Hollywood Hunter

Upon receiving Simon's offer, the Hearst family fell silent again.

If it were before the start of all these turmoil, even if the shares of ESPN were lost and the huge compensation of US$370 million was paid, the Hearst family would not be hurt.

It's different now.

Because of the total blockade and litigation bombing of the Westeros system, the continuous abandonment of business partners, and the exposure of murder scandals that caused public outrage, the newspapers and magazines of the Hearst Group have recently been completely unsubscribed. The speed depreciated rapidly.

Like Simon's 100% control of Westeros, the Hearst family also firmly controls all the shares of Hearst Group, the ultimate parent company of Hearst Media Empire, through the personal shareholding of family members and family trusts. .

Although many of its newspapers, magazines, and television assets have joint ventures, most of the losses in this storm still need to be borne by the Hearst family.

With the deteriorating business conditions of the company causing its own cash flow to dry up, and external financing channels such as bank loans and bond issuance have been cut off, the Hearst Group now wants to raise US$370 million in funds, and only sells its assets.

However, not only the assets such as the major newspapers and magazines of the Hearst Group have recently depreciated sharply, but potential buyers will not let go of this opportunity to further lower prices. The Hearst family wants to cash out through the sale of assets, and can only sell in the short term. Half the price before the storm, that is to say, if it wants to raise 370 million US dollars, the Hearst Group needs to pay the price equivalent to the original double.

Be regarded as the shares of ESPN, the Hearst family just solves the troubles on the Westeros system, which is equivalent to paying 1 billion US dollars.

Even if many people in the Hearst family understand that it is the best policy to survive with a broken arm, it is difficult to persuade themselves and other members of the family to bear this one-time loss of $1 billion in blood loss and would rather shed a little blood and shed themselves.

Of course Simon would not ignore it after he made the offer.

Under the operation of the Westeros system, the media continued to criticize the Hearst Group highly. The federal authorities have recently launched other investigations against the Hearst Group under pressure from public opinion.

Because of William Hirst III’s absconding, after Doris Fitch’s family also filed an astonishing $600 million lawsuit, in order to avoid William Hirst III’s transfer of assets, the federal authorities also urgently challenged William III. Assets such as stocks and properties under his name were seized.

Not only was William III’s assistant Roger Hols, who had been arrested for failing to pay enough bail and continued to be detained, some other members of the Hearst family and some high-ranking members of the Hearst Group were also arrested by FBI’s Doris Fecher The murder case team frequently summoned to cooperate with the investigation.

The uproar of this murder continues to erode the credibility of the Hearst Group.

Simon did not let anyone disclose Doris Fecher's monitoring of the whole process of swallowing the drug and committing suicide, because this would easily make the public think of death. However, this kind of evidence that can completely lose the room for reversal of William Hurst III, he certainly will not ignore it, but is passed on to the FBI task force through an anonymous channel.

On the other hand, under the instigation of media and public opinion, the trend of unsubscribing from newspapers and magazines under the Hearst Group continues.

The competitors of many newspapers and magazines under Hearst Group will naturally not miss this opportunity. Recently, they have launched various marketing promotions and spared no effort to grab user resources from the media under Hearst Group. Apollo under Cersei Capital The management company deliberately set up a support fund of about 200 million US dollars to provide financing for newspapers and magazines that compete with Hearst Group's media.

The decline of the American paper media industry is unstoppable.

If it were decades ago, the Hearst Group could still regain its lost market share through various means after the storm. Now, due to the overall shrinking of American paper media users, this kind of user loss is basically irreversible.

The Hearst Group is slow to act. Under the influence of the Westeros system and other capital forces, many newspapers and magazines under the Hearst Group are unwilling to sit still.

During this period of time, the joint venture shareholders of seven newspapers under the Hearst Group have requested to buy back the shares in the Hearst Group’s newspapers, even on the grounds that the Hearst Group’s deep scandal affected the newspaper itself and the work of its employees. , Requiring the authorities to intervene to actively facilitate the transaction.

Of course, the prices offered by these joint venture shareholders are very low.

It can be said that under the urgency of the Westeros system, if the Hurst family cannot break their wrists as soon as possible, this established media group will fall apart due to the deterioration of all aspects of the company's operating conditions in at most one year.

After the weekend, Simon and Janet flew to the East Coast together. This week, Veronica stayed in Los Angeles to assist Daenerys Entertainment's management in some audit work before the listing roadshow.

The Hurst family is in a precarious manner, and the Westeros system is definitely not too easy during this period.

It is not only the need to deal with the public opinion storms caused by a series of revelations of the Hurst family, but also the vigilance and suppression of the continuous rise of the Westeros system from all sectors of the federal government and business circles.

In March, a series of lawsuits against the allegations of the ‘Cisco-AOL-Igreat’ Internet’s trio of monopoly trusts have only reached a settlement, and the others have entered formal proceedings.

The Westeros system is rich in wealth. If it is simply litigation, it is enough to bring many small companies into bankruptcy. However, the potential large-scale antitrust risks brought by these lawsuits are one of the things that the Westeros system has to treat with caution. Things.

Therefore, I have to admit that the Rwanda racist massacre in April not only diverted the attention of the federal public from certain bombings, but also successfully concealed the various problems faced by the Westeros system. Kind of litigation.

The Westeros system recently spared no effort to crack down on the Hearst Group and woo other established paper media forces, which has largely inhibited the North American media’s contribution to the topic of the "Westeros monopoly of the Internet industry".

After the federal politicians rushed to ‘express their opinions’ on the Westeros system some time ago, although most of the targets are still in a state of babble, Washington is no longer so good at talking about the Westeros system in many ways. At least, the various bills promoted by the Westeros system have all fallen into a stranded state.

On the other hand, Cersei Capital’s recent acquisition of State Street’s asset management department has also encountered obstacles in Congress.

The House of Representatives Financial Services Committee questioned the transaction and asked Cersei Capital to explain how Black Rock Asset Management already manages more than $200 billion in huge funds, how to ensure the safety of investors' funds 100%.

If Cersei Capital cannot make a guarantee, Congress will prevent further advancement of this merger.

This kind of questioning is a bit of a rogue in nature.

Because the House of Representatives did not define the ‘fund security’ required by it in its inquiry letter.

For the financial giants on Wall Street, ensuring the safety of investors' funds is the most basic requirement. The general rule is to proactively inform investors when conducting major investment activities, not to use funds for transactions outside the contract, not to conduct insider operations, and so on.

If it's just these, Cersei Capital can certainly guarantee it.

Although the overall asset scale of Black Rock Asset Management is very large, the investment purposes of funds from different clients in dozens of sub-funds have all been clearly defined in the contract. Many funds are even only Cersei Capital for custody. , Investment decision-making power is still in the hands of investors.

However, after Cersei Capital responded to the inquiries of the House of Representatives, the other party remained entangled.

After several trials, Janet figured out roughly that the members of the House of Representatives probably wanted Black Rock Asset Management to make a promise that it would only make money and not lose money. This is what the other party calls ‘safety of funds’.

In this world, there has never been a business that only makes money without losing money, and Wall Street has no such reason.

In the final analysis, Washington is deliberately making things difficult, and does not hope that this transaction between Cersei Capital and State Street Bank can be concluded.

Many large mergers took two or three years to pass the federal government's approval. This kind of thing is very common in the United States. However, for this transaction, the Simons are well aware that if it is delayed for too long, it will only change.

Because different from those entities, for Wall Street financial companies, investors are not only interested in the profitability of these companies, but also very concerned about corporate reputation, public opinion trends, legal risks and other factors. A little bit of big trouble is possible. Leading investors to divest a large amount of capital.

If it drags on for too long, State Street Bank withdraws capital in order to ensure that its customers are not anxious, or it responds that it should not abandon this part of the business easily, then this merger may be ruined at any time.

The couple arrived on the East Coast, Simon stayed in New York, and Janet went directly to Washington.

And also made up his mind that if the mediation with the House of Representatives is invalid, Cersei Capital will not hesitate to litigate, after all, the House Financial Services Committee's deliberate making things difficult is too obvious.

In a manor on the outskirts of Greenwich, Connecticut.

The time is already May 25th, Wednesday.

Simon did not go to Manhattan in the morning, but met Paul Spatz, a political lobbyist from Wisconsin, in Greenwich Manor.

Paul Spatz used to be the head of Verizon’s political lobby and corporate-affiliated political action committee. Some time ago, after the Westeros system’s sniper plan for this year’s midterm elections was launched, he grew up in Wisconsin’s Paul Si Pats was sent to the local area to take charge of the re-election of Senator Craig Ames, a leftist Democratic congressman from Wisconsin, who has been targeting the Westeros system recently.

Now, Paul Spatz has become Craig Ames’s rival to the Wisconsin moderate Republican Senate candidate Robert Hotwell’s campaign manager.

During this period, Paul Spatz worked with his temporary employer to formulate a detailed and clear campaign plan based on the specific conditions of Wisconsin, in the absence of popular political issues in the 1994 midterm elections.

Paul Spatz went even further and divided the voters in Wisconsin very finely, formulating special campaign plans and propaganda slogans to target the middle class, veterans, minorities, and other groups of voters.

In fact, this kind of refined operation is not without precedent in American political campaigns. It is just that most political campaigns, even for presidential elections, have to face a very critical obstacle, funding issues, to achieve this kind of refined operation.

The problem of money is the least problem for the Westeros system.

Although the current federal election laws are still very strict and have numerous restrictions on political donations, as long as you are willing, it is not a problem to bypass these obstacles.

For example, this time, the large number of voter surveys that Paul Spatz needs to control the team are all conducted in the name of the Wisconsin local business surveys of companies such as AOL and Eaglet in Westeros. This will allow Paul ·Spaetz’s team obtained valuable voter feedback data and was able to save a lot of money in disguised status campaign teams.

This model is also not new in American political campaigns. Even if things are exposed, and even subsequent investigations by the federal government are encountered, the result will only be a mess.

The fierce election campaign in the second half of the year has not yet begun. Paul Spitz has spent more than US$5 million in the Westeros system just in Wisconsin alone, which is equivalent to every participant this year. The average size of campaign funds for congressional candidates.

However, Simon didn't care about it, because he was very satisfied with the work of the political lobbyist.

Paul Spatz's idea of ​​appointing special campaign planning for different voter groups made Simon see a feasible plan that can quickly push the political influence of the Westeros system to the entire United States.

After all, the root of a political campaign is to get votes, and you are the winner by all means to get votes from a diverse group of voters.

In many previous political campaigns, politicians tended to please the middle class while offending the lower class; while gaining the favor of veterans, they offended anti-war groups; and even when they got the votes of male voters, they offended a lot of women. voter.

The result is often like a bear breaking a stick.

Even if some candidates think of the trick of targeted canvassing, they are often limited by factors such as campaign funds or the ability of the campaign team to organize and cannot achieve true precision operation.

The Westeros system has sufficient capital and political ambitions to influence the trend of the entire federal political circle. Therefore, this refined operation plan, which is often a little too big and inappropriate for other politicians, is almost the same for the Westeros system. Tailored.

In the study of the villa, Simon and Paul Spatz spent more than two hours discussing the matter in detail before turning the topic to the current sniper plan.

"In 1993, the average income of middle-class families in Wisconsin dropped by 2.7% compared to 1992, far exceeding the national average of 1%. The unemployment rate also reached 8.6%, exceeding the national average of 6.4%. Employment issues, This is the focus of our operations this year."

Located in the Great Lakes rust belt area where the heavy industry of the United States has declined, Wisconsin’s economy has been in recession for a long time. The deterioration of the US economic environment in recent years has made Wisconsin even worse.

Simon didn't interrupt, but just motioned to Paul Spices to continue.

"In fact, economic issues have also been the focus of attention by the local Wisconsin government and members of both houses of Congress over the years. Craig Ames has also attached great importance to this issue. However, due to the impact of the entire country’s economic recession, Wisconsin’s economic situation has continued. Deterioration is an established fact. As long as we operate properly, the public will not know the efforts of Craig Ames and other politicians. They will only see the continuous economic decline in their state, the rising unemployment rate and the repeated family income. Reduce, and then our candidates can take advantage of the momentum."

"At the same time, Craig Ames has been pushing to increase subsidies for low-income families and minorities in the past few years, and he also voted in favor of the federal fuel tax increase bill last year. These indirectly hurt The interests of the middle class, which occupy most of Wisconsin, happen to be that the average income of middle-class families has been declining in recent years, and their lives are not easy. Craig Ames is subsidizing the interests of the middle class in a way that harms the interests of the middle class. The bottom of the society, this will make him lose further points in this election."

Simon heard Paul Spatz say this, and suddenly said: "According to your statement, even without our support, Craig Ames seems to be difficult to re-elect, then do you think I still need you?"

This sudden question is a bit acute.

Paul Spatz just froze, and then smiled: "Boss, these are the impressions I want to instill in Wisconsin voters. Judging from your performance, my strategy is very successful, so you need me ."

Before the launch of the sniper program, the Westeros system had investigated Craig Ames.

As a skilled veteran politician, Craig Ames is also considered a pragmatist despite his political views on the left, so his support rate in Wisconsin has always been high.

The question just now is just a little temptation.

Nodding the same, Simon said, "Paul, you can continue."

Paul Spatz temporarily gave up the intention of thinking about his own boss's little problem just now, and then said: "In addition, we have also dug up some of Craig Ames during this period of time, and plan to release it at an appropriate time in the second half of the year. "

Because of the lack of clear political issues in this year's mid-term elections, many campaigns have become more silly games to reveal scandals.

Paul Spatz said that he handed a document to Simon, and said: "Craig Ames himself is relatively clean, has no gray income, no secret lover, and a very ordinary background. However, this politician did Build your own network. In the past few years, I have written college recommendation letters for many students in Wisconsin. You know, boss. Senator-level recommendation letters are very helpful even for the admission of Ivy-level prestigious schools. The average state Colleges and universities are even more equal to direct admission tickets. Of course, Craig Ames’ letter of recommendation does not lack students who are both good in character and academics, but most of them are the children of the rich. This is the problem."

Simon opened the folder and saw a copy of a recommendation letter, recommending a student named Paul Scott to the University of Wisconsin.

Paul Spatz waited for Simon to open the file and continued: "This Paul Scotter is the son of a local food company owner in Wisconsin, because the Scotter family belongs to Craig Ames. The main supporter, Craig Ames issued this letter of recommendation for Paul Scotter two years ago to help this young man whose SAT score is far from reaching the admission standard enter the University of Wisconsin. Then, according to our According to the investigation, Scotter was suspected of assaulting at least six girls at the University of Wisconsin in the past two years, and the incident was suppressed by the Scotter family. What we need to do is to break this incident and render Craig Aye The children of the unscrupulous and wealthy people supported by Ames willfully abused civilian girls on the university campus. This scandal will directly impact Craig Ames’ bottom-tier voters’ basics."