Chapter 1025 Is Too Risky

The signing ceremony of the equity transfer agreement took place at Firefly's headquarters in Rockefeller Center.

Chris greatly admires Buffett's minimalist business philosophy, so in many ways he follows this predecessor as much as possible. Although the company's headquarters was moved to Rockefeller Center in the past two years, compared with other large companies, Firefly Investments, which has controlled assets of more than 200 billion US dollars, still only maintains a small team of about 50 people, and the entire company only accounts for Office space less than half a floor of 50 Rockefeller Center.

In contrast, Morgan Stanley Group has 27 floors of office space from the 47th to 74th floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. The reason why Eric noticed this was because Chris asked Eric if he wanted to move to the same building with Morgan Stanley when he moved the office last time, which would also facilitate cooperation between the two parties. Of course, Eric could not agree. .

However, Eric remembers that on the day of the 9/11 incident, almost all Morgan Stanley employees were evacuated safely. During the whole process, only six of the nearly 3,000 employees died unexpectedly. Director, this has to be said to be a 'miracle'.

The signing ceremony was very simple. This batch of 16.5 million shares was taken over by seven other AOL shareholders, including Morgan Stanley and Vanguard Group, at a price of $4 billion, such as payment settlement, change in ownership structure and filing with SEC. Waiting for the process to take another week to complete, the reason why Firefly Investments, Morgan Stanley and AOL parties have gathered together with such fanfare is mainly for the press conference after the signing ceremony.

There have been so many rumors about AOL in recent times, and this equity transfer is the perfect time to respond to all the recent rumors.

The employee activity room of Firefly Investment was temporarily set up as a press conference site. After the signing process, Eric, Chris, Steve Case and John Mark sat on the stage together. There was no long table. There were four very simple chairs. One of Chris's assistants temporarily played the role of the host, and in the audience were hundreds of media reporters who packed the entire event room.

After clarifying and responding to some rumors related to Firefly Investments and AOL through a pre-determined simple interactive process, the press conference entered a free question time.

The host ordered a reporter, and the other party got up and directly aimed at Eric: "Mr. Williams, I am a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, since Firefly Investment has repeatedly stated that he is optimistic about the future of Nasdaq and AOL. , why does your company insist on reducing its holdings?"

Just after the words of the reporter from The Wall Street Journal came out, all the reporters at the scene looked over in high spirits.

Although the contradiction between the two parties some time ago has paved the way, judging from the current situation, in any case, the low-price selling behavior of Firefly Investment is too much like a hasty cash out after the crisis. Although the Nasdaq index has become stronger and stronger during this period, and many investors have gradually given up their worries, Wall Street has never lacked the power to bear the Nasdaq index.

Looking at Chris, who wanted to help him avoid this problem, Eric raised his microphone and said, "Actually, Firefly Investment's reduction in AOL shares, and the overall trend of the Nasdaq market. It doesn't matter too much. The reason why Firefly Investments did this is only because AOL's established development strategy cannot form a good complementarity with other industries under Firefly Investments, so we chose to withdraw and focus more on other businesses. .You should know that Firefly Investments is also a major shareholder of Cisco, sprint, Qualcomm, Nokia and other technology companies. If you are not optimistic about technology stocks, you should now see Firefly Investments selling shares of these other companies, but in fact, Over the years, Firefly Investments has never sold a single share of Cisco, sprint, etc."

Eric finished,

Many people at the scene showed thoughtful expressions in their expressions. The reporter from the "Wall Street Journal" just now wanted to refute, but couldn't find a suitable reason for a while.

The achievements of Firefly Investments in the field of new technology over the years are obvious to all. Now, Firefly Investments has not given up any other new technology companies, but has reduced its holdings of AOL shares, even if the reason is really the same as that of the Nasdaq market. Bubbles are irrelevant, but Firefly's actions are worth thinking about.

The host did not let the reporter just now continue to ask questions, and quickly ordered another one.

"Mr. Williams, I'm a reporter for Forbes magazine. After completing the reduction of 25% of AOL's shares, Firefly Investment will receive a huge amount of tens of billions of dollars. What is your next investment plan? Focus on high tech?"

"We don't have a detailed plan for this fund yet. However, traditional industries have basically formed a relatively stable industrial structure, and Firefly is also very unfamiliar with these fields. Therefore, we should focus on those with more opportunities and greater development potential. The new technology sector is for sure.”

In fact, Eric and Chris have discussed where the next money will go.

Although the stock market, which is already very frothy, will not be entered in the short term, it is absolutely impossible for nearly 10 billion US dollars of funds to simply be put in the bank to eat interest.

Because this fund will be used again in about two years, Eric plans to invest in various types of short-term convertible bonds. Compared with the bank's annual interest rate of less than 3%, investing in bonds will still get 5% of the annual return. No problem, and generally, this investment can be converted into cash again within 12 months.

However, it is definitely impossible to be honest with the reporters in front of him, so Eric had to be sloppy. He didn't lie to these people, but he just had to wait until the tech stock bubble burst after 2000. It's a good time to buy cheap.

The chances of Eric appearing in front of the media were too few. The reporters on the scene continued to ask Eric a series of questions. The topic even turned to the movie he was shooting, but Eric was joking and refused to respond. The reporters finally turned their attention to a few others.

After the press conference, I dealt with some trivial matters, and before I knew it, it was already evening.

To celebrate the successful completion of this transaction, John Mark contracted the Window of the World restaurant on the top floor of the Petronas Twin Towers to hold a celebratory reception in the name of Morgan Stanley.

In the Window of the World restaurant, after dealing with an executive of First Boston, Chris and Eric walked together to the window overlooking the entire Manhattan, looked at the lit city under their feet, and said with a smile: "First Boston also If we wanted 5 million shares a little bit higher now, maybe we could sell them all.”

"Take it as an IPO," Eric instinctively resisted the unfortunate high-rise building under his feet, but did not show it on his face, holding a glass of red wine in one hand and putting the other hand in his pocket, said: " There is no need to make extra cuts now, let's get the $10 billion in our hands first."

Although according to the current share price of AOL, selling 25% of the stock for 10 billion US dollars, Firefly Investment is equivalent to giving up about 2 billion US dollars of interest. But in fact, in the whole process, firefly investment is definitely the one with the most lucrative income.

After all, according to the development process in Eric's memory, from the birth to the fall of AOL, all the profits generated in more than ten years are not 10 billion US dollars.

These investment institutions who now think they have taken advantage of the stocks from Firefly Investments, if the lock-up period expires after half a year, they can resist the temptation of the rapid rise in stock prices and immediately sell their stocks, and they will definitely be able to obtain huge profits. But Eric is sure that there will definitely be a large number of people who cannot suppress the greed in their hearts.

There are always people asking where the money that investors lost after the stock market crashed went, but it was actually made by those who were willing to withdraw in time.

"Judging from the current situation, the other 15% of the stocks can be sold in the next month. I will select a list of recently issued high-quality bonds. Speaking of which, if the firefly group's bonds are not sold, the sale is completed. , we can buy some of our own. When are you going back to Los Angeles?"

Eric said: "Tomorrow afternoon, we will continue the shooting of "Gravity" on Monday."

Chris nodded and said, "By the way, did you really invest $1.6 billion to promote 3D and imax movies?"

"Yeah," Eric said with a relaxed smile: "According to the preliminary plan, there are 4,000 3D screens in the world, with an average cost of $300,000 per block. Jeffrey is discussing the details of cooperation with major theater chains. There are a total of 200 imax theaters in North America and overseas. We plan to operate them by ourselves. Due to the location selection, the cost in this area is uncertain. On average, each theater should have 2 million US dollars. In this way, it is 1.6 billion US dollars. "

Chris listened carefully, shook his head at the end, and said, "It's too risky."

"When you see the final film of "Gravity" in the future, you may not think so," Eric said confidently: "Also, I can take the risk now."

The two were chatting when John Mark brought another middle-aged man over. Eric and Chris stopped talking and politely greeted them.

After some entertainment, Eric left the reception early at nine o'clock.

After sending Caroline and Mayer to the apartment on Sixth Avenue and instructing them, Eric hurried to East Hampton at night. He will leave tomorrow afternoon, and he must still see the children.

It was already eleven o'clock in the middle of the night when they arrived in East Hamp. The car slowly drove into the Linhai Manor. Joanna and a maid were already waiting in the yard.

Seeing Eric getting out of the car, Joanna came over with such joy in her expression, and whispered, "Eric."

Eric hugged Joanna, kissed her on the lips, and said, "Are the little guys asleep?"

Joanna smiled and nodded, and ordered the maids around her to take Eric's bodyguards to the villa next to him, and then walked into the main villa with Eric.

Thoughtfully helping Eric hang his coat on the hanger, Joanna turned around and saw that Eric had changed his shoes, and naturally walked towards the children's bedroom with him, while whispering: "Xia Xia and Kevin fell asleep after nine o'clock, and Emma didn't fall asleep for a long time, and the little guy became more and more naughty."

"Then I'll help you teach her a good lesson tomorrow," Eric smiled and gently pushed open a bedroom with Joanna without turning on the light. With the light in the corridor, a small person could be seen. lying on the cot.

Stepping forward, Joanna carefully helped Hawaii tidy up the blanket on her body, gently touched her daughter's delicate face, and then retracted her hand, seeing that Eric was also going to stretch out his rough hand, gave him a blank look, and stretched out his hand. block.

Eric had to lower his head and kissed his daughter's forehead lightly, watched it quietly for a while, and then walked out of the room.

As they got older, the three little guys all had their own room.

Eric followed Joanna to see Kevin and Emma again, and the two went upstairs together.

"Didn't Vicky say to focus on taking care of Kevin in the future, why did he go to film again?" In the bedroom on the second floor, Eric took off his shirt and asked with some dissatisfaction.

Joanna helped Eric put the bath water in the bathroom and said, "It's just a small role, it's over in a week, it's not like you don't know Vicky's temperament, she can't stand to stay at home quietly and watch the children all the time. ."

As Eric said that, he took off his trousers and threw them on the big bed, walked into the bathroom, and said, "There's no need to go to filming then, you can go to Vancouver and do something else."

"Oh, I can't control her. You can tell her when you come back next time."

"It seems that I also need a good lesson," Eric said with a smile, stepping into the bathtub, and seeing Joanna getting up and leaving, he stretched out his arms to hug the woman, without taking off his clothes, and hugged him directly.

"You, your clothes are wet," Joanna struggled a little, then leaned against Eric's arms resignedly, feeling the man's thin kiss between her neck, her breathing became more and more rapid.

After some lingering, it was past twelve o'clock in the morning when I left the bathroom.

On the big bed, Joanna's flaxen hair was slightly loose, and she lay lazily on Eric's body, feeling the skin of the two against each other, but she didn't feel sleepy.

After a while, Joanna said softly, "Eric, I want to discuss something with you?"

Eric's big hand also swam around the woman, and replied softly, "Well?"

Joanna looked a little nervous, raised her face, and said, "I want to take Xia Xia back to Poland to see."

Eric paused for a moment. He was very unfamiliar with Poland, and because he was unfamiliar, he naturally did not want his children to go to a place he was not familiar with. However, feeling the hopeful look in Joanna's eyes, Eric thought for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll arrange it for you."