Eric finished his phone call with Amy Pascal at noon and flew to San Francisco in the afternoon.
In addition to visiting Fireflyer's assembly plant, Eric is most concerned about the development progress of several products in the Firefly Electronics Project.
For any high-tech company, product marketing is important, but technology and patent reserves are the foundation for a high-tech company to survive. Therefore, Eric specially asked Victor McNairy to introduce the research and development results of Firefly Electronics in recent months. Although the first-generation Fireflyer player was quite popular, there are still many things that can be improved in terms of battery durability, storage capacity, and audio decoding. The reason why Eric has always let Victor McNairy, who is mainly in charge of technology research and development, serve as the CEO of Firefly Electronics is also implicitly expressing his fundamental attitude towards the business strategy of Firefly Electronics.
Back in Los Angeles, it was already seven o'clock in the evening.
Eric got off the plane with Kelly, and just left Santa Monica Airport by car, planning to take Kelly home and then return to Pointe Manor, when the cell phone in his pocket rang.
Kelly sat next to Eric, hung up the phone after listening to him chat with the opposite party, and asked, "Eric, or MGM?"
Eric put his phone away, nodded and said, "Pierre Truc refused to leave, and was still busy in Century City, saying that he must see me today."
"How about we go and have a look?"
"I'll just go there by myself, and I'll take you home first."
After sending Kelly back to her residence in the North District of Santa Monica, Eric ordered the driver to turn around and head to the MGM headquarters in Century City.
The MGM headquarters is a building shrouded in tempered glass, located on a not too spacious street not far from the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Wilshere Boulevard in Century City. After a circle in Santa Monica, Eric drove to Century City by car. The sky had already darkened, and the shops on both sides of the street began to light up with colorful lights.
As soon as the car turned into the street where the MGM headquarters is located, Eric heard faint noises. Looking out through the front window, the crowd holding various slogans was shouting in front of the MGM building. Seeing something, almost completely blocked the entire street.
The driver automatically slowed down and turned to look at Eric questioningly.
Eric stared at the crowd for a few seconds with a sneer on his lips.
True movie fans usually only come to express their wishes during working hours. Now it is obviously off-duty time. According to common sense, most of the employees at MGM headquarters have gone home from get off work. Who are you protesting at this time
Do some people think that they will sell the agent movie universe because of dissatisfaction with fans like "The Matrix"
Looking away, Eric ordered: "Leave them alone, just drive into the underground parking lot."
In front of the building, the crowd noticed a black sedan turning into the street and just consciously moved out of the way.
However, the media reporters who had been staying here noticed the eye-catching Rolls-Royce logo in front of the car, and were keenly aware of something, and surrounded them one after another. Someone even boldly stood in front of the car and raised the camera, trying to confirm the identity of the passengers in the car through the front window, but the other party was quickly pulled away by the security guards who rushed out from the inside of the building, and the Rolls-Royce drove smoothly into the side of the building Alley, into the underground parking lot.
Taking the elevator to the top floor of the office building, Eric hugged the girl who came out and nodded to Amy Pascal. Without saying anything, he went straight to a conference room and opened the door and walked in.
In the empty conference room, there was only one middle-aged man who had stood up, about fifty years old, wearing a black suit, wearing rimless glasses, with a gentle appearance, and he probably was Pierre Truc.
"Sit down, Mr. Truk." Eric didn't come forward to greet the other party, nor did he deliberately walk to the head of the conference table. He opened a chair and sat down at random, looking at the other party, and said: "So , you want to see me?"
Although he is also in a high position in the Vivendi Group, Pierre Truc still feels a slight sense of oppression when facing Eric. The ignorant are fearless, and on the other hand, after years of being in the workplace, Pierre Truc is better able to understand how much power the young man in front of him has in his hands.
However, thinking of Vivendi's high-level instructions and Richard Lovett's promise, Pierre Truc still tried to maintain his momentum, sat down calmly, and said: "Yes, Williams Sir, I think we need to talk."
Eric looked at him and said lightly: "And then?"
Pierre Truc glanced at Drew and Amy who were sitting next to Eric, straightened their bodies without a trace, and said solemnly: "Mr. Williams, we are very grateful to you for Mi However, we also hope that you will not continue to intervene in the management of MGM. For MGM, you are only an outsider after all. As the second largest shareholder of MGM, we ask the management The decision to replace Pierce Brosnan must be reversed immediately, it will only destroy the entire Agent Universe. While we will never deny that you built the Agent Universe, we will not allow you to make it destroy."
Eric tapped his finger on the clean conference table twice, nodded slightly, and said, "Continue, now that you're here, does Vivendi have any objections to MGM's management?"
Pierre Truc felt that Eric was posturing and did not show weakness, and continued: "Of course, Vivendi does not approve of MGM's continuous purchase of E! Entertainment TV and one-time investment in recent months. Launched the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with US$300 million and acquired Rainbow Media shares. This company has just recovered. In order to complete these plans, it will issue a large amount of corporate bonds, which is likely to delay MGM again. We are mired in debt. We hope that management can gradually realize these plans with a more robust plan."
Eric waited for a moment, made sure that Pierre Truc had finished speaking, nodded again, and said: "Well, in this case, Mr. Truc, let me tell you how to solve this matter. First, As the second largest shareholder of MGM, Vivendi only has 16% of the voting rights. Even if several other European shareholders are all on Vivendi's side, your voting rights are only 31%, which is not enough to decide anything. So, you have three choices. First, find a way to make yourself the controlling shareholder of MGM, and then you can replace the company’s board of directors and management, and implement all the decisions you want. Second, be yourself The second largest shareholder of MGM, accept all decisions made by MGM’s current board of directors and management. Third, if you can’t bear to be ignored, you can choose to sell your MGM shares, and I can arrange funds to take over at any time Your stake. So, any questions?"
Halfway through Eric's speech, Pierre Truc already had the urge to lift the table. He felt that Eric was playing tricks on himself, so he forcibly endured and waited for Eric to finish speaking. Pierre Truc Truk said slowly: "Mr. Williams, are you teasing me?"
"Oh," Eric seemed to suddenly remember something, patted his forehead suddenly, and said, "I almost forgot, I'm just an outsider. So, if you want to hear, I can ask Drew or Amy to repeat If you repeat what I just said, they should be regarded as insiders, right?"
Pierre Truc turned to look at the girl and Amy: "Miss Barrymore, Ms. Pascale, are you really willing to let Williams ruin everything?"
Amy's expression was a little hesitant, and she turned her head to look at the two people beside her, noticing that Eric was looking at her with a smile, her heart trembled, her eyes dodged, but her mind became firm, she turned to Pierre Truc and said : "Mr. Truk, Eric's decision is the decision of the management. If you think it is necessary, we can call the board of directors to vote."
The four independent directors among the seven directors of MGM were all selected under the instruction of Eric, and Pierre Truc knew which side these people would stand on without thinking.
Realizing that today is doomed to return without success, Pierre Truc clenched his hands on the conference table, not knowing what to say for a while.
Eric didn't want to continue spending time with Pierre Truc, so he patted the girl beside him and said, "Let's go, we must have not had dinner yet, right?"
"Yeah," the girl stuck over like a kitten, and stood up together holding Eric's arm.
"Amy, please entertain Mr. Truk," Eric said to Amy Pascal, then turned to look at Pierre Truk, the smile on his face remained the same, but restrained With a slightly cold look in his eyes, he said, "Speaking of which, Mr. Truk, what you said just now is very reasonable. MGM should indeed go more steadily. Therefore, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Let Firefly invest, and MGM only needs to be responsible for the distribution."
Pierre Truc was still in a daze, but Amy looked over in surprise.
In fact, Amy also felt that it was too risky to invest 300 million US dollars in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy at one time, and once hoped that Firefly could participate in the investment together. However, she did not expect that Eric would suddenly take away the entire project, leaving only a distribution right to MGM. However, after noticing that Eric glanced at her again after saying these words, Amy suddenly realized that Eric's actions might also mean warning her.
Perhaps, my performance today was indeed too indecisive, seeming too indecisive.
Even though there is no shareholding in MGM, the whole of Hollywood knows that this big film company has always been under Eric's control. Also one of the top seven female heads, Amy is very clear that the autonomy she gets from Eric far exceeds Paramount's Shirley Lansing, which was originally a sign of Eric's trust in her. kinds of signs. However, if she continues to worry about losing Brosnan for the 007 series, she will soon lose Eric's trust.
Secretly self-examined, Amy no longer hesitated, got up to send Eric and Drew away, and then turned to Pierre Truc who was still sitting on the other side of the conference table: "Mr. Truc , it's getting late, do you need me to arrange a car to take you to the hotel?"
When he came back to his senses, Pierre found that Eric and Drew had left, and suddenly raised some expectations. He said to Amy: "Ms. Pascal, why don't we have dinner together and chat by the way?"
Amy shook her head politely, without looking for any reason, but just refused: "Sorry, Mr. Truk, if you don't need a car, I'll take you downstairs." (To be continued.)