Simon's visit to New York this time was mainly for the IPO of Verizon Telecom and the subsequent layout of the Westeros system in the telecommunications field.
On May 6, Verizon Telecom, which has been preparing for a long time, officially submitted the first version of its IPO prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announcing that this regional telecommunications giant was privatized by Westeros five years ago. will go to the capital market again.
From the acquisition of Bell Atlantic, the predecessor of Verizon, at the end of 1990, to May 6, 1996, when Verizon submitted its prospectus again, during the five full fiscal years during which the fixed-line telephone business in the United States almost stagnated, Relying on the rapid growth of the mobile communications industry, Verizon has achieved an average annual growth rate of 31% for five consecutive years.
In fiscal year 1995, Verizon Telecom's annual revenue reached US$15.36 billion. Compared with the fiscal year 1990 before the acquisition, the cumulative revenue increased by 3.8 times. Moreover, even though it continued to invest heavily in mobile communications, Verizon's net profit for the whole year of 1995 reached US$1.35 billion.
In 1990, excluding $1.7 billion in debt, Westeros acquired Verizon's predecessor, Bell Atlantic, for $7 billion in cash.
In 1996, according to the prospectus submitted on May 6, Verizon Telecom's total share capital was 3.673 billion shares, and it was expected to sell 500 million shares, with an initial issuance price of $10.25. Based on this pricing, Verizon Telecom's IPO valuation reaches US$37.6 billion, equivalent to 5.3 times the initial purchase price of US$7 billion.
A five-fold increase in five years. Even if it is not as good as several direct 'women' in the Westeros system, this return on investment is eye-catching enough.
Like the Tinco Bayer IPO in February, of the 500 million shares listed this time, only 300 million shares were issued new shares, and the other 200 million shares, of which 170 million shares came from Westeros Corporation, and the other 30 million shares were Verizon executives at all levels cashed out their holdings.
Because of Verizon's rapid development, Simon is not stingy in terms of equity awards.
Before the prospectus was submitted, Westeros' stake in Verizon Telecom had dropped to 92.7% after the last award was cashed out, with the number of shares held being 3.405 billion shares.
Another 268 million shares, about 7.3% of Verizon shares, were obtained by management at all levels of the company in the form of incentives or subscriptions.
Based on the IPO valuation of US$37.6 billion, the total value of these 7.3% stocks reaches US$2.75 billion, of which Verizon Chairman and CEO Raymond Smith alone holds 2.8%, equivalent to US$1.05 billion. Become another billionaire.
Unlike emerging companies like Igret, which can enjoy founder dividends during the IPO process from scratch, Verizon Telecom, a well-established company, can still give such a large-scale equity reward, which is absolutely considerable. A generous gesture.
On the other hand, based on the preliminary issuance price of US$10.25, the total amount of funds raised in this IPO reached US$5.125 billion.
Another $5 billion.
From the beginning of the year to now, the surge in the Nasdaq Index has greatly increased the book wealth of countless investors by US$1.4 trillion. The total market value of all Nasdaq stocks is now as high as US$5.1 trillion. In such a comparison, it seems that Simon's various cash-outs since the end of last year have accumulated only more than 10 billion US dollars, which seems not worth mentioning.
However, many people understand that in the capital market, cash is king, and the market value of stock prices and the like are all illusory before cashing out.
It seems that the book wealth of the Nasdaq stock index has increased by US$1.4 trillion since the beginning of the year, but in fact, if someone wants to cash out even one-tenth of it, 140 billion, it will inevitably lead to the collapse of the Nasdaq, which is already quite bubbly.
Therefore, not to mention the personal wealth that has also skyrocketed following the surge in the Nasdaq, only in terms of cash out funds, Simon is also the biggest beneficiary of this wave of technology stocks.
As for how much cash each company in the Westeros system, large and small, currently holds, and what Simon Westeros plans to do with this huge amount of cash in the future, if you think about it for a moment, the more you understand the terror of the power of capital, the more The more I feel chilled.
What Simon would do, of course, is expand.
For example, the IPO of Verizon this time was mainly to facilitate a series of subsequent mergers and acquisitions after the company was securitized. This was also a major topic that Simon discussed with the executives of Verizon and AOL after arriving in New York.
After the listing, Verizon Telecom will first initiate the acquisition of NYNEX, another one of the Seven Little Bells in the northern part of its territory, and bring all the metropolitan areas from Boston to Washington on the east coast of the United States into Verizon Telecom's sphere of influence, and then join forces with AOL Integrate resources from all parties.
Simon initially considered a partnership between AOL and Verizon, but later scrapped the idea.
If the two companies are forced to merge, it will be very difficult whether it is business integration between them or antitrust review at the government level. Therefore, the two companies will continue to operate independently in the future, but they are one boss after all, so they will cooperate in many aspects.
As for each other, Verizon Telecom will still focus on the two major businesses of fixed-line telephony and mobile communications in the future, with mobile communications being the core direction in the future. As long as this is done well, the company will be able to develop to a considerable size.
AOL will focus on two major areas: Internet services and cable TV.
As a result, the 'triple network integration' promoted by various media after the promulgation of the latest "Telecommunications Act" in the United States at the end of last year will definitely not be implemented in practice, at least in the Westeros system.
Speaking of which, in the original time and space, the United States failed to realize the true integration of the three networks until twenty years later. Instead, China on the other side of the ocean had one optical cable, all-inclusive telephone, TV and Internet services, and a mobile phone number was bundled with it. , which is equivalent to four networks in one.
If we talk about the reason, of course it is profit.
The integration of three networks into one allows operators to make full use of their own resources, thereby reducing costs and further benefiting their customers.
However, if these services are separated and different services charge different fees, operators can naturally earn more. Why not
Capital is profit-seeking.
Capital is ruthless and profit-seeking.
Without the intervention of strong external factors, capital will instinctively choose the path that maximizes its own interests.
Like the Westeros system.
With the amount of personal wealth Simon has at this time, he is the largest capitalist on the planet. Although Simon is still a good boss in front of his employees, he himself does not use every possible means to drain Weiss. The Tello system involves every interest tendency in every industry, but the capital controlled by the Westeros system will inevitably choose to do so instinctively.
It will inevitably lead to evil!
Because this is the nature of capital.
As for why
Still taking the Westeros system as an example, millions of employees, under the modern corporate system, all have their own clear goals, whether they are R&D goals, promotion goals, sales goals, or... There are various other goals. Once these goals are not achieved, the relevant individuals or teams will face penalties ranging from a reduction in salary to being kicked out.
So they must try their best.
The ultimate essence of all these goals is actually two words, profit-seeking.
Capital pursues profit.
Therefore, the statement in "Das Kapital" that "capital comes to the world..." could not be more true or cruel. No one should have the illusion that capital may tend to be kind and gentle because of a certain person or a certain system.
The day after Simon arrived in New York, on May 10, the North American summer season officially started.
Warner Bros. Pictures' super blockbuster "The Order" and Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures' "Romeo and Julia" were released on this day, and Paramount's Orion also opened. The studio produced the crime thriller "Metropolis" and several other independent films from second- and third-tier studios that are not worth mentioning.
Three movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger's "The Order", opened on 2,816 screens. "Romeo and Juliet" starring Leonardo DiCaprio opened on 2,017 screens, and "Metropolis", which is relatively large-scale, opened on 474 screens.
Because of Simon's emphasis on "Romeo and Juliet", even though it only had a publicity budget of 15 million US dollars, the New World Pictures team promoted the film to the extreme within the budget. Print media, TV and the Internet flourished, and the film The main creator has also been driven like a donkey recently, being overwhelmed with various announcements, and even specially hyped up the two protagonists.
As the most direct competitor, the New World Pictures team also used some unscrupulous methods against the "Big Brother". They deliberately released news on the Internet about the poor quality of the film's internal test screenings, which angered Schwab. Singh had to clarify and counterattack on his official Facebook page.
However, Arnold's Facebook and news related to "The Evaporation Order" were unknowingly restricted on the online platform that was becoming increasingly important for film promotion at this time.
The Internet belongs to Westeros.
Current limiting is not a word.
Daenerys' alliance with Time Warner is well known.
However,
This is capital chasing profits!
Even if neither Simon nor General Electric Chairman Jack Welch, who has become the top boss of Time Warner, has enough magnanimity not to do this, the lower-level team of the enterprise will involuntarily take whatever measures can be taken to achieve their own performance. The means of competition used.
Immediately, the box office data for the first day of the summer season on May 10 was released, and the entire Hollywood once again felt the fear of being dominated by Daenerys Entertainment.
"Vapor" is the undisputed single-day box office champion, taking in US$8.69 million on its first day.
Followed by.
"Romeo and Juliet", first-day box office, $6.92 million!
It seems that "The Evaporator" is the clear winner, but even if we don't talk about the huge gap between the production costs and publicity investment of the two films, we only talk about the opening screen size, one is 2,816 yuan and the other is 2,017 yuan. After conversion, "The Evaporator" is "The average first-day opening price was US$3,086, while the first-day opening price of "Romeo and Juliet" was US$3,431.
The small film with a production cost of 15 million US dollars unexpectedly overturned the big one with a budget of 100 million US dollars in terms of museum average.
You know, this is not a small-scale screening opening that cannot be compared. Both movies were released on a large scale. Perhaps "Romeo and Juliet" lost nearly 800 canvases after all, which pushed up the average box office to a certain extent, but a super blockbuster costing $100 million was suppressed by a low-cost love movie in terms of important per-theater statistics, which itself is A failure.
Moreover, the reputation of both films is the same.
Although the New World Pictures team released the news in advance, they did not deliberately discredit it. The comprehensive media score of "Evaporation Order" is only a pitiful 3.7 points, which is the same as the 3.6 points of Arnold's last messed up "Phantom Heroes" Not even close.
The comprehensive media score of "Romeo and Juliet" reached 8.1 points.
Excellent level.
Of course, there will be some public relations factors, but if the quality of the film itself is not good enough, it is impossible for North American filmmakers who are relatively disciplined to describe a failed film as excellent, just like a certain big guy with a score of 3.7.
After the first day, the news about "the little man overturning the big man" quickly occupied the entertainment pages, and the attention of "Romeo and Juliet", which was already backed by a national-level IP, increased significantly.
Now that it has made a good start, it is certainly not a problem for Daenerys Entertainment in terms of showing it on screens. After the first-day box office results were released, the New World Pictures team quickly contacted major theater chains and expected that the number of screening screens for "Romeo and Juliet" would increase to about 2,500 next week.
It still can’t catch up with the 2,816 yuan of “The Evaporation Order”, but it is enough for this film to fully realize its box office potential.
The three days of the first weekend passed quickly.
Box office statistics are released. The box office of "The Vapor" in its opening three days was US$24.57 million, while the first weekend box office of "Romeo and Juliet" was US$20.17 million.
The difference is only a little over 4 million.
Under the operation of the New World Pictures team, Leonardo DiCaprio, who quickly began to cooperate with the official launch of the second wave of publicity, directly broke out from his previous acting skills in "Different Skies" to become a popular A-list actor in Hollywood.
Daenerys Entertainment did not miss this opportunity and began to properly warm up for the filming of "Titanic" which will start in June. It also appeared on and off the "Late Show with David Letterman" which has already started on the ABC TV network. The team of "The Mummy", which was released this week, conducted a joint promotion because Rachel Weisz, who starred in "The Mummy", is the heroine of "Titanic".
Various male and female protagonists, various sparks.
In the end, in the box office week from May 10 to May 16, "The Vapor" still easily won the single-week box office championship, earning 36.42 million US dollars in its first seven days.
The second-place "Romeo and Juliet" had a box office of US$31.46 million in its first week.
As for the other "Violent Metropolis" and other small films, they did not make any splash. Everyone's eyes were focused on the top two films.
The first week's US$36.42 million seemed pretty good, but it was actually far lower than Warner Bros.'s first-week expectations of US$50 million to US$60 million. After all, the production cost of "The Order" was US$100 million, and Warner Bros. also invested US$30 million in promotion. With a total investment of US$130 million, a global box office of US$400 million is needed to recover the cost.
Now, even if it is a fairly optimistic estimate, it would be lucky if the domestic box office of "The Evaporation Order" can exceed 100 million U.S. dollars. Even if the overseas box office is counted as twice the local box office, the global box office will only be about 300 million U.S. dollars.
There will inevitably be losses in the short term.
Warner can only hope that subsequent channels will recover the cost.
Looking at "Romeo and Juliet" again, the box office was only US$31.46 million in the first week. According to the rules of tiered accounting, it has easily recovered most of the US$15 million production budget and US$15 million in promotional expenses. It has already made a profit in the second week of release. It is inevitable.
It would be better if the total box office of this movie was only about 30 million US dollars, but this is only the beginning.
With the market reputation and audience enthusiasm shown by "Romeo and Juliet", although the opening box office is lower than that of "Evaporation Order", the subsequent local box office is really uncertain, and it is obvious that "Romeo and Juliet" still has a chance of winning. Bigger.
May 17th, the second week of summer vacation.
Leading the charge are the same two movies, Fox Pictures released Daenerys and Fox's fantasy adventure blockbuster "The Mummy", and Disney produced Mike Myers' new film "Austin Powers" which is also worth talking about.
The final production cost of "The Mummy" was US$70 million. Due to the relative cost advantage, Fox spent a publicity budget of US$35 million, which was 5 million higher than "The Vapor". The film's opening screen also reached 2,986 .
"Austin Powers" is a work that Mike Myers and Daenerys Entertainment switched to Disney last year after failing to reach a follow-up cooperation agreement after the "Today's Stars" series.
Due to the success of the "Kingdom" series, Disney generously gave Myers a salary of up to 15 million U.S. dollars and a corresponding share-sharing contract. The production cost of "Austin Powers" therefore reached 40 million U.S. dollars, it was announced. The budget is US$20 million and the number of screens is 2,187.
There are four movies in two weeks. Before the start of the summer season, almost everyone thought that "The Order" and "The Mummy" would be the most direct competitors. If "Austin Powers" can continue the success of the "King" series, , will also be tied with the first two.
The three films can be regarded as the core of the May schedule at the beginning of the summer season.
Although "Mission: Impossible 2" was released on May 31, it was already considered a June release date.
Unexpectedly, a dark horse called "Romeo and Juliet" unexpectedly appeared. As the popularity of the film further spread, this film formed a wave of movie viewing among the core youth audience group during the summer season, especially the young female audience group. upsurge. Maybe not all age groups, but who would doubt a woman’s spending power
The situation suddenly became delicate.
If The Mummy messes up again, which is a very slim chance, this summer season will be quite extraordinary. Moreover, because of the huge popularity attracted by "Romeo and Juliet", Mike Myers' "Austin Powers" has been unknowingly overshadowed a lot.
Los Angeles.
While many people are paying close attention to the latest release of two new movies and the follow-up performance of last week's opening movie, some people can't calm down.
Brentwood, an affluent area north of Santa Monica.
At around seven o'clock in the evening, a luxury car drove into the private residence of Fox Film President Joe Roth. Arnold Schwarzenegger got out of the car and followed Joe Roth into the villa party. He immediately felt the excitement of the people around him. Gazes with various meanings.
There are few people in Hollywood who have not experienced failure, well... except maybe someone, not to mention "Vapor" is not too much of a failure, at least it is much better than the "Phantom Hero" three years ago. However, after the failure of "Phantom Heroes", because "Terminator 2" was the basis for it, he quickly used "True Lies" to restore his popularity. That project did not have a big impact on Arnold's popularity.
This time it was obviously different.
After all, everyone has felt the increasingly clear changes in the Hollywood film industry in recent years.
The most obvious one.
Because of the rise of the DC movie universe and the prosperity of movie special effects, the once-hot super A-list stars seem to be less valuable. If it's just like this, of course it doesn't matter. If the salary shrinks, it will shrink a bit. However, because it is no longer so valuable, it actually means that Hollywood's fault tolerance for super celebrities has also been greatly reduced.
A former super star failed to make one or two movies, but there is still a chance to rise again with the third movie. Now, maybe just one movie fails, and it will be difficult for you to get better resources in the future. With the mediocre opening of "The Vapor", everyone realized that Arnold Schwarzenegger was probably the first super star to fall into such an embarrassing situation.
Moreover, it is definitely not just caused by the movie "The Evaporation Order".
It can be regarded as the logical result of a series of accumulations.
First of all, the unsatisfactory market performance of "The Order" may actually mean that the old-school muscular action movies that Schwarzenegger is best at are no longer popular. This trend has also been obvious in recent years. Among a series of similar films, only "The Real" "Lie" stands out, but there is a long list of failed projects.
Sylvester Stallone's, Arnold Schwarzenegger's, Kevin Costner's, "Phantom Hero", "The Last Stand", "The Law Enforcement", "S.W.A.T.", etc., and even The most recent one is "The Evaporation Order".
If the genre is not popular, it actually doesn’t matter.
As long as it can be transformed in time.
That's the problem.
After experiencing the lesson of "Phantom Hero", Schwarzenegger obviously did not fully react. After the success of "True Lies", he thought that the genre he was good at was still full of market, so he missed an excellent opportunity last year.
"Jumanji".
And it's obviously a series.
It is also a special effects blockbuster series that almost represents a major trend in Hollywood.
Due to the high net worth of super celebrities, there are actually not many opportunities for special effects blockbusters for them. Since special effects-based super blockbusters already have selling points, producers often choose actors with relatively affordable salaries.
It is even more difficult to find a project that suits you based on the corresponding type.
There are no secrets in the circle.
Everyone knows that Simon Westeros initially preferred Arnold, and the conditions given were quite good. Unfortunately, this big name wanted more, and the opportunity was abruptly postponed.
What made the gossip crowd even more crazy was that this opportunity also fell into the hands of Arnold's arch-rival Stallone.
Prior to this, Arnold had been suppressing Stallone for many years.
That may not be the case in the future.
After all, Arnold rejected Simon Westeros' project. Who knows whether it will leave a knot in the heart of a certain young tycoon. In today's Hollywood, as we all know, almost all the best resources come from Daenerys Entertainment. It is controlled by a young man who is only 28 years old this year.
Inside Joe Ross's mansion.
Schwarzenegger, who pretended not to feel the strange looks, greeted some familiar guests, and soon escaped from the party with Joe Ross and went to a reception room in the villa.
Whether it was the two parties involved or the guests at the party, they could actually guess something.
Because it's easy to guess.
"Evaporation Order" was not satisfactory at the box office, and Arnold must consider restoring his popularity.
In the original time and space, Schwarzenegger chose "Batman and Robin" in 1997. As a result, although he received a huge excess salary of US$25 million, it also led to an even greater box office disaster.
There was no Batman series for Arnold to choose from this time around.
So.
what else
That's right.
Of course it’s The Terminator.
The current copyright is jointly held by Fox Pictures and Daenerys Entertainment in the "Terminator" series. In the movie, Arnold is the savior of the human world. Outside of the movie, this movie is almost Arnold's savior.