He noticed that Julia pointed at him, and Holly Hunter and others who were chatting came over.

Eric exchanged a few words with the other party, and when they left, they glared at the innocent Julia with anger.

Julia shrank her neck, her eyes were looking forward, and she whispered: "Eric, are you angry, are you going to deal with me?"

"No," Eric shook his head, "I will treat you well, in the gentlest way in the world."

"Yeah yeah."

Julia nodded like a pecking rice, obviously not disgusted with this method.

OK, I can't clean up.

It is a routine Monday morning to have breakfast with Katsenberg and discuss recent corporate affairs by the way.

Elizabeth has not yet ended her 'quarrel journey'. Eric spoke with her on the phone yesterday and found out that the cause of the incident was about Fox TV. Murdoch wanted a strange woman to work on Fox TV, but Elizabeth naturally disagreed.

Eric is not easy to interfere in such family affairs.

I woke up early in the morning in the mansion on the top of Julia and Elizabeth Beverly Hills. I thought Julia would stay in bed, but Eric planned to leave first, but I didn't expect Julia to get up as well. But I was still a little confused until Burbank Firefly Headquarters.

"Ash, Eric," Katzenberg seemed to always be full of energy. He walked into the restaurant in a breeze, shook hands with Eric, and greeted Julia enthusiastically: "Ash, Julia."

Julia cheered up and nodded at Carsonberg: "Jeffrey, morning."

After saying hello, Eric and Carsonberg sat down at the dining table, and Julia sat lazily next to Eric.

Carsonberg probably understood Julia's condition. Thinking about what she was going to talk about today, there was no need to avoid it, so she didn't care. After ordering breakfast from the waiter, Carsonberg couldn't wait to ask: "Eric, have you read the quarterly financial report of A.S. Online?"

The quarterly financial reports of most listed companies will be announced in the late single month or early second month after the quarter ends. Today is January 18, and Eric really didn't expect that A.R. Online would release its quarterly financial reports in advance. However, thinking about the situation facing A.R. Online during this period, it is not difficult to understand Steve Case's behavior.

In the past 1998, the Nasdaq Index was finally frozen at 2733 points.

As of December 31, the stock prices of a series of technology companies in the Nasdaq market reached record highs, among which Microsoft's market value successfully exceeded US$400 billion, reaching US$418.5 billion, firmly occupying the first place in the global enterprise market value rankings. Cisco, the best performing technology company in the Firefly system, also has a market value of US$166.6 billion, ranking tenth in the global enterprise market value rankings.

After experiencing the listing outbreak, Yahoo's stock price has been in a very unstable state of adjustment. However, before the end of last year, its market value finally remained at a high of US$106.7 billion.

At the same time last year, all the technology companies controlled by Firefly Investment had less than US$200 billion in assets. Now, the market value of Cisco and Yahoo has exceeded US$270 billion. In addition, compared with last year, Nokia's market value has also doubled to US$66.5 billion.

Including Firefly Group, a media group that has not been listed but has a valuation level of absolutely more than 100 billion US dollars, the Firefly system is equivalent to having three giants with a market value of more than 100 billion US dollars.

If the Nasdaq index collapses in advance as Eric expected this year, this year will also become the peak year for Eric's personal net worth. Although there has not been any specific statistics, compared with the $265 billion it received when the New York Times wealth in November last year, Eric's latest net worth data will definitely easily exceed $300 billion.

It can be imagined that after the Nasdaq index collapses, Eric's personal wealth will reach its current level. According to the development trajectory of the new technology industry, it will take at least ten years.

However, by then, once Eric's personal value reaches this year's level, the bubble component of Eric's assets will never be as serious as it was at this time.

This information flashed through his mind, and Eric shook his head and said, "Not yet, so, what's going on now?"

Katsenberg waved to his assistant not far away to help him get a laptop computer, and after opening it, it was displayed in front of Eric, saying: "The data just released by AOL, in the fourth quarter of last year, AOL's revenue was US$1.192.5 million, a 46% increase compared with the same period last year, and a 21% increase from the previous quarter's quarterly data. The profit per quarter was US$190.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 41%. All relevant data far exceeded Wall Street's expectations."

This is the internal restaurant of Firefly Burbank headquarters. Eric deliberately laid out the WIFI network here in advance. Katzenberg said, skillfully switching a web page and coming to the American Online stock price display page.

It was almost eleven o'clock in Eastern Time at this time, and Eric saw only a steep upward curve.

More than an hour after the opening, the stock price of the US Online rose 11%, and its market value reached US$73.6 billion.

Eric read all the data on his browser carefully, and then smiled and said, "This is a good thing. American Online will buy back the 3.1% stock in the hands of the Clover Fund next month. With this increase, we will earn hundreds of millions of dollars more." Eric said, turning on the calculator that comes with the laptop and calculating it briefly, saying, "According to the current stock price, it should be US$2.28 billion, and maybe it will rise a lot in the next few weeks, and we may even get US$2.5 billion in the end."

"2.5 billion US dollars," Kasenberg couldn't help but sigh. Although the Three-Leaf Crocodile Fund bought at a high price when it absorbed the stock, if it could recover $2.5 billion, it would have achieved several times the profit compared to the initial investment. Suddenly, Kasenberg said, "It just so happened that it was enough to buy Hasbro."

Although Hasbro has not released its fourth quarter financial report for last year, and because the Star Wars Prequel was released at the end of December, even if it was released, the failure of Star Wars peripheral sales would not have much impact on Hasbro's financial report for the last quarter of last year. However, more than half a month has passed, news of the failure of Star Wars peripheral toy sales has spread. During this period, Hasbro's high-ranking stock price has also begun to show a downward trend.

Hearing Carsonberg mention Hasbro, Eric asked again: "Speaking of this, has the Consumer Products Department come up with a report of Star Wars sales failure?"

Katzenberg nodded and said, "I have been watching. In a few days, the detailed documents can be transferred to you. However, the basic problem is also very clear. Hasbro's failure this time was mainly because they were too greedy. The 100 million US dollars of authorization fee, and accordingly, it has almost obtained more than half of Star Wars' peripheral products. According to the survey of the Consumer Products Department, a batch of toys launched by Hasbro based on the latest figures in Star Wars prequel are still very popular, but because of too many types of products, it has affected consumers' shopping choices. After taking it, only a core batch of toys are popular, and most other products are in a state of unsalable sales. I think that in the future, we should classify the company's movie peripheral products in more precise and detailed categories and strictly limit the types of peripheral products."

Eric listened carefully and finally said: "This year our Iron Man, Racing and Lord of the Rings Headlines have very rich potential for peripheral product development, so you'd better stare at it yourself. I don't want the consumer product department to just summarize experience but not practice it."

"I understand," Katzenberg agreed. The waiter brought the three of them up for a while, and the conversation was paused. After the waiter left, Katzenberg said: "Also, regarding the '4200' plan, Eric, North America, although the final contract is still under negotiation, 2,000 3D screens and 100 IMAX screens have been basically confirmed to be fully rolled out when "Georgement" is released at the end of the year. However, overseas, I think there may be a one to two month delay."

Eric initially hoped that the promotion of 3D and IMAX screens would be able to synchronize globally, but after preparations last year, he gradually realized the reality that the North American market is better, and the overseas film market is affected by various complex factors such as markets and policies of the corresponding countries. It is basically impossible to synchronize.

Of course, the IMAX screening hall, which is completely controlled by Firefly Group, may be able to do this, but it is extremely difficult to spread the other 2,000 3D screens in overseas markets at the same time. It is obviously not enough to just 100 IMAX screens distributed in other countries around the world. Firefly cannot let "Gravity" and "The Lord of the Rings" be released on these only 100 screens in advance.

Eric did not suspect that Katzenberg did not do his best in this matter. Since he proposed it at this time, it basically proved that things could not be done.

"Since that's the case, just ensure North America is synchronized," Eric said quickly, "As long as North America can succeed, I think overseas expansion will definitely be very rapid."

"However, in North America, I met with representatives from several major theaters last week. They were still hesitant, mainly about the source of films," Katzenberg nodded and said: "From "Grain" in November to "The Lord of the Rings" in December, there is only one month in between. Because of the popularity of the two films, theaters are also very optimistic that the market for these two movies can support two months. However, from "The Lord of the Rings" in December to another 3D film source "The Dead Valley" that we have determined, there is more than three months left. Even if "The Lord of the Rings" can support two months, these 2,000 3D screening halls will lack film sources for one month, so theaters need us to provide at least two more 3D film sources."

According to the current technical level, the main difficulty of 3D film sources is still in terms of cost, and the time cost is second. According to the scale of 2,000 screens, only the conversion cost and copy cost can increase a movie's budget of millions of dollars. If it is a medium- and low-cost production of less than 50 million US dollars, just these two costs may reach 10% of the production budget.

Even this is not a more expensive IMAX version. Compared with ordinary 3D film copies, the cost of IMAX-3D film copies is equivalent to ten times the copy. If both formats are all included, the distribution investment of that film will be even greater.

However, since he had made up his mind to promote it, there was no room for retreat at this time. Eric picked up the mineral water next to him and took a sip of it, asking Carsonberg, "What do you mean?"

Carsonberg said: "The risk of putting large production hard drives on the unpopular schedule in February and March is too high. If you choose low-cost productions, it will not highlight the visual effects advantages of 3D and IMAX movies. I think that maybe we can select some classic blockbusters from the film library for conversion, which can not only reduce risks but also ensure visual effects."

After hearing what Carsonberg said, Eric immediately thought of a series of 3D reset movies in the original time and space. However, he quickly shook his head and said, "No, it's not the time."

Although many 3D reset movies in my memory have achieved very good box office, it is generally a matter of ten or twenty years after a film was released.

It has been less than ten years since Hollywood special effects blockbusters rose. Before the 1990s, Eric couldn't think of too many blockbusters that had to be converted into 3D. After the 1990s, there were too many.

However, films such as "Jurassic Park" series, "Terminator" series, "Tornado", "Independence Day" under Firefly Group all have the potential for 3D conversion. However, compared with the past, the release years of these films are too short and not as good as selling feelings. Moreover, although they are very satisfied with the 3D movie system developed by Firefly, Eric still hopes that this technology can be developed for another ten years before launching the 3D version of these classic films.

Katzenberg did not expect Eric to refuse and asked: "Eric, according to the re-release rules of Disney animations once every seven years, it is actually OK. Although it is a movie for adults, it is actually the same for North America to produce a new audience in seven years."

"I don't mean that," Eric shook his head and said, "It's true that re-screening once every seven years, but I don't want to urgently tap the commercial potential of these videos now. Perhaps, if these videos become classic memories in the hearts of a generation, and if they are re-screened in 3D, we will gain better market results. Now, it's not worth it to take out these classic videos just to fill the gaps during the schedule."
Chapter completed!