Chapter 1176: Very sad
The next day, the media’s theory that the Federal Department of Justice should impose restrictions on Yahoo’s browsers is getting more and more raging.
Although the whole thing has basically been determined that Microsoft has provoked behind the scenes, other Internet companies suppressed by the Firefly system obviously see this incident as an opportunity. Almost all Internet companies feel that if they can force Yahoo to abandon the monopoly of Internet browser software, they will certainly gain more market share.
Now, companies such as At-Home are taking the initiative, and other Internet companies are naturally willing to follow suit.
Although the Justice Department’s hearing on Yahoo!’s browser was scheduled at two o'clock in the afternoon, it was affected by the media and the theory. Just after 9:30 am, Yahoo’s share price plummeted by 3.3%.
As Eric predicted, AOL-Time Warner, At-Home and even Microsoft have competed with Yahoo for new technology companies, and share prices have risen to varying degrees.
The entire Nasdaq stock market continued to rebound for the previous two weeks in the next hour or so.
However, at eleven o'clock in the morning, with the announcement of the official website of the firefly investment, many Internet company executives who were still excited about it were very happy.
The announcement said that in order to raise funds for the company's next development, Firefly Investment will appropriately reduce the shares of Yahoo, Cisco, Qualcomm and other companies in the next week.
Although the announcement was short and even perfunctory, after counting the hundreds of thousands to millions of stock reduction plans of the companies published by the firefly investment, countless people were surprised to find that the firefly investment underestimated a reduction plan. The total amount of stocks involved is worth $3 billion.
If it was the peak of the Nasdaq market a few months ago, $3 billion in funds would be withdrawn within a week, and as long as it was done properly, it would not have much impact on the Nasdaq index. During the last few weeks of the reduction of the Clover Fund, the funds that were cashed out of the Nasdaq market each week exceeded $3 billion.
However, everyone knows that the current situation is completely different from a few months ago.
The Nasdaq stock market has just experienced a thrilling crash, and countless people have suffered heavy losses. In the past two weeks, although the Nasdaq index began to rebound under the operation of all parties, the investors who have just experienced a stock market crash are basically a group of scared birds.
Moreover, although the overall trend of the broader market is rebounding, the stock trading volume on the Nasdaq market is far less active than it was a few months ago.
At this time, the firefly system, which has a pivotal position in the entire new technology industry, has been striving to support the Nasdaq market for several months. It suddenly announced a plan to reduce its holdings, and it was $3 billion at a time.
Even though many people understand that this matter is related to the Justice Department hearing that Yahoo will face, the Nasdaq market is rapidly brewing a strong panic.
Reduce your holdings by $3 billion a week, so next week?
Will firefly investment continue to be reduced?
It should be noted that despite the collapse of the Nasdaq index, the technology stock market directly controlled by Firefly Investment Company still exceeds 200 billion US dollars. The $3 billion reduction plan may already be equivalent to the market value of many new technology companies, but it will not affect the proportion of companies that hold firefighting investments in various technology companies.
Then, after the firefly investment is reduced in the first week, it is entirely possible to continue to cash out.
Although it started to rebound, the Nasdaq stock market, which is still fragile inside, can experience a few US$3 billion reduction in firefly investment.
A variety of thoughts flashed in the minds of countless investors. With the announcement of firefly investment, a number of technology companies' stock orders were directly on the market. Subsequently, many investors almost subconsciously began to follow suit.
As a result, the Nasdaq index continued its upward trend for two weeks and came to an abrupt end.
From the 11 o'clock in the morning, the firefly investment announced the announcement and unscrupulously sold the stock. In the following hour, the Nasdaq index went down sharply with the emergence of a large number of panic stocks, from the highest 3677 points all the way down to 3612 points.
The share prices of technology companies such as Yahoo, Cisco, Qualcomm, Amazon and other firefly systems have fallen sharply. Yahoo's share price has fallen by two and a half hours from the opening, and the cumulative decline has even reached 13.3%.
However, all this is obviously just the beginning.
In the afternoon, some investors who were still waiting to see the situation felt that the situation was not good, and they also joined the ranks of selling. This inevitably led to the further spread of the selling trend, and the stock prices of new technology companies outside the firefly system also began to plummet.
Looking at the Nasdaq index falling curve that seems to be pulled down directly by a giant hand, the entire new technology industry is somewhat untenable and has made various responses.
Subsequently, Internet media platforms, including AOL and MSN portals, successively issued drafts, accusing the Firefly system of sudden reductions.
The AOL portal undoubtedly pointed out in the press release that the firefly investment has accumulated at least $9 billion in cash through the sale of AOL shares last year and the sale of shares of Fireflyer this year. If you count the profits from the companies such as Nokia and Cisco, which are invested by Firefly, the current cash reserve of Firefly Investment has even reached the level of US$10 billion.
In addition, AOL is directly smashing the firefly group's clover fund and also hoarding large amounts of cash, even no less than the firefly investment company.
The entire firefly system has such a strong cash reserve, and, over the past year, the only firefly system has been counted as a big expenditure, and only a purchase of less than $3 billion for Sony Pictures, then there is no firefly investment at this time. It is necessary to sell the stocks of technology stocks in hand.
The reason why Firefly Investment will do this is to sneak up on the entire Nasdaq market, forcing the Federal Ministry of Justice to abandon its intervention and investigation into the monopolistic market share of Yahoo!
Although everyone understands that the statement in the US online news release is entirely true. However, the blunt attitude of AOL still makes many people sigh that this is a young company. At least, the editor of the AOL portal, which was published in this article, is certainly not so profound.
A lot of things, everyone is doing it, but it is absolutely impossible to say.
Sure enough, the article on the AOL portal was just released in less than 10 minutes, and the firefly investment lawyer's letter was sent directly to Steve Case.
At the same time, Firefly Investment also made a counterattack on the Yahoo portal, saying that the firefly investment reduction plan strictly adheres to federal regulations every step of the way. The company not only reported the reduction to the Federal Trade Commission in advance, but also announced the announcement. The form informs the majority of shareholders, which is enough to show that the firefly investment is responsible for the company's investors.
Therefore, the AOL portal’s speculation on the reduction of firefly investment is completely malicious. The Firefly Investment Company asked the AOL portal to immediately withdraw the relevant manuscript, and at the same time, edit the article and the AOL portal on the grounds of infringement of reputation. The website filed a lawsuit.
When many people are secretly expecting AOL to compete with the firefly system, the article on the AOL portal disappeared in less than half an hour.
Although the AOL portal did not make any apologies, the aggressive retreat of AOL has allowed many other smaller news portals to converge.
Some people have once again noticed that although they have experienced several large-scale reductions, after the merger in the first half of the year, the firefly investment is still the major shareholder of AOL-Time Warner Group, holding more than 4.1%.
Moreover, with the many investment banking institutions that have been continually reducing their holdings during the year, the firefly investment that keeps their stocks has risen step by step in the ranks of AOL-Time Warner's major shareholders.
Unknowingly, Firefly's investment in AOL-Time Warner Group's 4.1% shareholding has been second only to Ted Turner's 6.5%, becoming the second largest shareholder of AOL-Time Warner.
Although for a series of reasons, Firefly Investment did not have a seat on the AOL-Time Warner Board of Directors, and even in the first half of the merger, the voting rights of the stocks were delegated to AOL management.
However, after this episode, the outside world once again realized that even if it was only an external shareholder managed by AOL-Time Warner Group, even the shareholding of Firefly Investment could not reach the proportion reported to the Federal Trade Commission. But in any case, the firefly investment is ultimately the second largest shareholder of AOL-Time Warner, and no big company can ignore the existence of such a major shareholder.
The Firefly system will almost never exert its influence on AOL-Time Warner on weekdays, and even let AOL-Time Warner and Firefly System Technology Company compete. However, as long as the firefly system is exerted, AOL-Time Warner still has to take down the news that is unfavorable to the firefly system within half an hour.
The Nasdaq market was sorrowful with the firefly investment reduction plan, and the afternoon Justice Department hearing was held as scheduled.
According to a pre-agreed strategy, Yahoo CEO Ian Garnier responded positively to the Justice Department’s Yahoo browser in front of the Justice Department’s Minister of Justice Janet Reynold and dozens of reporters. Various doubts.
In response to the Justice Department’s question about the excessive market share of Yahoo’s browsers and the development of Internet companies in the same industry, Ian Gurney made a direct counterattack.
Beyond Yahoo!, Yahoo is a pioneer in the industry, whether it’s a portal business, an e-mail business or a search engine business.
Many Internet companies of the same type are completely imitating Yahoo's various business models. Some of them are directly copying Yahoo's many technical patents, which largely violates Yahoo's core interests.
However, in the face of these imitators, Yahoo not only did not counterattack, but in a very open attitude, it actively authorized a large number of technical patents to promote the development of the entire industry, which is enough to show that Yahoo is a company full of social responsibility. .
The two-hour hearing, through careful preparation and skillful on-the-spot performance, Ian Gurney almost completely controlled the rhythm of the entire hearing.
Although Janet Reynolds did not directly announce the resolution of the Ministry of Justice, even the on-site guests who did not know how to do so, combined with the current situation in all aspects, also expected that the Ministry of Justice could not take what to do with Yahoo! Substantial action.
After all, as Ian Gurney said at the hearing, unlike Microsoft's expensive Windows operating system, Yahoo! Browser is completely free, and the software does not increase user fees, not only that. The unified interface standard also helps users to surf the Internet more smoothly.
At the same time, Yahoo invests tens of millions of dollars each year for this free browser, and the company has enough power to enjoy the platform benefits of this product. Yahoo has maintained a sufficiently open attitude and has no obligation to further accommodate those companies that follow the trend of Yahoo's business model.
After the hearing, Yahoo published the full text of the hearing in full, and released the full video resources.
Then, the media platform of the entire firefly system was also exerted at the same time, and began to conduct control with the field. From the afternoon of the same day, the wind direction gradually began to benefit the firefly system.
After all, Eric did not personally rush to Washington to join in the fun. However, on the afternoon of the same day, he received a call from Janet Reynolds. The modest Federal Minister of Justice said that the Ministry of Justice will officially announce the results of the hearing tomorrow, and hope that the firefly investment can cancel the reduction plan and avoid Further stimulate the trend of the Nasdaq market.
Along with this almost one-sided hearing, the Nasdaq index also showed a one-sided posture throughout the trading day on Monday.
In just one day, the Nasdaq index fell 177 points. Some technology companies even fell back to the lowest point two weeks ago, even within six and a half hours.
However, although the Ministry of Justice has made a statement on the Yahoo browser, Eric is not planning to give up this reduction.
After all, once the temporary abandonment of the reduction, it is almost straightforward to admit that the reduction of firefly investment is putting pressure on the federal government. This is not only to invest in the face of fireflies, but also to fight the face of the Ministry of Justice.
Therefore, the next day, although the Ministry of Justice held a press conference on time at 9:00 am, it announced that the Justice Department would not interfere too much with this software as long as the Yahoo! browser maintained its usual operating strategy.
However, after the opening of the morning, the reduction of the firefly system continued, and the entire Nasdaq market continued to fall.
A siege that was originally intended to launch Yahoo has almost ended without a beginning. Now, many people have realized the strong frustration of stealing chickens without eclipsing the rice.
On the entire trading day of Tuesday, the Nasdaq index fell again by 97 points.
Although the rate of decline has started to slow down compared to yesterday's decline, the rebound in the Nasdaq market has apparently ended.
Originally, I was looking forward to the return of the Nasdaq to the 4,000-point high Wall Street. Looking at the Nasdaq index that had fallen back to 3403, there was a sense of tears.
After all, just after the crash, Wall Street’s reduction in the rebound process was very cautious. In just two weeks, it was far from enough for Wall Street’s major investment funds to fully cash in the technology stocks.
Now, the situation is turning again, and it will only be more difficult to cash in on stocks.
What's more, the last time the Nasdaq index rebounded was largely the result of a series of positive news from the firefly system.
But now, the firefly system that has just been put together by competitors will obviously not make any move to support the Nasdaq market.
So, in addition to the firefly system, who else can play this role?
The answer is, no.
Another Microsoft antitrust case that can be exploited has now been settled.
Moreover, even Microsoft, there is no firefly system that can reverse the entire Nasdaq market trend.
If it is other capital forces, Wall Street can also influence it. But for the firefly system that has become a self-contained system, the entire Wall Street has become powerless.