Located about 100 kilometers northeast of Long Island, Martha's Vineyard has the nickname 'Star Back Garden,' but in reality, the island's inhabitants are home to almost every type of American upper-class elite, from billionaires to movie stars, politicians, artists, and so on.

Eric bought a manor in Martha's Vineyard in order to keep Cindy and her little one from being disturbed by the outside world for the next few months.

In recent days, despite the uproar of the media and the public over the series of events in the Firefly system, Eric has left Manhattan to stay with Cindy at the island's estate.

However, even if you can push off most of the work, there are still some things that are hard to dodge.

David West, president of State Street Global Ventures, and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock Funds, another Wall Street asset management company, got out of the car outside a manor in the middle of the island, looked at the blonde German girl who came to greet them, and couldn't help but secretly envy Eric, and they naturally took Catherine Neumann as a model.

Catherine Neumann welcomed the two guests into the living room of the manor villa, served them coffee, and said, "Please wait a moment, Mr. Williams will accompany Miss Crawford to check her health, and she will be back soon." ”

David West and Larry Fink also paid a surprise visit, nodding their heads to show that they didn't mind.

After Catherine Neumann had finished speaking, she politely asked the two guests if they had any other needs, and quietly exited the living room.

The two middle-aged men chatted in a low voice for a moment, and then there was some noise in the courtyard, and they stood up together when they knew that Eric had returned.

Eric walked in with Cindy, whose lower abdomen was already bulging, and everyone exchanged pleasantries, and Cindy took the initiative to leave the living room and go upstairs, and the three men sat down again.

Recently, news has been spreading that Firefly Group's Clover Fund was raking out large sums of money before the Nasdaq market crashed.

Although this income is not reflected in Firefly Group's second-quarter financial report, even if some financial means can be used to continue to hide the revenue of Clover Fund for a quarter, it will definitely be disclosed in next year's final annual financial report.

The number of outside shareholders of the Firefly Group is small, but it is not a minority either. After covering it for as long as possible, as more and more news appeared in the media, Eric had no hope of finally concealing the detailed data of this income. He just wants to drag it out as long as possible. After all, early next year, many people should have recovered from the pain of the Nasdaq collapse, and when they hear about Clover funds cashing out tens of billions of dollars from the Nasdaq stock market, they will be much less likely to react.

However, the non-dividend plan has not changed.

However, as many investors lost a lot of money in the NASDAQ crash and urgently needed to replenish funds, Eric did not give up this opportunity to buy back Firefly Group shares. In his last meeting with David West, he said that only if the minority shareholders of the Firefly Group are willing to sell their shares, the Firefly Group can liquidate this year's profits at the same time.

Although shareholders such as Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway still have no intention of selling their Firefly Group shares, some minority shareholders still choose to sell.

David West and another minority shareholder representative, Larry Fink, just came today to discuss this.

Speaking of which, Larry Fink's Blackrock fund can be literally translated as the Black Rock Fund, which is similar to State Street Globals, which is also born out of Blackstone, another well-known investment company in the United States.

The men chatted downstairs, and when Cindy went upstairs, she went to a living room on the second floor of the villa, where she leaned comfortably on the sofa with a magazine in her hand, and occasionally looked up at the golden sunlight on the terrace outside the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor.

Although it was early autumn and the sunset still looked a little blazing in the evening, this villa on Martha's Vineyard Island was not at all hot and dry as a summer retreat more comfortable than Long Island.

There was a slight sound of footsteps behind her, Cindy raised her head, and saw Catherine Neumann walking in with a small tray, waiting for the girl to put the tray on the coffee table in front of her, Cindy took a piece of snack from the porcelain plate in the tray and took a small bite to eat, and motioned for Catherine Neumann to sit down next to her, and said, "Eric said that I can also participate in the care of Elite in the future, you can help me come up with ideas these days?"

Catherine Neumann sat upright on the single sofa next to her, shook her head, and said, "Mr. Williams buying Elite is not a good choice. The company has a lot of problems, bloated, overextended, financially chaotic, and, moreover, there are a lot of ethical problems. ”

"I've been at Elite before and certainly know its problems. Actually, I also understand that the root of the problem lies with John Casablanca. Over the years, Elite has developed to the extreme, and in recent years, it has been quickly caught up by IMG's modeling department, because John's management ideas have not kept up with the development of the times," Cindy said this, and suddenly changed the conversation, "However, you should also know that just like those rich people like to buy teams, Eric is obviously more interested in modeling agencies." ”

Catherine Neumann said: "In this case, John Casablanca should be replaced before the Elite can be rectified and revitalized." ”

Cindy shook her head and said, "That's not going to work, Eric didn't think about replacing John." You should know his temperament too, Eric prefers to reform a company with gentle means, like, well, boiling a frog in warm water. ”

Catherine Neumann nodded imperceptibly and said no more.

Cindy slowly finished eating a piece of snack in her hand, turned sideways, reached out and took off the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of Catherine Neumann's nose, looked at the girl with interest and her temperament suddenly changed significantly, and smiled: "Are you confused, why is a person like Eric with many character flaws able to achieve his current success?"

Catherine Neumann brushed off the blonde hair that had fallen in front of her forehead after Cindy took off her glasses, and still did not speak, but her blue eyes looked at her with some curiosity.

Cindy played with the black frame in her hand and said, "Actually, when you stay in this circle for a long time, you will find that many rich people are far from being as smart as you think, and some can even be said to be very stupid, but they can accumulate a huge amount of wealth, maybe because of family background, maybe because of luck, or other things." If you have to find a reason, then, in short, it's an unfair world. ”

Catherine Neumann had a thoughtful look on her pretty face.

Cindy looked at the girl's expression, smiled, reached out and put the black-rimmed glasses back on her, covering Catherine Neumann's outward temperament, and said, "So, even if you are very smart, even far smarter than many others." However, if you want to get ahead, a lot of the time, you still have to learn to look less intelligent. We are women, and in this patriarchal society, we should understand this. ”

Katherine Neumann frowned, as if thinking of some not-so-good memories.

Cindy twisted her body even more relaxed, leaned comfortably on the sofa, looked at the girl next to her and said, "Actually, if I hadn't insisted, you wouldn't have been hired at all." You're so smart that you're sure you'll be able to guess some of the reasons. But you still came to me, and this is your chance. You are an ambitious girl, but to achieve it, first of all, you have to completely forget about your ambitions and put yourself 100% in the position you are in. ”

Catherine Neumann's eyes flashed slightly, but she quickly whispered, "Miss Crawford, I understand. ”

Cindy nodded with satisfaction and said, "Then, the first thing you have to do next is to help me fight for more initiative in the two companies of IMG and Elite. ”

In the living room downstairs, Eric was unaware of the intimate conversation between the two women, and focused on discussing with David West for an hour before the matter was basically settled.

According to the plan brought by David West and the completion of this acquisition, Eric will probably be able to buy back about 5% of the shares of Firefly Group.

In terms of price, Eric still made some concessions, and counting the dividends that need to be paid, he will need to spend a total of $7.5 billion this time, which is $500 million more than initially estimated.

After the completion of this buyback, Eric's own shareholding in Firefly Group will also rise again to about 78%.

After roughly finalizing the buyback plan and sending David West away, Eric went to his own study at the villa, picked up the phone and notified Katzenberg in Los Angeles to take charge of following up on the next matter.

Hanging up the phone, Eric turned on the computer and checked the financial data of the two companies of Firefly Group and Firefly Investment in the recent period.

As expected, before last week's reduction, Firefly Investments' total cash holdings did reach $10 billion, with an exact amount of $13.6 billion, much higher than many Wall Street analysts. On the Firefly Group's side, after setting aside taxes, the Clover Fund alone brought $36.3 billion in free cash flow to the Firefly Group.

Combined, the nearly $50 billion in cash reserves may seem like a lot, but if you count the spending of the Firefly system in the coming period, this money is still far from enough.

With the further decline of the Nasdaq index, at this time, both Firefly Group and Firefly Investment have begun to secretly execute the next expansion plan.

Firefly Investment's next major expansion target is Sprint.

At present, the stock price of Sprint, the third-largest telecom operator in the United States, has fallen from a peak of $109 billion a few months ago to less than $40 billion now.

Although there is still room for Sprint's stock price to fall, Firefly Investment has begun to enter the market and continue to absorb Sprint's shares.

Chris plans to expand his stake in Sprint to 30 percent before making an acquisition of the company.

Then, according to the current market value of Sprint, on the basis of the original 10% of Firefly Investment's original holdings, if you want to absorb another 20% of the shares, you need to invest between $7 billion and $8 billion, which already accounts for a large part of Firefly Investment's cash reserves.

Moreover, once the acquisition is officially launched, buying the other 70% of Sprint's stock is conservatively estimated to require at least another $20 billion in cash.

The Firefly Group's money has been determined to remain in Hollywood entirely, so at that time, Firefly Investment will have to raise a huge debt financing of up to $20 billion. But that's just the beginning, with the completion of Sprint's acquisition, the Firefly system still needs to continue to transfuse the company in order for the company to expand further.

In addition, on the Firefly Group's side, the company has also begun to absorb shares of both Comcast and Hasbro.

For the smaller Hasbro, the Firefly Group intends to take it all within this year.

Hasbro's current market capitalization hovers between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, and Firefly Group has made a budget of up to $3 billion, as long as it can buy Hasbro within this year, billions of dollars of financial expenditure can also indirectly bring a large tax deduction to Firefly Group.

But with Comcast, there's just so much to consider.

After surviving the expansion of the cable TV industry in the 90s, although with the collapse of the NASDAQ, Comcast will not have a good time in the next few years, but the company's operating conditions are gradually stabilizing, and the scale of profits is gradually rising, which is why Comcast wants to further annex AT-T's cable TV business to further expand itself.

When the momentum of the business is good, Comcast shareholders and management will be much less enthusiastic about the takeover offer, and may even show resistance.

Moreover, although there is a merger case between AOL and Time Warner in the past, with the current size of Firefly Group, the antitrust level is still an important hurdle for the company to face if it wants to annex Comcast.

In addition, Eric actually wants to launch a series of acquisitions, and at the same time take down Comcast and At-T's telecommunications, and integrate them into a cable operator giant.

Eric sat in his study thinking about these things, occasionally calling Chris and the others, until night fell outside the window, and Cindy knocked on the door and walked in to ask Eric what he wanted for dinner.

After chatting with Cindy for a while, and waiting for the woman to leave, Eric turned on the light in the study and heard the prompt of a new email on the computer, so he opened it curiously.

The email was sent from Los Angeles, and the content was the approximate box office statistics of the summer films that had just passed.

Entering September, the North American summer file has ended, thinking that in recent months, the energy has been on the NASDAQ market and Firefly investment, Eric also specially printed out the 1999 summer box office report with more than 20 pages, simply bound it, picked it up and left the study and walked downstairs, planning to take advantage of the time before dinner to roughly look at the report.

There is almost no suspense, the box office champion of this year's summer file finally fell on "Iron Man", since its release in early May, in four months, "Iron Man" has basically been on the verge of decline, and only a few dozen theaters in North America are still showing it, and the final cumulative box office of the film is more than 387 million US dollars, although unfortunately it failed to break through the $400 million mark, but it is enough to make other films in the summer file envious.

In addition, the most surprising thing about this summer file is undoubtedly the miracle of the box office reversal of Blue Sky Studio's "Shrek", which is also the only work in the summer file to achieve a box office reversal. In the end, the animated film, which had an investment of only $60 million, reached more than $267 million at the North American box office alone, ranking third in the entire summer box office list.

In second place is Universal Pictures' "The Mummy 3", which currently has a cumulative box office of more than $311 million, which is the second film in the summer season to exceed $300 million at the box office.

However, in addition to the top three, there are many films in this summer file that have very eye-catching box office performance.