Hollywood Hunter

After returning from Tasmania, Jennifer stayed in Melbourne for three days before returning to Los Angeles.

In the entire Westeros system, only companies directly held by Westeros are counted, including the core four "women", as well as a large number of listed or unlisted companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, AOL, and Nokia. , The number has reached 36, and continues to increase, the number of other second and third-tier subsidiaries is even greater.

Although Simon has delegated power as much as possible, because of the large number of these companies, the daily affairs that need to be handled by him are still very heavy and complicated.

The position of female assistants in Simon's business empire is now equivalent to his eyes. She is in charge of an assistant office with six other assistants, and constantly screens and aggregates the information of all companies in the entire Westeros system and forwards them to Simon for processing.

Simon continued to stay in Melbourne to follow up the filming of "Batman: The Dark Knight" and remotely control the operation of the entire Westeros system.

Enterprises always appear vigorous in the early stages of development, especially the Westeros system, which has been expanding rapidly in recent years.

Florence.

The continued turmoil in Europe has not affected Italy. However, it has always been difficult for this country on the peninsula to have much power in Europe in terms of economy and politics.

Sophia Fissi also rarely cares about politics, and has been negotiating with the Gucci family recently.

The last male member of the second generation of Gucci, 85-year-old Aldo Gucci, passed away last month, which was nothing.

Meili Shandro has achieved absolute control over Gucci. In any case, it is difficult for the Gucci family to have much influence on this luxury brand.

However, the internal disputes of the Gucci family are well known to many people. Aldo Gucci did not arrange his own affairs. He held 12% of Gucci shares under his name until the last second of his life before giving it to his children.

Without pre-arranging a family trust, the children of Aldo Gucci will face the problem of inevitable inheritance tax.

A more serious problem is that none of Aldo Gucci’s children can provide enough cash to pay the inheritance tax. Although Gucci’s recovery is very rapid, Sophia has used all the company’s excess funds for business expansion. In recent years They are not going to give shareholders a cent dividend.

As a result, the Gucci family had to choose to sell this 12% stake.

Melisandre, who has the support of the Westeros system behind the scenes, is naturally the most suitable target to take over. Sophia also intends to take this stake. Together with this 12% of the shares, Melisandre’s shareholding ratio to Gucci is only Can reach 75%.

However, compared with the initial expenditure of US$170 million for Simon's acquisition of 63% of Gucci, this time 12% of the Gucci family’s opponents have quoted a high price of US$150 million. Although the outside world's assessment of Gucci's market value is increasing, Sophia cannot accept such an offer. After discussing with Simon, Melisandre's offer is capped at 100 million U.S. dollars, so Sofia has been bargaining with the Gucci family.

Because there is only 12% of the shares, there is no way to get involved in Gucci's control. The price is still so high. Except for Melisandre, the Gucci family can't find a second receiver in a short time.

Helsinki.

After Nokia's mobile communications department was owned by Westeros, without the drag of other assets, it received another $50 million in funding. Yoma Ollila quickly started the research and development of mobile phones and base station equipment related to GSM technology.

The direct border with the Soviet Union and the turmoil in Europe this year have made all of Finland tremble, but life is still going to pass.

In the first half of the year, Finland has begun to build the first GSM pilot network in Europe or the world. Although it is dominated by Germany's Siemens Group, Nokia has also taken part in it.

However, it will take at least one year for GSM to be officially commercialized.

Nokia's mobile communications department can't completely discard its many years of accumulation. In the first half of the year, it continued to launch two analog signal phones, and sales were fairly good.

new York.

When Simon and his female assistant spent their time in a cabin in Tasmania, James Rebald formally signed a shareholding agreement with San Diego-based wireless communications technology company Qualcomm.

In the last two years, Qualcomm has initially completed the patent layout of CMDA technology, and has been recognized by AT-T, Bell Pacific, Motorola and other companies. It has also established cooperative relations with Korean telecommunications companies and continues to obtain funds from all parties to invest in CDMA commercial technology. R&D.

However, after several consecutive capital injections by companies such as AT-T have quickly exhausted, Qualcomm has recently faced a shortage of funds.

If Westeros’ shareholding is not accepted, Qualcomm’s book of less than $200,000 of funds may not even be able to pay employees’ wages in August.

The strength that Westeros previously showed when it seized control of AOL and Cisco made Qualcomm's management quite scrupulous. However, it is difficult for Qualcomm to find a big money that can immediately draw out large sums of money in a short time. the Lord.

After some bargaining, Westeros acquired 4 million shares of Qualcomm's common stock at a price of US$35 million, accounting for 20% of Qualcomm's total equity at this time.

However, Westeros did not get the same terms as other holding companies that can maintain its own shareholding ratio in the subsequent financing or IPO process. Qualcomm can still be unrestricted after accepting Westeros’ shares. Continue to promote IPO work.

San Francisco.

With the further promotion of Eaglet Portal and World Wide Web technology, although July has not passed, the number of users of AOL has already exceeded that of June. It is expected that the number of users accessing the World Wide Web will increase by 55,000 this month. 60,000 households.

In order to keep up with the expansion of the market, both Igreat and AOL can only use the phrase "burning funds".

Eaglet is completely in a state of burning money. From browser software, server software, portal technologies to the underlying JavaScript language development, the R&D investment is huge, but the realization of sustainable revenue is far away.

Simon originally hoped to subsidize the portal department through software sales. This goal is obviously not realistic in the short term.

Carol Bartz, who is in charge of the software department, has a very strong personality. Although she has already started to get revenue from the installation of browser software, she not only did not intend to subsidize the portal department, but instead used the US$20 million funded by Simon. Mid-cut took away 10 million US dollars for the development of the software department itself.

For Jeff Bezos, the remaining 10 million US dollars, the maintenance of the portal team and the newly opened two new data centers, will probably only last until the end of August.

Fortunately, Jeff Bezos has already begun to explore the advertising business, and has successfully received two advertising orders from IBM and Microsoft. The amount is not large, the total is only 800,000 US dollars, and he also refused to increase the advertising by Gates. Investment in exchange for the recommendation of preferential development of browser software for Windows platform.

Simon was very satisfied with such a vision that did not count the gains and losses of the moment.

In order to let users get the latest features as soon as possible, the IE browser owned by Eaglet will be updated several times a month.

For customers, if the browser software on one platform is often updated more timely than the other, it will naturally be biased unknowingly.

However, although the Windows operating system has begun to rise, Apple and traditional Unix computers are still the mainstream in recent years. Although Westeros is a major shareholder of Microsoft, it is in order to promote the World Wide Web technology as soon as possible while avoiding other competitors. For the time being, IE browser cannot be biased towards Microsoft.

As for the rivalry and differences between Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz, Simon did not interfere too much.

Appropriate internal competition is also beneficial to enterprise development.

Moreover, it is not yet time for the software department to subsidize the portal. If that day comes, Simon will not condone Carol Bartz's waywardness.

In addition, at the end of July, 100 Internet cafes opened by AOL officially opened for business.

The excellent publicity and marketing in the early stage, the leisure environment no less than the coffee shop in the Internet cafe and the public's curiosity about the Internet have attracted a large number of customers for a while.

However, as initially estimated, these 100 Internet cafes are basically not profitable.

It costs $3 an hour, and each Internet cafe has 20 computers. The business hours are from 7 am to 11 pm. Calculated, even if an Internet cafe is fully operational, the theoretical income per month is only 28,800 US dollars. Half of it is considered good.

It just so happens that the approximate break-even point of each Internet cafe is $15,000.

If you want to make a profit, as originally expected, you can only rely on drinks and snacks or sell a little more peripherals.

Although the 100 Internet cafes have little hope of profitability, AOL has no plans to give up this business.

After all, Simon's fundamental purpose is to promote World Wide Web technology.

In the plan, after a period of exploration and operation, AOL intends to expand the Internet café industry by means of authorized franchise. Franchisees only need to pay a certain franchise fee to AOL to obtain a full set of technical and program support, and they can also adopt relatively relatively Flexible business methods, appropriately increasing the number of computers, increasing Internet prices, or developing additional businesses, are relatively easy to make a profit.

Los Angeles.

In Simon's absence, Daenerys Entertainment is still as vibrant as a small beast in the spring.

The financial data for the first half of 1990 has been completed. Although the management has not released detailed data, both the company's internal and external media have found a general idea.

In the first six months of this year, Daenerys Entertainment made a fortune with just an unexpected box office hit "Pretty Girl".

However, a film such as "Pretty Girl" that is enough to support a film company's annual performance, in the first half of the year, the revenue for Daenerys Entertainment at the box office of more than 160 million US dollars in the first half of the year, but not yet Daenery One-tenth of the pre-tax profit of Silk Entertainment in the first two quarters.

It’s just that "Batman: Hour of War", which hit the box office at the end of last year, made Daenerys Entertainment a lot of money in both the box office and the surroundings in the first half of the year.

In addition, since the end of 1988, Daenerys Entertainment has accumulated a series of "Screaming and Screaming", "Death Poetry Society", "Rain Man", "Sixth Sense of Supernatural", "Bodyguard", "Flying over Innocence", etc. A large number of blockbuster films, in the first half of 1990, continued to bring large sums of money to Daenerys Entertainment in overseas theaters, video tape markets and TV broadcasting platforms.

A series of hit reality shows and other TV drama projects produced by Daenerys Television Company are also bringing stable income to the company.

More than that, Daenerys' entertainment consumer goods department under Nancy Brill's management, including games and music businesses, has made a lot of money because of the company's series of projects.

Among them, the fighting version "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" video game released by Blizzard Studios in March, although not as popular as last year's role-playing version of the game, the cumulative sales of game cassettes exceeded 1 million boxes in three months, and the total sales are expected. The amount will exceed 2 million boxes.

Because of Nintendo’s special quota, five games can be released every year according to the special standard. In addition to the fighting version of "Teenage Ninja Turtles", Blizzard Studios will also launch a role-playing version of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" sequel in the second half of the year. EA, in which Silk Entertainment is a shareholder, will also provide three other games on the Nintendo console platform.

All these combined, only in the first half of 1990, Daenerys Entertainment's net profit after tax has reached 573 million US dollars. With the success of films such as "Human Ghosts Are Coming" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" in the summer, the annual net profit figures can at least double.

After the financial report was released, Amy Pascal was even in a trance during this period.

She officially signed a contract in March 1987, and the contract ended in March 1991, for a total of four years.

Based on the company's performance in the first half of the year and her original salary terms, the remuneration, cash and stock awards she can get this year, combined, is likely to exceed 100 million US dollars.

One hundred million dollars.

If someone told her a few years ago that she could become a billionaire, Amy would definitely feel that they were talking nonsense.

Hollywood executives, except for the top Steve Ross, Lou Vasalman, etc., are a few big bosses who have been in high positions for a long time and have achieved sufficient scale. In addition, the salary is actually not high, everyone is busy, just making hard money.

Even Steve Rose received only more than 36 million U.S. dollars in total salary last year, but this has been criticized by the media and shareholders.

If you really live in Hollywood, you all know that the most profitable people in this industry are just a handful of top stars.

As for the senior management in the circle, although they seem to have great power, they are also subject to many constraints. Most of the time, they have to be irritated by investors and do everything possible to accommodate celebrities. They are not as beautiful as outsiders imagine.

However, she, Amy Pascal, a woman, can make $100 million a year in an industry where women are generally discriminated and objectified.

In a daze, Amy even occasionally thinks very hopelessly, how should I spend such a large sum of money?

As the Westeros system expanded vigorously, time passed silently through the last few days of July 1990.

In the last week of July, the situation in the Middle East, where the situation is already tense, is getting more and more rainy.

Under the pretext of "secretly mining" Iraqi oil by Kuwait, requesting Kuwait to forgive its debts and provide huge indemnities to no avail, Iraq's most elite tank and armored division of the Republican Guards has already moved to the border with Iraq.

Not wanting the Arab brothers to fight each other, the Egyptian President Mubarak took the initiative to visit Iraq to speak on behalf of Kuwait, and left after a touch of dust.

The Middle Eastern countries, which also felt threatened, held a large-scale joint military exercise with the U.S. Persian Gulf Fleet on July 24 in an attempt to deter the Saddam regime. At the same time, international crude oil prices also soared rapidly in the last week of July.

In just one week, it has soared from the original low of $13 to a high of nearly $20.

Cersei Capital liquidated all short contracts on Monday, July 23, but in this way it was swallowed up by the rising crude oil prices.

By the end of the last week of July, crude oil prices soared, and long positions that had made huge losses had turned losses into profits in just a few days, followed by staggering profits.