I am Hollywood

Chapter 864: Chapter 865: Dismissal

[Chapter 865: Dismissal]

Due to leaving Las Vegas, Eric didn't feel comfortable leaving the two girls alone in Sin City. So, he personally saw them onto a flight to Los Angeles at the airport before boarding a Gulfstream private jet owned by Firefly Group heading to Maryland.

After finally falling asleep around two in the morning, Eric took the opportunity to catch up on some rest once the plane took off. When he woke up again, the Gulfstream had already reached the skies over Maryland.

Maryland, located on the East Coast near Washington D.C., is not very large, only covering a few tens of thousands of square kilometers. Looking out from the airplane window, he could see vast areas of vibrant green woodlands and farmland. The terrain seemed more hilly than flat plains.

Although they departed from Las Vegas at around eight in the morning, they landed at Frederick Municipal Airport in northern Maryland four hours later, where the Eastern Time was already three in the afternoon.

Frederick Municipal Airport was small, without any fences, featuring a completely open layout, with only two runways and mostly tiny propeller planes parked nearby. After the plane came to a stop on the runway, Eric walked down the steps. Dressed simply and sporting a cowboy hat, Jeffrey was there to greet him, along with Chris and others. At first glance, Jeffrey seemed slimmer but looked much more energetic, appearing just like an old Western cowboy if he were riding a horse and holding a revolver.

As soon as they got close, Jeffrey didn't hold back and gave Eric a big bear hug. "Hey, Eric, you finally made it!"

"Yeah, there's always too much going on," Eric replied, giving Jeffrey a pat on the back. "You look younger."

Jeffrey laughed, clearly pleased. "Haha, everyone thinks so."

After some simple pleasantries, Eric embraced Chris, teasing, "It's just two days away. How are you feeling about it?"

"Numb," Chris joked self-deprecatingly, then introduced the two young men who were his cousins.

Eric shook hands with the two young men, who were probably about his age but seemed rather reserved. Chris remarked, "Everyone's waiting for you at the farm. Let's go."

Eric nodded and, along with his assistant Peter Rich and four bodyguards, left the airport in the four cars that Chris had brought.

...

As they drove north along the highway cutting through Frederick, the undulating hills around them became increasingly apparent, with alternating patches of woodland and farmland. It was early summer, and the lively greenery was refreshing. After half an hour, they exited the highway and traveled a little less than five kilometers east, finally arriving at a small farm with about a dozen households. Surrounding this farm was Jeffrey's property, which spanned approximately 2,000 acres, equivalent to eight square kilometers.

Jeffrey excitedly introduced the farm during the drive. He mentioned that only a quarter of the land was used for crops like wheat, while there was also a portion of dense woodlands and the rest was pasture. Many horses and cows could be seen grazing at a distance. The residents of the farm were mainly workers and tenants of Jeffrey's property.

At the entrance of the farm, there were about ten people standing near the asphalt road. When Eric got out of the car, he recognized over half of them: Joanna, Virginia, and Emily were grouped together. Of course, there were also three kids. Among the rest were John Chambers, Steve Case, Jorma Ollila, Ian Gurney, and other senior personnel from the Firefly organization. The others were likely relatives of Chris and Emily.

As everyone was about to exchange pleasantries, a small figure yelled "Daddy!" and ran over. Amid the laughter and various expressions, Eric didn't hesitate to pick up Emma and asked, "Have you been naughty lately?"

"Nope! Emma has been very good," the little girl responded, wrapping her arms around Eric's neck. "I even learned how to ride! Can we ride together, Daddy?"

"Oh, Emma, that's great, but not right now," Eric replied, complimenting her before handing her over to Joanna, then greeting everyone and getting to know Emily's parents and some of Chris' other relatives.

Most guests would arrive on the day of the wedding, so the number of guests at the farm wasn't too high yet. After chatting for about ten minutes, people started to disperse temporarily. Jeffrey's house was on the eastern side of the farm, and Eric and Jeffrey walked towards their accommodations together.

...

Holding Kevin, who had just been passed to him by Virginia, as they walked through the center of the farm, Eric noticed a group of individuals who were clearly agents inspecting something nearby. Curious, he looked towards Chris and John Chambers, knowing they would have some security, but it shouldn't be this conspicuous.

Without Eric needing to ask, Chris understood his confusion and explained, "The President and First Lady will be coming, and these are Secret Service personnel."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "You invited them?"

Chris shook his head. "I got a call from the White House three days ago. They said the President and First Lady happened to be free on the 20th, and since Washington is so close, you understand, I couldn't exactly say no."

Eric smiled and didn't press further.

Besides John Chambers and the other corporate executives who had already arrived, due to Chris's networking over recent years, there would surely be heavyweight figures from the business world, such as Warren Buffett, attending Chris's wedding. By then, the gathering would only contain Firefly executives controlling companies with a total asset value exceeding $200 billion. The two people from the White House could easily attend others' events with a political donation, so they wouldn't miss this chance to exert their influence.

While Eric would not completely distance himself from political interactions, he also wouldn't actively seek relationships with government officials. However, if they approached, he wouldn't refuse either. Maintaining a good relationship with the President couldn't hurt Firefly.

...

Many wealthy Americans cultivated a habit of buying land to become farmers; media mogul Ted Turner was one of the largest private landowners, with thousands of square kilometers under his control. Jeffrey's farm was also previously owned by a businessman who used it as a summer retreat. Consequently, the quaint farm included a beautifully designed stone villa with many rooms, easily accommodating ten to twenty guests.

At that moment, however, the villa primarily housed relatives from both Chris and Emily's families, while John Chambers and others were arranged in separate residences.

Since Eric was also considered family, he was assigned accommodations at Jeffrey's house.

...

After everyone settled in, it was already evening.

With the wedding just two days away and many preparations still required for the next day, the evening gathering was brief, and everyone retired early.

Although Eric wanted to escape the busy official duties momentarily, it wasn't an easy task.

...

Early the next morning, coincidentally the start of a new week, Eric had just woken up and hadn't had a chance to eat breakfast when Peter Rich delivered a document along with several marked newspapers.

It turned out that after nearly a month of review, the federal court in San Francisco, California, officially dismissed the request from Sony, BMG, and EMI to ban the sale of MP3 audio format players. A formal press conference was scheduled for 9 AM Pacific Time that day, but the news had already leaked and made it to the important pages of major newspapers across America.

In less than two months since its launch, Firefly Electronics' Fireflyer had sold an incredible 250,000 units, far exceeding the initial promotion rates of Walkman and MD portable players, and this was under limited production capacity.

Thanks to the Fireflyer's hot sales and widespread social impact from its hunger marketing strategies, everyone recognized the immense potential of the Fireflyer player to replace mainstream portable players. The entire music industry had kept a close watch on the possible reactions from the federal court in San Francisco since the lawsuit was initiated by Sony.

Chris was also up early and had received the news.

Just past seven o'clock, Eric and Chris were taking a stroll on the small roads surrounding the farm, reviewing the court documents regarding the dismissal of the lawsuit by Sony and others.

After finishing the thin stack of documents, Chris rolled the paper up and said to Eric, "Sony will definitely not be willing to give up. Although this case has been dismissed and they won't go to a higher court with the same lawsuit, they will certainly look for other breakthroughs."

With a market value exceeding $50 billion, Sony's fortunes were largely supported by portable music players and related industries, making it unlikely for Sony to easily abandon attempts to stifle Fireflyer.

Eric wasn't too worried, though, as the lawsuit showed that America was the home ground for Firefly. Even if Sony found a breakthrough, its inherent disadvantage would significantly weaken its attack.

"Honestly, if I were Nobuyuki Idei, I would immediately abandon this futile endeavor and decisively promote the development of digital music players. While we've gained a substantial advantage, if Sony is determined enough, they can still pose a threat to us."

Chris responded, "Perhaps Nobuyuki Idei thinks along those lines, but implementing any specific proposals is extremely difficult. Sony's corporate structure is too fragmented; the hardware department has its own interests, and the entertainment department has its own. If Idei wanted to sacrifice one department's interests to promote industry upgrades, he would just face a strong backlash from internal conservative forces. Therefore, this is essentially impossible."

Eric smiled at Chris and said, "Do you think I've spread myself too thinly with Firefly's strategies?"

Chris didn't answer directly and merely said, "Victor and Bill have brought it up to me more than once; they want to reclaim the online music store for Firefly Electronics."

Eric asked, "What do you think?"

Chris explained, "Yahoo currently has nearly 50 million registered users just in North America, with over 5 million users conducting online payments through the YahooPay platform. This is the foundation that allows the online music store to sell 1 million songs in just five days. If Firefly Electronics were to do it alone, it might take years to expand its user base and achieving stable revenue would be even more distant."

The registered user base for Yahoo had accumulated since the release of the first Internet Explorer browser and portals in 1992, growing to nearly 50 million over the course of five years. This vast registered user group was Yahoo's most valuable resource. If Firefly Electronics operated the online music store independently, there would be little reason for Yahoo not to share its user resources.

Chris clearly had a more profound understanding than Firefly Electronics' Victor McNally and Bill Olson. Alternatively, it could be that Victor and Bill were aware of these issues but, as managers of Firefly Electronics, they instinctively leaned towards securing more benefits for their respective companies, even if those benefits impeded the overall development direction of the Firefly system.

Taken to an extreme, selfishness is humanity's nature, a fact that wouldn't change even in the face of an apocalypse.

Shaking his head slightly, Eric said, "Let's not talk about this for now. How's the operation in Southeast Asia coming along?"

Chris replied, "The position building is nearing its conclusion; we should be able to establish a $3 billion short position, primarily consisting of six-month foreign exchange contracts."

It was already late May, with just over a month remaining before international speculative capital launched its attack on the Southeast Asian currency system. The total scale of short positions against the entire Southeast Asian currency system was likely over $100 billion. Building a $3 billion position with $700 million was about a four times leverage. While it didn't meet Eric's expectations, he understood that achieving this level under the scrutiny of competition was quite challenging.

Thinking about this made Eric recall the situation with Apple. "Oh, there's one more thing. I met with Larry Ellison the night before last. He's currently raising funds to acquire Apple, and I think this is a great opportunity, so I agreed to invest a portion, around $300 million -- this is the money from the forex market."

Surprise flickered across Chris's face briefly before he regained his composure since this wasn't Eric's first unexpected investment venture.

Nonetheless, he said, "There have been rumors in the circle about Larry Ellison wanting to acquire Apple more than once, but he had yet to take any substantial action. He and Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs are very close friends and have been trying to get him to take the reins of the company again. However," Chris chuckled and shrugged, "Eric, I'm not sure how you view this, but I wouldn't recommend it. Although Microsoft won't completely annihilate Apple because of antitrust issues, given Windows' current dominant position, unless Apple voluntarily aligns with the Windows camp, it'll be challenging for them to expand significantly."

"I'm more optimistic about Jobs' return, which is why I agreed to invest the money. Perhaps you know, Jobs is quite the perfectionist, and I always believe that perfectionists are more likely to succeed than others," Eric explained. "Moreover, Apple has a considerable amount of fixed assets. Even if it goes bankrupt in the future, we still wouldn't lose too much."

Chris nodded. "Alright, I'll keep an eye on this matter as well."

Eric teased, "So, you really don't plan on going on a honeymoon with Emily?"

Chris gestured around with his eyes and smiled, "The scenery here is nice. After the wedding, we plan to stay here for two weeks, so it's like our honeymoon, and we can also spend time with Dad."

As they chatted, they had unknowingly reached the end of the small path, which led into a dense grove rumored to house wild boars. Clearly, they couldn't venture further. Just as they turned back, Joanna's sister, Ewa Pacula, waved to them from a distance, seemingly inviting them for breakfast, so Eric and Chris quickened their pace to return to the farm.

*****

/Sayonara816.