One Thousand and Seven Chapters Cut Off

Looking at the darkened monitor screen, Eric's mood was not relieved at all.

In the original information industry alliance plan, Eric hoped that Cisco, America Online and Yahoo would play the roles of Internet equipment provider, Internet service provider and Internet content provider respectively, forming a wintel alliance similar to the Intel-Microsoft in the PC industry. Strong alliance.

Now, the loss of AOL, the information industry alliance plan formulated at the beginning, is equivalent to being cut off in the middle.

This is the biggest setback that Eric has encountered in recent years. Even if he can use AOL's stock to cash out 10 billion or 20 billion US dollars in cash, it will not be able to make up for the loss of the information industry alliance plan.

You must know that if you can successfully merge one of the three major operators in North America and consolidate its market position in communications and network services, even if the Internet bubble bursts, with the arrival of the era of mobile communications and the Internet, AOL's future The market value can still easily reach the scale of one or two hundred billion US dollars.

But now, although AOL is temporarily the largest Internet service provider in North America, the rise of AOL is completely taking advantage of the opportunity of several traditional operators to ignore this part of the business.

At the time, major telecom operators in North America were not optimistic that users would spend tens of dollars a month to purchase high-speed broadband access services, which gave AOL the upper hand.

But AOL's flaws are also very obvious. Not to mention the Internet media business that is destined to have no future, it is just a bubble technology concept. The basic telecommunication business it involves is very simple, only high-speed broadband access service. AOL has not had time to get involved in fixed-line telephone, mobile communication, cable TV and other businesses. At the same time, AOL's infrastructure construction is also very weak, and some access equipment and line networks even lease at-t traditional operator's.

It is conceivable that once the powerful traditional telecom operators such as at-t, verizon and even sprint react, relying on their own strong user base accumulation and infrastructure network far exceeding that of AOL, they only need to adopt some disguised bundling and the like. measures, it will be able to easily grab Internet users from AOL.

In this process, AOL's only chance is to take advantage of the high stock price and take advantage of equity mergers and acquisitions to take advantage of one of the old telecom operators, so that it can maintain its own industry against the background of the bursting of the Internet bubble in the next few years. status.

However, all these plans are now doomed to come to nothing.

America Online chose to follow the development path of an Internet media company. In the next two years, once the Internet bubble burst, this company is destined to fall into the abyss.

Although AOL and Yahoo will continue to cooperate in the next two years, such a profound estrangement has been formed, and the two sides are destined to be separated.

It is also difficult for Yahoo to find a partner who can cooperate tacitly in the field of basic services in a short period of time.

However, some things still have to be done.

The traditional telecom operators in North America have a history of dozens or hundreds of years. Large companies are very ill, and the promotion of new technologies and services is extremely slow. Otherwise, AOL would not have the chance to reach its current market position. .

The only way for these legacy carriers to keep up with a new tech company like Yahoo is to keep it in their hands.

Picking up the folder on the desktop, in addition to the files used for the video conference just now, there are several files of the three major North American telecom operators at-t, Verizon and sprint in the folder.

After looking through it in silence for a while, Eric's attention finally fell on the sprint.

at-t and verizon are actually companies that were split from the Bell system.

With Eric's current capital accumulation, at-t is not to be thought of at all.

The current market value of this old telecom giant has exceeded 100 billion US dollars. Compared with the Internet companies blown up by the new technology bubble, it does not seem to be too high. However, in the next few years, with the rise of mobile communication and Internet business , the market value of at-t will rapidly increase exponentially, even if the Internet bubble bursts, the market in this area has been formed, and the market value of at-t will not fall too much.

Moreover, since at-t has occupied nearly 70% of the telecom market share in North America for a long time, at-t will encounter an antitrust investigation almost every once in a while, and the possibility of launching an acquisition to it is very unlikely to be approved by the regulatory authorities.

More importantly, the diversification of at-t is very serious. Its business covers everything from mobile phones to communication base stations, from fixed phones to cable TV. Such a company does not meet Eric's needs.

Although verizon's strength is a lot behind at-t, its current share price and profitability are very bright. Under the circumstance that a company is operating very well, the company's board of directors and management are willing to accept mergers or acquisitions is very unlikely. Moreover, Verizon also suffers from excessive diversification similar to at-t.

In comparison, among the three traditional telecom operators, the possibility of winning sprint is the highest.

First of all, Firefly Investment already owns 10% of Sprint's shares. In the future acquisition process, as a shareholder, Firefly can directly exert influence on Sprint's board of directors.

Secondly, because of its initial bet on mobile communications, sprint spent a lot of money to take pictures of more than half of the mobile communications spectrum in North America from the FCC. The company's future business development focus is also in line with Eric's expectations. In the future, sprint will only need to It is not too difficult to surpass Verizon by focusing on business development in the two major fields of mobile communications and broadband services, even if it cannot catch up with at-t.

Finally, because of the bet on the mobile communication business, sprint invested too much in the early stage. The operating conditions of sprint have been unsatisfactory in recent years, and the company's stock price has often fluctuated.

With the stock price of new technology companies rising sharply, sprint's current market value has just reached 30.2 billion US dollars.

Moreover, it will take a few years for the mobile communication business to fully rise, which also gives Eric enough time to prepare. Eric also needs to wait another one to two years before he can make a move. After all, in recent years, the new technology has Influenced by the wave, the stock prices of all companies involved in the new technology field are ridiculously high.

Eric has no plans to buy any companies until the new tech bubble bursts.

After the dotcom bubble burst, it would be easier to acquire sprint. Winning the sprint will not only re-build the information industry alliance plan, but also take into account Eric's layout of the mobile communication industry.

Both Nokia and Qualcomm have already started testing the third-generation mobile communication network, which is the later 3g. According to the progress of various aspects, it is expected that around 2000, the 3g network in Europe and the United States will enter the practical application stage, even if the planned Smartphones are still a few years away, but Firefly could use sprint's network to try out a 3G version of the tablet.

Eric was sitting in the study thinking about these things. In the living room downstairs of the villa, Caroline was sitting on the sofa casually flipping through a magazine, looking up at the stairs from time to time.

Mayer walked out of a living room next to her, holding a folder in her hand, and came to the living room, just to see Caroline turning her head to look at the stairs.

Sitting down next to Caroline, Mayer followed Caroline's gaze and said, "It's almost nine o'clock, has Eric come down yet?"

Caroline nodded, saw the blue folder in Mayer's hand, and asked, "Last week's North American box office data?"

"Yeah," Mayer handed over the folder and said, "Otherwise, you can go up and give it to Eric."

Caroline took it over and opened it. In the folder were several pages of bound data files.

After three days in the first weekend and $83.65 million at midnight, "The Matrix 2" took in another $30.11 million in four days into the working day, and finally reached $113.16 million in the first week.

While barely surpassing "The Day After Tomorrow"'s $111.74 million box office two weeks ago, The Matrix 2's weekday box office was nearly $7 million less than "The Day After Tomorrow," which is presumably also "The Matrix 2." Disadvantages of strong fan attributes. With the support of a large number of fans, the box office of "The Matrix 2" was very strong at the midnight show and three days of the first weekend, but entering the working day, the box office boom quickly cooled down.

Given "The Matrix 2"'s polarizing word of mouth, it's certain that the film will drop more than "The Day After Tomorrow" in the coming weeks. Since there is no obvious gap in the first week, it is not so easy for the total North American box office of "The Matrix 2" to surpass "The Day After Tomorrow".

After reading the document in her hand and thinking for a while, Caroline said, "Today, don't show this to Eric today, he is in a bad mood."

Mayer also acknowledged that in recent days, although Eric has not lost his temper with anyone, everyone can feel Eric's strong anger and disappointment.

Mayer even had a little more admiration for Eric in private because of this. He, who is in a high position and should be young and vigorous, can always maintain restraint and not anger anyone. This is definitely not something ordinary people can do. did it.

Of course, I always think of that night in London, and then I can't help but feel a little bit of resentment.

Damn guy.

After another thought in her heart, Mayer looked at Caroline again. Although the depressing result that night was ultimately caused by the girl in front of her, Mayer couldn't turn her anger on Caroline at all. It's not because of Eric's restraint, but, with such a sincere girl, probably no one would have the heart to blame her for any fault.

The two women were sitting in the living room chatting, and after a while, footsteps finally came from the stairs, Eric walked down, and they stood up together.

Eric didn't say anything to the two women, and said directly: "Let's go, Peter should be waiting for us."

Today is Saturday. However, New Zealand is far from the harsh labor protection laws of California. The shooting on the weekend did not stop. Of course, it was the weekend after all, and the crew did not go out. Scattered interior scenes of the characters.

A few days ago, the crew had been out on location. Due to the AOL matter, Eric couldn't take time to visit the location with the crew, but waited for Peter Jackson to return to Queenstown in the evening, and Eric discussed it with him. The filming of the trilogy progressed, and a small party was held with some of the "Lord of the Rings" cast members in New Zealand.

The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has a total of nearly forty filming locations, all over New Zealand's north and south islands.

Now the North Island scene has basically been completed, and the crew moved from Wellington to Queenstown only last month.

Although it happened to be winter in New Zealand at this time, due to the temperate maritime climate facing the sea, the low temperature of the South Island did not affect the shooting. There are not many signs of winter in the entire South Island. Except for the nearby snow-capped mountains that are covered with snow all the year round, the plains of Queenstown are still green.

The crew built several small-scale studios in Queenstown as shooting bases, mainly to match some scenes in the South Island. The main filming base for the film is also Wellington in the North Island, including Firefly's New Zealand branch of Digital Domain in Wellington.

The special effects of "The Lord of the Rings" are mainly handled by the Australian branch and the New Zealand branch of the digital field. The Australian branch is mainly responsible for the CG special effects part, and the New Zealand branch is mainly responsible for the production of a large number of props and models for the film. As for the former Weta Digital, it will naturally not appear again now. However, the Australian branch and New Zealand branch in the digital field basically enjoy the treatment that Weta Digital can enjoy in the past.

The reason why Weta Digital in the original time and space can stand side by side with Industrial Light and Magic, Digital Domain, etc. is not because of the company's excellent special effects technology, but mainly because Weta Digital is cheap enough, and the cost performance ratio is very high on the basis of ensuring the quality of special effects. .

Eric left the resort residence with Caroline and Mayer, and arrived at the production studio in Queenstown in less than ten minutes by car.

Entering the busy studio, Peter Jackson is directing the shooting of a fight scene between the Fellowship of the Ring and the orcs. The studio is surrounded by a combination of green screens and props.

The "Lord of the Rings" series is actually very focused on real shooting. The crew basically does not use CG special effects unless it is a last resort. This can be easily distinguished from the content of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Eric can't understand why later Many people like to mock Peter Jackson for his crazy cg.

What's more, as long as it can be done well enough, CG can give people a shocking visual sense.

Without disturbing the busy Peter Jackson, Eric chatted casually with the British actor Ian McLean who played Gandalf, and several other resting actors gradually gathered around, only Nicole and Diane Klein. The roles of Ruger and the two women have already been completed, and they are not in New Zealand now, and most of the crew is male.

After waiting for about ten minutes, Peter Jackson ended a filming session. After announcing a short break, he walked over to Eric.

After greeting, Peter Jackson asked with concern: "Eric, how is the situation over there?"

"It's a temporary solution," Eric replied simply, not wanting to talk more.

Eric is in New Zealand, what happened in America Online is well known, Eric is in New Zealand again, and Peter Jackson, although he is focused on the shooting of "The Lord of the Rings", it is impossible not to notice it.