As the former CEO of ESPN TV under the Firefly Group, Steve Bernstein has witnessed the rise of the Firefly Group and even the Firefly system. Therefore, he has no doubt about the ambition of Eric's words to rival that of General Electric.

In fact, GE's growth has reached its peak, and further large-scale expansion is unlikely. With the retirement of Jack Welch, the legendary leader, the future of the industrial giant is more likely to be boom and bust.

But the Firefly system is different, and Eric is in the prime of life, and has enough time and energy to lead the consortium to continue to expand.

Moreover, if we look at the size of book assets alone, the Firefly system has now surpassed General Electric.

In the next few years, as long as it can successfully absorb the serious bubble costs implied in its new technology companies, and further consolidate its foundation in the two core areas of Internet and media, the Firefly system can truly grow into a super-large conglomerate with decisive influence on the US economy.

Although many people believe that the current development of the Firefly system in the new technology industry and the media field has entered a bottleneck, and future expansion will be increasingly restricted by US antitrust regulations and other competing capital forces, Steve Bernstein is keenly aware that most of the core enterprises of the Firefly system are located in the United States so far.

This means that there is still a very broad space for the development of firefly systems on a global scale.

Judging from Nokia's successful overseas investment case, Eric obviously does not lack the vision of global expansion, and the Firefly system also does not lack the capital strength for global expansion.

With this in mind, Steve Bernstein still had to turn to the problems he needed to face at this time.

In the past month or so, Firefly Group has been secretly buying large orders of Comcast shares.

At the beginning, the senior management of Comcast Group was quite excited, because of the entry of Firefly Group, Comcast's stock price has risen by more than 17% during this time.

However, when Firefly filed a declaration with the SEC stating that it already owned 6.5% of Comcast Group, Comcast's board of directors and management suddenly woke up. When Howard Glassman, a financial columnist for the Washington Post, published another analysis of the Firefly system, the Firefly Group's intention to acquire Comcast became even more apparent.

In fact, from the very beginning of the Firefly Group's large-scale purchase of Comcast stock, Steve Bernstein has vaguely guessed the possible buyer. After all, although he couldn't be regarded as the core of the firefly system at the beginning, he still knew the expansion idea of the firefly system well.

However, Steve Bernstein's judgment is only speculation. Although he wanted to call Katzenberg and the others to test it, Steve Bernstein also understood that he had broken away from the Firefly system, and Katzenberg and the others would not reveal the inside story to him at all.

And, from the bottom of his heart, Steve Bernstein didn't have much of a guard against the Firefly system, and he didn't even go out of his way to report his speculations to Comcast's controllers, Roberts and his sons.

Now, Firefly Group not only owns 6.5% of Comcast's shares, but also continues to buy them, and the intention to merge Comcast has become very obvious.

Because basic operators are a standard capital-intensive industry that requires a lot of cash to support each step of development, the Roberts family still controls the company, but over the years, with continuous financing dilution, their stake in Comcast has been reduced to only 3.1%.

Although the Roberts father and son owned up to 33% of Comcast's voting rights through the licensing agreement, they knew very well that as long as the Firefly Group offered the right price, the voting rights held by the Roberts family were simply not enough to resist the acquisition of the Firefly Group.

Aware of the crisis, the Roberts father and son gathered the board of directors and the company's top management to weigh it up, and quickly sent Steve Bernstein over.

In the empty IMAX screening room, after a casual chat, Steve Bernstein opened his mouth to get down to business and said, "Eric, do you know how Berkshire became the majority shareholder of ABC Group in the first place?"

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

Steve Bernstein didn't wait for Eric's answer and continued: "Warren Buffett has always been very interested in the media industry. In 1985, when Tom Murphy expressed his intention to acquire ABC Group, Berkshire invested $500 million in Met, becoming the largest shareholder of Met. Subsequently, Tom Murphy used the $500 million capital as a backing to acquire the then ABC Group in the form of funds and stocks. ”

ESPN has long been part of the ABC Group, and Steve Bernstein has been with ESPN since its inception. Therefore, it is not surprising that he showed familiarity with the process of Met's acquisition of ABC Group.

Eric, however, immediately understood the subtext of Steve Bernstein's words.

Firefly Group's intention to acquire Comcast is well known, and similarly, Comcast's covert approach to AT-T in an attempt to merge the other party's cable TV assets, Telecommunications Inc. is not a secret in the industry.

Steve Bernstein's meaning, or Comcast's meaning, is obviously that he hopes that the Firefly Group will provide funds to help Comcast successfully merge Telecommunications, as Berkshire Hathaway did back then, and in the process, the Firefly Group can also become a majority shareholder of Comcast.

Of course, the subtext on the other side is that Comcast does not want the Firefly Group to interfere in their management, but only owns the company's shares as a pure investor, as Berkshire Hathaway did.

Although Comcast's proposal coincided with Firefly's vision of a series of acquisitions that merged both Comcast and Telecommunications, the end result was definitely not what Eric wanted.

After listening to Steve Bernstein, Eric said directly: "Steve, you should understand that what I want is control of Comcast, not just a simple investment. If I were just investing, I would have been able to find a target with a higher rate of return, and I would never have chosen Comcast. ”

"Eric, it's not easy," Steve Bernstein shook his head, "and although the Roberts family's shareholding in Comcast is already low, they have 33% of the voting rights in Comcast. Moreover, now that Comcast's stock price has been rising, without Comcast's active cooperation, Firefly Group will pay a very big price even if it can absorb enough shares through the open market. Also, my guess is that you'd like to be able to merge Comcast and Telematics at the same time, right? Several federal departments will never easily approve Firefly to merge the two companies at the same time. Therefore, participating in the investment to fund Comcast's acquisition of telematics and becoming the majority shareholder of the new company in the future is a very good choice for Firefly. ”

"I know that this choice will be easier for Firefly Group to get involved in the field of cable operators, but if it has been a very easy development path, the Firefly system will not be able to have the scale it has now. More often than not, we always have to pick the more difficult path. Eric said, turning his head to look at Steve Bernstein, and suddenly said, "Steve, do you want to be the head of Comcast and run this company alone?"

When Steve Bernstein heard Eric's words, his eyes flickered, and he took the initiative to avoid Eric's gaze, and said, "Eric, I am now an executive at Comcast, and I will abide by my work ethic and will not do anything that damages my employer." ”

"Of course, one of the most important requirements I have for a professional manager in the Firefly system is loyalty," Eric said calmly, "If you do anything, even if you end up with Comcast, I'll find a reason to kick you out." I'm not asking you to do anything harmful to Comcast right now. Even, in the next acquisition process, you can completely avoid this matter. However, when the Firefly Group takes Comcast, I want you to be able to take on the burden of running the company, so do you think you're up to the task?"

Steve Bernstein hesitated for a moment, but said, "Eric, I can't answer your question for the time being. And, in all fairness, I think Roberts & Sons have a lot more experience in the cable operator space than I do. Even if the Firefly Group were to acquire Comcast, it would be very beneficial for the company to keep them in their positions, which is the consistent style of the Firefly system, isn't it?"

Whether it's early acquisitions of companies like Nokia and AOL, or Hasbro, which is in recent acquisition talks, Eric is accustomed to keeping the management of these companies.

However, this time, Eric shook his head and said, "I usually do this only because I can't find a more suitable manager, and the premise of all this is that the Firefly system still has absolute control over these companies, and I can replace them at any time if I want." But this time is different, even if you are not qualified to manage Comcast in the future, Firefly Group still has the right people to manage this company. Also, I don't want Comcast to remain operating in isolation, this company has to serve the overall interests of the Firefly system. But that would certainly conflict with the philosophy of the Roberts father and son, and as the founders of Comcast, they obviously instinctively fought for more power, and they also happened to have that advantage. ”

Eric said this, paused briefly, and continued: "In addition, Comcast's huge scale will definitely not allow two voices to appear in its management system, otherwise, this company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars will only fall into chaos, not only will it not be able to help the development of the Firefly Group, but it may even become a drag on the Firefly system." I'm a boss who would love to delegate power to professional managers, but I'm not going to let Firefly Group get into the kind of AOL-Time Warner situation where it's all about going its own way. Fundamentally, the Firefly Group, and even the entire Firefly system, can only have one voice, my voice. ”

Steve Bernstein found himself being led astray by Eric, and what they were talking about now had nothing to do with what he had just come for today.

Roberts and his son sent him in the hope that he would convince Eric to give up his struggle for control of the Comcast Group.

However, Steve Bernstein also realized at this time that the decision to send him by the Roberts father and son was a mistake in the first place.

As a former executive of Firefly Systems, he spent much more time at ESPN than he had spent at Comcast. It's only been a year since he left ESPN, and he still has a certain sense of belonging to the Firefly system. At this time, the conversation between him and Eric, even unconsciously, has a bit of 'own people' to discuss the development of their own company.

With a wry smile, Steve Bernstein tried to reorganize his thoughts, only to find that he had nothing to say.

After all, Eric's attitude is very resolute, and with his knowledge of this former boss, Eric will obviously not compromise easily on what he decides.

"Eric, I suddenly realized that I still don't want to continue the discussion with you. Perhaps, I should fly back to Philadelphia right now, and then have Ralph and the others send someone else. ”

Eric was also aware of a similar problem, or rather, he meant it on purpose. With a smile on his face, Eric looked at his watch, got up and said, "It's almost noon, please eat." It's never too late to rush back after lunch. ”

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

After telling Eric his intentions, the Roberts father and son also realized that the matter could not be turned around, so they resolutely fought back.

The next day, news of Steve Bernstein's meeting with Eric Williams appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper. This is obviously the news released by Comcast on its own initiative, and the capital market has indeed misjudged that Firefly Group and Comcast Group have begun merger and acquisition negotiations, as expected by Comcast executives.

As a result, as soon as the stock market opened that day, Comcast's stock price skyrocketed, rising by more than 13% throughout the day, and the market value once again exceeded the $40 billion mark.

And, according to Wall Street's forecasts, Comcast's market capitalization is likely to exceed $50 billion in the next period. This undoubtedly greatly increases the difficulty of Firefly Group's acquisition of Comcast.

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

According to Comcast's shareholding structure, if the Roberts family owns more than 40% of Comcast voting rights, it will be difficult for the Firefly Group to threaten the Roberts family's control of Comcast by buying shares in the open market.

This time, though, the Roberts family's lobbying didn't go so well.

In the view of most of the capital that holds Comcast shares, it is clear that they will be able to gain more benefits by continuing to maintain Comcast's contact with the Firefly Group, or by joining the Firefly system in accordance with the acquisition.

If the Roberts father and son had taken full control of Comcast, the company's current surge in stock price would have come to an abrupt end. As a result, some shareholders who have signed voting authorization agreements with the Roberts family are even more inclined to take their voting rights back in order to have more initiative in possible transactions that may take place.