Having encountered too many bad things about charity, no matter in his past or present life, Eric was not interested in this topic, and Tom Murphy also felt Eric's emotions, so he changed the topic and said: "Eric, I heard that the sequel to "Jurassic Park" is already in preparation, do you really not plan to continue as a director?"

Now that he has become a shareholder of Firefly, "Jurassic Park", a film project involving billions of dollars in interests, has also become the object of Buffett's attention, hearing his old friend mention this matter, Buffett also echoed: "Eric, "Jurassic Park" is such an important project, I think it is better for you to control it yourself in the end, I don't think anyone wants to see a sequel to this film go wrong." ”

Eric also expected this to happen when Firefly introduced other shareholders, but he did not force his own will after acquiring ABC like Michael Eisner in the original plane, which eventually led to ABC, which was originally profitable, and soon fell into the red again.

The Firefly has grown to such an extent that Eric knows that he is definitely not in control alone, so it has become important to manage the relationship with shareholders and management. Therefore, hearing the advice of the two old men, Eric patiently explained: "I will still be the producer of the sequel to Jurassic Park, and I will also be very careful in the selection of directors to ensure that this project is foolproof." However, for at least the next year, I'm going to focus more on content production for ABC, which had the No. 1 market share in North America last year, but I found that after the end of Growing Pains. ABC hasn't had a phenomenal series in years. ”

Hear about Eric's plan. Tom Murphy nodded understandingly. said: "I heard that Firefly has taken back the copyright of "Friends", right?"

"Yes," Eric said, noticing that Tom Murphy was trying to continue, "However, the X-Files and Millionaires were originally developed by Firefly and Fox to share the rights, and they can't be recovered." ”

"It seems that there is also a "Vampire Slayer Buffy", I heard that this TV series has caused a lot of repercussions among teenagers," Buffett suddenly interjected, shaking his head slightly as he spoke. With some regret in his expression, he said, "Eric, you are being too generous to Fox Network. ”

"Because Firefly and Fox were partners at that time," Eric said casually, "However, in addition to 'Friends', I've already picked out another good TV series for ABC, which is currently in production, and I will be able to see the pilot episode next month." ”

"Oh," said Tom Murphy. Follow-up asked, "What type of TV series?"

"A medical drama," Eric said, "called 'The Story of the ER.'." If you're interested, I'll have someone send you an outline tomorrow. ”

"Not really," Tom Murphy shook his head, "I'm still looking forward to seeing the pilot episode first." ”

"No problem, I'll invite you as soon as I'm done, Warren, if you're interested, you can also come and have a look at it then. ”

"I'll come over if I can find time," Buffett said, "Also, Eric, since 'Millionaire' can't be brought back, why don't you think of a similar reality show?"

Eric laughed: "It's already there, Firefly bought a reality show idea from a British showmaker last month, called "Survivor", and is still refining the details of the show, and it is expected that the autumn season can be launched at the same time as "Friends" and "ER's Story." ”

Although the famous reality show "Survivor" was not released on CBS until 2000, it was actually conceived as early as 1994, but it has never been adopted by North American television networks.

Many viewers have found that major American TV stations are always in the habit of remaking or buying TV shows that are already in other countries, so they often use this to ridicule Americans for their lack of creativity, but this is not the case.

The major television networks in the United States usually launch more than 90 hours of daytime and prime-time television programs per week, but the most important and the most valuable of them is only three hours a day night (four hours on Sundays) and a total of 22 hours of prime-time programming per week. But every day's prime time, it is the main TV network and its hundreds of sub-TV networks simulcast, which means that every program in prime time must go through strict screening before it can be finally broadcast, after all, once a TV program is established, it is impossible to broadcast one or two episodes because the ratings are too low to cut immediately, because of contract and other factors, even if the ratings are very high, it needs to broadcast the scheduled six episodes before it can be stopped, and once this is the case, the TV network will lose a huge amount of advertising money because of the failure of this program。 Therefore, it is undoubtedly the most secure way to bring in TV programs from the same English-speaking cultural circle that have proven their viewing potential.

When Eric was collecting ideas for the show, Charlie Parsons, the creator of "Survivor", was pitching his idea to major television stations in the UK and the United States, but all of them were rejected without exception.

However, Charlie Parsons conceived a rough format compared to Eric's memory, and Eric has recently been working with the Firefly production department to continue refining the project.

Warren Buffett and Tom Murphy listened to Eric briefly talk about the general idea of "Survivor", Buffett just thought the show was quite interesting, but Tom Murphy, who has been working in the TV industry for decades, saw the unconventional idea of "Survivor" and praised it again and again.

Eric didn't show much pride in Tom Murphy's compliment, after all. There is no shortage of creativity in this world. What's more, the program idea of "Survivor" must have also been reviewed by the original ABC production department. And then, unsurprisingly, they were casually thrown into a corner somewhere. Tom Murphy's reason for this is more the halo blessing caused by Eric's personal creation of a series of successful shows, just like any film project he has his eye on now will be valued and contested by Hollywood.

"Warren, Tom, there's one more thing I want to say hello to you in advance," he took a few sips of champagne and moistened his throat. Eric told Warren Buffett and Tom Murphy: "I'm going to spin off all the newspapers and magazines that I own. ”

When Warren Buffett heard this, he immediately frowned slightly, and Tom Murphy asked, "Eric, why do you want to do this, these newspapers have been making profits for the past few years, I don't see any need to divest them, and these newspapers can just expand the media influence of Firefly?"

According to the course of history, the Internet boom will enter an explosive period next year, although the current paper media still occupies a very important position in the media industry, but Eric remembers it clearly. With the rise of new Internet media, these paper media will soon become a phoenix. The value has plummeted, and many traditional paper media groups that were originally in the world's top 500 basically could not escape the fate of a sharp decline in assets at the beginning of the 20th century.

Now when the official print media is the most valuable, of course, Eric has to take the opportunity to cash out: "Tom, I don't deny the value of these newspapers, but Firefly's business focus is not on these, Firefly will always focus on the film and television business and spin-off industries in the future, so I plan to divest these assets," Eric said and looked at Buffett again:" Warren, I know you've always valued the newspaper business, and if Berkshire is interested in these assets, maybe we can find a time to talk about it, and I'll give you a reasonable price. ”

This is a willingness to fight and a willingness to suffer, Eric added in his heart, if Buffett finds himself in the future, he can't blame himself.

Berkshire Hathaway owns stakes in a number of newspapers, including the Washington Post, and Warren Buffett has always maintained a strong interest in investing in the newspaper industry because of his childhood experience as a newsboy.

However, Buffett knows very well that the newspapers under the former Metropolitan Company will never be able to take off the assets of one billion dollars without one billion dollars, but Buffett has his own plans for the more than one billion dollars of funds cashed out from this transaction, and he plans to pocket all the remaining shares of Berkshire's Zhengfu Employee Insurance Company, and it is impossible for Berkshire to raise more than one billion dollars to buy these newspapers in the short term.

Moreover, although Eric's expression was very sincere, Buffett keenly sensed something unusual, which made him cautious: "Eric, if you can wait a year, Berkshire doesn't mind taking these newspapers, but now, the funds that Berkshire has recovered through this acquisition have other uses, and I can't come up with enough cash." ”

"It's okay," Eric still looks very honest and junior, "Fireflies don't have that much need for money at the moment, so Berkshire can pay for the acquisition with shares." ”

At present, the stock price of Berkshire Hathaway is about 20,000 US dollars, although this is already the highest stock price in North America, but Eric knows that in the next ten years, the price of Berkshire's stock will continue to rise to an astonishing price of 200,000 US dollars.

Warren Buffett, who has never been a dime in stock sales and transfers, heard Eric mention this plan, and immediately changed from cautious to vigilant, shook his head and said: "Eric, Berkshire will not use stock mergers and acquisitions to acquire companies, maybe you can contact other media groups." ”

Eric shook his head regretfully, "Well, if Berkshire has the will to take over, you can call me at any time." ”

"I will," Buffett nodded, then pointed not far away, and said, "Eric, I saw an old friend who was missing. ”

After Buffett finished speaking, he glanced at Tom Murphy, who wanted to stop talking, and Tom Murphy swallowed what he wanted to say and walked away with Warren Buffett.

Seeing the two old men leave, Eric looked at his watch, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon, looked around, found Jeffrey's figure, and walked over.

Seeing Eric approaching, a middle-aged man who was talking to Jeffrey raised his glass to Eric and politely walked away.

Jeffrey asked, "Eric, what were you talking to them about?"

"Jeffrey, it's the birthday of the two little ones, I'm going to East Hampton, why don't you come along?"

Jeffrey shook his head and refused with a smile: "Before I know it, the two little ones are one year old, I'll ask the secretary to help pick out two birthday gifts for them later, but the birthday party is a matter for you young people, so I won't go." ”

Eric said, "Let's go together, Chris and Emily will be over today, maybe you can talk to them about weddings and stuff." ”

"The two of them," Jeffrey said with a helpless look on his face, but after thinking about it, he said, "Okay then." ”

"I'm going to say hi to Katzenberg, the helicopter should be on the rooftop by now, you can go first. ”

……

In April, East Hampton on Long Island was full of spring and gave people a sense of vitality, the helicopter slowly fell on the lawn of the waterfront estate in East Hampton, Eric helped Jeffrey get off the plane, explained a few words to the pilot, and the helicopter left again.

Joanna and Virginia also came up with a large group of people at this time, before the two women called Eric to talk about the first birthday party of the two little ones, hoping to invite some guests, Eric can also understand the thoughts of the two women, they don't want the two little ones to remain unknown illegitimate status, Eric never wanted to keep the identity of a pair of children secret, so he agreed.

At this time, there were more than a dozen people who walked over, in addition to Joanna and Virginia, Chris and Emily who were holding the two little ones, Eric also saw Elizabeth and Drew, but the two girls were far away. In addition, Eric also saw Virginia's brother Michael Madsen, a tall woman in her thirties next to Michael Madsen, who was supposed to be his wife, and Joanna's sister Eva Pakula, and some other people Eric didn't know very well. (To be continued.) )