Chapter 545: A Gift From New York

After Sophie left, Eric also hurriedly washed up and went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.

In recent days, the affairs have been very complicated. Not only will the Firefly Investment Company team led by Chris come to Paris today to discuss the acquisition of the Nokia Group, but Eric will also give these funds as agreed with Jack Valenti last night. The local film power in Europe has some sweetness, so that these local snakes will not come forward to obstruct the negotiations of the GATT. And it's impossible for him to completely let go of the Jurassic Park promotion.

As Eric's first assistant, Allen sorted out the pages of some of today's newspapers that needed Eric's attention as usual. When Eric appeared in the restaurant, he put a stack of newspapers on his table. superior.

"Eric, I think you should read this." Allen pointed to the top weekly magazine.

Eric picked it up. This is a local news weekly in France. Although Allen only made English comments on key pages, Eric could still understand the reason why he let himself pay attention to this newspaper.

Because this Newsweek used an entire page to publish a picture, a picture of a Tyrannosaurus rex rampaging in downtown Paris, and the headline prominently marked "Culture: The American Offensive."

Eric can almost guess what the article is saying without reading the content.

France's "Grender", known as the most expensive film in history, failed miserably at the box office in front of "Jurassic Park". The investment of more than 160 million francs only recovered 1 million francs at the box office on the first day, and the box office is expected to be only 500 in the first week. At around 10,000 francs, this figure is not as high as that of Jurassic Park's first-day box office in France. It is understandable that the French would react like this.

Eric quickly flipped through the next few minutes of the newspaper, and lost the mood to read. Today, both French and English newspapers in France are basically talking about the box office of "Jurassic Park".

However, thinking of last night's party, Eric's mouth couldn't help overflowing with a slightly mocking sneer, and even the local French film forces were going to defect to Hollywood in private. What's the use of these media's desperate clamor, and nothing can be decided in the end.

Throwing away today's newspaper, Eric instructed: "You can call the manager of the French branch and let him conduct proper crisis public relations, and we don't need to care about the rest."

Allen quickly wrote down Eric's instructions on the memo, and added: "Mr. Hansen's flight arrives at Charles de Gaulle Airport at about ten o'clock, and I have already arranged a few cars. Do you want to pick up the plane in person? "

"I'll go there myself," Eric nodded.

...

The departure hall of Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The flight taken by Chris and his party landed at the airport nearly a quarter of an hour later than expected.

Noticing that Chris's figure appeared at the exit of the VIP passage, Eric smiled and waved at the other party, and went up to him. After approaching, Eric realized that Chris' entourage was following behind him, but walking side by side with him was a middle-aged man who had nothing to do with Firefly Investments.

A middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a pair of rimless spectacles, his mediocre appearance can give the impression of clumsiness at first glance.

However, Eric did not despise this middle-aged man in the slightest, because he had seen each other's photos on relevant materials more than once. This person is Nokia's current Joma Ollila. Although she looks ordinary, Joma Ollila's resume is not mediocre at all. This person not only has a double master's degree in orthodoxy and economics, but also has a 30-year-old. In his early years, he served as a senior executive of Citibank. In the original time and space, Nokia was under his leadership. From a near-bankrupt company to global communications equipment supremacy.

"Eric, long time no see," Chris hugged Eric, and quickly introduced him to him, "I think you must know him, Mr. Jorma Ollila."

Yoma Ollila took the initiative to step forward and shook hands with Eric: "Mr. Williams, I am Yoma Ollila. It's nice to meet you. I like your movies very much."

"Thank you, just call me Eric," Eric let go of Joma Ollila's hand, ignoring the scrutiny in the other party's smile, and turned to greet the members of the Firefly Investment Company team that Chris brought. .

Everyone left the airport, and Eric took Chris into his car. As soon as the car started, Chris couldn't wait to open the suitcase he was carrying: "Eric, based on the information you sent back to New York, I have once again made an assessment of the company Nokia..."

Eric interrupted Chris's words and pointed to the car behind him with a smile: "You haven't told me what happened to Jorma Ollila, how could he come to Paris with you?"

Chris smiled, temporarily closed the suitcase, and said, "I almost picked him up from New York."

"I know Joma Ollila went to Wall Street to invest in Nokia, but the situation is not as bad as you said, right?"

"As far as I know, major investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are not very interested in investing in Nokia, because the Boston Consulting Group published a report more than a year ago, claiming that Nokia's mobile phone business is completely unable to compete with Motorola. Competing with Japanese mobile phone manufacturers, and finally Lehman Brothers, which had just gotten rid of the control of American Express, was interested in investing. However, Lehman Brothers is now very short of funds, and the conditions they offer are relatively harsh. When I contacted Yola Ollila, He has been negotiating with the manager of the investment department of Lehman Brothers for a month, and he has not yet negotiated with the other party. From this point of view, this person is indeed very capable, but at the same time he has become a resistance to our acquisition of Nokia. , since he will not easily compromise with a giant like Lehman Brothers, which means that he will also not easily compromise with us.”

Eric asked, "Have you got the content of his negotiations with Lehman Brothers?"

Chris nodded slyly, "Of course," Chris opened the suitcase, took out a few documents and handed it to Eric.

"The dispute between Jorma Ollila and Lehman Brothers mainly focused on the scale of capital injection and the time to market. Lehman Brothers initially only promised to inject 50 million US dollars, but took away 10% of Nokia's shares. In addition, Lehman Brothers The condition given by the brothers is to help Nokia go public after three years, but Joma Ollila hopes that Lehman Brothers can directly run Nokia to go public and obtain development funds from the stock market.”

Eric read the document in front of him and wondered: "What is he doing in a hurry to go public? If Nokia's development prospects are good, he will go public later. Wouldn't it be possible to get more benefits?"

"I also have people do analysis on this," Chris explained: "Most of Nokia's current equity is concentrated in the hands of a few Finnish banks, which means that any major business adjustments Nokia needs to make With the permission of several bank shareholders, this situation also leaves Nokia's management with very little room for autonomy. But if it can operate Nokia and go public in North America, Nokia will become a public-owned company, so the management has Greater room for development. You only need to be responsible to the majority of shareholders, and no longer need to follow the dictates of several bank shareholders.”

"At the end of the day. He still wants more power, doesn't he?"

Chris nodded: "Yes, so when I first contacted Joma Ollila, he was not too enthusiastic about Firefly investment. I was worried that if he continued to talk with Lehman Brothers, he would suddenly reach a cooperation. He revealed some Cisco information, and he agreed to go back to Europe with me."

Although Firefly Investment hides Cisco's equity in several investment funds, it is still Cisco's largest shareholder. However, in addition to the necessary personnel and financial supervision of Cisco, Firefly Investments did not have much involvement in the company's operations, and Eric understood that Jorma Ollila should have taken a fancy to this.

"Speaking of this, last week Cisco completed the merger of communications, expanding Cisco's business into the catalyst5000 switch field, and our stake has fallen to 31% after this merger. However, according to the stock price before the close on Friday, Cisco is now The market value of the company has reached 5.3 billion US dollars, and the detailed information is still being sorted out at the headquarters, and will be sent to your mailbox after completion, I just tell you briefly."

Eric nodded in understanding. Since the Clinton administration came to power and announced the information superhighway plan, the stock prices of computer network-related companies have risen rapidly in the past six months. Cisco's stock price has more than doubled since the beginning of the year, although the network technology stocks are the craziest. That time is far from here, but the trend has already caught the attention of a large number of Wall Street investors.

After Chris said this, he quickly took out a delicately packaged gift box from the suitcase: "Hey. The second thing, someone asked me to bring you a gift."

Eric didn't notice the smirk at the corner of Chris's mouth, and opened the wrapping paper with some doubts, only to find that there was a 32-size photo frame inside. In the photo, two chubby little guys were sitting on the sofa, and the little boy stared at him. A pair of eyes stared blankly at the camera, and the little girl with eyebrows and eyes very like Joanna stretched out her small hand restlessly as if to grab something.

When Eric saw the photo, he remembered that the two little guys were born on April 10. The other day was the three-month anniversary of the birth of the two little guys, but he forgot about it. I haven't called back these days. It seems that Virginia must be very angry, so she asked Chris to bring her a 'gift'.

Chris said on the side: "On the day of Kevin's baptism, Emily and I also went. I am the godfather of the little guy now. I thought you must know it, so I didn't inform you. The day before yesterday, Emily went to visit the two Little guy, I brought this thing back with me and let me take it to you, only then did I know that you haven't called back these days."

Western children are usually baptized a few months after they are born. Eric did not expect that Virginia did not discuss with him, so he just went straight to the matter and smiled awkwardly. Eric realized something and asked. : "Kevin's baptism, what about Xia Xia?"

Chris spread his hands: "This should be something you and Joanna discussed." Noticing Eric's confused expression, Chris added: "Joanna is a Jew, a Jew is from the mother, traditionally speaking, summer Xia should also be considered a Jew. In terms of blood, she can also be considered an Englishman. The British generally believe in Christianity, so it is up to you and Joanna to discuss which sect you want the little guy to believe in."

Eric felt a little weird and murmured, "My daughter is actually a Jew."

Having known each other for so long, Chris also realized that Eric is a person who is very insensitive to race, so he also knew that there was no discrimination in what Eric just said, and smiled: "Yeah, if you let me in the future. If Xia Xia takes your class, it will definitely be very popular in Hollywood."

"It just feels a little strange," Eric also laughed: "What about you, Chris, what ethnicity is your family from?"

Chris said: "My family is a Norwegian immigrant who migrated in the era of great voyages. Now it should be regarded as an American nation."

"Norway, I thought Hansen was also a British surname," Eric laughed.

"The arrogance in the bones of the British," Chris joked before explaining: "The surname Hansen means 'son of Hans', if you have read fairy tales, you will find that Hansen Norway is one of the five Nordic countries."

Eric put away the photos of the two little guys and said, "Okay, let's not talk about this for the time being, let's go back to Nokia."

Chris nodded, and took out a few documents from the suitcase: "This is some comparison test I commissioned Cisco's technical department to do. The communication method used by Nokia completely suppresses most mobile communication devices at this stage. Now the mainstream Most mobile phones use analog signals. Because they use pulse signals, they are easily interfered in the transmission process and cause call quality distortion. In fact, many mobile communication equipment companies are researching new communication systems. The test results given by the technical department show that the digital signal used by the Nokia 1011 mobile phone is very stable. This signal uses the same binary principle as the computer, and there is no distortion problem during the transmission process. So I think, if Nokia If the adopted g** network can be promoted, it will cause a huge change in mobile communication equipment, and Nokia, which first launched the g** standard mobile phone, will also gain a great advantage. After that, the first thing we have to do is to lobby European countries to fully adopt the g** system.”

Eric said: "This seems to be something to do after the acquisition is completed, right?" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation. .)

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