I’m in Hollywood

Many people on Wall Street must be gnashing their teeth at us now. In a week, Yahoo's stock price has risen by 17%, and major short-selling funds have lost more than 3.1 billion US dollars. Many high-leverage short positions were directly liquidated.

Firefly Studios, in a small conference room.

Just after connecting to the video conference equipment, Chris, who was far away in New York, said so.

Eric sat in the leather chair and waited for the secretary to bring coffee to himself and Katzenberg across from him, and then looked at the monitors. At this time, the conference room is connected to Yahoo headquarters in Boston, abc headquarters in New York and Chris' office.

But there must be people who are grateful to us, $3.1 billion, which is not a small amount, Eric picked up the coffee, noticed Emily's figure behind Chris, and greeted with a smile: Hi, Amy , today is Saturday, haven't you been at home to watch the children?

Emily reached out and took a folder from Chris's desk, threw Eric a roll of eyes at the camera, and said, You secretly asked Edward to sign that girl, Vicky and Joan already know, you still want to How do you want to explain it to them? Vicky said they have prepared the sofa for you, and you can sleep on it when you come over for Easter.

Eric immediately raised his hand to apologize: Stop, Amy, I'm the boss, give me a face.

Listening to Emily revealing the boss's lace without hesitation, everyone laughed again.

Emily ignored him, and disappeared into the camera with the folder she just picked up.

When his wife left, Chris rarely showed some gossip and said in a low voice, Speaking of which, Eric, what's the matter with you and that girl?

This, Eric said with a helpless expression, Do you think you can't hear your voice if you keep your voice down?

Another burst of laughter.

After making a few jokes, Eric clapped his hands and said, Okay, let's get down to business. First of all, about the acquisition plan submitted by Yahoo.

Eric said, opened a document in front of him, his expression gradually became serious, and said, I remember I said before the IPO that the current bubble in the Nasdaq market will burst sooner or later. Once this happens, the entire The new technology industry will fall into a capital winter. Although we have received a huge sum of more than 5 billion US dollars through IPOs, this money is basically equivalent to Yahoo's 'winter' ration, so I hope that every penny of this will be It's worth the money. Look at the acquisitions you've submitted, like this one, a software proposal that can speed up the loading of web pages in browsers, which is really good. But, $20 million, you're talking to Am I kidding? Pull ten random people out of Yahoo's engineering team, give them a month, and I don't believe they can't make this stuff. Ten people, a month, who's going to help me figure out how much it will cost?

In the conference room of Yahoo's headquarters in Boston, Ian Grenier did not expect that Eric, who was joking with Emily Brighton just now, showed signs of rage, so he could only take the initiative to explain: Eric Grams, there are also patent issues involved.”

Then find a way to get around, or find other alternatives, or if you can't do it, then why should I hire you? Eric reprimanded unceremoniously, and threw the folder in front of him. Said: Anyway,

I will not approve any of the acquisition proposals you submitted. I know that the entire industry is very impetuous now, and everyone is burning money. You think that since the company is listed, it must also comply with the rules of listed companies. You need to burn money wildly, crazy mergers and acquisitions, and crazy expansion, otherwise you may be criticized by the market. investor criticism. But you are wrong. Let me tell you, Yahoo only needs to follow the established route steadily and steadily. It does not need to be responsible for the stock price, and it does not need to be responsible to Wall Street. If it must be responsible, you only need to be responsible to me alone.

Hearing the sound of the paper rushing after the document flew out from the speaker, Ian Grenier nodded shyly, and Steve Mitnick, who was still casually tapping on the laptop in front of him, also sat up straight. , Tina Brown lowered her head slightly, her fingertips gently twisting the rolled up corner of the document in front of her, as if she wanted to flatten the paper.

No one sitting here is a rookie in the workplace, and the boss or boss gets angry. Everyone has encountered it.

In comparison, Eric is definitely a very gentle boss.

But at this time, Eric suddenly broke out, and everyone realized that he was really angry, so no one dared to contradict him without knowing it.

Eric took a sip of the coffee next to him, eased his emotions, and continued: Yahoo's expansion has indeed been a bit large in recent years, with 6,000 employees, surpassing all other pure Internet companies, and, after going public, , many people have become millionaires or billionaires, and there will definitely be slack in their hearts, they feel that they can enjoy life, or, they feel that they have millions of dollars, and their current positions are no longer comparable to their net worth. These I It's understandable, but I won't tolerate it. So, I need you to prepare in advance that after the tech bubble burst, Yahoo will also make a layoff to remove those who want to enjoy life. Yahoo has a long way to go There is no room for slackers who can't keep up with the company's pace. Of course, they have made their own contributions to Yahoo, so the company will definitely buy their stock at that time, so that they can enjoy life to the fullest, and Or start a new business.

After saying these words, Eric took over the careful office secretary and rearranged the documents handed over, and without waiting for the response from Ian Grenier, he continued: Okay, let's start the next issue, Regarding the merger of America Online and Time Warner. Now the situation has become very delicate. You must have seen the article in the Washington Post. This week, the stocks of listed companies in the entire Firefly system have risen. But AOL's stock price has risen even higher than Yahoo's. Obviously, many people are optimistic about the prospect of AOL and Time Warner's merger. They believe that after the merger of these two companies, Firefly will have a strong competitor. Benefits. But at the same time, we must also change the established strategy, at least, in the public media, we need to firmly oppose the merger of AOL and Time Warner, the more intense our opposition, the resistance to the merger of AOL and Time Warner may encounter The smaller it will be. Then, let’s talk about it, what should we do?”

With the release of this year's Forbes Rich List, Eric's personal wealth of more than 300 billion US dollars has finally exploded some of the emotions accumulated in North America that have been stimulated by the continuous surge of Eric's net worth for several consecutive years.

Although capital pursues profit and is superstitious in Eric's amazing investment vision, almost all stocks related to the Firefly system on the Nasdaq market have skyrocketed, but at the same time, there are more and more voices about the need to limit the continuous expansion of the Firefly system Very noisy.

Of course, in such a mature capital society, even if Eric's personal wealth is huge, the federal government will never dare to directly deprive him of his private property in any rude form, which involves the fundamental system problem of a country. However, according to the current situation, it is not difficult to foresee that every step of the expansion of the Firefly system will be subject to very strict scrutiny and restrictions. Instinct counterattack in order to protect their own rights and interests.

In the short term, building a strong competitor of the Firefly system, such as AOL-Time Warner, is destined to be something that many people are very happy to see.

In all fairness, Eric also very much hopes to have such an opponent, an opponent he can foresee and control to a certain extent.

As for the longer term, if he wants to continue to expand the Firefly system, what Eric has to do is to either eliminate his opponent or pull his opponent into the Firefly system camp.

In addition to Yahoo's business strategy and the discussion on how to reverse the merger of AOL and Time Warner, there are also some recent discussions about Eric's personal assets and control issues, as well as other various, large and small things discussed all morning, In fact, it was already afternoon on the East Coast, and the meeting was not over.

Walking out of the conference room, Mayer handed over a mobile phone, indicating that Paul Rowland was already waiting on the line.

Eric and Katzenberg walked towards the big ship together, planning to have a meal together, and at the same time took the phone and chatted a few words with the other side, then hung up.

Thinking of Emily's reminder in the morning before the meeting, it's really difficult.

At first, Carmen Keith was just picked up on a whim, but Eric ignored the women's possible thoughts. Virginia and Joanna have always seldom asked about his outside affairs, but last time Carmen · The fact that Kath came here really frightened the children.

After struggling for a while, Eric put these thoughts aside.

The soldiers came to cover up the water and the soil.

How do you say that, if there are too many lice, you are not afraid to bite.

Moreover, under the influence of the recent outside world, Eric still has a lot of pressure in his heart, and he really has no intention to deal with these things again.

Came to the restaurant on the ship and ordered lunch, Katzenberg brought up the matter of Blair Witch again.

The second week was $61.51 million, the two-week total was $82.78 million, and the production cost was only $60,000. In the next few weeks, the total box office is likely to exceed $150 million. Now everyone is saying, maybe this is you. Why did he become the first super-rich person whose personal wealth exceeded 300 billion US dollars? There is probably no film in the world that can create a higher return on investment than Blair Witch.

Eric took the bottled water handed over by Amy Adams and said to Katzenberg: This is not necessarily, Hollywood is always full of miracles, by the way, speaking of this, now can also give those two young men There is a bonus for the director, as well as a small network marketing team last time.

Katzenberg nodded and said, Actually, Kenneth just happened to ask me what you mean? I think it's enough to give them $1 million each. After all, this box office success is mainly due to the effect of our marketing plan.

Give both of them $5 million, one million is a bit less, there's no need to be stingy about this kind of thing, Eric shook his head and smiled: If you can't bear it, I'll write a private check to them.

Okay, then 5 million. However, since this is the case, although we do not plan to start the sequel of Blair Witch in the short term, it is not a problem for the two of them to re-sign the contract for two films. After all, Blair Witch won the If they are successful at the box office, even if they continue to shoot traditional films, they will definitely be more likely to attract the attention of the market than newcomer directors.”

It's about you and Kenneth, I don't have that much energy right now.

Speaking of which, Katzenberg nodded and added, Are you going to the Oscars tomorrow?

I'm not interested, this year's Oscars don't have any good movies.

Actually, I mean, Katzenberg said, about the promotion of Iron Man, Eric, everyone is a little clueless now. According to the normal process, such a large-scale production film should be starring now. It’s time to start participating in various TV shows to warm up the film.”

I'm a little regretful now, I really shouldn't take this role, Eric said with a wry smile: After the media riot these days, everyone must be more hostile to me as a super rich man, and I don't know if they will come to watch. In the movies I have acted in myself, I have thought about whether to adjust the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan and marginalize the role of Iron Man.

This, if necessary, we really have to do it, but it's not certain, Iron Man is mainly aimed at young audiences, and this part of the audience may worship the miracle of wealth you create.

Katzenberg's expression was also somewhat agreeable, but there was no regret in Eric's tone.

After all, Iron Man was originally only a second-tier superhero of Marvel. The reason why the original time and space was so successful that Iron Man’s reputation was comparable to that of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and the Men’s Police series was mainly due to chance.

But now, since the situation has changed so much, a temporary adjustment is also necessary.

Eric also hesitated for a moment, and said: Well, what should be done is always to be done, I will attend the Oscars tomorrow, and I will let Carly arrange it later. In addition, let Bowei follow the normal flow. Let's start planning the campaign and I'll cooperate as much as I can.

Okay, Katzenberg responded. Amy brought the two of them up for lunch. The conversation paused for a moment, and Katzenberg said again, Do you have any plans for the evening? If you are free, I will prepare the A little party?

Eric shook his head with a smile, and said, I have to go to San Francisco in the afternoon to discuss Firefly's equity incentive plan. I may not be back tonight.