Hollywood Hunter

San Francisco.

Inside the villa in the Woodside Mountains in the western suburbs of Palo Alto.

As the sky just lit up, he noticed the movement beside him, and Simon subconsciously reached out and pulled it over, grabbing a slender waist and bringing it into his arms.

Jennifer, who just picked up a small vest and wanted to put it on, was taken by Simon and clung to the man’s chest. Knowing that he liked this feeling, she didn’t resist. After snuggling for a while, she said softly to the child: Can I drive me? I will prepare breakfast for you and go back to work later."

After attending the reception of mca chairman Lou Wasalman last night, the female assistant had said no, but Simon was abducted to San Francisco.

Simon walked with big hands on the female assistant, and said, "Any time you sleep with me, Alison and the others will prepare breakfast."

"But, I want to help you prepare it myself."

"Ok."

Feeling Jennifer's persistence, Simon had to let go and watched the female assistant put on the tank top and pants and walked to the bathroom. He also quickly sat up.

The Woodside Mountains in the early 1990s were not as prosperous and crowded as the Internet era began. At the end of August, because they were also in the Mediterranean climate region, the surrounding area was still full of business.

The female assistant was preparing breakfast in the kitchen. Simon changed into a set of sportswear and left the house, jogging on the asphalt road in the lush green mountains.

This kind of unrestrained free activity opportunity is a bit rare for Simon now. The neighborhood of Malibu, where he lives, is relatively densely populated. His every move will also attract attention. On weekdays, he can only exercise in the villa gym. If you go to New York, The situation is even more so.

While running, a black Mercedes-Benz suddenly slowed down and approached, the window was pulled down, and a middle-aged man said to Simon through the window: "Man, there are two people behind you..." The young man recognized Simon, surprised and unexpected, and a little uncertain, and asked: "You are, eh, Simon Westero?"

Knowing roughly that the middle-aged man was kindly reminding himself that two people were following him, Simon stopped, smiled and nodded, saying hello: "Good morning."

The two bodyguards who were jogging with Simon also speeded up vigilantly to catch up.

Knowing that he had made a joke, the middle-aged man got off the car and greeted Simon. He turned out to be an Oracle executive who left a business card before he left. He handed the business card to Neil Bennett behind him. Simon continued to jog and returned to his residence after more than ten minutes. The female assistant had already prepared breakfast.

The two girls ab who came together this time were not allowed to help, and they brought breakfast into the restaurant themselves.

After eating breakfast, the female assistant talked about the cocktail party last night: "Vassalman has discovered our layout, what do you plan to do next?"

At the cocktail party last night, Lou Vasalman said in a straightforward manner that he knew that Simon was preparing to acquire mca, and also took the initiative to disclose to him some of the progress of the negotiation between Panasonic and mca, and bluntly expressed his welcome to Daenerys Entertainment. Bid for its own company with Panasonic.

Of course, Simon would not immediately join the acquisition negotiations according to Vasalman's wishes, but just made a fake and perfunctory.

At this time, listening to the female assistant said, Simon said: "America submitted the plan a month ago to buy out three regional telecommunications network platforms of Bell Atlantic, Bell Pacific and Nynex to develop the Internet. Do you remember?"

In the famous at-t splitting case in 1983, Bell Telephone and Telegraph, which once monopolized the entire U.S. telecommunications market, was dismantled into a national at-t and seven other regional telephone companies, which were mainly engaged in long-distance calls. Simon just said The three of them happened to be three of the seven little bells that year, and they were also regional telecommunications companies in more than ten states on the east and west coasts that were the focus of the AOL plan.

AOL is currently conducting business, except for a small number of self-built line networks, most of which can only rent the line network platform of the traditional Bell system.

With optimism about the prospects of the Internet industry, Steve Case submitted a plan to Simon at the end of last month, hoping to buy out the Internet access service franchise of three companies including Bell Atlantic, and pay a certain fee to the three companies every year. In the form of signing an exclusive agreement, this will not only prevent other Internet service providers from entering AOL’s business territory, but also gain more support from the three operators in Internet access services.

If the heads of the three regional telecommunications companies can see the future like Simon, it is impossible to agree to the plan proposed by AOL in any case.

You must know that once the exclusive contract proposed by Steve Case for a period of 20 years is signed, not only other Internet service providers, but even the three telecommunications companies themselves, will not be able to conduct ISP business alone.

However, the reality is that because the entire Internet industry in the United States has just emerged, and AOL has only more than 100,000 users, such a number is completely a trivial matter in front of the traditional telecom giants, and it is not worth entering the market in person. If you can Why not get an extra money by selling off the platform?

Therefore, the three companies all expressed interest in the proposal proposed by Steve Case.

It's just that the specific terms of cooperation have been seen by the parties for a month and have not yet reached an agreement.

The three companies believe that since AOL wants to buy out their line and network, it needs to pay based on the number of users as a whole, instead of the specific number of Internet access users proposed by AOL.

AOL’s plan is willing to pay three companies US$20 per user per year. Based on AOL’s total number of 150,000 users in August, the annual fee to the three companies is only US$3 million.

Although US$3 million is not much, considering the rapid growth of AOL users in recent months, one or two years later, as long as the number of AOL users reaches the million level, this figure is actually very impressive.

On the other hand, if according to the plan of the three companies, although they are willing to reduce the cost of a single user to one-tenth of the price quoted by AOL, which is two dollars, multiplying by the three companies is close to 20 million in more than ten states on the east and west coasts. For the total number of users, AOL just needs to pay a huge annual fee of 40 million US dollars from the beginning.

Moreover, the three companies also retain the right to re-negotiate every two years during the contract period.

A few days ago, when AOL injected capital to seize control of Westeros, the overall valuation was less than 100 million US dollars. Obviously, the three companies dared to speak so loudly because they must have seen Simon, the big benefactor behind the scenes.

Fat sheep will not be slaughtered, but not white.

Not only that, considering Simon's own optimism about the Internet industry, the three companies also asked for a stake in AOL.

In Simon's view, if he can sign this exclusive agreement, even if he really immediately puts out 40 million US dollars, he will be extremely happy. When the Internet industry begins to explode, the three companies will definitely find that they have made a big mistake.

However, this kind of thinking cannot of course be expressed, and it is even more unlikely that Simon will agree to the three companies buying shares in AOL.

So, this matter has been entangled for a month, and there is still no result yet.

Jennifer obviously remembered this incident and nodded: "I think if Bell Atlantic Three can reduce the price of a single user to $1, it should be more cost-effective to pay according to the number of users. However, what does this matter have with our acquisition of mca? relationship?"

Simon said: "My previous plan was to allow AOL to initiate the acquisition of these traditional operators when AOL has developed to a certain scale and the federal telecommunications regulations will be relaxed. The triple play, remember I said this. Ideas?"

"The telecommunications bill introduced during the at-t split in 1984 restricted long-distance telephone companies, regional telephone companies, and cable television companies from getting involved in each other's fields. It should be very difficult for the federal government to deregulate telecommunications." As he spoke, he suddenly understood, and said: "Do you plan to initiate an acquisition from a traditional operator now?"

"Bingo," Simon tapped on the porcelain plate with a fork, and said: "You can start collecting information on these three companies when you go back today, including their asset market value, operating conditions, management information, and industry-related information. Legal documents, and remember to keep it confidential."

"I will do it myself," the female assistant nodded and said, "However, in this case, we may have to raise a lot of money. Moreover, it is impossible to buy these three companies at once. Which one do you plan to choose? "

Simon blurted out: "Bell Atlantic."

The current Westeros system wants to eat three companies in one bite, whether it is at the financial level or the legal level.

Therefore, among the three companies, Simon's real goal is actually Bell Atlantic.

Bell Atlantic is the predecessor of Verizon, the second largest telecommunications operator in the United States after at-t in many years. Its business areas are also in the densely populated eastern United States, such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington DC, and Virginia. The regional population exceeds that of the United States. one fifth.

Of course, Bell Atlantic also has the highest market value of the three companies.

Even in the context of the continued decline of the U.S. stock market when the Gulf War broke out, as of the close of last week, the market value had exceeded $5.6 billion.

Taking into account the acquisition premium of about 30%, Simon wants to win Bell Atlantic, and needs to prepare at least 8 billion US dollars. Counting the 7 billion US dollars prepared for mca, the amount of funds that Simon needs to use this time will reach 15 billion US dollars, most of which need to be obtained through loan financing.

The acquisition of Reynolds Nabesque completed at the beginning of last year has now completely turned into a disaster after a year and a half. After the outbreak of the US debt crisis at the end of last year, there have been few corporate mergers and acquisitions exceeding $1 billion in this year. .

This large-scale acquisition of the two-line operation in Simon's plan will definitely detonate the entire federal media once the news comes out.

Speaking of it, if there is enough time, Simon actually wants to do everything step by step.

However, right now is the period of the lowest economic recession in the United States in the 1990s. Once the United Nations forces resolve the Gulf War in a straightforward manner next year, the federal economy will recover rapidly. At that time, if Simon wants to get Bell Atlantic again, the price may exceed tens of billions of dollars, and it may even usher in bidders.

In the longer term, if Simon waits until the peak of the new technology wave in the 1990s and then promotes AOL's expansion according to the original plan, then, when it involves large-scale mergers and acquisitions at the level of hundreds of billions of dollars, it is just that the obstacles of government supervision will exceed the current level. More than ten times.

Now that many things have changed, it is undoubtedly the best choice to start the expansion of the Westeros system in the telecommunications field in advance, taking advantage of the abundant funds available at the moment.