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As long as the corresponding results can be produced, even if Jeff Bezos and Carol Bartz spend 5 million or even 10 billion US dollars in the next year, Simon is willing to pay.

In the original time and space, many unicorn companies in the Internet era have lost tens of billions of dollars for several consecutive years, and may end up achieving nothing.In comparison, Simon's seemingly money-burning investments at this time are worth the money.After the explosion of the Internet industry, these technology and content accumulations can be quickly transformed into real market value only through IPO.

As long as Simon is willing, he can easily recover all the investment in the early stage of investment through cashing out the equity.

In addition to Eaglet, America Online is the same.

The reason why Simon promised not to lay off employees after completing the acquisition of Bell Atlantic is not only to start the layout in the new telecommunications field of mobile communications, but also to support America Online.

Winning Bell Atlantic, although this company will not get involved in Internet access services in the short term, it will further deepen its cooperation with AOL.Several states on the east coast where Bell Atlantic is located will be AOL's key expansion targets next year.

Also starting next month, America Online will launch a large-scale free trial business.

Users only need to make an appointment to access the Internet without paying a penny, and America Online will come to install it, and they can experience up to 3 hours of free Internet surfing time per day for one month.The first phase of this campaign will last at least three months.

Speaking of which, the time for AOL to carry out this activity is just right.

Still for that reason, next month, the Gulf War will break out.

Back in the cabin in Los Angeles, Simon has been discussing it with Peter Butler.

"Although the Internet media platform has just been born, compared with newspapers and TV, its advantages are actually very obvious.

For major events such as the upcoming war in the Gulf region, a daily newspaper cannot achieve the immediacy of information. Although a 24-hour news channel such as CNN can report in real time, it cannot retain information, and users cannot monitor it 24 hours a day. Stay in front of the TV.

Relatively speaking, portal websites can solve these two problems to a large extent.

We can achieve both real-time and long-term storage of news information. Users can log in to the network at any time, and can not only see the news that is currently happening, but also browse other events that have passed.Moreover, the content that portals can provide is richer than newspapers and television.As long as he can seize this opportunity next month, the media business of Ygritte Portal will definitely be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. "

In the history of media, many news platforms have emerged as the times require.

Just like when the Hearst family relied on their own media network to instigate the Spanish-American War, the sales of their own newspapers also increased significantly during that period.In the original time and space, Fox News also broke CNN's strong position in the US news channel in one fell swoop through its all-round and timely reports on the 911 incident.

The upcoming Gulf War is a very good opportunity for the development of Ygritte Portal.

Peter Butler is still ridiculed because of the report on Simon a few years ago, and he is suspected of over-praising Westeros. His promotion in the "Los Angeles Times" newspaper in recent years is obvious to all.

However, for the Los Angeles Times, which has a history of more than [-] years, wanting to climb to the top position in this company is not just enough ability.

Therefore, after receiving an invitation from Simon to personally contact him to join Igret Portal, Peter Butler quickly decided to give up his promoted position as deputy editor-in-chief of the department and join this new media platform to be in charge of the two core information sections of news and finance. .

As a media person, Peter Butler is well aware of the importance of the two major sections of news and finance. Although he failed to gain control over more channels, he also knows that Simon's invitation is full of sincerity.Moreover, Peter Butler did not think that his original report on Simon got him the job.

The young man in front of him who has created a series of miracles is fully worthy of that report, and he will definitely not hire someone just because of a report that praises himself.

After Simon finished speaking, Peter Butler said, "Simon, I've thought about it. Around the middle of next month, I plan to personally go to Saudi Arabia to follow up on this incident."

Hearing what Butler said, Simon showed an expression of appreciation in his eyes, and said, "No problem, but you need to arrange things on the North American side."

The two kept discussing, and the plane soon landed on the runway of Los Angeles International Airport.

Outside the porthole, it was already dusk.

After parting with Peter Butler and hurriedly returning to Cape Dume Manor, Simon and Janet rushed to the party scene of Daenerys Studios after changing clothes, and the time had passed 07:30.

When the couple appeared in the hall of the studio's event center, they naturally became the focus of everyone's attention.

After some socializing and greetings, they finally came to the small circle where the heads of various studios gathered, just after greeting, Columbia Pictures CEO Peter Guber couldn't help but said: "Simon, the box office of "Home Alone" is really unexpected. "

When everyone heard Peter Guber mentioning this topic, they all looked at Simon with different expressions.

In the coming week, Hollywood's biggest box office dark horse is undoubtedly "Home Alone" which will be released on December 12st.

This children's comedy that is very suitable for the festive atmosphere, in the three days from December 12st to December 21rd, the box office reached 12 million US dollars. Box office momentum continues to climb.

After a brief slump on Christmas Eve on Monday, the single-day box office figures of "Home Alone" far exceeded expectations on Tuesday and Wednesday. Although today's box office data will not be released until after 12 o'clock, the industry generally predicts that "Home Alone" will The box office of "The Head" in the first week has already surpassed the high of 4000 million U.S. dollars.

Calculating carefully, this will be the second movie in 1990 after "Die Hard 2" to break through the 4000 million box office in a single week.

However, the box office curve of "Die Hard 2" plummeted by more than 50% in the next week, obviously cannot be compared with "Home Alone" whose popularity continues to rise.

Prior to this, referring to John Hughes' previous box office results, many people felt that the total North American box office of "Home Alone" may only be 4000 million US dollars.Therefore, it exceeded 4000 million in the first week. No one, even within Daenerys Entertainment, could have predicted such a data.

Originally, Hollywood generally believed that "Ghost Love", which was launched in the summer and successfully released with a North American box office of 2.17 million US dollars, would lock the box office champion in 1990 and was also the only local box office in 1990 that broke through 2 million US dollars. Film.

Now, the "Home Alone" that turned out to be out of nowhere, judging from the current popularity of the public, is likely to break the box office figures of "Human Ghosts" and take the top spot in the box office in 1990.

Chapter 394 The Beginning of the New Year (Revised)

At the beginning of the new year, at the same time as the finalization of the two acquisitions, the Westeros system officially began to exert its strength in the Internet field.

After careful preliminary preparations, America Online launched the Internet Free Trial Program on January 1991, 1.

As long as they are users of the three telecom operators Bell Pacific, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX on the east and west coasts of the United States, they can install and access the World Wide Web platform for free by making an appointment, and get a free trial time of 3 hours a day for one month.

截止1990年12月31日，美国在线的最终用户数量定格在82万，整个北美接入万维网平台的互联网用户数量达到116万。

The AOL team forecasted the growth rate of the number of World Wide Web users in the past few months, and launched the free trial plan. In the next three months, AOL will usher in an average of at least 100 million free trial users per month.

According to the total trial budget of US$100 for each user in terms of access equipment and web browsing, AOL will spend an average of US$1 million per month on this, which does not include AOL’s human resources and infrastructure in order to support the increase in the number of users etc. investments.

All calculated, the three-month free trial plan, AOL will burn at least 4 million US dollars of funds.

In comparison, throughout 1990, AOL's annual revenue was only worth over [-] million.

Therefore, the most critical aspect of this risky and radical business plan is actually the issue of funding.

Simon had already agreed to the IPO plans of AOL and Cisco last year.However, due to the outbreak of the war in the Gulf region in the second half of last year, the U.S. stock market continued to slump, and the IPO plans of the two companies continued to be delayed. This free trial can be described as AOL's last effort before the IPO.

The other small shareholders who hold 25% of AOL's shares are unwilling to have their shares diluted by Westeros again, and Simon is not reluctant.The funds this time were obtained in the form of loans from Citibank through the relationship of the Westeros Corporation.

After the three-month free trial program, AOL will officially launch its IPO regardless of the results of the program and the macroeconomic environment.

Other shareholders and management of AOL are under great pressure because of this, but Simon is full of confidence in this plan and the trend of the US economy.

100 million trial users in a single month and 300 million in three months, these numbers are actually very conservative.

You must know that in the past 1990, the total shipments of personal computers by mainstream PC manufacturers such as IBM, Apple, and Commodore exceeded 2000 million units, of which only IBM series compatible machines shipped 1680 million units.At the same time, the number of PC users worldwide also successfully exceeded 1990 million in 1.

As the world's most developed economy, whether it is PC shipments or holdings, the domestic share of the United States exceeds 50%.

Although personal computers in this era are mainly used for office work, and office PCs occupy a large part, such a huge user base of personal computers, coupled with the fact that the user areas operated by AOL are located in the most economically developed states on the east and west coasts of the United States, three The number of trial users of 300 million in a month is definitely not too much.

300 million expected trial users, if 20% to 30% can be converted into regular users, AOL's free trial plan will be considered a success.

After the first quarter, as long as the user growth meets expectations, AOL can at least ensure annual revenue of US$5 million. With the increase in the number of users in the subsequent three quarters, the actual revenue figure will definitely be even higher.Compared with last year's performance growth of more than 500%, this kind of development speed is enough for AOL to obtain a very good IPO valuation.

After the IPO, AOL can continue to raise funds from the public market more flexibly by issuing securities or issuing additional shares.

On the other hand, Igret also began to make efforts in the content field.

Just one week after Peter Butler officially joined Igret after the New Year, he went to the Middle East to preside over the comprehensive report on the war in the Gulf region.

At the same time, Igret also launched the "Everyone is a novelist" award-winning creation activity in the column blog section.

Internet novels, a literary genre that people are familiar with later, actually appeared earlier than many people imagined. Just like online games, Quantum Online, the predecessor of AOL, operated the "Online Fiction Solitaire" service as early as the 80s.

After all, there is never a lack of creativity.

However, the 'everyone is a novelist' activity carried out by Ygritte still tends to traditional literary creation, and the deadline is also three months.

Registered users of Eaglet Portal can participate in this event and start online creation after applying to the blog operation team.The subject matter is limited to novels, but the genre is not limited. Science fiction, horror, suspense, etc. are all available. The rule is to submit an update at least once a week, and the final winner will be selected by Ygritte website users through online voting.

In the end, there will be 1 first prize with a bonus of 50 US dollars, 10 second prizes with a bonus of 10 US dollars, and 100 third prizes with a bonus of 1 US dollars.At the same time, the works created by these users are also expected to be published physically and adapted into film and television dramas by Daenerys Entertainment.

A total of 250 million US dollars in prize pools, as well as opportunities for publishing and film and television adaptations, the event has just been announced and has attracted strong attention from Eaglet users.

After all, most ordinary people actually have some creative dreams, but it is difficult to implement them because of various conditions.

Eaglet's online event not only provided a platform with a low threshold, but also provided a huge bonus enough to stimulate users' enthusiasm.

For Eaglet, such an event can not only realize the purpose of user-generated content that Simon has always emphasized, but also strengthen the interactivity of Eaglet’s social network.Moreover, through the title sponsorship of companies such as IBM, Eaglet has further developed its own advertising business, which can be said to serve multiple purposes.

For this event, the Eaglet team specially developed a voting system, which is similar to the like function that is common on the Internet later. Only registered email users of the Eaglet Portal can vote.Moreover, in order to avoid the phenomenon of multiple vests swiping votes, voting users also need to bind an AOL account, and can only cast one vote per day.

Hollywood has successfully reached an acquisition agreement with MCA, and the first box office week after the new year passed quickly.

From January 1th to January 4th, "Home Alone" opened for the third week. Because it entered the working day, compared with the reverse decline of the New Year's Day week, the box office fell by 1% this week, and it received another 10 million US dollars.

The single-week box office dropped from US$4799 million to US$3128 million. Although the drop was deep, it was actually very rare.The box office of many blockbuster films in this era may not exceed 3000 million U.S. dollars in the first week of their opening, which is enough to show the phenomenon-level box office characteristics of "Home Alone".

In three weeks, the total North American box office of "Home Alone" reached 1 million US dollars, easily squeezing into the top ten of the 1190 North American box office list.

However, such an excellent box office momentum has to face the shadow of the approaching war.

The time for the January 1 ultimatum issued by the United Nations for Iraq is getting closer, but Saddam has shown no sign of withdrawing his troops from Kuwait. It is worth mentioning that the US government's "tough attitude" has also played a role. very crucial role.

The several conditional withdrawal proposals put forward by the Iraqi side were all rejected by the US government.

On January 1, the US Senate formally approved the "Authorization of the Use of Military Force Against Iraq Act".

Dark clouds overwhelm the city.

At the same time, in the month before the war, the U.S. stock market continued to fall by 6% under the shadow of the war. The Dow Jones Index once fell back to within 300 points, worse than before the 1987 stock market crash.

After completing the settlement at the end of 1990, Cersei Capital quickly re-raised a $30 billion hedge fund, and it will maintain the same size in the future.

The total amount of cash transferred back to China by Simon previously exceeded US$80 billion. However, with the continuous accumulative gains in the second half of last year, the funds belonging to Simon in the account of Cersei Fund Management Company still reached US$7 million. The Johnston family is also in the hedge fund. $5 million was retained.

Before the war broke out, when most investors were generally pessimistic about the prospects of the Gulf War, the team of Cersei Fund Management Company began to bet on the crude oil futures market and the North American stock index futures market again.

The crude oil futures market has experienced the impact of the Kuwait war last year, and has not yet recovered. It can barely build a small position.

The main bet this time around is S&P 500 futures.

In Simon's memory, the multinational forces headed by the United States were overwhelmingly devastated in the Gulf War, and the S&P 500 Index rose by more than 20% within one month after the outbreak of the war.

Moreover, most speculators in the actively traded S&P 500 index futures market tend to be short-selling due to the pessimism about the prospect of war, which allowed the team of Cersei Fund Management to establish a Long positions with a total value of more than $100 billion.

Although I don’t expect Cersei Capital’s hedge fund to send too much money to the Westeros system in the next few years.However, this time, because Simon's prediction of the war situation is different from most people's predictions, in the next few months, as long as everything follows the previous historical trajectory, Cersei Capital will still be able to obtain very rich gains.

Throughout 1991, Cersei Fund Management Company was definitely able to easily and far surpass the same type of hedge funds on Wall Street in terms of profitability.

Not seeking to create miracles, but only seeking to surpass peers, this is Simon's performance requirement for Cersei Capital after it enters a formal operating state.This matter is actually not easy for other Wall Street fund companies, but for Cersei Capital, it is not difficult to achieve this by relying on Simon's prophetic advantage and its own good enough operation team.

Time will not stop for the oppressive atmosphere of war.

On January 1th, the final deadline, Saddam Hussein still did not implement the United Nations withdrawal agreement. The multinational force led by the United States began to issue war authorization to the army, and the million-strong Iraqi army was also ready to respond.

On January 1, at two o'clock in the morning local time, countless warplanes took off from the US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf and the military airport in Saudi Arabia, flocking like bee swarms to the key military targets in various parts of Iraq that had been locked in advance.

Many people originally thought that the Iraqi Air Force would fight back. However, the multinational force has shown an overwhelming advantage that makes the Iraqi army completely incapable of resisting.

Iraq's air defense system has almost no room for the US's high-tech stealth bombers. The outdated Scud missiles are also vulnerable to the US's latest precision-guided missiles. The Iraqi Air Force has not responded much. The fighter planes of the multinational forces are firmly suppressed.

In less than a day of intensive air strikes, the strategic goals of the first phase of the multinational force were quickly achieved, and Iraq's domestic air force bases and air defense facilities were completely destroyed by the pouring down of guided missiles, cluster bombs, and air bombs.

The devastation of this war shocked the whole world.

International Crude Oil Market.

With the continuous feedback of the news of the war, the international crude oil price, which continued to skyrocket on the eve of the start, began to plummet after only two hours after the outbreak of the war.

On January 1, the day before the war broke out, the international crude oil price was as high as $16 a barrel. A few hours after the war broke out, the international crude oil price had dropped to a low of $26, basically reaching the level before the outbreak of the Kuwait war last year.

Affected by the haze of war, the North American film market experienced a significant decline in the week before the outbreak of the war.

《小鬼当家》票房在开画第三周34%的跌幅之后，1月11日到1月17日的开画第四周，跌幅再次达到29%，单周票房进一步滑落到2221万美元。四周累计总票房为1亿4211万美元。

Because the war situation has exceeded most people's expectations, although many people are still attracted by the smoke in the Gulf region, the North American film market has not cooled down further, but has started to rebound in the new week.

Before the outbreak of the war, the organizers of the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards had been hesitating whether to cancel the new awards ceremony originally scheduled for January 1.With the final clarity of the war situation, the organizers of the Golden Globe Awards soon announced that the award ceremony will be held as scheduled at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.

This year's Golden Globe Awards are only nominated for Best Picture in Drama and Comedy, and Daenerys Entertainment has three nominations for Best Picture in Drama, "Dances with Wolves" and "Life Intersection". , Best Picture Nominee in the Musical Comedy category for Ghosts and Ghosts.

In fact, in the original time and space, "Pretty Woman" and "Home Alone" also received nominations for best picture in the musical comedy category.

However, if Daenerys Entertainment accounted for half of the 10 best picture nominations at the Golden Globes, it would be too dazzling.After weighing, Daenerys Entertainment finally declared the best picture nomination for only three films including "Dances with Wolves".

Among them, "Dances with Wolves" is the most important and cannot be missed.For the other two films, depending on the attitude of the organizers of the Golden Globe Awards, whether to give or not, the impact will not be too great.

The result was that all three films were nominated.

Fortunately, the three films are well-deserved, so they did not cause too much controversy.Some people in the media raised objections to Daenerys Entertainment's "Home Alone" and "Pretty Woman" not being nominated for best picture in the musical comedy category.

After being busy for several months, two acquisitions were finalized, but Simon was not able to relax.

After the savage growth of the Westeros system in 1990, too many problems have been unknowingly accumulated. In order to avoid the accumulated problems, Simon did not dare to slack off.

In addition, while continuously giving up more power to the management of various companies, Simon's financial supervision of each company has become more and more strict.The period at the beginning of the year, according to the usual practice, is the period for financial audit of various companies.

Despite the heavy workload every day, Simon appeared on the red carpet outside the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills in the evening on January 1 with Janet in a costume.

After all, not only the best picture nominations of three films including "Dances with Wolves", Daenerys Entertainment's "Pretty Woman", "Home Alone", "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" and other films were nominated in other awards. It also gained a lot.