gerstner, IBM has begun to recover, but the situation is far from what it used to be. Now there is a trend of overtaking Microsoft, which was originally supported, in terms of market value. Although hard disk manufacturing is only a marginal business of the IBM Group, the information revealed by this news that there are many internal problems in the IBM Group has to make this traditional high-tech giant take it seriously. IBM's CEO Gerstner even appeared in person later. Justify this 'little matter' in front of the media.
Jeffrey's Farm, Maryland.
Although it is harassed by various news from the outside world from time to time, the small farm like a paradise still presents a joyous atmosphere.
The wedding will be held on the large lawn behind Jeffrey's house, and to accommodate most of the guests' schedules, the wedding ceremony will be held at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning instead of the traditional afternoon. The wedding scene on the lawn was surrounded by flowers at this time, and some people were still making final checks on the scene, and the pleasant fragrance of flowers was wafting in the air.
Eric and Chris welcome the guests who are still arriving one after another. In addition to the guests who will arrive tomorrow, there will still be some guests from afar today, such as Katzenberg, Victor McNairy, Bill Olsen, Jeff Bezos, and more.
Although it was already summer, the weather in the farm did not mean that it was hot at all.
He was busy until two o'clock in the afternoon, and after eating something, Eric sneaked out to the lawn behind the villa, where a simple rehearsal of the wedding ceremony was going on, of course, mainly the rehearsal of the flower girl or ring boy.
Although they have a good relationship with Emily, Joanna and Virginia are not suitable to be bridesmaids, but Joanna's sister Ava Pakula will join in the fun.
Considering the two women, Eric also declined the role of Chris's chief best man and gave it to one of Chris's cousins. However, the three little guys will serve as flower girls and ring boys at the wedding.
On the lawn, apart from Joanna and Virginia, Jeffrey and Emily's parents, Jack Brighton and Melissa Brighton, were also present, and there were some other relatives of both parties around, Everyone was smiling and watching the performance of five or six little guys.
Eric greeted Jeffrey and the others, walked over to Virginia and Joanna and sat down, looking at the aisle in the middle, the wedding master of ceremonies racked his brains to coax a group of restless little guys, laughing Ask Virginia: "Wouldn't it be better to use a pair of flower girls to get rid of the children? With so many little guys, there won't be any trouble tomorrow, right?"
"Even if there is a little trouble in this kind of thing, everyone will just laugh and let it go," Virginia explained, and then added in a low voice: "There are so many relatives and friends, only two children, it is not easy to arrange .”
Eric nodded, taking advantage of everyone's attention on the little ones, he put his arms around Virginia's waist, and asked with a smile, "Are you envious?"
Virginia turned her head, stared at Eric, with a smile on her lips, and said, "I'm so envious, what are you going to do?"
"How about we also have a wedding, I haven't taken a wedding photo of three people yet, you and Joan together."
"Bah, you bastard, I'm too lazy to mess with you," Virginia spat in a low voice, leaned on Eric again, raised her left hand and shook the rose gold ring with a ruby on her ring finger , Said: "Joan and I have discussed it. If you treat us badly in the future, we will take Kevin and Xia Xia to Europe and never see you again."
Eric smiled and said, "You two are still secretly plotting such a thing?"
"Yeah," Virginia said with a white look at Eric, "and you still have to pay alimony, one billion dollars a year, not less than a penny."
"Wow," Eric said with a 'shocked' face and a 'shaky' tone: "How did you calculate this number?"
Virginia was very confident: "Of course it was calculated casually."
"What if I don't give it?"
"Joan and I will find a new father for Xia Xia and Kevin together."
Eric immediately raised his hand and surrendered: "Okay, I admit defeat."
Joanna, who had been listening to the soft conversation between the two, stretched out her hand and called, and said with a soft smile, "Stop talking nonsense."
Virginia smiled, stretched out her arms to hold Eric, looked dotingly at the baby son in the field, and said, "I have something to discuss with you, Kevin and Xia Xia should go to school, There are no proper schools in the Hamptons."
Eric thought for a while and said, "Why don't you move to Manhattan, where there are more private schools."
Virginia shook her head and said, "Joan and I are used to living in the Hamptons, Manhattan is too noisy."
"Then we can't run a school for the two little guys alone, can we?"
Eric's unintentional words just hit Virginia's heart, and the woman said: "Why not, Rockefeller set up a school for his own children back then, which is Browning Private School in Manhattan, your current school The net worth is not much worse than that of the Rockefeller family back then, right?"
Eric shook his head and said, "It's not just about money to run a school."
Virginia insisted: "Anyway, you can pay for it, and Joan and I will do the rest."
Eric had no choice but to compromise. He knew that Virginia and Joanna valued the education of a pair of children more than himself, so he had nothing to worry about, and said, "Okay, I'll pay, and you can do whatever you want OK."
After a busy day of preparations, many people did not rest that night. As soon as the sky brightened the next day, the farm became lively again.
After the breakfast time, due to the limited space of the farm, the guests who could only live in downtown Frederick began to arrive one after another. Although this wedding was not as grand as the so-called 'century wedding' boasted by many rich people, there were two to three hundred guests in total. Three hours before the wedding, the farm was already buzzing with people.
Frederick is only more than 60 kilometers away from Washington DC. At nine o'clock, the Clintons arrived at the farm by helicopter.
Although Chris cannot be regarded as a public figure, due to his rising reputation in the North American business circle in recent years, coupled with the large number of heavyweight guests present this time, his wedding still attracted a lot of media attention.
Although the entire farm is private territory, it is not easy to prevent reporters from sneaking in to take pictures. Eric only thinks that the biggest benefit of the Clintons' arrival is that they don't have to bother to stop the media reporters who want to spy on the wedding. Secret Service agents scattered around the farm took the initiative to help them do this.
Everyone originally wanted to keep the wedding completely private and not accept any media interviews, but since the Clintons have arrived, the White House hopes to have media reporters present.
After a brief discussion, Eric arranged for reporters from ABC TV, "New York Post" and "Washington Post" to come to the wedding scene. ABC Television is owned by Firefly Group, New York Post is affiliated to News Corporation, Washington Post was introduced by Warren Buffett, and Berkshire Hathaway is the major shareholder of Washington Post.
At eleven o'clock, all the guests were seated, the music sounded, and the groomsmen, bridesmaids, and flower girls appeared one after another. Eric sat near the aisle, watching his pair of children walking in front, Kevin held Holding the ring pillow and looking serious, this is obviously the result of Virginia's repeated teachings. Hawaii is carrying a small flower basket, and her eyes are still looking around curiously. Emma behind Hawaii is excited. Flower petals were scattered, and it seemed that the little guy's flower basket would be empty before the end of the red carpet.
Afterwards, the groom entered the ceremony table, and everyone immediately got up to welcome the bride.
In the eyes of everyone, speeches, oaths, exchange of rings, hugs and kisses, a series of wedding procedures were quickly completed. When all the ceremonies were over, Chris and Emily left temporarily to take pictures, and the guests also began to leave the wedding scene and rush to the next door. outdoor banquet venue.
As soon as Eric got up, Emma, who was wearing a pink flower girl dress, pounced on him. Compared with a pair of children, Emma seemed to be more attached to herself. Seeing the little guy stretching out his arms to hug her, Eric smiled and reached out to hug her.
"Dad, I still have petals. They smell so good." The little guy put one arm around Eric's neck, spread the other hand, and sent the petals in his palm to Eric's nose: "Smell it."
Eric smelled it in the little girl's hand, nodded and said, "Well, it smells really good, and Emma smells good too."
"Hehe," the little girl smiled happily, then covered her stomach and said, "Father, I'm hungry."
"Hey, I'm going to eat soon," Eric said, seeing the Clintons walking towards him, he handed Emma to Joanna who was following him, and then went up to her.
Clinton glanced slightly at the two women and the three little guys, then looked away, and asked casually with a smile on his face: "Eric, you will definitely stay in Maryland for a few more days, right? "
The heads of more than a dozen companies under the Firefly System, including Firefly Group, Nokia, Cisco, Qualcomm, AOL, Firefly Electronics, and Amazon, gathered in Maryland. Jorma Ollila even flew here from Northern Europe to make such a There was such a big commotion, it was naturally impossible for everyone to simply eat and drink and then leave.
Eric naturally has a detailed plan, and then everyone will stay in the farm for at least three days to discuss collectively the development of the various companies in the firefly system and the issues of collaboration with each other.
Not understanding why Clinton would ask such a question, Eric nodded, anyway, this is not a secret.
Seeing Eric nod, Clinton said, "That's it. I'm planning to hold a dinner for entrepreneurs in the high-tech field at the White House recently. I wonder if you are interested?"
Although it is impossible to be re-elected, the Clintons are obviously far from giving up their political ambitions, and this has also been proved in Eric's memory. Firefly Investment has almost gathered a group of the most popular high-tech Internet companies in recent years. If these companies can be recruited, it will definitely give them a strong boost to continue to display their political ambitions in the future.
Eric just made some complaints. If we are not interested in what you say, will you hold this dinner or not
However, of course, he would not do such a boring thing to deliberately tease the president, he quickly nodded and smiled: "Of course, Bill, I will tell them, but we will probably stay in Maryland for three days."
"Oh, the time is just right," Clinton said with a faint joy on his face, "By the way, you will come over then, right?"
Eric was not so straightforward this time. He really didn't like the Clintons, and said ambiguously: "Maybe, I have too many things recently, and I may not be able to spare time."
Clinton didn't mind either. He patted Eric on the shoulder and said, "I hope you can come then." (To be continued.)