Chapter 1186: Ambition

Chapter 1186: Ambition

As the former CEO of the Firefly Group's ESPN TV station, Steve Bernstein witnessed the rise of the Firefly Group and even the Firefly system. Therefore, he did not doubt the ambition of Eric's words to compare with GE.

In fact, the development of GE has reached its peak and there is no possibility of further large-scale expansion. With the retirement of Jack Welch, the legendary leader, the future trend of this industrial giant is more likely to be extinct.

However, the firefly system is different. Eric is rich in strength and has enough time and energy to lead the consortium to continue to expand.

Moreover, if the book assets are single, the firefly system has now surpassed GE.

In the next few years, as long as it can successfully digest the serious cost of foaming hidden in its new technology companies and further consolidate its roots in the two core areas of the network and media, the firefly system can truly grow into a significant influence on the US economy. The super-large consortium.

Although in many people's view, the current development of the firefly system in the new technology industry and the media field has entered a bottleneck, future expansion will be increasingly restricted by US anti-monopoly regulations and other competitive capital forces, but Steve Bernstein is keenly aware that so far, most of the core companies in the firefly system are located in the United States.

This means that the firefly system has a very broad space for development on a global scale.

From the case of Nokia's successful overseas investment, Eric clearly does not lack the vision of global expansion, and the firefly system also does not lack the capital strength of global expansion.

Thinking about this, Steve Bernstein still had to turn to the problems he had to face at this time.

In the past more than a month, the Firefly Group has been secretly buying Comcast's stock.

At the beginning, the Comcast Group's top executives were quite excited. Because of the eating of the Firefly Group, Comcast's share price has risen more than 17% during this period.

However, Comcast's board of directors and management suddenly awakened when the Firefly Group filed a declaration with the SEC stating that it had held a 6.5% stake in the Comcast Group. When Washington Financial’s financial columnist Howard Glassman published an analysis of the firefly system again, the Firefly Group’s intention to acquire Comcast was even more apparent.

In fact, Steve Bernstein has faintly guessed the possible buyer from the Firefly Group's initial purchase of Comcast's stock. After all, although it was not the core of the firefly system, he was well aware of the expansion of the firefly system.

However, Steve Bernstein’s judgment is only a guess. Although he would like to call Kasenberg and others to test it, Steve Bernstein understands that he has left the firefly system, and Kasenberg and others will not reveal his inside story.

Moreover, from the bottom of my heart, Steve Bernstein did not have much protection for the firefly system, and did not even report his guess to Comcast's controller Roberts and his son.

Now, the Firefly Group not only holds 6.5% of Comcast's stock, but also continues to buy, and the intention to merge Comcast is already very obvious.

Since the basic operators are standard capital-intensive industries, each step of development requires a lot of cash support. Therefore, although the Roberts family still controls the company, over the years, with the continuous dilution of financing, they are against Concas. The total amount of shares held has only 3.1%.

Although through the licensing agreement, Roberts and his son owns 33% of the voting rights of Comcast, but they are very clear, as long as the Firefly Group's offer price is right, the voting rights held by the Roberts family are not enough to withstand the acquisition of the Firefly Group.

After realizing that the crisis, Roberts and his sons convened the board of directors and the company's top management to experience some trade-offs, he quickly sent Steve Bernstein.

In the empty IMAX auditorium, chatting for a while, Steve Bernstein spoke up and said: "Eric, do you know how Berkshire became a major shareholder of ABC Group?"

Eric shook his head, and he naturally understood why Steve Bernstein was coming over today, but he didn't break it, just smiled and waited for Steve Bernstein to continue.

Steve Bernstein did not wait for Eric to answer, and continued: "Buffett has always been very interested in the media industry. In 1985, when Tom Murphy expressed his intention to acquire ABC Group, Berkshire In one-time investment of 500 million US dollars to the Metropolis, first became the largest shareholder of the Metropolitan company. Subsequently, Tom Murphy backed by the $500 million fund, through the form of funds plus stocks, acquired by Xiaobo The ABC Group at the time."

ESPN TV was very early in the ABC Group's industry, and Steve Bernstein worked on this TV station since ESPN was founded. Therefore, his familiarity with the process of the acquisition of ABC Group by Metropolis was not surprising.

Eric immediately understood the subtext of Steve Bernstein.

The Firefly Group’s intention to acquire Comcast is well known. Similarly, Comcast’s secret contact with AT-T is not a secret in the industry to attempt to acquire the cable TV asset telecom company in the hands of the other party.

Steve Bernstein’s meaning, or Comcast’s meaning, is clearly that the Firefly Group, like the Berkshire Hathaway of the year, provided funds to help Comcast successfully merge telecommunications. In the process, the Firefly Group can also become a major shareholder of Comcast.

Of course, on the other hand, the subtext is also that Comcast does not want the Firefly Group to intervene in their management, but only to hold the company’s stock as a pure investor like Berkshire Hathaway. .

Although Comcast's proposal coincides with the Firefly's vision of consolidating Comcast and telecom's serial acquisitions, the end result is definitely not what Eric wants.

After listening to Steve Bernstein, Eric said directly: "Steve, you should understand that what I want is Comcast's control, not just a simple investment. If only If you invest, I can find a higher return rate and definitely not choose Comcast."

"Eric, this is not easy," Steve Bernstein shook his head and said: "Although the Roberts family has a low share of Comcast, they have Comcast 33%. The voting rights of Comcast are now rising. Without the active cooperation of Comcast, the Firefly Group will pay a very high price even if it can absorb enough stock through the open market. According to my guess, you definitely want to be able to merge both Comcast and telecom at the same time, right? But without Comcast's cooperation, this is also very difficult. The federal departments will never Easy approval of fireflies and the merger of the two companies. Therefore, participating in the investment to provide Comcast's acquisition of telecommunications funding, will become the major shareholder of the new company, is a very good choice for fireflies."

“I know that this option will be easier for the Firefly Group to get involved in the cable operator field, but if you have chosen a very easy development path, the Firefly system will not be able to have the current scale. More often, we will always have to choose more difficult. Eric said, turning his head and looking at Steve Bernstein, the words turned and suddenly said: "Steve, you want to be the head of Comcast, run this separately. Is the company?"

When Steve Bernstein heard Eric’s words, his eyes flickered and he took the initiative to avoid Eric’s gaze. “Eric, I am a Comcast executive now, I will keep my own. Professional ethics will not do anything that harms your employer."

"Of course, one of my most important requirements for the firefly system professional manager is loyalty," Eric said frankly. "If you do anything, even if you finally get Comcast, I will find a reason to kick you. I don't want to make Comcast's harmful things right now. Even in the next acquisition process, you can completely avoid this. However, when the Firefly Group wins Comcast, I I hope that you can take up the burden of taking care of this company, so do you feel that you can do it?"

Steve Bernstein hesitated for a moment, still said: "Eric, I can't answer your question for the time being. And, in all fairness, I think Roberts and his son have more experience than me in the field of cable operators. Even The Firefly Group's successful acquisition of Comcast, so that they continue to maintain their position is also very beneficial to this company, this is the consistent style of the Firefly system, isn't it?"

Whether it was early acquisitions of companies such as Nokia and AOL, or Hasbro, which is currently in the process of acquiring negotiations, Eric is used to retaining the management of these companies.

However, this time, Eric shook his head and said: "I usually do this because I can't find a more suitable manager, and all of this is based on the fact that the Firefly system still has absolute control over these companies. I can replace them whenever I want. But this time it is different. Even if you are not qualified for Comcast management in the future, Firefly Group also has the talents to take care of this company. Moreover, I don't want Conca. Stewart maintains a separate operation, the company must serve the overall interests of the firefly system. But this will certainly conflict with the idea of ​​Roberts and his son. As the founder of Comcast, they will obviously instinctively fight for more power. They also happen to have this advantage."

Eric said, simply paused and continued: "All in all, Comcast's sheer size definitely does not allow two voices in its management system. Otherwise, the market is worth tens of billions of dollars. The company will only get into chaos, not only can not help the development of the firefly group, and may even be a drag on the firefly system. I am a boss who is willing to give power to the professional manager, but I will never let the firefly group fall into the AOL-era Warner’s kind of hillsides, fundamentally, the firefly group, and even the entire firefly system, can only have one voice, the voice of me alone."

Steve Bernstein found that he had been biased by Eric by unconsciously, and what they are talking about now has nothing to do with the purpose that he has just arrived today.

Roberts and his son sent him over, but he hoped he could persuade Eric to give up the control of the Comcast Group.

However, Steve Bernstein realized at this time that the decision of Roberts and his son to send him over was obviously wrong.

As a former executive of the firefly system, he spent more time at ESPN than at Comcast. At this point, the dialogue between him and Eric, even without knowing it, has a bit of ‘self-person’ to discuss the development of his own company.

With a bitter smile, Steve Bernstein wanted to rearrange his ideas, only to find that he had nothing to say.

After all, Eric’s attitude is very determined. With his understanding of the former boss, Eric’s decision is obviously not easy to compromise.

"Eric, I suddenly found out that I still don't want to continue discussions with you. Maybe, I should fly back to Philadelphia right now, and then let Ralph send them to other people."

Eric also realized a similar problem, or that he had a deliberate intention. With a smile on his face, he looked at his watch and got up and said: "It’s just noon, please eat. It’s not too late to go back after lunch.”

Steve Bernstein flew back to the Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the afternoon.

After telling Eric himself, Roberts and his son realized that the incident could not be turned, and he made a decisive counterattack.

The next day, a newspaper in Philadelphia appeared with Steve Bernstein and Eric Williams. This is clearly the signal that Comcast took the initiative to release. The capital market is also mistakenly judged that the Firefly Group and the Comcast Group have started M&A negotiations, as expected by Comcast executives.

As a result, the stock market just opened on the day, Comcast's share price soared, the stock price rose more than 13% throughout the day, and the market value once again exceeded the $40 billion mark.

Moreover, according to Wall Street's forecast, Comcast's market value for the next period of time is likely to exceed 50 billion US dollars. This will undoubtedly greatly increase the difficulty of the Firefly Group's acquisition of Comcast.

Subsequently, Roberts and his son began to contact the other Comcast shareholders frequently, in an attempt to gain more voting rights.

If the Roberts family owns more than 40% of Comcast's voting rights, it is basically difficult for the Firefly Group to absorb the stocks through the open market and threaten the Roberts family's control of Comcast.

However, this time, the lobbying of the Roberts family did not go so smoothly.

After all, in the eyes of many shareholders, maintaining Comcast's contact with the Firefly Group, or adapting to the acquisition of the Firefly System, in any case, they are clearly able to get more benefits.

If Roberts is completely in control of Comcast, the current good situation of the company's stock price surge will definitely come to an abrupt end.