Probably sensing that Westeros Company was no longer in close contact with the Reynolds Nabisco Group, the Hearst family delayed responding to Simon's conditions until October 3.
William Hearst III does not intend to share the news resources of the "San Francisco Chronicle", but said that the Hearst Group's "Los Angeles Herald" on the West Coast can cooperate with Eaglet on all aspects of content.
The Los Angeles Herald sounds like a serious newspaper, but in fact it is similar to the New York Post owned by News Corp. It mainly reports social news and entertainment gossip.
Igret Portal is positioned as a comprehensive information platform in terms of news. Because at this stage, it is mainly targeted at the wealthy middle class elites, it pursues more professionalism and seriousness in news content.
Although there will also be entertainment news, Simon has no idea of turning the Yigret portal into an entertainment gossip portal.
Most importantly, the fundamental reason why William Hearst III took out the "Los Angeles Herald" to cooperate with Eagle Reiter was to "renew" the life of this newspaper, because the Hearst Group had originally planned to sell this continuous newspaper A newspaper that had been underperforming for many years had closed down, and now, if it could get financial support through a partnership with Igret, it could undoubtedly continue to exist.
It can be said that Hester III has no sincerity at all.
Simon then took a step back and told Hearst III through Raybould that the Eaglet portal only needed to share the content of the domestic news section of the San Francisco Chronicle, other international news, local news, entertainment news, sports news, etc. , Ygritte doesn’t need it.
The result was still rejected.
On the other hand, after more than a month of negotiations, AOL finally reached an exclusive agreement with three regional telecom operators: Bell Atlantic, Bell Pacific and NYNEX.
Negotiations on the agreement have gone through ups and downs, and there was a stalemate over the $1.50 buyout offer for a single user.
The three operators jointly insisted that AOL must provide an exclusive fee of $1.50 per user on the three networks, which was 50% higher than the $1 offer expected by the AOL team.
When the three operators thought they had a firm grip on America Online and the Westeros company behind the company, Steve Case used a differentiation strategy to unexpectedly break the situation, claiming that if the three operators insisted on the $1.5 buyout offer , AOL was unable to support the cost and could only choose two of the three companies.
It only needs to open up its own line network. With the size of AOL at this time, it will consume almost no cost, and it can obtain a total of tens of millions of dollars in funds. In addition, with the development of AOL in a few years, the agreed price will still be It can be renegotiated, and the three operators actually don't care that much about this business.
After the split in 1984, the Bell System could no longer be united. After confirming that Steve Case was not making false threats, the three companies finally made concessions.
As a result, the final transaction price was confirmed to be $1.3.
The three operators Bell Pacific, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX include home users and business users, with a total user base of 23.61 million. The initial total exclusive fee to be paid is 30.69 million per year.
In addition, the exclusive agreement period is 10 years, which is only half of the originally expected contract time limit. The parties to the agreement will renegotiate the exclusive fee price every two years, and the increase in each quotation shall not exceed 50%.
After the agreement is signed, AOL will be able to directly use the line networks of the three operators to develop its own Internet access services. However, the three operators will not provide additional equipment and technical support to AOL in addition to their existing line networks. If AOL has related needs, you will need to pay a separate fee.
Although the superficial terms of this contract are very biased towards the three operators, as long as this exclusive agreement can be signed, it is a victory in Simon's eyes.
The number of AOL users has continued to grow rapidly in recent months. However, the three operators clearly still do not realize the huge potential of the Internet industry.
This kind of thing is completely unimaginable for a latecomer like Simon, but it is just like HP did not realize the importance of the personal computer invented by one of its employees named Steve Wozniak. Xerox, the printer giant that followed, also made the same mistake. The computer graphical interface operating system it first developed only received a "very convenient" comment from the company president, and was then copied and used in two companies. One is called Apple and the other is called Microsoft.
Ultimately, no one else in the world could see the future so clearly except Simon.
Based on the user scale of the three operators at this time, even if the price increase reached 50% after five renegotiations, the final annual exclusive fee paid by AOL was less than 200 million US dollars. But if it can completely capture more than 20 million users, AOL can earn billions of dollars in revenue every year just relying on Internet access services.
What's more, within 10 years, as long as the U.S. telecommunications industry controls can be reopened as it was in the original time and space, Simon has enough confidence that the current vine-like AOL will turn around and swallow the few big trees it is attached to at this time.
Simon has been discussing acquisition options for both companies with his team in recent days.
Because there was no need to rush, I still lived with Janet in the manor in Greenwich every day.
In the blink of an eye, it’s Friday, October 5th.
Simon had just arrived at the Westeros Company headquarters in Manhattan in the morning. James Raybould took a copy of the newspaper and followed him to the office and said, "Simon, take a look at this."
Simon sat down behind his desk and took the copy of the newspaper. He just glanced at the title and couldn't help but frown.
On the copy was an article titled "Be Wary of Emerging Internet Telecommunications that May Fall into Monopoly." The target of the comment happened to be the exclusive agreement that AOL had recently signed with the three major operators.
As for the content, it’s obvious just by looking at the title.
However, this is not the most important thing. The key is that this article comes from the "San Francisco Chronicle".
After roughly scanning the article, Simon shook his head and said, "The Hearst family doesn't want to pay any price."
AOL was still just a company with less than 500,000 users. Not to mention AT-T, even any of the seven Bells would definitely be considered a behemoth in front of AOL at this time.
Moreover, similar exclusivity agreements are actually not unique to AOL. Many companies that operate telecommunications peripheral services will sign exclusivity agreements with these giants in order to maintain their market advantages. Internet access services are currently still a telecommunications peripheral industry.
However, the San Francisco Chronicle directly labeled AOL as a suspected monopoly.
The influence of the AT-T split case that year has not completely dissipated. Telecom monopoly is still a relatively sensitive topic. Most companies do not want to touch such a bad luck.
Therefore, the purpose of the Hearst family is obvious.
Perhaps he was aware of Simon's active avoidance of the acquisition of ESPN shares and refused the cooperation between the two parties in sharing the content of the "San Francisco Chronicle". The delay has been until now. William Hearst III may have lost patience and simply made it clear. Earth gave Simon a warning asking him to withdraw voluntarily.
James also had a wry smile on his face and asked, "What should we do now?"
Simon dropped the copy of the newspaper on the desk in front of him and said, "Call Reynolds Nabisco and we'll quit."
James was a little surprised: "Fight now?"
Simon nodded and said calmly: "Let's fight. There's no need to delay. Since the Hearst family doesn't want to cooperate with us at all, then forget it."
James actually didn't want to conflict with the Hearst family. He was originally worried that Simon would be young and energetic, but seeing him give up so calmly, James actually felt a little resentful towards the Hearst family.
However, James also understands that from today on, the Hearst family is completely on his boss's blacklist.
However, the Hearst family is not Daenerys Entertainment's counterparts in Hollywood. Such an established family with a century-old history and control of a huge paper media network is destined to be something that many people do not dare to offend.
After James left, Simon began to calmly prepare for the morning meeting.
According to the latest news, this week, Panasonic President Akio Furui had a phone conversation with MCA Chairman Lou Vassalman. Perhaps, Panasonic’s subsequent acquisition of MCA will undergo changes that Simon did not expect.
Once this happens, Daenerys Entertainment must take action in advance.
Combining the information in his memory and the current situation, Simon felt that the reason why Panasonic's acquisition of MCA in the original time and space was delayed for several months after it was officially announced was probably mainly because of the lack of competitors. Since there was no one to compete, Panasonic can naturally grind it out with MCA slowly.
Now, Daenerys Entertainment is watching eagerly from the sidelines. Although Panasonic is not so determined to acquire this acquisition due to Japan's domestic economic situation, it still hopes to buy MCA, so it will not continue to delay it for too long. .
All aspects of MCA work have been completed ahead of schedule, and the morning meeting was still about the plan to acquire Bell Atlantic.
For more than two months, affected by the war in Kuwait, oil prices continued to rise and the U.S. stock market continued to fall.
Bell Atlantic's latest market value has slipped to the edge of US$5 billion, with only US$5.03 billion remaining at the close yesterday, a decline of more than 10% compared with the early days of the war.
Now is undoubtedly the best time to take action.
Relying on its own sufficient assets as collateral, the Westeros Company team has solved the problem of funding sources. Several banks secretly contacted have reached a total of 10 billion U.S. dollars in funds willing to provide Westeros Company.
Such a large-scale loan application must not be hidden in the circle.
Therefore, banks have been testing Simon more than once whether he intends to rely entirely on loans to acquire the company and keep the huge sum of money overseas.
This guess is actually very reasonable.
Transferring overseas assets back to China requires a one-time payment of a huge 28% asset gains tax. In comparison, the annual interest rate for obtaining funds through loans is only about 5%. If overseas funds can be operated properly, even if it generates an annual return of 10%, it will be very cost-effective.
Simon actually considered this plan.
Just gave up in the end.
On the one hand, no market other than North America can host the billions of dollars of investment that can generate enough revenue for Simon in the coming years.
On the other hand, this money, or to be precise, the tax on this money when it is transferred back to the country, can also be regarded as a bargaining chip, a bargaining chip that can push the federal government to approve the Simon acquisition plan.
After all, a one-time capital gains tax of US$2 billion is definitely not a small amount that can be ignored casually for the federal government, which currently has a serious fiscal deficit. If the federal government does not agree to Simon's simultaneous acquisition of MCA and Bell Atlantic, Simon will definitely continue to keep the funds overseas. This is certainly not what the federal government wants to see.
"We have currently purchased 2.7% of Bell Atlantic's shares, and will be able to achieve a 4.9% shareholding before the end of the month. However, the main problem we face at Bell Atlantic is actually the management. If we can obtain the chairman of Bell Atlantic With the cooperation of and CEO Raymond Smith, and with the support of sufficient funds, this acquisition should go very smoothly. I don’t think that given the current economic environment and the nature of Bell Atlantic’s own company, there will be other competitors jumping on it. Come out and fight us for this company.”
Having dinner with James at noon, Simon heard what he said and nodded: "Let's wait until the end of the month. If the time is right, I will meet with Raymond Smith in person."
James said: "Raymond Smith is very interested in literature and drama. You two will definitely be able to chat."
Simon has also seen the personal information of Raymond Smith collected by the company and said: "This is not enough. If he agrees to Westeros Company's acquisition of Bell Atlantic just because of similar topics, I will also consider the acquisition." Do you want to keep him after you’re done?”
James affirmed: "There is no doubt about Raymond Smith's ability. However, if you don't expect the two of you to cooperate because of similar topics, we will still have to go through a lot of trouble ourselves."
Simon smiled and said: "In a multi-billion-dollar business, if everything goes too smoothly, I will wonder if I have fallen into a trap."
The two chatted about these things and had lunch. Simon rushed to the East Coast headquarters of Daenerys Entertainment in Greenwich Village according to his schedule. He was no longer in Los Angeles for a week, and Hollywood had accumulated a lot of things that he needed to deal with.
From arriving at one o'clock in the afternoon until nearly four o'clock, he was busy for three hours. After roughly completing the work accumulated during the week, Simon leaned on the leather chair in the office and picked up a plan for the Antarctic documentary planned to be produced by Gaomen Pictures. Look through the draft.
This was sparked after Janet made a promise to little Gemma during a lunch at Sophia's house last week.
Janet originally planned to just let some people who went to Antarctica take some videos of the little girl and bring them back. However, Simon remembered that "Diary of the Emperor Penguin" had set a documentary box office record in his memory, and he had the idea to seriously shoot an Antarctic documentary. plan.
However, Simon didn't know much about Antarctica, so he planned to try an ordinary documentary first, train a team, and then come up with the shooting plan for "Diary of the Emperor Penguin" that he remembered.
It’s already autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
Start preparing now so that we can arrive in Antarctica during the southern hemisphere's summer and finish filming in the fall.
Looking through the plans in his hands, Simon suddenly thought of Sophia again.
Sofia has been in Manhattan recently preparing for the Gucci brand event tomorrow Saturday, and her work for today has been completed.
After hesitating for a moment, Simon dialed the woman's mobile phone number.
After chatting for a while, it didn't seem that busy there, so Simon asked Sofia if she wanted to drink coffee together. The woman reminded him that he had given up coffee for a long time.
Then there was a little embarrassment.
Then, Simon simply acted like a boss and asked Sophia to wait for him in his penthouse on Lexington Avenue because he had something to discuss.
What is Sophia asking about
Looking for the bottom of things.
Of course, let’s talk about this later. Can’t the boss find something for his employees to do