As far as the U.S. political system is concerned, when most Washington politicians deal with issues, on the one hand they consider the interests of the plutocratic forces or behind-the-scenes funders they represent, and on the other hand the impact of a decision on their political capital such as voter approval rating Influence.
If there is a conflict between the two, the former will tend to be preferred.
Because voter support can be influenced or even manipulated, once there is no support from the plutocrats and financiers, everything will be lost before and after.
The most typical among them is undoubtedly the Bush family.
Especially during the Bush administration.
As the well-known spokesperson for the interests of American oil groups, the George W. Bush administration cannot fail to know that launching a war will lead to a sharp expansion of the U.S. debt deficit, sow the seeds of crisis for the U.S. economy, will allow China across the ocean to take the opportunity to rise, and will cause Russia and other U.S. The economic boom of the old enemy.
However, eight years after George W. Bush came to power, the war basically lasted for eight years.
The goals of the Westeros system are getting bigger and bigger.
In order not to be frequently used as a target, Simon focused on overseas expansion and never relaxed his layout in the local political field of North America, regardless of the cost.
As long as he can successfully create a political group affiliated with the Westeros system in the next few years, Simon can rest easy like the deep-rooted financial chaebols, oil consortiums and military-industrial groups in the United States.
It's not easy.
However, if we follow Washington's rules of the game step by step, our goal will eventually be achieved.
In the study room of the villa.
It wasn't until Sofia knocked on the door to remind him that Simon stopped instilling in Daniel various ideas that seemed inappropriate for his age.
After sending her son to the restaurant first, Sofia and Simon lagged behind slightly, with a little warning in suspicion: "Simon, I always feel that you are teaching Danny a bad lesson."
Simon didn't show any signs of guilt and said, "It's too late to teach your children some things after they turn 18. Daniel's mind is strong enough to accept many things."
Sofia frowned slightly: "But Danny is only 13 years old."
Seeing Daniel disappearing around the corner of the corridor, Simon put his arms around the woman's waist: "I was completely independent when I was 13 years old."
Sophia held down Simon's claws on her waist to prevent him from causing trouble, but slowed down a little and said, "Anyway, if you teach Danny bad things, I will settle the score with you."
Simon pulled the woman over with a little force: "If I teach you well, will there be a reward?"
Sofia felt Simon's breath as she got closer and rolled her eyes at him: "I've given you everything, what more reward do you need?"
The two of them said as they walked through the corridor to the restaurant, where everyone else was already seated.
Seeing Simon and Sophia come in, Gemma, who was sitting next to Seattle talking to the little girl, looked up and said excitedly: "Uncle Simon, Sia must be smarter than you. I only taught her the multiplication table once. I remembered it immediately.”
Simon sat down on the chair pulled out by Aaliyah and said with a smile: "Sil must be thinking, this sister is so boring. She even reads such a simple thing in her ear. I could already recite it when I was three months old. The multiplication table."
Little Gemma widened her eyes in dissatisfaction: "That's not true. Besides, three months, how is that possible?"
Simon said with determination: "Of course it's possible. I will be able to recite the multiplication table at three months. Sylvia is my daughter, and you just said she is smarter than me."
Of course little Gemma didn't believe it: "How can you prove it?"
Simon said: "How about I recite it to you?"
Little Gemma blinked and suddenly said slyly: "Okay."
Simon was defeated by the girl. He didn't have the shame to recite the multiplication formula in front of so many people. He regretted: "Forget it, it's better not to hurt your self-confidence."
Little Gemma snorted and did not pursue her. She turned to Seattle and became interested again: "Sea, what is seven times seven?"
The little girl with beautiful eyes sat in a special raised baby seat, quietly letting Janet next to her lay out the napkin for her. When she heard the question from the little sister next to her, she tilted her head slightly and whispered: "98."
Little Gemma had just shown off in front of Simon, and she suddenly felt embarrassed: "It's wrong, wrong, let's talk about it."
The little girl seemed to think for a moment and then said: "147."
Little Gemma waved her little hand: "How is that possible? I'll give you another chance, the last chance."
The little girl said without thinking this time: "196."
Little Gemma finally couldn't hold it back any longer, and gently pinched Seattle's face with her hand: "I'm angry, tell me quickly, 49."
The little girl let little Gemma pinch her face, her expression remained calm, as if the little sister's fingers were not pinching her face, and she said softly: "245."
Little Gemma gave up completely: "Little fool, I won't play with you anymore. You are really not as smart as your father."
At the dining table.
Looking at the crazy little Gemma, several adults thought for a moment and laughed.
Janet couldn't help but turned on little Gemma who was still squeezing Seattle's face: "Stop bullying Syl, you are the only idiot here."
When little Gemma saw several adults laughing together, including her mother, she said dissatisfiedly: "What's going on?"
Adults are very unscrupulous. Daniel helped his sister out: "The numbers that Syl just said are twice, three times, four times and five times of 49. She is kidding you."
Little Gemma blinked her eyes for a few times, obviously not calculating mentally. She raised a finger to make a few gestures on the dining table in front of her, and then suddenly said: "Wow, it's true." After saying that, she looked at Seattle next to her. , not at all angry because of being teased just now, but with a look of wonder on his face, and turned to Jennifer who was taking care of little Nick across the way: "Aunt Jenny, Thea is a genius, how did you give birth to her?"
Children's words are unbridled.
The question was a little awkward. Simon coughed lightly and said proactively: "This is mainly because of Syl's father."
Little Gemma immediately gave a look of contempt that looked like someone's shameless face.
While laughing and joking, the waitresses served dinner. Little Gemma immediately picked up the tableware when she saw everyone. She couldn't help but poked her little head and looked at Simon next to Janet and said, "Uncle Simon, why is Westeros There’s no need to pray before dinner.”
Simon said seriously: "I bought the dinner by working hard and earning money. If I thank God, I will feel that I am at a disadvantage."
The truth is a bit overbearing.
Little Gemma was stunned and couldn't help but said: "Uncle Simon, you are blaspheming."
Simon knew his mistake and corrected it: "Okay, I regret it."
Little Gemma felt that someone was hopeless, so she withdrew her gaze and started to eat as everyone else picked up the tableware. After a moment, she couldn't help but speak first and looked at Sophia opposite: "Mom, I can go to the city to see you on the weekend. Fashion show?”
Sofia refused: "No."
Little Gemma said pitifully: "But many of my classmates can go to the show. If I can't go, I will be excluded by them because there is no common topic."
After hearing what her daughter said, Sophia thought for a while and said, "Mom will ask you after dinner, but you can't go alone, and you can't run around then."
Little Gemma immediately lost her pity and nodded her head excitedly: "I can invite a few friends to join me." After saying this, she realized that she was a little exposed, and quickly changed the subject: "Mom, can't you stay with me?"
Seeing her daughter's cunning and careless manner, Sophia felt a little worried.
However, since I agreed, I certainly won't go back on it: "Mom, I still have things to do, so just go with your friends."
Little Gemma agreed and looked at Simon again: "Uncle Simon, will you go to the show on the weekend?"
Simon said: "About this, I need to ask your Aunt Jenny."
Little Gemma looked at Janet suspiciously.
Janet smiled and said: "Uncle Simon will stay at home to take care of the children on the weekend and won't go anywhere."
Little Gemma nodded with a knowing expression: "Yeah, yeah, I understand." After saying that, she looked at Simon with gloating, and said, "What a man."
Since discovering that children can help change Simon's mentality, the two Jennys have begun to increase the time Simon spends with the three little guys.
On weekends, Jenny and I have been staying in Greenwich to watch shows and shop together.
On the new Monday, Simon arrived in Manhattan at around eight o'clock in the morning to attend the regular Monday meeting at Daenerys Entertainment's East Coast headquarters.
Today is September 26th.
It is already the end of September, and while the summer movie season is over, the autumn season of TV series has already begun. This meeting is mainly about the ratings summary of a series of already released TV series in the autumn season.
The core are two new dramas that launched last week.
"ER" on September 19 and "Friends" on September 22.
According to Simon's original plan, the two new dramas were handed over to CBS and NBC respectively. Relying on the excellent quality of the dramas themselves and the unremitting publicity in the early stage, both TV dramas achieved a good start after they were launched.
On September 19, the first episode of "ER" was aired. Although Monday is not the most prime time for TV series, this medical drama written by Michael Crichton, the author of the original novel "Jurassic Park" is still on the air. The first episode generated 23.8 million viewers, making it the best new drama so far in the fall season.
On September 22, "Friends" premiered on the NBC television network. During the prime Thursday 8 o'clock slot, the first episode's ratings also reached 21.5 million.
In 1994, cable TV and the Internet had not had a significant impact on traditional public television networks, and dramas with more than 20 million viewers were common.
However, this is only relative.
There are hundreds of new dramas of various types launched in North America every year. After all, there are only a few dramas that can reach the level of "ER" and "Friends" that have entered the hit list just after they were released. Daenerys Entertainment Another hit sitcom launched, "Seinfeld," accumulated a few seasons before becoming popular.
Historically, the public television network in the 1990s was basically dominated by dramas such as "Friends," "ER," and "Seinfeld."
Now, Daenerys Entertainment has not only acquired all these popular dramas, but has also ushered in the era of reality shows ahead of schedule. In addition to not being able to win a public television station, it is now as cutting-edge in the television industry as in movies. field.
Daenerys Entertainment East Coast Headquarters in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The regular meeting ends at half past ten.
Simon stayed in the conference room and continued to discuss some trivial matters with Robert Egger. He was about to return to his office here when Girl A knocked on the door and came in. She handed a document to Simon and said: "Boss, the news just came from the West Coast. , French Vivendi Group and Disney will hold a press conference at nine o'clock in the morning on the West Coast to officially announce that the two companies have reached an acquisition agreement."
Since Michael Eisner had a heart attack and was forced to quit Disney management, without Eisner as a tough opponent, Vivendi's acquisition negotiations for Disney have officially begun.
Over the past few months, the negotiations have not been smooth, and there have even been rumors more than once that the negotiations between the two parties have broken down or that Vivendi will turn to other targets.
Simon's attention has been on Europe some time ago, but he did not expect that the two companies would suddenly reach an agreement.
Simon opened the document handed over by Girl A. Seeing that Iger was also looking over curiously, he moved the document towards him and then looked over.
Last Friday, Disney's closing market value was approximately $8.1 billion.
In the terms of the current acquisition agreement, Vivendi finally offered US$9.7 billion to acquire all the assets of Disney, which is equivalent to a 19% premium on last Friday's closing market value. However, compared to Disney's market value of less than US$7 billion before the acquisition negotiations began, The premium has reached as high as 40%.
In addition, Vivendi will also assume Disney's total debt of up to US$5.3 billion, with a total transaction value of US$15 billion.
Not only that, but according to the documents in hand, this will also be an all-cash acquisition.
This also means that even if Disney’s own huge debt is not taken into account, Vivendi needs to raise a huge amount of US$9.7 billion in order to win over Disney.
If it were the original timeline, the $9.7 billion acquisition of Disney would be absolutely worth the money.
In fact, in my memory, Disney’s market capitalization in 1994 was close to US$20 billion, which was beyond the reach of US$9.7 billion.
But it's different now.
Because of Simon, the big butterfly, Disney, like other Hollywood brothers and sisters, has been miserably suppressed by Daenerys Entertainment in recent years. The failure of Disneyland Paris has made Disney even worse. Judging from Disney's financial reports in recent years, Vivendi has obviously taken advantage of itself just like Sony did.
Unless Vivendi is able to quickly revive this major film company in the next few years after acquiring Disney, its own debt will already be as high as 5.3 billion US dollars. Coupled with the huge debt increased by this acquisition, Vivendi will If Di cannot reverse the situation as soon as possible, it will definitely fall into crisis due to huge debts.
In the past, Vivendi had to spit out Universal just a few years after it swallowed it because the debt scale was seriously out of control.
This time, Simon has no intention of giving Disney another chance to turn around.
Hollywood Seven.
Seven major film companies are, after all, too many.
After Simon got the inside information more than an hour in advance, at nine o'clock in the morning on the West Coast, at the Disney headquarters in Burbank, Los Angeles, Vivendi and Disney officially held a press conference to announce that the two parties had officially reached an agreement.
Next, as long as it passes the review of federal regulatory authorities, the transaction can be successfully completed.
Although there have been media calls in recent months to limit overseas capital's excessive involvement in the American cultural industry, legally, this acquisition will not be substantially hindered, not to mention the secret promotion of the Westeros system.
After the two companies held a press conference in the morning, Simon quietly contacted Joseph Schlapp and asked him to work hard in Washington to promote the passage of the transaction. At the same time, some arrangements have been made in the media to reduce public opinion attacks on Vivendi's acquisition of Disney, so as to ensure that the transaction is passed smoothly and without fail.