Janet acted quickly and flew to Melbourne with her female assistant and three little guys after the weekend.
Jennifer didn't really want to go to Australia, mainly because she was worried about the embarrassment she would have when facing the Johnstons, and she also wanted to stay with Simon. Simon and his wife persuaded them together, and the female assistant reluctantly agreed.
Veronica followed.
This is something that both Simon and Janet are reluctant to do. There are many things that need to be dealt with during these days, and what Simon needs most is someone who is absolutely reliable.
Veronica was very insistent on returning to Australia and said that this was her original itinerary plan. However, when Janet asked about the reason, her expression flickered and she was unwilling to explain.
Simon didn't object in the end.
Before setting off in the morning, the female assistant repeatedly reminded Simon not to go to the Oscars ceremony in the evening.
Today is March 21st, and the 66th Academy Awards will be held tonight.
It's not suitable for public appearances recently. Even though he was nominated for Best Screenplay for "The Lion King" again, Simon had no intention of attending the award ceremony and naturally agreed to the female assistant's instructions.
Returning to Australia this time, the woman and children did not take the Boeing 767 that could fly directly to Melbourne at home, but booked first class on an ordinary commercial Boeing 747. Simon admitted that he was a little overly sensitive, but insisted that he was careful and could not make a big mistake. If Janet didn't think it was necessary, he even hoped that the women and children would take separate planes to Australia.
The contents of the suicide note of the assassin in the last assassination incident gave Simon a big reminder.
If Simon really had an accident, according to the federal estate tax rate of 50%, the U.S. government would make a huge fortune, and many people might even have a "full meal."
Simon had whispered with Janet over the weekend that he would revise a will in the near future.
After the modification of the will, if something really happens, Simon does not intend to leave any of his assets to the US government unless the top federal officials completely break up and make a fool of themselves in front of the whole world.
Of course, this is just in case.
The key is to strengthen one's own strength so that some people will not dare to do anything extraordinary even if they are tempted.
Two investigations that continue to be carried out secretly, the London girl exposure incident and the assassination incident a few days ago, have made progress.
The investigation team conducted a more detailed investigation of the assassin's apartment that had been neglected, and accidentally discovered unfamiliar fingerprints that did not exist in the opponent's known social circle, and three unrecorded M16 rifles used by the opponent in the assassination attempt. , is actually the biggest flaw.
In addition, the assassin's bank account, contact with people in the past period, etc. are all important traces that can be continuously traced.
Simon, on the other hand, obtained a report on the London girl exposure personally submitted by Martin Dinham, one of the heads of the family's intelligence team, on Sunday.
Simon was not surprised at all by the people behind the persistent efforts to reveal the news about the London Girls team to the British media, and it was the Hearst family.
The last time Simon paid off people close to the Westeros family to try to expose the details of the female assistant's pregnancy, Simon gave a warning, but the Hearst family did not stop. Although they did not dare to reach out to people close to Simon anymore, they continued to pass the "San Francisco Chronicle" When the family media launches an attack on the Westeros system, this London girl incident is still a small trick used by the other party.
Not only that, Congressman David Meloth, who is supported by the Hearst family, has recently been pushing for the House of Representatives to establish a special investigative committee to launch an investigation into the Westeros system.
Simon initially hoped to maintain good relations with established media families like the Hearst family.
Even though the two parties have continued to have some minor frictions in the past two years, Simon has maintained the attitude that business is business and has not interfered with the cooperation between subsidiaries within the system and Hearst Group.
It is a pity that the Hearst family, which has been strong for nearly a century, did not realize that many things had changed. After a slight conflict with the Westeros system, they continued to maintain tit-for-tat with their usual arrogance, which eventually led to the The contradiction cannot be resolved.
Since the other party was now like a tarsal maggot, Simon was no longer polite and no longer left any room.
Just start a war.
At an impromptu high-level conference call of the Westeros system on Monday morning, Simon officially announced his decision, requiring all subsidiaries in the entire Westeros system that have cooperative relationships with the Hearst Group's media to cut off cooperation with each other. .
Except for a few relatively serious media such as the "San Francisco Chronicle", the media platforms under the Hearst Group are more inclined to fashion entertainment. Many famous fashion magazines such as "COSMOPOLITAN" are assets of the Hearst Group, so regardless of Whether it is Daenerys Entertainment, Melisandre Company, or even various other companies in the Westeros system, they have been advertising in a large number of newspapers and magazines under the Hearst Group before.
In 1993, the total advertising expenditures of the Westeros system on Hearst Group's media alone reached 65 million US dollars.
Beginning March 21, all such spending ceases.
Not only that, in all fields such as technology, fashion, entertainment, etc. that the Westeros system can affect, relevant partners will be required to choose sides.
There are many traditional media giants in North America, but there is only one in Westeros.
So, take your pick!
The Hearst Group's revenue in 1993 reached US$2.11 billion. The US$65 million in advertising revenue from the Westeros system accounted for more than 3% of the total revenue for the year. This is definitely not a dispensable share. .
Moreover, if the complete loss of this part of the income is not enough to devastate the Hearst Group, it will be impossible for the Westeros system to use its influence to unite all partners to comprehensively attack the Hearst Group. Leave the other party indifferent again.
This isn't over yet.
Hearst Group has also begun to deploy the Internet in the past two years and has successively invested in multiple new technology companies. The Hearst family was initially unwilling to cooperate with Eaglet on news content, but recently it quietly launched an electronic version of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Starting from March 21st, whether it is the three mainstream portals Ygritte, AOL and MSN, or the Google search engine and Facebook social network owned by Ygritte, new technology companies and Internet websites that are involved with the Hearst family , will adopt a merciless blocking strategy.
On the same day, after Simon personally made the decision on Saturday and completed negotiations with the New York Times Group on Sunday, the Igret Portal and the New York Times simultaneously released news of the cooperation between the two parties on their respective media platforms.
The company not only announced the general terms of cooperation between the two parties on the portal's homepage, reaffirming its open attitude that it has no intention to monopolize Internet media, but also launched the official website of the New York Times in subsequent news entries. An article about the Clinton administration's push for a ban on assault weapons. Clicking on this news will lead users directly to the official website of the New York Times.
The Boston Globe, which the New York Times Group just acquired last year, will also open an electronic version in the near future and will also receive traffic support from the Igret portal.
In addition to news content sharing, two other cooperations have also attracted strong attention in the industry.
The New York Times Group invested US$30 million in online radio and audio resource website Broadcast, acquiring a 15% stake.
For many people who first saw this business, their first reaction was that it was too expensive.
In fact, the New York Times Group initially thought so.
After learning in detail that Broadcast already has more than 3 million registered users just one year after its launch and the future development prospects of this website, the industry generally realizes that the New York Times Group may have taken a big advantage.
Personal radio stations, audio books, educational courses, online music, etc., a little analysis will show how huge the market potential is.
Moreover, the Broadcast website also announced a rough plan for launching an audio download service in the future through the Igret portal on the same day. Whether it is to embed advertisements in the audio content or adopt a VIP payment strategy, it means that Broadcast has figured out a quite feasible solution. business model.
This is even more valuable for most websites that are still trying to win over users without considering profit prospects at this stage.
Rapidly growing users and a viable business model are just these two advantages, combined with the rapid explosion of the Internet industry, which means that Broadcast’s IPO in one to two years’ time will likely see the market value easily reach the US$1 billion level. By then, the New York Times Group's seemingly expensive investment of US$30 million will be enough to easily multiply many times.
Of course, Yigret's potential earnings are significantly higher.
Everyone can only envy and hate this.
In Silicon Valley at this stage, even if you can offer a higher price, most high-quality Internet projects will still be easily snatched away by Yigrit. The huge user base and traffic import capabilities of the Yigrit portal are completely at this stage. Other Internet companies of the same type are far behind.
Another authorization regarding Internet streaming video technology also makes many people excited.
Even though no specific project has been announced yet, the recent phenomenal social effect brought about by London Girls Live Broadcast shows the huge commercial potential of Internet video websites.
The two parties reached a cooperation, and the New York Times Group also reciprocated.
In fact, since the negotiations entered the final stage, dozens of newspapers and media owned by the New York Times Group have reduced their targeted articles on the Westeros system.
The formal cooperation agreement was finalized on Sunday. Arthur Salzberg Jr., the head of the Salzberg family behind the New York Times Group, also personally wrote a letter to Simon, stating that the New York Times Group would Provide as much support as possible to the system of Westeros.
Simon had people combing through all 32 newspapers under the New York Times Group on Monday. Although there were still a few criticisms following the trend, he did not find any more sensitive and fiercely targeted articles. Not only that, there are many reports that speak for the Westeros system.
The public relations team of the Westeros family also contacted some senior executives of the New York Times Group on Monday to plan further cooperation in guiding public opinion.
Simon appreciates the sincerity shown by the Salzberg family very much, even more than the old fox Murdoch who appears to be close but is actually distant. As long as this cooperation can continue, he does not mind giving more benefits to the New York Times Group.
Therefore, in the morning, I received a specially sent letter from Arthur Salzberg Jr., and Simon rarely wrote a paper reply in person, expressing his optimism for this cooperation and hoping to go to the West Coast next time. Able to visit the Salzberg family.
On the other hand, with today’s announcement of the cooperation between Igret and the New York Times Group, the most important Los Angeles Times Group on the West Coast will use Peter Butler, who originally switched jobs from the Los Angeles Times Company to the Igret Portal. A cooperation trial was issued to Simon.
The old fox Rupert Murdoch also called Simon's office again, half-truthfully complaining that Simon was too stingy with News Corporation and gave too many benefits to the New York Times Corporation.
After announcing his partnership with the New York Times Group in the morning and his decisive decision to go to war with the Hearst family, Simon's energy turned to politics again in the afternoon.
Joseph Schlapp flew to Los Angeles from Washington yesterday, and did not leave after talking with Simon all afternoon on Sunday. On Monday afternoon, the two continued to discuss the recent problems faced by the Westeros system in Simon's office at Daenerys Studios. political situation.
In Washington the other day, Schlapp had contact with the White House.
Clinton did not make a clear statement on the Westeros system that is commonly used by congressional candidates facing mid-term elections in the near future. He only asked one of his assistants to take the lead, hoping that the Westeros system can take the initiative to make some changes and further open up the World Wide Web. platform.
Simon is well aware of the Clintons' idiosyncratic nature.
If the Westeros system cannot solve the recent crises on its own as soon as possible, Clinton will definitely take the initiative to 'comply with public opinion' for the sake of his own support rate.
In fact, the Department of Justice held a closed-door meeting last Friday on whether it is necessary to investigate the alleged monopoly issues of the three new technology companies in the Westeros system, Cisco, America Online, and Ygrit. The Justice Department appointed by Clinton Minister Janet Reno officiated in person.
This is already a signal.
The results of the closed-door meeting were not announced. The White House only used this to express its attitude to Simon and the public. The White House will definitely take action when necessary.
On the other hand, the series of bills promoted by the Westeros system are unlikely to make any progress in the short term.
Simon simply took the initiative to pause.
Representative David Meloth, a member of the House of Representatives supported by the Hearst family, has also formally submitted application documents for his plan to form a special investigative committee to investigate the Westeros system.
Simon has realized that a formal antitrust investigation is almost inevitable. In order not to lose the initiative in public opinion, the White House will certainly take action before the House of Representatives’ special investigative committee is established. Otherwise, it will inevitably be attacked by political opponents for inaction. Therefore, even if the Westeros system does make various concessions now, it will only get more gains.
In this case, Simon intends to further strengthen the 'Growth Untamed' plan.
After all, even if the Internet assets held by the Westeros system are really split up in the future, all Simon needs to give up is control, and he can still control a large amount of equity in each company after the split. At that time, just like the Rockefeller family, Standard Oil was dismantled. Rockefeller's wealth increased significantly because he held a large number of shares in the company after the split.
As long as these wealth are in hand, it is not impossible for the Westeros system to undergo a major integration of the Internet industry in the future.
If they are separated for a long time, they will be united; if they are united for a long time, they will be divided.
This is the general trend.
Standard Oil, which was broken up into pieces, has now been reintegrated into a handful of energy giants, and further integration will follow. AT-T, which was split up ten years ago, has also begun a new round of integration. In the future, the Internet is destined to be an area where super technology giants are racing.
The final topic of the afternoon is still the midterm elections.
The 'sniper plan' formulated based on the previous list and the maintenance plan targeting the political 'basis' of the Westeros family will be launched at the same time.
Whether the two plans can be successfully completed is crucial to whether the Westeros system has enough say in Washington in the next stage.
Therefore, it is not out of place that the Igret Portal chose to quote the New York Times news this morning that the Clinton administration is pushing for a ban on offensive weapons.
On the one hand, this news shows the formal content cooperation between Eagle and the New York Times Group. It is also a reminder to the National Rifle Association that if the other party is unwilling to cooperate during this year's midterm elections, it will If they choose to oppose the Westeros system, then it is not impossible for the Igrit portal to choose a stance of banning guns in the future.
The National Rifle Association that Simon remembers has become less and less influential in the Internet era, and a large part of the reason lies in the Internet.
Shootings in the United States have been very frequent.
In the era of traditional media, news related to shootings is easily limited to one state or one place, so it usually does not cause too much sensational widespread impact.
In the Internet age, every shooting incident will be easily seen by the public across the country and even the world. If the media secretly adds fuel to the fire, no matter how determined the supporters are, they will face the threat of shootings that seems to be happening around them all the time. , will gradually change their stance.
Simon and Joseph Schlapp did not finish their work for the day until after six o'clock in the afternoon.
On the other side of the city, at the Dorothy Chandler Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the 66th Academy Awards ceremony has begun.
The two had a simple dinner together in the company's in-house restaurant and sent Schlapp away. Because the woman and children had gone to Melbourne, Simon did not go home at all and continued to deal with some recent matters of Daenerys Entertainment in the studio office. Business, while waiting for Melisandre's party at the Sunset Tower Hotel after nine o'clock to show off a little bit.