Hollywood Hunter

Coming across from Simon’s desk, A girl in an OL suit handed over several pieces of information, saying: "Boss, this is the latest meeting memo from Christie’s acquisition negotiations in Europe, and the collection and auction industry information you ordered to collect. . In addition, this is the work schedule for tomorrow in San Francisco."

Simon turned off the computer on his desk and just picked up a memo from the Christie's acquisition. He said: "Let's go back, the rest of the information can be read at home."

Alison hurriedly collected the remaining documents and hugged Simon to leave the office with him.

Entering the elevator, Simon opened the memo and directly found the part he cared about most.

After agreeing to Sofia’s proposal to acquire Christie’s auction house a few days ago, senior women executives began negotiations with Christie’s shareholders who were interested in selling shares.

Founded for more than two hundred years, Christie's is already a public company, just like Sotheby's rival.

Because of the downturn in the auction industry due to the global economic downturn, Christie’s recent market value is only 430 million pounds, or about 670 million US dollars, which is only 13 times the price-earnings ratio compared with the profit of the previous fiscal year.The stock price of a listed company tends to be more reflective of its long-term commercial performance. A 13x price-to-earnings ratio undoubtedly means that the capital market market is not optimistic about the prospect of this auction company.

After confirming the acquisition plan, Melisandre had secret contacts with Christie's shareholders and management on the one hand, and on the other hand it began to privately absorb the company's stock.In this way, even if the acquisition can not be completed in the end, through low-absorption and high-throw, Melisandre can make a small profit.

The main reason for this is that Simon is not aspirational to this long-established auction giant.

During the initial contact process, the Christie’s board of directors directly proposed a purchase price of 20 times the price-earnings ratio, with a total value of up to 1 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to a 50% premium.

If it is a malicious acquisition, such a transaction price is actually not high.However, Christie's is different.

Mainly due to the limitations of the auction industry itself.

With an investment of 1 billion US dollars, Simon may be able to obtain a return of hundreds of times in the future if he invests in the Internet. If he invests in the fashion field and operates properly, he will also be able to obtain a return of ten times in the future.However, because the auction industry mainly targets the crowd and the annual market capacity is unlikely to show a stable upward curve, even if it can be determined that this auction house can bring very stable income due to continued economic prosperity in the next ten or twenty years, But the value of Christie's itself will not rise much.Ten years later, the market value can be doubled or tripled, which is already the limit.

Therefore, Simon's plan gives Christie's 30% premium based on the recent market value of US$670 million, or about US$870 million.

If there is no agreement within the 30% premium range, Simon will decisively abandon the acquisition.

At that time, it is not illegal to sell stocks that have been absorbed in advance and take advantage of the stock price to make a little difference in the high stage after the news leaked.

Not only that, Simon also did not plan to pay all of the planned 870 million US dollars to a company of Melisandre. The Black Rock Asset Management Company of Cersei Capital has agreed to enter the game with 100 million US dollars. Sofia is also looking for other partnership investors recently. , Simon's goal is only to achieve Melisandre's absolute holding of Christie's.

It's just that Simon thinks so, and others obviously don't think so.

In recent years, the areas that the Westeros system is optimistic about have basically shown very strong growth momentum.

Perhaps, when Melisandre launched an acquisition offer to Christie's, many of Christie's shareholders and management had already changed the mentality of the initial gloomy development of the auction house.

This is the company Simon Westero is interested in.

Therefore, Christie's may want to consider Simon, who has a lot of financial resources, as an injustice, or he has given birth to the idea of ​​not intending to sell.

The US economy has not yet recovered, and Europe has just experienced another financial catastrophe. At this time,

In short, the prospects for this acquisition are very uncertain.

The memo in Simon's hands also shows this.

In the past two weeks, with two contacts, the Christie’s board of directors has not meant to give in.

Moreover, the share price of Christie's also showed a certain increase. Compared with two weeks ago, the share price rose by 11%. The news has clearly leaked out.

Melissa Sandra has secretly absorbed the current share of Christie’s stock at 3%, valued at more than $20 million.

The journey from Malibu Daenerys Studios back to Dumei Point Estate was short. Girl A sat quietly beside Simon and found that she was coming home. The man was still reading the documents in his hand and thought about it, saying: "Boss, I think that buying Christie’s is not a good business."

Simon looked up, looked at the girl beside him, and asked, "Why?"

Girl A obviously made a lot of preparations, saying: "The development potential of the auction industry itself is very small, and the performance uncertainty is also very large. Even if the boss believes that the world economy will improve rapidly in the next few years, but 800 million US dollars in cash, It’s still not worth it. Investing this money in other areas will definitely get more returns."

Simon nodded with a smile: "You are right, but acquiring Christie's is more than just buying an auction house."

At this point, Simon did not go further.

The top auction industry is basically involved in a group of people at the top of the pyramid in the world. If you can own Christie, you will directly have a pass to build a huge network of people.

Simon's wealth at this time has reached a pinnacle that ordinary people can't reach, and his power in Hollywood is momentary. However, even if he reaches his current height, Simon doesn't think that his network is irrelevant to him. On the contrary, for him now, the network is more and more important.

On the other hand, the top social circles are just the light part of the auction industry'above the water'.

Below the surface of this industry, it is actually more exciting.

Money laundering, tax avoidance, profit transmission, etc.

If possible, Simon certainly hopes that all business activities for the Westeros system will be upright.

However, this is only a fantasy after all.

Simon has been discussing some things with some of the core executives of the Westeros system these days, and has significantly increased the Westeros system's'investment' in the political arena.

According to the preliminary plan, only this year and one year, the Westeros system is not just the Schlapp consulting company directly controlled by Westeros, but also includes Daenerys Entertainment, Cisco, AOL, Verizon Telecom , Cersei Capital, Igret, and other core companies in the Westeros system. It is estimated that the sum of funds planned for political donations and lobbying will reach 100 million US dollars in 1993.

In this era, having three or five billion dollars is enough to squeeze into the "Forbes" list of the 400 richest people in the United States.

The Westeros system plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the political field in one year. However, this money must be spent. Even if a large part of it may be spent, this fund will not Decrease, it will continue to increase every year in the future.

It's just that this part of the investment can't be fully operated on the bright side. The registration that actually follows the rules of the American Travel Theory may not be less than one-fifth of a hundred million dollars.

But this is still not enough.

If you own an auction house like Christie’s, you can do many things in the future.

People outside the United States always feel how good and good this country is. If you are in it and experience more, you will probably understand that perhaps the system is different, but many things are actually the same.

Because human nature is the same.

Girl A's mind is quite smart, Simon just wakes up, she immediately understands it, and she has no interesting opinion on this.

The next day is Thursday, February 25.

Simon flew to San Francisco early in the morning.

Eaglenet's 1992 financial report has also been released recently.

Compared to Daenerys Entertainment's "normal" annual growth rate, the year just past Melisandre's company can be described as brutal growth.

Therefore, when the financial report for the new year was released, the entire Igret was a little uneasy in his joy.

If this financial report is released to the public, it will be too eye-catching.

In 1991, Igret's annual revenue was 491 million US dollars, while the loss amount reached 381 million US dollars, almost losing a "Forbes" US 400 richest people ranked behind the richest net worth.

Whether it is a new industry field of 491 million US dollars in revenue, or an eye-catching loss of 381 million US dollars, all caused a strong heated discussion at the beginning of last year.

However, this year's data, if published, will definitely attract more people's attention.

In 1992, Amazon's online store, which opened only early last year, relied on Igreat's super traffic import with the only interface of the World Wide Web. In the first year of operation, it achieved a total annual turnover of 623 million US dollars.

Although it is well known that the sales in the retail industry are often easier to achieve, and the profit margins are often very low, but the annual sales of Amazon Online Mall, which is only $623 million, still easily surpassed the Igreat company’s full year in 1991 Revenue.

In addition, relying on the nearly exponential growth of the World Wide Web site in the past year, YGrit’s YWS department relied on business such as application software sales, server space rental, solution services and even corporate e-mail. With revenue of 437 million US dollars, the most basic web design software sold 283 million US dollars, surpassing the 233 million US dollars of IE browser software in one fell swoop.

Simon's most valued network business, compared with 83 million US dollars in revenue in 1991, in 1992, because large traditional advertisers such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble also began advertising on the Internet platform, plus the original IBM, Compaq, Advertisers in the technology sector such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Intel, etc., in 1992, advertising revenue also increased significantly to US$278 million, an increase of more than 330%.

Finally, Ystore, Ypay and other application software stores and online payment tools and other scattered revenues also achieved $366 million in revenue throughout the year.

All calculated, in 1992, the total scale of revenue of Igret reached 1.937 billion US dollars in one fell swoop, compared with 1991, the revenue growth rate reached 394%.

Even after accounting, the company’s full-year loss in 1992 eventually reached US$139 million. However, in the face of such a crazy annual growth rate, let alone a loss of US$139 million a year, even if it doubled several times, It is totally worth the investment.

If the financial data of 1991 only made the outside world aware of the huge growth potential of the Internet industry, then Igerit’s 1992 revenue performance was completely eye-catching.

The global economic downturn does not mean that there is a lack of capital in the hands of capital. On the contrary, it is more accurate that many funds cannot find a suitable investment direction.

Once Igerett’s 1992 financial report was announced, it was like a sudden light on a dark night.

One or two moths may rush over, and may only be burned to death by the flame of the lamp. When countless moths swarm in, the lights may be put out.

The light of Eaglet Company happened to have an obvious fatal weakness.

monopoly.

The original timeline, the Internet industry began to rise in 1995, basically in a state of full bloom, Netscape and Microsoft have browser software, Yahoo provides a portal business, Amazon and eBay and other companies operate e-commerce, when the Internet cloud Services have not yet appeared. Basic software and services such as website design software, server rental business, etc., are also shared by many companies.

Now, because Igrid has built barriers to patents for the World Wide Web technology in advance, it basically represents the World Wide Web platform for the entire Internet industry, from the lowest-level tool software to server rental, to graphical interface browsers, and even the original timeline The online businesses such as portals, online malls, etc. that have proved successful are all owned by Igret.

As a result, when the Internet industry began to erupt, Igrid was immediately supported.

The annual growth rate of nearly 400% in the whole year does not have to persist for a long time. Even if it only lasts for another two or three years, the company will grow into an industry giant with a revenue volume of tens of billions.

Other industries continue to slump due to the impact of the environment. Everyone is carefully looking for prey. The Igreat company is alone in a pasture full of fat cattle and sheep.

Capital came into the world, from head to toe, every pore was dripping blood and dirty things.

If there is 10% profit, capital is guaranteed to be used everywhere; with 20% profit, capital is active; with 50% profit, capital is risked; for 100% profit, capital dares to trample on all human laws; 300 % Of profits, capital dared to commit any crime, and even risked a headshot.

Marx, "The Capital" says so.

Now, the Internet industry that Igrid is involved in has clearly represented more than 1,000% of the benefits.