The 1992 financial report of Yigrit Company was so eye-catching that even though many people wanted to keep a low profile, they failed to do so.
On the third day after the annual financial report was released, the San Francisco Chronicle, a subsidiary of the Hearst Group, published an article on the front page of the newspaper with the title "Internet industry explodes, Yigret's annual growth rate is 400%."
If it is a company with only a few million or even tens of millions of dollars in revenue, it is not uncommon to see an annual growth rate of 400%.
However, for a company with revenue in the hundreds of millions, its annual revenue soared from US$491 million to US$1.937 billion. This was not through mergers, but the natural growth of the company itself. This is unparalleled in the history of global business. Call it a miracle.
You know, according to Fortune magazine's statistics, the revenue threshold for the top 500 American companies in 1992 was only US$528 million.
Eagle's 1992 revenue of US$1.937 billion would have been enough to rank 219th if it had participated in the Fortune magazine's auction of the top 500 American companies. Even on the Fortune Global 500 list, where the entry threshold reached US$2.329 billion in 1992, Igret was very close.
Whether it is a Fortune 500 company in the United States or a Fortune 500 company in the world, it is not that easy to enter.
Take the top 500 companies in the United States as an example. The average age of all these companies on the list in 1992 reached 42 years old, but Eagle Reiter was only established for just 4 years.
Moreover, four years ago, most of the public had no idea about the Internet industry. In other words, Yigrit Company is equivalent to creating a new industrial field.
This is basically true.
Following the publication of the front-page article in the San Francisco Chronicle, there was an outpouring of exclamations, doubts and attacks from all media outlets.
In recent years, through several outstanding news event operations, Igret has clearly made traditional print media platforms feel threatened.
Although the advertising revenue from the portal website only accounts for about 10% of the total revenue in the financial report of Yigrit Company, traditional media are still facing formidable enemies. The Boston Globe, which has great influence on the East Coast, is not at all. This financial report, which is a covert attack on Eagle Reiter, is sensationalism and misleading to capital and the public. Therefore, federal authorities are even asked to investigate this article with "ulterior motives."
No matter how fierce the doubts and attacks from the outside world were, with the release of the article, the capital market quickly responded to the U.S. technology stock sector in the most direct way.
Igret is not a public company, but Cisco and AOL are.
Moreover, the complete Internet industry chain created by the three companies can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye.
As a result, the two companies that had just exceeded US$20 billion in market capitalization in early February, with the release of their own financial reports that also saw substantial growth and the leakage of the explosive annual financial report data of Yigrit Company, the market value rushed directly towards US$30 billion. .
Amidst all the turmoil, the time entered March 1993.
Moreover, this is destined to be an extraordinary March for the Internet industry.
The aftermath of the data leakage of Ygritte's annual financial report has not yet subsided. On March 2, Bill Clinton, who had been in office for less than two months, officially launched a one-day visit to Silicon Valley amid his busy schedule. , Bill Clinton visited the headquarters of five companies: HP, Intel, Cisco, AOL and Eagle, and delivered a speech on the "Information Superhighway Plan" in the Stanford University campus auditorium that afternoon.
When Bill Clinton visited Silicon Valley, three of the five companies on the agenda were affiliated with the Westeros system. Even though a young man did not appear during the entire visit, this arrangement was enough to show that the Westeros system There is an obvious strong connection between the Stroh system and the new president.
Therefore, the day after this visit, when the technology stock sector rose again, Cisco's market value officially exceeded the US$30 billion mark. At the close of the day, the market value was fixed at US$31.2 billion.
This is just the beginning.
Then, in the second week of March, on March 8, the U.S. Senate officially voted to pass the "Information Superhighway Plan" bill that has been promoted for a long time since last year.
When the bill was officially announced, the entire world's attention was instantly focused on it.
The core content of this 20-year cross-century bill with a total investment of US$400 billion is to build a complete information network composed of communication networks, computers, databases and daily electronic products to provide the public with a large amount of information.
The specific contents of the bill include 'promoting investment in the information industry', 'increasing infrastructure construction', 'guaranteeing information security and network reliability', 'relaxing spectrum control', 'strengthening intellectual property protection' and other aspects. Generally speaking, It is to use the greatest power that the entire United States can use to promote the development of the information industry.
Historically, the Information Highway Plan was launched in 1993, when the Netscape browser had just been born, AOL had not yet risen, and Yahoo was nowhere to be seen. Although the Clinton administration tried its best to build momentum for the bill, it was still difficult to Let the public realize the importance of this bill.
This time, with the early promotion of the Westeros system, AOL, Cisco and Igrit have all risen ahead of schedule. Both capital and the public have very intuitively realized the impact that the arrival of the information age has had on the entire society. Influence.
Therefore, when the "Information Highway Plan" was officially released, the U.S. technology stock sector no longer experienced the brewing process from 1993 to 1995, but began to take off directly.
On March 9, a week after Cisco's market value exceeded $30 billion, AOL also exceeded the $30 billion mark.
At the close of trading on March 9, Cisco, which almost monopolizes the basic network equipment market, had a market value of US$35.1 billion, and AOL's market value also reached US$30.9 billion.
The stock prices of other important technology stock companies, such as Microsoft, Intel, Apple, SUN, etc., are also rising rapidly these days.
March, which is crucial for the Internet industry, will certainly not end with the announcement of a bill that may take effect in the long term.
On March 11, Microsoft held a press conference in Seattle and launched a new Windows 3.2 system.
Historically, the Windows 3.2 system was released in 1994, and compared with the Windows 3.1 system, it was not much improved, mainly because it added multi-language support including Chinese.
This time, the Windows 3.2 system, although released one year in advance, is a brand-new system specially customized by Microsoft for the advent of the Internet era, which greatly enhances support for multimedia services such as network, image, audio, and video. Not only that, the Windows 3.2 system also launched the 'Start' menu, which is crucial to the Microsoft Windows platform, ahead of schedule.
Simon had already received the trial version of Windows 3.2 three months in advance. In his opinion, the gap between this operating system, which was equipped with a 'Start' menu in advance, and the classic Windows 95 in his memory is already very small.
Next, the important breakthrough for Windows 95 is probably the upgrade from 16-bit systems to 32-bit systems.
On March 12, the day after Microsoft's Windows 3.2 was released, Intel Corporation had already released the first-generation Pentium processor with basic parameters in October last year and officially began to market it.
The Pentium era begins.
In the original time and space, relying on the Pentium series of processors, Intel completely ended the competition among PC processor chips, and the x86 architecture dominated the world.
After the two technology giants jointly launched a set of punches, as of the close of trading on March 12, Microsoft's market value reached US$32.6 billion, becoming another new technology company after Cisco and AOL with a market value exceeding US$30 billion.
Because it has many competitors such as Apple, Motorola, and AMD, Intel's market value has also been affected by the recent popularity of technology stocks, but it has not made a big breakthrough. The market value that day was fixed at 26.1 billion U.S. dollars, which is still quite far away from 30 billion U.S. dollars. gap.
However, when the day ended, many media eyes could not help but fall on these four companies that were heavily owned by Westeros companies.
March 12 was Friday. In addition to Microsoft and Intel, Cisco's closing market value was US$35.6 billion, and AOL's closing market value was US$31.7 billion.
According to Westeros’ shareholding ratios of 50.1%, 66.1%, 21.3% and 15.6% in Cisco, AOL, Microsoft and Intel respectively, the value of the shares of these four companies held by Simon Westeros respectively reached US$17.8 billion, US$20.9 billion, US$6.9 billion and US$4.1 billion.
Any shareholding in the first two companies has exceeded the US$15 billion personal assets of Japan's second richest man, Yoshiaki Real Estate, who ranked second on the world's richest list in 1992.
The combined stock value of the four companies reached an astonishing US$49.7 billion.
In recent months, many media have predicted that Simon's personal assets will exceed the 100 billion mark in 1993, making him the world's first billionaire.
Originally many people were doubtful about this.
Even though Westeros' personal assets had reached US$65 billion in 1992, how could it be so easy to reach the US$100 billion threshold.
Now, just the four technology companies held by Westeros Company have brought Simon’s personal wealth to 49.7 billion U.S. dollars. In addition, Daenerys Entertainment and Cersei Capital under Westeros Company , Melisandre Company, Ygritte Company and many other assets. There is no need to wait for the new annual "Forbes" rich list to be released in the second half of the year. Simon Westeros' personal assets have obviously exceeded 100 billion. Dollar.
When some media had quietly begun to calculate Simon's personal net worth in order to gain some attention and sales, another news came out the following weekend.
Igret, a subsidiary of Westeros Corporation that joins Cisco and AOL, will conduct its first external equity financing, selling 10% of its shares.
Quote, $1.5 billion!
When many people saw this news in the media, their first reaction was that the lion opened his mouth.
However, there was silence immediately.
A 10% stake, $1.5 billion, means that the Westeros Company values Ygritte at $15 billion.
For companies with similar market capitalization in the market, calculated based on the higher price-to-earnings ratio of US$3 billion, the revenue and profit scale should also be around US$5 billion and US$500 million.
Igret's revenue in 1992 was only US$1.937 billion, and its losses in the past year reached US$139 million.
However, Yigrit obviously cannot be classified as a traditional enterprise.
This is an Internet company that has become very popular recently.
And virtually controls the portal to the World Wide Web.
It is not that there is no news in the industry that other technology giants are looking for new network technology standards to circumvent the patent barriers of Igret's World Wide Web technology. However, the development of the World Wide Web is too rapid. At this stage, 90% of Internet sites use the World Wide Web. Technology, so much so that to ordinary people, the World Wide Web is actually the Internet.
Therefore, even if other network technology standards are introduced, the first thing to be achieved must be compatibility with the World Wide Web.
Otherwise, your network cannot connect to 90% of Internet sites, so why exist
To achieve compatibility with the World Wide Web, it is simply impossible to bypass World Wide Web patents.
Therefore, everyone with a discerning eye knows that creating a network standard that can compete with World Wide Web technology is as difficult as creating a DC system that is compatible with the AC power grid system that has been widely used in the world. There is no way to achieve it. possibility.
Since it cannot compete with the World Wide Web, if you want to get a share of this industry, you must join it.
In the past few years, Igret has also shown a quite open attitude. In addition to some patents related to core business interests, the free World Wide Web technology released by Igret is enough to allow other new entrants interested in getting involved in this field. Tech companies grow their businesses.
However, after all, the market created by this openness cannot be as valuable as the value contained in Yigrit Company itself.
Therefore, since the Ygrit Company began to rise to prominence, many people have closely watched the development of this company, and have asked the Westeros system more than once to see if they can invest in this company.
The answers in the past were naturally specific.
Relying on the profits contributed by companies such as Daenerys Entertainment and Cersei Capital, the Westeros system does not have an urgent need for funds, and even if it lacks money, the foundation of the Westeros system is enough to easily obtain funds from major companies. The bank received a $1 billion level loan.
As a result, many people once felt that Yigrit Company might remain absolutely private for a long time.
Because they are unable to get involved and share the pie personally, some forces have begun to think about how to 'remind' Simon Westeros not to eat alone.
Unexpectedly, with a series of major events related to the new technology field in March, the Westeros system took the initiative to release the news that Ygrit Company would conduct external financing.
This is the news that many people have been waiting for.
However, the results were somewhat different from what was imagined.
10% of the shares, US$1.5 billion, is too expensive.
Even if it is clear that Yigrit Company is indeed worth this price, it is only US$1.5 billion, not US$150 million, let alone US$15 million.
Such a huge amount of capital can only obtain 10% of a company's shares. Any capital interested in Ygriet Company will inevitably hesitate again and again.