Hollywood Hunter

Following Simon trot step by step, Larry Ellison followed what he said just now: "Simon, since you are optimistic about Oracle, how about giving me the voting rights of Westeros shares like Microsoft? "

Simon said bluntly: "Larry, I am optimistic about Oracle, but that doesn't mean I am optimistic about you. If Oracle's stock price continues to fall, I think it is necessary to change a person in charge."

Larry Ellison wanted to climb up the pole, but he didn't expect to dig a hole for himself, laughed twice, and said, "Simon, you must be kidding, right?"

The two made another turn together, and their villa was in front of them.

Simon didn’t mean to invite Ellison to have breakfast. He stopped jogging and said, “Larry, now that Westeros has started to buy, this should be a big plus for Oracle. And, since a few years ago Westeros bought Oracle for the first time. I have never interfered with Oracle’s management. You should understand my attitude. Since you are here today, you are still worried about your control over Oracle. Then, you Can you tell me what happened to Oracle?"

Larry Ellison didn't expect Simon to say it, and for a while, he didn't know how to speak.

Simon saw that Ellison was silent and asked a more specific question: "The third quarter earnings report will be released next month. What is Oracle's loss figure?"

"Probably, 30 million U.S. dollars," Larry Ellison hesitated before giving a vague number, and immediately added: "Simon, this is only temporary. Oracle's single-quarter revenue this quarter It can exceed 200 million US dollars, an increase of 26% from the previous month. At this growth rate, Oracle’s revenue can exceed 1 billion US dollars this fiscal year."

Simon did not listen to Ellison's subsequent defense, and couldn't help but confirm: "A quarter of a loss of 30 million US dollars?"

Oracle’s revenue has doubled in the past few years. This year, it has begun to expand its business to Latin America and Europe. The growth rate is very strong, which is why it was able to reach a market value of 3.6 billion US dollars last year.

However, Oracle’s net profit last year was only more than 41 million U.S. dollars, and now it has lost 30 million in a quarter. Without major investment and mergers and acquisitions, the sudden huge loss can only mean that there is a very serious problem.

Although Simon does not interfere with Oracle's operations, he is not completely ignorant of this company.

Since the first half of this year, the media has been questioning the existence of exaggerated and false statements in Oracle's financial data. Oracle's profits in the first two quarters of this year have also been shrinking, which has caused a continuous decline in stock prices. Before the third quarter, there was a huge loss of 30 million US dollars.

Larry Ellison was stared at by Simon's sharp eyes and had to nod again.

Simon simply stopped and asked, "So what?"

Larry Ellison knew what Simon meant and no longer concealed it. He said, "Simon, this is just a strategic mistake. In order to get more bonuses, some salespeople count customers who just signed software purchase intentions. As a result, these customers did not adopt Oracle software. I have been dealing with this problem in recent months..."

Larry Ellison said that he didn't continue here, but Simon understood.

The processing is still not finished.

The new quarter’s earnings report is about to be released. Serious sales strategy errors, exaggerated revenue figures, and a huge loss of $30 million are enough for angry shareholders to oust Larry Ellison. This guy ran to stop Simon today, probably because he wanted him to help endorse.

Not to mention Simon’s personal reputation for creating wealth miracles in just a few years, just 15% of Oracle’s holdings in Westeros, plus Ellison’s own 33%, can basically ensure absolute control over Oracle. .

Early technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle did not have multiple equity structures that guaranteed the founders' control rights.

If Simon and other shareholders want to oust Ellison, even if he is the largest shareholder holding 33% of Oracle, he can probably only pack up and leave. Jobs was expelled from Apple in that way.

After thinking about it for a moment, Simon said, "You can contact Jim and write a report to me about the details of this matter and the follow-up plan."

Larry Ellison didn’t want to go around James Rebold again and said, “Simon, if we have breakfast together, my car is over there. Or, you can take time to come to Oracle headquarters in the morning. , Let’s talk carefully."

"Breakfast is fine, and I'm going to New York soon," Simon refused. Although he didn't want to change Larry Ellison in his heart, he didn't intend to make himself look too good to talk: "That's it for now, you go back , Contact Jim as soon as possible. I don’t want Oracle to hide anything from our major shareholders."

Having said that, without paying attention to Ellison, Simon walked to the door of his mountain mansion.

After breakfast, he left Woodside. After the private plane took off, Simon contacted James Rebold to discuss the Oracle affairs.

James is also paying attention to the development of Oracle recently. If Oracle is not one of the companies that Westeros promised not to reduce its holdings for three years, he has proposed that Simon sell Oracle shares instead of continuing to buy.

Oracle’s problems should be much more serious than what Larry Ellison described to Simon. Excessive expansion has led to tight cash flow, stock price plummeting caused financing difficulties, and may even face shareholder class actions due to previous exaggerated performance. If this hurdle is not overcome, even if the company does not go bankrupt, it may never recover.

The advent of the Internet era will greatly increase the demand for database software. Simon is not as pessimistic as James, but asks Westeros to continue to increase its holdings while Oracle's stock price is sluggish until the shareholding ratio reaches 20%.

Although it is not clear whether the original time and space Oracle has experienced such a catastrophe, even if the business is really lost, Simon can now fully bear it.

There is a four-hour flight between the east and west coasts.

Hanging up the phone with James, Simon sat in the front cabin by the window and opened the laptop, and began to study the "Dune" video game Nancy gave him a few days ago.

I don’t know how long it took, a faint fragrance in the air came, Simon looked up, a girl Alison Norris appeared next to him, she also changed into a sky-blue flight attendant uniform, and she became more slender, because of her hair. Rolled up, the delicate neck looks more white and slender.

It has to be said that all of the four vases Janet selected can score more than 80 points.

Seeing Simon looked up, Alison said, "Boss, let me ask if you want some lunch on the plane?"

With that said, the girl couldn't help but glanced at the video game on the screen of Simon's laptop, feeling a faint sense of frustration in her heart. Is the attractiveness of herself and Betsy worse than video games?

Simon raised his wrist and looked at his watch. It was eleven o'clock in the morning, which was West Coast time. It should already be two o'clock in the afternoon on the East Coast. Even in New York, he could only wait for dinner with Janet. So he said: "Just prepare some, I will wait for the restaurant."

Alison nodded, but did not leave immediately. He walked up the spiral staircase to the cloakroom on the lower level, opened the safe in the cloakroom, picked out a box of watches and went to the living room again, bowed and handed it to Simon, saying: "Boss , Do you want to change a watch, these are all adjusted for East Coast time."

The girl was bending over at Simon, unbuttoning a buttoned neckline to reveal a greasy white.

The distance between the two is drawn, and the attractive female body fragrance is more intense.

Simon picked a silver Rolex, took the Patek Philippe from his hand and handed it to Alison, smiling: "Okay, let's prepare lunch, don't seduce me here."

The mind was broken, Alison's face turned red, but his eyes looked more boldly at Simon, standing in the same place as if he was picking it up.

It was not until Simon turned his attention back to the computer screen and apparently ignored her appearance that Alison had to give up, put the box of watches with a total value of more than one million dollars back into the safe, and left the front compartment to help Simon. Prepare lunch.

The beauty is in front, of course Simon is not indifferent, he just has his own self-control.

Moreover, in Simon's current position, because it is too easy to obtain, women are indeed not particularly attractive to him.

For example, in Hollywood, there are a lot of **** people, but as far as Simon knows, the top group of studio bosses don't care much about female sex.

During a private chat, Robert Redford told him a story about a studio head in the early 1980s who wanted to hold a swimsuit party wherever he went.

The party of the studio boss is definitely more attractive than the party of any Hollywood star.

When the hot bikini girls filled the swimming pool, the gangster received a very important script temporarily, and he became immersed in it unknowingly. After reading the script, I noticed that it was late at night, so I casually ordered the butler party to end, picked up the phone to continue discussing the script modification with the screenwriter, and didn't pay much attention to that Xiangyan from beginning to end.

It was already Thursday afternoon when I arrived in New York.

The next day, Simon summoned Westeros President James Leibald, Cersei Capital's Apollo Management Company President Leon Black and others to formally discuss the acquisition of Bell Atlantic.

James Rebald, Leon Black, and Amy Pascal have been preparing for the mca acquisition for several months. They were very surprised by Simon’s sudden two-line operation and the acquisition of Bell Atlantic. Simon's decision is generally not optimistic.

After the at-t splitting case in 1984, the federal government strongly encouraged competition in the telecommunications industry. Therefore, in recent years, there have been hundreds of large and small telecommunications companies in the United States. Speaking of which, AOL can actually be regarded as one of them. One family.

Therefore, if you want to acquire Bell Atlantic, the legal obstacle is not big, and the key is funding.

The two acquisitions in Simon’s plan, Daenerys Entertainment’s acquisition of mca, and Westeros’ acquisition of Bell Atlantic, require preparations of US$7 billion and US$8 billion respectively, which together are US$15 billion.

However, after Cersei Fund Management Company settled and returned at the end of the year, the funds that Simon could transfer back from overseas, excluding 28% of the capital gains tax, would be only about 6 billion US dollars. In other words, if Simon wants to complete these two acquisitions, he needs to raise at least another 9 billion US dollars in cash.

9 billion U.S. dollars, if it all depends on loans, according to the 10-year repayment cycle, the entire Westeros system needs to bear the annual debt principal and interest repayment amount of more than 1 billion U.S. dollars. In this era, even the top 500 giants in the world cannot guarantee that they will earn 1 billion US dollars every year.

With such a heavy debt burden, if you don't pay attention, the business empire Simon has built over the years may fall apart.

Moreover, in terms of acquisition targets, Leon Black, who relied on Dachson Securities in the leveraged buyout industry in the 1980s, also believed that Simon's choice to acquire a regional telecom operator was really not a good choice.

With the acquisition of mca, Daenerys Entertainment can not only further consolidate its foundation in Hollywood, but also obtain all-round complementarity in music, television, theaters and theme parks.

The acquisition of Bell Atlantic is not only a completely unfamiliar industry to Simon, but after the completion of the acquisition of this company, Bell Atlantic's development space is really limited.

You know, since the establishment of Bell Telephone and Telegraph in 1887, the US telecommunications industry has experienced a century of development. In terms of telephone business, the Bell system has developed to the extreme.

During the most prosperous period of leveraged buyouts in the 1980s, no company targeted the seven little Bells that were spun off from at-t. The reason is roughly the same.

Standard leveraged buyouts will quickly reduce their debts by splitting and selling after the merger is completed, but regional telecommunications companies try every means to preserve their market share and avoid being swallowed up by countless small telecommunications companies that come from behind. Once split and sold, the value of these telecommunications companies will plummet. Affected by telecommunications regulations, they will not be able to increase the scale effect through continued expansion.

Simon's goal of acquiring Bell Atlantic is for business purposes, and does not intend to adopt the leveraged buyout package, so it is even more impossible to reduce debt through split sales.

Moreover, even as Simon envisioned, the federal government may re-open the telecommunications industry control in the next few years, allowing regional telecommunications companies to regain market share through mergers and to get involved in long-distance telephone, cable TV and other fields. But it also takes time.

Prior to this, if Bell Atlantic could not absorb the huge debts in the acquisition process of Westeros, after the opening of telecommunications regulations, it will be difficult for this company to invest too much capital for expansion in other areas, and it is more likely to become other telecommunications giants. Target of annexation.

Simon knows that the opinions of James Rebold, Leon Black and others are all good words. He also knows that the planned acquisition of Bell Atlantic and the expansion after the acquisition is not what he imagined. It's that simple.

The current seven little Bells, after many years, will only be left with Verizon, the second largest telecommunications company in the United States that evolved from Bell Atlantic. The other six regional telecommunications companies have all disappeared in the merger wave around the new century.

However, there are also huge opportunities behind the challenges.

You must know that in the 1990s, not only the traditional telephone business and the cable television business reopened to telecommunications companies, but also the rapid rise of mobile communications and the Internet in the telecommunications field. It is these newly emerging fields that will create Verizon is a giant in the comprehensive telecommunications industry with a market value of 100 billion yuan.

Discussions in the Westeros system about the simultaneous launch of two acquisitions continued throughout the weekend.

In the new week, the discussion continues. Forbes magazine’s new annual list of the 400 richest people in the United States was released, which instantly attracted the attention of countless people.