Chapter 1005： Surprise attack

In the face of the high box office of "The Matrix 2" in the first week, the cynicism of the media only brought a wave of gloating to the fireflies, but it did not have any substantial negative impact on the fireflies, and even the media discussion from certain The strange angle has prompted the sales of fireflies to issue corporate bonds next month.

The management of the company has always been under the control of Eric, and there will be no problems. Eric hopes that the minority shareholders of the group can make some opinions, and it is best to sell the stocks in their hands. Unfortunately, this has not happened.

Therefore, Eric actually does not care about the media's views on the box office of "Matrix 2" and the subsequent decline of the firefly group.

However, when he arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand, he had just settled down and Eric received a message that made him very angry.

Steve Case completely abandoned the tacit understanding formed by the parties and brought the dispute between the management and the first major shareholder of Firefly Investment to the media.

The time of the incident was on the east coast of North America on Tuesday morning. Steve Case accepted an interview with CNN. Eric arrived in Queenstown. New Zealand local time was Wednesday morning. However, the time zone on the east coast of North America was 16 behind New Zealand. Hours, Eric received the news, there is still Tuesday afternoon, the New York Stock Exchange just ended a day of trading.

In a private resort on the outskirts of Queenstown, Eric hangs up Chris’s personal call, and Tim Sanders, the producer of the Lord of the Rings project in New Zealand, where Firefly is based in New Zealand: “Tim, Go back and work as usual. I may not be able to go to the studio today. I will call Peter personally."

New Zealand is in the coldest month of the year, but it has not affected the filming of the "The Lord of the Rings" crew.

Hundreds of people in the entire crew have a basic cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. Therefore, before Eric came to Peter Jackson, he did not need to change the shooting schedule for his arrival. At this time, Peter Jackson was taking the scene with the crew near Lake Wanaka, more than 40 kilometers north of Queenstown.

Tim Sanders was just next to Eric, and he heard something about it. He nodded. "Then I will leave first, Eric. If you have anything, you can call me at any time."

After sending away Sim Sanders, Eric returned to the living room of the holiday villa behind him. Caroline stood by the fax machine in the corner of the living room, and Meyer took a notebook and showed it to Ai. In front of Rick.

CNN's interview video with Steve Case is being played on the notebook screen.

"I am grateful to the Firefly system for supporting the AOL in all aspects over the years. However, this cannot be the reason for us to abandon our own corporate development philosophy. Enterprises should have their own culture and soul, if not That is destined to be only the shackles of capital. All the facts prove that such a company is bound to not grow. Over the years, it is because of our clear planning ideas for this company that AOL was able to get less than 100,000 from the original. The user’s small company has grown to an Internet business giant with nearly 15 million users in the United States. “In the picture, Steve Kass said with a serious expression: “So, if shareholders insist that we give up our business philosophy, then We don't have to continue to stick to this company."

In the studio, the host with black-rimmed glasses nodded in agreement with the nod, and said: "So, Steve, what do you mean by us, are those people?"

“My own, President Robert Pitman, and 12 executives in the company's operations, marketing, finance, etc. If we are unable to reach an agreement with shareholders, then we will choose to resign collectively.”

The host’s face was surprised and his body leaned forward. He asked: “Steve, as far as I know, you are also a shareholder of AOL. I think you know that if the company’s management resigns collectively, It will definitely cause an immeasurable impact on the company's stock price, which will also hurt your personal interests. Have you considered this result?"

“Yes,” said Steve Case. “However, I am more willing to stick to my ideals than wealth.”

On the screen, the host smiled and nodded, then said: "So, let's take a video to learn about the legendary rise of AOL over the years."

Eric stood in the ground and looked at the laptop screen that Meyer silently held in his hand, and the phone he had just put in his trench pocket rang again.

Signal Meyer to take the laptop away, and Eric connected the phone, but it was called by John Mark, the president of Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley also has a large-scale stock investment department, and they are also one of AOL's major shareholders, holding about 2% of AOL's stock.

Some time ago, under Chris's lobbying, Morgan Stanley had agreed to stand on the side of the firefly investment in the process of voting at the shareholders' meeting. However, in the face of the sudden attack of Steve Case's almost torn face, Morgan Stanley clearly could not maintain a calm posture.

Eric chats with John Mark, Carolyn handed over a document that has just been sorted out. This is the US online stock price chart on the US side on Tuesday.

As the founder of AOL and the key player in the way that AOL is able to achieve today's market value of more than $40 billion, Steve Case has a very strong influence on AOL, and this influence also envelopes a large number of US Online shareholders, not to mention the entire AOL management that claims to move forward with Steve Case.

Therefore, after CNN broadcasted an interview with Steve Case, the Nasdaq market reacted directly to the risk of Steve Case and AOL management's possible collective resignation.

Throughout the trading day, AOL's share price fell sharply by 6.5%, and the market value slipped from $41.5 billion at the opening to $38.9 billion. The market value of the six-hour trading period evaporated by $2.7 billion.

Even the original media forecast is expected to break through the 2000 points of the Nasdaq index this week, the entire market fell from 1973 to 1935 points, and many of the technology stocks that have been in the limelight for this period are also accompanied by the United States. The decline in online stock prices has seen varying degrees of decline.

Eric listened to the temptation of a little anxiety in the opposite tone of John Mark. "John, Morgan Stanley may have lost more than $50 million, but according to the shareholding ratio, fireflies today lost a billion dollars. Do you think I will be indifferent?"

The Firefly system holds a total of 35.7% of AOL's share of shares, which means that Steve Case's move directly brought nearly $1 billion in book losses to Fireflies.

Even though many people know that the actual value of AOL is not so much, the loss of hundreds of millions of books in a day is still a bit of a pain. Wall Street funds, which are mainly invested in stocks, face millions of losses in a short period of time, and the response is much more intense than Eric’s investors who value long-term development.

Responsiveness and John Mark chat for a while, just hang up the other party's phone, the phone ring rang again almost without intermittent, the caller came bigger, the Wall Street assets more than 200 billion US dollars of vanguard fund The founder of John Bogle, although the other party’s attitude is euphemistic, clearly stated that he hopes that Eric can change the original idea and calm down the matter as soon as possible. At the end, John Bogle also expressed his concern for Nasdaq. The gram index may be worried about the collapse of the volatility.

Eric naturally has this kind of concern, so the sense of Steve Case's behavior is even worse.

It is not because of the book loss of the $1 billion stock today, but because the other party completely disregarded the overall situation in order to defend its power. At the beginning, the two sides had already reached a tacit agreement to limit this to AOL.

Next Monday, the June 29th extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, no matter which side wins, the other side must voluntarily withdraw in order to maintain the development of AOL.

However, the firefly investment itself holds 35.7% of AOL's shares. This shareholding ratio, for many other companies, has been able to control the control of a company, just like the news group and Viacom behind the scenes. The Murdoch family and the Lei Shidong family have a shareholding ratio of about 30% to the two media groups.

Therefore, the success rate of firefly investment in shareholder voting is actually very high. If it is not the founder of Steve Case's AOL and the outstanding achievements he has made in his position these years, the fireflies don't even need to hold anything. At the shareholders meeting, Steve Case can be ousted.

Even so, Fireflies only need to draw the other 15% of the shareholders to stand on their own side, and they can easily take control of AOL.

During this time, due to the close relationship with Wall Street, Chris successfully obtained a large part of the fund manager holding AOL shares on the side of the firefly promise. Perhaps it was felt that his disadvantages became more and more obvious, and Steve Case was able to make a move today.

It is indeed a ruin.

Because of this, in the face of the pressure of the AOL share price collapse, most shareholders may have to compromise with the US online management for the time being, but Steve Case’s behavior that desperately harms everyone’s interests is also doomed. It will be remembered by Wall Street investors. In the future, he will want to get a good impression on Wall Street, but it will be more difficult.

Of course, if AOL can continue to be strong, Steve Case can put on a tough image of corporate management, and don’t need to pay attention to Wall Street’s face. After all, Wall Street’s fancy can always be They bring real benefits to people.

But others are not clear, but Eric knows that AOL is developing according to the thinking of Steve Case and how terrible it will be in the next few years.

On the first day of New Zealand, Eric was basically on the phone.

It is impossible for this matter to take proper measures immediately. In order to prevent AOL's share price from continuing to fall the next day, the board of directors urgently applied to the SEC for a temporary suspension of trading, and promised to the media and investors to hold a press conference before next Monday. , announced the final processing results of this incident.

Flying back to New York from New Zealand, although the road is slightly closer than New Zealand to New Zealand, it takes 20 hours, basically a whole day, so Eric will not rush back, just look at the Lord of the Rings trilogy In all aspects of the production process, while frequently on the phone to maintain close contact with Chris and others in New York.

Until Saturday morning in New Zealand and Friday afternoon on the east coast of the United States, after a few days of intensive consultations, AOL’s major shareholders, board members, and management team sat together at the company’s headquarters conference in New York. In the room, Eric participated in the conference via video call.

In the short span of three days, many shareholders who had been inclined to invest in fireflies had changed their positions.

If only Steve Case left, as long as it is properly arranged, AOL will not be affected too much. However, the main management team has all left, and for a long time, AOL will be caught in a state of chaos. The airborne managers will not be able to restore the state before AOL in a short time even if they have excellent capabilities. .

In the case of several major traditional telecom operators in North America and Microsoft, the operating system giant, are deploying ISP services, if AOL has a turbulent time of one and a half years, it is likely that it will be narrowed by competitors with very strong strengths. The advantages that AOL has accumulated in the field of ISP for many years may also disappear, and even from then on.

Eric's technology company, Eric has not valued AOL too much since the beginning. He cares only when the technology stock bubble is the most inflationary, using AOL's stock price far beyond the actual value as the 'currency', M&A An established telecom operator has completely consolidated the foundation of AOL and provided the most stable underlying service support for the original information industry alliance plan.

However, in the current situation, the original plan has not been discussed, and Eric has decisively made the most favorable choice for himself.

In the study room of the holiday villa, the monitor on the desk opens, opposite the large conference room of the US online New York headquarters. More than ten representatives from all walks of life sit on the elliptical desks. Eric can just look at the desk. On the other side of Steve Case, more than a dozen people across the street also looked over.

Picking up the folder that had been prepared from Caroline, Eric opened the folder and scanned the screen. He said: "I am a little tired these days. There are still a lot of things today, so let's make a long story short. Oh, I said, you listen."

In the conference room in New York, the big screen projector was used. Chris, who was sitting next to the screen, heard Eric’s words and smiled softly.

Other business elites from all walks of life looked at the somewhat condescending youth in the projector screen. Although they were somewhat dissatisfied, they were more embarrassed. This meeting is related to the future of AOL and whether the stocks in their hands can continue to add value. Even if a lot of things have been agreed in advance, but many people still worry that Eric will suddenly change, and the other party has this capital, even if it is forced to calm Steve Case, the heart rate is faster than usual. A lot.