Girl C moves very quickly.
Early on Monday morning, February 21, the Wall Street Journal reported that Claire Gein, CEO of Tinker Bayer, had an appointment with the president of Morgan Stanley’s West Coast Investment Banking Division.
The media and the public usually refer to the major financial giants on Wall Street as so-and-so 'investment banks'. In fact, companies such as Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Lehman, and Salomon are all comprehensive financial services companies. Investment banks are just these financial institutions to be precise. One of the giant's many businesses, it is mainly responsible for corporate IPOs and the underwriting of various types of stocks and bonds.
Therefore, the purpose of Lady C’s meeting with the head of Morgan West Coast’s investment banking department is self-evident.
On the morning of the same day, on the financial section of the Igret Portal, 'inside sources' immediately broke the news that Tinker Bayer was considering an initial public offering (IPO). The rapidly rising electronics company has quickly become the focus of attention from the outside world.
Founded in 1991, it became a blockbuster with an affordable digital camera product in June of that year. Sales exceeded US$300 million in the second year after its establishment, and its development speed was no less than that of established PC giants such as Apple and Compaq.
Seemingly to build momentum for the upcoming IPO, on February 22, Tinker Bayer also announced its full-year financial report for 1993 through the Igret portal.
Throughout 1993, Tinker Bayer sold 2.76 million iCam series digital cameras, with a turnover of US$1.39 billion and a net profit of US$1.2. In just three years since its establishment, an electronics company has achieved sales of more than 1 billion US dollars and net profits of more than 100 million, which is outstanding in the entire business history.
Such operating performance also once again proves the broad development space of the Internet industry, which is currently in a blue ocean.
February 22 is Simon’s 26th birthday.
Still passing by quietly.
If you don’t count the fact that Girl C publicly wished her boss a happy birthday on NBC’s “Tonight Show.”
Claire has been on the important pages of newspapers for two consecutive days. On the night of Simon's birthday, Claire also accepted an interview with NBC's famous talk show "The Tonight Show". With the aura of a strong business woman, Girl C's temperament and style that night were no less than that of any Hollywood actress. , in the interview, he talked with Jay Leno about his idea of founding Tinker Bayer, the development of iCam cameras in the past few years, and his prospects for the company.
Of course there is also the own boss.
Girl C was very frank about this, saying that she was once one of Simon's ABCDs. She also boldly revealed her admiration for her boss during work and Simon's unlimited support for her founding Tinker Bayer. Occasionally, some minor side effects It was ambiguous. Although she was tactfully avoided by Girl C, Claire's unconcealed aftertaste seemed to be 'unrequited', causing the audience to boo.
Finally, while wishing Simon a happy birthday, I also did not forget to continue to advertise the fourth-generation iCam-40 digital camera that Tink Bayer will release during Easter.
It fits the theme very well.
It feels like this big goblin is on stage just to promote its own products.
There is also no shortage of doubts.
An article in the "San Francisco Chronicle" on Wednesday mercilessly mocked the singleness of Tinco Bayer's products and the huge performance gap between iCam and professional digital cameras that lack core technology. It also analyzed that iCam is facing various challenges. The big and old electronics manufacturers are jointly under siege, claiming that this small company whose market share has been "falling all the way" may be marginalized within three years, just like Apple, which is in rapid decline.
After the market value reached its peak of US$7.6 billion in 1992, affected by factors such as the rise of Microsoft and the stagnation of its own product innovation, even though it still achieved a net profit of more than US$500 million in fiscal year 1993, Apple's stock price continued to decline, and its current market value has fallen to 43. At a low of US$100 million, the stock price has plummeted 43.5% compared to its peak.
Tinco Bayer, which initially only relied on purchasing parts from other manufacturers to assemble the first-generation iCam-10, seems to be inferior to even Apple on the surface. Whether it is a Japanese and German electronics manufacturer or a powerful American electronics manufacturer, relying on years of technology accumulation. Able to produce better digital camera products than Tinker Bayer.
Simon scoffed at the article, which was written purely as bad news.
According to this point of view, in my memory, Motorola, Nokia and other mobile phone giants with profound technical accumulation cannot be surpassed by an 'layman' like Apple.
After three years of growth, Tinco Bayer already has its own complete technology accumulation, marketing model, sales network and after-sales service. This is the foundation for a company to continue to develop rapidly, rather than simply the technical level of its products.
What's more, if we talk about technology, Tinker Bayer already used a completely self-developed CMOS image sensor in its third-generation iCam-30 digital camera last year.
As the core component of mobile phone cameras in Simon's memory, Tinker Bayer's accumulation of CMOS technology has been at least two years ahead of other traditional electronic manufacturers that are still focusing on the development of expensive CCD sensor technology. The software and hardware optimization around CMOS sensors are more advanced. It is far inferior to the products of other cheap digital camera manufacturers.
Although last year's iCam-30 still only has 300,000 pixels, relying on Tinco Bayer's self-developed CMOS sensor and sparing no effort to optimize software and hardware technology, the photo effect is no less than that of a camera launched by Canon that claims to have the display texture of a traditional film camera. 600,000-pixel CCD sensor camera. Moreover, the iCam-30 still maintains a price of US$499. Although the price of Canon's CCM sensor digital camera is also positioned at the mass consumer level, the price is still as high as US$1,200.
The USB technology jointly launched by Yigrit, Microsoft, and Intel has been officially promoted since the end of last year.
Tinker Bayer's advance layout of USB technology hardware is far ahead of other manufacturers. iCam digital cameras and iPlayer music players have already perfected USB interface versions in advance. In addition, there are also USB flash drives that can replace current floppy disks. disk product, this product will be released first together with iCam-40 this Easter.
More importantly, these products are backed by a series of technology patents that contain huge potential benefits.
Therefore, to those familiar with the history of Tinker Bayer, the San Francisco Chronicle article was a complete joke.
Compared with the pessimism of the San Francisco Chronicle, many professional media are still more optimistic about Tinco Bayer's IPO prospects. Based on the 1993 financial performance and the company's continued upward momentum, the industry generally predicts that Tinco Bayer's IPO price-to-earnings ratio will not be less than 20 times, which means that the company has a conservative valuation of up to 2.4 billion US dollars.
Based on her 15% shareholding in Tinker Bayer, Lady C’s net worth is estimated to be US$360 million.
With US$360 million, he has basically stepped on the threshold of the 400 richest people in the United States. After the official IPO, the stock price rose slightly. The former personal maid of Simon Westeros may become one of the 400 richest people in the United States on the Forbes list in the second half of this year.
The most direct consequence of this incident is that the maid team of the Westeros family has attracted much attention.
The media later discovered that in addition to C girl Claire, B girl Betsy Hope has also entered the entrepreneurial stage. This financial consulting service company called Alphabeta has not officially launched its own product, but as the news came to light, some investors Capital and potential users have begun to inquire about the details.
In addition, how to become a Wei family waitress like ABCD has gradually become a hot discussion topic among many college girls and job-seeking women. Not only do some people ask similar questions to relevant people in the Westeros system through various channels, but some even The girl recommended herself through the Yigrit social platform.
If you can serve Simon Westeros, even if you can't become a billionaire like Claire Gein, judging from the information recently exposed by the media, the salary of this job is so good that it is fascinating.
While the media and professional chatter surrounding Claire is abuzz, both overt and covert teams at Westeros Corporation are operating in the UK regarding the 'mysterious Lolita Army'.
If it is possible not to be exposed, of course it is best not to be exposed.
After News Corporation refused to publish a certain report, the Westeros system's public relations team also successfully intercepted two mainstream British newspapers, "The Guardian" and "The Daily Telegraph", who tried to report on the matter, but this matter Since someone is deliberately trying to expose him, there is nothing he can do to stop him.
On February 25, another British gossip newspaper, the Daily Mirror, which was similar in nature to the News of the World, published the same article on the 'Mysterious Lolita Army'.
At the same time as the news hit the newspapers, the Metropolitan Police also received a report.
A storm breaks out.
The news about a group of mysterious Russian girls hiding in London who are suspected of being abducted or receiving agent training is really eye-catching.
On the day the "Daily Mirror" report came out, a villa next to Burton Park in Chelsea was surrounded by paparazzi reporters who heard the news. They took precautions in advance and the media was not able to contact the girls directly. , however, including the private girls’ school where the girls attended and others in the surrounding area, they have become the subject of media exploration.
Public opinion was fierce, and the London Police Department soon announced its formal involvement in the investigation.
Since the matter could no longer be concealed, Simon acted in accordance with his original plan in order to prevent London's well-developed tabloid system from concocting more irrelevant rumors.
The next day, a person in charge of the Westeros Company's London branch convened a press conference to publicly clarify that several Russian girls in London were special international students sponsored by the Westeros Company for the purpose of serving Weiss. The Tello family cultivated personal assistants.
In the face of the media's questioning, the person in charge did not hide it when accepting media inquiries. He simply explained that he was an assistant similar to Claire Gein, the founder of Tinker Bayer Company, who has been hotly discussed recently.
The well-informed and keen-minded media people were immediately stunned.
There was a heated discussion in the United States on how to become a maid in Westeros, and suddenly it was revealed that a group of girls were being groomed.
Is this a coincidence
Moreover, the excitement hasn’t started yet, and you just admitted it, what are you going to do next
So a lot of doubts were immediately raised.
Why such a group of girls
Do the girls have a special family background
Were the girls abused in their upbringing, and did they do so voluntarily
To be more sensitive, did these girls, all underage, have some kind of contact with Simon Westeros and were they harmed
Such confusion lasted a whole weekend.
On Monday, February 27, a spokesperson for the London Police Department also released a preliminary incident investigation report. The girls were indeed international students sponsored by the Westeros Company. All procedures were legal and legal, and their living conditions were very generous. They had not suffered any abuse. to any detention and ill-treatment.
London tabloids and the American media, which had already begun to follow suit, were even more dissatisfied.
How could this be
Don't let me watch the fun.
Well, can you trust what the official says
A British child protection organization immediately jumped out and demanded an investigation into the girls' situation.
The media naturally followed suit.
At the same time, the background of the girls and their selection process have also come to light through the excavations of tabloids from various European and American countries. The Westeros company collects resumes on a large scale through model recruitment. Is this suspected of infringing on privacy? The parents of the girls once requested to stay in the UK to accompany and take care of them, but all the parents who made such requests were rejected, and some girls who were originally selected were even involved in being expelled. Is this practice of the Westeros Company with bad intentions
All kinds of things.
People who eat melons just think that the melons are getting bigger and sweeter.
Then the Westeros Company simply released another super melon.
The Times, a newspaper owned by News Corporation, published a statement on February 30. In order to clarify some doubts among the media and the public, Westeros will conduct a live webcast on the lives of the girls on March 1. Display appropriately.
I have never heard of live streaming online.
However, after the news was released, many TV networks contacted Westeros to try to get the rights to live TV broadcasts of the girls' lives. Rupert Murdoch personally called Simon for this purpose.
Simon didn't object.
After a simple communication, a live broadcast team from British Sky TV was added to follow up. However, the live TV broadcast will only last for two hours a day, instead of the full-day tracking of online live broadcasts.
On the day the news was released, the live broadcast website address was also announced in a prominent position on the Yigret portal. Millions of users clicked in immediately and saw only a simple video playback interface and the '' in the middle of the player. Stay tuned'.
The scheduled live broadcast time is March 1st in London. The girls got up at 5:40 to start.
It’s still past nine o’clock in the evening here on the West Coast of the United States.
That night, an hour before the live broadcast started, Jeff Bezos called Simon. There was a bit of excitement and worry in his tone, saying that the live broadcast had not started yet, and the number of viewers from all over the world waiting to watch had already exceeded 3,100. Ten thousand.
This number is really too huge.
Even among the major public television networks in the United States, there are only a handful of programs with more than 3,000 viewers each year. Moreover, this number will definitely increase after the live broadcast begins.
Moreover, even if it is calculated based on 30 million viewers, Yigrit Company has to bear 2 server and network bandwidth expenses every day, which is as high as 200,000 U.S. dollars. If it continues for a month, it will be 6 million U.S. dollars.
It can only be described as burning money.
However, Bezos also expressed his optimism for online video live broadcasts, believing that if this live broadcast can be successful, Igret may be able to invest in a live video website in advance.
Much anticipated, at 5:40 a.m. London time, the live video screen lit up on time.
The camera first falls on the living room of the villa, which is decorated in a simple yet luxurious style.
The voiceover is a female voice with an intellectual and soft voice that has the charm of a female anchor of an emotional radio show. She briefly introduces herself to Jill, and holds the live camera in her hand, which has already aroused the interest of many viewers.
The camera did not show Jill herself. After briefly introducing herself, she said: "It's 5:40 London time now. The girls are getting up, but we need to wait a moment. It's still private time. Oh, let me introduce you first. It’s Ms. Burns, the housekeeper who looks after the girls’ lives.”
Hearing that Jill was going to take everyone to see the girls getting up later, countless viewers in front of the computer screens became excited, and were obviously impatient when the host introduced a certain old-fashioned woman in black.
However, the camera still did not turn to the direction expected by the audience. Instead, Ms. Burns led a brief tour of the villa.
Even though they still hope that the group of goblins selected by Simon Westeros will appear as soon as possible, many viewers are still stunned by this luxurious villa. Many people who had previously questioned the situation of the girls have also given up their original ideas. If living in such an environment is considered abuse, I would rather be abused for the rest of my life.
After about ten minutes of this, Jill finally walked towards the stairs of the villa. Ms. Burns did not follow her this time. She went all the way to the second floor and took a close-up of the nameplate on a door: "This is Natalie's room." .”
A hand reached out from the screen and knocked on the door.
After a while, a slightly baby-faced girl opened the door and politely invited Jill to enter. The girl had already changed into a set of ballet practice clothes, showing a very beautiful figure for her age. Every detail is ladylike, and she has obviously received professional training.
Jill followed him through the door, and the camera swept across the equally luxuriously decorated bedroom. Some of the girls in front of the computer screen were already expecting to be abused by Westeros.
Behind the camera, Jill watched the girl tidy up the room skillfully and occasionally asked questions.
"Nata, can I call you that?"
"certainly."
"Speaking of which, your English is really good."
The girl arranged her personal belongings one by one in the spacious bathroom and said with a smile: "Thank you, I worked very hard, but others said it better."
"Oh, by the way, can you explain to everyone why you got up at 5:40?"
Natalie finally folded a towel and hung it on the shelf, took Jill out of the room, and said, "Because the boss is used to getting up at six o'clock, we must be earlier than him."
"boss?"
"Yes, Mr. Westeros," Natalie said, with obvious admiration on her expression: "I'm really looking forward to meeting him."
"Haven't you seen Westeros?"
"If it hadn't been mentioned in the newspaper some time ago, we wouldn't even know who our boss is."
"Why do you call him 'boss'?"
"On TV, that's how Miss Gein called Mr. Westeros. Everyone thinks this title is very affectionate."
"So, why do you think he wants to hide the fact that he is the boss from you?"
"The boss must have his reasons," Natalie said, frowning slightly: "So, those newspapers are talking nonsense. We are all living a good life, and the boss is also a very good person."