I'm in Hollywood

Chapter 265: Cisco

I strongly recommend: Eric nodded, Chris took a deep breath and said, "However, Eric, if, I mean, if you can make sure that Firefly can develop as quickly as it is now, it would be better not to go public. Many companies have gone all out for privatization after being listed for many years. Although listing can obtain a large amount of financing, it also means more responsibility and risk. Taking Hollywood as an example, several major film companies have almost all experienced hostile takeovers, the last one being in 1984, when Disney was maliciously targeted by Saul Steinberg, and finally Disney spent $325 million to redeem the 11.1% of the shares in Steinberg's hands. At that time, Disney's market value was less than $2 billion. The three hundred million dollar cash made Disney's injury painful, and had to give up family-style management and hire Michael Eisner as the helm of the company."

At this point, Chris laughed and said, "Of course, it has now been proven that Disney made a very correct decision at that time, and it was a blessing in disguise. However, not every company has such good luck, and the more attention Firefly attracts with its rapid development, the more it will be coveted

Chris said, "Of course, most companies go public to get more development funds. In my opinion, Firefly doesn't need money. Why go public?"

The two were talking when Jeffery came out of the kitchen and invited them to dinner.

At the restaurant, Eric also met Chris's girlfriend, Amy Bolton. She was tall and slender, with golden hair and blue eyes, dressed in a fashionable style. From the girl's surname and the name of the clothing company, plus the girl's age, it was impossible to start from scratch. It was obvious that the girl was the boss's daughter of this clothing company.

Emily Blanton was more talkative than Chris, and when she saw Eric she even shrieked with delight, expressing her love for his movies. At the dinner table, she not only talked about how she and Chris had met in detail, but also kept pushing Aniston to become the spokesperson for their family's fashion company.

Aniston, facing Emily Blanton's enthusiasm, didn't know how to refuse, and could only look to Eric for help. Although Little Niu was only a TV actor now, she had already become famous with one movie. But Emily Blanton's family fashion company was not famous at all, and if Aniston went to be the spokesperson, it would be a little demeaning.

Before Eric could open his mouth, Chris noticed Aniston's awkwardness and took the initiative to say, "Emily, can you be quiet and eat? Your company is too small. Now having a second-line star as a spokesperson is enough for me."

Emily was unwilling to hear this and complained, "It's all your fault. If you hadn't messed up the listing of our company, the three factories in Florida and the order worth $9 million in Asia would have been built now..."

"How can you blame me? Obviously, your dad was too greedy and got caught for falsifying company information," Chris replied.

"It was you who caught him out!" Emily complained with an injured look. "All companies do this when they list, why can't we?"

Chris put down his knife and fork and raised his voice in rebuttal, "Don't you know how much your dad falsified? Fortunately, I caught it out, otherwise your company would have been fined into bankruptcy."

Hearing the anger in Chris' voice, Emily shrank her neck in embarrassment and muttered, "But Dad changed it later, why are you still..."

Eric and Aniston, who were sitting on either side of him, looked at each other confusedly.

Seemed like things were getting heated?

But they didn't want it to end in a break-up; it would be a big mistake for the three of them.

Jeffrey, who was at the head of the table, coughed twice to break the tension before saying, "Alright, let's not argue."

Chris and Emily, who were already getting into the argument, snapped out of it and quickly closed their mouths. To keep the atmosphere lively, Eric took the initiative to bring up a new topic of conversation, and the dinner mood slowly improved.

After dinner, Emily dragged Aniston and Drew into the room to have a private chat, leaving the three men in the living room.

Eric apologetically said, "Sorry, Chris, I was just at the dinner table..."

"Eric, it has nothing to do with you, you don't need to worry about it," Chris shook his head.

Jeffrey sighed with emotion at this time, "It's okay, sometimes we have a quarrel, in fact, when Solina was here, we often argued."

"Dad, can you not talk about those things anymore?"

"Okay, I won't say it anymore," Jeffrey nodded, knowing his son was doing it for his own good.

Chatting, Eric gradually pulled the topic to something he was more interested in: "Chris, are you familiar with foreign exchange trading?"

"I know something about it, but I haven't participated in such projects. I'm currently working in the securities department."

Chris shook his head: "The Japanese Yen has already appreciated by a full fold. Even if you have money, you won't make much money entering now."

Eric was a little regretful that he didn't pay more attention to the history of the Japanese economy in the past. Hearing Chris say this, he had to give up, but another huge opportunity had not yet come. Eric said, "Then, what about the ruble? Do you not know anything about the Ruble of the Soviet Union?"

Chris advised: "Eric, I think it's better for you to stick to making movies. The foreign exchange market is not something that everyone can play. Just like the Japanese Yen. Although it has appreciated by a full fold in the past few years, international capital has not gained the terrifying profits in the foreign exchange market as you think. The Federal government only allowed the Japanese Yen to appreciate, making Japanese goods lose competitiveness in international trade, and a large amount of domestic funds and enterprises fled, eventually leading to the bursting of Japan's economic bubble and economic stagnation."

Alright, I mean, did you guys not realize that the Soviet Union is about to go under?

Chris shrugged, "It's possible, but who knows when the Soviet Union will go under and even if the Soviet Union economy collapses, we still can't get involved because this country requires a fixed exchange rate for the ruble."

"Alright, have you guys considered this possibility, that the dozens of Soviet Union's member states all collapse and restore the capitalist system, at that moment, because of the economic turmoil, the ruble will definitely take a nosedive. That would be a really good opportunity, right?"

Chris and Jeffrey exchanged glances and they both looked at Eric strangely. After a while, Chris smiled, "Eric, your opinion would be welcomed by the whole world if you put it out there. If the Soviet Union really collapses, everyone would no longer worry about the threat of nuclear war. 'Big Ivan' who bombed the entire Arctic Circle back then had scared the whole world."

Eric was somewhat helpless. Even though the Eastern European drama had changed and East and West Germany had unified in August of this year, it was still almost two years away from the collapse of the Soviet Union in his memory, and after a half-century of competition between the US and the USSR, the Soviet Union was repeatedly vilified, but its strength was unquestionable. Few people thought that such a big country would disintegrate within a few months.

"Let's just assume it," Eric continued. "If it were possible, if the Soviet Union collapsed and the ruble plummeted drastically, could I take 10 billion US dollars to speculate on the ruble and leverage it several hundred times to turn this capital into several tens of times?"

Jeffrey didn't respond, but Chris looked at Eric with a stupid look: "Don't say 10 billion, even if you take out 1 billion, if you dare to use more than 100 times leverage in the extreme financial turmoil you mentioned, maybe you will lose it within a few minutes."

Eric stared blankly, "Uh, well, I don't really understand this."

Chris knew that Eric had never even gone to college and was just an ordinary high school graduate, so he patiently explained, "Take the 100-times leverage you mentioned for example, if you invest one billion US dollars, then you can amplify this money to one trillion US dollars for foreign exchange transactions. But your one billion US dollars is only equivalent to 1% of one trillion, which means that you can only bear the fluctuation of 1% in foreign exchange. Even if the overall trend of a currency is down, due to the game between buyers and sellers, there will be intense ups and downs during the process. As long as the currency rises by more than 1% in a certain stage, your money, whether it is 100 million or one billion, will be liquidated immediately. Generally speaking, the leverage used in the foreign exchange market is usually around 20 to 30 times, and occasionally someone will take the risk of using a 50-time leverage."

Eric awkwardly laughed and shrugged, "Let's just pretend I never said that."

Seeing Eric's awkwardness, Chris and Geoffrey both laughed. Chris added, "The more severe the financial turmoil, the lower the leverage used to ensure the safety of funds. If you go in with 1 billion, it would be considered very impressive if you can double it."

Since foreign exchange investments were not working out, Eric thought it would be better to invest in something he was familiar with. Apart from movies, the only industry that would be booming in the next 20 years was IT.

With no chance for the big software companies yet, as the internet had not developed, and various network companies not yet in the time. On the hardware side, Eric had long been eyeing Apple Inc., but unfortunately the future of Steve Jobs is unknown, and Apple has not reached the brink of bankruptcy. So what else is there?

After some thought, a name flashed in his mind.

Cisco?

Cisco!

Eric almost leapt up in surprise. In his past life, Cisco had a market capitalization of up to $500 billion.