Chapter 742： Gujia

Chapter 742

After dinner, the two did not rush to leave the restaurant and ordered two cups of coffee. Eric chatted about setting up a digital branch in Australia.

"The current annual turnover of the digital domain is close to $1 billion?" Elizabeth listened, and asked enviously.

Eric nodded: "However, because most of the work is done inside the firefly, the profit margin is not high, only 10%."

In order to prevent the outbreak of excellent special effects in the digital field, Eric has paid a lot of salary and bonus for these people, thus ensuring that the talents in the digital field are still very much in the situation where the entire industry is very scarce. Low churn rate.

The higher labor costs have also significantly reduced the overall profitability of the digital sector. However, Eric did not expect this special effects company to bring too much profit to the fireflies. The main role of the digital field is to assist in the production of the fireflies' films and to keep the fireflies in a strong position in the special effects field.

Elizabeth also understands some of the key points: "The Fortune magazine's Fortune 500 companies published last month, the entry company is only $2.2 billion, and now the digital industry continues to expand. When you go to the market alone, you can easily join this list. Why do you want to set up a branch in Australia, although you can get some discounts, but away from Hollywood, many things will become very inconvenient."

"Now there are more and more special effects companies in Hollywood. You can definitely find out this. Therefore, the biggest factor that will restrict the development of special effects companies in the future will not be technology, but cost. I am preparing in advance. ""

Elizabeth seemed to understand and nodded, stirring the coffee in front of her with a spoon. After a while, she said: "I have rarely returned to Australia in these years. The things over there are not familiar. You want to contact the Australian capital, you should Talk to my dad about this."

"Your old man is a ghost. I don't want to deal with him."

Elizabeth picked her eyebrow and said, "You mean, I am better off cheating."

“Well,” Eric solemnly nodded and joked: “However, your understanding is still fine.”

Elizabeth threatened to raise the spoon in her hand and then put it down, saying: "Even if I think. I can't help it," hesitated, and she continued: "Dad has begun to train Lackland and James in charge of the newspaper." In terms of business, most of our Australian businesses are paper-based businesses, and I am not very convenient to intervene."

Although News Corp.'s newspaper media is spread all over the world, Australia is the home base of News Corporation. News Corp. controls more than 70% of Australia's media resources, which is much higher than the UK's 40%.

Although Eric clearly knows the future decline of paper media, Murdoch clearly does not think so. And he has always regarded the paper media business as the foundation of News Corp.

Eric can hear from Elizabeth's short words that Murdoch still tends to let his son take over the industry. Otherwise, they will not let the two of them take charge of the basic business of News Corporation, but only let the daughter be responsible for the film business.

At this time, with a large number of newspapers in the world, more than 50% of News Corp’s profits come from the paper-based business, in addition to some TV stations in Australia, the Far East and the United Kingdom, although Fox has developed in recent years. Very good, but within the entire News Corp. system, it is not the most important.

However, if this situation continues. It will be lively in the future.

In memory, News Corp. experienced a split after more than a decade. It was re-segmented into News Corp., which is mainly based on paper media business, and Fox Group, which mainly focuses on movies and TV, and at that time. Because of the decline of paper media, the new News Corporation's market value is only more than 2 billion US dollars, only 2% of the Fox Group's market value of more than 80 billion.

Then, as long as Elizabeth can firmly control Fox, it is equivalent to inheriting the entire News Corporation.

At that time, uh...

"What are you thinking, laughing so badly?" Elizabeth's voice rang in her ear.

"No, nothing," Eric shook his head immediately. "I think, since your old man is so arranged, you can manage the business of Fox here with peace of mind. Well, you don't have to worry about the digital field branch." Now, I took the time to talk to him personally."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and looked at Eric for a moment, pouting, "I always feel that you are playing bad ideas."

"Liz, you have to be convinced that I have been facing you all the time."

“Does this ‘inducance’ be singular or plural?”

Eric did not hesitate: "Singular."

Elizabeth’s mouth smirked, but she still said: “I believe you are strange.”

Since he made up his mind to let Elizabeth manage Fox in peace, Eric stopped talking about the digital field branch. After drinking coffee, he looked at the watch and said, "It’s still early, take you to the movies."

"Oh..." Elizabeth dragged a small voice and was slightly dissatisfied: "How many times have you invited me to watch a movie?"

"Is it the first time, it seems that I have to pick it up, how about "Don Liri"?"

"You don't look at your movie, go see "The King of the Big Word.""

"It’s a good girl who cares about her family. I have to think about my own family when I watch a movie," Eric handed the credit card to the waiter to check out. By the way, he boasted.

Elizabeth raised her chin and was very proud: "Yeah, like you."

In the following days, Eric personally communicated with Murdoch about the related matters, Murdoch is naturally very willing to help, but still proposed conditions, I hope News Corporation can participate in the digital sector of the Australian branch.

Eric also did not hesitate and readily agreed to give 30% of the shares of News Corporation.

Under Murdoch's matchmaking, Stan Winston quickly rushed to Australia with the management team to negotiate with the local government. The Australian capital is of course aware of the benefits of a large special effects company's giants settled in the country, and it is also very enthusiastic. The Murdoch family has also used the mediation to quickly devote a decade-long tax relief plan.

At the same time, the Australian capital in order to attract more films to come to shoot. Also given a $7.5 million financial subsidy for the "Matrix" to be filmed in Australia, equivalent to 10% of the "Matrix" shooting budget.

Of course, Hollywood also reciprocated, after the announcement of "The Matrix." The special effects of Thor King's "The Lord of the Rings" series will also be the responsibility of the Australian Digital Sector Branch.

These things happen at the same time, August. There is another sensational news in the United States.

On August 24th, Microsoft officially released the indos95 window system at the Seattle headquarters. With a more user experience and overwhelming publicity, the first week of the indos95 release, it set a sales record of 1.4 million copies. Unlike the Yahoo browser's free, indos95 has a price tag of $210. This price can't be said to be cheap even after twenty years. The sales of 1.4 million copies in the first week created nearly $300 million in sales for Microsoft, and Microsoft's stock price rose again.

Because rival Apple's operating system is getting older, there hasn't been much innovation in these years, and Apple's recently released p-new film has been sold to Waterloo because of various problems. Therefore, after the release of indos95, it will immediately show up. Out of the situation of the rivers and lakes, but Apple is far away. At the same time that indos95 is selling well, Apple’s sales have also ushered in the cliff-like Waterloo.

Eric certainly received an invitation to the indos95 conference, but he did not go to Seattle to join in the fun.

after all. Although indos95 is selling well, Bill’s mood is not very good.

Because in the next few weeks of research, the most popular software on the indos95 operating system is the latest Yahoo browser bundled by Yahoo. After the browser, it is still not the proprietary software of the Microsoft platform, but Yahoo! Its own yr chat tool, this is Microsoft's own office software suite.

The indos95 system greatly reduces the difficulty of ordinary people using computers. But Bill Gates had a thought of marrying clothes for others. There is no doubt that the capital market is equally sensitive to this change. At the same time that Microsoft's stock has risen, Wall Street's highest valuation of Yahoo has increased to $5.6 billion. Many investment institutions have started to contact Yahoo frequently, hoping to participate in investment.

Aroused by this stimulus, a week after the release of indos95, Microsoft rushed to the line of the msn portal that Jeff Locke is responsible for. The layout basically refers to the format of the Yahoo portal, and it is announced to enter the Internet industry.

Although Jeff Locke was also responsible for some of the research and development work in the early days of Yahoo, but has been responsible for the operation of the website, you can imagine that msn can only be regarded as a table, no matter the content or user experience, far from the Yahoo portal.

Eric just browsed the portal interface of msn several times, and completely abandoned his concerns. In the form of msn portal, even after several years of development, it is not necessarily able to catch up with Microsoft, let alone Yahoo is also fast. Progressive.

Time to enter September, the North American summer file is completely over, although several major film companies at the end of the summer file, because the fireflies and MGM did not release a new film, how much has recovered some market share. But the entire 14-week summer program, Firefly and MGM, still account for more than 50% of the market.

The most bleak performance of this summer's summer is Sony-Colombia. Because of the loss of the rights to Forrest Gump and Museum Wonderful Night, Sony can only buy a few movies to fill the gap, but these films are common. Only one or two million dollars in the box office, the highest box office is only 31 million US dollars, the entire summer file, Sony Pictures' box office total is less than 100 million US dollars.

Because of the "Forever Batman" support scene, Time Warner's summer box office share is not low, but because of the high cost disadvantage, Warner's film business has to face a large loss than several other Hollywood companies.

In addition to fireflies and MGM, the only good performers are Universal and Fox. Paramount originally had a new film from Tom Cruise, but took into account the large-scale bombing of the summer file, so the schedule was postponed to the New Year. Therefore, the performance is not bad, the results are only slightly better than Sony.

The Firefly Headquarters is still cheering for the still beautiful box office results this summer, but Eric has already rushed to New York.

Entering September, the summer file is over, and the fall of the TV series has already begun.

The production of "The National Supermodel Contest" and "The Bridge of the Sky" has come to an end, and Cindy Crawford and Linda Ivan Golinsta have even let go of this project and temporarily put it into Victoria in the new year. In the preparations for the secret big show.

Eric came to New York to pay attention to the two reality shows, mainly for a short break.

East Hampton, the weather in September has been very cool, Eric lazily sat on the manor lawn and looked at the script in his hand, Joanna sat quietly beside him, cutting this apple.

After a while, a peeled apple was handed over, and Eric took a bite but didn't pick it up.

Joanna smiled and asked, "How is this script?"

"There are still some areas for improvement, but overall, I am still very satisfied." Eric said, and turned another page.

Joanna said: "When you look at this script for such a time, is it heart-warming?"

Eric's eyebrows moved and nodded: "Yeah, it's almost time to open my next movie, but the main reason is that I prefer this script."

The script in Eric’s hands is the Royal Casino of 007 that he and MGM’s screenwriter team have been preparing.

The original "Royal Casino", the timeline is set after 2010.

After a while, a peeled apple was handed over, and Eric took a bite but didn't pick it up.

Joanna smiled and asked, "How is this script?"

"There are still some areas for improvement, but overall, I am still very satisfied." Eric said, and turned another page.

Joanna said: "When you look at this script for such a time, is it heart-warming?"

Eric's eyebrows moved and nodded: "Yeah, it's almost time to open my next movie, but the main reason is that I prefer this script."

The script in Eric’s hands is the Royal Casino of 007 that he and MGM’s screenwriter team have been preparing.

The original "Royal Casino", the timeline is set after 2010.

Eric's eyebrows moved and nodded: "Yeah, it's almost time to open my next movie, but the main reason is that I prefer this script."

The script in Eric’s hands is the Royal Casino of 007 that he and MGM’s screenwriter team have been preparing.

The original "Royal Casino", the timeline is set after 2010. (To be continued.)