After staying in England for a week and traveling to Finland and Italy, Simon returned to New York on July 11.
AOL will be officially listed on the Nasdaq exchange on July 12.
In the previous two weeks of IPO roadshows, AOL aroused a very strong response from investor groups across North America. The cumulative number of shares subscribed exceeded 210 million shares, reaching 9.5 times the amount of new shares issued by AOL.
At the same time, in order to cooperate with the IPO on July 12, AOL released the company's financial report for the second quarter of 1991 on July 10 in advance.
As of June 31, AOL had 3.63 million official users in the most prosperous areas on the east and west coasts of the United States. Compared with the previous quarter, the number of users increased by 56%. In the three months from April 1 to June 31, AOL's operating income reached US$270 million, a 137% increase compared to the first quarter.
Although the quarterly loss reached 160 million US dollars, no one can ignore the explosive growth of AOL.
At six o'clock in the morning, Simon woke up on time in the manor villa in the northern suburbs of Greenwich.
The woman in his arms opened her eyes quickly because of Simon's movements, and was briefly confused for a moment, with a slightly shy expression on her face.
Simon couldn't help but pinched Sophia Fesi's rosy face when she first woke up, and said, "Would you like to go to Manhattan with me?"
Sofia did not avoid the man's hand, but pressed it lightly and said, "I'm going back to my home later."
Yesterday, Simon and I flew over from Italy. Because of our lust for sex, we simply didn't go to see our son and daughter right away. This is why the woman was so embarrassed just now.
Simon just smiled and said: "In that case, you can sleep a little longer."
Sofia laid her head on the pillow and watched the man put on his clothes. She also stood up, revealing a seductive spring light after the sheets slipped. Seeing Simon looking over him, he couldn't help but raise his hand to cover it. Under his expectant gaze, he pretended to put it down casually and slowly found his own clothes to put on.
After Simon washed up, he walked downstairs. Housekeeper Alice and C girl Claire had already led the other girls to prepare breakfast.
The two women will attend the IPO bell-ringing ceremony with Simon today, which is considered as their formal appearance on the stage.
There have been many speculations about Simon's increasingly low-key private life, including the beautiful girls around him. When the two women walk to the stage this time, they will definitely attract some comments, but this is also an experience they must endure. It's much better to let the public get used to something early than to have it exposed at the last minute.
After having breakfast and saying goodbye to Sophia, Simon and his team set off for Manhattan.
I have already experienced the bell-ringing ceremony for Blockbuster's listing, so I am familiar with it this time.
However, compared to just a mere appearance last time, more procedures will be arranged this time, including a media interview that Simon will personally accept before the bell-ringing ceremony.
AOL's IPO has obviously attracted more media attention.
As soon as Simon's car appeared outside the Nasdaq exchange headquarters in midtown Manhattan, a large group of reporters surrounded it, and several TV station live interview vehicles were parked around it.
The bodyguard got out of the car first, and a group of four surrounded Simon and the two women who got off the car with him. There were four other bodyguards outside who pushed through the crowd and forcibly opened a path for Simon to enter the exchange.
The reporters around asked all kinds of questions, but when they got no response, they quickly adjusted their strategies and pressed the shutter on Simon frantically, especially taking pictures of the two women who followed him today.
Some people have even begun to speculate on the identity of the two women, and even mentioned the idea of marriage.
But of course, you can only think about it this way.
If you write your ideas in a newspaper without any real evidence, you may just wait to be sued by Westeros.
This super tycoon had just filed for bankruptcy some time ago. Although Janet was basically responsible for everything, the outside world naturally attributed these things to Simon.
James Raybould, Steve Case, Jeff Bezos, Carol Bartz, John Chambers, Raymond, who trudged into the exchange hall to participate in the bell ringing ceremony ·Smith and other senior officials of the Westeros question system came over to welcome him.
In today's IPO, Steve Case, as the chairman and CEO of AOL, is only a nominal protagonist. Everyone knew that a certain young man was the center of attention.
As the Internet industry continues to explode, more and more people have seen Simon's exquisite first-hand layout in this emerging high-tech field in just a few years.
Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, Cisco, AOL, Eagle, and even Bell Atlantic, which has officially changed its name to Verizon Telecom, etc., are all like this.
Among them, Cisco, AOL and Igret have formed an entire Internet industry chain including Internet equipment providers, Internet service providers and Internet content providers. The three companies jointly created popular World Wide Web standards. In just two years, It has achieved overwhelming popularity in less than 10 years, and other similar companies have no time to follow up and compete.
Many people predict that Cisco, AOL, and Eagle will become giants in the future after the beginning of an era.
Therefore, of the three companies, AOL's listing received far more attention than Simon's listing of Blockbuster early last year.
It was not the time for greetings now. It was already eight o'clock. Everyone said hello briefly and started doing their own things.
Simon was also led into the interview area of the exchange by the staff. This interview will be broadcast live on mainstream television networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, and the morning news programs of local New York television stations.
The interview lasted only ten minutes, and each reporter was allowed to ask only one question.
Because it was one of the few opportunities for a public interview with Simon Westeros, everyone cheered up.
There were two sofas in the interview area, and Simon sat on one of them, next to Richard Seaman, a vice president of the Nasdaq exchange who served as the host.
After a brief preparation, the vice president took the lead and said, "Simon, this opportunity is really rare, so how about giving me a chance to ask questions first?"
Simon nodded with a smile and said: "Of course, but you have already asked, so, next."
Everyone at the scene was stunned for a moment, and then laughed together.
This is of course just a joke.
Richard Seaman did not take it seriously and insisted on holding the microphone: "This must be the second time you come to the Nasdaq exchange. Last time it was Blockbuster and this time it was AOL. I want to ask. Well, of course not which company it will be next time, although I really want to know, but what I want to ask is, what do you think of the current situation of the U.S. stock market and the trend in the next few years? If possible, let you know Any investment advice?"
This is obviously a big problem.
However, in his current capacity, Simon is fully qualified to comment on the economic trends at the national level.
Although it deviated somewhat from the theme of today's AOL IPO, Simon thought for a while and said: "As we all know, the federal stock market experienced a strong rebound for several months in the first half of the year. Because of the weak real economic conditions, many people felt that this The rebound is huge, but I don’t think so. In recent years, or if we count from 1987, the federation has experienced two consecutive disasters: the bursting of the stock market bubble and the collapse of the bond market. These two collapses also brought the federal economy to a halt. The bubble components have been squeezed out, so I believe this year will be the beginning of another bull market in the federal stock market.”
Listening to Simon's analysis, the people around him couldn't help but nodded slightly. Seeing that Simon didn't seem to want to continue after he finished speaking, Richard asked: "So, what about investment advice?"
Simon had no choice but to say: "In a market that is at the bottom and is waiting to rebound, it is very easy for any investment to benefit. The key is to be patient. Of course, if it is more specific, I recommend that everyone invest in technology stocks in the next few years. . Such as AOL, which went public today."
Richard got his answer, stopped asking questions, and neatly handed over the question opportunity to an eager reporter in the audience.
The reporter from the New York Times took the microphone and immediately said quickly: "Simon, AOL's issue price is US$21, which is equivalent to a corporate valuation of US$3.15 billion. However, AOL's revenue in the last quarter It is only US$270 million, and its annual revenue may only be US$1 billion. The industry estimates that the stock price of US$2.1 billion is equivalent to a price-to-earnings ratio of about 35 times. Is this pricing on the high side? How do you think AOL can support such an estimate? value?"
Simon has considered this issue in advance, so he expertly said: "For a company that has just IPO, the stock price should represent more of a future. This is especially true for AOL. The company's high growth is well known, so , I don’t think AOL’s IPO price is on the high side, in fact, I think it’s a little low.”
Simon's answer is somewhat of a panacea.
Anyone who has carefully analyzed AOL can probably see that this company not only represents high growth, but also has a strong monopoly nature.
Because the technology patents of the World Wide Web are in the hands of the Westeros system, not only America Online itself, which has exclusive agreements in the areas where the three major operators operate. Moreover, whether it is upstream Internet equipment provider Cisco or downstream Internet content provider Igret, there are many ways to protect AOL's advantages in the industry.
In the past six months, the two operators Bell Pacific on the west coast and NYNEX on the east coast have not completely broken up with AOL. The contract is one of the reasons, and the other is the lack of upstream and downstream technology and content support.
If these two companies tear up their original exclusive agreements in order to enter the ISP field, then it is obviously impossible for them to get the support of Cisco and Igret, let alone the authorization of corresponding technologies in the World Wide Web field.
If breaking the agreement only requires compensation according to the agreement, then it is not impossible to forcefully infringe the use of World Wide Web technology in the absence of technical authorization, even if it is sued by the Westeros system and go bankrupt. Even a company with some business ethics would not be able to do this.
However, it is impossible for Simon to clearly state these relatively sensitive advantages.
If you say it out loud, it means giving others a handle.
Warren Buffett has a very famous 'toll bridge' theory, which means that if a company has a strong monopoly advantage in a certain area, this company will have absolute pricing power.
This theory was originally put forward as a reference for Berkshire to find investment targets, but because Buffett said this in the public media, this theory became the target of criticism in some corporate lawsuits. It is believed that Berkshire has the intention to manipulate the market at will.
Is there any company in this world that doesn't want to be the only one and doesn't want to have a monopoly advantage
It's just that there are often many things you can do, but don't say them out loud.
Therefore, Simon's answers to some questions may be regarded as very unsatisfactory, and even ridiculed by some people who claim to be smart. However, even some entrepreneurs who like to teach successful experience in the media, as long as their heads are not completely broken, , and probably won’t really tell the public anything about it.
Of course, even if he deliberately concealed his clumsiness, Simon actually revealed enough things during the ten-minute interview that followed.
Over the past few years, the market has had a strong sense of blindness towards Simon, who has created a series of wealth miracles in just a few years. AOL is also one of the well-deserved core companies of the Westeros system. Therefore, when the bell rings, After the ceremony ended, the inquiry before the official opening began, and AOL's stock price continued to soar.
This continued until 10:30, and after five consecutive rounds of price inquiries that lasted for more than an hour, AOL finally opened trading at a price of $32.75.
At US$32.75, compared with the issue price of US$21, the increase has reached 56%.
However, this is just the beginning.
In the following trading sessions, AOL's stock price continued to rise, to such an extent that some investors who had subscribed to the stock in the early stage could not help but have the idea of selling.
Finally, as of the close of trading at 3:30 pm, AOL's stock price was finally set at a high of $43.25.
On the first day of trading, AOL's overall stock price rose by 106%, with a market value of US$7.46 billion at the close of the day.
After the IPO, Westeros' stake in AOL dropped to 65.4%.
As a result, many people suddenly discovered that America Online, which was almost unknown in Simon Westeros' asset statistics last year, brought the young man a book wealth of US$4.9 billion in just one year.
Just this wealth of 4.9 billion US dollars has exceeded the entire net worth of most of the richest people in the United States and even the global rich list.
However, it is undeniable that AOL is only a part of the prosperous Westeros system.
The following weekend, while the media continued to discuss AOL's box office performance next week, it also began to focus on Simon's current personal net worth.
In the past year, it is no exaggeration to say that the Westeros system has definitely completed a leap-forward development, which mainly included the acquisition of two industry giants, MCA and Bell Atlantic. What even more astonished the industry was that when everyone thought that the huge liabilities brought about by these two acquisitions would drag down the entire Westeros system, what followed was a stock market rebound in the first half of 1991.
Although both MCA and Bell Atlantic have been delisted, no one can deny that Simon Westeros completed a perfect bargain.
The two acquisitions, even if they were delayed a month or two, would be impossible for the Westeros system to acquire these two companies at the original prices when the Gulf War began.
Therefore, based on the current state of the stock market, the current value of the two companies is definitely more than the original $14 billion.