For Simon, there is now basically no difference between weekdays and weekends.
Simon spent all day Saturday at Daenerys' East Coast headquarters in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, working on a slew of major TV projects this year.
The six main creators of "Friends" have long been finalized. Except for the actor who plays Monica, the other five people have remained original. The pilot episode of the series has also been completed. Because of Daenerys Entertainment's reputation in the television industry in recent years, several major television networks have expressed interest in "Friends."
The recently acquired "Emergency Room Story" is still in the early stage of casting. It is expected to start producing a pilot episode after signing a contract with the TV network in May. It will be piloted in the summer. If nothing goes wrong, it can be scheduled for the autumn TV series.
The creative teams of the two old hit dramas "Seinfeld" and "Desperate Housewives" are already very mature, so the production of the new season does not require Simon to interfere too much.
In addition to the above four main films, there are also six other TV series projects that are either renewed or newly released. With limited energy, Simon does not pay special attention to them.
In terms of reality shows, the earliest four reality shows "Who Will Be a Millionaire", "Survivor", "Big Brother" and "Housewife" series, "Big Brother" will stop production after the end of the spring season this year. "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor" continue to launch their next seasons, but the ratings are far less than they were six years ago.
In comparison, the "Honey Wives" series has maintained considerable vitality after it was transferred to the USA TV network. Not only the original "Beverly Housewives" is still continuing, but "Wives of New York" has also been launched in recent years. , "Honey Wives of Atlanta" and "House Wives of Miami" three new series.
Due to the termination of "Big Brother", the free production team will launch two new reality show projects in two this year, one is about travel and adventure "The Climber", and the other is the cooking competition "The Best" "Good Housewife", the latter has been confirmed to be broadcast on the USA Television Network, and the former is still in negotiations with the Public Television Network.
Simon was not involved in the planning of the two new reality shows, so the two series are completely original to what he remembers.
Simon accepted a dinner invitation from the Salzberg family behind the New York Times Group in advance. The venue was in East Hampton, Long Island. Simon finished his work day at around 6:30. In order to save time, he took a helicopter directly from Manhattan to Long Island, 150 kilometers away. The easternmost point.
As the most well-known wealthy area on the East Coast, the Westeros family also has its own property in East Hampton.
More than half an hour later, two Bell helicopters carrying Simon and his entourage landed in a manor on the seaside in the southern part of East Hampton. Aaliyah had already led people to conduct routine cleaning and inspection of the villa in advance. This is where Simon will stay after the party in the evening.
When the helicopters stopped, Simon got off one of them, turned around and carefully carried off the girl B who came with her. Betsy was a little airsick, so after landing, she could only hold Simon's arm to stand still, but luckily she didn't vomit. There was no problem with Girl A at the back, but when she saw Betsy being held around the waist by Simon, there was some expectation in her eyes. Simon smiled and stepped forward, holding the girl's slender waist with both hands, and took her along.
As for Simon's group of four bodyguards on the helicopter behind, there is no need to pay attention to them.
After looking at the two Bell helicopters for the last time, Simon led the two girls towards the manor villa and said to Girl A: "Contact Sikorsky to see if you can order four helicopters according to the standards of the White House Navy One. "
Many of Simon's apartments on the east and west coasts are far away from his office. Taking a helicopter when necessary is undoubtedly the most time-saving way. For example, this time, if it takes at least two hours to drive from Manhattan to East Hampton, it only takes less than 40 minutes to take a Bell helicopter, which is not very fast.
For Simon now, the cost of any mode of travel is not as expensive as the cost of his own time.
Simon doesn't like ordinary helicopters in terms of safety or comfort. Just like the two Bells just now, although they are the most luxurious and top-level models, they are still very noisy and the comfort is average, otherwise Girl B will not Airsickness, the vases next to Simon are all in good physical condition.
In my memory, the Navy One helicopter that was specially used to serve the White House or some American dignitaries did not have these drawbacks. Passengers had no problem talking or even having meetings in the cabin with minimal noise, and both safety, comfort and other parameters were maximized. Top notch.
Scorsese's Black Hawk helicopters are banned from sale to many overseas countries, but not within the United States or some other hardcore allies. Simon has seen the civilian version of the Black Hawk as a common means of transportation more than once in the past few years.
Simon didn't know if there were any other restrictions on the sale of presidential-level special helicopters, but he was not interested in military equipment involving secrets. At that time, it would be slightly castrated, as long as the safety and comfort were not compromised, it would still be acceptable.
Girl A had no objection to Simon's instructions, but said: "In this case, a dedicated helicopter driving and maintenance team will need to be hired."
Simon just nodded to this, as if he knew it.
The Westeros family now doesn't even lack its own private jet team, and adding a helicopter team is fine. Maybe the four helicopters placed on the east and west coasts will be used far less frequently than the private jets, but whatever.
It was already dusk.
Simon took a shower in the villa, changed a set of clothes, and rushed to the Salzberg family's mansion with Girl B, who was also dressed up carefully.
Because it was a dinner party and there were not many guests, there was no need for Girl A to act as a social assistant.
The main purpose of bringing Girl B along is to help her expand her network in the media industry. Alphabeta, the financial information company established by Girls A and B, has been making steady progress.
Because it is intended to compete with Bloomberg, both Simon and Janet are very fond of this project and spare no effort to provide all kinds of support. In addition to the most basic funds, Alphabeta's software R&D team and information operations team are all Simon The couple poached elites from Ygritte Corporation, Cersei Capital and other financial giants on Wall Street.
Alphabeta expects to officially launch its own financial information software around October this year. In the short term, its customers are mainly various types of small fund managers or individual stock traders in various states in the United States. These people cannot afford the 10,000 Bloomberg terminals per year. The expensive expense is about US$5,000, so they are generally still using old stock quotation terminals that can no longer keep up with the times.
Alphabeta's financial information software, which has been named 'Alia', will not only provide advanced financial information services similar to Bloomberg terminals, but the planned price will be only about one-tenth of the price of Bloomberg terminals.
The name 'Alia' was randomly chosen by Simon when he saw the Indian girl next to him when Girl B occasionally asked.
The most important thing is that it is very easy to remember.
Many business case studies have shown that a product with a simple and easy-to-remember name can play an unexpected role in its marketing promotion.
Compared with the current high-end institutional customer base of Bloomberg terminals, which are less than 20,000, the U.S. stock market has re-entered the bull market in recent years, and the technology stock market has become even more popular. However, the latest financial information software in the United States has become increasingly popular. The demand is dozens or even hundreds of times that of Bloomberg terminal.
Perhaps Alia, which targets relatively low-end customers, does not have as high a profit margin as the Bloomberg terminal, but as long as it can take the lead in its own field and rely on its potentially huge user base, the company's future scale will not be worse than that of the Bloomberg terminal. How many.
Alphabeta's ultimate plan is to use an operating model similar to 'bad money drives out good money'. It will first occupy the low-end market with its own financial information services that cannot compete with Bloomberg terminals in the short term, and then continue to improve its own services. Perfect the counterattack to the high-end market where Bloomberg terminal is located, and ultimately achieve the goal of unifying the financial information service field.
Of course, this is only the most ideal vision.
Bloomberg Terminal has more than ten years of experience in the field of financial information. Alphabeta, the company founded by Girl B, will not wait until the moment it hits the high-end. Once Bloomberg or other financial information companies discover the vast potential of the low-end market , may have to be suppressed by these entrenched established companies in advance by diving into the low-end. Once this happens, Alphabeta may face a severe challenge as to whether it can maintain its survival in its own locked field.
Therefore, Simon will give the greatest support to Alphabeta, but will not have absolute expectations.
The key depends on Girl B’s own efforts.
The dinner party was not large in scale, with only a dozen guests in total, but they were all well-known figures from the East Coast.
During the meal, everyone joked about the unlucky president who had recently been sued for sexual assault by a woman named Paula Jones, talked about the potential crisis in the Mexican peso, and talked about some charity projects for Africa. One thing is enough.
The seemingly irrelevant conversation actually included many trial transactions.
For example, in a casual chat, the Salzberg family introduced a Democratic candidate for the New York State House of Representatives they support to Simon. Simon also hopes that the New York Times Group can appropriately promote news and public opinion during this midterm election. Actions that match the Westeros system.
Naturally, the topic of technology stocks cannot be escaped.
The head of a portfolio fund invested by the Salzberg family, with a scale of about US$1 billion, tested Simon's question about the prospects of technology stocks more than once. It can be seen that everyone in the restaurant was concerned when the fund manager raised this topic. Subconsciously pricking up his ears, Simon couldn't reveal his true thoughts just because of a dinner. He just practiced Tai Chi with everyone very skillfully.
During this process, Simon also introduced Girl B to everyone, and also personally introduced the products being developed by Alphabeta Company.
In order to reduce the vigilance of established financial giants such as Bloomberg Terminal as much as possible, only a few people know about the plan of 'bad money drives out good money'. Alphabeta has always claimed that its target is only the vast potential low-end market.
The dinner started at eight o'clock and lasted until nine o'clock.
Afterwards, the guests did not leave immediately, but gathered again in a banquet hall in the Salzberg family mansion to drink and chat.
Once again, he took Girl B to socialize in the crowd and sent the girl to socialize freely. Simon was holding a glass of red wine and was being pestered and chatted by a beautiful woman in her mid-thirties, the current head of the Salzberg family. Arthur Salzberg Jr. came over with a middle-aged man about forty years old.
After sending away the woman who was almost clinging to Simon, little Arthur introduced the short middle-aged man with a round face next to him: "Simon, this is John Hester, the younger brother of William III."
Little Arthur gave a brief introduction and immediately clarified: "You guys talk, I still have things to deal with over there."
The Hearst family is very large, and Simon did not see the younger brother of William Hearst III when he visited the Hearst family.
After little Arthur walked away, he saw John Hester reaching out with a smile, but Simon had no intention of shaking hands with him. He obviously knew the other party's intention, which was nothing more than seeking reconciliation. Since the announcement of the launch of the attack on the Hearst family in March By blocking, Simon completely closed the door to reconciliation, so he just shook his head with an indifferent expression and said: "Mr. Hester, you and I have nothing to talk about."
Just walk away after saying that.
John Hurst, who was left hanging in the same place, kept his hand stretched out for a long time. Feeling the various looks from the guests around him, he suddenly felt a surge of strong anger and humiliation.
When had the Hearst family ever suffered such slights
Even though he had little power within the family, John Hester had been surrounded by adulation for decades because of his surname, so it was naturally difficult for him to accept a sudden disparity. Watching a certain young man leave, he hesitated for a moment, but John Hester failed to let go of his reserve and chase after him. Instead, he quickly turned around and left with an angry look on his face.
After John Hester left, Arthur Salzberg Jr. reappeared in front of Simon and explained it tactfully again.
Simon didn't care.
The forces among America's established media families are intricately intertwined. If they could be pushed aside, the Salzberg family would not deliberately make him unhappy.
After socializing like this until about ten o'clock, Simon took Girl B and left.
The next day I still got up early.
After breakfast, Simon did not leave Long Island. Instead, he dealt with some work emails in the study room of the villa until around ten o'clock in the morning, a black Mercedes-Benz sedan drove into the manor. Martin, one of the leaders of the Westeros family intelligence team Dinham got out of the car with a suitcase and was directly led into the study by Girl A.
When Simon came back from the dinner at Salzberg's house last night, he saw a message from Janet.
The attempted assassination in March has been cleared.
Janet sent Martin Dinham to the West Coast and asked Simon to handle the matter personally.
In the study room of the villa.
After just saying hello, Martin Dinham opened his suitcase, which was full of photos, videos, documents and other information. Simon did not look at the photos or videos that were used as evidence. He just took the investigation report handwritten by Martin Dinham and looked through it quietly.
After the whole thing is straightened out, it is indeed extremely simple.
George Woodfield, an entrepreneur in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was encouraged by his old classmate Clark Gralf, who ran a hedge fund on Wall Street, to withdraw as much as $200 million from his family business, Monroeville Machinery Company, in January. Money is betting against technology stocks.
Monroeville Machinery Company, which mainly deals in agricultural machinery, has a century-old history and is a listed company. However, the total market value of this company is only more than 2 billion U.S. dollars, and the Woodfield family’s shareholding in Monroeville Machinery Company is less than 15%, the family assets are approximately US$300 million.
Therefore, it is conceivable that the $200 million that George Woodfield extracted from the company without authorization was almost the entire available cash flow of the company.
Then, all of that money was bet against technology stocks by that classmate of George Woodfield.
Unfortunately, like the mistakes of many Wall Street hedge fund managers, the burst of the technology stock bubble that Clark Gralf expected did not happen. Even more than a month later, the rise of technology stocks was still rapid.
The total amount of funds held by Gralf Capital, run by Clark Gralf, is US$300 million, of which $200 million was transferred from the family business without permission by George Woodfield.
If all this money is lost, not only will Monroeville Machinery Company go bankrupt due to a broken capital chain, but the Woodfield family will also be wiped out in subsequent corporate bankruptcy and related lawsuits.
Faced with the continued rise of technology stocks, Clark Gralf and George Woodfield came up with a special method to save the crisis in desperation.
If Simon Westeros is assassinated, even if he does not die, the technology stock market will inevitably plummet, at least in the short term, stimulated by the unexpected encounter of this core figure in the Westeros system.
At that time, Gralf Capital will be able to take advantage of the situation and flee.
Therefore, under the planning of the two men, the assassination incident on March 9 occurred without causing any splash at all.
Although the assassination failed, in the first and middle of March, affected by various negative news about the Westeros system, technology stocks suffered a wave of decline. Clark Gralf originally had a chance to lose half of his funds and leave the market, but unfortunately, Like many gamblers, Gralf expected to recover all his costs, so he missed the last chance.
The strong rebound in technology stocks at the end of March led to the complete liquidation of Graal Capital.
Now Clark Gralf, who originally had a net worth of tens of millions of dollars, is already a pauper, and news of George Woodfield's unauthorized misappropriation of family business funds and total losses has also been exposed. Both of them are struggling to cope with the difficult situation around them. Unexpectedly, the assassination plan that they had previously thought was a secret plan but had forgotten about because there was no follow-up had been discovered by the intelligence team of the Westeros family.