Due to the cyber attacks and eavesdropping incidents that occurred a few days ago, the Firefly System has been re-arranging confidentiality measures in recent times. Ensuring the security of emails and mobile communications are the two most important things.

Just so happened that RIM from Canada had just signed a cooperation agreement with Sprint, a telecom operator invested by Firefly, and Kelly recommended the later famous BlackBerry mobile phone under RIM to Eric.

RIM announced that BlackBerry mobile phones, combined with Sprint's CDMA network, can meet the information security and confidentiality requirements of both email and mobile communications, so Eric decisively determined that this phone will be promoted within the Firefly system.

At the same time, Eric also plans to acquire RIM, the BlackBerry mobile phone manufacturer, as a mobile phone sub-brand under Nokia, which focuses on the business security field.

Compared with Nokia, whose market value has exceeded US$100 billion in recent months, although RIM's stock price has also risen sharply recently, its current market value is only more than US$260 million. In any case, buying RIM will be a very cost-effective business.

Moreover, combined with the information in his hands and the information in his memory, Eric also discovered that the situation of BlackBerry phones was almost exactly the same as that of MP3 players.

In history, these two products had very mature technical accumulation before they were promoted on a large scale. However, because they missed the best commercial promotion opportunity, after many years of ups and downs, the two products were just popular and were quickly squeezed out of the market by brand new electronic products. The MP3 player was eliminated by various types of music mobile phones, and BlackBerry was eliminated by touch screen smartphones with more abundant applications.

Now, since Eric can clearly see the market potential of BlackBerry, he does not have to wait for opportunities such as the US government leaders in the 9/11 period to use BlackBerry to receive instant information on the disaster site. With the powerful channels and resource advantages of the Firefly system, BlackBerry can be promoted in advance.

Moreover, if there is more time to complete the layout of BlackBerry phones and related peripheral services, even if the era of smartphones arrives early, Eric believes that BlackBerry phones that focus on high-end business and security will no longer decline as quickly as they once were.

After taking the document handed over by Mayer, Eric asked casually: "What are the problems?"

"The most important thing is the patent," Mayer replied. "During the evaluation of BlackBerry, Nokia found that the phone infringed at least 20 patents in the company. Moreover, the core patent of BlackBerry's wireless email push function is still not in the hands of RIM, but is held by a company called NTP in Virginia. The RIM company is still very small and has not attracted much attention. However, if we acquire BlackBerry, then patent holders such as NTP will definitely file a patent lawsuit, which may even cause BlackBerry to be banned in the federal sale."

Over the years, Eric has always paid great attention to the patent layout of companies under the Firefly System. The most critical reason is that he is affected by a series of patent wars in his memory. Among them, the wireless mail patent war between RIM and NTP is undoubtedly the most impressive one.

In 2006, after six years of tug-of-war lawsuits, NTP eventually claimed nearly blackmailed claims from RIM to over $600 million in huge patent compensation costs through a series of wireless mail patents.

Look at the current market value of RIM Company is less than US$300 million. Even if history does not change, for RIM Company in 2006, the patent compensation fee of US$600 million is definitely a blow.

Of course, now if you think about it carefully, the 600 million US dollars of compensation must have biased factors from the federal government.

Although the focus of RIM's business was in North America, it was still a Canadian company after all, but NTP was an American company. Naturally, the federal government could not be aimed at outsiders. If RIM wanted to continue to maintain its business in the United States, it could only suffer this super mute loss.

After knocking on the desktop and thinking for a moment, Eric said: "Isn't the patent for email in our hands? Didn't Yahoo or Firefly Electronics involve the research and development of wireless mail technology?"

"Yes, but not as comprehensive as NTP." Mayer nodded and continued: "Wireless mail has some technical overlap with email, but it cannot be regarded as a derivative of email technology. NTP was established in 1992, and the registration time of the other party's patent is almost synchronized with the registration time of the email patent held by Yahoo. I have consulted the patent management departments of Yahoo and Firefly Electronics. They said that according to the technical overlap between the two parties, if a lawsuit is filed, we are confident that we can obtain all the wireless mail patent authorizations for free from NTP."

Eric said: "But it certainly takes time?"

"Yes, according to the trial process of similar cases, it will take at least one year for us to get the authorization for free. But if Nokia initiates an acquisition from BlackBerry at the same time and arouses NTP's alertness, the process will definitely take longer," Mayer said, pausing for a moment, and directly said: "So, the best way is to acquire. The patents held by NTP have not been widely used yet, and it will cost about $6 million to buy this company. Of course, if we are too eager, we will definitely need to pay a considerable premium, and the final transaction price may be between $8 million and $10 million."

The acquisition of less than $10 million is completely insignificant for Eric's current net worth.

However, this is not measured in this way.

Even if there is no memory of the past, whether to win the patent of NTP is crucial to the future layout of BlackBerry phones. Mayer obviously saw this and mentioned it in front of Eric.

"Then let Nokia buy this company as soon as possible," Eric thought for a while and made a decision quickly: "RIM can slow down a little, and wait for another two or three months."

According to the current explosion trend of the technology stock market, the Nasdaq index is expected to be able to last for two or three months at most. At that time, technology stocks plummet across the board, and RIM companies will definitely not be able to escape. At that time, the acquisition will not only leave a considerable amount of funds, but it will also be easier to succeed."

Mayer nodded, but immediately added: "It is better to use a shell company to initiate an acquisition of NTP."

Eric smiled and said, "I sometimes don't think of these details, you can decide at your own discretion."

Mayer responded, lowered his head and began to record it on a pocket memo.

Eric sat at the desk, looking at the girl in an OL suit standing opposite her, writing seriously, and suddenly felt a sense of emotion, and said in a gentle tone: "Mary, it's great to have you by my side."

Mayer's writing was paused, and although he did not look up, his face was obviously covered with a layer of rosy.

He quickly wrote a few more strokes on the memo in his palm. The female assistant raised her head and gave Eric a blank look, turned around and left the study.

Four hours later, the Boeing 747 landed at Ventura Airport.

Although it was not yet time to get off work, Carsonberg came to pick him up with Caroline himself.

After the group exchanged greetings, they got on the bus. Although both sides had been in close communication during this period, Kasenberg could not wait to talk about the recent series of events.

"There are at least three forces that eavesdropped this time, but I've only caught the Tiger Fund's tail. Ian and I have been discussing the company's security issues recently, including monitoring systems, confidentiality regulations and security personnel. Eric, aren't you asking Carter to establish a separate bodyguard team? I just thought that instead of handing over the security of the Firefly system to outsiders, we might as well do it ourselves and set up a special security company to include all this business and serve the entire Firefly system."

Eric listened to Carsonberg's words and noticed that Carter Moen, who was driving in the front row, couldn't help but look at the rearview mirror a few times and smiled, "Carter, what do you think?"

"Boss, although I really want to take on this responsibility, but to be honest, if I want to grow bigger, I may not be able to do it."

Eric nodded and said to Carsonberg beside him: "In fact, the key to this matter is to find a person who is trustworthy and capable enough. Although the level of this company can be upgraded to a level that is directly responsible to me personally, there must be a professional person for specific matters. The Firefly system has too great goals, so we blindly look for people, and we may be taken advantage of the situation."

"We can ask the headhunter companies to find some candidates, and we will choose them slowly," Carsonberg said. "In any case, it will definitely be better than handing over things to outsiders."

"That's it," Eric agreed: "I'll ask Kelly to come up with a plan first, which departments need to be established, and budgets, etc., and if you have any suggestions, you can tell me directly."

"So, Viacom," Katzenberg continued after talking about this, "Eric, what are you going to do?"

"I have been watching Viacom Group's financial report in recent years. My biggest feeling is that Viacom's business territory has been expanding rapidly over the years, but the company is declining as a whole. Just like Blockbuster, Viacom bought this videotape rental chain and spent more than $8 billion, but in just a few years, the company's market value has shrunk to $3 billion now. Although the simple videotape industry is declining rapidly, the family entertainment market, which has been gradually replaced by DVDs, has been expanding rapidly. Last year, the output value of the entire family entertainment market was close to $20 billion, almost three times the box office of Hollywood North America. But Blockbuster's market share has dropped from 45% at its peak to 25%. Do you know what the problem is?"

Katsonberg said without thinking: "Thunderstone East?"

"Yes, Thunderstone," Eric nodded, saying, "Thunderstone is too old and can no longer keep up with the times. More importantly, he refused to delegate power to the managers below, and always held all the power of Viacom in his own hands. This is the foundation of Viacom's decline. In my opinion, Thunderstone is like a founding king who was good at fighting in ancient times. Although he had captured a huge territory, he did not have enough ability to govern a country, and he was unwilling to hand over power to those ministers who were able to govern the country. Then, the final result of this 'country' can only decline."

In Eric's opinion, Murdoch is much stronger than Redstone, which is why although News Group's fundamental paper media business declined rapidly, Fox's business was still very good. In comparison, Redstone completely became a stubborn tyrant.

In the original time and space, Paramount had a falling out with Cruise for a "Mission Impossible" series, and even made a big fuss to make the other party go badly. This actually reflects the decline of Paramount and even Viacom on the other hand.

A Hollywood giant has become more angry with celebrities for the benefit of a movie. Even a first-tier superstar is too expensive. What’s more, after being angry, he has to put down his figure and cooperate with the other party.

Katsenberg realized something, but quickly said: "Eric, I know you are angry about this recent incident, but it is not realistic to push Thunderstone down. Although the Thunderstone family does not hold a stake in Viacom, they have more than half of the voting rights of this company."

"I don't think so," Eric shook his head, a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth, and said, "Thinking about this kind of scene, an old king is firmly guarding his throne, but he can only watch his kingdom collapse step by step. Is it tragic enough? Is it epic?"

Katsenberg felt a chill around him and nodded subconsciously: "What are you going to do?"

Eric shook his head: "Don't worry, wait until "Iron Man" is released."

The key to attacking the enemy is to save yourself first.

The most important thing at the moment is "Iron Man". This opening work of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is crucial to Firefly Pictures. Eric does not intend to make trouble at such critical moments. After all, "Iron Man" will be released in a few days, and some things will only need to wait for another week or two at most.

Back at the Pinocchio Manor, it was only 2 p.m. in Los Angeles. Katsenberg still had work to do. He sat for a while and left quickly.

The villa is still deserted. Before the girl came back from Australia, she was still on vacation with Joanna and the others. However, Elizabeth and Julia have returned, and Eric received her call just in the car.

After seeing off Kasenberg, Eric returned to the sofa beside the glass curtain wall of the villa and sat down, stretching his body casually. Recently, a series of events came one after another. Eric still accumulated a strong sense of fatigue in his heart. When he returned home and looked at the blue sea and blue sky outside the curtain wall, he finally felt much more relaxed.

Caroline and Mayer have not left yet and are helping Eric pack his luggage.

After a while, Caroline walked over with a pot of coffee, put it down on the coffee table next to Eric, came over quietly, sat next to him, and said, "Eric, aunt said she was planning to come to Los Angeles next week."

Eric was a little confused: "Hmm?"

"Last time, it was in London. When I went home, my aunt suddenly ran over and asked something about you."

Eric understood that he should have handed over the laptop to Olivia that day, and said, "She said something is wrong?"

"Auntie didn't say it," Caroline shook her head, "She just told me that she would come next week."
Chapter completed!