Back To 1995

  If there is no major merger of ICQ, the merger of AOL and Time Warner may be enough to shock the world, and it is not surprising to call it the "marriage of the century".

   But with ICQ's pearls ahead, the merger between AOL and Time Warner has a bit of an "imitation" flavor, and the imitation is a bit clumsy.

Perhaps it was to prove that this acquisition surpassed ICQ, so AOL paid a sky-high acquisition price as a betrothal gift, but the point is, a Time Warner is really bigger than Comcast and NBC combined. , is it worth more?

ICQ's acquisition of these two companies cost $82 billion, owed a lot of debt, and issued a large number of bonds that need to be repaid in the next few years. The capital chain is quite tight, and it cost a full $100 billion. How much famine and debt will Dao marry to Bai Fumei's AOL?

Just across the screen, Immelt and Song Yang can think of the scene of AOL tightening its belt to live in the next few years, and Time Warner will not be much better. The future of both sides is one family. Life is miserable, and Time Warner has to live a miserable life too!

Looking at the high-spirited Case on TV and Jerry Levin looking forward to the future, Immelt sneered, shook his head and sighed, and said to Song Yang, "I heard the mourning at the funeral! "

After finishing speaking, Immelt walked away, as if he didn't take AOL Time Warner to heart at all, and his momentum and Bigger filled up again, making Gallo and everyone in the restaurant have to admire Immelt Taishan. The demeanor that collapses in front and does not change color...

   Seeing Immelt leaving, Song Yang continued to look at the TV, and he had to sigh, the current Internet industry is really in an age of troubled times, when demons are dancing wildly.

  If ICQ is a big bubble, what is AOL now, not even air coins? !

It's true that AOL wants to benchmark ICQ. The market value estimate made is that after the merger is completed, AOL's market value can exceed 350 billion US dollars. It is a good dream, but the current market value of ICQ is still US dollars. As for $300 billion, how can AOL dare to say that it is worth $350 billion?

   The frenzy of the Internet seems to have reached a new peak. The big merger of ICQ has not been digested by the outside world. AOL is going to come again, and the entire Internet industry has been stimulated and started to go crazy.

  Whether it is the Internet, the media or the telecommunications industry, it has begun to integrate more and more, and the boundaries are becoming more and more blurred.

  The major media have begun to overwhelmingly report the big news of AOL and Time Warner, and the big mergers and acquisitions of 100 billion US dollars have exceeded ICQ's more than 10 billion US dollars, which is enough for the media to write about it.

  After the media conference, Keith and Jerry Levine brought a large group of executives to the hotel where the banquet was held. Today, AOL and Time Warner will also hold a grand banquet.

   But Keith, Jerry Levin, Lyonsis and other executives who came to the presidential suite did not have a smile on their faces.

Before the merger, when it was reported that AOL and Time Warner were hooking up together, the stock prices of AOL and Time Warner were both soaring. Since the news began to spread, AOL’s stock price has risen from $64 to $102. The stock price has nearly doubled!

This also makes Case and AOL executives believe that Wall Street and many investors are optimistic about this transaction. Case took out almost all of it and satisfied Time Warner's sky-high price to complete this merger. .

But just after the news was announced, the stock prices of AOL and Time Warner began to vent wildly, dropping from the highest of $108 to $95 in one breath, making Case and Jerry Levin's faces stunned. , are a little unable to hold back.

  Why, after the merger of ICQ, the stock price soared, and AOL's stock price was pushed to the ground.

   "funk, **** it, who can tell me what the **** is going on?"

   Time Warner's largest individual shareholder and Time Warner's deputy director Ted Turner couldn't help asking Case and Jerry Levin after seeing the plummeting stock price.

Before the merger, Ted Turner declared that he was very optimistic about the formation of a new joint company between AOL and Time Warner, and even said that this merger gave him a feeling that compared to more than 40 years ago, the first It feels even better when you touch a woman for the first time.

  Ted Turner is of course ready to make a lot of money. The two set up a joint company with a target price of $350 billion. The equity he holds can also exceed $17.2 billion, which is naturally quite positive.

   But now that the merger was completed, the scene he was looking forward to did not appear. Instead, the stock price plummeted, making the old man's face turn green.

   "After the merger, AOL and Time Warner are more like a small ICQ. No matter in terms of revenue scale, business scope, users, etc., AOL is not as good as ICQ. Is such a company worth 350 billion US dollars?"

   On TV, a guest economist invited by a financial channel was complaining to AOL. After the shock, the investment industry began to have opinions on this marriage.

   What you can't get is always the most restless, and what you imagine is also the most beautiful. Before the merger, the outside world was naturally optimistic about this acquisition.

But after the merger is completed, especially compared with the merger of ICQ, those who originally questioned the merger of ICQ as a scam, immediately felt that ICQ has become more beautiful, although there is moisture, but it will not become air, AOL buys the era Warner, it's just buying air, and doing nothing, the United Company owes $28 billion, and the annual debt interest is an astronomical amount.

  To clean up ICQ, it only needs a merger, that is, AOL buys Time Warner, and all the gossip and public opinion aimed at ICQ immediately turned to AOL!

   "These doubts are only temporary. Wall Street and investors will understand who is the most worthy of investment!"

Hearing that AOL was compared to a small ICQ, Case resisted the anger on his face, and still said to the executives on both sides, soothing people's hearts, saying that the people who smashed the market today are all blind and ignorant of Mount Tai, and they will definitely regret it in the future. .

  Ted Turner and a group of directors and shareholders of AOL and Time Warner can only trust Case's words at this time, regret medicine is not available at this time, and if you want to split up, you will have to wait at least a few years.

   But looking at the lineup in front of us, the minority shareholders on both sides are all worried. AOL and Time Warner do not have a real major shareholder at the moment. In the future, in the joint company of AOL Time Warner, who has the final say, not necessarily!

  ICQ has to be merged. Looking at the name after the merger, you can know who is the main one. What Immelt wants to take over can only be ICQ, and then through ICQ, he controls America Telecom, Comcast Group, NBC Group, etc.

  But the merger of AOL and Time Warner is different. After the merger, it is AOL Time Warner Associates. It can be seen from the name that no one is willing to become an accessory of the other.

Case and Jerry Levine are both presidents of the joint company, and their positions are even more strange. Case is in charge of the technology and public affairs of the joint company, but AOL and Time Warner are the core media and the Internet. The business is managed by Jerry Levine.

   is Case. In order to complete this merger, he gave up a lot of rights in his hands. In the future, he will mainly manage technology, public relations and other departments, and let Jerry Levin take over the core business.

No one knows what Case thought. Time Warner just couldn't play with the Internet, so it sought to merge with AOL, and wanted to go to the sky in one step. After the merger, AOL and Time Warner were actually taken over by Jerry Levine. , to say something unpleasant, this is not much better than a blind man leading the way!

After falling for a few days, thanks to the frenzy of the Internet, the share price of the merged AOL Time Warner Associates also stood firm. Although the market value did not reach the advertised sky-high price of $350 billion, it also exceeded $290 billion. Become the seventh largest company in the world by market capitalization.

And AOL wants to compare the target ICQ, it is set off like a **** of war, the stock price continues to soar, and the market value exceeds 310 billion US dollars. With 290 billion US dollars, ICQ has a market value of more than tens of billions of dollars. Is it too much? !

   When he woke up in the morning, Song Yang had already run a few laps, sweating all over his body, and his worth had risen so much.

   In addition, during this time, Song Yang rarely appeared in front of the media, and many positions and affairs were given up, but it took a lot of time!