Hollywood Hunter

At the beginning of the new year, when the two acquisitions were finalized, the Westeros system began to formally begin to exert its strength in the Internet field.

After careful preliminary preparations, AOL launched the Internet free trial program on January 1, 1991.

As long as users under the three telecommunications operators of Bell Pacific, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX on the east and west coasts of the United States, they can install and access the World Wide Web platform for free by making an appointment, and get a free trial time of 3 hours per day for a month.

As of December 31, 1990, the number of end users of America Online was fixed at 820,000, and the number of Internet users accessing the World Wide Web platform in North America reached 1.16 million.

The AOL team predicted the growth rate of the number of World Wide Web users in the previous few months, and the free trial program is launched. In the next three months, AOL will welcome at least 1 million free trial users every month on average.

According to each user’s total trial budget of US$100 in access equipment and web browsing, AOL will spend an average of US$100 million per month for this, not counting AOL’s efforts to support the increase in human resources and basic equipment for the number of users. And other aspects of investment.

After all calculations, AOL will burn at least $400 million in funds for a three-month free trial plan.

In comparison, the entire year of 1990, AOL's annual revenue was only worth over 100 million.

Therefore, the most critical aspect of this risky and aggressive business plan is actually funding.

Simon had agreed to the IPO plans of AOL and Cisco last year. However, because the Gulf War broke out in the second half of last year and the U.S. stock market continued to slump, the IPO plans of the two companies continued to be delayed. This free trial can be described as AOL’s last fight before the IPO.

Other minority shareholders who hold 25% of AOL's shares are unwilling to be diluted by Westeros again, and Simon did not reluctantly. This time, the funds were obtained in the form of loans from Citibank through the relationship of Westeros.

After the three-month free trial program, AOL will officially launch an IPO regardless of the results of the program and the macroeconomic environment.

Other shareholders and management of AOL are under tremendous pressure, but Simon is full of confidence in this plan and the trend of the US economy.

1 million trial users in a single month, 3 million in three months, this figure is actually very conservative.

You know, in the 1990s that just passed, mainstream PC manufacturers such as IBM, Apple, and Compass had shipped more than 20 million personal computers, of which only the IBM series of compatible computers shipped 16.8 million units. At the same time, the number of global PC users successfully exceeded 100 million in 1990.

As the world's most developed economy, both PC shipments and holdings have a domestic market share of more than 50%.

Although the personal computers of this era are mainly used for office work, and office PCs account for a large portion, such a large personal computer user base, coupled with the user area operated by AOL is located in the most economically developed states on the east and west coasts of the United States. The number of 3 million trial users in a month is definitely not too much.

3 million expected trial users, if 20% to 30% can be converted into official users, AOL's free trial plan this time is considered a success.

After the first quarter, as long as the user growth meets expectations, AOL can at least ensure annual revenue of 500 million US dollars. With the growth of the number of users in the following three quarters, the actual revenue figure will definitely be even higher. Compared with last year's performance growth of more than 500%, this development speed is enough for AOL to obtain a very good IPO valuation.

After the IPO, AOL can continue to raise funds from the open market by issuing securities or additional stocks.

On the other hand, Eaglet also began to make efforts in the content field.

Just one week after Peter Butler officially joined Igreat after the New Year, he personally rushed to the Middle East to preside over the full coverage of the Gulf War.

Eaglet also launched the award-winning creation activity of "Everyone is a Novelist" in the column blog section.

Online novels, a literary genre that was later familiar to many people, actually appeared earlier than many people thought. Just like online games, AOL’s predecessor, Quantum Online, operated the ‘Online Novel Solitaire’ service as early as the 1980s.

After all, creativity has never been lacking.

However, the activity of ‘everyone is a novelist’ carried out by Igrete still tends to be traditional literary creation, and the period is also three months.

After the registered users of the Eaglet portal apply to the blog operation team, they can participate in this activity to start online creation. The subject matter is limited to novels, but there are no restrictions on the type. Science fiction, horror, suspense, etc. are all available. The rule is to submit updates at least once a week, and the final winner will be selected by the users of Egreat website through online voting.

Eventually, 1 first prize will be selected, with a bonus of 500,000 US dollars, 10 second prizes with a bonus of 100,000 US dollars, and 100 third prizes with a bonus of 10,000 US dollars. At the same time, the works created by these users are expected to be physically published and adapted into film and television dramas by Daenerys Entertainment.

A total of 2.5 million US dollars in prize pool, as well as publishing and film adaptation opportunities, the event has just been announced and attracted strong attention from Igreat users.

After all, most ordinary people actually have some creative dreams, which are difficult to implement only because of various constraints.

This online activity of Yigrete not only provides a platform with a very low threshold, but also provides a huge bonus enough to stimulate the enthusiasm of users.

For Eaglet, such an event can not only achieve the purpose of user production content that Simon has always emphasized, but also strengthen the interactivity of Eaglet’s social network. Moreover, through the title sponsorship of IBM and other companies, Eaglet has further developed its own advertising business, which can be described as multiple actions.

For this event, the Eaglet team specially developed a voting system, which is similar to the common like function on the Internet. Only registered users of the Email of Eaglet portal can vote. Moreover, in order to avoid the phenomenon of multi-vest swiping, voting users also need to bind an AOL account and can only cast one vote per day.

On the Hollywood side, successfully reached an acquisition agreement with MCA, and the first box office week after the new year passed quickly.

From January 4th to January 10th, the third week of "Home Alone" began painting. As it entered the working day, compared with the reversal of New Year's Day week, this week's box office fell by 34% and closed another $31.28 million.

The single-week box office fell from US$47.99 million to US$31.28 million. Although the decline was deep, it was actually very rare. The box office of many blockbuster films of this era may not exceed $30 million in the first week of opening, which is enough to show the phenomenon-level blockbuster characteristics of "Home Alone".

In three weeks, the total North American box office of "Home Alone" reached $111.9 million, easily squeezing into the top ten of the 1990 North American box office list.

However, with such excellent box office momentum, it has to face the shadow of the approaching war.

The time for the January 15 ultimatum issued by the United Nations for Iraq is getting closer and closer, but Saddam has no sign of withdrawing his troops from Kuwait. It is worth mentioning that the US government’s'hardline attitude' has also played a role. Very critical role.

The Iraqi side’s several conditional withdrawal proposals were all rejected by the US government.

On January 12, the U.S. Senate formally approved the "Authorization of the Use of Military Forces in Iraq Act."

Dark clouds overwhelm the city.

At the same time, in the month before the war, the U.S. stock market continued to fall by 6% under the shadow of the war. The Dow Jones Index fell back to less than 300 points, worse than before the 1987 stock market crash.

After completing the settlement at the end of 1990, Cersei Capital quickly re-raised a $3 billion hedge fund, which will remain the same size in the future.

The total amount of cash that Simon had previously transferred back to China exceeded US$8 billion, but with the continued cumulative gains in the second half of last year, the funds belonging to Simon in the Cersei Fund Management Company’s account still reached US$700 million. The Johnston family is also in hedge funds. 500 million US dollars were retained.

Before the war broke out, when most investors generally looked down on the prospect of the Gulf War, Cersei Fund Management's team began to bet again in the crude oil futures market and the North American stock index futures market.

The crude oil futures market has experienced the impact of the Kuwait War last year, and has not recovered its vitality so far, and can barely establish a few positions.

The main betting target this time is the S&P 500 Index futures.

In Simon's memory, the S&P 500 index rose by more than 20% within one month after the outbreak of the war under the multinational forces headed by the United States.

Moreover, due to the pessimistic outlook on the war, most speculators in the actively traded S&P 500 index futures market tend to be short, which made Cersei Fund Management's team very easy to establish in just a few weeks Long positions with a total value of more than 10 billion US dollars.

Although I don't expect Cersei Capital's hedge funds to send too much money to the Westeros system in the next few years. However, this time, because Simon's prediction of the war situation is different from most people's predictions, in the next few months, as long as everything follows the historical trajectory, Cersei Capital will still be able to obtain very generous gains.

Throughout 1991, Cersei Fund Management Company was able to easily get rid of similar Wall Street hedge funds in terms of profitability.

Do not seek to create miracles, only to surpass peers, this is Simon's performance requirements for Cersei Capital after entering the formal operating state. This is not easy for other fund companies on Wall Street, but for Cersei Capital, it is not difficult to do this by relying on Simon's prophetic advantage and its own sufficient operational team.

Time will not stop at all for the suppressed atmosphere of war.

On January 15, the final deadline, Saddam Hussein still failed to implement the UN withdrawal agreement. The multinational forces headed by the United States began to authorize the military for war, and Iraq’s millions of troops were also prepared to respond.

On January 17, at two o'clock in the morning local time, countless warplanes took off from American aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and military airports in Saudi Arabia, and flocked like a swarm to key military targets in Iraq that had been targeted in advance.

Many people originally thought that the Iraqi Air Force would fight back. However, the multinational force has shown an overwhelming advantage that completely disables the Iraqi army's ability to resist.

Iraq’s air defense system has almost no room to play in the face of American high-tech stealth bombers. The backward Scud missiles are equally vulnerable to the latest precision-guided missiles of the US military. The Iraqi Air Force has not yet made much response. Multinational force fighters are firmly suppressed.

In less than a day’s intensive air strikes, the first phase of the strategic goal of the multinational force was quickly achieved. Iraq’s domestic air bases and air defense facilities were destroyed by the pouring of guided missiles, cluster bombs, and air bombs.

The devastation of this war shocked the whole world.

International crude oil market.

With the continuous feedback of war news, the international crude oil prices that continued to skyrocket on the eve of the war began to take a turn for the worse after only two hours after the outbreak of the war.

On January 16, the day before the war broke out, the international crude oil price was as high as US$26 a barrel. A few hours after the war broke out, the international crude oil price dropped to a low of US$20, basically reaching the level before the outbreak of the Kuwait War last year.

Affected by the haze of the war, the North American film market saw a significant drop in the week before the war broke out.

After the box office of "Home Alone" dropped 34% in the third week of its opening, from January 11 to January 17 in the fourth week of its opening, the drop again reached 29%, and the single-week box office further dropped to 22.21 million US dollars. The cumulative total box office for the four weeks was $142.11 million.

Because the war situation has exceeded most people's expectations, although many people are still attracted by the smoke in the Gulf region, the North American film market has not cooled down further, but has begun to rebound in the new week.

Before the war broke out, the organizers of the American Film and Television Golden Globes had been hesitant to cancel the new awards ceremony originally scheduled for January 19. As the war situation finally became clear, the organizers of the Golden Globe Awards soon announced that the award ceremony will be held as scheduled at the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

This year’s Golden Globe Awards were only nominated for the best film in the drama and comedy category. Daenerys Entertainment accounted for three, namely "Dancing with Wolves" and "Life Intersection" nominated for the best film in the drama category. , Nominated for the Best Picture of a Musical Comedy, "Human and Ghost Love Is Not Over".

In fact, in the original time and space, "Pretty Girl in Wind and Moon" and "Home Alone" also received nominations for best film in the musical comedy category.

However, if Daenerys Entertainment accounts for half of the 10 Best Picture nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, it would be too dazzling. After weighing it up, Daenerys Entertainment finally only applied for the best picture nomination for three movies including "Dancing with Wolves".

Among them, "Dancing with Wolves" is the top priority and should not be missed. For the other two, depending on the attitude of the organizers of the Golden Globe Awards, whether they give or not, the impact is not too big.

In the end, all three films were nominated.

Fortunately, the three movies are well-deserved, so they did not arouse much controversy. However, some people in the media have raised objections to the failure of Daenerys Entertainment's "Home Alone" and "Pretty Woman" to be nominated for the best film in the musical comedy category.

After a few months of busy work, two acquisitions were finalized, but Simon did not have time to spare.

After the barbaric growth of the Westeros system in 1990, too many problems were unknowingly accumulated. In order to avoid the accumulation of hard times, Simon did not dare to slack off.

In addition, while continuously delegating more power to the management of each company, Simon's financial supervision of each company has become increasingly strict. This period of the beginning of the year, as usual, is the period for the financial review of each company.

Despite the heavy work every day, Simon appeared on the red carpet outside the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in the evening with Janet in costume.

After all, it is not just "Dancing with Wolves" and other three movies nominated for the best film, Daenerys Entertainment's "Pretty Girl", "Home Alone", "Ten Days in Danger" and other films are nominated in other awards On the same gains.

In addition to film awards, Daenerys Entertainment's reality shows and TV series have also received a large number of nominations in various types of TV awards, and they all have very strong potential for awards.

Therefore, before the award ceremony, Daenerys Entertainment had prepared a grand celebration party in Daenerys Studios in Malibu.