Hollywood Hunter

Opposite Simon’s desk, a girl in an OL suit handed over several pieces of information, saying: “Boss, this is the latest meeting memorandum of the European side regarding Christie’s acquisition negotiations, and the collection and auction industry information you ordered. In addition, this is the work schedule for tomorrow in San Francisco."

Simon turned off the computer on his desk, just picked up a memo about the Christie’s acquisition, and said, “Let’s go back. You can read the rest of the information at home.”

Alison quickly put away the remaining documents and left the office with Simon in his arms.

Stepping into the elevator, Simon opened the memo and directly found the part he cared about most.

A few days ago, after agreeing to Sophia’s proposal to buy Christie’s auction house, the senior women began to negotiate with Christie’s shareholders who were interested in selling shares.

It has been in business for more than two hundred years. Like its rival Sotheby's, Christie's is already a listed company.

Because the auction industry has fallen into a downturn with the global economic recession, Christie's recent market value is only 430 million pounds, or about 670 million US dollars, which is only equivalent to 13 times the price-earnings ratio of its profit in the previous fiscal year. The stock price of a listed company tends to reflect its long-term business performance. A price-earnings ratio of 13 times undoubtedly represents that the capital market is not optimistic about the prospects of the auction company.

After determining the acquisition plan, Melisandre had secret contacts with Christie’s shareholders and management on the one hand, and on the other hand began to privately absorb the company’s stock. In this way, even if the acquisition cannot be completed in the end, Melisandre can make a small profit by buying low and selling high.

The main reason for this is that Simon is not determined to win this long-established auction industry giant.

During the initial contact, the Christie’s board directly proposed a purchase price of 20 times the price-to-earnings ratio, with a total value of up to 1 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to a 50% premium.

If it is a hostile takeover, the transaction price is actually not high. However, Christie's is different.

Mainly because of the limitations of the auction industry itself.

With a $1 billion investment, if Simon invests in the Internet, he may be able to obtain a return of hundreds of times in the future. If he invests in the fashion field and operates properly, he will be able to obtain a return of ten times in the future. However, because the auction industry mainly targets people and the annual market capacity cannot show a stable upward curve, even if it can be determined that this auction house can bring very stable income due to the continued economic prosperity in the next ten or two decades, But the value of Christie's itself will not rise too much. Ten years later, the market value can double or triple, which is already the limit.

Therefore, in Simon's plan, at most, on the basis of the recent market value of 670 million US dollars, Christie's will be given a 30% premium, which is about 870 million US dollars.

If it is not agreed within the 30% premium range, Simon will decisively abandon the acquisition.

At that time, it is not a violation of the rules to sell the stocks that have been absorbed in advance and take advantage of the stock price to make a little difference in the high stage after the news was leaked.

Not only that, Simon has no plans to pay all the planned US$870 million by Melisandre, and Cersei Capital’s Black Rock Asset Management has agreed to enter the market for US$100 million. Sophia is currently looking for other partner investors. , Simon's goal is only to achieve Melisandre's absolute control over Christie's.

It's just that Simon thinks so, others obviously don't think so.

In recent years, the areas that the Westeros system is optimistic about have basically shown a very strong growth momentum.

Perhaps, when Melisandre initiated a takeover offer to Christie's, many of Christie's shareholders and management had already changed their initial mentality of declining the development prospects of this auction house.

This is the company that Simon Westero is interested in.

Therefore, Christie's either wants to take the wealthy Simon as a victim, or has given birth to the mind that does not intend to sell.

The U.S. economy has not yet recovered, and Europe has just experienced a financial catastrophe. At this time, the possibility of a competitor bidding for this auction house with Simon is very low. If the two parties cannot reach an agreement, Simon has never publicly launched malicious intentions. The idea of ​​acquisition, Christie's is not worthy of hostile acquisition at all. This is something that all parties are well aware of.

In short, the prospect of this acquisition is very uncertain.

The memo in Simon's hand also shows this.

In the last two weeks, in two contacts, the Christie's board of directors has not yet made a concession.

Moreover, Christie's stock price has also risen to a certain extent. Compared with two weeks ago, the stock price has risen by 11%. The news has obviously leaked out.

Melisandre has secretly absorbed, and currently holds 3% of Christie’s shares, valued at more than US$20 million.

The journey from Malibu Daenerys Studios back to Cape Du Mee Manor was very short. Girl A sat quietly beside Simon and found that she was about to arrive home. The man was still reading the documents in his hand carefully, thinking about it, and saying, "Boss, I think the acquisition of Christie’s is not a good business."

Simon raised his head, looked at the girl beside him, and asked, "Why?"

Girl A has obviously made a lot of preparations, saying: "The auction industry itself has very little development potential, and the performance uncertainty is also very large. Even if the boss believes that the world economy will improve rapidly in the next few years, the cash investment of 800 million US dollars, It's still not worth it. Investing this money in other fields will definitely get more rewards."

Simon smiled and nodded: "You are right, but buying Christie's is more than just buying an auction house."

With such a word, Simon did not go any further.

In the top auction industry, basically the top group of people in the world’s pyramid are involved in the top auction industry. If you can own Christie’s, you will directly have a pass to build a huge network of contacts.

Simon's wealth at this time has reached a peak that ordinary people can hardly reach, and his power in Hollywood is no different at the same time. However, even if it reaches the current height, Simon does not think that personal connections are no longer important to him. On the contrary, for him now, personal connections are becoming more and more important.

On the other hand, the top social circles are only the light part of the auction industry ‘above the water’.

This industry is actually more exciting below the surface of the water.

Money laundering, tax avoidance, benefit transfer, etc.

If possible, Simon certainly hopes that all business activities for the Westeros system can be upright.

However, this is only a fantasy after all.

Simon has been discussing something with some core high-level officials of the Westeros system these days, greatly increasing the ‘investment’ of the Westeros system in the political field.

According to the preliminary plan, only this year, the Westeros system is not only the Schlapp consulting company directly controlled by Westeros, but also includes Daenerys Entertainment, Cisco, AOL, and Verizon Telecom. The core enterprises of the Westeros system, such as Cersei Capital, Eaglet Corporation, etc., are expected to total US$100 million in funds planned for political donations and lobbying in 1993.

In this era, having three to five billion US dollars is enough to squeeze into the "Forbes" 400 richest American list.

The Westeros system plans to invest in the political field in one year to reach 100 million US dollars. However, this amount of money must be spent. Even though a large part of it may be lost, this fund will not. Decrease, and will continue to increase every year in the future.

It's just that this part of the investment can't fully operate on the surface, and the registration according to the US lobbying regulations may be less than one-fifth of the 100 million US dollars.

But this is still not enough.

If you own an auction house like Christie’s, you can do a lot in the future.

People outside of the United States always feel that this country is so good and good. After being in it and experiencing more, they will probably understand that perhaps the system is different, but many things are actually the same.

Because human nature is the same.

Girl A's mind is quite clever, Simon just wakes up and she immediately understands, and wittyly doesn't say anything about it.

The next day is Thursday, February 25.

Simon flew to San Francisco early in the morning.

Eaglet’s 1992 financial report has also been released recently.

Compared to Daenerys Entertainment’s fairly ‘normal’ annual growth rate, the past year of Melisandre can be described as barbaric growth.

Therefore, when the new year's financial report was released, the entire Yigrete was a little bit uneasy in joy.

If this financial report is announced to the outside world, it really looks too eye-catching.

In 1991, Eaglet’s annual revenue was 491 million U.S. dollars, and the loss reached 381 million U.S. dollars. It almost lost a wealthy man who was ranked at the bottom of the Forbes 400 Rich List.

Whether it was a revenue of US$491 million in a brand-new industry sector or an eye-popping loss of US$381 million, they all sparked intense media discussions at the beginning of last year.

However, this year's data, if released, will definitely attract more people's attention.

In 1992, only the Amazon online store opened at the beginning of last year, relying on the super-traffic import of Eaglet's only interface on the World Wide Web, in the first year of operation, it achieved an annual turnover of US$623 million.

Although it is well known that the retail industry’s sales are often easier to achieve, and the profit margins are often very low. However, the annual sales of Amazon's online store of only 623 million US dollars still easily surpassed Eaglet’s 1991 year. Revenue.

In addition, relying on the nearly exponential growth of the World Wide Web site in the past year, Yigrete’s YWS department relied on application software sales, server space leasing, solution services, and even corporate e-mail addresses. 437 million US dollars of revenue, of which the most basic web design software sold 283 million US dollars, surpassing the 233 million US dollars of IE browser software.

Simon’s most important network business, compared with the annual revenue of 83 million US dollars in 1991, in 1992, because the traditional Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and other major advertising companies also began to advertise on the Internet platform, plus the original IBM, Compaq, For advertisers in technology fields such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Intel, etc., Eaglet's advertising revenue also increased significantly to US$278 million in 1992, an increase of more than 330%.

Finally, Ystore, Ypay and other application software stores and online payment tools, as well as scattered income from other aspects, also realized an annual income of 366 million US dollars.

All calculations show that in 1992, Eaglet’s total revenue reached US$1.937 billion in one fell swoop. Compared with 1991, the revenue growth rate reached 394%.

Even after calculation, the annual loss of Eaglet in 1992 eventually reached 139 million US dollars. However, in the face of such a crazy annual growth rate of performance, let alone a loss of 139 million US dollars a year, even if it doubles again. It's totally worth the investment.

If the 1991 financial data only made the outside world aware of the huge growth potential of the Internet industry, then Eaglet’s 1992 revenue performance was completely jealous.

The global economic downturn does not mean that there is a lack of funds in the hands of capital. On the contrary, it is more accurate that a lot of funds cannot find suitable investment directions.

Once Eaglet’s 1992 financial report was announced, it was like a bright light suddenly lit in a dark night.

One or two moths rushing over may only be burned to death by the flames of the lamp. When countless moths swarm in, the flames may be put out in danger.

This lamp of Eaglet has another obvious Achilles heel.

monopoly.

In the original timeline, the Internet industry began to rise in 1995, and it was basically a state where a hundred flowers blossomed. Netscape and Microsoft owned browser software, Yahoo provided portal business, and companies such as Amazon and eBay operated e-commerce. Services have not yet appeared, and basic software and services such as website design software, server leasing business, etc., are also shared by many companies.

Now, because Eaglet has built a patent barrier for the World Wide Web technology in advance, it basically represents the World Wide Web platform of the entire Internet industry, from the lowest level of tool software to server leasing, to the graphical interface browser, and even the original timeline. Online businesses such as portal websites and online shopping malls that have proven successful are all exclusively owned by Eaglet.

As a result, when the Internet industry began to explode, Eaglet was immediately supported.

The annual performance growth rate is close to 400%, and there is no need to persist for a long time, even if it only lasts for two or three years, Eaglet will grow into an industry giant with a revenue of tens of billions.

Other industries continue to be in a downturn due to the impact of the general environment. Everyone is cautiously looking for prey, but Eaglet is alone in a pasture full of fat cattle and sheep.

Capital comes to the world, from head to toe, every pore is dripping with blood and dirty things.

If there is a profit of 10%, capital is guaranteed to be used everywhere; with a profit of 20%, capital will become active; with a profit of 50%, capital will take risks; for 100% of profits, capital will dare to trample all human laws; 300 % Of the profits, the capital would dare to commit any crimes, even risking their heads.

Marx, "Das Kapital" says so.

Now, the Internet industry that Eagletech is involved in obviously represents more than 1,000% of the interests.