Hollywood Hunter

A restaurant on Venice Beach.

Bill Gates got off the plane from Los Angeles International Airport and rushed directly to this side. Near 12 o'clock, this famous restaurant has many guests, but Simon has not yet arrived.

Guided by the waiter to sit down at the predetermined position, Bill Gates was thinking about the next thing, noticing that a pair of men and women walked in with a soft talk.Looking up, he immediately recognized that this was Hollywood star Richard Gere and his supermodel girlfriend Cindy Crawford.

Richard Gere has been exhausted over the years, but his girlfriend is actually as glamorous as in the TV newspaper.

Bill Gates couldn’t help but glance at Cindy Crawford for a few more times. Women were always more sensitive to certain gazes. Cindy Crawford felt Gates’s eyes and turned his head to look over and noticed A seemingly familiar man with black-framed glasses didn't care, just withdrawn his eyes slightly.

Realizing that he was almost ignored, Bill Gates withdrew his eyes in pretentiousness, pretending to look around, and the guests here seemed to have no one to care about him as a billionaire sitting here.

Thinking about it a little bit lost, there was a sudden commotion at the door of the restaurant.

Looking again, it turned out that Simon Westero had arrived. His bodyguard was blocking the reporter who wanted to step forward. The restaurant waiter noticed the movement and ran to help the young man open the glass door.

Simon Westero walked in. The eyes of everyone in the restaurant were immediately attracted. Some guests clearly stood up and seemed to want to say hello, but stayed where they were.

Bill Gates hesitated, but took the initiative to stand up and step forward two steps.

Simon approached and enthusiastically reached out to Bill Gates: "Hi, Bill, noon."

Bill Gates finally felt more gaze on his body, his emotions were a little more complicated, but there was a smile on his face and Simon shook his hand and said, "I'm glad to see you again, Simon."

The two said they were about to sit down, and Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford, who had just entered, came over, apparently greeted Simon with a bit of congratulation, compared to the natural alienation they had when they entered the restaurant. The celebrity's style is just like two people.

"Paramount's "IA Archive", I seem to have read the outline, it should be pretty good... Cindy, your performance in "The Mark of Gucci" is really good, maybe you can try to develop into Hollywood...Oh, okay, I'm kidding, don't rely on me."

After a few words of entertainment, Richard Gere returned to his seat.

Simon and Gates were also seated separately, watching the beautiful waitress put down his hold and asked for signature after Simon took an order, and obviously left a card. Gates remembered that Westeros came over this time to take the initiative to borrow him For that Boeing 767, the envy in my heart could not help but accumulate more.

He has always been the focus of attention in the IT circle, but in front of this young man, in this glorious city, he simply can't earn a trace of attention.

Thinking about the situation that I wanted to visit the front cabin on the plane but was rejected by the stewardess on the grounds that it was Westeros’ private space, Gates secretly made up his mind that he would also have a plane that does not belong to this young man Vehicle.

After finally being entertained and idle, Bill Gates thought about it and said: "Simon,

Eaglenet's World Wide Web technology has linked companies such as Cisco, AOL, and SUN held by Westeros.

However, Simon has not yet made the idea of ​​the graphical interface browser produced by Igret into the built-in browser of the Windows system. He intends to continue to keep the technology low-key and develop it for another year or two, completely mature and become a unique standard in the industry , And then carry out large-scale promotion.

So instead of answering the topic of Gates, Simon just smiled and said: "I have tried the beta version of Windows3.0, I have to say that compared with the previous versions, Microsoft's product has made great progress this time, released next year It’s surely okay to stand back.”

Now that Simon has brought the topic here, Gates has followed the trend: "So you are continuing to buy Microsoft stock again?"

"Yeah, you know, Bill, I have a lot of money recently, and since there are promising companies, I must definitely invest as soon as possible."

Bill Gates couldn't help thinking of many reports during this time.

The young man in front of me may not be the richest person on the Forbes list, but it is probably the one with the largest cash holdings among all billionaires in the world.Only Cersei Capital, which has been surrounded by clouds, is said to have reached a cash scale of 8 billion US dollars, and it seems that half of them are young people.Only this 4 billion US dollars in cash surpasses the net worth of most of the super rich in the world.

Thinking about it this way, Bill Gates said: "But, Simon, I don't think you should continue to buy anymore. Westeros holds more than 10% of Microsoft's stock, because Westeros buys In the past, many organizations have also begun to grasp the Microsoft shares in their hands, and there are fewer and fewer floating shares in the market. As you know, the decrease in circulating shares will definitely have a strong inhibitory effect on the rise of stock prices. I think, Westeros has enough shares in Microsoft. You can consider buying other companies’ shares."

Simon had previously speculated that Gates should have been in this way.

The decrease in the proportion of a company’s circulating shares in the secondary market and the decrease in trading activity will indeed suppress the rise in stock prices.This is actually the reason why many companies will carry out stock splits when the stock price rises to a certain extent.

"However, I still want to buy some more Microsoft stock," Simon still said that, and he seemed to think about it, and said: "Bill, otherwise, I have made such a suggestion before, put you How about selling Microsoft stock in my hand? I can buy it at a 10% discount to the market price. You have eaten 45% of it and sold it to me at 10%. You are still the largest shareholder of Microsoft. Microsoft’s control does not mean anything at all, as long as you can sell me some shares, I can also authorize you to vote for Westero’s holding of Microsoft shares. Westero is only a pure investment shareholder ."

Bill Gates couldn't help thinking of the Boeing 767 he was riding in when he arrived in Los Angeles.

Although he quickly logged into the Forbes list of riches after Microsoft went public, this year's Forbes list of North America's richest people also ranked at the top with a net worth of $1.5 billion. However, because the assets under his name are basically It is Microsoft stock, but his current standard of living is completely less than that of a billionaire.

For example, he does not even own a private jet.

Compared with the young people in front of you, it is even worse.

Speaking of that, when he first met, the young man suggested to him to buy Microsoft shares directly from him, because he felt that there was still a lot of room for growth in Microsoft stock, he did not hesitate to refuse at the time. .

Now, it seems that selling some stocks and improving my life seems good.

Selling a share of your own, you can obtain the voting rights of all shares held by Westeros, so that not only will you not lose control of the company, but you may even achieve absolute control of the company.

However, selling 10% at a time is definitely not enough.

Westeros is optimistic about Windows3.0, he is the same.Microsoft's market value has been maintained at around 3 billion US dollars this year, but he believes that after this operating system is listed next year, the company's stock price will definitely rise again.

"Simon, 10% is too much," thought Bill Gates. "And, if you want to buy it, you must follow the market price, and I will not sell it at a discount."

Obviously, my previous small arrangements should have worked together.

Simon did not show any joy, patiently said: "Bill, think about it, sell me 10%, you can get 20% of the voting rights held by Westeros, which adds up to 55% of the voting rights. , Which gives you complete control of this company."

"At most 5%," Bill Gates ignored Simon's confusion, thought about it, and said: "However, I can talk to Allen, maybe he also has the idea of ​​selling stocks."

With Microsoft’s current market value, selling 5% of the stock will allow Gates to cash out more than $150 million in funds.At this time, the money was very affordable, after all, the price of the first Gulfstream was only more than 10 million US dollars.In addition, with the funds, some other investments can be made.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen have maintained a total 70% stake in Microsoft in recent years.

At first, Bill Gates managed to reduce the shareholding ratio of his partner so that he could firmly control Microsoft.Unexpectedly, this time the sale of shares, Gates still did not'forget' each other.

Simon naturally will not express any objections, saying: "In this case, I can also contact Alan."

After all, Bill Gates felt some excitement in Simon's tone, and subconsciously added: "Simon, I can sell you a part of the stock, but you must make the voting rights held by Westeros permanent. Authorized to me."

"It's impossible, Bill, you will definitely continue to reduce Microsoft's stock in the future. You can't sell your stock almost, and you still have to retain the voting rights of Westeros. However, I I really don’t have the idea of ​​competing for Microsoft’s control. You are the most suitable operator of this company, so the authorization period of Westero is ten years. Of course, I may also reduce Microsoft’s shares appropriately during this process. In this respect, Westeros still has its own freedom. Within ten years, how many shares of Westeros remain, and the voting rights of these stocks are also yours."

Bill Gates nodded slightly and said, "What about ten years later?"

Simon shrugged and said, "Ten years is already a long time, Bill, who knows what happened ten years later?"

"Okay," Bill Gates nodded and finally said, "Also, you must stop absorbing Microsoft stock from the open market."

"no problem."

The two chatted, and the waiter quickly brought lunch.

Bill Gates' 5% got it, Simon felt that Paul Allen's transfer of another 5% of Microsoft stock would not be too problematic.

Speaking of which, Simon actually only hopes to get a total of 5% of the shares this time, so that he can increase his shareholding in Microsoft to 15% of the plan.Now, Westeros's shareholding in Microsoft is likely to increase to 20%. Considering the future value-added potential of Microsoft, this business will almost make a profit.

However, Simon couldn't help but think of the issue of funding.

The original increase in holdings of Microsoft and Intel was a plan that lasted for several months, and funds could also be raised while absorbing.

Westeros has made a lot of recent moves. If you want to get 10% of Microsoft's stock in one go, it will require more than $300 million in cash.

Without drawing from Cersei Capital, Simon could only borrow from the bank again.Fortunately, since this year, he has repaid the principals and interests of the banks that have accumulated more than 200 million US dollars. The amount of debt has been reduced from 900 million US dollars at the beginning of the year to the current 700 million US dollars. At this time, another 300 million US dollars of liabilities have been added. One billion US dollars already within the tolerance range.

The two happily had lunch. In order to help the door students to strengthen their confidence in selling stocks, Simon also generously borrowed his Boeing 767 to send Gates back to Seattle.

The following days are still busy work.

A series of key projects for Daenerys Entertainment next year are in various stages of production, and the plan for those 10 films is also steadily advancing.

Considering that the Los Angeles premiere of "Batman" is coming soon, Simon has never left the United States, and just agreed with Janet to fly to Australia to spend the Christmas with his family after the premiere.

On the Microsoft side, news came two days after Bill Gates left. Paul Allen also agreed to sell 5% of Microsoft stock to Westeros. Simon directly told James Rebold to put down all of his hands. He was directly responsible for approaching this matter to ensure the success of this acquisition.

The news quickly spread.

Compared with Intel, which has exceeded 6 billion market capitalization at this time, the growth rate of Microsoft's stock in the past year has not been too high, and the market value has always maintained around 3 billion US dollars.After the small crash in October, there was a big drop.

Now, with the news that Westeros has increased its shareholding in Microsoft's 10% stock, the company's stock price has increased sharply.

Fortunately, the two sides have agreed on the price in advance. Bill Gates and Paul Allen did not sit on the floor, and Westeros quickly negotiated a new $300 million loan plan with Citibank.

If other companies want to borrow to buy stocks, it is generally difficult to get money from the bank.

But for Westeros, this is not a problem at all.No one now doubts Westeros' ability to repay. Everyone knows that Westeros doesn't need a loan at all if it is not taking into account the tax factors of Cersei Capital.