David Rubinstein returned to North America on the afternoon of November 3, two days before voting in the 1996 US election.
Instead of returning to New York directly, he first contacted Dume Point Manor and asked if he could drop by for a visit. He received a response and was reminded that today happened to be the birthday of his daughter Seattle in Westeros, so he urgently contacted his friends here to help choose one. A suitable gift.
When I came to Dumeijiao Manor, I found that it was decorated as if it was Christmas, with all kinds of colorful lights, balloons and inflatable dolls, which looked very warm.
It's just that when I saw a little girl celebrating her birthday, it wasn't so warm and I was a little scared.
Could it be said that Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" has been reduced to a level that a 3-year-old girl can understand? And what the little girl was holding was obviously either a simple picture version for children or the original version. So after expressing birthday congratulations and getting a very formulaic response, I couldn't help but have a few words with the little girl.
He was quickly silenced by the question.
As a liberal arts student with a background in law, Rubinstein also read this book as a leisure read after it became popular, but unfortunately not many of it could be understood.
Seeing the little girl's appearance of seeing through his true identity and turning her attention to the book again, David Rubinstein suddenly felt at a certain moment that maybe he was indeed old. Also, Simon Westeros and his family may really be aliens.
The glass curtain wall of Shell Villa.
Seeing the little girl being led away by Janet Westeros' hand, Rubinstein glanced at James Raybould who had unexpectedly appeared here, then turned to Westeros and said with a smile: "Simon , Siel’s intelligence is really surprising, but don’t you think it’s wrong to let your child become smart too early?”
Simon shook his head and said: "I have always felt that ignorance is a waste of life. If the child has an average IQ, I will not force it, but since Sil is different from ordinary people, there is nothing wrong with starting to explore the world early. I have also learned that geniuses often In the course of his life, he has fallen into a bottleneck due to various restrictions, and even went to painful extremes as a result, but these obstacles do not exist for Sile."
David Rubinstein couldn't help but think of Newton, who had turned to alchemy and theology in previous years. Could it be that the technological and resource limitations of the era prevented that scientific giant from continuing to move forward. And these will not be problems for Seattle Westeros just now.
Even if the little girl plans to go to Mars in the future, the Westeros family has the strength to support the other party in doing so.
After a few more casual chats, everyone started talking about business. Rubinstein told Simon in detail about the revised plan based on the results of the meeting with Chen Qing on the plane back.
Simon listened carefully and nodded: "The plan is good. We will first increase competition to promote the development of the industry. In the future, we can also integrate our layout through mergers. Then we will operate and go public. We will decide whether to cash out and exit or hold on for a long time based on the specific industry conditions in the future." have."
Simon said, not forgetting to look at James sitting on the single sofa next to him.
James Raybould said: "There is another most important issue, technology. David, have you considered this issue? The construction machinery industry in China is very backward. If there is only capital but no technology, it will be difficult to develop in the short term." Developed?”
"Of course, our team here has already begun operations," David Rubinstein said: "It is not easy to reach cooperation with a giant like Caterpillar, and we may also lose the initiative, but there are many second-tier players in Europe and the United States. The technology held by third-tier construction machinery companies is still very advanced compared to Chinese companies, and the operating conditions of many companies are not good. We can obtain technology through direct acquisition or introduction of cooperation and transfer it to China. side."
"There will definitely be obstacles to technology transfer at the level of authorities in Washington and other countries," James blurted out, then reacted and smiled: "I think this is not a problem for you."
Everyone knew it well, and Rubinstein also laughed and nodded: "Of course, no problem."
Simon added: "Speaking of this, David, you should be paying attention to the election process here in the country, right?"
"Yeah, I heard that Dole has given up and is on a final 96-hour nationwide roadshow to canvass votes for Republican congressional candidates everywhere."
There was no reversal in the 'October Surprise' that just passed. Bill Clinton's support rate is still ahead of Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole.
Now that defeat is a foregone conclusion, Bob Dole did not do any more useless work. Instead, he launched a 96-hour nationwide roadshow starting from November 1st, the day before yesterday, to canvass votes for Republican candidates for the House and Senate. , hoping that his supporters can vote for Republican congressional candidates everywhere to ensure that the Republican Party continues to control both houses of Congress after this year's elections.
This is also the 73-year-old veteran Republican politician's last contribution to his party.
After the election, Bob Dole will announce his retirement.
David Rubinstein not only worked in the Carter administration, but also has always been a political activist. Seeing that he really knew the election situation well, Simon continued: "That's right, David, Dole's defeat will basically not happen." If there is any suspense, I hope that after the election, you can invite the other party to join Carlyle’s board of directors.”
"Simon, I'm a Democrat."
David Rubinstein subconsciously said this, but when he saw the young man next to him looking at him unquestioningly, he hesitated a little and nodded: "I have no problem here, but I still need to discuss it with George and the others."
"I have already called George, including Dole, and also had some private contacts." Seeing Rubinstein nod, Simon was very satisfied and said, "Actually, there is no shortage of positions at Cersei Capital, but you I also understand that doing so is too conspicuous and will only make you take action. Of course, Dole joining Carlyle will only benefit you, just like the technology transfer that will be promoted. Now that both houses of Congress are under Republican control, this It's such a small thing, maybe I just need a greeting from Dole in the future."
David Rubinstein's polite refusal was actually just an excuse. Since he had already given up politics and engaged in business, businessmen must of course focus on profit, not to mention the obvious benefits of accepting Dole's membership.
What he just said was just Rubinstein’s instinct not to lose more control over Carlyle.
After calming down, David Rubinstein quickly returned to reality.
Wall Street fund managers, even George Soros, in the final analysis, just manage money for others. Their position is still just professional managers, and the capital behind the scenes is their boss.
There is no shortage of fund managers who are proud enough to take the initiative, such as the increasingly famous George Soros and John Meriwether of Long-Term Capital Management. But these are only a minority after all. Most fund managers are still Know your position very well.
That's the case with Carlyle.
What's more, Simon Westeros's request is not excessive, but it has many benefits for Carlyle. It would be unwise for him to oppose it just for the so-called initiative.
After continuing to chat for more than ten minutes, and seeing that the time was almost up, David Rubinstein stood up to leave.
Although today is the birthday of a certain little girl, there is no intention of holding a large-scale party at Dumeijie Manor, so it would be very inappropriate for him to stay.
Simon did not hold back and sent Rubinstein away. It was already evening, and Jennifer's uncle George Norman and his family soon arrived and began to prepare for the evening's family dinner in a lively manner.
Generally speaking, the number of people was not large. In addition to her own family, there were also Veronica who came from Australia and planned to stay for a while, as well as the Rayboulds and the Norman family on Jennifer's side. It was basically a family dinner. And it was a birthday celebration for two little guys, Seattle and Nicholas.
Janet's little Nick was born three days later than his older sister, Seattle. None of the three parents had the intention to go through it again and again, and it was all done in one go.
The next day is Monday, November 4, the day before voting in the general election.
The second weekend of the Halloween season has also come to an end.
Prior to this, in the first week of the Halloween season, the latest series of the Conjuring movie universe "Annabelle" was unstoppable in the face of new and old films. With a release scale of 2,739 opening screens and an excellent score of 7.8 points, it earned 47.36 million US dollars in the first seven days. In terms of box office, this result is second only to the first-week opening score of $51.69 million of "The Haunting of Morgue 2" in the first half of the Easter period in the Conjuring movie universe, ranking second among the five Conjuring movie universe films that have been released.
In fact, the most important point is that "Annabelle" has opened up a new series in the Conjuring movie universe in addition to the two series "The Conjuring" and "The Haunting of the Morgue".
After all, for a cinematic universe, two series are ultimately thin.
Now, with the successful launch of three series, all of which have been successful, the Conjuring cinematic universe truly deserves its title.
This past weekend, compared to last week's opening weekend of $34.53 million, "Annabelle" saw only a 27% year-on-year decrease in the second week, continuing to earn $25.19 million. Although this box office week spanned Halloween, the Conjuring still made the film The box office prospects look even brighter for the opening of the third series of the Cinematic Universe.
The cumulative box office in the 10 days after its release was 72.55 million U.S. dollars. Not only has it fully recovered its investment and started to make a profit, it is also expected that "Annabelle" may become the first Conjuring movie universe film to have a local box office exceeding 150 million U.S. dollars.
Due to the size of horror films and the nature of fast-moving popcorn, the curve of The Conjuring movie universe projects that often open well at the box office is usually difficult to sustain. Prior to this, the best-performing film was "The Haunting of Morgue 2" during Easter this year, which only had a domestic box office of US$137 million.
On the other hand, the reason for such achievements is not only the excellent quality of "Annabelle" itself, but also the main result of the IP brand of the Conjuring movie universe being deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Therefore, it has almost become a subconscious choice for many people to watch a Conjuring movie universe during a time like Halloween.
It also eclipsed other films from the same period, whether it was Sony's crime comedy "High School", Paramount's thriller "Skinny" or Disney's Whoopi Goldberg comedy "Mysterious Man" , all of them were reduced to cannon fodder almost silently.
On the Daenerys Entertainment side, there is another film worth mentioning during the same period, Paul Thomas Anderson's new film "Boogie Nights" produced by Gomen Pictures.
After earning US$9.39 million in the first week, the Gomen Pictures team increased the number of screening screens from 1,218 in the first week to 1,553. With the popular Halloween schedule and the film's continued reputation, the box office of "Boogie Nights" continued to grow in the second week. On the contrary, it increased and fell by 13%. In the second week, the revenue reached 10.61 million U.S. dollars, and the cumulative box office in the two weeks was 19.97 million U.S. dollars.
In the following third box office weekend, "Boogie Nights" only saw a year-on-year decrease of 17%, earning another US$5.79 million in three days, with a cumulative box office of US$25.76 million.
Based on the three-week curve and the film's market feedback, the Gomen Cinemas promotion team increased the local box office expectations of "Boogie Nights" from the initial US$30 million to more than 40 million.
Initially, it was thought that it would be difficult to recoup the US$15 million in production and US$5 million in publicity investment locally. Now, with only local theater distribution, "Boogie Nights" is enough to recover all costs and achieve profitability, and the film itself has been upgraded from average to A quasi-dark horse.
You know, although the box office records of Hollywood movies have been getting higher and higher in recent years, compared with the number of four to five hundred movies that only hit theaters every year, there are only a handful of movies that create box office miracles, and among all these movies, Take 1995 as an example, there were actually only 36 films with a domestic box office of more than 40 million US dollars.
This year is not over yet, but the relevant data will not differ much.
Therefore, "Boogie Nights"'s predicted revenue of over US$40 million has actually ranked among the 10% of Hollywood's most successful movies every year. What's more, the film's production cost of US$15 million is also on the low side among this 10%. Calculate the return on investment and the ranking will be even higher.
Relying on this outstanding box office performance, Gaomen Pictures has planned to increase the film's public relations efforts during the awards season in order to stimulate subsequent overseas distribution and peripheral channels.
In Simon's opinion, "Boogie Nights" is actually Paul Thomas Anderson's best movie, much better than the once more famous "Magnolia".
The story structure of "Magnolia" is completely imitated by the multi-line narrative master Robert Altman's "Intersection of Life". As a super fan of Altman, Anderson is understandable if this is the case.
However, compared with the multi-threaded narrative of "Intersections of Life", the structure of "Magnolia" is obviously jerky and over-exerted. Many characters in the film are roaring loudly and exerting themselves. Tom Cruise, who seems to be everywhere regardless of whether he is on screen or not, makes the entire story even more unbalanced.
On Monday, while paying a little attention to the box office situation in North America, Simon spent the whole day at Dume Point Manor, working with James Raybould to organize and plan the global industrial layout of the Westeros system.
As the U.S. stock market continues to advance at a rapid pace, the Westeros system's local investment has basically stopped, and is in a state of only getting in but not getting out. After all, with the market generally overheated, any current investment or acquisition is equivalent to taking over the market at a high level. Simon would rather hold a large sum of cash than make a risky purchase.
The main move recently is overseas.
Browsing through some recently compiled documents in the morning, Simon accidentally discovered a suitable target, the Spanish clothing giant Inditex, which was planning to build an OEM base in Ukraine. Zara, a subsidiary of this company, later expanded aggressively around the world, but Simon remembered it deeply.
Now is the initial stage of rapid growth of Zara's parent company Inditex. Although its foundation is very solid, it still needs funds if it wants to expand rapidly.
This is the opportunity for the Westeros system.
In fact, Simon initially valued the Express fast-moving consumer goods brand under Victoria's Secret's parent company LTD Group. However, under the leadership of founder Leslie Wexner, this LTD sub-brand has not developed as fast as Simon in recent years. Expectation is actually the reason why Wexner has lost his entrepreneurial passion.
In this case, of course we cannot hang ourselves from a tree.
Then, it is mainly China.
In addition to China Telecom's IPO, which will have a global roadshow early next month, Chen Qing also informed Simon of recent events via email.
Whether it is Zhu Momo's mother's idea to make Jinshu Film and Television City '***', or several real estate projects in Beijing, or even investments and acquisitions in other fields such as real estate, food, technology, heavy industry, etc., Simon has always adhered to Adopting a rather loose and wide-net mentality.
China is now a blue ocean of investment, on a first-come, first-served basis.
What's more, Simon also has the advantage of foresight that is unmatched by other capital entering China. He only said that in recent months, brands such as Evergrande, Country Garden, Haitian, Nongfu Spring, etc. have been finalized or negotiated, and each of them has been rewarded later. The rate is often hundreds or thousands of times.
Even if some of them deviate from their original development track due to the interference of Simon, the big butterfly, as long as some of them succeed, it will be enough to make the Westeros system full of money.
Therefore, I wish Momo’s mother wanted to have sex, no problem.
In fact, the shorter the duration of the Jinshu Film and Television City project, the more beneficial it will be for the Jinshu Series. If it really takes 10 years, and the costs in all aspects will rise, 2 billion will not be enough. Now, shortening it to 5 years, the budgets of many projects can be greatly saved, and the difficulty of advancing the entire plan will be greatly reduced.
As for the result, it is equivalent to less than 300 million US dollars. Even if it really messes up in the end, Simon deserves it.
And there will be no compensation at all.
A large number of projects involve land. If China's real estate industry drives land prices to rise sharply in the future, if necessary, the profits may be several times higher if they are sold.
Over there in the capital.
Since someone wants to let the Westeros system take over the mess of the Rose Garden Villa area in Changping District, they must give face in exchange for the approval of the golf club near Xiangshan. Even if the development is completed in the future, the demand for high-end villas in Beijing is not that strong yet, so just stock up.
If you stock up on houses in Beijing for ten or twenty years, you will definitely not lose money.
Just like a certain Hong Kong real estate tycoon, he has been resorting to tricks to hoard houses and land in the Mainland for 20 to 30 years, and the result is always a lot of money.
The key to this matter actually lies in financial strength.
Why mainland developers are so demanding that a project can even take only six months from land acquisition to launch? The main reason is that the capital chain is too tight. People like Simon, who have so much money that they have nowhere to spend it, hoarding real estate is actually a disguised investment. Regardless of whether they sell it in ten or twenty years, they are destined to make money with the growth rate of housing prices in the future.
Of course, it’s not good if the house is empty, but a golden house can hide a beauty, right? At that time, Simon can also try to hide the 'Jiao' in the entire villa area.