In the morning, Sofia Fesi drove into the Dume Point Manor with a pair of children.
The car stopped in front of the Shell Villa, and Sofia got out of the car. She happened to see the four ABCD girls moving boxes of children's supplies from the villa and loading them into a pickup truck.
Janet was also nearby. When she saw Sofia coming over, she stepped forward to say hello, and then greeted Daniel and Gemma affectionately.
After chatting for a while, Sophia gestured to the busy ABCD four girls and asked, "What are you doing?"
Jennifer stroked her belly and said, "I bought a lot of things for the little guy yesterday. It's a little early to think about it, so I plan to donate it, otherwise it will be wasted."
Sofia listened to Janet's explanation and immediately understood what was going on.
However, when she glanced at the entire truck again and thought about Janet's habit of never picking out bargains when shopping, Sophia couldn't help but have a similar thought to Simon's yesterday afternoon.
Everyone chatted and entered the villa together.
Noticing that both Daniel and Gemma were very interested in Shell Villa, Janet offered to show the two little guys around, and asked Girl A to take Sophia to the study on the second floor, where Simon was there.
After following Alison to the second floor, and arriving at a room door, Sophia signaled to Girl A that she could leave, and knocked on the door herself.
After getting a response, he opened the door and walked in.
Simon was not behind the desk, but leaning on the single sofa next to the window, flipping a book in his hand, his feet resting on the footstool in an awkward manner, and there were juice snacks on the table next to him, making it appear that Very pleasant.
The sunshine in spring is just right.
Bright light pours into the study through the glass windows, giving people a feeling that is perfect for laziness.
Sofia greeted Simon, closed the door, and turned around to notice a toy truck on the floor of the study.
After picking up the toy truck and coming to Simon's side, Sophia raised the toy in her hand and asked with a smile: "Is this also for your little baby?"
"Of course not, this is my toy."
Simon said, took out a remote control and fiddled with it twice, and the toy truck in Sophia's hand immediately buzzed.
Putting the toy truck on the ground and watching the little thing run away, Sophia did not go to the sofa on the other side, but directly sat down on the armrest of the single sofa where Simon was, and asked: "What are you looking at?" Book?"
Simon showed the cover to the woman and said, "Pregnancy manual."
Sofia took the book and flipped through it: "Are you already looking forward to being a dad?"
"I'm still a little bit nervous, you know, it's the first time."
"I envy you both."
Sophia suddenly said this, put the book on the low table next to her, and touched Simon without leaving a trace.
The woman wore a knitted beige straight skirt today. It was different from the previous OL style. It had a very casual feel. The perfume on her body also changed to a very light and warm type, but it was just right for the bright sunshine at this time. atmosphere of.
Simon noticed Sophia's little movement and just smiled and praised: "You are beautiful today."
Sofia also knew that the time and place were not right at the moment. Since the man did not take the initiative, she would not hint more. He brushed the hair in front of his forehead casually, seeming to brush away some of his slightly irritating thoughts, and turned to the main business: "Have you read the information on Van Cleef & Arpels?"
Simon nodded: "I've seen it, it's a very good company."
Van Cleef & Arpels is a French luxury goods company with a history of nearly a century. It mainly operates jewelry and top-grade watches. As a brand favored by many royal nobles and superstar celebrities, it is as famous as Tiffany, Cartier and other companies.
It is also the next acquisition target of Melisandre Company.
In the past year, Gucci, controlled by Melisandre, can definitely be said to be the most exposed luxury brand.
Starting from "The Gucci Mark", many films produced by Daenerys Entertainment in 1990, including the popular "Pretty Woman", "The Last Day", etc., can more or less see Gucci products. figure.
Gucci's brand activities and large-scale traditional advertising at major film festivals also greatly increased Gucci's brand influence. Coupled with Sofia's strict control of the quality of Gucci products and services, throughout 1990, Gucci's revenue scale reached Achieved an explosive growth of 73%, with annual revenue reaching US$670 million.
In comparison, Gucci's most direct competitor, the core Dior brand under the LVMH Moët Hennessy Group, saw revenue growth of only 17% during the same period, with revenue reaching US$1.09 billion in 1990.
Sofia proposed the idea of Gucci overtaking Dior in 1991 two years ago. Although it seems a bit radical now, as long as the performance growth of both parties maintains the pace of the past two years, Gucci's revenue level will be at least 10 after this year. The billion-dollar revenue club has reached the same level as Dior.
Judging from Gucci's operating conditions after more than two months in 1991, the company was able to ensure a revenue growth rate of 50% in 1991, and it was easy to reach the goal of 1 billion revenue.
In order to cultivate the Gucci brand intensively, Melisandre has only added a subsidiary of Chateau Latour in the past two years, which is still a type of Simon's private collection.
Gucci already has a very profound brand heritage. The embarrassment of being on the verge of bankruptcy in the past few years was mostly caused by the internal strife of the Gucci family.
Now, since Gucci has completely recovered and the foundation accumulated over more than half a century has been released again, Melisandre can also expand outward appropriately. However, Sofia is still not eager to acquire luxury brands that overlap with Gucci's fields. Instead, she chose Van Cleef & Arpels, which specializes in jewelry and watches.
According to the information collected by Sophia in advance, Van Cleef & Arpels' revenue in 1990 was US$176 million, with a profit of US$19 million.
After several discussions between Melisandre and the Albemarle family, which holds shares in Van Cleef & Arpels, and the Italian Fingen company, the two parties initially determined the valuation of Van Cleef & Arpels at US$230 million. Van Cleef & Arpels shareholders were willing to pay US$138 million. The company transferred a total of 60% of its shares in US dollars in cash and gave up control of Van Cleef & Arpels.
Simon is actually very optimistic about this business.
Simon and Sophia discussed Melisandre's development plan privately and continuously, and finally determined the expansion model of the company's "aircraft carrier battle group".
An aircraft carrier battle group usually consists of a core of one to three aircraft carriers and a large number of cruisers, destroyers, frigates, supply ships and submarines.
Similarly, Melisandre in the future should also be composed of two to three core brands plus a large number of sub-luxury brands with very small revenue. Several of these core luxury brands should account for a proportion of the entire luxury goods group's revenue. of more than 50%.
The remaining affiliated brands will share the remaining 50%, and the revenue volume of a single affiliated brand will only be equivalent to one-tenth of the core brand.
Such a structure can ensure that core brands such as Gucci maintain sufficient visibility and competitiveness, and can also ensure that luxury goods groups have no shortage of backup brands that provide growth potential. On the other hand, continuing to acquire a large number of subsidiary luxury brands can also prevent the emergence of other latecomers in the market that can compete with core brands such as Gucci. This is actually a suppression strategy.
Now, Van Cleef & Arpels, which is about to be purchased, will serve as Melisandre's second 'aircraft carrier' seed.
It can even be said to be the second 'aircraft carrier battle group' seed.
Because there is no direct competitive relationship between Van Cleef & Arpels and Gucci.
Next, Melisandre can develop two 'aircraft carrier battle groups' focusing on luggage, clothing and jewelry watches respectively, with Gucci and Van Cleef & Arpels as the core.
As for the acquisition of subsidiary luxury brands, it could proceed slowly throughout the nineties.
Today's major luxury goods giants, LVMH and Richemont Group, are actually focusing on operating their own core brands and have not yet begun large-scale expansion.
LVMH focuses on Dior and LV, while Richemont Group’s core brand is Cartier.
The two 'aircraft carrier battle groups' planned by Melisandre happen to compete with LVMH, which specializes in luggage and clothing, and Richemont Group, which specializes in jewelry and watches.
As for the Kering Group, which acquired the Gucci brand in the original space and is one of the three luxury goods giants alongside LVMH and Richemont, it was still running its own retail chain business at this time, and Melisandre had already acquired Gucci. And with its eye on the entire luxury goods industry, Kering Group is doomed to find it difficult to follow its original development path.
Sofia came to Los Angeles this weekend, of course, not just to visit Simon.
Next Monday is the new Oscars ceremony, and Gucci will hold its own brand party after the Oscars as usual.
With the connections and appeal of Daenerys Entertainment in Hollywood, after two years of development, this party has the momentum to replace the original "Vanity Fair" party in time and space and become a fixed party after the Oscars.
She stayed in the study and casually chatted about various trivial matters with Simon. After having lunch together, Sofia went back to the city to prepare for the busy theme party.
Janet threatened to get familiar with the feeling of looking after children in advance. The two little ones had always liked Aunt Jane, so they stayed at the manor until Sunday afternoon when they had to rush back to the East Coast to prepare for school the next day. The family's Boeing 767 flew the two little ones back to New York.
After a warm weekend, the time has come to March 25th.
During the Easter period, which started on March 22, the Madonna concert documentary "Truth and the Brave" grossed US$4.93 million at the box office in the first three days of its opening on 733 screens. The box office in the first week is expected to be around US$7 million. .
Judging from the film's popularity and reputation, "Truth and the Brave"'s guaranteed North American box office of US$20 million is not a big problem. Although it cannot be compared with the original North American box office of "Imprint of Gucci" which exceeded US$60 million, it is far more than other similar movies. type of music documentary, which is considered a good success.
However, "The True and the Brave" only ranked third at the box office during its first Easter weekend.
The top spot on the list is Warner Bros. Pictures’ action film “The Brink,” starring Steven Seagal, which grossed $10.52 million in its first three days.
The promising "U.S.A." ranked second, earning another US$5.71 million in three days.
From its launch on February 8 to the present, the cumulative North American box office of "Fighter" has reached 87.18 million U.S. dollars. The box office trend is still strong and it is steadily moving towards the 100 million yuan threshold.
The fourth and fifth places were respectively Fox Pictures' crime drama "French" starring Gene Harkman and Universal Pictures' crime comedy "Little Boy" starring Michael J. Fox.
After careful calculation, Daenerys Entertainment actually occupied three positions in the top five lists for the first weekend of Easter.
Of course, Simon doesn't want too many people to notice this.
Daenerys Studios.
Simon put down the box office report for the past weekend and looked at Nancy Brill who walked into his office.
After winning MCA, the little woman will control all non-film and television businesses of Daenerys Entertainment except theme parks, including records, theaters, publishing, games, consumer goods, video tape chains, etc., with the second largest power Yu Simon and Amy are more powerful than the two presidents Robert Rehm and Robert Egger, the head of the television business, who are still in charge of the distribution business.
During this salary and position adjustment process, Nancy was also promoted to the third president of Daenerys Entertainment Group, alongside Lehman and Iger.
Speaking of which, Daenerys Entertainment’s management structure is different from other studios.
Taking Disney as an example, the position of Chairman Simon is actually more inclined to Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of Disney, to lead the development direction of Daenerys Entertainment.
Although Amy is the CEO of Daenerys Entertainment, her authority is similar to that of Frank Wells, Michael Eisner's deputy.
The three presidents of Daenerys Entertainment tend to be heads of large business units at other studios.
Of course, Hollywood's power system has never been fixed, and Daenerys Entertainment is not listed on the market. Naturally, you can choose any management structure you think is appropriate.
However, in order to consider the planned IPO, Simon will also make appropriate adjustments to the management of Daenerys Entertainment.
Nancy sat down opposite Simon, and the two of them were talking about the game business of Daenerys Entertainment.
In the past year, Blizzard Studios, which is wholly owned by Daenerys Entertainment, and EA, which holds 35% of the shares, have achieved very good development.
Blizzard Studio's two "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" games, the fighting version in the first half of the year and the action-adventure sequel in the second half of the year, are both expected to sell more than 2 million boxes.
The PC version of the real-time strategy game "Dune" developed by EA under Simon's guidance has sold more than 1.1 million units since its release in September last year. The brand's main sports games and other types of role-playing games have also achieved good results in the past year.
At the same time, EA also took advantage of the continued rise in its stock price to successively acquire several game studios with good game brands, and began its own expansion pace similar to that of the original time and space.
What Simon discussed with Nancy today was mainly EA's plan to develop online games. .
This is also based on the consideration of enriching Internet content resources as soon as possible.
Over the past few months, the number of Internet users has grown much faster than Simon originally expected.
Outside of the Ygrit portal, more and more content websites are beginning to join the World Wide Web camp, but this still does not satisfy Simon.
At this stage, although it is not realistic to develop large-scale role-playing online games with tens of thousands of people online at the same time, it is still very feasible to turn already accumulated games such as "Dune" into a turn-based online battle platform. big.
Moreover, Ypay, the online payment system that Yigret Portal has invested in the development of, can solve the payment problems faced by online games.