Back To 1995

   Chapter 840 Hole

Looking at ICQ after the acquisition of the Bronfman Group, it is indeed the embryonic form of an empire. It has more than 100 million Internet users around the world. It has two American TV groups, ICNC and NBC, and the Comcast TV network. America has 86 million TV users and over 12 million overseas users.

In addition, it also has a complete production capacity and distribution channels for movies and TV series. It does not need to purchase copyrights from the outside world. ICQ's internal Universal Pictures and Universal Music can supply it. ICQ also owns America Telecom, the world's largest broadband telecommunications company. Companies, subscriber line ICQ can supply their own!

  No matter how you look at it, ICQ, the empire map, has been initially built, and it is much stronger than that of AOL Time Warner.

When the news of mergers and acquisitions came out, all major institutions and analysts on Wall Street were imagining the scene after the establishment of the empire. In the future, a user, from installing broadband, to making friends online, to watching TV stations, looking for TV series, variety shows, and movie theaters , Mobile Internet access, phone calls, entertainment and communication needs in life, ICQ can all meet.

There is a saying in Bangzi that people in Bangzi cannot live without life and death and paying taxes. Now, as long as American people surf the Internet, watch TV, and use the Internet, it seems that ICQ is inseparable from such an invisible giant company. Is there any reason not to make money?

   Anyway, even if you are an ordinary person, if you think about it with your toes, you seem to be able to feel that ICQ's future performance will explode.

This made the stock prices of ICQ and ICQ's major shareholder, General Electric, take off directly. General Electric's stock price hit the $500 billion threshold, while ICQ hit the threshold of the $400 billion dollar club. .

When everyone thinks that something is valuable, even if it is a piece of iron, it can make people fall into a frenzy. ICQ has this trend now. Wall Street analysts blow it to the sky. Shouting out that "the market value of a trillion dollars is not a dream", the leeks treat it like a delicacy, and they all expect it to make a lot of money!

  When countless people were screaming wildly for ICQ's stock price, the conference room of AOL Time Warner was silent.

  ICQ's carnival continues, AOL Time Warner now has chicken feathers after a short period of highlights.

If ICQ's internal disputes, under the suppression of Irene, can still maintain superficial skills, then the battle between AOL and Time Warner has already become public. The executives of AOL and Time Warner are now impatient with each other. Get used to each other's style and work habits.

AOL dislikes Time Warner's old-fashioned people. AOL only takes 30 minutes to complete a matter. In Time Warner, it has to go through countless people's signature, review, and a series of processes, making AOL people wait for it. .

Time Warner believes that AOL has no rules at all. It dares to imagine that the employees of a giant company with a market value of more than 300 billion US dollars have no fixed time to commute to get off work, and their financial expenses are chaotic. , are reluctant to deal with the phone calls from users, which completely subverted Time Warner's imagination.

These are just frictions between ordinary employees on both sides. In fact, the more important thing is who is in charge of AOL Time Warner. This is the key, although when the agreement was signed, Jerry Levine was in charge of AOL. Time Warner's media, Internet business, Case in charge of technology, public relations departments.

But in fact, at a critical time, who is willing to give up the rights in their hands, even if Case is willing, the original AOL executives will not agree to be replaced by Time Warner people, this is human nature, Don't depend on anyone's will!

   "President Case, I need to know, what happened to AOL, how do you explain AOL's first quarter results?"

Jerry Levine was a little overwhelmed and asked Case, AOL and Time Warner delayed the first quarter results report, it was too sudden, AOL Time Warner's financial department calculated the first quarter results, unexpectedly is down 15%.

   Not only did it fail to meet the expectations before the merger, but it actually declined. In addition, the two sides were fighting for power and profits, and the struggle was inexorable. This is today's "three tribunals", which happened to use AOL's performance to attack Case.

   Case's face was as usual, and he didn't see any panic at all, although the moment he received the report, Case didn't fall asleep all night.

AOL seems to have a dazzling variety of businesses. There are dozens of departments, but the most important revenue is two parts, one part is advertising fees, and the other part is dial-up Internet business. The latter is equivalent to AOL's cash cow, which can support From AOL various mergers and acquisitions.

But the weird thing is that since this year, Internet advertising fees have started to decrease. Not only AOL, but also ICQ, Yahoo, Lycos and other companies are also facing the same problem, just more or less, and it has only been a few months. Not too obvious.

The most important thing is that the speed of broadband popularization is much faster than AOL expected. Except for America Telecom, the rest of the telecommunications groups, even WorldCom, are ready to play broadband and give up dial-up Internet access, as you can imagine. What is the situation in this industry, dial-up Internet users will not disappear immediately, but obviously will not increase.

Knowing the problem does not mean that it can solve the problem. Case and AOL executives also know the problems facing AOL, but if they want to solve them, they will not be able to solve them in a while, not to mention Time Warner. Eyeing him, he wanted to drive them away.

   "This is just the cost of mergers and acquisitions. AOL has replaced new partners, advertisers, users, and settlement methods, and there are fluctuations!

   Moreover, now AOL Time Warner's Internet business is in charge of you, Jerry! "

  Case calmly reversed the First Army, slapped the rake, and put the responsibility on Jerry Levin, threatening that Jerry Levin was the layman to guide the expert, and it was the blind command that caused AOL's performance to decline.

  Jerry Levine almost didn't hold back in one breath. It's only been a few months since AOL Time Warner merged, and he hasn't even recognized the top executives. AOL has always done his own way. How can he be blamed?

   Taking a deep breath, Jerry Levin didn't spit out a mouthful of old blood. He glanced at the two gangs of executives in the clearly divided conference room. He knew that he couldn't continue like this.

   "Let the finance department revise the first quarter performance report, and the media division of Time Warner will revise the part of the decline in the performance of AOL's online division!"

Hearing that Time Warner's money should be used to fill AOL's hole, the former Time Warner executives were filled with righteous indignation. Dare to fight with them for power.

  Jerry Levine reached out his hand to block the opposition of the original Time Warner executives, and then turned to Keyes, "The merger of AOL and Time Warner may be a bit unexpected.

   I propose to let AOL and Time Warner transition first according to the original management method, and you will continue to be in charge of AOL's performance. In the next quarter, AOL's performance cannot decline any more! "

  Jerry Levin has no choice. It's not even the first year of the merger. If the news really broke, he would have to be nailed to the pillar of shame.

  Let Case take over AOL first, that is, AOL's business. Case and AOL's original executives are still in charge. As for the complete merger, let's pass the current hurdle first.

Hearing this, the former AOL executives were all happy. Only Case was hesitant to say anything. He really knew that there was a problem with AOL. With the director's gaze, Case could only agree with the scalp.

When the accountants of AOL Time Warner's financial department racked their brains and used various words to modify the decline of AOL's performance, when Time Warner's performance and Qiankun were greatly shifted into AOL's performance report, at General Electric headquarters, they also Welcome to the M&A meeting between ICQ and the Bronfman Group.

   Several major shareholders of ICQ have sent their responsible persons or representatives to attend this meeting.

   "Song!"

   Brian Roberts, who came on behalf of Comcast Group, looked very calm when he saw Song Yang, far less angry than Song Yang imagined.

In the lounge next to the conference room, Brian Roberts took a cup of espresso and said to Song Yang, "I heard some bad rumors, I heard that little Edgar Bronfman seems to have some feelings for Song Yu. dissatisfied!"

   Even if he let it go, Song Yang didn't support Comcast's grudge against ICQ's board of directors. When he got the chance, Brian Roberts couldn't help but block Song Yang.

   "All for ICQ!"

  Song Yang said these words righteously.

   (end of this chapter)