I am Hollywood

[Chapter 1016: Decision]

John Mack didn't bother checking the NASDAQ index analysis report; instead, he went straight to the stock price data from America Online.

As of today's market close, America Online's stock price settled at $26.522 billion after a week of fluctuations, giving it a market capitalization of $43.6 billion. Compared to last week's peak of $46.1 billion, it had once again dropped a hefty $2.5 billion.

Morgan Stanley continued to sit on the sidelines, with no plans to sell off its shares. However, John Mack understood that many shareholders feared the stock price of America Online would collapse under the pressure of Firefly Investment's massive sell-off and had already begun to unload their stocks.

According to the data in hand, the trading volume of America Online's shares reached $5.6 billion just in this week, exceeding one-tenth of the company's market capitalization.

It was clear that while some investors were exiting, many others who felt optimistic about America Online's stock were quietly entering.

John Mack had always focused on core business areas such as the issuance of stocks and bonds at Morgan Stanley and hadn't paid much attention to the international foreign exchange markets. However, after thoroughly understanding the economic conditions in Russia and the Southeast Asian financial crisis over the past week, he started to agree with Eric's analysis of the NASDAQ's future movements.

After emptying out the Southeast Asian nations, the huge profits earned by international capital had to find an investment target rapidly. He initially thought the target might be Russia, which was showing signs of economic recovery, but now he realized that this recovery was merely an illusion. As a result, these funds would likely flow back to North America, which was currently in the midst of a new wave of technological breakthroughs.

Therefore, it was very possible that the NASDAQ index breaking through the 2000-point mark was merely the beginning, as Eric had pointed out.

Indeed, Eric's judgment proved to be correct: after the NASDAQ index successfully broke through 2000 points last week, its growth rate not only didn't slow down but exhibited clear signs of acceleration. Just this week, the NASDAQ index had peaked close to 2070 points, with an increase of 3.5%.

Putting aside these overarching economic trends, John Mack's attention quickly returned to the matters concerning America Online.

With the exception of Yahoo, which wouldn't go public until the end of the year, other prominent tech companies in the NASDAQ market, such as Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, and Sun Microsystems, showed no plans for large-scale stock sell-offs. Even Yahoo had been consistently reducing its initially intended 30% new stock issuance down to possibly only 10% to 15%. Therefore, it was unlikely that Wall Street investors would make significant investments in these companies anytime soon.

Ignoring the hidden risks, it became evident that Firefly Investment's plan to significantly reduce its holdings in America Online's stock was not a threat to Wall Street investors but rather an opportunity.

Carefully weighing the pros and cons once more, John Mack finally made his decision. He planned to team up with a group of investors to purchase Firefly Investment's entire stock holding in one go.

Based on the current market cap calculation, Firefly Investment's 32.6% stake in America Online was worth about $14.2 billion. Such a substantial stock asset was something no single investment institution on Wall Street could absorb completely.

However, if this could be spread among a dozen or even several dozen investment firms, then digesting this $14.2 billion worth of stock would become very feasible.

From another perspective, this action would be quite similar to a company's IPO. And issuing stock was precisely one of Morgan Stanley's foundational businesses.

Of course, the value of America Online shares held by Firefly Investment was impressively high. At $14.2 billion, it exceeded the previous record of $13 billion set by Deutsche Telekom a few years earlier for the largest IPO ever, which would certainly make actual execution quite challenging.

Nevertheless, if they could take over Firefly Investment's shares, the Damocles sword that had been hovering over America Online would vanish, allowing the company's stock price to completely free itself from the risk of a major shareholder sell-off. Without the burden of Firefly Investment and bolstered by America Online's rapid growth, the company's stock would undoubtedly soar with the new wave of technology.

Having made his decision, John Mack didn't hesitate. He picked up the phone on his desk and began to gather Morgan Stanley's executives, planning to hold a meeting that night to discuss how to implement the plan.

...

The impromptu meeting continued late into the night, even drawing in Morgan Stanley's new CEO, Philip Purcell, inquiring about John Mack's intentions.

Even though Morgan Stanley had merged with Dean Witter for over six months, the power struggle between the original management systems had settled after Philip Purcell from Dean Witter was appointed as the new CEO. However, original Morgan Stanley executives had never given up their plans to regain control, and operations between the two companies had not yet merged on a large scale for various reasons.

Although John Mack didn't hide his plans from Philip Purcell, he also had no intention of inviting him to participate.

The next day, after barely five hours of sleep, John Mack flew to Los Angeles with the plans discussed by Morgan Stanley's executives the previous night.

...

Eric had received an invitation from William Hearst III of the Hearst family and originally planned to take Jennifer Aniston to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon that Saturday. However, after receiving a phone call from John Mack that morning, he had to cancel the trip and stay at the mansion.

At that moment, in the study on the ground floor, Aniston, dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans, was clearly in a bad mood. She had drawn an ugly caricature of Eric on a large whiteboard covering an entire wall and, tossing aside her marker, came over like a restless kitten, wrapping her arms around Eric's neck from behind the leather chair.

Eric put down his storyboard for Gravity and pulled the visibly distressed Aniston into his lap, kissing her cheek while holding her waist, saying, "I'm really sorry about this. We'll go to San Simeon this afternoon and come back Monday, okay?"

"You said Gravity was starting shooting Monday; this can't be delayed," Aniston replied, leaning comfortably against Eric. "It was supposed to be our special date, and it's such a shame. I even bought a new dress for it."

Eric said, "Oh, you can still change into it now. I'd love to see it."

Aniston pouted, "I am not changing! You can't see it."

Eric chuckled, "Okay, not changing is fine. I just don't like how you look in clothes anyway."

"Ah, you bad guy," Aniston said, momentarily dazed, before realizing it and playfully scolding him as she hopped off his lap but didn't leave. Instead, she turned and sat on the large desk in front of him, gently kicking his leg with her foot.

Eric didn't move away, smiling as he looked at the sweet-faced girl. Over the years, Aniston's appearance had hardly changed since he first met her. Reflecting on everything they had experienced during that time, Eric couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.

Feeling Eric's gaze, Aniston suddenly became a bit bashful. After holding his gaze for a moment, she picked up the storyboard of Gravity he had just set aside and held it in between them, saying shyly, "No peeking."

With her view obstructed, noticing Aniston's small hand gripping the art board, Eric suddenly remembered something. He stood up, saying, "Right, I just remembered -- there's a gift for you."

"What is it?" Aniston, who had been pretending to ignore him, immediately became intrigued and jumped off the desk to follow him.

Eric walked to the wall, moved aside some decorative art, revealing a safe hidden in the wall, and looked at Aniston, whose eyes sparkled. "Okay, close your eyes for a moment."

"Please, I'm not interested in your safe code," Aniston replied, turning away as she teased in a little voice, "Is this good enough?"

Eric didn't worry about Aniston seeing the safe code but was concerned she might catch a glimpse of the entire set of rings inside, which wouldn't be good.

After opening the safe, Eric picked through a box containing the set of rings, selecting one. He closed the safe and turned back, taking Aniston's left hand, and the ring fit perfectly on her ring finger.

When Aniston saw Eric putting a rose gold ring on her hand, she raised an eyebrow but then took it off again, expertly inspecting the engraving inside before remarking, "I don't want to be compared to that girl's red heart Q!"

Eric was a bit surprised. "You know about that?"

Aniston puffed up with indignation, "That girl flaunted it in front of me so many times, how could I not know? Plus, I've seen someone getting photographed wearing one of these rings more than once."

As she spoke, Aniston shot Eric an annoyed glance, returning the rose gold ring and declaring, "I want a red heart K instead."

Eric was still processing the information Aniston just revealed. With Drew's personality and her rivalry with Aniston, it made sense that the girl would boast about the rings she acquired.

As for the photos, it must have been Julia; she was the one who felt no qualms about wearing the ring out in public every day.

Automatically accepting the ring Aniston handed back, Eric chuckled softly, "There's no red heart K; each ring is unique."

Aniston's eyes sparkled mischievously, "Then I want a Joker!"

"Not happening," Eric immediately shook his head and added, "And Joker won't work either."

Aniston already knew it was unlikely; otherwise, the Joker would surely have gone to Drew instead of her. "How about this, Eric? You open the box, and I can choose myself."

Now that Aniston was aware of the ring set, Eric decided to stop keeping secrets. He opened the safe and pulled out the box containing the set of rings for her to see.

Once Aniston saw the box, she noticed that besides the kings, seven other rings were missing. She went on a rant about Eric but ended up taking the clover K, insisting that it would allow her to wear it out directly. The rose gold ring embedded with black diamonds wouldn't likely be mistaken for an engagement ring even if spotted by someone.

Watching Aniston excitedly play with the ring, Eric neatly put the box away and walked over, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Jen, just so you know, once you put that ring on, you can't take it off."

Aniston had been fascinated by the rose gold ring but didn't appear as indifferent as Eric assumed. Hearing him say this, Aniston leaned against Eric, resting her chin on his shoulder, and after a moment of silence, she said, "Why am I so unlucky to have met someone like you?"

"Yeah," Eric softly agreed.

Aniston lightly thumped his back and said half-jokingly, "What do you mean, 'yeah'?"

"I was thinking about how lucky I am to have made you this unlucky."

Aniston's chin moved, gently brushing against Eric's ear as she teased, "Your ears are right next to my mouth; what if I bite it off?"

Eric suddenly fell silent. The two held each other for a while in unspoken understanding until a light on the communication device on the wall lit up. Eric knew it must be John Mack arriving, and he finally released Aniston.

...

"Eric, I'm sorry to intrude on your weekend, and oh, lovely Miss Aniston, my wife loves your show Friends," John Mack greeted warmly as he arrived.

"Not at all. I didn't have anything special planned this weekend," Eric replied instinctively, trying to maintain the courteous demeanor, which made Aniston roll her eyes.

After shaking hands with John Mack, Aniston went to prepare coffee for the two of them. She had already met the house staff but absolutely didn't want those girls to come inside.

After a while, bringing over a pot of coffee, Aniston quietly left the room, allowing Eric and John Mack to enter into the main discussion after they exchanged a few pleasantries.

John Mack brought forth the plans drafted during last night's meeting, handing them to Eric and saying, "Eric, you can take a look at the proposal we came up with, and we'll discuss it further afterward."

Eric nodded. The reason he chose to forgo the weekend getaway to San Simeon with Aniston in favor of this meeting was that he had already heard John Mack briefly outline his ideas over the phone, yet he still needed to understand the other party's vision in detail before they could move forward.

*****

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