I’m in Hollywood - Chapter 466

[Chapter 463 AOL]

“Eric, even if you don’t participate in the Oscars, you can’t leave Los Angeles at this time, right? After the Oscars, there is a Firefly Films theme party. This is the first time for Firefly?” Lying on the big bed, looking at the two people who were packing their luggage.

『,

Tina Fei helped Eric fold clothes. Hearing Drew’s words, she raised her head and glanced at Eric who was taking clothes from the closet.

She is now Drew’s assistant, and she is basically inseparable from Drew, and even lives with Drew. When Drew wanted to send Eric out of Los Angeles, she followed.

Eric handed a suit to Tina Fei, and said, “Michael and the others will arrange this.”

“How about I go with you?” Drew stood up, looking forward to it. said.

“I’m not going out to play, so you just stay in Los Angeles and don’t make trouble for me.”

Drew snorted in dissatisfaction, his soft body in a striped hip-knit sweater wriggled like a big bug When he got to the bed, he jumped down barefoot, leaned over to Eric’s suitcase to help fold the clothes together, and looked at Tina Fey, who was quietly wearing black-rimmed glasses, and Drew suddenly said, “Yes No, let Tina go with you, I don’t have much to do during this time anyway?”

Tina Fei heard this sentence, a flash of anticipation flashed in her heart, and glanced at Eric’s figure secretly, but she was very surprised. He shook his head in desperation and said, “I won’t go, but I won’t know anything.”

“I don’t need you to know anything,” Drew leaned close to Tina Fei’s ear, as if whispering secretly, but he did n’t know anything at all.

He didn’t lower his voice: “With you by Eric’s side, he won’t provoke other women.”

Tina Fei instantly understood what Drew meant.

His face suddenly turned red.

Eric took out the last few clothes and handed them to Tina Fey.

He knocked on Drew’s forehead and said, “Stop talking nonsense. Also, when I’m not here, I’m not allowed to do anything messy in the manor.”

Drew covered his head and called out, and said in a long voice dissatisfied: “I see.”

Packing up, Eric refused Drew to send himself, and took Alan and four bodyguards to Los Angeles by car. Airport.

Boarded a small Boeing private jet.

The passenger plane was originally leased by Disney for executives. After Disney was acquired by Firefly, the right to use the passenger plane was also signed to Firefly.

After the plane took off, Eric instructed Allen to take out the documents, went to a lounge at the airport alone, sat beside the desk by the window and opened the folder in his hand.

After Chris returned to New York,

according to Eric’s previous instructions, Firefly Investment began to pay attention to and collect information and materials on computer and network related industries.

And a few days ago, I sent some investment projects that I liked to Eric, and this pile of information.

A company caught Eric’s attention, which is why he made a special trip to New York.

The company’s name is America Online ().

It was the original time and space, which merged with Time Warner Group and AOL in 2000. At that time in his previous life, Eric was just twenty-five years old, and he had graduated from college a few years ago. , Like many young people, he was very concerned about this merger involving 180 billion US dollars, and the market value of the merged Time Warner Group at that time even exceeded ** US dollars. Eric remembers it very clearly. In contrast, the mainland’s GDP in 2000 was only 9.9 trillion yuan, equivalent to 1.3 trillion US dollars. That is to say, the market value of a company in the Time Warner Group at its peak reached 26% of the mainland’s GDP.

Now, the information in hand shows that although AOL has been established for seven years, it is still only an inconspicuous Internet service provider in Virginia. The company is valued at only $300 million, has 120 employees and 15 10,000 users, and only 10% of the network service market.

After Eric carefully read the information that was not too thick in his hand several times, the plane had landed at Kennedy Airport.

“Eric, here,” Eric saw Chris in a long black trench coat beckoning to him as he walked out of the airport hall.

Although it was the end of March, the temperature in New York was still only about ten degrees. Eric, who originally only wore a thin coat in Los Angeles, had to put on a trench coat.

“Chris, how are you doing?” Eric and Chris hugged and exchanged greetings.

“It’s okay, oh, this is Mr. Steve Case,” Chris nodded, then introduced Eric to the middle-aged man beside him to pick up the plane.

Eric has read the profile of Steve Case many times. Steve Case is the founder of America Online. He wears a khaki trench coat, has a round face and looks a little shy.

“Mr. Williams, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I like your movies very much,” Steve Case took the initiative to extend his hand to Eric and compliment him. Although he started from scratch and has accumulated hundreds of millions of wealth, but Compared with Eric, it still pales in comparison.

Eric smiled and shook hands with the other party, then introduced the entourage around him, and then got into the car and returned to Manhattan together.

Eric and Chris got into a car, and after the car started, they asked, “How did you talk to him?”

Chris shook his head: “It hasn’t been negotiated, he hasn’t completely given up on the listing. Financing plan, but he promised to talk to you.”

Eric breathed a sigh of relief, when Chris collected the information, the other party had been preparing for the listing and financing for half a year.

However, in Eric’s view, now is simply not the best time to go public.

“As long as we can still talk.”

Chris looked at his watch, Eric set off from Los Angeles at nine o’clock in the morning western time, and according to the four-hour time difference between east and west, it is now more than nine o’clock in New York: “By the way, Should I take you back to your residence first, or go directly to the company?”

If Steve Case didn’t come to pick you up, Eric wouldn’t mind going back to his Manhattan apartment first: “Let’s go to the company.”

“Okay,” Chris ordered the driver.

Then he said, “Come to my house for dinner at night. Emily cooks herself.”

“Okay.” Eric nodded cheerfully, not seeing Chris say this, his eyes flashed with a guilty conscience. and embarrassing.

“If you do

n’t pay attention to user experience, no matter how advanced a company’s technology is, it will often be eliminated by the market. Therefore, AOL’s business strategy is to focus on users, and we will meet the satisfaction of all users every quarter. Make statistics. And collect suggestions from users to improve…” In the conference room of Firefly Investments, Steve Case explained his business ideas with passion.

After Firefly Investment contacted him, Steve Case had the idea of introducing Firefly investment funds. After all, if he chose to go public, AOL would have to accept a lot of supervision, which would definitely limit a company to a certain extent. The pace of development of the enterprise.

However, the reason why he has not spoken up to now, and also proposed to interview Eric, the owner of Firefly Investments, is nothing more than up for grabs.

I want to get more benefits from Firefly.

“Mr. Case, I heard. You are still more inclined to make AOL listed, right?” Eric asked after waiting for the other party’s speech to end.

Steve Case nodded without hesitation: “Yes, if you choose to go public, AOL can more easily draw development funds from the capital market. In our development plan, AOL is very thirst for funds. Yes

.”

Eric smiled, if Steve Case insisted on choosing to go public, he would not be here at all today, but there is no need to expose things that everyone knows well.

“I have no objection to AOL’s listing,” Eric said. “However, I don’t think now is the best time to go public.”

Steve Case showed a puzzled look.

Eric said: “If you pay more attention to current affairs, you should have noticed the recent election speeches of Democratic presidential candidate William Clinton, where he proposed a plan for an information superhighway.”

“I did hear some, Steve Keyes nodded: “However, although I support some of Clinton’s claims, I don’t think he has a very high chance of winning. Last year’s victory in the Gulf War brought President Bush high prestige, while Clinton’s Democratic Party is also in a mess. If Clinton can’t be elected president, many of his governing ideas will be just empty words.”

“It can’t be said that the reason why Clinton proposed the information superhighway plan is precisely because of his election campaign. The team sees the huge development prospects of computer networks. I think this is an irreversible trend of the times. Even if Clinton loses the election and President Bush is re-elected, it will not change this trend. Therefore, AOL chose to go public so early. A very unwise thing.”

“Mr. Williams, although I am also very confident in the popularization of computer networks, but…”

“$60 million.”

“What?” Steve Case was stunned. asked uncertainly.

Eric said: “I know that AOL plans to sell 30% of the shares this time, and plans to raise $5,000 in funding. I can give 60 million, and, in the next few years, if AOL lacks funds, Firefly can still be carried out. Investment.”

Hearing Eric directly start the quotation, Steve Case said: “Mr. Williams, $60 million seems to be a little less, although our company’s plan is to raise $50 million, but if the market If

the feedback is good, the financing scale must be more than that.”

“Very good,” Eric smiled: “It seems that you have agreed to discuss the capital injection with Firefly, so the specific amount can be carried out by our two teams. Negotiation.”

Steve Case was stunned for a while, and soon realized that Eric had led himself into a ditch: “Mr. Williams, I was just talking about a possibility, and didn’t agree.”

“It’s okay, then let’s talk about it,” Eric sat up straight, the smile on his face still unchanged.

Chris also smiled and said: “Mr. Case, Eric not only has to take care of Firefly Pictures, but also has a few movies to work on, and it will be Oscar in a few days, so you said you want to talk face to face. , he canceled attending the Oscars and came to New York specifically, so you should be able to see that we are very sincere.”

“Okay,” Steve Case also felt that it might be possible to be hypocritical. Self-defeating, he said, “However, regarding the scale of Firefly’s capital injection and the management rights of the organization, I have some conditions of my own?”

“Please tell me?” Chris stretched out his hand.

“First of all, Firefly cannot interfere in the day-to-day management of AOL.”

“You can rest assured,” Chris replied: “You should know that Firefly Investment is also the largest shareholder of Cisco, but in addition to major corporate matters, we I don’t interfere in Cisco’s management.”

Steve Case was obviously aware of this matter, nodded and said, “Another thing, I hope Firefly can give me the voting rights of the shares it holds.

” Under this condition, Chris looked at Eric, not intervening in AOL’s daily management and transferring the voting rights of the shares are two different things. If you give up the voting rights, it means that Firefly will completely lose the power to control the direction of AOL, Steve. Case can do whatever he wants.

Eric thought quickly in his heart, then raised three fingers and said, “Three years, within three years, Firefly will give you the voting rights of the shares it holds.”

“Three years is too short, UU read www. .sonicmtl.com for at least five years,” Steve Case bargained.

“No, five years is too long,” Eric shook his head: “Three years at most, and I hope AOL chooses to go public after three years.”

Three years later, it happened to be 1995. At that time, it was the beginning of the Internet explosion, and it was also the beginning of the formation of the Internet bubble.

Because of the merger of AOL and Time Warner, Eric still paid a lot of attention to AOL, and AOL’s most glorious period was only five years after 1995.

This is because AOL’s main business is dial-up Internet access services. After 2000, with the bursting of the Internet bubble and the popularization of broadband Internet access, AOL declined rapidly at a rapid rate, and its market value fell in just a few years. It has shrunk by more than 90%. Therefore, the reason why Eric attaches so much importance to AOL now is entirely because of the net worth of AOL in the five years between 1995 and 2000. After the golden period of these five years, AOL is worthless.

“Steve, we can talk about the amount of capital injection, but in three years, I will never give in.” (To be continued..)

[End of this Chapter]