The last big-budget film at the end of May was "Truman's World" starring Jim Carrey, produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 InfoNext up will be Firefly Pictures' "The Day After Tomorrow", so Eric is quite interested in Jim Rikay's film.

Despite the failure of "Cable TV Repairman", in recent years, Jim Carrey has still sat firmly in the first-line position in Hollywood, even if it is more literary and artistic, "Truman's World", Jim Carrey still got a first-line salary of 12 million US dollars, because of this high salary, "Truman's World" has also been piled up into a big production with a cost of 60 million US dollars.

On a plane to New York on Monday.

Eric sat relaxed by the porthole and looked at last weekend's box office report in his hand.

"Truman's World" grossed $31.19 million in the first three days of the opening weekend, which is comparable to the performance of "Lethal Weapon 4" and "The Patriot" in the previous two weeks, and the box office is also expected to be around $50 million in the first week.

As long as it can maintain a good box office curve, Paramount can still make a small profit. As for the other "Lethal Weapon 4" and "Patriot", due to the average weekly decline of around 40%, there is no threat to the upcoming "The Day After Tomorrow" this Friday.

The new version of "The Day After Tomorrow" is directed by Michael Bay, Eric has already seen the finished film, because it is a script written by him himself, compared with Roland Emmerich's version, the new version is no longer as protracted as the original in terms of plot, and the visually focused explosion Bay will shoot the whole of North America frozen in more shocking pictures. In addition, this is the only blockbuster of Firefly Group this summer, which concentrates most of the company's marketing resources, and no one doubts that this special effects blockbuster will become a hit that ignites the entire summer file.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Eric's Boeing 767 landed at MacArthur Airport in central Long Island, and Caroline and Mayer were dispatched to Manhattan as usual, while Eric was on his way to East Hampton. He plans to spend two weeks in New York, one week on business and one week with the women and children.

However, although he wanted to take a break first, the next day, Chris hurried over from Manhattan.

In the morning, on the lawn of the estate, the weather is not bad today.

Chris is led to the backyard lawn by Joanna, and sees Eric with his three children making insect specimens, Kevin and Emma are playing with great interest, and Hawaii is obviously absent-minded. Seeing his mother coming over with Chris, Hawaii immediately got up and greeted sweetly: "Good morning, Uncle Chris, do you want to talk to Dad about something?" ”

The little girl's eyes flashed, and she almost said something like, 'Uncle Chris, take my dad away.'

With a smile on his face, Chris shook his head solemnly, "No, I'm here to accompany you to do insect specimens." ”

Hearing this answer, Hawaii frowned, very distressed, how could these adults be bored to such an extent, and what was even more odious was that they had to pull themselves.

Eric put down his tools, got up and hugged Chris, and said to Joanna, "Joan, you can play with them." ”

Joanna nodded, watched Eric and Chris leave, and then sat down in Eric's position just now, touched her restless daughter dotingly, and said, "Xia Xia, you promised your mother to get along with your father, don't always be so impatient." ”

"But, Mom, these things are so boring, can I go back to reading now?"

Joanna shook her head and said, "No, I said hello to Mannie, she won't be coming over to help you with your lessons this week, and I've put away your books, oh, and the keypad that Steve gave you." You've scared the hell out of your dad, so, at least for this week, be nice. ”

"Hmm."

The delicate little girl with big beautiful eyes, who had just turned five, snorted in distress, lazily lying on the table full of handmade props, and suddenly felt that life was boring.

On the other side, Chris followed Eric back to the living room of the villa, sat down on the sofa, and asked with a smile, "Did you come back again and be surprised again?" ”

"If you mean to see a five-year-old girl reading with a copy of Differential Topology," Eric shrugged and nodded with a wry smile: "That's true, if it weren't for that tutor in Xia Xia who explained to me what differential topology is, I wouldn't know what my daughter was reading at all." Although, well, even if she explained, I still don't know what it is. ”

"Haha," Chris couldn't help laughing, and after a while, he said, "I'm really looking forward to seeing Xia Xia grow up." Well, maybe I should let Daniel get along with Xia Xia now, so that I can marry home and be my daughter-in-law in the future. ”

Eric still smiled helplessly, he certainly expected his child to be very smart, but now it seemed a little too much.

After a few words of conversation and laughter, the two quickly turned to the topic.

"Counting our original holdings, in the first half of the year, Firefly Investment, Clover Fund purchases, we now hold a total of 35.7% of AOL shares, and the current AOL shares have basically been swept away by major investment funds, and our shareholding ratio is unlikely to increase. During this time, I have been in contact with AOL other shareholders, but the results have not been very good. Steve Case's track record is clear, with the majority of shareholders leaning more towards the development strategies of the current management. ”

Since its establishment, AOL has been raising funds from various investment companies, and it was not until Firefly Investment entered the market that AOL's shareholding structure was basically stabilized. The current situation is that AOL's management, including Steve Case, holds less than 10% of AOL's shares, and except for Firefly, the majority shareholder, the other shares are concentrated in the hands of major investment funds.

According to yesterday's closing price, AOL's current market capitalization has reached $39.6 billion, an increase of 1.77 times compared to the beginning of the year. In other words, every 100th share of AOL is now worth nearly $400 million, and even if major investment funds are willing to continue to transfer AOL shares, Firefly will not be able to come up with enough funds to buy it aggressively.

With his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest of the couch, Eric thought for a moment and asked, "What are the chances of seizing control of AOL if we have a showdown now?" ”

Chris thought for a while and said: "50%, there are already rumors of AOL merging Time Warner, if the news is confirmed, the probability of loss on our side is greater, and many people are very happy to see AOL merge with Time Warner." ”

Although it is the largest shareholder of AOL, holding 35.7% of the shares, however, when AOL is in a good situation, Firefly wants to initiate a shareholder vote to oust the existing management, and there is a real possibility of failure. Because most of AOL's shareholders are institutional investors, and the number is not large, it is very easy to twist a rope to resist the major shareholder of Firefly Investment.

Of course, Fireflies are not without their own killer feature, which is to threaten other shareholders to side with their side by selling their shares. The AOL stock held by the Firefly system, once it sells off, is enough to smash AOL's stock price to the crash.

However, Eric will never use this method unless it is absolutely necessary, it will not benefit anyone, and it may even have a chain reaction, causing the entire NASDAQ market to fluctuate.

The Nasdaq is now close to 2,000 points, which may seem like a long way from the 5,000-point high, but in reality, the stock index is already full of bubbles.

Take Microsoft, the most representative of the NASDAQ market, as an example, in 1995, when the NASDAQ index remained at about 1000 points, Microsoft's market value was only more than 40 billion US dollars, but now, the NASDAQ index has risen to 2000 points, and Microsoft's recent market value has exceeded 250 billion, which is more than six times higher than three years ago.

If Firefly Investments really smashes AOL stocks in order to make AOL shareholders succumb. As the leading star stock of the Nasdaq market, Eric is worried that the decline in AOL's stock price will become the fuse for the early collapse of the entire Nasdaq market, and once this happens, the Firefly may face the hostility of the entire Wall Street.

As for why he insisted on letting AOL go the path of an Internet service provider, Eric had already discussed it with Chris in detail.

AOL's subscribers have grown rapidly in recent years, and it is expected that by 2000, AOL will have 20 million broadband subscribers, far more than several traditional network service operators such as AT-T and Verizon.

Therefore, the basic services of the Internet are the foundation of AOL. As long as it can have 20 million users, based on the average tariff of $30 per month, these users will bring AOL's stable revenue of $7.2 billion per year.

In this good situation, if we can go one step further, annex a traditional telecom operator, further consolidate our position in the industry, and expand other basic service businesses, even if the Internet bubble bursts in the future, AOL can sit firmly in the Diaoyutai.

However, according to Steve Case's development ideas, making AOL the largest Internet media giant in the United States is tantamount to completely sacrificing the basics.

History has proven this point, and when the dot-com bubble burst, the dot-com empire that U.S. Online had built up quickly collapsed. The various personnel and financial crises brought about by the bursting of the bubble, the lack of attention to basic network services within the country, and the joint strangulation of several traditional giants, AOL's more than 20 million Internet users also quickly flowed to several other ones. In the end, when Time Warner sold AOL again, the Internet giant, with a maximum market capitalization of $180 billion, was sold for a measly little more than $4 billion.

In fact, Eric thinks that AOL shareholders are still very lucky in the previous transaction, they converted their shares into 'AOL-Time Warner' shares at the highest point of the company's stock price, so when AOL disappears, they actually still own Time Warner's shares, so they will not be empty-handed. As for the shareholders of the original Time Warners, hehe.

Speaking of which, if AOL's acquisition of Time Warner can still be reached this time, even according to the ratio of 55, Firefly Investment's shareholding in Time Warner will be close to 18%, which is definitely the largest shareholder of the new 'AOL-Time Warner', which is also in line with Eric's ambition to expand to the whole of Hollywood.

However, giving up the opportunity to become the number one Internet service provider in the United States in exchange for an 18% stake in Time Warner Group is definitely a big loss business no matter how you look at it, and Eric doesn't want to see such an expansion anyway.

"50% is 50%," said Eric, "Time Warner has been in contact with AOL's top management very frequently, so we have to make a decision as soon as possible and not delay it like this." ”

Chris nodded, and added, "So, Eric, it's good to succeed, but if you fail, what are you going to do?" ”

Eric didn't hesitate too much this time, and said, "If it fails, then we will gradually withdraw from now on, and sell as many shares as we can." ”

Chris naturally knows what Eric means, sooner or later, the NASDAQ market will crash, and once the stock market crashes, AOL, these star stocks of the NASDAQ market, will definitely bear the brunt. Fireflies can only sell as many shares as they can to cash out their funds before this date.

As for becoming a shareholder in the new AOL-Time Warner in the future, Eric is not interested at all.

Once the Nasdaq market crashes, Time Warner becomes a complete quagmire. Even if Time Warner's market capitalization is calculated at $50 billion, and it gets 18% of the shares, it is worth only $9 billion. Even now, the value of Firefly's 35.7% stake in AOL has far exceeded that figure. What's more, 18% of the shares are not enough to seize control of Time Warner.

The two chatted all morning, and after lunch, Chris hurried away to prepare for the showdown planned at the end of the month, when Eric might come back to New York.

While Eric was in East Hampton to stop his daughter from turning into a cloud, the workday of the week passed quickly.

On Friday, June 5, the first special effects blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow", the first special effects blockbuster of this summer, was officially launched on 3,370 screens in North America at the same time.

The film fetched $23.5 million on the first day, and Eric's carefully revised script and Michael Bay's good visual effects made the film's reputation equally popular, with most media giving it a rating of about 8, far more than the former Roland Emmerich version.

Following a good start of $23.5 million on the first day, the film won $73.75 million at the box office in the first three days of the first weekend, becoming the first hit film in the summer to cause a movie-watching boom. According to the box office data of the first weekend and three days, Michael Bay will also have no suspense to get his first film that will break 100 million at the box office in the first week.