บท 997: Chapter 999: Family Trust
[Chapter 999: Family Trust]
The headquarters of Nokia was located in Espoo, just west of Helsinki. The drive from Vantaa Airport to their destination took the group a little over twenty minutes.
Eric planned to stay in Finland for only three days and didn't intend to make it a frequent trip, so he chose not to fuss much about accommodations. Instead, he opted to stay at a hotel near Nokia's headquarters.
Jorma Ollila and the others dropped Eric off at the hotel, agreeing to meet for a welcome lunch at noon before taking their leave.
Once they were gone, Eric returned to his room to find Caroline and Mayer unpacking fresh bed linens from suitcases to arrange his bedroom. Considering the time difference, it was midnight back in the United States. After a ten-hour flight, Eric felt a bit weary. He took a seat on the sofa in the living room with the script of Enemy of the State, reading it for a while before heading to the bedroom as Caroline and Mayer finished arranging things.
...
Caroline entered the bedroom holding a pillow. Upon seeing Eric lounging on the bed in his socks, she placed the pillow at the head of the bed and asked, "Eric, are you going to take a nap?"
"Yeah," Eric nodded. He had planned to ask Caroline to wake him up at noon, but as he noticed her standing there so gracefully by the bedside, he felt a bit tempted. He stretched out his hand, saying, "Come here, give me a hug."
Caroline's cheeks flushed immediately. Since that night in Solna, she had found it hard to muster the courage to get close to Eric again. She glanced back nervously and shook her head, "No, we can't. Mary is still here."
As soon as Caroline finished speaking, Mayer's voice rang out from outside, sounding distinctly deliberate: "Eric, since there's nothing else, I'm heading back to my room."
Hearing the door open, Caroline blinked rapidly, her face becoming even redder. Eric, looking at Caroline's shy demeanor, finally spoke up, "Okay, no hugs. Just sit down and keep me company while we chat."
Caroline elegantly sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes sparkling as she asked, "Eric, will you visit my aunt in London this weekend?"
Eric hesitated for a moment, sensing Caroline's hopeful gaze. "Sure, does she live in London now?"
"Yeah, she moved back. She lives in Paddington."
During Olivia's few days in Los Angeles, they hadn't communicated much. Curious, Eric asked, "What did your aunt do in Greece?"
Caroline paused for a moment before recalling, "My aunt mentioned in her letters that she had a little shop on Mykonos Island in the Aegean Sea, where she sold clothes she made by hand. Mykonos is beautiful; some say it's the closest place to paradise. She mostly lived on that island. But later, she felt the tourists who came to buy clothes were too vulgar, so she closed the shop. Otherwise, she loved to travel, carrying a canvas for painting. She graduated from Cambridge School of Art, and now she has a gallery in London. We can visit her and see her paintings in a few days."
Listening to Caroline's account, Eric felt like he was hearing the daily life of a proud and carefree socialite.
"Does she not need to earn a living?" he asked.
Caroline blinked, a smile curving her lips. "Nope, there's a family trust that my grandfather left for her."
"Ah, life isn't fair," Eric waved his hand, saying, "Get away from me! I want to distance myself from you decadent aristocrats."
Caroline chuckled softly, bravely reaching over to give Eric's hand a quick squeeze before shyly letting go, murmuring, "My aunt told me privately that although you wouldn't care, she plans to leave this trust fund to you someday."
Feigning excitement, Eric asked, "How much are we talking about?"
"I'm not too sure," Caroline shook her head, thinking. "Maybe around one hundred million pounds."
Most ordinary people would be thrilled to hear they inherited such a fortune; however, Eric wasn't overly concerned. Still, he was surprised by the wealth of the Wilson family. "By that standard, I guess I'd better treat little Carly well, or you might just fire your boss without a second thought."
Caroline's smile grew, her expression slightly teasing. "I've thought that for a while now."
"Alright, it's about time. You should go back to your room and rest. We'll attend the banquet together at noon."
"Yeah," Caroline nodded, fluttering her eyelashes. Summoning her courage, she leaned over and kissed Eric on the cheek before leaving, her face flushed.
...
In a broader sense, Nokia had long been more than just a Finnish company. However, with its registered location, global headquarters, tax settlements, major management teams, and most of its industrial chain concentrated in Finland, it remained fundamentally a Finnish enterprise. The Bank of Finland was also Nokia's second-largest shareholder after Firefly Investment.
In recent years, with the rise of Nokia's telecommunications equipment and mobile phone business, the company became increasingly significant to Finland as a whole. Thus, Eric, as the de facto controller of Nokia, caused quite a stir during his visit.
The luncheon reception featured not only most of Nokia's management but also a number of Finnish government officials and representatives from the city of Espoo. Several Finnish TV stations even covered the event.
Over the next two days, under Jorma Ollila's guidance, Eric toured Nokia's headquarters in Espoo and participated in board meetings to finalize the company's next management candidates.
...
After being engaged all week, Eric finally found some free time on Friday morning, allowing him to take Caroline around Espoo and Helsinki.
Both cities struck Eric as relaxed; their streets seemed to have little sense of planning, meandering in all directions. Along the way, an assorted mix of trees and shrubs lined the roads, while a variety of homes and office buildings appeared to lack any clear direction, facing every which way. The entire city silently conveyed an underlying message that seemed to say: "Just muddle through."
The few cathedrals worth seeing in Helsinki did not appeal much to Eric, who lacked religious conviction.
In short, Finland wasn't exactly a prime tourist destination.
After half a day's stroll, Eric completely lost interest. Caroline seemed perfectly content to be alone with Eric, but sensing his lack of enthusiasm, she suggested returning to the hotel.
...
Following lunch, Eric bade farewell to Jorma Ollila.
By 2 PM in Helsinki, he and his entourage boarded a private jet headed for London.
Just after takeoff, Mayer, who hadn't joined Eric on his sightseeing in Helsinki earlier that day, informed Eric that Steve Case, the CEO of America Online, had called the hotel. He had already arrived in London, wanting to meet Eric privately.
In recent days, Firefly Investment had been engaged in a behind-the-scenes tussle with AOL management, and the situation had finally reached the point of confrontation. Eric hadn't expected Steve Case to seek him out so directly.
Settling into the onboard study, Eric asked, "Did he mention anything else apart from wanting to meet?"
Mayer shook his head, "No, Mr. Case just expressed his desire to talk to you in person."
"Let's meet tomorrow morning, then."
After considering for a moment, Eric nodded in agreement. He looked at a pile of documents on the desk in front of him. These were the development project materials from various research centers that Eric had requested Nokia to prepare, and that was only the non-confidential stuff. The projects still under wraps had only been briefly introduced verbally by Nokia's senior executives to Eric and Caroline the previous day, and they had signed several non-disclosure agreements for that.
Nokia currently had a workforce of around sixty thousand globally, a third of whom were involved in technology and development.
With seventeen research centers under its name, Nokia boasted over 120 project teams, focusing on everything from GPRS data transmission standards to indicators that change color when lithium batteries are fully charged. The technologies familiar to mobile phone users worldwide, such as the Symbian OS, Bluetooth, wireless application protocol, and mobile chipset architecture, were all areas that Nokia had begun to explore.
It could be said that Nokia had started technical reserves in the fields needed for the smartphone era as early as the late 90s. Compared to that, the newly developed Firefly Electronics barely qualified as a toddler.
However, a quick reflection on Nokia's historically unimpressive string of phone releases made Eric realize that over ninety percent of the technologies for which they had spent enormous sums on R&D had not made it into any of their new products.
Flipping through a GPRS data transmission standard introduction, Eric felt a sense of disinterest wash over him as he pushed the stack of documents across the desk to Mayer. "Here, take a look at this. After you're done, write me a report. Talk about which technologies need to be pursued further for smartphone development and which projects can be scrapped."
Over the past few days of visiting Nokia, Eric had briefly shared his vision for smartphone R&D with Mayer.
Mayer hesitated, "Eric, my understanding of Nokia is still limited. It might not be appropriate for me to judge these."
Eric laughed, "Just write down your thoughts. I'm merely interested in your insight. You didn't think I'd go ahead and implement your ideas, did you?"
Mayer shyly smiled and nodded, "Alright then."
...
Three hours later, the private jet landed at London Heathrow International Airport. The time difference between London and Helsinki was only two hours, placing it just past three in the afternoon.
A car sent from the British subsidiary took them into downtown London, and Eric felt a wave of comfort wash over him as he looked at the buildings lining the streets. Although the architectural styles varied by street, many of the houses along the roads appeared uniform in design and color, presenting a perfect haven for perfectionists.
Perhaps due to municipal regulations, there weren't the large billboards that cluttered the streets of New York or Los Angeles. However, as their car passed by a movie theater, Eric's attention was drawn to a moderately sized poster for The Matrix 2. Despite it still being afternoon, a long queue had formed in front of the theater, and Eric even spotted a few young people dressed up in trench coats and sunglasses, mimicking Keanu Reeves in The Matrix.
Today was the premiere of The Matrix 2.
Produced by Anberlin Pictures but distributed in collaboration with Paramount Pictures, Anberlin aimed to leverage The Matrix franchise to expand its distribution channels, though their capacity for sole distribution was limited to the U.S. market, while most overseas markets still relied on Paramount's distribution.
From what he could see, Paramount seemed to be handling simultaneous overseas releases quite well.
Given the time difference, morning screenings should just be beginning on the U.S. East Coast, and ticket sales information from the midnight show would likely already be in circulation.
However, since the news was already out, Eric didn't concern himself too much about The Matrix 2. As long as the Wachowski brothers' script was respected, fans would likely remain supportive, and Eric had no objections.
Instead, he anticipated that by now, the box office results from the second week of The Day After Tomorrow would have landed in his work inbox.
...
Upon arriving at the mansion on Kensington Garden Street, Eric got out of the car and turned to Caroline, who had exited with him. "I'll have Carter take you home. I'll finish what I need to do tomorrow, and we can go visit your aunt on Sunday, okay?"
"Yeah," Caroline nodded, saying her goodbyes to Eric before getting back into the car.
Eric exchanged a few words with Carter Moen, watching him drive Caroline away, then dismissed the other three bodyguards. Kensington Garden Street was one of the most secure neighborhoods in London, not requiring bodyguards to stay close at hand.
Once everyone else was gone, Eric noticed Mayer standing beside him.
"I almost forgot about you," he chuckled, saying, "There's no need to find a hotel now; you can stay here tonight. This apartment is quite spacious."
Mayer's heart raced for a moment, feeling her cheeks flush, but she obediently nodded.
Since Eric was coming, the mansion had just been cleaned yesterday and was spotless.
Eric opened the door and, along with Mayer, brought in a few simple pieces of luggage before leading Mayer upstairs to arrange a guest room for her.
*****
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