hunt hollywood

Simon smiled and approached the woman's ear: "Do you think I look like a good person?"

"..."

"Oh, I'm wrong, do you think I look like a bad guy?"

Catherine rolled her eyes, intending to ignore him.

Knowing that women are actually very thin-skinned, Simon just made a joke and said, "Let's go back to Cape Dumei to have dinner together. I'm going on a business trip next week, and I want you to help take care of Jenny. Tonight is my first thank you." .”

When Catherine heard Simon say this, she remembered something, and her tone was a little teasing: "Is it still a business trip like going to Seattle last Saturday night?"

"Ok?"

Catherine rolled her eyes at Simon, who was trying to pretend to be stupid, and said, "Jenny said she couldn't sleep that night, so she insisted on calling me to accompany her, and said that you went to Seattle for a 'business trip'."

Simon nodded solemnly: "Yes, business trip, it's urgent."

On the screen, the feature film of "Thelma & Louise" began to play.

Catherine sidled to the other side.

Plan to ignore a guy for the next two hours.

It's a punishment.

Chapter 425 Green Shoes (Repair)

"Thelma and Louise" directed by Catherine is obviously more rough.

Roughness is of course not rough, it just gives people a sharper and colder feeling.

The yellow sand in the desert, the end of the world, and the wanton flying that becomes more crisp and neat as the plot progresses make it difficult for the audience to see that this is the work of a female director.

However, the director is still a woman.

Therefore, the new version of "Thelma and Louise" highlights feminism more clearly.

Fortunately, under the constant influence of Simon, Catherine gave up the preaching that she liked to add deliberately in her original works, and focused more on expressing certain points of view subtly through stories.

In the initial discussion, Catherine hoped that the two heroines would eventually escape to Mexico successfully.

However, in the finalized version, Thelma and Louise still drove off the cliff, thus sacrificing a complete story.

After finishing the preview and discussing the announcements for the last two months, Simon took Catherine back to Cape Dume Manor. It was already past six o'clock.

After notifying Catherine in advance that she would be here today, Janet had asked people to start preparing dinner.

After returning home and greeting Catherine affectionately, Janet talked about another matter.

The lawsuit concerning Matthew Broderick and others is completely concluded today.

During this period of time, the investigation and litigation of the original assault case had always been the focus of media attention, but Simon himself did not spend much thought on this trivial matter.

The Santa Monica Police Department formally notified the media of its findings last week after months of investigation.

In fact, the truth of the matter could not have been more obvious.

The Los Angeles District Court officially announced the verdict today based on the findings of the investigation and the content of the lawsuits filed by both parties.

The lawsuits of Matthew Broderick and Mark Stein were completely dismissed.

In response to Simon's lawsuit, six people were sentenced to compensation ranging from US$500 million to US$100 million for defamation and a total of 600 hours of community service. At the same time, they were no longer allowed to publicly discuss any matters related to Simon.

In addition, because the two parties originally signed a settlement agreement in private, Simon did not file an intentional injury lawsuit, so the original assault case was ignored by the court.

If she wasn't pregnant, Janet didn't intend to let it go so easily.

Now, with a small life in her belly, the woman no longer has the desire to chase after her.

Moreover, the amount of compensation at the level of one million US dollars will basically empty the families of several people. Three of the six people cannot afford to pay at all, and can only bear such a civil compensation debt for a long time.Unless the compensation is paid off in the future, he will never be able to recover for the rest of his life.

By the time dinner began, this trifle, so trivial to Simon by now, had been fully revealed.

After having dinner together, and being dragged by Janet until after nine o'clock, Catherine resolutely rejected Janet's suggestion to invite her to stay overnight, got up, took her leave and left.

After the only time the three of them went absurd together, the woman never let Simon get away with it.

Janet has been pregnant for three months, but she can actually do some things.

However, to be on the safe side, the woman had no intention of letting Simon touch her at all, and Simon had no intention of teasing the pregnant woman.This time is just for making out when taking the female assistant to Los Angeles, or a little hunting like last Saturday.

Although he will not treat himself badly in matters of men and women, Simon is actually very restrained.

During the weekend, most of the time was spent with Janet discussing the establishment of a private medical center in Malibu.

Thoughts arise mainly because of pregnancy.

During these days, the woman has bought a piece of land in the mountains north of Cape Dume Manor, and even registered her name, Westeros Medical Center.

However, it is certainly not a matter of a day or two to establish a top-notch private medical center, even if the little one is born, it cannot be used, so this is mainly for the future.

Basically, it's an investment with little return, roughly like a medical center funded by the Johnston family in Melbourne.

After discussion, Simon decided that this medical center is mainly used to serve the management of the entire Westeros system, and is supported by the Simon; Janet Westeros Foundation. In the future, some medical centers dedicated to research will also be established. mechanism.

Many charitable projects sponsored by wealthy Westerners always cover the item of 'medical care', and they still serve themselves to a large extent.

David Rockefeller, the third generation of the Rockefeller family, lived to be 101 years old and had six heart replacements in his life.

These "six hearts" are precisely where the Rockefeller family has accumulated their heritage in medical charity.Ordinary emerging rich people, even if their wealth far exceeds that of the old Rockefeller family, it is unlikely that they can gather six hearts that can just match for themselves.

Because of the time difference between the east and west coasts, in order not to miss the schedule on Monday morning, Simon left Los Angeles early on Sunday afternoon to fly to New York.

A new week begins, and July of 1991 is also entered.

All day Monday, Simon was at an investment conference at Cersei Capital.

Janet withdrew from the management of Cersei Capital because of her pregnancy, but the company's development and expansion did not stop.

Many investment bank funds on Wall Street have not yet emerged from the economic downturn in the United States caused by the collapse of the bond market in the past two years. Therefore, Cersei Capital, which has bucked the trend, can basically be said to be the most active investment company on Wall Street.

In the first half of the year, taking advantage of the economic turmoil caused by the Gulf War, Cersei Fund Management Co. made a cumulative profit of more than US$20 billion in the oil and stock markets.

Apollo Management, which is responsible for private equity investment, also set up a venture fund of up to US$10 billion focused on investing in new technology fields at the beginning of the year, and is also constantly looking for investment projects in other fields.

Right now is the most sluggish moment in the US real estate market in the early 90s. In the past two years, due to the collapse of the bond market, major US banks have withdrawn a large number of real estate-related assets and bond portfolios.

Because it is certain that the U.S. real estate market will recover rapidly in the next few years, just last month, Apollo Management Company, together with Black Rock Asset Management Company, which is in charge of Lawrence Fink, took over 15 billion worth of auctions from major banks at one time. Real estate-related assets and bonds in U.S. dollars.

Simon's stay in New York this time is mainly to discuss several recent investment projects of Apollo Management Company.

Among them, the most important one is the stake in the top cosmetics company Estee Lauder.

After Ron Perelman swallowed Estee Lauder's most important competitor Revlon with a small fortune, because Perelman is not good at business management, Revlon has been gradually thrown away by Estee Lauder in recent years.

Simon also knew that Estee Lauder would grow into a giant in the cosmetics industry with a market value of $500 billion in many years.

At that time, Revlon has been completely forgotten.

In fact, Estee Lauder is also very suitable as a member of the "Melisandre Company", one of the four women under the Westeros system, because the positioning of this company is actually a luxury.However, the Lauder family, the founding family of Estee Lauder, still firmly controls the company, and Estee Lauder is not listed, so it is impossible for Simon to acquire Estee Lauder.

For this shareholding, Apollo Management will acquire 2.5% of Estee Lauder's non-voting shares with a capital of 10 million U.S. dollars.

Estee Lauder's revenue in 1990 was US$18 billion and its net profit was US$8100 million.

The $25 billion valuation seemed high, but Simon knew it was well worth it.

Estee Lauder plans to use the funds to complete the acquisition of another cosmetics company, while increasing investment in product marketing.

In fact, Simon wanted to buy shares directly in the name of Melisandre Company. However, Estee Lauder should be afraid of the strength of the Westeros system, so he chose Apollo Management Company as a compromise solution.Of course, the high valuation of US$25 billion is another important reason.

Melisandre needs several years to digest the newly purchased Van Cleef & Arpels, and Simon did not insist on Estee Lauder's choice.

In the plan, Estee Lauder will also conduct an IPO in the next few years, and Apollo Management will often choose to cash out during the IPO process and complete a private equity operation.

A few years later, the debt burden of the Westeros system will no longer be as heavy as it is now, Estee Lauder also has enough buffer time, Melisandre will take over the 10% equity from Apollo Management Company at that time, everything will be It seems logical.

At the end of the day's work, dinner is an invitation from Morgan Stanley CEO Richard Fisher.

At seven o'clock, Simon rushed to a French restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, and Richard Fisher had already arrived early.

The two discussed various details of AOL's listing while dining.

Towards the end, Richard Fisher brought up a topic again.

"Simon, according to the recent market feedback, 2250 million AOL shares are completely unable to meet the market demand. Since you are unwilling to increase the issuance share, how about we add a green shoe plan?"

Simon smiled and looked at Richard Fisher: "Green shoes?"

"Yes, the green shoe plan, the specifics are like this..."

Simon raised the tableware in his hand to stop Richard Fisher from explaining, and said, "Charlie, I know what the green shoe plan is. However, for America Online, this is no different from increasing the proportion of stock issuance. I am won't agree."

The green shoe plan in the IPO process of a company is generally a protection mechanism to deal with the uncertainty in the IPO process.

To put it simply, if the market is very optimistic after the new shares are listed and the stock price rises, the IPO company will issue an additional share of no more than 15% of the new shares to investors, so that more funds can be raised.If the market goes down, in order to maintain the stock price and avoid situations such as bankruptcy, the IPO company will use the funds raised before to buy back a certain share of the stock from the market.

Richard Fisher proposed to start the green shoe program at this time, obviously hoping that Simon could issue more AOL shares.

In fact, even the 15% distribution ratio this time is too much for Simon.

If possible, Simon would prefer to issue only 10%.

However, in order to avoid too few tradable shares in the market affecting the activity of AOL's stock trading, and thus affecting AOL's stock price, after repeated discussions, Simon determined the proportion of new shares to be issued at 15%.

Moreover, there are actually other reasons for doing so.

America Online has monopolized the ISP market in the most prosperous states on the east and west coasts of the United States, which is actually very easy to be hated.

Issuing slightly more stocks to various investors in the United States can also reduce unnecessary troubles in anti-monopoly and other aspects that may be encountered in the future.

In this regard, Microsoft and Facebook in Simon's memory are the best examples.

Because of the monopoly, Microsoft's entire 90s in the original time and space was completely destroyed, and it was almost split up at one point.

In Simon's view, the main reason is that Microsoft's equity is too concentrated. Bill Gates and Paul Allen still held more than half of Microsoft's stock until 2000. Such a huge wealth is in the hands of two people. With such a strong monopoly advantage, other capital forces in the United States will naturally not be reconciled.

Later, when Damen continued to reduce his holdings of Microsoft stocks, Microsoft gradually became a publicly held company jointly held by many types of investment bank funds in the United States, and Microsoft never encountered too much anti-monopoly trouble in North America.

Later, Facebook became a publicly held company early on. During the data leak scandal that shocked the world, the media exaggerated the rhythm of Facebook going bankrupt every minute. Xiao Zha resigned and was fined several trillion yuan.

Final result.

Just a congressional hearing for fun.

When everyone thought they were going to see a slew of MPs lashing out at Zuckerberg, all they heard for four hours was 'my granddaughter is a loyal Facebook user and wants your autograph' Ah, 'Please explain what is big data' is not a nutritious question.

In the final analysis, because a large number of pension funds, insurance funds, investment banks and other institutions in the United States hold Facebook shares, as long as the US government does not have a brain convulsion, it is impossible for the US government to really bring down Facebook, even if the punishment is slightly severe.

In order to avoid being in the same situation as Microsoft in the 90s, Simon will continue to list high-quality companies in the Westeros system, and at the same time continue to reduce his shareholding in these companies. investments in other areas.

Ultimately, Simon hopes to achieve a way to integrate the entire Westeros system into the American economic system.

At that time, if suppressing the Westeros system is suppressing the American economy, Simon does not believe that he will encounter the same trouble as his classmates.

However, this is not now.

For a new technology company like America Online that is expected to hit a giant with a market value of 30 billion, it is really unwise to sell a large number of shares when it is only valued at [-] billion US dollars.

Therefore, Simon rejected Richard Fisher's proposal without hesitation.

They all had the idea of ​​making friends with each other, and although Richard Fisher's goal was not achieved, the dinner was still pleasant.

After dinner, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening on the east coast of the United States.

Simon left the restaurant and drove directly to Kennedy International Airport.

There is a seven-hour time difference between New York and London, and the flight from the east coast of the US to the UK is about eight hours.

Simon is now taking off, sleeping on the plane, and arriving in London at exactly noon local time on Tuesday.

Boarding the Boeing 767 private jet, Alice Ferguson, the housekeeper who will go to Europe with Simon this time, greeted him with a slightly cold expression on her face, reminding him that Ms. Jenna had been waiting for more than half an hour.

Since what happened last Saturday, the housekeeper has acted indifferently in front of her absurd boss, like I want to keep a distance from you.

Simon stopped, stretched out his hand to catch the housekeeper's delicate face, and patiently pinched the corner of her mouth to satisfy him, then nodded to himself, and then warned: "If you dare to use this If you look at me with a bad face, your salary will be deducted."

The housekeeper blinked quickly a few times after Simon let go of her face.

then.

Obviously didn't think of anything then.

Do you want to resign?