I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1177: Collision]

The Firefly Group swiftly delivered a powerful blow, shattering Microsoft and other internet companies' attempts to undermine the Yahoo browser.

However, the situation did not come to a close with the Justice Department's announcement on Tuesday that it was dropping the investigation into the alleged monopolistic behavior of the Yahoo browser.

For the next three days, Firefly Investments continued to follow through with its stock sell-off, as announced on Monday. Although the panic selling in the new technology market eased somewhat, it still severely impacted the fragile Nasdaq stock market.

Following Friday's close, Wall Street media, which had been closely monitoring the Firefly Investment stock reductions, quickly released a series of related data.

In light of this week's sharp decline in the Nasdaq index, the total value of stocks that Firefly Investments planned to sell on Monday, initially valued at $3 billion, had shrunk to $2.37 billion by the time they cashed out. Just from this, Firefly Investments recorded an estimated loss of over $600 million.

However, the new technology market suffered even greater repercussions as the Nasdaq index took another nosedive. By the close on Friday, the Nasdaq index plummeted from Monday's 3,677 points down to 3,255 points, marking an 11.5% decrease -- a downward trend that was dangerously approaching the crash of July. The total paper loss for the Nasdaq stock market due to this downturn amounted to an astounding $370 billion.

After the first weekend of September, despite various capital forces attempting to mediate, the Firefly Group did not come to the rescue of the new technology market as it had the previous month, not even issuing a long-anticipated statement to halt the sell-off.

Not only that, but with the weekend just behind them, the Firefly Group struck again.

...

On Monday morning, Yahoo filed a lawsuit in a Boston district court, accusing @Home's search engine and online advertising distribution services of infringing on a total of 26 of Yahoo's technology patents.

Yahoo demanded that @Home immediately cease operations of the search engine tools and online advertising distribution systems that severely infringed on Yahoo's technology patents, along with a hefty $1 billion in damages.

It's common for companies involved in patent litigation to cite exorbitant compensation amounts. However, Yahoo's $1 billion claim still seemed rather excessive to many, especially considering that @Home's total revenue from the previous year was barely under $100 million.

Yet, the most attention-grabbing aspect of this lawsuit was not Yahoo's huge claim, but rather its demand for @Home to stop its search engine tools and online advertising distribution systems entirely.

Given that @Home's primary business was exactly the internet search engine tools, alongside advertising being the fundamental source of revenue for the company, Yahoo's request aimed to completely gut @Home -- a tactic that not only threatened their operation but suggested they might close their doors for good.

It was easy to see that this lawsuit served as Yahoo's counterattack against @Home, which had publicly challenged Yahoo's browser the previous week.

However, once Yahoo filed the lawsuit, the detailed list of the 26 patents that it accused @Home of infringing, published on Yahoo's official portal, left little room for rebuttal. Among the patents such as "web crawling," "hyperlink analysis," and "intelligent ranking," these were fundamental technologies for smart search engine tools.

Without these technologies, a search engine would revert to basic data retrieval methods -- essentially keyword matching to generate completely unorganized search results. Compared to intelligent search engines that provided more precise results, basic keyword matching was destined for elimination in a competitive market.

After researching the list of infringed patents listed by Yahoo and the similarities between @Home and Yahoo's Google, many realized that unless Yahoo was willing to grant a patent license to @Home, the company would face dire consequences under existing federal patent protection laws. If Yahoo relentlessly pursued, @Home would likely be left with no option but to shut down.

As this realization dawned on more people, the Nasdaq market reacted directly. Within just two short hours after Yahoo announced the lawsuit against @Home, the company's stock price collapsed by over 30%.

Simultaneously, other companies on the Nasdaq involved with search engine services also saw their stock prices tumble.

Thus, the entire Nasdaq stock market continued to decline without any signs of recovery. Many began to recognize that Ian Gurnier's earlier remarks during last week's Justice Department hearing, which claimed Yahoo maintained a sufficiently "open attitude" to promote industry development, were not at all exaggerated.

It was clear from the current lawsuit that, with Yahoo's substantial technological base, it could easily bring down companies like @Home that directly competed with it. Yet previously, Yahoo had refrained from taking such actions.

Now, provoked, Yahoo, usually seen as a mild giant, revealed its teeth, launching a strike directly at its opponent's most vulnerable point.

Seemingly to validate some suspicions, at ten that morning, the Firefly Group retaliated again, this time targeting the industry giant Microsoft.

...

Firefly Electronics filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco district court, alleging that Microsoft's upcoming Zune music player infringed upon a series of core digital music player patents owned by Firefly Electronics, seeking a court order to prevent Microsoft from releasing the product.

As the sales of the Fireflyer player continued to soar, it was becoming increasingly clear that digital music players were set to be the next big trend in portable music devices.

Based on conservative industry forecasts for final annual global sales of digital music players reaching 100 million units, and with an average sales price of $300 each, this would mean a colossal $30 billion market in electronic consumer goods.

In contrast, even though Microsoft had over 80% market share in desktop operating systems and its annual revenue continued to climb -- yet it still was not even reaching $20 billion across all business divisions.

Although Microsoft enjoyed a high market value and profit level thanks to its monopoly advantage, it also needed to expand its business.

The digital music player market, with a potential market size of $30 billion, was clearly a tempting opportunity for Microsoft.

Just as Microsoft arranged its cutlery to dig in, the Firefly Group swung in without mercy, striking down the cup and plate before Microsoft.

For a while now, Microsoft had been privately negotiating to acquire @Home, and this information was no secret within the industry.

In fact, @Home's high valuation of $7.6 billion prior to this event was largely bolstered by the acquisition rumors from Microsoft.

Now, with a series of events adding up, many began to piece together the puzzle.

...

Last month, Yahoo abruptly announced that Microsoft had unconditionally abandoned its stock purchase agreement while still maintaining cooperation with Yahoo regarding browser pre-installations, which came as a huge surprise to the entire new technology industry.

With Microsoft's aggressive style, no one believed it would give up a tremendous opportunity to push Yahoo aside and develop its own internet business for a mere pre-installation fee of just over $100 million.

Some shareholders even openly labeled Microsoft executives' decision as "utterly foolish."

Naturally, many also did not think Microsoft's decision-makers would make such a basic error, instinctively feeling that some backdoor dealings were at play behind the scenes.

Then the week before, @Home and several other firms had called for the federal Justice Department to investigate the allegations of monopoly concerning the Yahoo browser.

At first glance, this appeared disconnected from Microsoft; yet, as Firefly directly targeted @Home and initiated patent lawsuits against Microsoft itself following these incidents, the ties began to reveal themselves.

Following a bit of analysis, it became clear that Microsoft had, for some reason, been compelled to sign an agreement with Yahoo to maintain browser collaboration.

However, no organization would be willing to accept such terms, especially a company with Microsoft's monopolistic standing. So, Microsoft obviously did not intend to fulfill this agreement completely.

But ripping up the contract outright was ill-timed and would severely damage a company's business reputation. Hence, Microsoft sought alternative means, attempting to indirectly force Yahoo into abandoning the pre-install agreement, which was detrimental to its internet business development.

Then, having strong ties with Microsoft, @Home, along with other smaller partners, jumped into the fray.

In an ideal world, everything might work seamlessly, but reality is far more brutal.

Just as Microsoft proceeded with its plan to indirectly void the agreement, the Firefly Group cleanly thwarted the effort.

Not only did Microsoft fail to extricate itself from the Yahoo browser pre-install agreement, but it now faced the dilemma of being stymied by the Firefly Group in both the internet search and digital music player sectors.

While insiders had yet to fully grasp the vast potential for growth in search engine services, it was common knowledge that the digital music player market had a promising outlook.

Confronted with an enormous industry brimming with financial prospects yet impossible to penetrate, curiosity about Microsoft executives' current emotions ran high.

Moreover, it was evident that typically dominant Microsoft appeared to be at a complete disadvantage in this clash with the Firefly Group.

...

@Home's stock price ultimately fell off a cliff, plummeting 46% in the very first working day of the week, leaving a market cap of just $2.7 billion.

Compared to two weeks prior, @Home's stock had dropped by over 65%.

In response to Yahoo's lawsuit, the @Home board and management team fell into a state of collapse similar to their company's stock price, failing to mount any effective response throughout the entire day.

On the other hand, Microsoft quickly issued a statement arguing that the audio format utilized by the Zune player was entirely different from that of the Fireflyer and that the player's operating system employed Microsoft's own software core; thus, it did not acknowledge the Zune's infringement of Firefly Electronics' software patents.

Simultaneously, Microsoft raised questions about the legality and validity of the patents listed by Firefly Electronics for the hardware architecture of digital music players.

Nevertheless, this seemingly coherent and well-supported rebuttal from Microsoft appeared, to informed observers, to be merely a desperate attempt at evasion.

Ultimately, the technical principles of digital music players were fundamentally very simple. Because of their simplicity, they were more easily controlled by comprehensive patents.

It was akin to a formidable stronghold that is easier to defend than to attack; as a pioneer, Firefly Electronics had constructed a robust city defense at this narrow pass.

Therefore, regardless of how powerful Sony or Microsoft might be, as newcomers, they would remain locked out unless Firefly Electronics chose to grant them entry.

...

Due to a series of ongoing events, Eric remained in New York during this time.

The Williams Trust Fund and the charity funds set up for the two women had been completed.

The establishment of the Williams Trust Fund was quite low-key, with no assets included for the time being. Media and the public were obviously more focused on the long-named Eric-Joanna-Virginia Williams Fund.

Although there had been some teasing, after several months, the public had nearly adjusted to the dynamics between Eric and the two women, Joanna and Virginia.

One couldn't help but notice that when a person's power and wealth reach a certain level, the world tends to show considerable tolerance toward them.

Actions that would attract criticism for ordinary individuals often provoke a subconscious sense of entitlement when committed by the wealthy and powerful.

Media outlets even speculated on who would be the next lucky girl to bear a child for the Williams family.

Of course, such speculation was not unfounded.

Cindy Crawford's sudden withdrawal from America's Next Top Model's production, combined with various indicators over the months, had led many media to conclude that the stunning supermodel, who had dominated the Forbes income chart for supermodels for consecutive years, had been fortunate enough to conceive Eric Williams' child.

However, having learned from previous lessons, both traditional media and open internet platforms handled reports of Cindy's pregnancy with extreme caution this time.

Up to this point, no photo sufficiently proving that Cindy was indeed pregnant had surfaced, and most media only tentatively hinted at the subject behind the scenes.

...

As Eric closely followed the Firefly Group's rebuttal against Microsoft, other matters were also steadily advancing.

A week after meeting with the founder of IMG, news arrived that the other shareholders of IMG had agreed to sell their shares.

Though there remained some disagreement regarding aspects of the acquisition, these shareholders accepted Eric's $1.5 billion offer.

At this stage of development, it was impossible to keep such news hidden, and articles announcing Eric's impending acquisition of IMG quickly spread through the media.

However, the most immediate impact of this news was felt by IMG's direct competitor, Elite Models.

John Casablancas contacted Eric immediately upon hearing the news to gauge his intentions and whether he was still interested in acquiring Elite.

Eric was transparent about his interest in both renowned modeling agencies.

Following several meetings, John's message back to Eric soon confirmed that Elite was likewise willing to accept an acquisition from the Firefly Group.

Thus, in an instant, the world was taken aback to discover that the two major modeling agencies housing some of the most stunning beauties were on the verge of being united under the singular name of Eric Williams.

*****

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