In North America, media outlets interested in Firefly's revenue began to conduct their own analysis based on information collected from other sources in order to gain traction after receiving a public annual financial report from Firefly and receiving an invitation to interview with Firefly's top management.

The data given by those professional financial media is quite reliable, and the non-professional entertainment media basically have little evidence, and they are completely fabricated according to the mode of how to attract attention and how to write, and for a while, speculation articles about the business status of Firefly Pictures are all over the media, large and small, most of which are baseless exaggerations in order to attract attention, and the sales of these magazines often have a lot of climbs. In just a few days, Firefly Pictures' annual profits in the media have skyrocketed to a maximum of $2.6 billion, and even Eric himself doesn't know how those magazines are calculated.

Jeffrey pushed open the door to Eric's office and knocked on the door again to see Eric with his whole body sunk in a leather chair, his legs propped up on the dark red desk, and a thick printed document in his hand leisurely flipping through it.

Eric put away his sitting posture and put the papers in his hand on the table before reaching out to Jeffrey, "Jeffrey, is there something wrong?"

Jeffrey walked across from Eric, pulled over a chair and sat down, glanced at the document Eric had just read, and asked curiously, "New script?"

"No," Eric smiled and pushed the document over, "Look at it, Chris sent it." ”

Hearing that it was something from his son, Jeffrey picked it up curiously, only to find out that it was a contract for an equity incentive plan for the management of IE Company. Flipped a few pages hastily. Jeffrey was a little dazed and didn't look any further. A contract is just over 110 pages, like a thick book, and the rules and regulations are more complicated than the contracts signed by Hollywood stars and studios.

"On Thanksgiving, I negotiated with Chris that I was going to give about 20 percent of the equity awards to the management of IE, Yahoo and Hotmail in 1995 based on their performance, and this is the draft contract that Chris sent me," Eric explained when he saw that Jeffrey quickly put down the printout in his hand.

The speed of market expansion shown by IE and Yahoo. The market value of the two companies that have withdrawn from the product has exceeded $100 million in the capital market, so the 20% equity incentive plan is not a trivial matter, Chris negotiated with the management of the three companies for a month to get it, and the contract has detailed provisions on various terms and possibilities, more than 100 pages, even Eric felt a little surprised when he saw it for the first time, but after starting to read, he felt that there was no clause in it that was groundless and untargeted, which shows that Chris spent a lot of energy for this matter。

"I don't know much about all these things you're making. Jeffrey smiled and shook his head before saying, "Caroline has already made the annual financial report. Let's take a look first. With that, Jeffrey handed Eric the papers he had brought with him when he walked in.

"Oh, so soon, I thought it would be another week," Eric said, the New Year had just passed, and he hadn't been on the job for less than a week after the holidays, and Eric hadn't expected the finance department to be so productive.

"I deliberately urged Caroline a few times," Jeffrey said as he looked at Eric looking through the documents: "It's so much trouble outside, I always feel relieved to make it sooner, Eric, should I let Caroline hold a press conference and reveal a little bit of news to the outside world, otherwise the media will not stop." ”

Eric looked down at Firefly's 1992 financial report and said: "They have touted Firefly's annual profit to 2.6 billion, and anyone with a little brain knows that this is nonsense, so let them guess, we have no obligation to satisfy their curiosity." ”

Jeffrey smiled, with satisfaction on his face, and said, "Although the figure of 2.6 billion US dollars is indeed a bit outrageous, if the film and television entertainment market in North America and overseas continues to expand according to the current situation, it may not take a few years for Firefly to reach this level." ”

"Of course, it's a matter of time," Eric followed.

Firefly's current main profitable business includes film and television entertainment, peripheral products, theme parks and TV business four major sectors, unlike the profit of film and television entertainment after more than ten years, which only accounts for a small proportion of the revenue of the media group, the film and television entertainment revenue of the seven major Hollywood film companies is still the most important profit point.

In the 1992 Firefly financial report, the total revenue of the three major sectors of film and television entertainment, including North American box office revenue, overseas box office revenue and video cassette distribution, was 4.2 billion US dollars, although overseas box office revenue accounted for the highest share, reaching 1.8 billion US dollars, but the profit margin of overseas box office was the lowest, deducting the share of overseas cinema companies and the cost of distribution budget, the overseas profit margin was only 14% , the profit is about 250 million US dollars, and the profit margin of North American box office revenue is higher, 1.5 billion US dollars of North American box office revenue, after deducting publicity and production costs, Firefly can get a total of 520 million US dollars. The last videotape distribution had the highest profit margin, because it was self-distributed, and the Firefly made a profit of $580 million in the $900 million videotape revenue after deducting the distribution costs. This figure is almost not far from the box office receipts, and even more than the domestic revenues in North America, although it is not too surprising that as early as the late '80s, the videotape revenues of the major studios were already on par with the box office receipts.

After the completion of the acquisition of Disney, Firefly handed over the development of the finished products of "Toy Story", which was a box office hit at last year's box office, to the relevant departments of Disney, so the sales of Disney stores this year were $1.6 billion, with a total profit of 330 million. Theme parks and resorts generated $3.7 billion in revenue, but only about 10 percent of the profit margin was $360 million due to huge operating costs.

Besides. The finance department allocated the TV series licensing revenue of Firefly Films to the TV business. Together with the TV shows "Friends," "The X-Files" and "Who Will Be a Millionaire," as well as Firefly's 10 percent stake in Fox Network, the total profit was $720 million.

If you don't take into account operating expenses at all. All of the above profits add up to a total of $2.76 billion, which is indeed not far from the $2.6 billion annual profit advertised in the media.

However, although some costs have been deducted from this figure, the salaries of thousands of employees in the Firefly system itself and other software and hardware expenses are still quite large, and Firefly also has to provide a steady stream of technology research and development funds for its digital field and the technical department of Pixar Studios, plus Firefly also has to pay off part of the principal and interest for the two billion dollars of debt that Firefly took on to buy Disney, minus these expenses. Of the $2.76 billion in profits, only about $1.5 billion remained.

And that's not even counting the profits that Fireflies end up pocketing, don't forget, the business tax ratio of North American companies is 35% of the Angry Spirit, and after deducting the taxes that should be paid, Firefly's annual net profit is only 980 million.

"Ninety-eighty million!" Seeing the end, Eric couldn't help but sigh, and there was an urge to fight with the IRS in his heart.

"Yes, nine hundred and eighty million!" Jeffrey's tone was quite uplifting, because of the current Big Seven in Hollywood, because of the more profitable TV stations such as Turner Broadcasting. Warner's annual profit has only reached $950 million, and Warner has been in Hollywood hegemony for almost a decade. And the financial report in Eric's hand also announced that starting from this year, the Fireflies have finally ousted Warner from the position of Hollywood boss, thinking of this, Jeffrey couldn't help but ask: "Eric, what are you going to do next?"

Eric put down the financial report papers, shook his head and said, "I have no further plans at the moment, at least until next year." ”

Jeffrey was surprised: "Why, we already have so much cash in our hands, it would be a shame not to invest it." ”

"But we can't simply invest for the sake of investing, and the cash is not going to meet my needs," Eric said, adding that historically, the increasing scale of investment in movies means that the profits of the film and television entertainment business segment will decline rapidly, compared to the profits of TV networks, which have been climbing, and may even reach more than half of all media group revenues in a dozen years.

Therefore, Firefly's expansion plan must be to develop into the TV business.

However, although the three major TV networks in North America have not yet fallen into the hands of media groups, and the market value has not begun to skyrocket, but if you want to acquire, the opening price will still not be too low, and the oil crisis of the Gulf War is such a big thing, and it is not so easy to encounter a second time, and Eric does not want to borrow heavily from investment institutions, so the best way is of course to rely on his own strength to accumulate funds.

Although the company's profitability this year has already excited the company, as long as next year's "Jurassic Park" can achieve a sensational effect and record-breaking box office like in the original time and space, then Firefly's profits will skyrocket again next year, and as long as some other operations are carried out, Firefly will definitely be able to raise enough money to spend on the acquisition of TV networks.

Eric was talking to Jeffrey about his future plans when Alan knocked on the office door a few times and walked in with permission.

"Eric, here's an interview invitation for you, I think you need to see it?" Alan nodded at Jeffrey and walked over.

Eric was a little confused, he had already told Alan to push down all interview invitations from the media, since Alan still sent the invitation to him, it would definitely not be a simple invitation.

"Forbes magazine?" Eric raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw the interview invitation, and he had a bad premonition in his heart.

Alan nodded, but his expression was quite happy: "This is an invitation from Steve Forbes, the editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, and there is some information below. ”

Eric hummed, but continued reading.

Since the early 80s, Forbes has launched a sensational list of America's richest people, and since 1985, with the rapid rise of Wal-Mart's supermarket chain, Wal-Mart's founder Sam Walton has occupied the position of the richest man in the United States.

However, unfortunately, Sam Walton died in April last year, and his wealth of more than 20 billion dollars was equally divided between his wife and several children, in this case, although the Walton family is still the richest family in the United States, but in terms of personal wealth, no one in the Walton family can become the richest man in North America.

At this time, Forbes magazine sent the interview invitation attached to the information, the overall valuation of the Firefly Film Group, the final figure is 10.5 billion US dollars, Forbes magazine also according to the information collected from various sources, excluding the liabilities of Firefly Pictures, plus Eric's assets in the Firefly Investment Company, the valuation of Eric's worth is 9.5 billion US dollars, and this figure can be able to win the first place on the North American rich list.

In the original time and space, in 1995, Bill Gates rose sharply with the success of win95, and topped the list of the richest people in North America with a value of more than $12 billion, but now the North American economy has not begun to recover, coupled with the death of Sam Walton, who created a business miracle, Eric's worth of $9.5 billion has been able to get the first place on the rich list.

Carefully calculated, Eric currently owns more than 98% of Firefly's assets, Jeffrey and Michael Lynn's original shares of Firefly were also diluted after the acquisition of Disney, Jeffrey's shareholding is only 1%, Michael Lynn's is even less, and Pixar's executives John Lasseter, Ed Carmore, and Stan Winston, who is in charge of the digital field, only hold some shares in the corresponding branches, so it can be said that Eric almost completely owns Firefly.

If Firefly is a listed company, with this year's performance, after the annual financial report is released, the market value easily exceeds the $10.5 billion valuation given by Forbes magazine, which is basically not a problem, but Forbes The magazine obviously also knows the strong uncertainty of film and television investment, so the valuation given is relatively accurate, and this figure minus the liabilities of Firefly Pictures, it is obviously Eric's net worth with this company, however, Eric still has some other investments in the high-tech industry, Cisco has undergone a number of expansionary mergers and acquisitions, the number of shares held by Firefly Investment has decreased slightly, but it still maintains 36% Cisco's current market capitalization is probably around $1 billion, which is also the most valuable business Firefly Investment currently has.

And the billion-dollar cash reserves in the hands of Firefly Investments, Forbes magazine obviously failed to detect.

Calculated in this way, nine and a half billion US dollars is indeed more in line with Eric's current net worth on the surface. (To be continued......)