During Simon's trip to Asia, many other things were happening at the same time.
On March 29, Ukraine held its first parliamentary election after the promulgation of the 1996 Constitution, with a total of 450 parliamentary seats. All 20 parliamentarians recommended by the Ukrainian Progressive Alliance Party supported by the Westeros system in Ukraine were easily elected. Even though the number is not large compared to the total number of 450 members, it is an announcement that the Westeros system has begun to directly participate in Ukrainian politics.
This is just the beginning.
Next, the Westeros system will gradually gain control of this country using a method of boiling frogs in warm water until complete control.
Another thing, on April 2, news suddenly came out that the Hearst family was seeking to sell the San Francisco Chronicle, which was the most important piece owned by the Hearst Group after it suffered a heavy blow in 1994. newspaper. However, compared with the valuation of US$700 million a few years ago, with the rapid decline of paper media and the well-known Westeros system targeting the Hearst family, the price Hearst hopes to get is only about US$300 million. , less than half of previous years.
Even so, after the news was released and until Simon returned to Los Angeles, no buyer contacted the Hearst family.
Everyone is watching and inquiring.
In addition to the fact that it is very irrational to invest in the acquisition of print media at the moment, the key to whether this transaction can be completed falls on Simon.
Frankly speaking, if Simon didn't nod, no one would dare to buy it.
In recent years, the Westeros system has become more and more powerful, and the Hearst family has actually been in such an embarrassing situation. They cooperate with the Hearst Group in all aspects with a certain degree of caution, for fear of offending a young person. Super tycoon, as for the sale of the San Francisco Chronicle, it was obviously not a whim.
The Hearst family has been trying to sell media assets in recent years. In addition to the general environment, they have a certain mentality of taking it easy to avoid getting water in the end.
It wasn't until rumors broke out that the Hearst family donated a family girl to be Simon Westeros' lover as a reconciliation between the two parties, then the Hearst family took the opportunity to sell the San Francisco Chronicle. It is even conceivable that if the "San Francisco Chronicle" can be successfully sold this time, other small and medium-sized newspapers controlled by the Hearst Group will be sold one after another, and the funds will be recovered to establish a trust, which is enough to ensure the long-term survival of the entire Hearst family. A good life.
When some people were still discussing a certain gossip with some weird mentality, Simon returned to Los Angeles. Apparently after some communication, News Corporation took the lead and began to contact Hearst Group.
The potential connection between News Corporation and the Westeros system is not a secret. As Murdoch began to take action, this has obviously become a clear signal. Other interested capitals have made tentative offers. After all, it is the first in the San Francisco area. For a large newspaper, if the price of around US$300 million can be obtained, it is still a very good deal.
Even some weaker media capital realized that they might not be able to grab the San Francisco Chronicle, so they directly tried out other newspapers of the Hearst family across North America, and also received very positive feedback.
Simon didn't expect that the Hearst family would do this, and it was quite straightforward.
But there was no objection.
In Western society, controlling a large amount of media is not much different from controlling an army.
By doing this, the Hearst family is equivalent to actively disarming and saying that they will never pose a threat to the Westeros system in the future. This is also a very smart measure.
Otherwise, Simon would never let go of his vigilance against the Hearst family even if he had a large amount of media under his control, because everyone else knew this. The family will only get worse and worse.
By converting all media assets into money, the Hearst family will return to a kind of nouveau riche status that was once most looked down upon by their old money position. They are very rich, but have lost the potential power equivalent to money, and may even become like some people. A fat sheep in your eyes.
Simon is happy to see this change in the Hearst family and will certainly not stand in the way.
When the Hearst family began to deal with their own media assets, Simon returned to North America, and Daenerys Entertainment also received good news. The acquisition of the old record giant PolyGram was approved by the two governments, and the two parties officially entered the delivery stage. , after the recording assets of Daenerys Entertainment are combined with Polygram, it will also become the world's largest record company, with a music copyright reserve of more than 4 million songs.
At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment has also begun to secretly absorb Blockbuster's shares, and will soon officially disclose its plan to annex Blockbuster.
Then, on April 10, Easter week in North America, "Titanic" was officially released in Chinese theaters on the other side of the ocean. In just three days of the following weekend, the Chinese box office reached 63 million, which is expected to only take one week. It is possible to successfully break through 100 million.
Not only that, relying on the Oscar halo and global box office miracle of "Titanic", this movie has quickly formed a phenomenon-level movie viewing craze in China. It can be said that it can easily reach the box office figure of 360 million.
Simon contacted Chen Qing privately and talked about the matter again.
The pirated VCD disc of "Titanic" will be released at the appropriate time. At the same time, the film will be released in China for a full month, and the total box office will be controlled at around 300 million yuan.
Don't be too conspicuous.
Chen Qing did not question it at all in her reply, and even said enthusiastically that the craze for "Titanic" would definitely further stimulate the sales of VCDs, and she would definitely not lose money.
Simon returned to Los Angeles this time and did not leave again until after Easter on April 12. The first stop was San Francisco.
Still about an acquisition.
Yigrit acquired the Instagram photo sharing website created by D Girl and others.
This was a plan that Simon had planned for a long time. However, before the Internet bubble burst last year, Instagram's stock price was too high, so he did not rush to take action. The Internet industry has begun to recover recently, which has also allowed Simon to accelerate the layout of many aspects, one of which is Instagram.
Because this is related to Ygritte's next social network layout.
For Yigrit, Simon has long divided the corresponding sectors, such as the software service business with cloud computing as the core, the e-commerce business with Amazon as the core, and the online search business with the rapidly growing Google search engine as the core. , social network business with Facebook as its core, etc.
Others, such as games, can only be regarded as supplements.
Simon is very clear about how big the several items he has finalized will grow to in the future. In other aspects, they may be able to become larger, but there is still a considerable gap between them and the trillion level.
Let’s talk about social networks. Only Facebook is definitely not enough.
With its development to the present, the new Facebook is, as before, a comprehensive social platform, covering all aspects. However, if it is limited to this, future growth will inevitably reach a bottleneck.
So we need to find another way.
Instagram is one of them.
Facebook once spent US$1 billion to acquire Instagram. In the early days, many people thought the price was high and thought that a simple photo sharing website would not bring much benefit to Facebook and could only be regarded as the icing on the cake. In fact, Instagram’s subsequent development To the surprise of many people, advertising revenue exceeded US$20 billion just 7 years after Facebook took over Instagram.
This time, under the guidance of Simon, Instagram, created by Girl D and other girls together, even though it has not made a big splash because the mobile Internet era has not yet arrived, it has developed very rapidly in the past few years. In 1997, even though the Internet The bubble burst, but Instagram’s annual revenue still grew steadily, reaching $460 million for the year, with a net profit of $130 million.
As for the reason, because the business model is simple enough, coupled with the increasing maturity of Yigrit's cloud computing service, the operating cost of Instagram, which only requires hosting, is quite low. Moreover, compared with other Internet companies, the intuitive visual experience of picture sharing, The effect of advertising on this website is very impressive, so the main advertising business is growing rapidly.
The final result is that, like Ygritte, Instagram's stock price, which has the attributes of a Westeros concept stock, is also quite strong. It has been around US$16 billion recently, equivalent to a price-to-earnings ratio of 120 times.
Simon's long-term layout for Ygrit has not changed. When the time comes, Ygrit will definitely be split up. However, before that, it must be integrated first. After the new technology bubble burst in March last year, until now Over the past year, Yigrit has been continuously acquiring various small companies that have been spotted here in advance. This acquisition of Instagram is considered the biggest move.
But it's also quite simple.
Simon arrived in San Francisco and personally participated in a high-level meeting between the two parties, and the plan was immediately finalized.
Ygritte will still acquire Instagram in a stock and cash model, with a price of US$20 billion, equivalent to a premium of about 20%, of which 70% will be paid in stocks and 30% in cash.
A 20% premium would have been unthinkable before the new technology bubble burst last year. Even now, with the announcement of the news, it is inevitable that some small shareholders will raise objections. Fortunately, the absolute control of Instagram is in Westeros. In the hands of the system, criticism can only be criticism.
Even if a lawsuit is filed, first-tier institutions that have some ability to compete with the Westeros system, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan, will not be stupid enough to get into trouble with the Westeros system over this matter. Small-scale investors will file a lawsuit. Just asking for trouble.
In the western suburbs of San Francisco, in a manor in the Woodside Mountains.
This is Wednesday, April 15th.
After a busy day, in the evening, Simon once again brought a group of Yingying Yanyan to stay here. Girl C, Girl D, Alice, Little Jenny, and even waist cum, leg cum, etc. who have settled in San Francisco came over.
Simon is now somewhat happy to see the women around him take the initiative to leave and return to a normal life in the eyes of the world.
There are really too many, and I am not iron-clad.
However, it can be regarded as self-inflicted, just like the waist, semen, and legs pinched together by him, the women are paired up in pairs. Even if Simon is not around, they have unconsciously formed their own stable living conditions.
Let’s talk about it, this is still an economic issue.
For a group of women here in Silicon Valley, having a net worth of more than 100 million is just the threshold, and only 1 billion is enough to be embarrassed to say hello to others.
With money, neither men nor women like the conventional living situation too much.
After all, with Simon's help, it was discovered that two women living together was actually quite good. Occasionally, a man would come over for a change, and life would be very nourishing. Why would you want to find a man who is not as good as yourself
A living room in the main villa.
We returned in the evening, went to take a hot bath together, and had a lively dinner together. Then everyone gathered here and watched TV together.
Little Jenny took advantage of her petite size to fall into Simon's arms.
On the left and right are waist essence and leg essence.
On the single sofa next to it, there are two girls, C and D, sitting opposite each other on the left and right. A certain former housekeeper who still has a cold personality seems to be a bit out of place, sitting on a round ridge next to girl D.
No one cares what is said on TV.
The topic of discussion was what the D girls would do next after Instagram was sold.
Simon held up little Jenny, who was wearing light clothes and was very restless, and said to Girl D: "Actually, I have been thinking about this issue intermittently for several years. The development of the Westeros system, in the eyes of many people, has Having reached an extreme, what should I do next?”
Girl D asked subconsciously: "Boss, do you have an answer?"
Simon felt the eyes of the pseudo-loli in his arms turning, and patted her buttocks: "Jenny, what do you think?"
"The 3G plan," Jennifer Bray blurted out, straightened up and hugged the man's neck, and continued: "Actually, I am more interested in the research of life sciences. Boss, I really hope you can keep us alive until Several hundred years old.”
Girl C next to her said: "Actually, I think it might be quite boring to live to be hundreds of years old, just like a group of vampires. Haha, in various stories, none of the vampires who live for a long, long time are actually happy. , death is the ending that makes them feel the most happy in an instant.”
When Girl C said this, everyone looked at Simon again. Even Alice, who seemed to be absent-minded, looked over, looking curious about the answer Simon might give.
Simon said: "I don't think so. There are really vampires. In my opinion, they live just to live, but we can make our lives more exciting and constantly set various goals for ourselves. Moreover, These goals are definitely not the common life ideals in the world.”
"Boss, what about?"
"Explore the mysteries of the universe and go to the distance of the starry sky."
Yasmin Gary, a waist girl, said softly next to her: "It sounds so big."
Leg girl Nadja Orman echoed: "It sounds very tiring."
Little Jenny laughed with a bit of schadenfreude.
"The goal is ambitious enough to be able to carry infinite time, and I'm just giving an example." Simon said. Seeing that the two goblins around him still didn't agree, he didn't mind and said with a smile: "So, you women."
"Simon, you are discriminating."
"Sexism."
"Okay, I'm guilty."
"I'll come, I'll come, I'll punish the boss."