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Olivia stayed at Pointy Manor for ten days before returning to London.

Eric had wanted to take her back on his own private jet, but the relationship between the two had not been made public. Olivia was worried that someone would notice her ride on Eric's private jet, so she chose to fly commercially.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the VIP lounge at Los Angeles International Airport, watching Olivia's flight slide off the runway and into the clouds, Eric turned to leave.

Today is May 21st, another Friday.

Although it hurt a lot last night, it didn't hurt any bones, and then he only rested for three or four days and was fine, but Eric still 'recuperated' at home for more than a week.

This week, with the announcement of the Firefly System to stop cooperating with the Blockbuster chain, Hollywood can be described as very lively, and the media throughout North America and even the world are closely following the dispute between Firefly System and Viacom Group.

Lei Shidong really lived up to his tough character, and there was no sign of giving in for a whole week. After making a public remark against the Firefly system on Monday, he handed over all the work that required a public appearance to the rest of Viacom's top executives.

However, Lei Shidong has a tough attitude, but Viacom's stock price does not show any toughness comparable to Lei Shidong.

When Eric had lunch with Olivia, he received information about the share price of Viacom Group on the East Coast as of the close of the week.

Although Viacom's share price decline began to slow down in the next few working days after Monday's crash, the company's overall share price still fell by 23% in a week, and its market value evaporated by $16.8 billion.

At this point, Viacom's market capitalization has plummeted to $56.3 billion after today's close, compared to the market capitalization of $73.1 billion at the beginning of the week.

In just one week, the stock paper loss reached $16.8 billion, and even if Lei Shidong himself could bear it, the other shareholders of Viacom Group could not bear it.

As a result of the dual-class share structure, the Lei Shidong family still owns 56% of the voting rights of Viacom. Normally, there is hardly anyone who can threaten the Rayshidong family's dominance over the Viacom group.

However, the dual-class share structure is not a panacea, and once the majority shareholder with absolute control is unable to solve the problems faced by the company for a long time, seriously damaging the interests of the majority of shareholders, the external shareholders can still convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to abolish the company's dual-class share structure and reorganize the company's board of directors and management by voting.

Under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act, the abolition of a dual-class share structure requires the support of two-thirds of a company's shareholders.

After the merger of CBS Group, the Lei Shidong family held only 13.5% of Viacom Group shares through National Entertainment, and the remaining 86.5% of the shares were held by institutional and public shareholders. If Lei Shidong insists on going his own way and completely loses the support of all external shareholders, it will definitely not be too difficult to win about 66.7% of the votes from these 86.5% of the shares.

Now, the company's market value has plummeted by $16.8 billion in a week, which has clearly touched the limits of what most of Viacom's outside shareholders can afford.

Leaving the airport hall and getting into the car with Caroline, who had also come to see Olivia farewell, Eric told the driver to go to Firefly Studios. Although it was now close to the end of work, I hadn't been to the office for more than a week, and I happened to be on the way, so I decided to go and sit for a while.

As he drove into Lincoln Avenue outside the airport, Eric asked Caroline, who was beside him, "So, is there anything else I need to know today?"

Although he hasn't been working lately, the assistant's office sends him a daily e-mail list of company matters that he needs to know about him. This is also the usual style of Eric's management of the company, he does not easily interfere in the specific decisions of each company in the Firefly system, giving full autonomy to the management, but at the same time knowing the operation of these companies inside out.

"The Nokia-controlled shell company has negotiated a purchase price of $8 million this morning with NTP, which holds the mobile mail patent, and the contract will be signed next week; "Spy" has just completed the preliminary budget plan, and the proposed production cost is $70 million; the progress report of "Harcai Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" from London in the afternoon, which will be sent to your email by tomorrow morning; Ronald Hill has already submitted to ' Adam Wembry, the founder of Hollywood Gossip, has filed a lawsuit, and if he loses, Adam Wembry could face at least five years in prison, not only that, but he will still be saddled with millions of dollars in damages even if he loses his entire fortune. ”

Eric leaned back in his chair with a casual expression, listened to Caroline's talk about 'Hollywood gossip', and interrupted: "You don't bother with these things in the future, just let Mary be in charge." ”

Caroline pursed her lips and blinked, as if dissatisfied, "Eric, I'm not a child. ”

"I know. ”

"I'm not a porcelain doll either. ”

"Of course," Eric smiled, affectionately pinching Caroline's cheek, "you're a rag doll." ”

Caroline shrunk her neck coquettishly, blushing slightly, and said, "Eric, you're bullying me again." ”

"Well, apologize, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bullied little Carly," Eric smiled insincerely, "Now, go ahead." ”

Caroline wanted to learn from Mayer to ignore Eric angrily, but she still couldn't hold back, and said: "As of today's close, the Nasdaq index has reached 3,976 points, and it can break through 4,000 points next week." We have been informed that Tiger Fund has completely stopped shorting and started buying technology stocks, but the capital of this fund is now only $8 billion. ”

In the eavesdropping incident some time ago, Firefly caught Tiger Fund, one of the masterminds behind the scenes, so Eric's assistant office has been paying attention to the operation of this fund during this time.

Compared to its peak two years ago, the capital scale of the Tiger Fund has shrunk by more than half.

Hearing Caroline say this, Eric couldn't help but shake his head slightly.

If Julian Robertson had stopped in time now, Tiger would have been able to survive even if it had only $8 billion in capital left.

But the other party followed the trend and started to buy technology stocks at such a time, which is obviously Julian Robertson has been riding a tiger, like a gambler who has lost a lot of money and completely lost his mind, and only the idea of recovering his capital is left in his mind, so he keeps betting chips in a vain attempt to turn the tables, but the result will only be a failure.

In just over two months since mid-March, the Nasdaq has risen from 3,000 points to a high of nearly 4,000 points. At this rate, in two months, by early August at the latest, the Nasdaq will reach the peak of 5,000 points in Eric's memory.

Moreover, it is very sensitive that July and August happened to be the time when listed companies successively announced their financial data for the second quarter of 1999. Although it is not an annual financial report, if a large number of new technology companies generally report huge losses in their quarterly earnings, there is a high probability that the Nasdaq index, which has peaked, will collapse.

Of course, Eric didn't dare to be 100% sure at this time.

Because, as the main technology stock company of the NASDAQ stock market, Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo and other giants have excellent revenue data.

Microsoft is not to mention, but in the first quarter, the new technology giant, which has basically monopolized the desktop operating system, achieved a net profit of $1.925 billion, and it is expected that the annual net profit may reach $8 billion, almost double the profit scale of $4.5 billion last year.

As the largest router equipment manufacturer in North America, Cisco can be said to be the basic equipment supplier of the entire Internet industry. Although the market value has been wildly catching up with Microsoft in recent months, the revenue performance is also impressive.

However, when it comes to revenue growth, the other giants can't compare with Yahoo.

In order to greatly increase their traffic and attention in the short term, major new technology companies have been spending more and more money on advertising and marketing in recent months.

Yahoo, the world's largest online advertising platform, began to benefit from this last year, generating $1.6 billion in revenue for the year.

But this year, just in the first three months, countless Internet companies have squandered more than $700 million in advertising on various advertising channels of Yahoo Portal, which has a market share of more than 70%, and Yahoo's revenue in the first quarter has skyrocketed to $937 million, including other revenues such as Yahoo Music Store, enterprise email service, and Yahoopay interface authorization.

It can be expected that in the first two quarters alone, Yahoo's revenue figures will exceed those of last year.

Throughout 1999, Yahoo's annual turnover is likely to reach $4 billion if the momentum of the first quarter continues. With a huge revenue of $4 billion, it is completely easy for the management to make a net profit report of hundreds of millions of dollars as long as the management is willing.

Of course, all this is only the most optimistic expectation.

Once the Nasdaq collapses, Yahoo's momentum is destined to come to an abrupt end.

However, in any case, as the purest Internet company in the new technology sector, Yahoo's excellent revenue figures in the first two quarters will definitely form a further positive stimulus for the Nasdaq index.

On the one hand, the rapid growth of new technology giants, on the other hand, the large number of losses of countless small and medium-sized Internet companies, it is hard to imagine what will happen in July and August, when the Nasdaq index breaks through 5,000 points.

As a result, Eric has now completely abandoned its predictions for the NASDAQ market. Just a step-by-step emptying of the shares in the hands of the Clover Fund, and then planning to snuggle up to the bystanders.

He took Caroline to Firefly Studios, worked in the office until six o'clock, and invited two female assistants to dinner after work before Eric returned to Sharp Corner Manor.

As soon as the black luxury Mercedes drove into the gate of the manor in the night, Eric heard the news that the driver in the front seat was communicating with the bodyguard of the manor, and Elizabeth was already waiting in the villa.

Eric walked into the villa and soon found a lazy girl leaning against the curtain wall on the sofa with a magazine in her hand.

Leaning over Elizabeth and kissing her on the lips, Eric asked with concern, "Have you eaten?"

"No," Elizabeth habitually snorted, her expression immediately a little resentful, "if you don't come back tonight, I'm going to starve to death here, and I'll talk to you every night from now on." ”

Eric smiled and pinched the girl's chin, "It's so vicious, you didn't tell me you were coming, Julia?"

Elizabeth pressed Eric's strange hand that pinched her chin and was about to slide down her neck, and said: "Isn't the filming of "Never Compromise" started, she has been with the group for the past few days and lives in a small town near Nevada. ”

"Oh, let's go, take you out to dinner. ”

"I don't want to go out, you do it for me. ”

"Alright," Eric nodded, pulling the girl up again, "There's food in the kitchen, if you're too hungry, eat a little more." ”

Elizabeth didn't resist this time, got up and followed Eric to the kitchen, picked up the ingredients from the refrigerator together, and was busy with Eric for a while, before suddenly saying, "Dad asked me to break up with you." ”

Eric cracked the eggs into the bowl, stirred, and said, "Don't divide it, you tell him that you and Julia are actually a couple." ”

"You want to see me killed. ”

"Your brother is not all right, and besides, your old man can't beat you. ”

"You guy," Elizabeth said, lifting her hand on Eric's shoulder, "Daddy has arranged a girlfriend for Lachlan to marry by the end of the year." ”

"I'm pretty familiar with a few of the major modeling agencies, so if they find a dozen male models to throw a bachelorette party for Lachlan, they're all the most beautiful. ”

"Then my dad is really going to be by you," Elizabeth finally couldn't help laughing, hammered Eric again, and said angrily, "Don't gloat, you won't have to face this situation in the future, a lot of children, that Cindy Crawford is also pregnant, right?"

Eric automatically ignored Elizabeth's last question and said, "I was going to raise a bunch of mischievous little bastards and turn the world upside down." It's just that Kevin and Xia Xia, as well as Emma, are all disappointed in me now, and they don't have the potential to be a bad guy at all," Eric said and turned to the girl next to him, "I'll leave this difficult task to you." ”

Elizabeth's face was slightly red, and she didn't bother to hit Eric again, and said, "If that's the case, I'd rather strangle him to death in advance." ”

"Ruthless enough, it seems that this matter can only fall on you. ”

Elizabeth threw away the carrot in her hand, glared at Eric, and said, "If you say anything else, I'm going to be angry with you." ”

Eric's hand stirring the eggs stopped, put down the dishes and chopsticks, turned to hug the girl in his arms, and said in a soft tone, "Okay, I apologize, I know it's unfair to you." ”

Elizabeth slammed her chin on Eric's shoulder, enjoying the man's hug, and her voice softened, "You're finally willing to say something serious." ”

"I see you're quite hesitant, so liven up the atmosphere, are you feeling better now?"

"Hmm. ”

"That's good," Eric patted the girl on the back and said, "However, this world is inherently unfair, so we still have to face the reality." ”

"Eric. ”

"Huh?"

"All of a sudden, I want to bite too. ”

"Oh...... Ah!!h

……

It happened to be a Saturday last night, and it was already dawn, and Eric still didn't have the idea of getting up, but Elizabeth ran to prepare breakfast early in the morning.

In a daze, the bedroom door was suddenly pushed open, and Elizabeth broke in in a rage, picked up the remote control and turned on the wall-mounted TV in the bedroom while patting Eric, and gloated in a gloating tone: "Eric, watch Viacom's press conference, your plan may be falling through." ”