I’m in Hollywood

In the evening, in the conference room of wm company.

The executives of wm and several contracted models discussed the schedule of Paris Fashion Week for an afternoon before announcing the meeting.

Today is March 1.

Paris Fashion Week kicked off on March 5th. Kate Moss of wm company and several other pillars had already rushed to Europe before the opening of London Fashion Week. In addition to arranging a few newcomers, the meeting was basically just Held alone for Carmen Case.

Everyone got up and left the conference room one after another. Carmen Keith was stopped by Paul Roland again, and he told her a few words before letting her go.

Walking out of the conference room, Carmen Keith originally planned to return directly to the apartment, but was stopped by a group of girls just now.

Carmen, everyone is going to dinner, do you want to go together?

The girl at the head is named Carolina Kekova, from the Czech Republic. She signed a contract with wm company a little earlier than her last year, and is also a key training target of wm. However, this girl is only fifteen years old this year, her career has just started, and her potential is huge. If it was in the past, the other party is far from being comparable to a 21-year-old girl like her, who may never have the chance to make another step forward.

In the past six months, wm has concentrated resources to make her another Gisele Bundchen-style supermodel, which has caused dissatisfaction with other models in the company, so her popularity in wm has not been very good.

It's just that people are always like this. When others are stronger than themselves, it is easy to become jealous. But if you are left far away, you often lose the desire to compare, and instead want to make friends with each other.

In recent days, after suddenly becoming the spokesperson of the Victoria's Secret brand, she has clearly felt this change within the company. Even Kate Moss, who was in Europe, called back enthusiastically to congratulate her. The change in attitude towards her was even more pronounced among other models in New York.

Feeling the expectant gazes of several girls, Carmen Keith hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, Okay, so, I invite everyone to be well.

Although she has her own pride and stubbornness in her bones, she has never been a lonely person. During the few years in Europe, she got along very well with the models of her agency.

The girls were naturally very happy, and when they heard that she wanted to treat guests, they were not polite, and they all gathered around and walked out around her.

A group of people found an English restaurant nearby. The British restaurant sounds a little weird. Is there anything you can eat in the UK? But this is exactly what one of the British girls recommended, and there are good reasons. British food is notorious all over the world. If you choose this restaurant, you will not lose your appetite.

I was about to fly to Paris soon, and no one dared to eat too much at this time.

After ordering some simple food, a group of beautiful girls who attracted the attention of diners in the whole restaurant began to eat and chat. Everyone comes from all over the world, and there are actually very few common topics. Before I know it, it is brought up on Blair the witch, who is very popular recently.

Yesterday, New Line Pictures issued a statement. It turned out that this incident was just a promotion for a movie. It seems that the movie is scheduled to be released on March 5, the same day as the opening of Paris Fashion Week.

No wonder, my mother lived in Maryland when she was a child, and I called her back to ask her, and she said she had never heard of rumors like Blair the witch.

That's not the case at all. I heard that this is what the state government of Maryland did to cover up the truth. The film company took it on and promoted it as fiction so people wouldn't hold the state of Maryland accountable for its handling of the matter. Mistake.

It is said that a lot of people have died in these years. If the investigation goes on, many people will have to bear the responsibility.

I think so too. New Line Cinema has only arranged 200 screening halls for this movie, obviously it doesn't want more people to see it. Think about it, if it is really a movie, according to the current high-level movie At least 2,000 screening halls can be arranged.”

It's going to be released on March 5th, but unfortunately we can't catch up. But, when we come back from Paris, maybe we can go and see it.

Well, we'll be together then. I just don't know if it's good to buy tickets. There are only 200 theaters in the United States, and maybe there won't be a few theaters in Manhattan.

The girls were chatting, but Carmen Keith was a little silent, only occasionally echoing.

A few days ago, she also paid attention to this matter.

It's just that I've been too busy in the past few days, so I don't have much thought about it at all.

Isn't New Line Pictures a subsidiary of Firefly Group?

Suddenly I thought of that man again.

Don't know what he will be doing now.

Have you thought about yourself?

When this thought came to her mind, she suddenly panicked. How could I have such a strange idea!

It must be a lie.

Without thinking, the words blurted out of her mouth.

At the dining table, hearing her words, the girls who were discussing enthusiastically stopped immediately, noticed her embarrassment, and thought that she might not like to talk about it, so they changed the subject wisely.

The discussion of Blair the Witch in an English restaurant in Manhattan is just one inconspicuous detail in a whole social trend.

After more than a month of deliberation, the rumor about Blair the witch has truly turned into a viral topic storm, and its influence is no longer limited to the Internet, and many traditional media have participated.

Due to the poisoning of too many conspiracy theories, coupled with the secret discussion and guidance of the Blair Witch team after New Line Pictures released the clarification, most of the public did not believe that this matter was just a movie about the movie. 's publicity.

So, in the days that followed, the discussion on the matter throughout the Commonwealth became more heated.

While ordinary people were talking about Blair the Witch, AOL and Time Warner finally officially announced their long-awaited merger plan.

March 3.

AOL and Time Warner executives officially held a press conference at the AOL headquarters in Manhattan, announcing that AOL would acquire Time Warner Group through equity swap at a price of $63 billion. After the merger, AOL will hold a 55% stake in the new company, and Time Warner Group's existing shareholders will have a combined 45% stake.

At the same time, based on AOL's market value of $77 billion, the total size of the merger will reach $140 billion. Although it is far lower than the largest dollar transaction size in history, this is the first super merger in the history of corporate mergers with a total transaction size of more than 100 billion US dollars, which still caused a sensation in the whole world.

On the day of the press conference, stimulated by Steve Case's enthusiastic outlook speech, the stock prices of AOL and Time Warner both rose sharply. It jumped 26%.

The surge in AOL and Time Warner stock prices also drove the entire Nasdaq market.

In the following two trading days, while the stock prices of AOL and Time Warner continued to rise, the Nasdaq also hit a new high again, breaking through the 2,900-point mark, just one step away from 3,000 points.

3,000 points, which happens to be the peak of the Nasdaq index predicted by most Wall Street investment institutions.

Therefore, when the Nasdaq exceeded 2,900 points, the restlessness of the entire technology stock market was also more obvious.

According to the news that Chris got from Wall Street, many investment institutions have already liquidated all the technology stocks they hold at this time. At the same time, a large influx of capital into the stock index futures market began to build large-scale technology stock futures positions.

Although maintaining a super high growth rate, Yahoo Network, whose price-earnings ratio has exceeded 600 times, has undoubtedly become the most popular short-selling target of a large number of hedge funds.

As of the close on March 5, the number of Yahoo stock futures sold by hedge funds has exceeded 76 million shares, equivalent to 6.1% of Yahoo's total share capital, involving an amount of $7.7 billion. Whether it is the ratio of short positions or the amount of value, it far exceeds other technology companies in the Nasdaq market.

However, as a zero-sum game of stock index futures, the throwing of such a huge short order naturally means that long contracts of equal size will follow up.

then.

AOL merges with Time Warner.

The Nasdaq is approaching 3,000.

Yahoo Networks suffered massive shorting.

Any one of these, the potential influence is enough to turn the entire technology stock market upside down.

Three things happened at the same time. There is no doubt that this March of 1999 will be the most turbulent month in the history of Nasdaq.

The technology stock market was turbulent, but Eric returned to the West Coast again, first to San Francisco to attend Firefly Electronics' annual conference.

Firefly Investment has obtained a large amount of cash by reducing its holdings of AOL shares, and Yahoo Network has also successfully completed its listing operation, accumulating enough development funds to consume in the next three to five years. Eric is completely sitting on the Diaoyutai at this time. attitude.

Even if the Nasdaq index does collapse ahead of schedule, the large number of technology stocks hoarded by the Clover Fund cannot be cashed out, and the development of the entire Firefly system will not be affected in any way.

With the release of the annual financial reports of various companies in the Firefly system, Eric's unremitting efforts to invest in new technology companies over the years have finally achieved more substantial returns.

Among the companies, Nokia, which holds 51% of the shares of Firefly Systems, had a net profit of $1.96 billion in 1998. Cisco, which holds 26% of its shares, also had a net profit of $1.35 billion in 1998. Just the profit sharing provided by these two companies is enough to support the Firefly System to continue investing in other new technology companies that are still in the discovery stage, and there is no need for blood transfusions through the Firefly Group as before.

However, what Eric did not expect was the annual financial data of Firefly Electronics.

Throughout 1998, Firefly Electronics shipped 23.75 million fireflyer players worldwide.

Among them, the shipment of fireflyer first generation players was 4.05 million units, the shipment of fireflyer second generation 1g capacity players was 8.3 million units, and the shipment of fireflyer second generation 2g capacity players was 11.4 million units.

In the end, the electronics company, which had only one portable music player device, had sales of $8.252 billion for the year.

Moreover, although the company's initial marketing investment is very large, in addition to the mp3 player, it also has to undertake a huge amount of technology research and development funds related to the operating system, processor chip, touch solution and other aspects of the tablet computer, but the whole year of 1998 , After setting aside taxes, Firefly Electronics still achieved a net profit of 811 million US dollars.

If the financial data is made public, it means that this electronic product company, which has only been established for about four years, has successfully squeezed into the ranks of the top 500 North American companies, and its ranking is quite high.

According to Forbes magazine's list rules, unlisted companies will not be included in the top 500 list unless they voluntarily declare or have detailed public financial data. In just a few years, an electronic company with a profit scale of nearly 1 billion US dollars has been formed. If possible, Eric even hopes that the financial data of Firefly Electronics will not be leaked.

But this is clearly delusional.

Although after operation, Forbes Group has agreed not to track the financial data of Firefly Electronics, and will not add Firefly Electronics to the top 500 list. However, the sales figures of the global portable player market are not something that the Firefly system can hide.

According to the data given by a third-party statistical agency, in 1998, the total size of the global portable music player market reached 87 million units, an increase of 6% compared with 1997. Among them, the fireflyer digital player given by the other party was 2300 units. The sales data of 10,000 units is almost the same as the actual shipments inside Firefly Electronics.

Just based on these data, it is not difficult for the industry to infer the revenue and profit scale of Firefly Electronics. Even, considering that the tablet R\u0026D plan is still in a state of secrecy, the outside world's estimate of Firefly Electronics' profitability is definitely higher than the actual situation. many.

In two years, the fireflyer player has taken 26% of the global portable music market by storm, which has to be said to be a miraculous achievement.

But at the same time, it also means that Firefly Electronics, which enjoys huge profits alone, will also face competitive pressure from all parties.

After all, even if a closed patent fence is poured around portable digital music players in advance, other electronics manufacturers will undoubtedly find ways to enter this market in the face of huge profits.

With the gradual disclosure of the portable music player market shipment data in 1998, Sony, which has just completed the patent swap with Firefly Electronics, can't wait to announce that it will release its first digital music player product in June this year.

Speaking of which, the technical difficulty of digital music players is indeed very low. Some electronic manufacturers with strong technical strength may be able to understand the technical details of Firefly electronic fireflyer players in just a few weeks. If it is not blocked by patent barriers, at this time, There are sure to be plans for more manufacturers to release digital music players.

Faced with the expected strong competition, even if Firefly Electronics has multiple technical and industrial advantages, everyone has to cheer up and make more efforts to maintain the leading edge of fireflyer players.