Hollywood Hunter

Chapter 58.

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Simon didn't ask for a low profile, so that afternoon, the news of the show's impending closure spread quickly and was initially dismissed as fake news, but when some well-informed sources got a definitive answer from those who were there in the morning, the media immediately exploded.

First of all, the major online portal platforms pushed the news straight to the headlines.

After all, there was no official announcement, and some press releases were still way off, thinking that all of this year's Victoria's Secret show, which had been constantly in the news, was going to be shut down, and even though it was quickly clarified, too many people still found it hard to believe.

It's a super show that once averaged tens of millions of viewers was dubbed the 'Super Bowl of Fashion'.

Even without mentioning the high market gains the show has brought to the Vermont brand in recent years, the show itself, which has averaged tens of millions of dollars in video sales over the past few years, has meant hundreds of millions of dollars in tangible benefits.

Suddenly giving up like that?

Simon Westeros is not out of his mind, is he?

Since Saturday afternoon, not only all the executives associated with the Vimeo brand and even the LTD Group, but also Simon has received a series of phone calls asking for information and attending the Denise Entertainment East Coast management party in the evening, Robert Iger and others looked suspicious as if they wondered if Simon was having mental problems from the recent stress.

The next day a wider range of traditional media began to join the discussion and the situation became even more lively.

Apollo Management, a subsidiary of Cersei Capital, which is the largest shareholder in the LTD Group, the parent company of Vimy, has borne the brunt of this.

When the Apollo Management team acquired LTD Group for $2.45 billion in all-cash, according to the usual modus operandi of private equity, it was basically to re-list and cash in on the position after holding it for about five years. the LTD Group acquisition was completed in 1992, and next year happens to be the fifth year.

As a result, LTD Group has likewise been quietly planning a re-listing.

Simon's sudden announcement that Vimy will be discontinued after this year, even if it is suspended, will certainly have an impact on the relaunch of the LTD Group next year, after all, the fashion show's drive to the LTD Group is too obvious.

Simon was also patient in explaining to the eager probing of Leon Black, head of Apollo Management.

The idea of stopping the show at the right time was an idea Simon had from the very beginning of the show, as he didn't want Vimy to become too dependent on the show, nor did he want the whole LTD Group to be completely overshadowed by the shine of the Vimy brand, which has grown just as rapidly in recent years with the fast fashion brand Express, only to be completely overshadowed by the shine of Vimy.

All in all, Simon hopes the company will calm down, rethink its product and marketing strategy, and take the next step in its expansion with a more rational mindset.

Mainly overseas expansion.

Before that, because the show was so eye-catching, almost everyone got caught up in the bubble of the show, ignoring the many problems that existed in the company itself, just like Vimy, when the show was shut down and all the accumulated problems exploded, the whole company almost went stranger.

And even without the big show, with LTD's rapid growth in recent years, coupled with the hot state of the U.S. stock market at this time, another IPO next year is expected to reach the $10 billion level in market capitalization.

Five years from the initial $2.45 billion to $10 billion, with an average annual return of over 60%, has been very fair to the investors. And as a successful project that Apollo Management has invested in, it certainly won't be completely cashed out all at once, and there is considerable room for future growth that will continue to deliver returns.

It also avoids a lot of potential litigation by announcing the shutdown this year, rather than after next year's IPO.

After all, the show is really so big that if it relaunches next year and then announces it's shutting down, it's bound to hit the stock price.

On his own ground, Leon Black can't really agree with Simon, but he can't refute it.

Simon's thinking is entirely for the long-term development of the LTD Group, and as private equity often requires the need to extract more profit in as short a time as possible, there is arguably a clear potential conflict of interest.

Except that Simon is, after all, the big boss behind it all.

The boss is in charge.

Secondly, the modeling community is literally in mourning.

Like the shocked reactions of all the big goblins who first heard the news, how can we all take shortcuts to fame in the future when we lose the most powerful platform for exposure, the Vimeo show?

Unfortunately, as the bottom rung of the Great Circle food chain, this group of goblins of all sizes had even less of a voice.

Even, if Simon is not the biggest boss at the top of the pyramid of the entire Westeros system, but only the top level of the Victoria Secret, a certain group of goblins with no lack of cool bones may have already started a riot, the original time and space, the Victoria Secret show for 20 years have been in harmony and in a good mood, the show has just been suspended, the goblins immediately revolt.

The show just stopped, and the goblins immediately revolted.

The show has just stopped, the goblins immediately revolt.

The show had just stopped, and the goblins immediately revolted.

Coupled with the sluggish performance of Vimy itself, the impact of public opinion has pushed the old company further into the abyss.

Anyway, how's that for a quote.

Hmm ......

It was all forced anyway.

In any case, now that the decision had been made, Simon had not the slightest intention of making a higher decision of his own.

After spending the weekend in New York, Simon departed for London on Sunday afternoon.

The trip to Europe was expected to last a week.

The main agenda here is for the second half of the second half of the Westeros system continuous issue of bonds investment promotion, some events, responsible for the bond issuance of Goldman Sachs and several other investment banks hope that Simon can personally attend.

Simon arrived in London on Monday, the same day, July 15, Ygritte officially released its financial results for the first half of 1996.

Ever since Ygritte's total revenue exceeded the $10 billion level, the Internet giant's growth rate has been slowing down, after all, the volume is here, and it is simply unrealistic to keep doubling the growth rate as it did in the beginning. Previously, in FY 1995, Ygritte's annual revenue growth was 78% year-over-year, and this year, it is widely believed that Ygritte's annual revenue growth will be reduced to about 50%.

As it turns out, due to the craziness of the new technology industry, the market has clearly underestimated the growth of IGRET's performance.

In the first half of 1996, Igret's combined revenue for the two quarters reached $13.91 billion, a year-over-year increase of 61% compared to the first two quarters of last year, significantly exceeding the industry's expectations of about 50%.

Not only that, because the gross margins of many of Igret's businesses were so high, and because the entire new technology industry was burning through money in an almost uncontrolled manner, even though more of the revenue was being used to grow the business, Igret's net profit margin for the first half of the year surpassed 10% and eventually reached 11.9%, resulting in a net profit of a staggering $1.655 billion.

Six-month revenue of $13.91 billion and net profit of $1.655 billion is, to put it in perspective, almost the revenue volume that Simon remembers many Internet giants only reaching after 10 years. Not to mention the original 1996, when most Internet companies didn't even have a sustainable business model yet.

However, this performance is real.

The environment for the U.S. Internet industry was already in place in the 1970s and 1980s, and Simon, with his foresight, not only pushed the Internet industry forward at least five years with the full force of the entire Westeros system, but also, right off the bat, launched a series of mature business models.

In addition, Ygritte also has a monopoly on Internet infrastructure software and other businesses, which is equivalent to the kind of toll bridge that Warren Buffett likes, in which no competitor can freely price.

Internet infrastructure tools and software, web portals, search engines, cloud computing, e-commerce, software stores, game malls and other businesses, even if they are still in the relatively early stages of development, but at this time, IGRT, almost equal to the later major network giants of a collection.

In short, compared to many of the new technology companies that were still just 'telling stories' at this time, Ignite had already left all potential competitors far behind.

To use a rather clichéd phrase, Ygritte's current enemy is just itself.

And, according to Simon's potential plan, the company is bound to split in the future, and when it does, it will be a super-industry earthquake far more dramatic than the dismemberment of AT-T, which was, after all, a super-industry behemoth with a market capitalization of less than a hundred billion dollars at the time of the split.

Ygritte, is destined to be a trillion-dollar market-capitalization level super-juggernaut.

In any case, on July 15, Igret's surpassed-expected revenue and net profit numbers directly drove the company's stock price up sharply again.

Just on Monday, a single trading day, Igret's stock price rose 3.6%, which can be more than 3% on other companies may seem a little trivial, but don't forget, this is already close to $400 billion size of Igret before.

With the 3.6% share price gains, the emerging Internet giant's market capitalization broke through the $400 billion barrier in one fell swoop, and by the close of trading that afternoon, Ygritte's market capitalization had reached $410.3 billion.

In just one day, the total value of the stock held by all Ignite shareholders was worth a positive $14.7 billion because of this 3.6% increase.

The $14.7 billion increase in market capitalization seems insignificant compared to Igret's $400 billion volume, but, just that $14.7 billion is still more than the market capitalization figures for more than 90% of the companies in the U.S. stock market at this time. Let's just say that Ygritte's market cap is already too high, so high that it's numbingly high.

Just like later, the U.S. stock market's five technology giants FAANG, easily hundreds of billions of trillions of dollars, but there are actually too many companies hovering in the $10 billion range, for the five technology stock giants can only look up.

Ygritte led the way, also on Monday this day, Cisco, America Online, Microsoft, Intel, Tinkerbell, Oracle, and so on, the stock prices have been up. In fact, it's also because the recent period of intensive mid-year earnings releases, and even some analysts believe that the Nasdaq may be headed for 5,000 points by the end of July.

5,000 points, which is a peak that Simon remembers only being reached around 2000.

If it really broke through in July, it might really be possible to cause the new technology bubble to burst unsustainably before the U.S. election in November.

This is not the case.

It's just that some people are happy, and some people are sad, and just because Ignite's results are bright doesn't mean that other new tech companies are equally bright.

The same July, in addition to Cisco's growth due to the continued increase in the global demand for networking equipment continues to improve significantly, followed by the Westeros system of the three technology giants, America Online, because the United States continues to increase Internet penetration and even towards saturation, at least within the local context, the performance of growth has clearly begun to slow down.

This has led to lower than expected mid-year results for America Online.

Plus, while the entire new tech industry is still crazy, it seems that AOL is still issuing bonds and expanding its infrastructure in the big picture, which seems to have been somewhat blinded by the fact that it has significantly higher penetration in the areas in which it operates than other carriers, which in fact means more saturation and less growth potential.

The entire new technology industry is near blind at this stage, but that doesn't mean you can't see AOL's tendency to over-invest.

This has led to recent up-and-down volatility in AOL's stock price.

From an investor's perspective, AOL is in dire need of a new business and increased overseas expansion.

In fact, the direction is very clear.

The Clinton Administration's Telecommunications Act has touched the business barriers between the telecommunications industry, AOL should take advantage of the situation to develop fixed-line telephone, cable TV and other businesses, while further breakthroughs in their previous operating areas, especially the development of overseas business.

However, although there are also occasional rumors, but the actual action of AOL seems to be a bit slow.

So it was inevitably urged by the capital markets.

The most immediate reaction was also the stock price.

AOL has been at the bottom of the market cap of the three tech giants in the Westeros system, and has been stretched even further in recent months.

On the same July 15 day, after Ygritte's $410.3 billion market cap, Cisco's market cap hit a close second at $375.6 billion, while America Online's market cap, which is still just $269.7 billion, has been stretched by both Ygritte and Cisco by a full $100 billion.

Outside of the Big Three, the same new technology sector, Tinkerbell can be considered a latecomer.

With the success of its iRec series of digital cameras released this year, Tinkerbell has three flagship products, namely, iCam and iRec, and all three have sold more than 10 million units a year, and are still growing because of the rapid growth of the Internet.

Thus, Tinkerbell, which surpassed the $100 billion level at the IPO listing, has reached a high market capitalization of $226.3 billion as of the close of trading on July 15.

Another $200 billion corporate juggernaut.

Add to that the traditional media and entertainment sector, Denise Entertainment, which closed the day with a market capitalization of $353.7 billion.

Suddenly, there is renewed interest in one thing: How much is Simon Westeros worth now?