I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1178: Wrapping Up the Summer Blockbuster Season]

Martha's Vineyard, located about 100 kilometers northeast of Long Island, earned the nickname "Star's Backyard." The island was home to a multitude of billionaires, movie stars, politicians, artists, and various other elite figures of American high society.

Eric decided to purchase a mansion on Martha's Vineyard to ensure that Cindy and her unborn child would be undisturbed by the outside world over the next few months.

In recent days, while the media and the public were buzzing with news surrounding the Firefly Group's series of events, Eric had left Manhattan to spend some time at the island mansion with Cindy.

Even though he could brush off most of his work, there were still some matters from which he couldn't hide.

...

David West, the president of State Street Global Advisors, and Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, got out of their vehicle outside a mansion in the center of the island. They looked at the blonde German lady who came to greet them and couldn't help but envy Eric; they naturally assumed that Catherine Neumann was just a model.

Catherine Neumann welcomed the two guests into the living room of the mansion and served them coffee, saying, "Please wait a moment. Mr. Williams is accompanying Ms. Crawford to a medical check-up and will be back shortly."

David West and Larry Fink had stopped by unexpectedly, nodding to indicate that they didn't mind waiting.

After Catherine finished her explanation, she politely inquired if the two guests needed anything else before quietly exiting the living room.

The two middle-aged men had a brief conversation, and soon sounds from the courtyard indicated Eric's return. They stood up together.

...

Eric entered with a visibly pregnant Cindy, and after some pleasantries, Cindy chose to leave the living room and head upstairs, allowing the three men to sit down again.

Recently, rumors had spread about the Clover Fund under the Firefly Group obtaining substantial funds shortly before a crash on the NASDAQ.

Although the revenue was not reflected in the Firefly Group's second-quarter financial report, Eric knew that even with some financial maneuvers to conceal the Clover Fund's revenue situation for one quarter, next year's final annual report would inevitably disclose these details.

The external shareholders of the Firefly Group were not numerous, but also not insignificant. After trying to cover things up for a while, with increasing related reports in the media, Eric had already lost hope in keeping the revenue details hidden. Now, he just wished to delay it for as long as possible.

After all, by early next year, many people would likely have moved on from the pain of the NASDAQ crash, and the chances of various reactions occurring upon hearing that the Clover Fund had cashed out tens of billions from the NASDAQ stock market would greatly lessen.

However, the drafted plan to withhold dividends remained unchanged.

As many investors lost heavily during the NASDAQ crash and urgently needed capital, Eric had not given up the opportunity to buy back shares of the Firefly Group. During his last meeting with David West, he had indicated that if the small shareholders of Firefly Group were willing to sell their stocks, the company could clear this year's profits simultaneously.

While shareholders like Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway still showed no intention of selling their Firefly Group stocks, a portion of smaller shareholders chose to sell.

David West and another small shareholder representative, Larry Fink, came today to discuss this matter.

Speaking of which, Larry Fink represented the Black Rock Fund. Similar to State Street, this fund also had roots in the well-known American investment company Blackstone.

...

While the men chatted downstairs, Cindy had gone upstairs, entering a second-floor living room where she comfortably lounged on a sofa, idly flipping through a magazine and occasionally glancing at the golden sunshine streaming onto the terrace outside the large windows.

Though it was already early fall, the evening sun still appeared quite intense. However, in this mansion on Martha's Vineyard, which was even more comfortable than Long Island, it did not feel the slightest bit hot.

Cindy heard soft footsteps behind her and looked up to see Catherine Neumann walking in with a small tray. After the lady placed the tray on the coffee table in front of her, Cindy took a small pastry from the china plate and tasted it before gesturing for Catherine to sit beside her.

"Eric said I could also be involved in managing Elite. Can you help me brainstorm ideas these days?"

Catherine Neumann, poised in her seat on the adjacent armchair, shook her head, "Mr. Williams buying Elite isn't a good choice. The company has numerous issues: bureaucratic bloat, over-expansion, financial chaos, and many ethical risks."

"I've worked at Elite before, so I know its problems. In fact, I understand that the root of the issues lies with John Casablancas. Over the years, Elite has reached its peak, and the founder seems to have lost any ambition. The reason IMG's modeling department has quickly caught up with Elite in recent years is that John's management approach is no longer in line with the times," Cindy said. She suddenly shifted the subject, "But you should know that just like those wealthy people who love to buy sports teams, Eric is clearly more interested in modeling agencies."

Catherine Neumann replied, "In that case, John Casablancas should be replaced first to reform Elite and revitalize it."

"No, that won't work. Eric never considered replacing John. You should know his character; he prefers to reform a company gently -- like, um, boiling a frog in warm water."

Catherine Neumann subtly nodded and said nothing more.

Cindy leisurely finished her pastry and turned to gently remove Catherine Neumann's black-framed glasses from her face. She examined the girl with a noticeable shift in demeanor and smiled, "Are you confused about why Eric, who has so many personality flaws, could achieve his current success?"

After Cindy removed the glasses, Catherine brushed her golden hair away from her forehead, her blue eyes looking at her with curiosity but remaining silent.

Cindy toyed with the black frame, "The thing is, after you've been in this circle for a while, you realize that many wealthy people are not nearly as clever as you might think. Some might even be quite foolish, but they still manage to accumulate vast fortunes -- perhaps due to family background, luck, or various other reasons. If you had to find one reason, it can be simply put as this: it's an unfair world."

A thoughtful expression appeared on Catherine Neumann's beautiful face.

Noticing her expression, Cindy chuckled and gently placed the black glasses back on her, concealing Catherine's fierce demeanor with them. "So, even if you're smart -- possibly much smarter than many others -- if you want to stand out, you often need to learn to appear less smart. After all, we are women, and in this patriarchal society, we should understand this even more."

Catherine Neumann frowned slightly, as if recalling some less pleasant memories.

Cindy, feeling more relaxed, shifted her position to recline comfortably on the sofa. She evaluated the girl beside her, saying, "In fact, if I hadn't insisted, you wouldn't have gotten hired at all. You're smart enough to guess some reasons. But you are here with me now, and this is your opportunity. You are an ambitious girl, but to realize that, first, you need to completely forget your ambition and put yourself 100% in your current position."

Catherine Neumann's gaze flickered slightly, but she quickly replied softly, "Ms. Crawford, I understand."

Cindy nodded, quite satisfied, "Now, the first thing you need to do is help me gain more initiative between IMG and Elite. Deep down, Eric has always preferred capable women over pretty faces."

...

Meanwhile, in the living room below, Eric was unaware of the private conversation between the two women. He focused intently on a discussion with David West and Larry Fink, which lasted nearly an hour before they basically finalized things.

According to the proposal brought by David and Larry, completing this acquisition would allow Eric to repurchase about 5% of the Firefly Group's shares.

On the price front, Eric made some concessions; including the dividends he needed to pay, this acquisition would cost him a total of $7.5 billion -- $500 million more than the initial estimate.

After this repurchase, Eric's shareholding in the Firefly Group would rise approximately to 78%.

...

Once the repurchase plan was roughly finalized, Eric sent David West and Larry Fink off before heading to his study in the mansion. He picked up the phone to inform Jeffrey Katzenberg in Los Angeles to follow up on the next steps.

After hanging up, Eric opened his computer to review the recent financial data of both the Firefly Group and Firefly Investments.

As expected from external assessments, before last week's sell-off, the total cash held by Firefly Investments had indeed reached an enormous $10 billion, specifically $13.6 billion -- significantly higher than many Wall Street analysts had estimated. As for the Firefly Group, after reserving taxes, the Clover Fund alone had generated a free cash flow of $36.3 billion for the Firefly Group.

Adding the two, the nearly $50 billion cash reserve seemed immense; however, when considering the projected expenditures for the Firefly system in the near future, this amount still wouldn't be sufficient.

With the NASDAQ index continuing its decline, the Firefly Group and Firefly Investments had already begun discreetly executing their next expansion plans.

...

Firefly Investments aimed to expand its holdings by targeting Sprint next.

Currently, Sprint, the third-largest telecommunications provider in the U.S., had seen its stock price fall from its peak market cap of $109 billion several months ago to now below $40 billion.

Although Sprint's stock still had potential to drop further, Firefly Investments had already started to enter the market, continuously acquiring Sprint shares.

Chris planned to increase their stake in Sprint to 30% before launching a takeover bid for the company.

Considering Sprint's current market cap, Firefly Investments would need an investment between $7 billion to $8 billion to acquire an additional 20% stake, which would account for a significant portion of their cash reserves.

Moreover, once they formally launched the acquisition to buy the remaining 70% of Sprint's stock, they would conservatively need to utilize around $20 billion in cash.

The money at the Firefly Group was already confirmed to stay within Hollywood, meaning that at that point, Firefly Investments would need to externally secure a massive debt financing of up to $20 billion. However, that was just the beginning; completing the acquisition of Sprint would still require the Firefly system to continuously provide financial support for further expansion.

...

Meanwhile, the Firefly Group had also begun acquiring stocks from Comcast and Hasbro simultaneously.

For the smaller Hasbro, the Firefly Group planned to acquire the entire company within the year.

Hasbro's market cap currently hovered between $2 billion to $2.5 billion, and the Firefly Group had set a budget of up to $3 billion. If they could secure Hasbro within this year, the tens of billions of dollars in financial expenditure would also yield significant tax deductions for the Firefly Group.

However, the situation regarding Comcast involved much more consideration.

...

Having survived the cable industry's expansion phase in the 1990s, the company gradually stabilized its operations and increased its profits, leading to its intention to further acquire AT&T's cable business for growth, despite the NASDAQ crash making the next few years difficult for the new-tech sector like Comcast.

With the company's growth momentum looking positive, Comcast's shareholders and management team would be less enthusiastic about acquisition offers, and they might even show resistance.

Furthermore, although instances like the AOL-Time Warner merger stood as precedent, given the current scale of the Firefly Group, merging with Comcast still posed significant antitrust challenges that the company had to navigate.

Additionally, Eric was particularly keen on initiating a series of interlinked acquisitions, simultaneously acquiring both Comcast and AT&T's telecommunications division, integrating these into a cable television powerhouse. If the plan came to fruition, the seemingly ample cash reserve of the Firefly Group would quickly appear inadequate.

...

Eric sat in his study contemplating these matters. Occasionally, flashes of inspiration would provoke him to place calls to Chris and others until evening fell and Cindy knocked on the door, entering to ask what he wanted for dinner.

After chatting with Cindy for a bit and waiting for her to leave, Eric turned on the lights in his study. Upon hearing the alert tone of a new email on his computer, he opened it out of curiosity.

The email was from Los Angeles, summarizing the box office statistics for the recently concluded summer blockbuster films.

As September rolled in, North America's summer season had wound down. Considering he had recently focused his energies on the NASDAQ market and Firefly Investments, Eric decided to print out a twenty-plus-page report on the summer box office of 1999, briefly binding it before leaving his study to head downstairs, determined to glance over the report before dinner.

*****

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