"Did you hear that!?"

Early on Monday morning, the buzz of nervous Wall Street traders filling the New York Stock Exchange with each other.

The opening day of the week is a busy day for the exchange, but today is particularly different because today is not only the opening day, but also the announcement day of AOL Time Warner's new fiscal year.

After last year's ups and downs and the "crash" that was almost abandoned after 911, today's AOL Times Warner has become a cancer stock on the New York Stock Exchange.

And now everyone is gathered in front of the TV screen, not to pass the gossip, of course, but to wait for their latest financial report for the fiscal year.

As the largest publicly traded company in North America, although AOL Time Warner's senior management is usually high-minded and commanding, but when it comes to the annual earnings day, they can no longer cover up the problem.

The data shows that in the new fiscal year ending March 3, they posted a massive loss of $55.2 billion, which is the highest quarterly loss in the history of North America!

This data is 1 billion more than the "historical" loss of AOL Time Warner, mainly because there is no boost from the "Harry Potter" series.

With a budding "Lord of the Rings" and a weak follow-up "The Matrix", it is difficult to prevent the entire group from losing money.

As soon as AOL's annual earnings report was released, its stock price immediately fell below the $20 mark!

Reflects the company's irretrievable decline since the merger.

Since then, the company's stock price has fallen to around $10 amid various scandals, making it the biggest failed merger in the 21st century.

At AOL's Manhattan headquarters, the company has been clouded since the release of its annual earnings report, and the bickering between former AOL and Time Warner executives has not stopped.

Instead, there was a blank silence between the CEO of But Group and Steve Case, and no one knew what that silence meant.

But soon after, several phone calls were made to a fund office in Manhattan and an office on the other side of the continent.

"And what do the French say?" Shirley looked at Jon Fairheimer, CEO of Fire Lion Pictures.

"Well, the Gaumont Theater is willing to give us 500 premiere screens, but they only want to buy out the theatrical distribution rights in the south of France. Jon Fairheimer replied with a bit of a headache.

"Buyout?" Shirley frowned.

Although in North America, with the opening of AMC and other theater operators, Fire Lion's local distribution ability is no longer limited to the influence of a small and medium-sized studio, but overseas, especially in Europe and other countries and regions where the development of theaters has matured, it is still quite difficult for forces outside the seven to break in.

As the so-called strong dragon does not suppress the head snake, if you don't have enough chips to deal with these head snakes, it will be difficult to get a reasonable share, and you must know that even the seven major film studios can only get an average of 35% of the share in these overseas box offices.

After cutting out the cost of publicity, the real profit is only around 15%, such a "pitiful" sharing ratio is really not in line with the seven identities imagined by ordinary people.

"Well, whether it's a buyout or a share, we will negotiate with France and Germany first, and even if we want to sell, we must sell at the most reasonable price. Shirley nodded on the table and decided.

"Well, I'm taking the team on a trip to Europe at the end of the month. Jon Fairheimer also nodded, such a major negotiation has never been able to be done in a one-time negotiation.

Although "Spider-Man" won unanimous praise from theater companies at home and abroad at this year's Shoest exhibition, when it was the turn of the real negotiation, most of the negotiation partners, especially overseas theater companies, became extremely stingy.

Whether it is the desire of these cinema companies from various countries to maximize their own interests, or the tacit understanding between them and the seven major studios, it makes it difficult for the "third party to intervene" of Fire Lion.

Just when everyone was at a loss, Shirley's assistant knocked on the door of the conference room, "Shirley, there's a phone call here, I think you need to answer it now." ”

"Now?" Shirley Sandberg asked, frowning.

"Yes, now. Her assistant nodded.

So Shirley stood up, "Then take a five-minute break and then reconvene later." ”

After finishing speaking, she returned to her office, the phone left for her by the assistant was already on the front line, and Shirley picked up the phone: "Hello, this is Shirley Sandberg." ”

Then Shirley heard an unexpected, but plausible answer.

"Hello, I'm Steve Case. ”

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In fact, the "historical" AOL era Warner, at its most downtrooping, was indeed almost split into four, and its initiator was Carl Icahn, known as the "Wolf of Wall Street".

The historic split plan was as follows: Carl Icahn wanted to split AOL Time Warner in four and buy back its shares worth around $20 billion.

It was then spun off into the first, dedicated to network operations "America Online".

Second, film and television companies that specialize in content production, including the likes of Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Pictures, as well as related copyright departments and later game subsidiaries.

Third, there is the traditional print media that has long had no future, that is, Warner Books Group, including Time Magazine and Life Magazine.

Fourth, it is the TV operator and TV station department represented by Time Warner Cable TV, although Warner's TV station business was weak and dispensable, but Warner TV, which is close to the "CSI Crime Scene Investigation", still has some bit of game capital.

In addition to spinning off these key divisions, Carl Icahn also asked AOL Time Warner to reduce operating costs by laying off employees, consolidating operations, and cutting expenses.

Carl Icahn's 343-page plan almost meant to tear down the entire AOL Warner family, but his "huge" plan eventually collapsed.

The fundamental reason is not that he is not good enough, but that Time Warner has begun to get rid of the shadow of AOL at that time, and the entire group has started to climb from the bottom under the recovery of business, and the downturn in stock prices is only dragged down by AOL's business.

And at that time, it was not only Goldman Sachs, who undertook their financial business, but also Richard Parsons, the CEO of AOL Time Warner, who understood this at the time, who was also calm and restrained.

When "historically" Keith was still there, because of the suppression of Keith, the chairman, his ability could not be seen.

But as soon as Keith left, he immediately eliminated dissidents and quickly took control of the entire company.