After the introduction, the invited guests were not only relatives and friends, but also some neighbors that the women knew during their stay on Long Island.

The birthday party for the little ones started at five o'clock in the afternoon, and instead of inviting a special party company, it took the form of a buffet, and after a brief greeting, Joanna took the women to prepare dinner.

As one of the most well-known affluent districts in New York, East Hampton and Southampton have gathered a large number of wealthy people, politicians and celebrities from all walks of life, although there are also middle-class residents, but it is not ordinary people who can buy a property of the same size near Eric's favorite estate, and when the women leave, Eric and a group of big men exchange business cards with each other, and it is not surprising to see the title of president of such and such a company or director of such and such a foundation on the business card.

After all, many people were only meeting for the first time, and after simply congratulating Eric on the completion of the acquisition of ABC, everyone did not take the initiative to bring up the matter again, but shifted the topic to the economic governance that is of interest to Westerners, and unscrupulously ridiculed the president, criticized a certain tax policy, or talked about the future prediction of a certain industry.

In fact, most of the time, the so-called network is formed in this way, everyone drinks and chats together, mixes familiar faces, and can come up with a contact information to find each other when encountering things in the future, which is a kind of resource. Although everyone here was older than himself, with the experience of being a human being in two lives, Eric was able to move easily in this group of people, and many times he was able to take the initiative in some topics, and gradually, everyone present also ignored the fact that Eric was not yet twenty-five years old at this time.

As everyone's attention turned to Eric. The topic also unconsciously shifted to the movie.

I heard that a senior manager named Pierre Clark from Merrill Lynch Securities was worried about the increasing scale of film investment in recent years. Eric said: "From "Gone with the Wind" in the golden age of Hollywood to "Ben-hur" and "Cleopatra" in the fifties and sixties. In the early 80s, Hollywood never stopped producing so-called "blockbuster" movies, including many big-budget films that made film companies difficult, such as "Cleopatra" and "Heaven's Gate", if before the 90s, film companies were more and more inclined to blockbuster films, it is indeed a worrying thing, but today's entertainment industry is very different even compared to ten years ago, globalization will become an inevitable trend. The increasing proportion of overseas revenue of Hollywood films in total revenue means that if studios want to maintain their dominant position in this change, they must produce films that are less restricted by regional culture, and CG special effects films and big-budget action movies are the most guaranteed genres, and I am sure that blockbuster films with a total production and distribution cost of about $100 million will become the mainstream of Hollywood's major studios in the next decade, and the vast overseas market and more and more derivative profit channels can also ensure that these films achieve sufficient profitability。 ”

While everyone was in thought, another short, middle-aged man asked, "Eric, why not comedies and horror films, these films also don't have too many cultural restrictions." I've watched "Home Alone," "Pretty Woman," and "Island Cry," all of which are of excellent quality. And the cost is low, and the return on investment ratio is more than ten times more than ten. ”

Eric remembered that the middle-aged man's name was Kenneth Norton, and his business card said that he didn't know what type of company he was, and he shook his head with a smile and said: "Mr. Norton, you only see the success of films like Home Alone, but what you don't see is that at least dozens or hundreds of comedy or horror films in Hollywood every year that are lucky enough to be on the theatrical channel end up dismal, and they can't even recover the cost, let alone sell to the global market." Blockbuster films are different, at least until the global market is saturated with demand for this type of film, these films are still very popular with audiences overseas with big stars and big scenes, even if they fail at home. Take last year's "Jeopardy Bear Peak" as an example, because of the impact of "Jurassic Park", the North American box office of this film with a production cost of up to $70 million was only the same as the production cost, MGM and Carlock fell into huge losses, but in the subsequent overseas distribution process, "Jeorn Bear Peak" achieved a box office result of $170 million, although because of the low proportion of overseas account sharing, investors are still in a state of loss, but compared with those low-cost films that can't even get overseas distribution opportunities, "Jedi Bear Peak" Still very lucky. ”

Kenneth Norton couldn't help but nod, then looked at Eric with a smile, and said casually: "I didn't expect Eric to have such a thorough study of the film industry, if Firefly goes public in the future, I will definitely buy the stock without hesitation." ”

"You're going to be disappointed, Mr. Norton," Eric shook his head slightly with a smile on his lips, "Firefly doesn't have any plans to go public yet." Oh, and I can't say that, I'm planning to spin off the digital special effects company in the next two years and go public separately, and there is also the special effects software company Firefly Software, which is so burning money that I have to raise some working capital publicly. ”

Except for Jeffrey and Chris, who already knew some inside information, and Michael Madsen, who couldn't intervene in these matters at all, the rest of the people couldn't help but have obvious changes in their expressions when they heard Eric say this.

Of course, they didn't believe that Eric would choose to let these two companies go public for financing because they were too much money, and the terrifying profitability of the Firefly system would definitely provide sufficient funds for these two companies. Although they don't know Eric's specific idea, they can all realize that once these two companies go public, as part of the Firefly system, they will definitely be strongly sought after by the capital market.

Pierre Clark of Merrill Lynch completely let go of his reserve at this time, and couldn't help but tentatively ask: "Eric, do you have a specific timetable?"

"Not yet," Eric shook his head, "I haven't had the energy to do any of these things lately, but it won't be until the end of next year at the latest." ”

With the commercialization of Firefly Software, there are more and more large and small special effects companies in North America and even around the world. Eric had to cash out the digital realm and the Firefly software before the special effects company was completely downgraded from an 'aristocracy' to a 'commoner'. In accordance with the U.S. company listing process and the lock-up period of the majority shareholder's shares. Next year, when the Internet bubble began to rise and the Nasdaq index exploded across the board, Eric could use the following years to gradually cash out, and after the Internet bubble burst in 2000, he could buy back the equity of the digital field and Firefly software at a low price.

Now telling your plans in front of these people can be regarded as a kind of early warm-up, although the number of people sitting here is not large. But Eric believes it won't be a matter of days before the news spreads across Wall Street.

Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, one of the leading investment banks on Wall Street, also participated in the bidding for the Firefly bond offering last month, but in the end, Morgan Stanley won the underwriting rights due to its good relationship with Firefly.

Pierre Clark realized that if he could get the company a chance to issue shares in even one of the two companies, then he could at least get a vice president position at Midland Securities, but he was about to continue talking and looked at the people around him. I realized that this was not the right occasion, but I thought that Eric would definitely continue to stay in New York in the near future. So it was decided that it would be best to live with my family in East Hampton during this time, so that I could have more contact with Eric, and maybe I could negotiate this matter in advance, after all, Morgan Stanley could come up with conditions, and Midland Securities would definitely be able to get it.

Everyone chatted casually, time passed minute by minute, and another group of guests came one after another, and when the party time was approaching, the smell of barbecue gradually wafted in the manor, and some children brought by the guests were running around in the manor.

The little figure took a string of grilled chicken wings from Elizabeth's hand, Elizabeth crouched down and whispered a few words, and the little one staggered towards Eric.

"Daddy, Daddy......"

Emma's childish and crisp series of shouts stunned a group of big men, and then they all looked at the little one, they all knew very well that Eric already had two children, but they didn't know what was going on with the little girl.

Before Eric could explain, Emma had already pounced on Eric's side, grabbed the armrest of the sofa and lifted the chicken wing in her other hand high towards Eric: "Daddy, here you go, chicken wings." ”

Eric touched Emma's little head and said with a smile, "Emma is so good, but Dad can't eat now, you can eat it yourself." ”

"Emma, don't be hungry, you eat," Emma tried to hand the chicken wings to Eric again, Eric looked at the little guy who didn't stop until he reached his goal, and was about to take it, but the little guy didn't hold it steady, and the greasy chicken wings fell directly on Eric's trousers.

"Ahh

Worried that the chicken wings would slip onto the sofa and stain it with another layer of oil, Eric quickly picked up the chicken wings, got up and said sorry to everyone, and took the little one's hand and got up to leave.

Leaving Emma in Joanna's care, Eric walked towards the villa, intending to change his pants, and Elizabeth saw Eric's movements and tiptoed in.

Eric walked into the bedroom, found a new pair of pants from the closet, turned to Elizabeth leaning against the door, and said, "You didn't come to celebrate the little one's birthday, did you?"

Elizabeth watched Eric take off his trousers directly, and said with a slight red face in front of himself changing clothes: "I happened to be in New York recently, so I came over, I didn't expect to meet Drew Naniko, hmph, I knew I wouldn't come." ”

"Then don't talk to her," Eric said, with a grin on his lips.

Elizabeth has received a lady's education in a private school since she was a child, and she doesn't even know how to swear, and when she fights with Drew, Eric feels like a rookie who has just walked out of the novice village.

Elizabeth sensed the teasing in Eric's tone, but only gave him a blank look.

Eric threw his swollen pants into the bathroom, then walked out and said, "Okay, let's talk about something, if I don't say it, I'm going out?"

"I wanted to ask you about this last time at the Oscars," Elizabeth squirmed slightly, but said anyway, "Didn't you say before that you wouldn't run a print media?"

"Oh, that's it," Eric suddenly understood, and asked with a smile, "Your old man is interested in how many newspapers I have in my hand?"

Elizabeth shrugged and said, "yes, anyway, I'm just inquiring, if you don't mean to make a move, I don't mention it." ”

Erekla sat down on the chair next to the dresser in the bedroom, pointed to the big bed next to him, and said, "Actually, at the cocktail party after the press conference at noon, I asked Warren Buffett's Berkshire if he would be interested in taking over those newspapers. ”

Elizabeth went to the edge of the bed and sat down, and asked, "So, do you really want to sell those newspapers?"

"Overall, I'm a man of my word," Eric laughs.

Elizabeth didn't expect Eric's example of backsliding for a while, so she didn't subconsciously retort, saying, "Then have you talked to Buffett?"

"No," Eric said, shaking his head, "but if you want to be honest, I wouldn't recommend that News Corp take these papers." ”

"Why, is it still your idea that online media will replace traditional media?"

"Almost, maybe you don't know, now the cumulative number of visitors to the Yahoo portal has reached 20 million, and now the average number of visitors per day is more than 5 million. Eric said, jokingly, "Why don't you help me recommend a suitable editor-in-chief from News Corp."

Elizabeth was a little surprised by Eric's figures, News Corp. Australia, the United Kingdom and North America all newspaper users combined, and if Yahoo really had 5 million visitors a day, maybe there would really be the situation that Eric said, but she still found it a little incredulous: "How can there be so many?" (to be continued). )