After February 22, it is impossible to say that there is not a single word about Simon's 30th birthday on various media platforms.
However, some people expected that because Simon Westeros's 30th birthday triggered a news frenzy, the media and the public once again focused on the super-rich personal wealth, and whether it should be restricted, and so on. The trend of public opinion did not happen at all.
Most ordinary people's impressions are basically just some scattered and ordinary thoughts.
Oh, Simon Westeros is 30 years old.
Then move on with your life.
The few people who can see through the phenomenon to the essence lament the increasingly powerful ability of the Westeros system to control public opinion. You know, when Simon Westeros turned 20, there was a lot of noise all over the world. At that time, the other party was just a film and television upstart who had just emerged in Hollywood, or combined with the huge primitive accumulation completed by taking advantage of the 87 stock market crash.
After all, it is completely different from now.
In any case, Simon's personal wealth is too much. The hidden power represented by this wealth has reached a level that can easily control a country. This is the consensus of many people, and all parties have more or less or Experience the threat firsthand.
However, unless there is a strong social change of a catastrophic level in the United States, it is basically impossible to destroy the Westeros system. However, if there is such a change, let alone whether the Westeros system can avoid it, can other capitals of the Federation stay out of it
In fact, there is another way, which is more extreme.
However, the question is, who dares to take the lead in planning a related operation against Simon Westeros
When Kennedy was assassinated, in order to avoid retaliation, the Kennedy family suffered a "curse" for decades, just to prevent this political family from returning to politics. The key to this matter is that when the Kennedy family left the White House and Washington, they lost the foundation of their power, and therefore were unable to take revenge.
For the Westeros family, if Simon Westeros encounters the same incident, the family's fundamental power and wealth will not disappear out of thin air.
Simon Westeros is a madman.
This is proven by whether it is a bombed-out estate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a mafia family that disappeared overnight in Italy, or the war in Rwanda. Therefore, let alone whether the extreme method can succeed, even if it succeeds, who can guarantee that under certain circumstances, in order to avenge Simon Westeros, there will not be a second madman in the Westeros family
In the final analysis, Simon's rise was so fast that many people had the idea of suppressing him and were left far behind before they had time to implement it.
For Simon himself, after his 30th birthday, no matter what many people in the outside world thought, his life did not change much. In the next few days, he continued to take time to meet with some people who came from all over the world to attend his birthday party. important guests to discuss a variety of topics.
The time has come to Friday, February 27th.
Finally, an important piece of news related to the Westeros system was publicly announced. Daenerys Entertainment and the Dutch company Philips officially reached an agreement to acquire Philips's record giant PolyGram in a stock-plus-share swap model. The transaction price of both parties was US$9.5 billion, 50% stock and 50% cash. Taking into account PolyGram Records' total debt of US$1.2 billion, the total transaction size was US$10.7 billion.
On the day the news was announced, Polygram's stock market value in Europe rose 6% in a single day, closing at the equivalent of US$9.26 billion.
As for Daenerys Entertainment Group, according to common sense, when a large acquisition occurs, the stock price of the party initiating the acquisition will inevitably fall. A series of major benefits such as "Titanic" and the recent "Blair Witch", especially the explosion of the game "Counter-Strike Online", have allowed the market to see the growth potential of this media giant in addition to its core film and television business. Daenerys Entertainment's stock price has been rising continuously for several months.
On Friday, Daenerys Entertainment's share price rose 2.1%, with a closing market value of US$371.5 billion. Compared with the market value of about US$310 billion when "Forbes" compiled the new annual rich list in October last year, the stock price has accumulated more than four months. The increase was close to 20%, still firmly leading the New York Stock Exchange.
In addition to the two companies involved, it was also reported that EMI Records in the UK was in acquisition negotiations with Daenerys Entertainment. Due to the announcement of this news, the stock price plummeted 11% in one day, so much so that an EMI executive On his Facebook page, he threatened to sue Daenerys Entertainment.
It's a pity that when reporters called for questioning, they couldn't give any valid reasons.
Select multiple potential acquisition targets for negotiation at the same time to avoid one party raising the price. This is a strategy adopted by many companies when initiating mergers and acquisitions. Because it is not clear that Simon's fundamental goal is only Polygram, in the eyes of many people, it is only EMI's fault that they have been reluctant to reach an agreement as soon as possible, and as a result missed the opportunity.
The entire record industry is declining rapidly, and it has missed this excellent opportunity to integrate into Daenerys Entertainment. EMI's plunge on February 27 will only be the beginning. Because of this failure, some major shareholders of EMI expressed strong dissatisfaction with the management, and internal turmoil is likely to follow. This just gives Daenerys Entertainment the opportunity to poach some famous singers from EMI.
Malibu.
At Daenerys Studios, the meeting about the acquisition lasted two hours. Nancy Brill, who was responsible for the acquisition negotiations, reported all the details of the preliminary agreement to Simon in detail. Everyone also discussed the next steps to deal with the authorities of all parties. transaction review matters, and even longer-term formal merger planning.
After the meeting ended, Daenerys Records CEO Richard Palmes and other senior executives left. Simon stopped Amy and Nancy and talked about another thing: "About Blockbuster, because of the Internet The recovery of the industry is much earlier than I thought, and we need to win this company in advance, or at least achieve absolute shareholding."
When Viacom achieved control of the Blockbuster video chain, Simon began to vigorously promote reforms. Over the years, Blockbuster has been constantly innovating its business model, especially the launch of Blockbuster Online. With the concept of the Internet, At the peak of the new technology wave last year, the video rental chain giant had a market value of nearly US$40 billion.
However, it seems that success is also 'online' and failure is also 'online'.
In order to promote online business, Blockbuster has completely divested itself of its previous franchise store model in the past two years, leaving only self-operated stores that can smoothly cooperate with online business. Moreover, the scale of self-operated stores has also been continuously reduced. Compared with the global With more than 5,000 chain stores in various places, Blockbuster currently has less than 3,000 stores left, split equally between local and overseas stores.
It is still the golden age of the video and DVD rental business. Blockbuster has proactively cut down 40% of its stores and abandoned the franchise model, which is almost equivalent to handing over a large amount of physical rental business.
On the other hand, although Blockbuster's hybrid online business has accounted for 38% of total revenue, due to the significant reduction in stores, total revenue has not grown positively in 1997 compared to its peak in 1995, but has shrunk cumulatively. More than 10%, even profits continue to decline due to large investments in online business.
During the heyday of the new technology bubble, this was nothing. As the bubble burst, Blockbuster's stock price plummeted.
Even if the Nasdaq starts to recover during this period, Blockbuster's recent market value is only about US$14 billion. Compared with its peak of nearly US$40 billion, the market value has shrunk by 65%.
Simon originally expected Blockbuster's market value to fall back to less than 10 billion US dollars before taking action. Now it seems that it is better to win it as soon as possible to avoid changes.
When Amy heard Simon mention this matter, she immediately thought of the plan she had discussed before: "Simon, it's true that the Internet industry has begun to recover recently, but all aspects are generally not optimistic about Blockbuster. Didn't you also say, Can we wait a little longer?”
Nancy nodded slightly in agreement.
Because she is directly responsible for this part of the business, she is more aware than other Daenerys executives of the negative attitude of Blockbuster's internal shareholders and external capital markets towards the company.
It has been nearly a year since the new technology bubble burst. Some shareholders and some core executives of Blockbuster have been hoping that the video rental giant can reverse its operating strategy, return to tradition, and once again increase the layout of physical stores.
Unfortunately, it has never been possible.
Blockbuster's share price has therefore fallen deeper than many other new technology companies.
Simon shook his head: "There is no need to wait any longer. Blockbuster is related to a series of very important layouts for our future. I have told you this more than once. You should make a plan as soon as possible and set up a team immediately to start with the public The market is absorbing Blockbuster's stock, and negotiations are underway with other Blockbuster shareholders to initiate a full acquisition."
Nancy still hesitated: "If other capital launches an acquisition of Blockbuster, it can be acquired at a premium of less than 15%. If we take action, the premium will be difficult to be lower than 20%, and the estimated expenditure may exceed US$17 billion. Simon, frankly speaking, I think that at least at this stage, Blockbuster is not worth so much. Is 15 billion US dollars already the limit?"
Simon said: "Try to negotiate a share exchange. The cash ratio should not exceed 30% this time."
Based on an estimated transaction price of US$17 billion and 30% cash payment, minus the shares held by Daenerys Entertainment, the final cash expenditure will only be approximately US$3.5 billion.
Amy added at this time: "Simon, our insistence on online operation strategy has been criticized by many shareholders. Daenerys' stock price during this period is obviously high in the eyes of many people. They will definitely want more cash. , I’m afraid 30% is difficult to negotiate.”
In theory, the shares obtained through stock exchange are equivalent to cash, and it seems that there is still so much cash after cashing out.
actually not.
Stocks acquired through stock-for-stock mergers and acquisitions usually come with a lock-up period in order to avoid immediate large-scale selling and impact on the stock price.
Daenerys Entertainment's current market value exceeds US$370 billion. Even compared to last year's peak market value of US$569.1 billion, the cumulative decline has reached 35%. The price-to-earnings ratio of about 70 times still seems too high. If the transaction is completed and Daenerys Entertainment's stock price begins to continue to fall, it will naturally mean that the market value of the stock exchanged for shares will shrink, and the loss will be in vain.
Simon is not worried about this: "The problem now is that most of the other shareholders of Blockbuster are not optimistic about our strategy, so they are the ones who want to exit. Moreover, those people should understand that it is necessary to package the stocks and sell them to us." , it’s more cost-effective than keeping it in our own hands or selling it to other capital. In short, we insist on our own price.”
Seeing that Simon was determined, Nancy said, "In this case, I will try to make Blockbuster's financial report for the next quarter as ugly as possible."
The control of Blockbuster is still in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment. It is not easy to run a business well, but there are too many ways to screw it up.
Blockbuster is related to Simon's long-term layout in all aspects for at least the next twenty years, so short-term ups and downs are irrelevant, and there is no objection to Nancy's proposal.
Amy said: "Simon, I remember you also said that if you can't take it completely, you can also take the absolute controlling stake in Blockbuster. In this way, the price we pay will be much less?"
"This is also a choice," Simon said: "However, if possible, try not to do this. Even if we have absolute control, if we continue to forcibly recommend our operating strategy, we will still receive continued criticism from other shareholders. We will definitely win it all." it's the best."
Daenerys Entertainment Group is very large, coupled with Simon's long-established prestige and high proportion of shares in this company, even if it has been listed, Simon still has the say here.
Blockbuster is different.
Simon doesn't want to have to implement his online rental and even future streaming plans step by step without a group of small shareholders who are constantly chattering behind him.
The three discussed some more details. After talking about the matter, Amy wisely left the conference room first, leaving only Simon and Nancy.
The small female executive felt the change in the man's gaze across from her. She lowered her eyes slightly and pretended to collect the information in front of her. She said: "The box office of "Titanic" has been so high in the past week. It seems that the local revenue is at least 600 million US dollars." ?”
"The mainland is second, and overseas is the big one," Simon replied, then changed the subject: "How about we fly to Mexico after get off work, and I'll spend the weekend together at my estate in San Lucas?"
Nancy glanced at someone: "Are we just the two of us?"
"That's up to you."
"I..." Nancy didn't pretend to be coy. She considered her appetite for a moment and said, "I will only stay for one night and will come back tomorrow."
If she really spent a weekend with a certain animal, Nancy felt that there was a high possibility that she would be broken.
Of course Simon didn't force it: "Okay."
Nancy thought of something and curled her lips: "Then, you can fool around for the rest of the time."
"You can stay and make sure no one else shows up to disturb us."
Nancy crumpled up a paper ball and threw it over, with a hint of unconscious coquettishness in her tone: "Bad guy, you want to commit murder, but I don't want to commit suicide yet."