Simon obtained the 1990 list of America's 400 richest people the day before the new issue of Forbes magazine was released on September 2.
On the next day, September 3, Monday, when the new issue of Forbes magazine was officially released, a large number of mainstream media in North America, which had been paying close attention to the new annual Forbes rich list, published relevant reports almost simultaneously. Obviously, these media also Relevant information was obtained in advance.
$21 billion!
This is Simon's personal net worth figure published by Forbes magazine in the 1990 Forbes 400 list of America's richest people.
Undoubtedly the first place.
Moreover, Simon has also become the first super-rich man on the 400 richest Americans list with a personal net worth of more than 10 billion US dollars. Sam Walton, who was originally expected to win this title, has dispersed Wal-Mart's shares to his children.
Besides Simon, the second person on this year's list is still John Kruger, the runner-up on last year's list. However, his personal net worth has dropped directly to US$5.6 billion, which is a huge gap from Simon.
Further back.
Third place, Warren Buffett, $3.3 billion.
Fourth place, Ronald Perelman, $2.87 billion.
Fifth place, Henry Hillman, $2.65 billion.
Outside the top five, sixth through ninth, sisters Barbara Cox-Anthony and Anne Cox-Chambers and brothers Samuel and Donald Newhouse tied , the asset figures are all US$2.6 billion.
From tenth to seventeenth, there is also a long series of ties, namely Sam Walton and his four children who control the Walton Group, and Pulitzer who controls the famous Hyatt Hotel Group. The two brothers of the Gram family, and the last Microsoft founder Bill Gates, these eight rich people have a wealth of US$2.5 billion.
Affected by the economic recession caused by the U.S. debt crisis, the nouns on this year's list have changed greatly. Many rich people's assets have shrunk significantly. Last year's top names include Sam Redstone, Ted Arison, Ross... The three Perots fell directly out of the top ten on the list.
The economic recession has caused a sharp decline in the wealth of the rich. This should have been a very important focus of this year's list. However, when the new list was released, almost all the media's attention was focused on a certain name that topped the list. attract.
Simon's personal net worth of $21 billion has more than tripled from last year's $6 billion.
However, after a detailed listing and analysis of Simon's personal assets by Forbes magazine, it was found that his personal net worth of US$21 billion has caused much less controversy than last year.
Among the series of assets under Simon's name, the one that has attracted the most attention this year should be the large sums of money he has continuously earned from the Japanese financial market and crude oil futures market through Cersei Capital.
This asset, which was exposed at the beginning of the year, reached US$4.5 billion. After the operation of the crude oil futures market in the first half of the year, "Forbes" magazine estimated that Simon's overseas cash assets should be around US$8 billion. This alone exceeds Simon's personal net worth last year was $6 billion.
Subsequently, "Forbes" magazine gave an assessment of Daenerys' entertainment assets at US$8 billion to US$10 billion.
According to "Forbes" magazine, in order to avoid the controversy caused by last year's valuation, "Forbes" invited multiple Wall Street financial and accounting teams to participate in the valuation this time, and finally came up with a valuation range of 8 billion to 10 billion US dollars. .
Is Daenerys Entertainment worth that much
In response to this doubt, "Forbes" magazine gave a financial report of Daenerys Entertainment for the first half of 1990. The net profit after tax for the two quarters was US$573 million, exceeding the seven major Hollywood companies. any of them.
Moreover, with the distribution of follow-up video tapes, TV, derivatives and other channels of its super-blockbuster films, Daenerys Entertainment can ensure that it will maintain annual revenue of US$1 billion in the next two to three years as long as there are no unexpected huge losses. Net profit scale.
Comparing Fortune magazine's list of the top 400 U.S. companies in the first half of the year, among companies with a net profit of US$1 billion in the previous fiscal year, Boeing, which has the lowest market capitalization, recently had a stock price of US$15.6 billion. In addition, cleaning and cleaning companies Johnson & Johnson are two daily necessities giants with net profits of US$1 billion. One has a market value of US$21.8 billion, and the other has a market value of US$18.6 billion.
Therefore, in terms of profit scale, Daenerys Entertainment’s valuation of US$8 billion to US$10 billion is definitely very low.
At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment owns three movie labels with a large number of blockbuster projects, Daenerys Television, 35% stake in Blockbuster, Blizzard Studios, and 35% stake in EA, which is a potential gold mine. Marvel Entertainment and DC movie universe rights, etc., these real assets are enough to support the huge valuation of Daenerys Entertainment.
It can be seen that the two assets, cash and Daenerys Entertainment, held in Simon's personal name, when added together, are close to Simon's personal net worth figure given by Forbes magazine.
In addition, Westeros Corporation also has a large number of listed or unlisted company assets under its name.
Among the stocks of listed technology companies purchased during the 1987 stock market crash, there are still 19 companies left, and the total market value of related companies exceeds 26 billion US dollars.
Among them, Microsoft and Intel, two of the largest holdings of Westeros companies, have current market values of US$6.3 billion and US$7.6 billion respectively. Just 20% and 15% of the shares of these two companies have brought Simon more than US$2.5 billion in wealth. .
In other companies such as SUN, Oracle, AMD, Silicon Graphics, Adobe, and Autodesk, Westeros' shareholding value also reaches about US$1 billion.
Taken together, 19 listed technology companies have brought Simon a total of US$3.5 billion in personal wealth.
Unlisted Cisco, AOL, Igret, etc., as well as overseas Nokia and non-technology company Melisandre. Even if only counting the shareholding part of the Westeros company, the total value of these assets is more than Between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
In addition, Cersei Capital will be added to Simon's personal assets this year.
This large private equity fund, which officially established its headquarters in New York at the beginning of this year, has only operated twice in a row in the Japanese financial market and crude oil futures market, which is enough to make the industry take a look at it. Even if it is conservative, the value will not be less than 1 billion US dollars.
Finally, we have to count the large number of real estate and land assets under Simon Westeros's name, and their valuation is also around US$500 million.
Add all of this together, minus the liabilities of the entire Westeros system of less than $1.5 billion, and Simon's personal assets are roughly between $21 billion and $23.5 billion. "Forbes" magazine only took the lowest value of this valuation range, US$21 billion, so it is still conservative.
However, even this conservative figure of US$21 billion has created a series of unprecedented events.
Not only is Simon the first super-rich man in the United States with a personal net worth of more than 10 billion US dollars, Simon is also destined to surpass Japanese real estate tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi and become the richest man in the world.
When faced with Simon's personal net worth figure on the Forbes list, the general public can only envy, praise, resent and question, or fantasize about what this $21 billion actually means. However, the U.S. capital market has been under pressure since the Forbes list was announced. , gave very direct feedback.
Listed companies related to the Westeros system, whether they are technology stocks such as Microsoft and Intel, or other industries such as Blockbuster or EA, all saw significant stock price increases in the following week.
The 'Westeros Combination' of that year was also frequently promoted by the media at this time.
Immediately afterwards, obviously hoping to ride on the momentum of Simon's personal assets reaching new heights on the Forbes list, Oracle released its financial report for the previous quarter in a hurry on September 6. In the quarter from June to August 1990, Oracle's revenue was US$207 million and its losses reached US$36 million.
In its quarterly financial report, Oracle also frankly admitted that the aggressive expansion style and wrong sales strategy adopted in the past two years were the main reasons for this loss, and stated that the company would make substantial adjustments. Several executives in charge of Oracle's sales business He will resign subsequently, and at the same time there will be a large-scale layoff of about 400 people to reduce the company's operating costs.
Not only that, Larry Ellison's handwritten letter attached to the financial report confidently stated that everything in the company was under control, and specifically pointed out Westeros' previous increase in Oracle's holdings.
If it weren't for the increase in Westeros' holdings, the huge loss of US$36 million in a single quarter, and the company's business strategy mistakes that Oracle finally admitted at this time, countless angry shareholders would definitely want to put Larry Ellison on the bench. Rubbing on the ground.
However, this time, after Oracle's quarterly financial report was released on Thursday, September 6, Oracle's stock price did not plummet as Wall Street analysts expected on the following Thursday and Friday, although it also did not rise sharply. However, the single-day trading volume has dropped by 80% compared with before the release of the quarterly financial report. It is obvious that many shareholders no longer rush to sell Oracle's shares, but have begun to wait and see.
Some Oracle shareholders who were able to contact the Westeros system also tried their best to find out Simon's attitude towards Oracle.
The following weekend, Oracle once again issued an announcement. In addition to James Raybould, the president of the Westeros Company, Carol Bartz, the president of the Ygrit Company in the Westeros system, will also join Oracle. Board of Directors. Westeros also officially issued a statement later, supporting Oracle's current chairman and CEO Larry Ellison to continue to manage the company. At the same time, Westeros will continue to hold Oracle's shares for the long term.
The official statement of Westeros Company has temporarily calmed down those shareholders who have lost patience with the current management because Oracle's stock has fallen 70% in the past year. Even though some shareholders are still dissatisfied with Larry Ellison, they are still dissatisfied with Larry Ellison. We also understand that with the combination of Westeros Corporation and Larry Ellison, it is unlikely that other shareholders will want to remove the current management.
However, there are still dissenting voices.
The Wall Street Journal believes that Simon continues to increase his holdings of Oracle stock and supports the current management that has made serious business mistakes. It is very stupid. If Westeros had sold its shares at Oracle's peak last year, Simon would have made a return of more than 500% compared to where he started.
Moreover, even if you still insist on holding the company, it is necessary to replace the current management.
The Wall Street Journal also cited Apple as an example.
After driving away founder Steve Jobs, who once caused huge losses to the company because of the unrealistic Macintosh project, Apple's revenue and profits have continued to increase in recent years, even though the federal stock market has recently been affected by the war. Due to the overall decline, Apple's market value has exceeded 6 billion US dollars.
Simon can roughly understand that the purpose of this article is not that simple.
Rumors about Oracle's internal problems have been spreading for more than a day or two. Many short sellers on Wall Street have recently been taking advantage of Oracle's new quarter earnings to short the company's stock.
Now, because of Simon's support, Oracle's stock price did not fall as expected after the release of the new quarter's financial report, and even showed signs of rebound. Those short sellers of Oracle stock will naturally not give up.
In addition to the Oracle incident, since the release of "Forbes" magazine on September 3, various invitations have flooded in. Countless media attention has also focused on Simon again, and his every move has once again begun to attract attention. focus on.
In order to prevent the planned two-line operation from being leaked in advance, Simon had to temporarily fly from New York to Chicago, leaving behind a large number of reporters who were chasing him. "Home Alone" has been completed. Although it is completely possible to have the samples sent to Los Angeles, Simon flew to Chicago to watch it in person and hide in peace.
After watching the "Home Alone" sample film and discussing some detailed modifications with John Hughes, Simon once again ditched the reporters who heard the news and went to New Mexico to visit the "Terminator 2" crew.
Although many chapters were planned in advance, after the filming of "Terminator 2" officially started, Cameron only stopped for a period of time, and it has been solidly sprouting in these days.
After checking the filming progress of the film, Simon no longer had any expectations that Cameron could complete "Terminator 2" within the budget. Fortunately, after just experiencing the failure of "The Abyss", Cameron finally restrained himself and followed the production schedule. According to private estimates given by the filmmakers, the project should be completed within US$70 million.
Considering the box office potential of "Terminator 2", US$70 million, although US$20 million more than the budget, is actually within Simon's affordability. After finishing his visit to "Terminator 2", Simon simply went to the "The Fugitive" crew in North Carolina on the east coast of the United States.
After traveling around the United States like this, he probably realized that the cost of tracking Simon Westeros was too high, so things finally calmed down around him.
On Saturday, September 8, Simon quietly returned to New York again.
However, although the real person of Simon cannot be traced, the news about him has not stopped.
This week, not only Oracle, but also topics in the media about Simon's personal net worth and what he is doing and what he is going to do are emerging one after another. On the day he returned to New York, the West Coast's "Hollywood Reporter" also suddenly broke the news that Daenerys Entertainment is News of plans to acquire MCA.
Because it is Saturday, the impact of this news cannot be directly reflected in MCA's stock price, but it is impossible not to face it.
Moreover, this week, media controversies about Simon’s net worth of US$21 billion have also emerged one after another.
A 22-year-old young man with a personal asset of US$21 billion.
In any case, even in Western countries where private property is sacred and inviolable, this incident is too shocking.