By the time Eric and Elizabeth arrived outside Fox's headquarters in Century City, well-informed media reporters had already surrounded the gates, and it was estimated that only a small number of people would be invited to the press conference, and Eric guessed that the situation at Firefly Burbank's headquarters was similar.

With the help of security personnel, Eric's car drove through the crowd into the park, and as soon as he got out of the car, Eric saw Murdoch and Michael Lynn greet him with a few people.

Elizabeth got out of the other side of the car, saw that several people, including her father, had a little ambiguous girl in their eyes, their faces turned red, they said hello to everyone, and hurried away in the name of work. Eric greeted Murdoch and the others one by one with a normal face, and then asked casually: "Michael, Rupert, have you found out who leaked this?"

Murdoch and Michael Lynn looked at each other, and finally Michael Lynn spoke: "Eric, maybe Miss Barrymore accidentally revealed it." ”

Eric secretly scolded the dead girl, she didn't know how to hide the fox's tail when she did this kind of thing, but in just one day, the matter of the firefly's withdrawal was caused to all mainstream newspapers and TV stations, and it was impossible to hide her body, presumably Murdoch and Michael Lynn also knew that this matter was definitely not leaked by Xiao Nizi 'unintentionally', and the premeditation was too obvious, Michael said, just to leave some room for everyone.

"Yesterday, Xiao Nizi also came to me to complain, saying that she was deceived, but I didn't expect this kind of thing to happen today. I'll be sure to teach her a good lesson when I get back," Eric said casually as he walked into the office building with the others, "Now that it's happened, let's discuss what to do." ”

Michael Lynn didn't know what Eric meant by his first words. I thought he was just saying it casually, but a hint of strangeness flashed in Murdoch's eyes.

Eric just caught a glimpse of Murdoch's expression changed, since the other party noticed the hint he just made, it is estimated that he will soon understand the ins and outs of the matter, as for what the old fox will feel next, this is not Eric's concern.

There are still more than 20 minutes before the press conference. The group did not go directly to the press conference hall, but first came to a conference room to discuss some issues of the next press conference.

Although the divestment plan has the greatest impact on Fox Television Network, which is likely to cause News Corp.'s stock price to continue to slump for a long time in the future, it also has an impact on the next stage of Firefly Pictures' layout, the most intuitive manifestation of which is that while News Corp.'s stock price fell, the stock prices of most companies involved in the television business in the New York Stock Exchange market rose to varying degrees.

Since the news of the withdrawal has been leaked in advance, it is definitely useless to deny it, whether others believe it or not. The Fireflies needed a reasonable excuse to temporarily perfunctory the media to minimize the uncertainties that might arise in the early stages of the TV network acquisition.

After discussing the joint remarks of the two sides at the upcoming press conference, Murdoch took the Fox side and left the conference room very consciously, giving Eric and Michael Lynn a chance to communicate alone.

After the outsiders left, Michael Lynn asked, "Eric, what are we going to do with it, and now the major TV networks are already vigilant?"

Eric had already made plans on his way to Century City, and called to find out what was going on. "I just asked, Viacom's negotiations to acquire Blockbuster have reached the final moment. If we want to, we can get in at this time. ”

"You're saying we're expanding into the videotape rental business under the guise of that?"

"It definitely works, and it makes sense to sell a stake in Fox in order to expand into the videotape business," Eric said. ”

1993 was the last boom period for the videotape industry, and it was also the most lucrative period. No one would believe that in just a few years, the video rental and sales industry would fall off a cliff due to the rise of DVDs and the emergence of the online rental business.

At this time, the size of the videotape industry had even exceeded the total box office of movies, and the FCC's strict antitrust restrictions on the television industry were only gradually relaxed in recent years. Most people don't realize that the U.S. television industry has entered another period of large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and Firefly's excuse to expand into the video rental business is very reasonable, if not to everyone.

At the subsequent press conference, when Murdoch announced to dozens of reporters in the audience a series of plans for the continued cooperation between Firefly and Fox Television Network, Eric also hyped up Firefly Pictures' next expansion into the video rental market, and clearly pointed the finger of Firefly Pictures' acquisition at Viacom's upcoming Blockbuster.

As for the future, Firefly Pictures will definitely 'lose' in the process of competing with Viacom, so it is not Eric lying, in order to make a full set of plays, Firefly also sent a vice president to contact the top management of Blockbuster.

Viacom has offered a sky-high price of $8 billion to Blockbuster, which has more than 3,000 video tape rental and sales chains in the United States, and Firefly Pictures' sudden intervention suddenly made Viacom's negotiations with Blockbuster obviously deadlocked, although Blockbuster's management also realized that Firefly did not really intend to acquire Blockbuster through a short period of contact with Firefly Pictures, but in order to get a higher price from Viacom, Blockbuster did not mind making a false deal with Firefly Pictures.

The good things that had been going well came to an abrupt end, and a frustrated Summer-Leiston published an open letter in the Los Angeles Times, scolding Eric for being unruly. However, the acquisition of Blockbuster is an important part of Viacom's acquisition of Paramount, if the acquisition of Blockbuster fails, Viacom will lose the bargaining chips for large-scale debt financing, and the plan to acquire Paramount will be put into decline, and in desperation, Lei Shidong had to raise the offer again.

Eric turned a deaf ear to Lei Shidong's provocation. still follows the pace of his work and life.

After the press conference, News Corp.'s stock price fell rapidly, but the stock price did not return to its previous level due to market concerns about the separation of Fox Television Network and Firefly Pictures.

Perhaps Murdoch quickly understood what was going on, and a few days later, Twentieth Century Fox successfully completed the acquisition of TG. The offer was raised from $120 million to $140 million. Eric was able to guess Murdoch's thoughts, making such a big fuss, although the old fox felt that he was at a loss, but he was absolutely reluctant to increase the price, but in order to prevent a certain little fox from making any more mess, he reluctantly gave a compensation of 20 million US dollars.

After taking TG into the bag, in order to boost the confidence of investors, the Fox television network began to increase the publicity of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and also publicized the fact that Eric himself was the producer.

It's mid-August. On August 18, a dentist in Los Angeles formally filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing Michael Jackson of molesting his son who was under the age of 13, and the Jackson child molestation case that shocked the world broke out.

Faced with the lawsuit, Michael Jackson, who was on a world tour of "Dangerous", had to interrupt the concert and return to the United States to respond to the lawsuit. Eric knew that the Dangerous world tour represented the pinnacle of Michael Jackson's career. But it also became the last peak of Michael Jackson.

After Michael Jackson returned to the United States, hundreds of reporters quickly surrounded Jackson's home. A worldwide carnival of public opinion has erupted since then, and who cares how the object of the carnival feels?

There was too much discussion about this matter in later generations, and although Eric knew that Michael Jackson was innocent, at this time, Eric could only maintain a cold attitude. He had nothing to do with Michael Jackson, and Eric knew he couldn't do anything at this point. Not to mention the dentist and the one-sided media that criticized Michael Jackson, imagine that even my sister came forward to slander my brother as a pedophile. How else does Jackson prove his innocence?

Perhaps due to the influence of this incident, or maybe his daily routine is too busy, Eric's mood has been inexplicably irritable and low recently, and many people around him have discovered this, and Jeffrey also brought a psychiatrist to Eric's office, but Eric directly refused.

In the next few days, there were suddenly more people around Eric, and Famick Jensen, who had been filming the new season of "The X-Files" in Canada, rushed back to Los Angeles and stayed with Eric for several days, followed by Jennifer Connelly, and Nicole, who was filming "The Mummy" in Morocco, also began to call back frequently, and the sharp-minded Penelope became more supple in front of Eric, and everyone around him seemed to be cautious. Xiao Nizi, who was in trouble because of the leakage of the share withdrawal plan, lived directly in Jianjiao Manor, and called Tina Fey and Claudia Schiffer together, and secretly asked Eric if he wanted to taste the twins. Joanna and Virginia also wanted Eric to go to New York for a while and spend time with the two little ones.

Eric also knows why Jeffrey and others and the women around them look like they are facing enemies, the proportion of Hollywood stars suffering from mental illness is too high, and many people choose to relieve their mental stress in situations that are often very extreme, and those extreme ways usually cause great damage to their physical and mental health. Eric is the veritable backbone of the Firefly, and if something happens to him, the Firefly will soon become a shipwreck, and no one wants to see that happen in the current situation.

"I'm going to live in New York for a while," Eric said at the new week's executive meeting.

The firefly executives in the room were not surprised at all when they heard this, but breathed a sigh of relief, and then nodded their heads in agreement.

Seeing that no one objected, Eric began to discuss the arrangements after his departure, the summer schedule has passed, and the dust has settled on the withdrawal of shares from Fox TV Network, the most important thing for Firefly Pictures at the moment is the preliminary layout of the acquisition of ABC TV Network, mainly including the formation of an acquisition team, coordination of financing channels and absorption of ABC TV Network shares to obtain the initial right to speak, etc., since Michael Lynn has decided to leave next year, Eric has no scruples, and handed over this matter to Katzenberg to deal with.

On the film side, most of the projects are going on in an orderly manner, and even if anything happens during Eric's absence, it's a big deal to come back and make corrections. The script, starring, director and production team of the latest film "Breaking Bad" have been decided, and the rest of the trivial matters do not require Eric to interfere too much. (To be continued......)