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"Actually, I am too," James nodded in agreement, and took the initiative to answer Deborah's question just now, saying: "Simon is a very special person. He is not only outstanding in many aspects, but also has a vision and creativity that are different from ordinary people. , I think these are probably the key to his success today."

"I believe that many people have a deep understanding of this point," Deborah Norwell agreed, and then changed the subject: "Jim, according to the news from the "Hollywood Reporter" yesterday, Daenerys Entertainment will present Is it true that MCA Group, which owns Universal Pictures, launched an acquisition?"

Talking about the key topic of participating in this interview, James Raybould secretly lifted his spirits and said: "Since the beginning of the year, there have been many media news about how Simon intends to use the overseas funds, and we have been considering it. This question, and a lot of goals have been discussed, but nothing has been concluded yet."

Deborah Norwell pressed: "But, Jim, how do you explain that, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the Westeros Corporation has formed a 60-person acquisition team?"

James shook his head and said: "I don't know how the "Hollywood Reporter" got the news. Simon has always attached great importance to the cooperation of various companies in the Westeros system, whether it is Cersei Capital or Daenerys Entertainment, or the company A group of technology companies under the company have very frequent cooperation and communication with each other, and some people may have misunderstood it because of this.”

Deborah Norwell looked at James and said, "So, Simon doesn't have any intention of acquiring MCA?"

James did not give an affirmative answer, and said tactfully: "I just said that we have considered many goals, and MCA is indeed within the scope of discussion. However, everything needs to be decided by Simon himself. Moreover, Simon has not yet decided whether to That money from overseas is repatriated, and we all know that means a very high capital gains tax of 28 per cent."

"Hollywood Reporter" suddenly revealed yesterday that Daenerys Entertainment is about to acquire MCA, which really caught the top management of the Westeros system by surprise.

Before participating in today's interview, James and everyone had a careful discussion, and finally decided to give an uncertain reply, so as to avoid the default passive situation of silence, and prevent speculators from flocking to MCA stock.

James Raybould took the initiative to change the topic, and Deborah Norwell stopped chasing her. NBC didn't want to lose interview opportunities in the future, so it changed the topic following James' words.

"Speaking of capital gains tax, Mr. President has publicly stated last month that he has to break his campaign promise that he would not raise taxes, and plans to increase taxes to solve the federal budget deficit. On the rise, Texas Republican Senator Peter Brigle proposed on Wednesday to strengthen the regulation of the hedge fund industry and readjust related tax programs to prevent excessive financial speculation from harming the federal economy. Jim, what do you think of Brigle? Geer's proposal?"

Both Simon himself and James Raybould got the news as soon as Peter Brigle submitted the relevant motion.

As we all know, Texas is completely the stronghold of the Bush family and the Republican Party, and the pertinence of Peter Brigle's proposal could not be more obvious.

Moreover, there are actually deeper reasons for this proposal.

Right now is a critical moment for canvassing votes in the mid-term elections in the United States. The Republican Party is clearly at a disadvantage in fighting for control of Congress. It just so happens that the Westeros system has unknowingly invested 2000 million US dollars in the political field this year, and it has now become a Democratic Party. A very important patron.

In 1986, when the government cut taxes, the capital gains tax rate, which was divided into long-term and short-term, was the only one that was unified to 28%, which was equivalent to income tax. This move was already controversial.If the Bush administration raises taxes, it will not only offend the entire Wall Street, but also severely restrict the liquidity of the capital market, making the already sluggish US economy even worse.

As for raising taxes specifically for the hedge fund industry, let alone whether it will work, if it is done, it will only drive a large number of hedge fund companies out of the United States, and the huge overseas profits will not be transferred back to the country. The loss is still the United States itself .

The most important point is that through the three operations of the 1987 stock market crash, the Japanese stock market bubble, and the crude oil futures market, Simon has completed his own primitive accumulation, and will no longer rely too much on Cersei Capital in the future, even if the Bush administration really strengthens supervision and increases taxes , had little effect on him.

Simon is not worried about being targeted by the Bush administration because of his political stance.

The two parties in the United States contain each other. The Republican Party targets itself, and the Democratic Party will naturally take action.If you can't even protect your own big benefactor, who will stand by you in the future?

In the studio, of course, James Raybould would not confront the congressman for the above reasons, but just expressed his views on the facts.

The two continued to discuss some topics, and the 10-minute interview ended quickly.

It was less than eight o'clock when we left the NBC headquarters.

After making an appointment for breakfast with the Simons, James Raybould hurried to the Upper East Side again, and his wife Carol Raybould had already arrived early.

Naturally, the topic of breakfast was various recent events.

Because the media has been watching closely during this period, in order to prevent Bell Atlantic's acquisition plan from being leaked in advance, this matter has been temporarily stopped.

AOL's negotiation with the three companies on the exclusive plan was also obviously affected by the exposure of Simon's personal wealth, and the three companies were biting to death on the terms of cooperation.What Simon is insisting on now is that he does not accept the conditions for the three companies to invest in AOL in any case.

As for the acquisition of MCA, taking into account the impact of Daenerys Entertainment's bidding news exposure, Simon also began to make two-handed preparations.

Although it was Sunday, after breakfast, James Raybould still rushed to the headquarters of Westeros Corporation in Midtown to start his day's work.

These days, as the spokesperson of Simon, James is surrounded by countless invitations and attentions, and he is also full of glory, so he is also full of energy.Moreover, it's not just superficial scenery, "Forbes" magazine revealed last month that members of the Westeros system's billion-dollar club actually missed James.

Having personally experienced the operation of the capital market twice last year and this year, James will naturally not miss such an opportunity, and Simon personally arranged for James to participate in it.

Although only US$2000 million was raised at the beginning, it is more convenient to maximize the benefits with less funds. After more than a year of continuous operation, the recently transferred funds from overseas still exceed US$1.6 million after tax payment.

Donald Graham, who is last on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest people in the United States this year and the heir to the Washington Post, has a personal wealth of only US$2.6 million.James Raybould has a net worth of 1.6 million U.S. dollars, and he already belongs to the top group of rich people in the American pyramid in this era.

Under Simon's guidance, the Leibolds took advantage of the recent downturn in the stock market and put all the money on Microsoft and Intel stocks.If Microsoft and Intel can still reach the market value at the highest point of the Internet bubble in the original time and space this time, just this investment will be enough to make the Raybould family enter the ranks of tens of billions of dollars in the future.

Of course, these are things to follow.

In the apartment on Fifth Avenue, Simon and Janet didn't go out today.

After returning to New York yesterday, Simon sent his Boeing 767 to fly to Los Angeles. Now I know that there are not many people in New York, so it just happened to be a quiet day.

The roof of the apartment has been decorated by Janet into a garden. The autumn sunshine is just right. The two are sitting at a simple long wooden table. On the table are all kinds of materials that Janet has collected and sorted out this week.

"The hedge fund team will definitely make good profits in the next few months. However, it will definitely need to keep some funds overseas. The amount that can be transferred back by the end of the year is about 60 billion US dollars. If two acquisitions are to be completed at the same time, according to MCA Group 70 Based on $80 million and Bell Atlantic’s $90 billion acquisition capital, we would need to raise another $10 billion in loans. The interest amounted to 4.5 billion US dollars, and the annual repayment is about 21.9 billion US dollars."

Janet was still next to Simon, and after finishing speaking, she found another document and said, "This is the information on the current management of Bell Atlantic. The current chairman and CEO of Bell Atlantic is named Raymond Smith. A professional manager, 56 years old this year, he started as a low-level intern in the earliest Bell system, step by step to today, before the disintegration of ATT, he had already achieved the position of chief financial officer, and was once the chief executive officer of ATT one of the competitors."

Simon took the file and began to look carefully at Raymond Smith's information.

In addition to the head of Bell Atlantic, Raymond Smith is an accomplished poet and playwright with several published works.In addition, he also serves as a director of several large companies and holds five doctoral titles.

Searching for the information in his memory, Simon also discovered that in the original time and space, it was Raymond Smith who expanded Bell Atlantic step by step into Verizon, the second largest telecommunications company in North America.In comparison, the other six small Bells that were spun off from AT&T in 1984 all failed to escape the fate of being acquired or going bankrupt.

Simon had no plans to replace the management immediately after the acquisition of Bell Atlantic. After reading Raymond Smith's information, he has no similar thoughts.

Janet waited for Simon to read Raymond Smith's information, and before he could speak, she said, "It's amazing. However, he is also the biggest obstacle to our acquisition of Bell Atlantic. Bell Atlantic's current operating conditions are far better than those of its neighbors." In NYNEX, Smith is also very ambitious in his career. Once we acquire Bell Atlantic, the company will definitely bear huge debts, which is very detrimental to its future development. Unless we can solve this problem, otherwise, Raymond De Smith is not going to let us take the offer lightly."

Simon looked at the information in front of him and considered for a moment, picked up the pencil at hand and listed and calculated in the blank space of the document, and said: "Bell Atlantic's equity is too scattered. Even if we negotiate, we may not be able to get 100% of this company in the end." In this way, we can temporarily save a sum of money, and absorb a batch of stocks at the current stock price in advance, which can save another sum. Temporarily calculated based on 75% of the shares, the transaction price of 80 billion US dollars, we only need to pay 60 One hundred million U.S. dollars."

Janet looked at Simon's calculation and said: "However, if you want to start an ISP business, you must invest a lot of money in technology research and development and infrastructure construction, and the remaining 20 billion US dollars can't be saved. Get 75% of the stock, if our shareholding ratio exceeds 90%, according to the federal securities law, we can force other shareholders to sell their stocks for a full privatization.”

"Well, what I mean is," Simon quickly wrote down a few strings of numbers on a piece of paper, "Transfer the debt to Daenerys Entertainment Company as much as possible, and if necessary, use all the loans to acquire MCA, so that It can minimize the acquisition resistance of Bell Atlantic.”

"If this is done, because the debt ratio is too high, the future IPO of Daenerys Entertainment will definitely be seriously affected."

Simon couldn't help but smile bitterly.

It's really hard to have the best of both worlds.

Simon's original plan was to launch the IPO of Daenerys Entertainment after the release of "Toy Story" next year. However, once the acquisition of MCA is completed, it is impossible to digest this company without two or three years. Things can only be delayed.

Speaking of it, Simon is not short of money.

Not only the funds from overseas, but also the technology stocks held by Westeros, according to the original three-year contract, they can be sold next year.As long as Simon is willing, he can easily cash out more than one billion U.S. dollars, as are many other assets in the Westeros system.

If you are willing to accept external shareholders to join the core enterprises of the Westeros system such as Daenerys Entertainment, you can raise large sums of money at any time.

However, whether it is the technology stocks in his hands, or companies such as Daenerys, Igret, and Melisandre, all have great growth potential, and Simon is not willing to sell or share these shares too easily.

After thinking for a while, Simon decided: "For the time being, let's redraft the acquisition plan according to this idea. MCA will be acquired entirely by means of loans, and Bell Atlantic will use its own funds as much as possible. We will discuss future matters in the future."

Janet nodded, and the two began to discuss more specific details of the plan.

Chapter 368 Undercurrent (Revised)

Same Sunday, Los Angeles.

Michael Ovitz, who watched James Raybould's "Today Show" interview in its entirety over breakfast, naturally didn't believe James' equivocal response at all.

According to recent inquiries, it is an indisputable fact that Daenerys Entertainment is preparing to bid for MCA.

He originally planned to spend the weekend with his family, but because of yesterday's "Hollywood Reporter" suddenly revealing Daenerys Entertainment's intention to acquire Daenerys Entertainment and today's "Today Show" interview, Ovitz had to continue working on the weekend.

From the second half of last year to now, C's team has been busy for a whole year for the MCA acquisition.

If the acquisition fails, not only will the entire team’s busy year go to waste, but it will also mean the loss of tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees. These are not what Ovitz wants to see.

However, Ovitz also understands that the problem he is facing now is very difficult.

During the initial contact with Ovitz last year, Panasonic expressed its willingness to make an offer of up to US$90 for the acquisition of MCA, which is equivalent to a total transaction volume of US$90 billion based on MCA’s total share capital of nearly [-] million shares.

However, as the Japanese economy has continued to deteriorate over the past six months, Panasonic's attitude has become more and more conservative.On the other hand, the outbreak of the war in Kuwait caused the U.S. stock market to fall across the board. At the close of last Friday, MCA's share price had fallen to $36, and it was even more impossible for Panasonic to bid another $90 a share.

The problem now is that it is necessary to speed up the acquisition and at the same time urge Panasonic to further increase its offer to MCA.

Before eight o'clock in the morning, Michael Ovitz arrived at C's headquarters in Century City. Members of the core team of the MCA acquisition case had also arrived, along with Qing Gu Yoniko, the representative of Panasonic for the acquisition case.

The meeting to discuss coping strategies in various aspects lasted all morning. At noon, Ovitz also had a phone call with Akio Furui, President of Matsushita at the headquarters in Osaka, Japan.

Akio Furui has been hoping to enter the United States since he became the president of Matsushita in 1986, but he was suppressed by the conservative founder Konosuke Matsushita before last year and could not make it happen.

However, to Ovitz's disappointment, Akio Furui did not accept his proposal to raise the offer price to $75 per share to complete the transaction as soon as possible, and at the same time, he did not intend to give up the acquisition because of Daenerys Entertainment's competition.

After a busy morning, it was finally decided to launch a new round of negotiations with MCA next Wednesday to further discuss the details of the acquisition.

After lunch, send off Qinggu Yoniko, core members of the MCA acquisition team, Michael Ovitz, C financial director and co-founder Bob Goldman, and two other executives Sandy Kliman and Ray Kertzman returned to the morning conference room again.

Panasonic's acquisition attitude is not firm enough, which makes everyone a little frowning.

Everyone gathered around the conference table and left after the secretary delivered coffee. Bob Goldman suddenly said: "Many people in Hollywood probably don't want to see Daenerys' entertainment expansion anymore."

Sandy Kliman, who assisted Ovitz in creating the C enterprise agency business, said: "So what, do you think Warner, Fox, MGM, and Columbia will jump out and oppose this acquisition?"

This summer, "Sleeping with the Enemy" and "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" in Daenerys Entertainment's 10-film plan have all achieved success, not only Fox and Disney have benefited from it, Warner, MGM, Columbia and other companies Both work closely with Daenerys Entertainment.

Ray Kertzman said at this time: "Paramount did not cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment, and, for the failure of the two projects of "Rocket Expert" and "Firebird Attack", Martin Davis must be very concerned about Weiss. Tello was very dissatisfied."

Sandy Kleeman: "Just the Paramounts just isn't enough."

Bob Goldman said again at this time: "You have made a mistake. It is not necessarily the companies in the same industry that can prevent a studio from being merged. I mean, the three major labor unions in Hollywood."

After Bob Goldman's voice fell, the other three people in the conference room all showed sudden expressions for a moment.

Daenerys Entertainment had a dispute with the Screenwriters Guild of America two years ago because of the strike. Right now, Simon Westeros is constantly suppressing star remuneration through long-term contracts, and is still strictly controlling film production costs in terms of budget. Although these It is beneficial to the development of the studio, but it obviously damages the interests of the Hollywood Screenwriters Union, Directors Union and Screen Actors Union.

What's more, for two consecutive years, Daenerys Entertainment has occupied most of the top ten US box office charts. With such a market share, if MCA is merged, it will obviously constitute a monopoly suspicion.

If the three major labor unions simultaneously launch a lawsuit against the Federal Department of Justice, coupled with the cooperation of Hollywood studios such as Paramount, it is very likely that they want to prevent the acquisition of Daenerys Entertainment.

"I remembered, the proposal made by Senator Peter Brigle, Republican of Texas last Wednesday," Ray Kertzman quickly mentioned another matter, seeing the confusion of the other three people, said: "I'll get someone to collect a piece of information for you later. In short, the White House probably doesn't like Westeros right now. In this case, the Department of Justice may not easily pass Daenerys Entertainment's application to acquire MCA."

"And the incident with Dustin and the others last year."

"Matthew Broderick, do you remember that young man?"

"..."

"..."

The four chattered for more than ten minutes, and Michael Ovitz quickly made a decision, saying: "Bob, you are more familiar with Martin Davis, ask him to talk to him as soon as possible, Sandy and Ray, the two of you are responsible for contacting the contacts in Washington, and I will personally communicate with the three major unions and Dustin."

After finalizing these, the four of them quickly began to act separately.

The weekend passed in a blink of an eye.

Monday, October 9.

Following last Saturday's "Hollywood Reporter" exposure that Daenerys Entertainment intends to acquire MCA, the "Wall Street Journal" also exposed another development of the MCA acquisition case on Monday. MCA begins formal negotiations.

Michael Ovitz called Lou Wassalman's home directly after the Wall Street Journal news broke, accusing him of leaking to the media and threatening to cancel Wednesday's agenda.Lou Wassalman vehemently denied Ovitz's accusations, and Wednesday's meeting will go ahead as usual after several disputes.

However, after continuous media reports, the news that Daenerys Entertainment and Panasonic may bid for MCA has been completely put on the table.

On Monday morning, as soon as the North American stock market opened, the stock price of MCA began to rise rapidly.

After a day of trading, as of the close in the afternoon, the stock price of MCA has soared from $36.75 at the opening to $41.25, an increase of 12%. By the close of trading on Wednesday, the stock price of MCA has risen to $46.75, basically returning to the level before the outbreak of the Kuwait War .

Because of the time difference between the east and west coasts, when the executives of Panasonic and MCA concluded negotiations on Wednesday at Universal Studios in Burbank, the east coast stock market had already closed.

What's more, things are beginning to take a turn for the worse.

MCA President Sid Schinberg said at the press conference after the meeting that Panasonic’s offer lacked sincerity. MCA’s recent stock price has been severely undervalued due to force majeure. If Panasonic refuses to increase the offer, the transaction between the two parties can only be stranded .

At the same time, Sid Schinberg also said at the press conference that MCA is a very good company, and he very much expects that other companies will be interested in this company.

The purpose of these last words could not be more obvious.

The media subsequently continued to expose more specific details of the talks.

MCA chairman Sid Schinberg expected a price of $80 per share, but Panasonic was only willing to offer a price of $60 per share. The gap between the two parties was huge, so the talks broke up badly.

Because of the failure of the talks, the gains in MCA stock slowed significantly the next day.

Although it is very clear that Panasonic cannot give up the acquisition so easily, and MCA will not easily drive away Panasonic, a competitor who can push up its own stock price, but many people still turn their attention to Daenerys Entertainment, looking forward to Simon's move .

Escaping the media scrutiny during the first week of the release of the Forbes Rich List, Simon remained in New York this week.

When the news came that Panasonic and MCA had reached a stalemate after the first public meeting, Simon put his mind down completely and patiently waited for the right time.During this period of time, Janet personally helped him choose and arrange one after another dinners, receptions, parties and other activities.

Quickly accumulating a huge amount of net worth, without a corresponding network of contacts is not enough, and it is not a wise move to completely entrust the management of the network of contacts to the executives of the subsidiary company.

Every time Simon goes to Melbourne, Johnston’s family will arrange similar activities for Simon to participate in. Janet has completely inherited the family’s vision and skills in network building. Women can help Simon avoid many useless interactions just by instinct To socialize, you don't need to blindly fumble around in and out of various circles like many new rich people.

To further confuse the media and the public, Simon also ostentatiously attended a party hosted by Steve Ross at his home in East Hampton, Long Island, New York.

Immediately afterwards, news appeared in the media that Daenerys Entertainment might seek to merge with Time Warner.

Everyone in the circle knows that Steve Ross is a person with a strong desire for power, and Simon will not let go of control of Daenerys Entertainment, so the possibility of the merger of the two companies is very low.However, there have always been more people in this world who don't know the truth.

Shares of Time Warner also rose following the news.

Neither Daenerys Entertainment nor Time Warner has clarified this. Simon is trying to confuse the public. Steve Rose also hopes that Time Warner will have some benefits, even if they are false benefits, which will make Time Warner The pressure on the leader has been relieved a lot.