"Of course not, you are simply slanderous, according to the routine of Hong Kong Island movies, I will sue you," Eric joked, then changed the topic, and said: "On your side, this year's Victoria's Secret show should have started preparations, right?" ”

"Well, I've already started to choose a theme," Emily didn't dwell on what happened just now, and said, "We just opened the Victoria's Secret store to Europe in the first half of the year, and this year's show is going to be held in London." Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Eric paid little attention to the specific operation of the Victoria's Secret show, and just hugged Giselle towards his side when he heard the words, and said, "Just remember to give Giselle an opening." ”

Emily nodded, "Of course, there are wings, and besides, this year, apart from Cindy, only Giselle can get the theme opening." ”

Although Emily has a good relationship with Joanna and Virginia, she also takes Joanna's sister Eva with her as an assistant. However, Emily is also accustomed to Eric's distracted behavior. Out of the mind of some women who are embarrassed by women, she did not have any prejudice against Cindy, Giselle and others because of her relationship with Joanna and her daughters, but she would habitually tease Eric a few words.

This year will be the fifth year of the Victoria's Secret show, when Cindy Crawford, Linda Ivan Golinsta, Kristen Durrington, Diane Kruger and Tyra Banks signed endorsement contracts with Victoria's Secret for a period of five years.

After this year, Cindy and Linda will quit the ranks of Victoria's Secret spokespersons to concentrate on managing their TV shows, and Kristen Durrington is married and will also choose to quit being a housewife. Of the original five, only Diane Kruger and Tyra Banks remained.

Gisele simply participated in the Victoria's Secret catwalk this year, and will officially sign an endorsement contract with Victoria's Secret next year.

While chatting, John Mark, the host of tonight's party, came over again and said hello, and John Mark said to Eric, "Eric, can you talk alone?" ”

Eric was a little puzzled, but he didn't refuse, and said, "Of course." ”

John Mark made a gesture of please, and together they made their way through the crowd in the hall and down the spiral staircase of the duplex apartment to a reception room on the second floor.

Signaling Eric to sit down on the sofa casually, John Mark walked to the wine cabinet by the wall, took out a bottle of wine from the cabinet and poured two glasses, took two ice cubes from the Xiaoice cabinet and put them in, came over with the glass, handed Eric a glass, and said: "Try my collection of Johnnie-Walker, although the whiskey is not the longer the year, the better it tastes, but this 50-year-old Johnnie-Walker, there are few bottles in the world." ”

As soon as Eric picked up the glass and brought it to his lips, he smelled a strong aroma of wine, with some peated smell peculiar to Scotch whisky, took a small sip, nodded and said, "It's great, but I don't know much about it." ”

John Mark sat on the single couch across from Eric with a gentle smile on his face and said, "It seems that you don't drink a lot, but it's actually a good habit." ”

"I just prefer to stay awake," Eric said, shaking the glass in his hand lightly and looking at John Mark, waiting for the other to offer his intentions.

John Mark took a few sips of whiskey in his glass before saying, "Eric, have you thought about speeding up Yahoo's IPO?" ”

"Chris is usually responsible for this kind of thing."

Eric replied quietly, thinking about John Mark's intention to bring it up suddenly. Chris didn't mention it to him, and it was John Mark's surprise attack, and the other party probably felt that he was an easier point to break through than the more professional Chris.

Thinking of what Chris just said about the failure of the former Morgan executives in the power struggle of the new company after the merger of Morgan Stanley and Deanwitt, perhaps John Mark and others want to use the performance highlights brought by Yahoo's IPO to recover the decline in the company's power struggle as soon as possible.

Yahoo's IPO strategy has been adjusted, and initially, Eric hoped that Yahoo would be able to issue a one-time issue of about 30% of the total share capital at the end of this year or early next year, when the Nasdaq index remains quite high, so that it can get enough funds to support Yahoo's development in the next five to ten years.

However, as he learned more about the company's IPO, Eric also realized that this was simply not realistic.

Yahoo's valuation at the beginning of this year has reached $15 billion, and according to the average increase in technology stocks in the past six months, Yahoo's valuation should now grow to about $25 billion, and as long as the Nasdaq index does not collapse early, the valuation may even be close to $50 billion by the end of the year.

As a result, Yahoo would issue a lump sum of 30% of its shares, which would theoretically raise $15 billion. This figure has broken the record for the size of all IPOs in the history of the US stock market before 1998, after the largest IPO in the US stock market, Deutsche Telekom, raised only $13 billion when it went public in 1996.

Deutsche Telekom's position in Germany is comparable to that of AT-T in the United States, and neither the size of its net assets nor its annual turnover can be compared with the current Yahoo. Eric is full of absolute confidence in the future of Yahoo, but it does not mean that this is the case for everyone, and the capital bubble brought about by the new wave of technology has been taken seriously by more and more people.

Although Yahoo's performance has grown very rapidly in recent years, its annual revenue last year was only more than $600 million, and even if this year's annual turnover can exceed $1 billion, it is actually definitely not enough to support a market value of $50 billion.

It's a well-known fact that the Nasdaq index is too high, and if Yahoo shows too much appetite during the IPO process, coupled with investors' fear of the stock market bubble bursting, it will only lead to the failure of Yahoo's IPO.

Therefore, in this Yahoo IPO, Eric only plans to issue about 10% to 15% of the shares, and he does not have too high expectations for Yahoo's valuation, according to the issue price at that time, as long as Yahoo's valuation exceeds $30 billion.

Of course, even so, Yahoo will still be able to raise $3 billion to $5 billion in a lump sum, which is enough to support Yahoo's expansion in the next three to five years, and successfully survive the 'cold winter' of Internet business development after the stock market bubble bursts.

The $3 billion to $5 billion fundraising, if not comparable to Deutsche Telekom two years ago, is definitely a very large IPO in recent years, and if successful, Morgan Stanley, which underwrites the offering, will not only be able to earn a generous commission, but also further enhance its influence on Wall Street and attract more companies that are expected to go public in recent years to work with it.

The original Morgan team that operated Yahoo's IPO listing will naturally be able to gain more say in the new company.

Hearing Eric mention Chris, John Mark said, "Eric, you are the owner of Firefly Investment, so I think this matter is more suitable to discuss with you first." ”

There was some provocation hidden in John Mark's words, which made Eric a little unhappy, but he just smiled and said, "I have always liked to leave professional things to professional people, which is why Firefly has been able to grow to its current size." ”

John Mark deliberately mentions that Eric is the 'owner' of Firefly Investments, in order to provoke his desire to control and make decisions that are in line with his own intentions.

Seeing that this trick was useless to Eric, John Mark immediately changed his mind and said: "Eric, now many investment institutions on Wall Street believe that there is a very serious bubble component in the Nasdaq, take AOL, this company was valued at $5 billion when it was listed in 1995, but now, in just two and a half years, its market value has exceeded $40 billion, an increase of 800%. There is also Microsoft, whose market value has more than tripled since 1995. Other technology companies, such as Cisco, Oracle, Intel, and others, have also risen to an exaggerated level. So, the last few months should be the last and best time for Yahoo to go public. We are well prepared and will be able to complete our IPO plan by September as soon as we get started. If we wait until the end of the planned year or the beginning of next year, even if the Nasdaq bubble does not burst, major investment institutions will be very cautious about buying technology stocks, which is very detrimental to Yahoo's IPO. ”

John Mark's statement is undoubtedly very convincing, and if it weren't for Eric's unconventional knowledge of the NASDAQ's movements, he would have thought he would probably agree with the other side out of caution.

However, after listening patiently to John Mark, Eric just shook his head and smiled, "John, I know what you think, but I also have my own plans. Yahoo's current valuation is not as good as I would have liked, so the plan to go public by the end of the year will not change. And, while I'd love to see Yahoo go through a successful IPO, I'm actually not afraid that Yahoo's IPO will fail. Even if Yahoo can't go public, the Firefly system can provide enough funds for the company's growth. ”

John Mark paused, he didn't know if Eric's 'I know what you're thinking' meant that he wanted to use the Yahoo IPO to gain the initiative in the company, or if he was ostensibly worried about whether the Yahoo IPO would be successful.

However, John Mark did not show any abnormality on his face, and said: "Eric, then, what about Microsoft's 30% equity subscription authority, once Yahoo's IPO fails, Yahoo will suffer a lot from equity transactions with Microsoft in an unlisted state." Like right now, Microsoft's market capitalization is almost 10 times Yahoo's valuation, and Microsoft was able to trade only 3% of its shares for 30% of Yahoo's shares, and I don't think you want to see that happen. I think that if Yahoo were to go public, it would be able to at least reach the level of AOL in terms of market capitalization. ”

Eric's expression was still relaxed, and he said: "John, the time when Microsoft can exercise the right to subscribe for equity is in July next year. According to your meaning, if the Nasdaq bubble bursts at the end of the year, Yahoo will not be able to IPO smoothly, but again, Microsoft will definitely not be able to maintain such a high stock price at that time. And, even if Microsoft and Yahoo are trading now, and I would be very depressed, Yahoo would still be able to get six or seven billion dollars by selling the 3% of the shares paid by Microsoft, while Firefly Investments still retains absolute control of Yahoo. ”

Eric's initial assumption when he reached the deal with Daimon was that even if Microsoft's market capitalization could reach its peak of $600 billion, Yahoo's market value would be close to $200 billion if it went public.

At that time, the value of Yahoo's 30% stake will reach $60 billion, and Microsoft will never be able to come up with this huge amount of cash. If the other party still wants Yahoo's 30% equity, it can only be acquired by way of share exchange, but if the share exchange is made, Microsoft also needs to pay about 10% of the equity, so Firefly Investment may directly become a major shareholder of Microsoft. In this case, Microsoft is likely to automatically give up the subscription.

However, if the situation described by John Mark really happens, as long as the Microsoft stock can be sold in time, Firefly Investment will not actually lose anything, and the only regret is that it cannot become a major shareholder of Microsoft.

Due to his frequent contact with Chris Hansen, John Mark also knows that he has a very clear idea of Yahoo's IPO, and it is very difficult to get the other party to change his decision, so he hopes to find a breakthrough point from Eric tonight.

However, seeing that Eric's attitude became more determined, John Mark quickly gave up on his thoughts.

He invited Eric tonight with the idea of building a good relationship with the other party, so naturally he would not make the scene stiff.

Giving up the idea of lobbying Eric, John Mark took the initiative to change the subject, and the two chatted for a while before leaving the reception room together.

Eric didn't go back to the downstairs hall with John Mark, but was guided to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. When he came out again, he saw the staircase leading to the roof of the apartment building, and after thinking about it, Eric walked up, intending to get some air and get along with a smart guy like John Mark, which was still very troublesome.

Pushing open the iron gate of the rooftop, Eric had just stepped out when he saw a slender figure standing next to the fence in the northwest corner of the rooftop, seemingly looking at the dark Central Park in the night to the west.

Hearing a voice behind him, the figure also turned around, but it was Stephanie Seymour.

Stephanie Seymour's expression was obviously a little surprised, and there was some ridicule in his tone, and he said, "Eric, you didn't come with you on purpose, did you?" ”

Although the interrogative sentence was used, judging from the slight smile on the woman's face, the other party seemed to be sure of this fact.

"I'm not sure you wouldn't believe it," Eric shrugged indifferently, walked over to Stephanie Seymour, leaned over the fence and looked at the lights and trains on Fifth Avenue not far away, and Central Park farther away, "What are you looking at?" ”

Stephanie Seymour shook her head, put her hands on the fence, and said, "It's nothing, it's just breathable, it's too stuffy down there." ”