I’m in Hollywood

After lunch with Bill Michanick, Eric boarded a plane to New York.

Today is Wednesday, November 18th.

In order to have enough time to formulate a targeted response strategy according to the stock price trend on the first day, Yahoo's ipo date is deliberately set on the day after tomorrow, that is, Friday, the last trading day of the week.

Inside the cabin of a Boeing 767.

Although growing up in a wealthy middle-class family, this was Anne Hathaway's first private jet.

In order to avoid being treated as an uninformed little girl, she has been reserved in the cabin lounge after the plane took off.

After more than half an hour, a magazine that was used as a pastime in his hand was flipped through, but he didn't see anything. Looking up and looking around, Eric's female assistant seemed to have been looking at the documents in her hands intently, as if she didn't notice herself at all. After hesitating for a while, Annie stood up and walked towards the front of the cabin.

Eric just said that he went to the study.

Is there a study room on the plane?

Bah, it's strange that such a big plane has a study.

As if worried that her psychological activities would be spied on by Mayer, Anne Hathaway turned her head and glanced guiltily before tiptoeing out of the lounge.

Passing a reception room and a bathroom, and gently pushed open the third door, Annie saw that Eric was sitting behind a desk, and when the man looked up, the girl quickly revealed a harmless human and animal. smile: Eric, I, um, I just see if you are there.

Eric motioned for the girl to come over and smiled: Do you think I have the ability to sneak away from the plane?

Of course not, Anne Hathaway, realizing that she had just said something stupid, defended a little with her tongue stuck out.

When I came to Eric, I saw the man stretched out his hand towards him and sat on Eric's lap naturally.

Curiously glanced at the contents on the desktop and laptop screen, and felt a big strong arm wrapping around her waist, Annie's body softened backwards, thinking of an incident from a few days ago, she leaned on the man and said softly: Eric, I went to see Teddy Bear with some friends last Saturday, is that really your script?

Yeah, Eric casually covered the laptop screen, moved it aside, and said, So, how does it feel?

Very, Annie thought for a while, and said, holding back her smile, very interesting.

Oh, that's not what a good girl should say, Eric smiled and held up the girl's waist, put her on the desk opposite, and said, I thought you would say that you would endure it for 15 minutes after seeing it. I kept running away.

Annie kicked off the small leather shoes on her feet, and her feet in black stockings rubbed gently on Eric's legs, with a little more charm in her eyes: This is your movie.

Eric held the girl's restless calf, looked up and saw that she was wearing a magenta mid-length trench coat today, with two long legs sticking out from the hem, so he curiously stretched out the trench coat on the girl's waist. The belt was pulled away, and there was only a light shirt and an ol-style black tube skirt inside. He couldn't help laughing: Do you know what the temperature in New York is now?

Annie thought that Eric was going to do something bad, so she leaned back slightly and put her hands on the desk. Hearing the man's question, she was stunned,

But quickly said: I know, but Eric will definitely not let me freeze, right?

Eric nodded, looking at the attractive appearance of the girl at this time, his fingers circled around her waist to find the zipper of the tube skirt and pulled it down, saying: Hey, since you've seen Teddy Bear, I also Let's test your tolerance limit?

Annie lifted her body slightly, and obediently asked Eric to peel off her tube skirt, but with a little resentment in her eyes, she said half-truth, You have already tested it.

With a wicked smile on Eric's face, he said, Little guy, do you think that's the limit? It's too naive.

More than three hours later, the Boeing 767 landed at Eric's private airport on Long Island. It was already night on the east coast. The temperature in New York was similar to that in London, and it was already winter.

There was a reception tonight that Eric needed to attend in person. After calling East Hampton, Eric boarded the helicopter to Manhattan again.

Around eight o'clock, the helicopter landed on the rooftop of Eric's high-rise mansion at the entrance to Manhattan's Sixth Avenue.

A group of seven got off the vh-60, which was still black. Mayer went downstairs with a few bodyguards to arrange a car, and Eric took Annie back to his residence first.

Turning on the air-conditioning system in the mansion, Eric looked at Annie who was leaning softly on the sofa in the living room and smiled. Although he said on the plane that he wanted to test the girl's endurance, he didn't actually do anything excessive. .

Walking over and pinching the girl's chin, Eric said, Would you like to go to the reception with me later?

Is that ok? Annie immediately cheered up, and in a blink of an eye, she realized that her reaction was not in line with the 'state' just now, she reached out and grabbed a pillow next to her and held it in her arms, saying: But, Eric, I don't know anything. don't know.

These receptions just need small vases that don't understand anything, Eric said with a smile, Hey, that's it, go with me later, and I'll take you back to Milburn tomorrow morning.

Anne traveled with Eric this time, mainly to come back to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with her family at the end of the year. Her home is in Milburn, New Jersey. Eric does not know the exact location, but according to Anne's description, it is probably Just across the river from Manhattan, near Jersey City, still belongs to the Greater New York area.

Hearing Eric's words, Annie said with some anticipation: Eric, I didn't actually tell my parents that I will be back in the next two days. Can I play in Manhattan for two more days?

Eric shook his head and said, I've been too busy these two days, but I don't have time to accompany you.

Annie looked at Eric hopeful for a moment, and seeing that the man was unmoved, she had to give up her thoughts.

After a while, Mayer came back with a few sets of clothes with a cold expression, and watched Annie put on the little dress that was actually very suitable for her. When Eric left with the girl, the female assistant seemed to be only thrown by the master. The cat, who was resentful at home, frantically tossed around the apartment and drank the most expensive bottle of red wine in Eric's wine cabinet.

ipo, the usual translation is 'initial public offering', but Eric feels that this translation is not appropriate, but the literal translation of the three words initial-public-offerings is more in line with the correct meaning of ipo: the first supply to the public market (stocks ).

Because, when the IPO is in progress, in fact, the company has completed the fundraising for institutional investors. After the IPO, it means that the stocks sold to institutional investors can be officially traded in the open market.

On the other hand, when people hear that a company officially announces the date of its IPO, it already means that the company is basically a successful IPO.

What Eric brought Annie to tonight was Yahoo's thank-you reception for representatives of institutional investors who subscribed for the company's shares.

Driven by the recent hype of Yahoo's listed technology stocks, the Nasdaq index broke through 2,500 on Monday this week, entering what Eric believes is the most dangerous and volatile range. As of the day's close today, the Nasdaq has reached 2,567 points, which is not a big increase, but it also increases the uncertainty of the Nasdaq curve after Yahoo's IPO.

In the banquet hall of the Plaza Hotel, Eric took Annie to entertain some important guests tonight. Chris, Ian Grenier, Morgan Stanley President John Mark and others gathered around Eric .

Handing Annie to Emily, several men stood together in a corner of the hall, and the other guests were very wise and did not come over.

Although the IPO of the day after tomorrow means that Yahoo has completed its first public fundraising, next, whether it is Firefly System or Morgan Stanley, which is responsible for underwriting, and even several other banks, they are facing more serious problems.

Everyone has a large number of investment in technology stocks. Although the exact number is not clear, Eric can be sure that the scale of technology stocks held by the major Wall Street investment banks at this time is definitely no less than that of the Shamrock Fund of the Firefly Group. Moreover, these investment banks entered the market much later than the Clover Fund. If you want to ensure profits, you must ensure that after Yahoo's IPO, the entire Nasdaq market will not be affected by Yahoo's stock price fluctuations.

As a pure Internet company with the largest IPO so far, once Yahoo's stock is strongly bearish or short-sold after the IPO, it will definitely trigger a domino-like chain reaction more easily than any other technology company.

Because the number of subscriptions after the roadshow was better than we thought, according to the green shoe mechanism, this time we sold a total of 172.5 million shares, of which 22.5 million shares were green shoe options, accounting for 15% of the established issuance. Once the IPO After the stock price trended down, Morgan Stanley could put up $735.75 million to support the market.”

In the crowd, John Mark once again briefly introduced some measures taken by Morgan Stanley to Eric.

The so-called 'green shoe mechanism' is scientifically called the over-allotment option.

To put it simply, the issuer authorizes the underwriters to sell more shares to institutional investors that account for no more than 15% of the set issuance volume during the early subscription process.

However, these stocks were not formally delivered, but an option-like transaction by the subscribers. Moreover, because they had paid cash like other equity subscribers, the option subscriptions of institutional investors could not be revoked. In fact, this also It's like an adventure.

After confirming the green shoe option, after the IPO, the company's stock price rose and it was a great success. Then, the underwriters obtained the shares from the issuer at the issue price and transferred them to the option subscribers. If the company's stock price falls, or even falls below the issue price, the underwriters use the funds obtained from selling the options to buy back the shares from the open market and sell them to institutional investors who called the options.

The green shoe mechanism guarantees the flexibility to raise more funds for issuers when the company's stock is popular, and also allows an additional group of institutional investors to reap huge returns. But in fact, the most important thing is that once the company's stock price is not satisfactory after the IPO, the underwriters can openly and legally carry out market support operations to prevent the stock price from falling too much and harming the interests of all parties.

John Mark briefly introduced a few words, then looked directly at Eric, and continued: However, Eric, I think that more than 700 million US dollars of funds are still not too safe, I hope the Firefly system can take more Measures. Although Firefly Investment has just acquired Sony's film assets some time ago, this expenditure only accounts for a small part of the funds from the sale of aol's equity. I think, in the event of an accident, Firefly Investment should be able to invest another amount to ensure Yahoo's share price.

Eric smiled and listened to John Mark finish, nodded and said, If necessary, John, Firefly will definitely do it.

In all fairness, Eric is more worried than investment banks like Morgan Stanley about the knock-on effects of Yahoo's stock price failure after IPO.

If several major investment banks lose money in technology stocks, the losses are actually those investors who entrust investment banks to manage their wealth management. But on Firefly's side, a large part of the technology stocks held by Clover Fund are Eric's own. If all tens of billions of dollars are lost, even with Eric's current net worth, it will definitely be very painful.

Moreover, the most important thing is the 30% forward equity transfer agreement signed by Yahoo and Microsoft.

Microsoft has formed a very stable monopoly on the operating system. Even if the Nasdaq crashes, Microsoft's stock price will not fall too hard, but Yahoo, which is still in a period of rapid growth, cannot be so lucky because there is no actual profit support. , the stock price drop will definitely be very shocking. Although after several years of operation, after this listing, Firefly will not lose its absolute control over Yahoo even if it gives Microsoft another 30% equity, but in any case, Eric does not want to take 30% equity at this time. Sold to Microsoft.

As well as the media, this requires Eric to do it yourself. Although Eric's ambiguous promise did not satisfy John Mark, he continued: I recently found out that it has appeared on CNN for several days in a row. Look down on Yahoo's remarks, and the Washington Post, they published a critical article on technology stocks yesterday. The words are very aggressive, Eric, I don't really understand this, if I don't remember Wrong, you should have a very good relationship with Mr. Buffett.

Eric is also a little puzzled. Although the Washington Post is in the hands of the Graham family, Buffett has been one of the major shareholders and important directors of the Washington Post from a long time ago. has a very strong influence. Turning his head and looking at Chris next to him, although Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is also one of the important shareholders of Firefly Group, Chris and Buffett are relatively close in terms of personal friendship.

Chris shook his head: I've been too busy these two days, but I didn't pay attention to this matter. I'll have a phone call with Warren in person tomorrow morning.

I'll see if I can have a meal with Terry Semel tomorrow at noon, Eric also said. I'll say hello to the other TV stations. As for the newspapers, Chris, that's up to you. Take responsibility, and make sure there's no bullshit in the media while Yahoo is going public.