Chapter 1151: Settle
After Tom Freston's meeting with Eric, Viacom did not give any response for several consecutive days.
Since Lei Shidong is still lucky, Eric will naturally not be polite.
As a result, rumors that Paramount Pictures may face a break in the capital chain have spread rapidly, continuing to hit Viacom’s falling share price.
On the other hand, Wall Street investor Carl Icahn was secretly buying the Viacom Group stocks and was quickly exposed. At one time, the Viacom Group's major shareholders and management were under pressure.
In fact, during the last lunch, Carl Icahn understood that Eric did not intend to support him in taking control of the Viacom Group.
However, Carl Icahn still formed a tacit agreement with Eric to take the initiative to release himself to absorb the shares of Viacom Group, with the intention of forcing Lei Shidong to submit. As long as the Viacom Group and the Firefly system reconciled, Viacom’s share price will definitely pick up quickly, and Carl Icahn will be able to make a profit from this low buy and sell.
Compared with the decline of the Viacom Group's share price, the crazy rise of the entire Nasdaq market has not stopped.
The last day of May happens to be Monday.
After breaking through the 4000 mark last week, just after the opening today, the Nasdaq index hit a new high, reaching 4135 points.
Thanks to the great success of Iron Man and the fact that Eric himself has been skyrocketing with the Nasdaq index almost every moment, a large number of newspaper media have begun to pay attention to his personal life in real time. A special statistical website has appeared on the Internet.
As of last Friday's close, Eric's personal assets have reached $475 billion, a number that dazzles countless people.
However, at this time, Eric himself is not too concerned about the number of assets that have a large bubble for the time being. In contrast, he is now more concerned about the progress of the technology stocks held by the Shamrock Fund.
Firefly Studios.
From the end of March to the present, just in the past ten weeks, Caroline has compiled the latest financial data on the clover fund early in the morning.
“Last week, the trading studios sold the total value of technology stocks again to 2.322 billion US dollars, and the accumulated cash size of the clover fund has reached 21.617 billion US dollars in cash. According to the current stock price, the remaining technology stocks in the hands of the clover fund The value is 12.85 billion US dollars. If the Nasdaq index maintains the current upward trend, the remaining stocks are expected to receive about 50% of the value added, which means that the total amount of funds raised by the clover fund is about 40 billion US dollars. ""
In the office, Eric listened to Carolyn's report and looked at the more detailed data reports in his hands.
With 40 billion U.S. dollars in cash, this is the real capital strength compared to the virtual book. Even after the tax payment is completed, the remaining funds are enough to support the next expansion of the firefly system. Once the layout of the next stage is completed, the assets under the name of Eric will never have such a serious bubble.
After thinking for a while, Eric said to Caroline: "We only have six weeks left, and then we must speed up the sales process. You will draw up a plan for me today."
Caroline nodded and turned to other topics.
The production of Gravity has entered the final stage, and Eric will put most of his energy into this matter in the next few weeks.
After a brief work briefing, Eric was planning to leave the office to go to the post-production center in the studio, and his private cell phone rang.
Looking at the caller ID, Eric once again sat back and leaned back on the leather chair and said, "Good morning, Summer."
Silenced for a moment, the voice of Lei Shidong came over: "$1.5 billion, Eric, this is the bottom line I can accept. If you don't agree, Viacom can fight against the fireflies."
1.5 billion US dollars, apparently Lei Shidong's offer to showtime TV.
This price is 25% higher than Firebug's $1.2 billion valuation for Showtime TV, but the $1.5 billion offer is far less than Eric's ceiling compared to the development prospects of the paid cable.
"Yes," paused for a moment, and Eric nodded and immediately said, "And Shirley Lansing."
"Viacom will announce the news of Shirley's departure in the afternoon. At the same time, Firefly must immediately cancel all measures against the Viacom Group."
Eric once again nodded briefly: "No problem."
The voice just fell, and the phone was hung up on the opposite side.
Eric didn't mind, he continued to dial the phone number of Kasenberg and others, and then he got up and left the office.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Viacom issued an announcement on the official website. Shirley Lansing, one of the two women's heads of Hollywood, will resign as the CEO of Paramount Pictures for personal reasons. Comm's co-president Tom Freston is also in office until Paramount finds a new and suitable candidate.
Under normal circumstances, the departure of the heads of the seven major Hollywood film companies will definitely cause a heated discussion among the media.
However, suddenly I heard this news, although my heart was shocked, but most North American media have shown a very cautious attitude.
After so many days, the media industry has basically understood the reasons for the dispute between the firefly system and Viacom. Even ordinary people can easily understand the facts from many media articles or explicit or implicit tips.
Beycomb behind the scenes instructed the gossip website to expose the information of Eric Williams' children. After the incident, he was retaliated by the entire firefly system. The collision between the corporate giants did not affect the lives of ordinary people, most of them. People will only hold a gesture of eating melons and watching movies.
However, the final development is still beyond the imagination of many people.
When the general public sees the incident subsided, they will only gradually turn their attention to others. But inside the media industry, I deeply felt the terror strength that the firefly system has shown since the last network gossip event.
Although Viacom released the announcement, the Firefly system quickly announced a settlement with the Blockbuster chain. Some of the heads of the Wall Street Film Fund also took the initiative to clarify the cooperation with Paramount Pictures. There is no problem, Viacom’s After the stock price stopped falling, the overall trend of the Nasdaq index began to rebound rapidly.
However, the cost of the Viacom Group for its secret little moves is also very heavy.
Paramount Pictures CEO Shirley Lansing was forced to resign, not only to let Viacom lose face in Hollywood, but in recent years, the Viacom film business that was only maintained by force will definitely be because of Shirley· Lansing’s departure was worse.
Affected by the firefly system, Paramount wants to find another qualified helm, and it is definitely not an easy task.
Subsequently, Viacom Group announced that it will transfer its Showtime TV station to the Firefly Group for US$1.5 billion, which is a serious blow to Viacom's cable TV business.
Careful calculations, from the news of Eric Williams children's gossip news to the present, the entire firefly system counterattack is completely no room. This has also made many media that advertised freedom once again deeply understand the terrible capital. The news about Eric has become more cautious, for fear of inadvertently attracting this fierce capital monster.
Many media regretted that when a wonderful giant collided but could not report it, another incident quickly shifted everyone's attention.
On June 7, after three months of review, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and other major departments finally announced that they had approved the merger of AOL and Time Warner.
In three months, the market capitalization of AOL and Time Warner's two new and old media giants has soared to 277 billion US dollars. The merger of the two companies surpassed Firefly Group and Yahoo! and became the largest integrated media group in North America.
Steve Case, who enjoys the glory of the Internet frenzy, is even more arrogant. He even put aside a series of frictions between AOL and the Firefly Group since last year, and took the initiative to call Eric, hoping that he can participate in the New York Plaza Hotel. A celebration party for the successful merger of AOL and Time Warner Group.
Although busy with the final work of Gravity, Showtime's headquarters is also in New York. The Firefly Group and Viacom have signed a trading contract. Although there were still many follow-up handovers that were not completed, Eric decided to go to New York to talk to the head of Showtime TV in person, so he flew over the busy schedule.
Near the Central Park's Plaza Hotel, the sky is still bright, and countless names in Manhattan have begun to gather here.
When Eric arrived in Manhattan, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon. After resting at Cindy's residence, he came over with a girl dressed up.
After getting off the bus, the relatives took Eric through the media area and signed the photo on the photo wall. The two directly entered the grand ballroom in the hotel.
Just entering the banquet hall, Steve Kathy personally greeted him.
Eric politely took the initiative to reach out to Steve Case, saying: "Steve, congratulations."
"Thank you, Eric, I am very happy that you can come over tonight," Steve Case's expression was equally impeccable. He shook hands with Cindy and talked a few words before the other party left to meet other guests.
Eric greeted some other well-known guests and took Cindy to a table to sit down.
Two glasses of red wine were taken from the waiter's tray. When the other party left, Cindy whispered to Eric. "I went to check it last week. The doctor said it was probably a boy."
Eric sipped a glass of red wine and smiled: "It’s only two months, how can I see it?"
"I hope to be a boy," said Cindy with a look in her eyes. "It is estimated that I see my mind. The doctor said so. Anyway, I like to listen."
"Oh, then it’s a girl, see what you do."
"Then regenerate one," Cindy immediately replied, and then looked at the man next to him with concern: "Eric, can I regenerate one?"
"Of course, you can regenerate both without problems."
Eric’s refreshment made Cindy somewhat surprised and subconsciously said: “I’m talking about your child.”
Eric reached out and squeezed on the girl's delicate chin: "If you dare to have someone else's child, I will throw you into the Hudson River."
Cindy realized that she had made a mistake, and she was embarrassed to shrink her neck. In a blink of an eye, she touched her lower abdomen with fear and fear. "It must be a boy. The boy grows up and does not suffer."
Eric smiled and said: "Is the "American Supermodel Contest" arranged there?"
"Arranged, Fanny took over my job."
"I think she is not suitable."
"Yeah," Cindy nodded and looked at Eric. "But you secretly gave someone an audition. What can I do?"
"You can pretend not to know."
"I don't want to be such a **** to you, and her personality is also very suitable for this program. Anyway, it is not really a supermodel. It is the most important thing to attract the attention of the audience."
"Oh, what kind of personality, why didn't I feel it?"
"Who knows what you feel."
"Amount, you are not so good, be careful when your child hears."
Cindy looked at Eric’s hair and smiled. He said, “I asked Joan’s situation in summer and summer. This time is also learning her at the time, but only a book has not been After reading it, I am going to find a few vine school graduates as life assistants. I will read this book for me during this time."
Although I don't think it will be useful to do so, Eric has no objection. "You can call Kelly and let her help you."
"I can pick it myself, but the bill is for you."
"Must be a woman."
"Well, try to be ugly."
"No, it is said that when the mother sees something more during pregnancy, the child's appearance will also be affected."
"I don't listen to your nonsense, how can my child not be beautiful."
"If the boy is not too beautiful, it is a little bit better than my father."
"Ha ha."
I don't know if I just mentioned Stefani Seymour, I was chatting, and Stephanie Seymour came over with her husband.
Eric and Cindy had to stand up and say hello to each other.
Perhaps it was finally possible to return to the stage and get the position of the host of the "American Supermodel Contest". Stephanie Seymour looks more radiant, just looking at Eric when he is inadvertently wearing a few After the split, people would like to press the young woman again to pick up the meal.
So, the cocktails went to the toilet space and found the trailing figure behind him. Eric rudely pulled the woman directly into the bathroom.
Stephanie Seymour didn't think Eric would be so direct. Fortunately, there was no one in this bathroom. Otherwise, she really didn't know what to do. She was pushed into the compartment by Eric and slammed on the toilet. Only then did it react, but there was a bit of excitement in the trembling voice: "Eric Williams, you, you bastard, you can't do this."
Snapped--
The woman's body suddenly softened, fell on the toilet lid, and shouted with a crying cry: "Hey, you hit me again, I was almost discovered last time."
"Shut up, okay."
"I don't," the woman propped up and wanted to get up. The result was unwelcome and slap in the face. I suddenly lost my strength and whispered: "No, you can't get the dress dirty, I, you. Let me take off first."