San Francisco.
In a villa in the Woodside Mountains on the western outskirts of Palo Alto.
The sky was just getting light, and when he noticed the movement beside him, Simon subconsciously reached out to fish it out, grabbed a slender waist and brought it into his arms.
Jennifer, who had just picked up a small vest and wanted to put it on, was hugged by Simon and pressed against the man's chest. Knowing that he liked this feeling, she did not resist. After cuddling for a while, she whispered like a child: "Let go." Can you drive me? I'll help you prepare breakfast, and I have to go back to work later."
After attending a reception hosted by MCA Chairman Lou Vassalman last night, the female assistant originally said she wanted to stop, but Simon abducted her and brought her to San Francisco.
Simon's big hands moved around the female assistant's body and said, "Stay with me for a while longer, Alison and the others will prepare breakfast."
"But, I want to help you prepare it myself."
"All right."
Feeling Jennifer's insistence, Simon had no choice but to let go and watched the female assistant put on her vest and panties before getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom. He quickly sat up as well.
In the early 1990s, the Woodside Mountains were not as bustling and crowded as they were after the start of the Internet era. At the end of August, because it was also in a Mediterranean climate area, the surroundings were still bustling with business.
The female assistant was preparing breakfast in the kitchen. Simon changed into a sportswear and left the house, jogging on the asphalt road in the mountains with lush green trees and few people.
This kind of opportunity for unrestrained free movement is somewhat rare for Simon now. The population near Malibu where he usually lives is relatively dense, and his every move will attract attention. On weekdays, he can only exercise in the villa gym. If he goes to New York, This is even more so.
While they were running, a black Mercedes-Benz car suddenly slowed down and came over. The window was pulled down, and a middle-aged man said to Simon through the window: "Man, there are two people behind you..." Halfway through the words, the middle-aged man said to Simon The man recognized Simon, and was surprised, surprised, and a little unsure, and asked: "Are you, um, Simon Westeros?"
Generally understanding that the middle-aged man was kindly reminding himself that two people were following him, Simon stopped, smiled, nodded, and said hello: "Good morning."
The two bodyguards who were jogging with Simon also quickly sped up to catch up.
The middle-aged man knew that he had made a joke, so he got out of the car and greeted Simon. It turned out to be an executive from Oracle, and he left a business card before leaving. Passing the business card to Neil Bennett behind him, Simon continued jogging and returned to his residence more than ten minutes later. The female assistant had already prepared breakfast.
Without asking the two girls AB who came with me this time to help, they brought the breakfast into the restaurant themselves.
While eating breakfast, the female assistant talked about last night's cocktail party: "Vasalman has discovered our layout, what are you going to do next?"
At last night's cocktail party, Lou Vassalman said straight to the point that he already knew that Simon was preparing to acquire MCA. He also took the initiative to reveal to him some of the progress of Panasonic's negotiations with MCA, and bluntly expressed his welcome to Daenerys Entertainment. Join Panasonic in bidding for its own company.
Of course, Simon would not immediately join the acquisition negotiations as Vassalman wanted, but would just make a fuss.
Hearing what the female assistant said at this time, Simon said: "Do you still remember the plan that AOL submitted a month ago to buy out three regional telecommunications network platforms, Bell Atlantic, Bell Pacific and NYNEX, to develop the Internet?"
In the famous AT-T split in 1983, Bell Telephone and Telegraph, which once monopolized the entire U.S. telecommunications market, was split into national AT-T, which mainly engaged in long-distance calls, and seven other regional telephone companies. Simon just said The three companies happened to be three of the seven Little Bells that year. They were also the regional telecommunications companies in more than ten states on the east and west coasts that AOL planned to focus on.
AOL's current business operations, except for a small number of self-built line networks, most of them can only rent traditional Bell System line network platforms.
With optimism about the prospects of the Internet industry, Steve Case submitted a plan to Simon at the end of last month, hoping to buy out the Internet access service franchise rights of three companies including Bell Atlantic and pay a certain fee to the three companies every year. Signing an exclusive agreement in the form of AOL will not only prevent other Internet service providers from entering AOL's business territory, but also gain more support from the three operators in Internet access services.
If the heads of the three regional telecommunications companies could see the future as Simon did, they would not have agreed to AOL's proposal anyway.
You must know that once the 20-year exclusivity contract proposed by Steve Case is signed, not only other Internet service providers, but even the three telecommunications companies themselves will not be able to carry out ISP business independently.
However, the reality is that because the Internet industry in the United States has just emerged, and AOL only has more than 100,000 users, such a number is completely trivial in front of traditional telecommunications giants, and it is not worth participating in person. If you can, Why not get an extra income by selling out the platform
As a result, all three companies expressed interest in Steve Case's proposal.
However, the parties have been scrambling for a month on the specific terms of cooperation, but still have not reached an agreement.
The three companies believe that since AOL wants to buy out their line network, it needs to pay based on the overall number of users, rather than based on the specific number of Internet access users proposed by AOL.
AOL's plan is to pay each user US$20 per year to three companies. Based on AOL's overall user count of 150,000 in August, the annual fee to be paid to the three companies is only US$3 million.
Although US$3 million is not much, considering the rapid growth of AOL users in recent months, in one or two years, as long as the number of AOL users reaches one million levels, this number is actually very considerable.
On the other hand, if you follow the plan of the three companies, although they are willing to reduce the cost of a single user to one-tenth of the price quoted by AOL, which is two dollars, it will be close to 20 million when multiplied by the three companies in more than ten states on the east and west coasts. The total number of users, AOL only needs to pay a huge annual fee of 40 million US dollars at the beginning.
Moreover, the three companies will also retain the right to renegotiate every two years during the contract period.
A few days ago, when AOL injected capital to seize control of Westeros, its overall valuation was less than US$100 million. Obviously, the three companies dared to speak so loudly because they saw Simon, the big financier behind the scenes.
If the fat sheep is not slaughtered, it will not be slaughtered.
Not only that, considering Simon's optimism about the Internet industry, the three companies also requested to invest in AOL.
In Simon's view, if he could sign this exclusive agreement, he would be extremely happy even if he paid $40 million immediately. When the Internet industry begins to explode, the three companies will definitely discover what a big mistake they have made.
However, of course, this kind of thinking cannot be revealed, and Simon is even less likely to agree to the three companies taking shares in AOL.
So, this matter has been entangled for a month, and there is still no result.
Jennifer obviously remembered this and nodded: "I think if the three Bell Atlantic companies can lower the price of a single user to $1, it would be more cost-effective to pay according to the overall number of users. However, what does this matter have to do with our acquisition of MCA? relation?"
Simon said: "My previous plan was to let AOL initiate acquisitions of these traditional operators when AOL develops to a certain scale and federal telecommunications regulations are relaxed. Three networks into one, remember I said this Any ideas?”
"The Telecommunications Act introduced during the split of AT-T in 1984 restricted long-distance telephone companies, regional telephone companies and cable TV companies from entering each other's fields. It should be very difficult to get the federal government to deregulate telecommunications," said the female assistant skillfully As he spoke, he suddenly understood and said, "Are you planning to launch an acquisition from a traditional operator now?"
"Bingo," Simon tapped the porcelain plate lightly with a fork and said, "You can start collecting information on these three companies when you go back today, including their asset market value, operating status, management information and industry-related information. Legal documents, please remember to keep them confidential."
"I will do it myself," the female assistant nodded and said, "However, in this case, we may have to raise a lot of money. Moreover, it is impossible to buy these three companies at once. Which one are you going to choose?" "
Simon blurted out: "Bell Atlantic."
It is impossible for the current Westeros system to take down three companies at one go, both from a financial and legal level.
Therefore, among the three companies, Simon's real target is actually Bell Atlantic.
Bell Atlantic was the predecessor of Verizon, the second largest telecommunications operator in the United States after AT-T many years later. Its business areas were also in the densely populated states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington, DC, and Virginia in the eastern United States. The regional population exceeded that of the United States. one fifth.
Of course, Bell Atlantic also has the highest market capitalization among the three companies.
Even with the outbreak of the Gulf War and the continued decline of the US stock market, as of the close of last week, the market value exceeded US$5.6 billion.
Taking into account the acquisition premium of about 30%, Simon needs to prepare at least US$8 billion in funds to acquire Bell Atlantic. Including the US$7 billion prepared for MCA, the total amount of funds Simon needs to use this time will reach US$15 billion, most of which will need to be obtained through loan financing.
The acquisition of Reynolds Nabisco completed at the beginning of last year has completely turned into a disaster a year and a half later. After the U.S. debt crisis broke out at the end of last year, there have been very few corporate mergers and acquisitions exceeding US$1 billion this year. .
Once the news comes out about this large-scale acquisition of Simon's planned dual-line operation, it will definitely detonate the media throughout the federation.
Speaking of which, if there is enough time, Simon actually wants to take steps step by step.
However, the United States is currently experiencing its most depressed economic period in the 1990s. Once the United Nations forces decisively resolve the Gulf War next year, the federal economy will recover rapidly. By then, if Simon wants to get Bell Atlantic, the price he will pay may exceed tens of billions of dollars, and there may even be bidders.
In the longer term, if Simon waits until the peak of the new technology wave in the 1990s and then promotes the expansion of AOL according to the original plan, by then, it will involve large-scale mergers and acquisitions worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but the obstacles at the government regulatory level will be greater than now. More than ten times.
Now that many things have changed, it is undoubtedly the best choice to start the expansion of the Westeros system in the telecommunications field in advance while the funds currently available are very abundant.