Because of its complete privatization and distance from the capital market, Verizon has had a weak presence among the public in recent years. Only the industry is aware of the strong layout that this telecom operator has deeply entrenched in the field of mobile communications.
Over dinner, the first thing Simon discussed with Raymond Smith was reintroducing Verizon to the capital markets.
In fact, it is another IPO.
There are many purposes and benefits to making this decision.
The first is to reduce the Westeros system's shareholding ratio in Verizon.
Under normal circumstances, business owners want to control more company shares, but Simon did the opposite, still in order to further integrate the Westeros system into the American economy.
Just like this IGRIT IPO.
Including the recent additional 100 million new shares issued under the original green shoe mechanism, Igret's total share capital now reaches 4.426 billion shares, of which Westeros Company holds 2.561 billion shares, and the shareholding ratio has been reduced to 57.9% . The biggest benefit of transferring up to 42.1% of the shares to Yigret's management and investors is that Yigret suffers much less potential targeting.
Tens of millions of investors, with interests totaling more than 100 billion US dollars, are tied to the Westeros system. Whether it is the federal antitrust agency or many competitors inside and outside the United States, if they want to target Igrit Company, It is tantamount to targeting the huge capital alliance behind Yigrit.
If you are not careful, you may be shattered into pieces.
The U.S. telecommunications industry has been developing for more than a century. If you want to break the entrenched old pattern, you will inevitably face many potential resistances. The integration strategy can undoubtedly minimize these resistances.
The second is to raise funds.
This is also the key expansion strategy of the Westeros system in the next few years. Taking advantage of the good market conditions, try to reserve as much cash as possible through listing or issuing bonds. Historically, many new technology companies that emerged in the 1990s came to an end due to lack of funds after the Internet bubble burst.
The third reason is to make it more intuitive and convenient to complete the merger with AOL after listing.
For unlisted Verizon Telecom, even the US$30 billion valuation given by Forbes this time is still low in Simon's opinion. If it were to merge directly with AOL, which has a high market value, in a privatized state, it would be difficult. Producing a valuation that satisfies all parties may also create potential litigation hazards.
After the listing, the stock prices of both parties will be determined by the capital market, and the merger will not cause too much controversy.
Simon also discussed with Raymond Smith in advance the personnel issues following the merger of AOL and Verizon.
This matter has some origins.
The predecessor of AOL was originally a start-up company that provided network services attached to Bell Atlantic, the predecessor of Verizon. At that time, Raymond Smith was already the head of Bell Atlantic, and current AOL CEO Steve Case was just An entrepreneur, the status of the two is very different.
Now, AOL is at its peak. Although the identities of the two cannot be said to be completely reversed, once merged, Raymond Smith can only become Steve Case's subordinate.
Simon is very cautious about this kind of thing.
If after the merger of the two companies, Raymond Smith cannot work closely with Steve Case, or even restrain each other, the merger will be meaningless and may even bring disastrous consequences to the two companies. It was impossible to change the decision to merge, so Simon could only kick one of the two out if something appeared.
However, either one of them is not what Simon wants to see.
When talking about this matter during the meal, Raymond Smith was very generous and said that he would try his best to cooperate with Case in the future, which made Simon feel a little relieved, but not absolute.
Many things are easier said than done.
In the following days, the media discussion surrounding the 1995 Forbes 400 Richest Americans list became even more heated. After all, there were too many things to watch on this year's list.
With a personal fortune of $700 billion, Simon sits atop the list and is hard to shake.
Following closely behind, Microsoft founder Bill Gates' personal net worth also increased to $57.3 billion. Compared with 1994, the increase reached more than 100%.
Warren Buffett, in third place, has a personal wealth of US$12.6 billion, exceeding many people’s expectations, largely due to Daenerys Entertainment’s acquisition of Metropolis ABC Group. Berkshire Hathaway, which owns Metropolitan ABC Group, has seen its share price rise in recent months because of this benefit.
Larry Ellison, who ranked fourth, is a dark horse. His personal wealth of US$11.7 billion mainly comes from his 31.2% shareholding in Oracle.
With the explosion of the new technology industry and the close connection between Oracle and the Westeros system, Oracle's database software has become more and more obvious in the market in recent years. When Forbes compiled the list, Oracle's market value had reached 376 One hundred million U.S. dollars. Even if it cannot compare with giants with a market capitalization of 100 billion, such as Ygriet, it has surpassed most traditional corporate giants in the U.S. stock market.
It is worth mentioning that Westeros Company’s current shareholding ratio in Oracle remains at 24.6%, so this company alone has contributed US$9.2 billion to Simon’s personal wealth.
Paul Allen ranked fifth, with a personal wealth of US$10.9 billion.
According to Forbes, the reference market value of Bill Gates and Paul Allen is US$151.5 billion. Based on this calculation, Westeros' 18.7% stake in Microsoft has also contributed US$28.3 billion to Simon's personal wealth.
Sixth, seventh and eighth were tied.
They are Tim Berners-Lee, Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz of Igret. All three have a wealth of US$8 billion.
The same super dark horse.
At the beginning, "Forbes" magazine was waiting for Yigrit to be listed before calculating the wealth list for the new year. Therefore, the wealth of the three giants was based on the closing price of Yigrit on the first day of listing on October 6. Simon's personal wealth So are the statistics.
The ninth place is John Kruger, with a personal wealth of US$6.1 billion.
John Krueger is 81 years old this year. This veteran media tycoon who once competed with Sam Redstone for control of Orion Pictures and wanted to enter Hollywood has gradually retired. Over the years, he has been liquidating and selling a large number of assets, and then Switched to trust investment and began to prepare for wealth inheritance. Many of the TV stations under the FOX TV network established by Rupert Murdoch came from John Kruger's Macro Media Company.
The tenth place is tied with the eleventh place by the two brothers of the Walton family, Jim Walton and John Walton. Both brothers have a personal wealth of US$4.6 billion.
The Walton family is still not to be underestimated.
However, due to changes in equity for various reasons, the wealth of Sam Walton's widow and four children is no longer uniform. After the two brothers, the personal wealth of the other three Waltons continues to occupy the twelfth to fourteenth places. positions, but their wealth figures are US$4.5 billion, US$4.5 billion and US$4.3 billion respectively.
After the top ten, it is worth mentioning that Alice Ferguson, the former housekeeper of the Westeros family at No. 15, has a personal wealth of US$4 billion.
Daenerys Entertainment CEO Amy Pascal ranks 17th on the list with a personal wealth of US$3.5 billion.
In addition, C-girl Claire Gein, ranked 35th, tied with Neil Brantley, another founder of Tinco Bayer Company, at 36th place, relying on her 13.2% shareholding in Tinco Bayer Company. Both men's wealth is estimated at $2.2 billion.
Later, D-girl Deborah Lipman also ranked 87th on the list with a personal wealth valuation of US$1.1 billion, thanks to her 56% stake in the Instagram website.
This year's Forbes list of America's 400 richest people has a threshold of US$340 million, which happens to be topped by the famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
In this list of 400 people, we do not include Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Larry Ellison and other big names whose companies are only held by the Westeros system rather than controlled or supported, such as Simon , Tim Berners-Lee, Alice Ferguson, Lady C, etc. There are 37 rich people who are truly closely connected with the Westeros system and can be counted as 'Westerosian'.
If it were not deliberately suppressed by all parties, 'Simon Westeros controls the United States' would definitely become a hot topic on major media platforms in the near future. When a person relies on huge wealth to have a decisive influence on all aspects of a country's politics, economy, culture, and even military, it is almost the same as control.
In fact, the Westeros system is far from reaching a certain level, but this trend is very obvious.
Just like this time.
Compared with the atmosphere of public opinion in the past few years, the media has become more lively. There are much less clamoring about limiting the continued expansion of Simon Westeros' personal wealth or formulating targeted tax bills. Instead, they are talking about 700 billion Doubts about the dollar figure abound.
On the contrary, this is what Simon hopes to see.
700 billion US dollars, how is that possible
All right.
Even if the book reaches 700 billion US dollars, most of them are just stock assets, and there are still serious bubbles in stock assets. Isn’t it said that the new technology bubble is now very serious? Westeros is the best example.
Public opinion guides this kind of thing, Simon now does not need to arrange it personally.
As the core of the entire Westeros system, not only its related companies, but also media giants with close cooperation, including Time Warner, News Corporation, New York Times Group, etc., will very consciously protect a certain young man because everyone has related interests. , when one is prosperous, both are prosperous, and when one is deprived, both are deprived.
After being disturbed by the outside world and rejecting all interview invitations as usual, Simon's life is still going as planned.
The transaction settlement process for Daenerys Entertainment’s merger with Metropolis ABC Group has come to an end.
After registering statistics on stock settlement ratios in the first two weeks of October, the final proportion of people who chose to exchange Metropolis ABC Group shares for Daenerys Entertainment shares was as high as 83%. Even Warren Buffett settled the original half shares and half cash. The ratio changes to 70% stocks and 30% cash.
Therefore, the cash payment share that Daenerys Entertainment ultimately needed to use for the $20.9 billion acquisition agreement that was originally reached was only $3.5 billion, less than half of Daenerys' own cash reserves of more than $7 billion.
On the other hand, it is expected that after the settlement is completed and a total of 236 million shares are paid to the shareholders of the original Metropolis ABC Group, the total share capital of the new Daenerys Entertainment Group will increase to 2.599 billion shares. Simon will hold 1.937 billion shares. After the merger, the new company's shareholding ratio decreased from 81.9% to 74.5%.
According to Daenerys Entertainment’s dual-class share structure, the shareholding ratio dropped to 74.5%, and Simon’s voting rights in Daenerys Entertainment are still as high as 96.7%.
Control is immovable.
Therefore, Simon still feels that the shareholding ratio of 74.5% is a bit high, but it will not be easy to reduce it in the short term. He can only reduce the shareholding slowly in the future.
Lawsuits and strikes surrounding a Wisconsin logistics distribution center are on hold.
This was a decision that Simon made personally.
In order to prevent interested people from comparing his latest wealth with a group of truck drivers who are destined to be blacklisted, it is better to wait for the recent public opinion to cool down before dealing with it.
Time flies and it is already Friday, October 27th.
The end of the year is here.
"The Conjuring 2", the third film in the Conjuring cinematic universe series produced by Daenerys Entertainment, was released on this day, announcing the start of the Halloween schedule.
Prior to this, a series of films released in the summer have basically been completed.
Among them, the North American box office of "Jurassic Park 2" finally reached 413 million U.S. dollars, temporarily ranking as the local box office champion in 1995. Whether it can secure this position depends on the Christmas movie "Batman v Superman" released on December 22. :Dawn of Justice’s box office performance.
This is also a focus of recent attention among movie fans.
It also caused some controversy.
It stands to reason that placing "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" on the Thanksgiving schedule will be more conducive for this DC superhero blockbuster to fully exploit its box office potential across the two major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. The reason why it is scheduled to be released on December 22 , a very important reason is to make way for the 3D animated film "Beauty and the Beast" produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Although "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" is distributed by Time Warner, Simon has the final say on the schedule.
The 3D version of "Beauty and the Beast" produced by Pixar is scheduled to be released on November 17.
After all, he is his biological son who is fully owned.
Moreover, Simon actually hopes to leave some breathing space for some movies from other Hollywood studios. Otherwise, if "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", which also has a local box office of 400 million, is released on Thanksgiving, there will inevitably be a movie studio. A dominant situation.
Time Warner was quite critical of this, but could only endure it.
Everyone knows that if this matter were dealt with by others, they would make similar decisions to Simon.
In addition to "Jurassic Park 2", which crushed the summer, "Apollo 13", also produced by Daenerys Entertainment and starring Tom Hanks, has a cumulative box office of US$177 million in North America. "Jurassic Park" "Park 2" and "Apollo 13" also became the only two movies in the summer of 1995 to gross over 100 million yuan.
Daenerys Entertainment launched David Fincher's new film "Psycho" at the end of the summer season, with a production cost of US$50 million. The final local box office was only US$51.34 million. It is expected that the overseas box office will be at the same level. The global box office has not exceeded 100 million US dollars. Not too bad, but far from satisfactory.
Films from other Hollywood studios such as "Die Hard 3", "Ghostbusters" and "Braveheart" were directly or indirectly impacted by "Jurassic Park 2". Can cross the 100 million yuan threshold.
Warner Bros. burned $175 million of "Waterworld", leaving this veteran studio to lose all the money.
Although it was scheduled to be scheduled at the end of July to avoid "Jurassic Park 2", this apocalyptic science fiction movie still only recovered 63.19 million U.S. dollars at the domestic box office, which was a full 20 million less than it had historically been. In overseas markets Competing with "Jurassic Park 2", it is expected to barely earn a box office of around US$100 million.
With a global revenue of 160 million, the box office share is expected to be around 70 million U.S. dollars, which is far from the production budget of 175 million U.S. dollars.
This time, Universal Studios did not build the 'Future Water World' attraction to make up for its losses in disguise. After all, Daenerys Entertainment's own IP could not be used up, so Warner could only cry at the huge loss account.
The two famous box office duds of Hollywood in 1995, "Waterworld" have been settled, and it remains to be seen whether "Cutthroat Island" will repeat the same mistakes.
"Cutthroat Island", a collaboration between Carlock Pictures, which relies on German capital, and Seagram's Paramount, has a final production budget of US$100 million, according to figures announced by the two studios in recent promotions. The 3D animated film "Beauty and the Beast" produced by Liz Entertainment is scheduled to be released on the same day, November 17th.
If "Cutthroat Island" fails again, two box office duds will be enough to pour cold water on many ambitious speculators who want to show their strength in Hollywood.
Not everyone can play Hollywood.
With fewer disruptors, Daenerys Entertainment’s position will be more secure.
Manhattan, New York.
The fourth Victoria's Secret Show will be held on November 11. The Lexington Avenue Armory near Gramercy Park in Midtown has been contracted by Victoria's Secret for rehearsals of the show.
The roster of this year’s Victoria’s Secret Angels has been finalized ahead of Fashion Week in September.
The biggest change is undoubtedly the simultaneous resignation of two Victoria’s Secret Angel spokespersons, Cindy Crawford and Yasmin Gary, as well as Eva Herzgova from the Czech Republic and Fernanda Li from Brazil. Ma replaced Cindy in the spot vacated by the two.
Eva Herzgova is nothing yet.
This 22-year-old Czech girl rose rapidly last year. With a series of enviable resources, she quickly rose to the top of the model popularity list launched by the fashion section of Igret Portal. Now she has walked in various brand shows and fashion endorsements. and magazine covers and other points to gain the title of 'Supermodel'.
Therefore, Eva Herzgova became the new Victoria's Secret Angel spokesperson, at least with sufficient qualifications.
Fernanda Lima, who just turned 18 this year, has inevitably caused a lot of controversy, and the fight between the big goblins in the fashion circle is quite fierce. It's a pity that no matter how dissatisfied this time, everyone can only watch helplessly as who lets the girl stand behind Simon Westeros.
Not to mention Simon Westeros’ huge wealth of 700 billion US dollars, it’s just the current influence of the Westeros system in the fashion circle. Now that someone has appointed Fernanda Lima, others can only envy him. Watch.
Even the industry's "godfather" John Casablanca, who once dominated the fashion industry and covered the sky with one hand, became silent when he said silence, let alone little models like them, who dares to do evil, secretly do something to put some dirty information in the media? Yes, other than being completely banned, don’t even think about the second outcome.
As for why Westeros chose Eva Herzigova and Fernanda Lima, it can only be a man's own preference.
This isn't even achieved by climbing into a man's bed.
Because in today's circle, there are too many models who are willing to do this.
It can only be said to be luck.
For example, now, the lobby of the T stage has been decorated in the arsenal, and a lucky guy named Fernanda Lima took advantage of the break of other theme rehearsals to snuggle up to a man in the stands, watching the people passing by on the T stage. The fairies' eyes flashed with small flames.
Bichi!
They are all six-foot-tall goblins, pretending to be the girl next door, not coordinated at all, okay? They even act like a coquettish girl, tsk tsk, I hope your feet will be sprained in the next rehearsal.