Seeing the man nodding, Jerry Hall asked curiously: "It shouldn't be easy to win, right? Hermès is very profitable, and the Hermès family won't be willing to let it go?"
"Melisandre has already obtained 21% of the shares of Hermès. As the single largest shareholder, even if we cannot acquire the whole company, we can still obtain the corresponding right to speak." Simon said: "Moreover, what Sophie envisaged is not necessarily Even if it is just a simple investment, it is very worthwhile to buy all Hermès. The details will depend on the outcome of negotiations between Sophie and the Hermès family.”
Regarding this acquisition, Simon's attitude is actually relatively optimistic.
The main reason is that LVMH, which once attempted to acquire Hermès, has a really bad reputation, because after many of LVMH's brands were acquired, the original teams were purged and their business philosophy changed greatly. In comparison, although Melisandre has always valued control over her brands, she is not as extreme as LVMH.
Therefore, as long as the two parties communicate properly, Melisandre is actually very hopeful to gain the recognition of the Hermes family. After all, Melisandre is not just Melisandre, but also relies on the entire Westeros system. The Hermès family should understand that if the dispute between the two parties becomes too tense and they take action to suppress it, even the top luxury brand like Hermès may not be able to withstand it.
Jerry Hall is more envious of Sofia Fessey. He envies her for following a certain man very early and thus being able to create a huge Melisandre Group along with the growth of the Westeros system, while she can only rely on it. Daenerys is having a little fun.
Thinking of this, Hall couldn't help but said: "Simon, Melisandre already has so many brands, more than eighty, covering all aspects, and they are still expanding. Sophie... Well, I mean, Mei Can Lissandra's management team really manage such a huge industrial cluster?"
Simon could feel the slight sourness in the woman's tone and said with a smile: "It was really not easy before. Now, in the information age, company management is also advancing with the times. In recent years, Sophie has been trying to build a The information management system covering the entire Melisandre Group, through a large amount of data collection and analysis involving all aspects of the operation of fashion brands, can achieve the best possible results for all brands in the group in terms of production, marketing, sales and even after-sales. Template-based unified management, this system has achieved some results so far, and after further improvement, it will not be a problem to expand to more brands.”
Jerry Hall obviously didn't understand much. After listening to Simon's words, his eyes were still confused.
Simon patiently explained: "This is actually a new economic model that has emerged with the advent of the information age, called the platform economy. For example, the Amazon mall owned by Yigrit is just an e-commerce transaction system. It can accommodate as many Brand, if you have experienced online shopping, you should be very clear, right?”
The platform economy is familiar to those who come later, but at present, it is still a business concept that Simon quietly proposed for the heads of various companies in the Westeros system to refer to and implement.
Simon also expanded considerably.
Not only new technology information platforms such as social networks, search engines, and e-commerce, but also at the physical industry level, combined with the current Internet big data technology, can actually be applied to a certain extent.
Melisandre is a case in point.
Moreover, Simon has almost a capitalist instinct and has been promoting similar concepts to various industries involved in the Westeros system.
For example, the Rivne Oblast in Ukraine is actually a big platform to a certain extent.
For another example, in Australia, Johnston Holdings has extensive layout of global mining assets. In addition to steel, Johnston Holdings is continuously deploying all key mining fields required by modern society. This is actually building a super large platform.
In the final analysis, the ultimate pursuit of the new platform economic concept that Simon personally summarized is still two words: monopoly! Monopoly resources, monopoly channels, monopoly pricing power, etc., control everything that can be controlled, and ultimately obtain excess profits.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Therefore, the so-called platform economy can actually be called something else.
For example, in e-commerce, mastering a super platform, formulating rules, indirectly controlling the life and death of many companies and making huge profits from it is actually a 'syndicate'.
For another example, the current Melisandre directly annexed many luxury brands to form a large-scale super fashion industry behemoth. Earlier, this was called a 'trust'. That's right, it's the 'trust' of the Sherman Antitrust Act in the United States.
Also, BHP Billiton, controlled by Johnston Holdings, has privately formed a tacit understanding with iron ore giants such as Brazil's Vale and Britain's Rio Tinto to formulate price alliances. This is called a 'cartel'.
In the end, the entire Westeros system directly or indirectly controls a large amount of assets involving various industries and fields, and has a considerable dominant position. This is actually the ultimate form of monopoly, 'Concern', more commonly known as 'Concern'. Chaebol'.
Nothing new, right
Of course, in modern society, smart people will definitely not straightforwardly use the various monopoly terms produced in the era of barbaric growth of capitalism that can easily arouse public stress reactions, so they will re-name them with various new names that are either neutral or positive.
The essence is still the same.
Regarding the Westeros system, Simon would certainly not be stupid enough to publicly declare that his business empire would become the world's largest economy, but privately, it was not just Concern, not just super chaebols, not just individual Economy, Simon's ultimate goal, is to hope that the entire Westeros system can become a country.
Within this country, there are distinct classes, a strict organizational structure, its own violent machinery, independent taxation and coinage rights to maintain the operation of the country, and so on. And the people of this country are called Westerosians.
Although the economic size of the entire Westeros system has reached a level equivalent to that of the world's leading countries, there is still too much to do to truly reach the level of a country.
Simon was not in a hurry, and kept pushing quietly, and even deliberately tacked here and there with a hammer to make people confused. However, in many aspects, it has actually already taken shape.
Inside Jerry Hall's restaurant.
When Simon mentioned Amazon, Hall realized it. He thought about it and said, "A unified management system may be a good idea. However, this may cause homogeneity problems between different brands, right?"
"Yes," Simon didn't feel that the woman was criticizing, but gave him an appreciative look: "This is inevitable, and it is also what Sophie has been trying to avoid. Just like Hermes this time, Melisandre didn't think of it. We must take it, or even if we can gain control, we will try our best to delegate power to the original brand family and corporate management, just to take this issue into consideration.”
Thanks to rapid development over the years, Melisandre's market value exceeded the $100 billion mark in the second half of last year.
It is still only the millennium.
It is conceivable that if the current trend of expansion continues, it is not impossible for Melisandre to develop into a super fashion giant with a market value of 500 billion or more in more than ten years. With such a huge volume, it is impossible to cover everything, so there must be choices.
…
Simon continued to stay in New York for two days. Before returning to the West Coast, news came from Sofia in Europe.
As Simon expected, although the Hermès family reacted violently at first, after some negotiations, they still accepted the fact that Melisandre held shares in the Hermès company. After Sophia made a promise not to increase her shareholding in Hermès within five years, , the Hermès family agreed to accept Melisandre’s representatives to sit on the company’s board of directors, and the two parties will cooperate in various aspects in the future.
In addition, the French authorities also made a judgment on Melisandre's illegal acquisition of Hermès shares and fined her 10 million francs, equivalent to less than 2 million US dollars.
Just three cups.
This is largely the result of Sophia's ongoing operations in France.
Even though there are many conflicts between the Westeros system and France, with the continuous rotation of political parties over the years, many things have continued to fade.
This is the benefit of a typical Western country.
With the defeat of the Alliance for the Defense of the Republic party in power in France in the past few years in the 1997 election, and even its failure again in the 1999 European Parliament election, this party once formed by de Gaulle is now in a state of collapse after successive splits. In the state of solution, he will definitely no longer be able to take into account the previous grievances with the Westeros system.
How wonderful that I can’t bear grudges.
The electoral wheel comes and goes, but capital remains forever.
Therefore, Simon, a big capitalist, is still carrying out various operations through various NGOs with a grudge, whether it is importing illegal immigrants to France or forming a gang network. Secondly, the French government has already formed and trained its own spokespersons.
After all, problems that money can solve are not problems for Simon.
As for colleagues in the French fashion circle, the most direct stakeholders, such as LVMH, which is still the industry leader even if its development is not as good as it used to be, or brands such as Chanel, are definitely not willing to see Hermès join the Westeros system, but equally, they are not interested. Must have enough courage to confront Melisandre who relies on the Westeros system.
The disparity in strength is too great.
Just like LVMH, its current market value is only over 20 billion US dollars, which is one-fifth of Melisandre’s size. What’s more, if you want to obstruct it, it is not as simple as simply offending Melisandre. There are other things behind it. The even more terrifying and huge Westeros system.
What's more, Melisandre didn't push her too hard. Even if some people understood that it was boiling a frog in warm water, it was not too hot after all, and they couldn't commit the crime of jumping out and getting a bloody head.
Let’s talk about Hermès.
After the two parties agreed that Melisandre would no longer acquire Hermès shares within five years, the biggest change in the Hermès family was that they no longer pooled the family shares to establish an absolute holding fund of more than 50% as before. This undoubtedly gave Meili Sandra will further take advantage of the opportunity in the future.
In fact, even if the shares are concentrated again, it will not matter.
Referring to the infighting in the Gucci family back then, the three monks still had no water to drink, not to mention the shares of Hermès were scattered among more than 50 family members. This time Melisandre did not let the entire Hermès do as LVMH did. The family shares the same hatred.
In short, the next step is hard work, and the future is long.
Hermès has temporarily come to an end, but Melisandre’s expansion will not be suspended. Sofia is also negotiating with several European famous watch brands to further expand Melisandre’s jewelry and watch business, including Cartier, Original Time and Space Both are the flagship brands of the luxury goods giant Richemont Group, but this time, because of the emergence of Melisandre, whether it is the Kering Group with Gucci as its main business, or the Richemont Group with jewelry and watches as its core business, None have been able to develop.
Unable to expand into giants and lacking scale effects, in the current fashion industry environment, the competitiveness of fashion companies that only hold a few brands will only become weaker and weaker. The result will be either selling out or completely declining.
John Rupert, a billionaire from South Africa, bought Cartier in 1988. Because of the emergence of Melisandre, John Rupert, who planned to make a career in the fashion field, had to transfer his family from South Africa. Assets are invested in other areas. Lack of sufficient support, Cartier has gradually become tepid over the years. It just so happens that the global economic situation is booming. At this time, it can be sold at a good price. After Melisandre sent the signal, John Rupert also gave There was a pretty positive response.
…
On the other hand, returning to the West Coast, Simon’s first stop was San Francisco.
Time enters March 2000.
Simon came to the Bay Area mainly to pay attention to another new 'platform' that was about to be released.
iBox-10.
It is the game console that started development more than two years ago.
Simon originally planned to use the original Microsoft Xbox as the name of the console jointly launched by Tinker Bayer, Ygritte and Daenerys. The reason why he finally decided to change it to iBox was of course not just to keep Tinker. The consistency in naming Colbert’s products is so simple.
Since 'i' is used as the beginning, it is not difficult to imagine that the networking attributes of this game console product are determined first.
You know, the game consoles of the same period, whether it was Sony's PS2, Microsoft's Xbox, Nintendo's SFC or Sega's Dreamcast, were not connected to the Internet. Even later, the mainstream Sony PS3, PS4, etc. were not connected to the Internet.
As for the reason, it was originally due to technical limitations. Later, in addition to cost, it was mainly due to manufacturers' concerns about piracy. To put it bluntly, just as Hollywood was facing a formidable enemy when video tapes appeared, game console manufacturers have mixed emotions about the Internet. You can imagine how much online games have taken away the console game market.
Therefore, Xbox was changed to iBox. For the same reason, many senior executives of the three companies including Tinker Bayer were also quite worried.
In the end it was Simon who made the decision.
Again, the reference is to the huge profits that video recorders eventually brought to Hollywood. Blocking out progressive technology often leaves oneself behind until it is completely eliminated.
Furthermore, the iBox-10 was originally planned to be released at the end of 1999, but was postponed to this year's Tinker Bayer spring conference, because various plans could not keep up with the changes.
For example, when it comes to processors, both Simon and the top executives of the three companies initially hoped to design them themselves and then have them manufactured by wafer factories, but later gave up. On the one hand, the ARM architecture subsequently promoted by Tinker Bayer cannot support current game consoles, and the PowerPC architecture obtained from the acquisition of Apple has lagged behind X86. After careful consideration, I finally chose outsourcing.
And, whether to outsource to Intel or AMD, after another negotiation, AMD was chosen who was willing to make more concessions.
There are also operating systems, the design and procurement of various parts, an online game mall after determining the networking capabilities, etc. In short, it is a very tedious task to complete a console that is only the size of a large dictionary. big project.
There are also the results of Simon’s pursuit of excellence.
Simon is very aware of the setbacks that Microsoft's first-generation Xbox suffered. Therefore, even if the product launch is repeatedly delayed, he does not intend to launch a semi-finished product. After all, a game console has a lifespan of five to ten years. If it fails at the beginning, it will be replaced during the period. Designing a solution is not easy.
So until now.
Simon has been personally paying attention to the whole process, and this time he came to Los Angeles was also the last time to confirm.
The release date of iBox-10 has also been determined. It will be held at Tinco Bayer’s spring conference on April 15 and will be officially launched during the following Easter weekend.