Trotting after Simon, Larry Ellison followed what he just said: "Simon, since you are optimistic about Oracle, how about like Microsoft and giving me the voting rights for the Westeros company's shares?"
Simon said bluntly: "Larry, just because I'm optimistic about Oracle doesn't mean I'm optimistic about you. If Oracle's stock price continues to fall, I think it's necessary to change the person in charge."
Larry Ellison wanted to climb up the pole, but unexpectedly dug a hole for himself. He laughed dryly and said, "Simon, you must be kidding, right?"
The two of them turned another corner together, and in front of them was Simon's mountain mansion.
Simon had no intention of inviting Ellison to have breakfast with him. He stopped jogging and said, "Larry, now that the Westeros Company has started to buy, this should be a big benefit to Oracle. Moreover, since a few years ago, From the time Westeros Company first bought Oracle to now, I have never interfered with Oracle's operations. You should understand my attitude. Since you appear here today, you have begun to worry about your control over Oracle. So, you Can you tell me, what happened to Oracle?"
Larry Ellison didn't expect Simon to hit the nail on the head, and for a moment he didn't know how to speak.
Seeing that Ellison was silent, Simon asked a more specific question: "The third quarter financial report will be released next month. What is Oracle's loss figure?"
"About, 30 million U.S. dollars," Larry Ellison hesitated for a moment before giving a vague figure. After speaking, he immediately added: "Simon, this is only temporary. Oracle's single-quarter revenue this quarter It can exceed US$200 million, a month-on-month growth of 26%. At this growth rate, Oracle's revenue can exceed US$1 billion this fiscal year."
Simon didn't listen to Ellison's subsequent defense and couldn't help but confirm: "A loss of US$30 million in one quarter?"
Oracle's revenue has continued to double in the past few years, and this year it has begun to expand its business to Latin America and Europe. The development rate is very strong, which is why it was able to reach a market value of US$3.6 billion last year.
However, Oracle's net profit last year was only over 41 million US dollars, and now it has lost 30 million US dollars in one quarter. Without major investment and mergers and acquisitions projects, the sudden huge losses can only mean that there are extraordinary internal problems within Oracle. serious problem.
Although Simon does not interfere with Oracle's operations, he does not know everything about the company.
Since the first half of this year, the media has been questioning whether Oracle's financial data contains exaggerated and false statements. Oracle's profits have also continued to shrink in the first two quarters of this year, which has triggered a continued decline in the stock price. Unexpectedly, in the third quarter, a huge loss of US$30 million suddenly occurred.
Larry Ellison was stared at by Simon's sharp eyes and had no choice but to nod again.
Simon simply stopped and asked, "So?"
Larry Ellison knew what Simon meant and no longer concealed it, saying: "Simon, this is just a strategic mistake. In order to get more bonuses, some sales staff counted all the customers who only signed the software purchase intention as their own." As a result, these customers did not adopt Oracle's software. I have been dealing with this problem in the past few months... "
Larry Ellison didn't continue at this point, but Simon understood.
So far, it's still not finished.
The new quarter's financial report is about to be released. Serious sales strategy mistakes, inflated revenue figures and a huge loss of $30 million are enough to anger shareholders to oust Larry Ellison. This guy came to intercept Simon today, probably because he wanted him to help endorse it.
Not to mention Simon's personal reputation for creating a miracle of wealth in just a few years, just the 15% of Oracle's shares held by the Westeros Company, plus Ellison's own 33%, can basically ensure absolute control over Oracle. control.
Early technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle did not have multiple shareholding structures that guaranteed founder control.
If Simon and other shareholders want to oust Ellison, even if he is the largest shareholder holding 33% of Oracle's shares, they will probably have no choice but to pack up and leave. This is how Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple.
After thinking for a moment, Simon said: "You should contact Jim and write me a report on the details of this matter and the follow-up treatment plan."
Larry Ellison didn't want to go around James Raybould's place anymore and said, "Simon, why don't we go have breakfast together? My car is over there. Or, you can take time to come to Oracle headquarters in the morning." , let’s talk about it carefully.”
"Forget it about breakfast, and I'm going to New York right away," Simon refused. Although he had no intention of replacing Larry Ellison, he didn't intend to make himself seem too talkative, so he said, "That's it for the time being. You go back and contact Jim as soon as possible, I don’t want Oracle to hide anything from our major shareholder again.”
After saying that, Simon no longer paid attention to Ellison and walked towards the door of his mountain mansion.
After leaving Woodside after breakfast and the private plane took off, Simon contacted James Raybould to discuss Oracle.
James has also been paying attention to Oracle's developments recently. If Oracle is not one of the companies that Westeros originally promised not to reduce its holdings in three years, he has already proposed to Simon to sell Oracle's shares instead of continuing to buy them.
Oracle's problems should be much more serious than what Larry Ellison described to Simon. Over-expansion has led to tight cash flow, a plummeting stock price has caused financing difficulties, and it may even face a class action lawsuit from shareholders due to previous exaggerated performance. If it fails to overcome this hurdle, even if the company does not go bankrupt, it may never recover.
The arrival of the Internet era will greatly increase the market demand for database software. Simon is not as pessimistic as James, but only requires Westeros to take advantage of the downturn in Oracle's stock price to continue to increase its holdings until the shareholding ratio reaches 20%.
Although it is unclear whether Oracle has experienced such a disaster in the original time and space, even if the business is really completely lost, Simon can now fully afford it.
There is a four-hour flight between the east and west coast.
After hanging up the phone with James, Simon sat in the window seat in the forward cabin living room, opened his laptop, and started studying the "Dune" video game that Nancy had given him a few days ago.
I don’t know how long it took, but a faint fragrance came from the air. Simon looked up and saw the A girl Alison Norris next to him. She also changed into a sky blue flight attendant uniform. She looked even more slim because of her hair. Pulled up, the delicate neck looks white and slender.
I have to say that each of the four vases selected by Janet can score above 80 points.
Seeing Simon raise his head, Alison said: "Boss, let me ask you if you want to have some lunch on the plane?"
Saying this, the girl couldn't help but glance at the video game on Simon's laptop screen, feeling a faint sense of frustration in her heart. Could it be that the attraction between herself and Betsy was not as good as a video game
Simon raised his wrist and looked at his watch. The time was eleven o'clock in the morning. This was West Coast time. It should have been two o'clock in the afternoon on the East Coast. Even if he arrived in New York, he could only wait to have dinner with Janet, so he said: "Whatever Prepare some, I'll go to the restaurant later."
Alison nodded, but did not leave immediately. She walked along the spiral staircase to the cloakroom on the lower floor, opened the safe in the cloakroom, picked out a box of watches, came to the living room again, bowed and handed it to Simon, saying: "Boss , do you want to change your watch? These are all set to East Coast time."
The girl was bending over Simon, unbuttoning her neckline to reveal a piece of disgusting white.
The distance between the two narrowed, and the alluring female body fragrance became stronger.
Simon chose a silver Rolex, took off the Patek Philippe on his hand and handed it to Alison, smiling and saying: "Okay, go prepare lunch, don't seduce me here."
With her thoughts revealed, Alison's face turned slightly red, but her eyes looked at Simon more boldly, and she stood there looking like she was letting him take whatever he wanted.
It wasn't until Simon turned his attention back to the computer screen and clearly ignored her that Alison had to give up, put the box of watches with a total value of more than one million US dollars back in the safe, and left the front cabin to help Simon prepare lunch. .
Of course Simon will not remain indifferent to the beauty in front of him, he just has his own self-control.
Moreover, in Simon's current position, women are indeed not particularly attractive to him because they are too easy to obtain.
For example, in Hollywood, there are many womanizers, but as far as Simon knows, the top studio bosses don't care much about women.
Robert Redford told him a joke during a private chat. In the early 1980s, a studio executive wanted to hold a swimsuit party.
The parties of studio bosses are more likely to attract men and women who want to get on top than any party of Hollywood stars.
When the hot bikini girls fill the mansion swimming pool, the boss suddenly receives a very important script and becomes excited to read it, unknowingly immersed in it. After reading the script, I realized that it was late at night, so I casually told the butler to end the party, picked up the phone and continued to discuss script revisions with the screenwriter, without paying much attention to the pool of fragrance from beginning to end.
It was already Thursday afternoon when we arrived in New York.
The next day, Simon summoned James Raybould, president of Westeros Company, Leon Black, president of Apollo Management Company under Cersei Capital, and others to formally discuss the acquisition of Bell Atlantic.
James Raybould, Leon Black, Amy Pascal and others had been preparing for the MCA acquisition for several months. They were all very surprised by Simon's sudden proposal of dual-line operations and the acquisition of Bell Atlantic, and Simon's decision is generally unfavorable.
After the AT-T split in 1984, the federal government strongly encouraged competition in the telecommunications industry. Therefore, there have been hundreds of large and small telecommunications companies in the United States in recent years. Speaking of which, America Online can actually be counted among them. One family.
Therefore, if you want to acquire Bell Atlantic, the legal obstacles are not big. The key is funding.
The two acquisitions planned by Simon, Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA and Westeros Corporation's acquisition of Bell Atlantic, require US$7 billion and US$8 billion in funds respectively, which adds up to US$15 billion.
However, after Cersei Fund Management Company settles and returns at the end of the year, the funds that Simon can transfer back from overseas, excluding the 28% capital gains tax, will only be about $6 billion. In other words, if Simon wants to complete these two acquisitions, it will need to raise at least another US$9 billion in cash.
9 billion US dollars. If it relies entirely on loans, based on a 10-year repayment cycle, the entire Westeros system will have to bear more than 1 billion US dollars in debt principal and interest repayments every year. In this era, even the largest companies in the Fortune 500 cannot guarantee that they can earn US$1 billion every year.
With such a heavy debt burden, the business empire Simon has built over the years may fall apart if he is not careful.
Moreover, in terms of acquisition targets, Leon Black, who relied on Drexel Securities in the leveraged buyout industry in the 1980s, also believed that Simon's choice to acquire a regional telecommunications operator was not a good choice.
By acquiring MCA, Daenerys Entertainment can not only further consolidate its foundation in Hollywood, but also gain comprehensive complementarity in music, television, theaters, and theme parks.
The acquisition of Bell Atlantic is not only a completely unfamiliar industry to Simon, but also after completing the acquisition of this company, Bell Atlantic's development space is really limited.
You must know that since the establishment of the Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1887, the U.S. telecommunications industry has experienced a hundred years of development. In terms of telephone business, the Bell System has developed to the extreme.
During the most prosperous period of leveraged buyouts in the 1980s, no company targeted the Seven Little Bells that were spun off from AT-T. This is roughly the reason.
In a standard leveraged buyout, after the merger is completed, it will quickly reduce its debt through splitting and selling. However, the regional telecommunications companies that experienced the AT-T split in 1984 tried every means to preserve their market share and avoid being caught up by countless small companies. Telecom companies gobble up their own territory. Once split and sold, the value of these telecommunications companies will plummet. Affected by telecommunications regulations, they will not be able to enhance economies of scale through continued expansion.
Simon's goal in acquiring Bell Atlantic was for business operations and did not intend to adopt a leveraged buyout, so it was even more unable to reduce debt through split sales.
Moreover, even if, as Simon envisions, the federal government may re-deregulate the telecommunications industry in the next few years, allowing regional telecommunications companies to expand market share through mergers and venture into long-distance telephone, cable TV and other fields in addition to short-distance calls, But it also takes time.
Prior to this, if Bell Atlantic was unable to absorb the huge debt incurred during the acquisition of Westeros, when telecommunications regulations were liberalized, it would be difficult for the company to invest too much capital for expansion in other areas, and it would be more likely to become other telecommunications giants. annexation target.
Simon knew that the opinions of James Raybould, Leon Black and others were valuable. He also knew that the planned acquisition of Bell Atlantic and the expansion after the completion of the acquisition were not what he had imagined. So simple.
Of the current seven Bells, many years later, only Verizon, the second largest telecommunications company in the United States, which evolved from Bell Atlantic, will remain. The other six regional telecommunications companies have disappeared in the wave of mergers around the new century.
However, behind the challenges there are also huge opportunities.
You must know that in the 1990s, not only the traditional telephone business and the cable TV business that were reopened to telecommunications companies, but also the two major industries of mobile communications and the Internet rose rapidly in the telecommunications field. It is these newly emerging fields that will create Verizon is a giant in the comprehensive telecommunications industry with a market value of hundreds of billions.
Discussions in the Westeros system about launching two acquisitions at the same time continued throughout the weekend.
In the new week, the discussion continues. "Forbes" magazine released the new annual list of the 400 richest people in the United States, which instantly attracted the attention of countless people.