I’m in Hollywood

On the other side of the phone, Paul Roland said something quickly, and Eric's brows gradually wrinkled.

After Paul Rowland finished speaking, Eric turned around and asked Caroline who was standing not far away: Carly, Estonia seems to be right next to Finland, right?

Well, Caroline nodded and said, Helsinki and Estonia's capital, Tallinn, are across the sea, less than 100 kilometers away.

Help me answer Ollie Karassuou's call, Eric ordered, then turned his attention to his mobile phone again, and said to Paul Rowland: It's definitely too late for you to fly to Europe now, I'll make arrangements there. People go, you can stay in New York and take charge of coordinating.

At the end of last year, Yoma Olia officially resigned from Nokia.

At the recommendation of Yoma Ollila, Oli Krassoou, the former chief financial officer of Nokia, succeeded him as the new chairman and CEO of Nokia.

Caroline didn't understand why Eric suddenly contacted Ollie Karassuou, but she immediately picked up the cordless phone from the secretary room and dialed a series of numbers skillfully. After a while, the call was connected, Caroline said a few words to the other side, and came over and handed the cordless phone to Eric.

Edgar Bronfman didn't expect that it would take Eric half an hour to answer a phone call. As time went by, he even began to wonder if it was the other party who was deliberately drying himself.

The dissatisfaction in his heart gradually accumulated, and when Edgar Bronfman was hesitating whether to get up and leave, Eric finally pushed open the office door and walked in.

Sorry, Ed, Eric, still holding a mobile phone in his hand, came over and sat down on the sofa, putting the mobile phone on the coffee table in front of him, and said, I encountered a very troublesome thing temporarily, and I asked you to Awaited.

Edgar Bronfman smiled as gracefully as he could, and looked curious.

Eric didn't mean to explain to the other party, and said: Then, let's continue the topic just now. Ed, frankly speaking, it is definitely not a good idea for Seagram to want to invest in Firefly Electronics. You know, Firefly Electronics There is no shortage of money, so, for a long time in the future, this company will not only not be listed, nor even have a dividend plan. Moreover, the current valuation of Firefly Electronics in the industry is generally around 30 billion US dollars, I think Seagram is sure It is also unacceptable to take a stake at this valuation.”

Okay, Eric, Edgar Bronfman once again suppressed his dissatisfaction and said, Then, Firefly should show some sincerity in wanting Universal Music to join the digital music store, but now So far, I don't see your sincerity at all.

Ed, you should understand that as long as Universal Music joins the Yahoo Music Store, whether it is Yahoo or Firefly Electronics, or even Firefly Group, they will try their best to devote more resources to Universal Music's music content. It's unmatched by other record companies. Of course, we also have our own record business, but everyone knows that Firefly Records is small and doesn't have much impact on the big picture, Eric said, pausing. Then he continued: However, of course, I will definitely show my sincerity. The ratio of Yahoo Music Store to the record company is 37 points.

This cannot be changed. However, as long as Universal Music agrees to cooperate, in the next few years, Firefly Electronics can return a certain percentage of sales to Universal Music through marketing subsidies.

In fact, as long as Universal Music can agree to open the content license, Eric is even willing to return all the music sales to Universal Music in the next few years, even if there are some additional reposts.

Compared with the huge profits from hardware sales, the revenue sharing of digital music stores can be temporarily abandoned for the Firefly system.

Of course, Yahoo Music Store is a business of Yahoo Network Corporation. Since Yahoo has been listed, Eric can only subsidize the record company through Firefly Electronics for the sake of financial report and stock price.

Edgar Bronfman was silent for a moment. From Eric's tone, he could basically hear how much the other party's so-called subsidy might be.

It's just that Edgar Bronfman is still a little unwilling to think about the analysis of Firefly Electronics' revenue data by various commercial media recently.

Among the five major record companies, Universal is the largest, but its annual revenue is only about 5 billion US dollars, and its annual profit is about 500 million US dollars.

However, according to the general analysis of the media, Firefly Electronics, which has just released its products for two years, has already doubled the annual profit scale of Universal Music. How can this not make the entire record industry feel jealous. Even many people think that the money that Firefly Electronics makes is entirely the profit lost by the overall decline of the record industry in the past two years.

Edgar Bronfman actually didn't want to work with Eric Williams if possible.

However, the current situation of Seagram Group is not good.

In recent years, as Seagram Group has completely turned to the media industry, it has carried out a number of acquisitions including mca, PolyGram, cable TV stations and other businesses. At this time, the company's total debt has reached 12 billion US dollars. . Moreover, since Edgar Bronfman devotes most of his resources to the record business and wants to build the world's largest record group, although his purpose has been achieved, with the sudden decline of the record industry, Seagram The operation of the group is also in trouble.

Last year, although the Universal Pictures Group managed by Michael Eisner achieved a good profit, but because of the failure of the record business, Seagram Group's annual loss in 1998 still exceeded 1.3 billion US dollars.

Since the run-in and merger of Polygram and Universal Music is not smooth, if the overall situation of the record industry does not reverse in the next few years, Seagram Group may continue to lose money. The Bronfman family, which controls Seagram, has even thought of selling the company while blaming Edgar Bronfman.

Of course Edgar Bronfman didn't want to do this. Although he was a bit stubborn in his character, he was definitely not ignorant.

After a detailed discussion with Doug Morrison, CEO of Universal Music, the two agreed that this cooperation with Firefly System is very necessary, and may even be the key to turning around the current situation of Seagram Group.

Eric, it's not enough, Edgar Bronfman pondered for a moment before shaking his head. If Yahoo Music Store wants Universal Music content, Firefly has to pay more.

Eric's left hand subconsciously pressed the bandage on his right arm again. He has recently acquired this habit without realizing it, but his expression remained calm, and said, So, what does Seagram want?

A zero-interest loan, gritted his teeth, Edgar Bronfman remembered the rich cash reserves of the Firefly system disclosed by the media, temporarily changed the original number, and the lion said: 3 billion US dollars.

Due to uncontrolled expansion and huge losses, Seagram's current capital chain has reached a very dangerous point. Not to mention the other, just the debt of 12 billion US dollars, the annual debt interest that needs to be paid reaches 600 million US dollars.

Although the overall economic situation in North America is thriving, it is difficult for Seagram Group to obtain financing from the outside at this time.

$3 billion, that's impossible, Eric rubbed the bandage under his shirt and shook his head. I'll give you a maximum of $500 million, and it must be repaid within three years.

I wonder if Edgar Bronfman heard the ease in Eric's tone, but his attitude suddenly became firm.

Eric naturally couldn't let go so easily.

The Firefly system is indeed not short of money, but $3 billion is definitely a huge sum.

Since Ken will give up all digital music sales in the short term, Eric will naturally not care too much about giving up the interest generated by the 3 billion US dollars. But for such a huge sum of money, what he is more worried about is that once the Seagram Group is in trouble, the other party may not be able to repay it.

It is an exaggeration to say that if Seagram Group went bankrupt, Eric would have no interest in its record business assets. As for Universal Pictures, the US$3 billion cannot be eaten, and other creditors cannot easily cede the most high-quality assets of Universal Pictures to Firefly.

The two sides argued over various details for more than an hour, but the meeting failed to reach any results after all.

However, while no loan agreement was reached, when he left, Edgar Bronfman agreed that Universal could begin preliminary contact talks with Yahoo and Firefly.

After seeing Edgar Bronfman off, it was almost noon. Seeing that there was no call from Europe, Eric was about to take the initiative to call when the phone rang again.

...

The nine-day Paris Fashion Week is drawing to a close.

Carmen Keith shines at this year's Fashion Week thanks to someone's arrangement.

However, I don't know if she responded to the words of joy and sorrow. She was preparing for the last few catwalks in the next two days when she suddenly received a call from her sister from her hometown.

Mother was kidnapped.

Hearing this news, Carmen Keith was immediately blinded.

kidnapping.

How can this kind of thing be related to myself?

Because of poverty, Eastern Europe is actually very chaotic, she knows that.

In the past few years of the turmoil, she had heard a lot of things, such as kidnapping, extortion, and even assassination. It's just that she always felt that ordinary people like herself were far away in these things.

Then suddenly met.

Then it felt like the sky was falling.

Her mother divorced her father when she was very young, and she worked hard to bring up the three brothers and sisters by herself. She still remembers when she was a child, when her mother worked until she came home late at night, when she was extremely tired, she would secretly hug her very softly. At that time, her mother thought she was asleep, but she was actually awake, a small child, a small mind , I didn't know what to say, so I continued to pretend to be asleep.

The ransom demanded by the kidnappers was 10 million Estonian krona, which is not much, probably more than $600,000. However, although she has signed a huge endorsement contract with Wei Mi, it is naturally impossible to pay the money immediately. She has just been defrauded of all her savings not long ago, and now she has no money at all.

For some reason, the first thought that came to mind was the man who had been bitten by him.

Then he woke up and called Paul Rowland in a panic. Paul Rowland quickly replied and asked her to provide the contact information of her brother and sister, and then asked her to wait patiently and not do stupid things.

How could she wait, she just wanted to go back as soon as possible to save her mother, so she frantically borrowed money from people she was familiar with and unfamiliar with.

It's just that although many models under wm's income are good, it is impossible for everyone to have too much cash, and she can't explain why she wants to borrow money, so she put together a lot of dollars, francs and pounds, and finally only raised more than 20. Wan, without caring too much, hurriedly boarded the plane to Tallinn.

Anyway, get back as soon as possible.

However, when she left Paris, it was fine. When she arrived at Tallinn Airport, because she was in a hurry, she forgot to declare the cash she was carrying, so she was detained again.

Although the European Union has been established at this time, Estonia has not yet joined, and the security check at entry and exit is still very strict. In order to prevent tax evasion and money laundering, large amounts of cash in transit are subject to strict declarations.

After this period of exposure, she is now a celebrity in Estonia, or, in other words, the most famous person in this small country with a population of just over one million. Therefore, the customs staff did not embarrass her too much, but hoped that she could explain the ins and outs of the cash.

How dare she explain!

Although she has never encountered a kidnapping case, she also knows that this kind of thing must not be a big one, otherwise...

The customs officers looked at her in a state of dismay, and naturally became more suspicious, so they dared not let her leave easily, and could only report to the person in charge at the higher level, and wait for the person above to come to deal with it.

So, trapped in the airport cell, she was like a stubborn and frightened little beast.

Looking forward to it.

If this time, someone can come and help me.

Well, then I would rather let him bite back.

After all, I only thought about that man.

She would never admit that she was a girl who was insecure in her bones, but at this moment, she realized that the man had unknowingly given her a great sense of security that she had never felt before.

After the person in charge of the customs arrived, she still did not dare to reveal anything, she just hoped to make a phone call.

With permission, the call was made to New York.

Paul Rowland, who had not been able to contact her for several hours, heard that she was trapped in Tallinn Airport. Even if he forcibly endured, he couldn't help but scolded her a few words, and then hung up the phone in a hurry, feeling that she should continue. It would be safer to stay in an airport holding room.

Just half an hour later, a group of people came to pick her up.

In addition to her brothers and sisters, she also saw the figure of her mother, and her heart suddenly let go.

Then there was the group of strangers. One of them took the initiative to introduce it. It turned out to be a manager of the public relations department of the Nokia Group.

Nokia.

Of course she knew.

Not only is this the biggest big company in Finland across the sea, but it's also his industry.

I suddenly felt bad in my heart.

There seemed to be some terrifying thought in my mind.