hunt hollywood

Everyone jokingly said that Buffett and Murphy probably had something to talk about, so they took the initiative to go elsewhere.

William Hearst III seemed to finally remember when he was free, and said to Simon: "By the way, Simon, let me introduce some guests for you."

Simon naturally agreed.

The Hearst family has accumulated a hundred years of heritage, and it was vividly displayed at a small party. The people who appeared in this villa tonight are basically big shots from all walks of life in American politics and business. During the social gathering, The guests kept coming.

Finally, I chatted with a member of Congress who was said to be interested in restricting foreign investors from acquiring American companies. Simon and Hearst III stepped aside, and Janet had just voluntarily avoided it.

"Meloth will probably submit his own bill together with several other congressmen next month. We really can't let the Japanese continue to acquire our country's assets. It just so happens that this should give you a good boost in the acquisition of MCA, Panasonic If you are worried that the acquisition case may be rejected by the Ministry of Justice, you will definitely not be able to win."

"I hope so."

Hearst III directly believed that Simon was interested in acquiring MCA, and he did not deny it. However, Simon did not show much interest in the congressman's proposal just now.

In recent years, the United States has been calling to prevent Japanese companies from acquiring American companies, but with the degree of openness of the US capital market, Simon does not think such a bill can be introduced, and there is indeed no relevant bill in his memory. Hollywood belongs to the entertainment industry, and the Department of Justice does not It is impossible to exercise the veto under the pretext of 'national security' or the like.

Seeing that Simon was not enthusiastic about this, William Hearst III turned to the topic and said: "About the 20% stake in ESPN, Simon, Metropolis/ABC and Hearst Group were originally very good partners. We The mutual shareholding between the two parties can play a better complementary role. Moreover, you should know that the Metropolis/ABC not only has veto power over the purchaser of this equity, but even if you buy it, you will not get any right to speak, so, I hope you will back out. Well... maybe we will have other opportunities to work together in the future."

Although he had already planned to give up the 20% ESPN shares, Simon was no longer polite when he heard that Hearst III was just a blank check and wanted to withdraw himself from the competition, and said: "Actually, William, there is a good one right now." cooperation opportunity."

William Hearst III paused, and then showed an expression of interest: "Tell me."

"I founded an Internet company in Silicon Valley that provides Internet information services. You may have heard of it. It's called Igret. It just so happens that the "San Francisco Chronicle" is also in San Francisco. "Get some news content."

William Hearst III had an obvious hesitant expression on his face.

The "San Francisco Chronicle" is a very important newspaper under the Hearst Group, second only to the "Los Angeles Times" on the west coast, and can bring tens of millions of dollars in profits to the Hearst Group every year.Moreover, the competition between American paper media platforms is largely a competition for exclusive news. If it is any other time to share the news content of the "San Francisco Chronicle" with Eaglet, William Hearst III will definitely immediately reject.

However, William Hearst III also understood at this time that this is probably the bargaining chip proposed by Westeros to withdraw from the ESPN equity competition.

Recalling the discussion with Tom Murphy at the beginning of the party, and contacting Simon's request at this time, William Hearst III couldn't help feeling more dissatisfied with the young man in front of him.

Speaking of it, the Hearst Group learned about Reynolds Nabisco's upcoming sale of ESPN shares earlier than Simon, but before they had time to make a final decision, Westeros negotiated with Metropolis/ABC and Reynolds Nabisco communicated about the stake.

The executives of the Hearst Group originally thought that in the absence of other competitors, if they want to buy this equity, they can probably lower the price to less than 1.7 million U.S. dollars. After all, not many investors would be interested in the 20% stake that completely lacks the right to speak. interested.

However, because of Westeros' sudden foray, the current offer price is less than $2 million, and Reynolds Nabisco is not willing to sell at all.

The reason why Hearst Group wants to buy this batch of shares is mainly for a tax relief agreement obtained after selling part of the group’s cable TV assets in the first half of the year. The agreement stipulates that Hearst Group will purchase another cable TV of the same type within one year TV assets can be exempted from the income tax payable on the last asset sale.

The 20% share price of ESPN TV has risen from the expected $1.7 million to $2 million, which has completely offset the tax-free amount of the tax break agreement of less than $2000 million, which is also the reason why Hearst III is here after Simon's arrival today. The reason why I can't help but hang him out.

Now, this young man has raised a bargaining chip to make him withdraw from the competition.

After thinking about it for a while, William Hearst III still didn't directly refuse. If Westeros can't withdraw from the deal as soon as possible and continue to entangle, the news will spread that the price of the 20% of the shares will only be fired higher: " Simon, I need to think about this matter carefully."

Simon raised the red wine in his hand to Hester III, and said, "Of course it's no problem, William. It just so happens that I will be in New York for a few days, and I look forward to hearing good news from you."

Chapter 376 Completing the Goal Ahead of Time (Revised)

Simon and Janet left the Hurst mansion after nine o'clock.

Back in his own manor, the villa was brightly lit. The new housekeeper, Alice Ferguson, was still leading the maids to clean the villa. In addition, there were bodyguards scattered around to reinstall and upgrade the security system in the manor.

Simon ignores these chores, from San Francisco to Los Angeles to New York on the East Coast in one day, all he wants now is to take a good hot bath and sleep.

Janet called Neil Bennett to ask about the security system, and Simon asked Alice Ferguson to take him to the master bedroom of the villa.

The new housekeeper led Simon to a room on the east side of the second floor of the villa, and pushed open the door herself.

Simon glanced at the furnishings in the bedroom, nodded, and asked, "Where's the study?"

"next door."

Alice Ferguson pointed to the door on the right, and was about to pass, when Simon stopped her and said, "Help me put some hot water, it won't be too hot, call me when it's done."

After explaining, Simon walked to the study next door.

Alice was still holding a black hard-covered folder in her hand. She looked very OL. Seeing the figure of the master leaving, she was startled, and went into the bathroom of the master bedroom to help Simon prepare the bath water.

Naturally, the network has been installed in the villa.

Simon walked into the study room, turned on the computer, logged into the e-mail while browsing the Ygritte portal, and typed a few words on the draft page of the e-mail from time to time based on what he saw. This is what he often does in recent months. Every week, several advisory emails are provided to the two leaders of Eaglet, and other matters of Eaglet are also discussed by email.

In just a few short months, e-mail has become an important communication tool for many high-level communication in the Simon and Westeros system.

In order to ensure security, Simon also specially asked Eaglet's technical team to set up an independent server, and formulated special content regulations, stipulating what things can be communicated by email, what things can't be done, and what Emails are regularly deleted and cleaned.

It is helpless to say that the main content of the World Wide Web platform is still provided by the Ygrit Portal.

In addition, it is the campus network of various universities in North America that is gradually connected to the World Wide Web platform. This is a work result that Simon is very satisfied with the Eaglet team.Through the mode of directly donating WWW series software to North American universities, the very practical technology of WWW has been popularized in various universities very quickly, and more and more universities are using HTML webpage technology to remake their own campus websites.

Not only that, Igret and the Simon; Janet Westeros Foundation have donated professional courses related to World Wide Web technology in Stanford, Harvard, MIT and other schools.

Outside the university campus, Eagletec is still using physical books and online tutorials to promote the promotion of World Wide Web technology in the whole society. Currently Eagletek has published three books introducing World Wide Web technology and related applications. Books, Eaglet Portal also set up a special sub-forum for users to learn and discuss World Wide Web technology.

With this series of promotional measures, the popularity of World Wide Web technology is much faster than Simon estimated.

Today is September 9th. Although this month has not yet passed, according to statistics from AOL, the number of AOL users in September 29 increased by 1990% compared to August.

从最初5月份伊格瑞特公司正式开始发力推广万维网技术到现在，五个月时间，美国在线单月用户数量增长分别为3.8万、4.6万、6.1万、7.3万和9.7万。

Counting the initial batch of users accumulated, the number of Internet access users of AOL has reached 38.6.

In addition to AOL, the other two Internet service providers authorized by Etruit in the Great Lakes metropolitan area and the southern states of the United States also have accumulated more than 10 users in recent months.

Simon's original goal was to reach 1990 users accessing the Internet relying on World Wide Web technology in the remaining months of 50.

Now, this goal has been basically completed three months ahead of schedule.

It is conceivable that as long as the telecommunications infrastructure and Internet content resources can keep up with the pace, it will not be too difficult for Simon to achieve the scale of tens of millions of Internet users in North America within three years.

After browsing a few webpages just now, there was a knock on the door. Simon looked up and saw Alice appearing at the door of the study.

There were obviously some water stains on the housekeeper's black suit, but her expression was still calm: "Boss, the water has been put away."

Simon responded, archived the half-written email, turned off the computer, got up and left the study, took off his suit while walking, and handed it to the housekeeper standing by the door.

Alice Ferguson was holding Simon's coat. Seeing the boss walking into the next bedroom, she hesitated for a moment, but followed.After dawdling to the door of the master bedroom, seeing that Simon had walked into the bathroom and closed the door, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I don't know what to do with the clothes in my hand, hang them on the hangers in the bedroom, or take them down for dry cleaning?

Born in a fairly good middle-class family, she has been a proud woman of heaven since she was a child. Although she accepted this job, the housekeeper really has no experience in serving people.

Remembering that other girls had received training in housekeeping, Alice Ferguson suddenly became a little puzzled, why did Janet Westeros choose to hire herself?You must know that the job in front of her was not actually pursued by her.

However, when the invitation came, she quickly decided to accept it.

As for the reason, she has never been a willing mediocre woman in her bones. She doesn't want to be like her mother, who can only be a vassal of her father and family for the rest of her life.She hopes to do something, to achieve something, and to be remembered by the world.

Right now, if she can get the attention of Westeros, it is definitely the best shortcut for her to realize her inner ambition.In order to achieve this goal, it is worth paying even some price including one's own body.After all, Simon Westeros is definitely a man that is difficult for women to reject. Many friends of the same sex and even the opposite sex around her regard this man as an object of fantasy.

just.

He squeezed the suit in his hand again.

She doesn't really have the 'ambition' to become a big girl who makes beds.

Standing at the door of the bedroom like this for a while, the housekeeper finally remembered her identity. She still has a group of subordinates, so there is no need to deal with everything directly.

Responding, Alice walked downstairs holding the dress.

Coming downstairs, Janet happened to walk into the hall of the villa, saw the appearance of the housekeeper, and asked, "What are you doing with Simon's clothes?"

Alice Ferguson stopped in her tracks and replied, "The boss is taking a shower, he was just replaced."

Janet looked at her again, nodded, and said, "I'm going to take a shower too, help me and Simon prepare a change of clothes."

With that said, Janet headed for the stairs.

When she came to the master bedroom on the second floor, she took off her clothes in twos and twos. Janet pushed open the bathroom door and jumped into the big bathtub, playing and splashing, and was soon held in Simon's arms.

Seeing the quiet Janet kitten in his arms, squinting his eyes and sticking to his chest, Simon knew that the woman would drown in the water if he let go, so he tightened his arms around her waist, enjoying the skin-to-skin contact Feeling, said: "How did you find such a housekeeper?"

"You don't like vases, just find a smarter one," Janet raised her chin on Simon's chest, and looked over with her beautiful eyes: "Are you satisfied?"

Simon nodded and said, "My heart is too high, I need to sharpen it."

Janet rubbed her face on Simon's chest, and said in a slightly ambiguous tone: "Well, just 'grind' as you like, and drive away if you can't grind well."

Simon smiled and did not continue the topic.

The two hugged quietly for a moment, and Janet suddenly said: "A few days ago, did you hear? Ronald Perelman wanted to join the River Club, which was founded by the Rockefeller family, but he was not only He refused, and was laughed at, saying he was just a speculator."

Ronald Perelman is a Wall Street sniper as famous as Carl Icahn. In the 80s, he swallowed the cosmetics giant Revlon with a market value of more than 1 billion US dollars through a leveraged buyout with a capital of 10 million US dollars. If there is no Simon, Perelman Relman also bought Marvel last year.

On this year's "Forbes" list of the 400 richest people in the United States, Ronald Perelman ranked fourth with a personal net worth of 28.7 billion US dollars, second only to Simon, Kruger and Buffett.

Simon knew why Janet brought this up suddenly, and it was because of what happened at Hearst's house tonight.

Although there are no nobles in the United States, in many cases, the old families of the Federation, which have accumulated for a hundred years, are bigger than the nobles in Europe. After all, most of these families still hold huge wealth and powerful connections at this time.

"You know me," Simon said, stroking the tender skin of the woman in his arms, "I don't need other people's approval, and I don't pursue to enter any circle. Since they think it's a status symbol to stand in front of me , then hold it."

"Actually, I feel a little uncomfortable. Why do they look down on you?" Janet curled her arms and rested her chin and looked up. "How about we grab those shares?"

"Then wait for Daenerys Entertainment to release a movie every time, will it be tossed by dozens of mainstream daily newspapers and more weekly magazines in the Federation?"

"Well……"

Janet gnawed on her wrist in distress, but she was not satisfied, and then poked her head and began to grind her teeth on Simon's shoulder.

Simon rubbed the woman's waist comfortingly, and said with a smile: "Since we can't get along well, it's fine for everyone to live in peace. Besides, the Hearst family probably thinks that their paper media empire can continue to prosper for another 100 years, so they can Be proud all the time, but who can say clearly what will happen in the future."

Traditional print media has controlled Western public opinion for more than a hundred years. Janet is not Simon, so naturally she cannot imagine the decline of print media.However, she didn't doubt her man's judgment at all, she nodded her head in agreement, stopped continuing this topic, and narrowed her eyes on the man's chest.

Downstairs in the villa, Alice hugged Simon's coat, and soon found the four ABCD girls who were nestling on the sofa watching TV together in a small living room.Compared with the new maids who were arranged elsewhere in the city, ABCD all lived in the main villa.

Also following the master's family around for a day and a busy night, the four girls of ABCD have just rested.Seeing Alice, the four girls didn't get up, and didn't even say hello.

The housekeeper frowned, raised the clothes in her hands, and said, "The boss is taking a bath, who can help me change and wash?"

Hearing what Alice said, the four girls looked at each other a few times.

In the afternoon, they were a little dissatisfied when they heard that the four of them were going to be put under the jurisdiction of this latecomer. Girl A, Alison said, "Are you sure the boss didn't ask you to prepare?"

Alice stared at Alison sharply, and said without hesitation, "I'm very sure."

After looking at the housekeeper for a few seconds, Alison still avoided her eyes, but insisted on not getting up.

In the stalemate, C girl Claire Gay stood up from the sofa and said, "Leave it to me."

Claire said, walked over to take Simon's clothes, ignored Alice, and walked straight out.

The housekeeper paused, turned around and followed.

The two women came upstairs together. Claire walked into the cloakroom, ignored the housekeeper who was still staring at her, took out the wallet in the suit, hung the clothes on a hanger, and skillfully found some personal clothes for the hostess and the hostess. The clothes, together with the wallet, were picked up and transferred to the master bedroom.

Putting the wallet on the bedside table in the master bedroom, Claire came to the door of the bathroom with some underwear in her hands. Just as she was about to knock on the door, she seemed to think of the housekeeper again. She turned her head and looked at Alice standing at the door, and said, "You send it in." Or should I come?"

The housekeeper didn't see any flaws on Claire's face, hesitated for a moment, remembered Janet's order just now, and stepped forward to take the clothes.

Claire handed the clothes to the housekeeper, turned and left the master bedroom without any abnormality.

Seeing Miss C disappear, Alice took a deep breath, then raised her hand and knocked on the door.

Receiving a response, she opened the door and walked in.

The bathroom was filled with a faint mist and the unique fragrance of shower gel.

However, noticing that the pair of men and women huddling together in the bathtub showed suspicious eyes at the same time, the housekeeper knew that she had been cheated, and stood there a little at a loss, holding the clothes in a daze.

Janet blinked her eyes a few times, and seeing the housekeeper's flushed face, she quickly realized that she giggled happily and fell into Simon's arms.

Simon also understood, with a smile on his face, and was about to send the housekeeper out, but Janet stood up and said, "Who tricked you in, call me to see."

The housekeeper was about to turn around in embarrassment, but raised her hand slightly when she thought of something.

Simon said: "Just put it on the bed outside."

The housekeeper nodded, finally turned around, and walked out of the bathroom mechanically.

A moment later, C girl Claire appeared at the door of the bathroom with a nervous expression, followed by the housekeeper with a frosty face.

Originally, she was just trying to tease this latecomer, but when Janet called her to come over, Miss C realized that she might have made a big mistake.

The four ABCD girls are not very afraid of Simon. The boss has always been modest and indifferent, and they haven't even seen him lose his temper.

However, for the hostess, the four daughters are a little afraid.

ABCD are all Australians and know the power of the Johnston family in Australia.Moreover, it was not easy to get the job when Janet picked it out from hundreds of candidates.Unlike Simon, Janet would really scold and punish them mercilessly, or even fire them outright.

Claire, who has been brought by Janet's side all this time, has witnessed with her own eyes that the hostess fired six employees of Cersei Capital at one time, and a trading team composed of Wall Street elites was all laid off in an instant, just because they committed two consecutive crimes. I made a trading mistake that wasn't too serious.