Chapter 928 Capital Is Ruthless

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Simon rushed to New York on May 9 mainly for the IPO of Verizon Telecom and the follow-up layout of the Westeros system in the telecommunications field.

On May 6, the long-prepared Verizon Telecom formally submitted the first version of its IPO prospectus to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (sec), announcing that the regional telecommunications giant that was privatized by Westeros five years ago Will go to the capital market again.

From the end of 1990 when Bell Atlantic, which was the predecessor of Verizon, was taken to Verizon's re-submission of the prospectus on May 6, 1996, during the five full fiscal years, when the growth of the U.S. fixed-line telephone business was almost stagnant, Relying on the rapid growth of mobile communication business, Verizon has achieved an average high-speed annual growth rate of 31% for five consecutive years.

In fiscal 1995, Verizon's full-year revenue reached $15.36 billion, a 3.8-fold increase in cumulative revenue compared to fiscal 1990 prior to the acquisition. Moreover, Verizon's net profit in 1995 was as high as $1.35 billion, even if it continued to maintain various large-scale investments in the mobile communication market in the United States and abroad.

In 1990, not counting the $1.7 billion in debt, Westeros took over Bell Atlantic, Verizon's predecessor, for $7 billion in cash.

In 1996, according to the prospectus submitted on May 6, the total share capital of Verizon Telecom was 3.673 billion shares, and 500 million shares were expected to be sold, and the issue price was initially determined at $10.25. According to this standard, Verizon Telecom's IPO valuation reached 37.6 billion US dollars, equivalent to 28 times earnings.

Like the Tincobair IPO in February, of the 500 million shares listed this time, only 300 million are new shares, and the other 200 million shares, of which 170 million are from Westeros, and the other 30 million shares. It is the cash reduction of Verizon executives at all levels.

Because of the rapid development of Verizon Telecom, Simon is not stingy in equity awards.

Before the prospectus was filed, Westeros' stake in Verizon had fallen to 92.7 percent, or 3.405 billion shares, after the final stock award.

Another 268 million shares, about 7.3% of the shares, were obtained by the company's management at all levels in the form of incentives or subscriptions.

According to the IPO valuation of 37.6 billion US dollars, the total value of only 7.3% of the shares reached 2.75 billion US dollars, of which only Raymond Smith, chairman and CEO of Verizon Telecom, held 2.8% of the shares. Equivalent to 1.05 billion US dollars, becoming another billionaire.

Unlike Igret, a start-up company that can enjoy the founder's dividend in the process of starting an IPO from scratch, such a mature and established company as Verizon, Simon can give such a large-scale equity reward, which is quite large. 's handwriting.

On the other hand, according to the initially determined issue price of $10.25, the total amount of funds raised by this IPO reached $5.125 billion.

Another $5 billion.

From the beginning of the year to the present, the surge in the Nasdaq index has greatly increased the paper wealth of countless investors by $1.4 trillion, and the total market value of all Nasdaq stocks has now reached $5.1 trillion. In this comparison, it seems that Simon's various cash outs since the end of last year have only exceeded 10 billion US dollars, which does not seem to be worth mentioning.

However, many people understand that in the capital market, cash is king, and the market value of stock prices is false before cashing out.

The book wealth of the stock from the beginning of the year to the present seems to have increased by 1.4 trillion US dollars, but in fact, if someone wants to cash out even one-tenth of it, 140 billion, it will inevitably lead to the trend of the Nasdaq, which has been very frothy. crash.

Therefore, even if you don’t mention the personal wealth that is also guaranteed by the soaring of the Nasdaq, Simon is also the biggest beneficiary of this wave of technology stocks. And now, how much cash does each company of the Westeros system hold, and what Simon Westeros intends to do with this huge amount of cash in the future, the more you understand the horror of capital power, the more you think about it. The more I feel the chills.

What Simon will do, of course, is expansion.

Just like Verizon's IPO this time, it was mainly to facilitate a series of subsequent annexations after the securitization of the enterprise, which was also a major topic discussed by Simon with the executives of Verizon and AOL after arriving in New York.

After the listing, Verizon will first initiate the acquisition of Nynex, one of the other seven small Bells in the northern part of its own site, and put all the Boston to Washington metropolitan areas on the east coast of the United States into Verizon, and then work with AOL. Integrate all resources.

Simon initially considered a partnership between AOL and Verizon, but later dismissed the idea.

If the two companies are forcibly merged, it will be too difficult to integrate their businesses or conduct antitrust audits at the government level. Therefore, the two companies will continue to operate independently in the future, but they are one boss after all, so they will cooperate in many aspects.

Verizon Telecom will continue to focus on the two major businesses of fixed telephone and mobile communications in the future, of which mobile communications will be the core direction in the future.

As for AOL, it will focus on two major areas: Internet services and cable TV.

As a result, after the promulgation of the latest U.S. Telecommunications Act at the end of last year, the trend of "triple play" promoted by various media outlets will certainly not be implemented, at least in the Westeros system.

Speaking of which, in the original time and space, the United States has not been able to achieve true reality until 20 years later.

The positive triple play is actually China on the other side of the ocean. One fiber optic cable, telephone, TV and Internet are all included, and a mobile number will be bundled, which is already equivalent to four networks.

As for the reason, of course, it is the benefit.

The triple play allows operators to make full use of their own resources, thereby reducing costs and further benefiting their customers.

However, if these services are separated and different services charge different fees, operators can of course earn more, so why not?

Capital is profit-seeking.

Capital is ruthless and profit-seeking.

Without the intervention of powerful external factors, capital will involuntarily choose the path that maximizes its own interests.

Like the Westeros system.

With Simon's net worth at this time, he is the largest capitalist on the planet, no one. Although Simon is still a good boss in front of his employees, he himself has not exhausted the Westeros system. The inclination of every ray of interest in every industry, but the capital controlled by the Westeros system must instinctively choose to do so.

will inevitably lead to evil.

Because that's the nature of capital.

As for why?

Take the Westeros system as an example, millions of employees, under the modern enterprise system, all have their own goals, or research and development goals, or promotion goals, or sales goals, or various other kinds of goals. Goals, once these goals are not achieved, the relevant individuals or teams will face the punishment of being slaughtered or swept out of the house.

Therefore, they must do their best.

And the ultimate essence of all these goals is actually two words, profit-seeking.

Capital seeks profit.

Therefore, the rhetoric of "capital comes to the world..." in "Das Kapital" could not be more true and cruel. No one should have the illusion that capital may be inclined to be kind and gentle because of a certain person or a certain system.

The day after Simon arrived in New York, on May 10, the North American summer program officially opened.

The super blockbuster "Evaporation" produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and "Romeo and Julia" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures were released on this day, and Paramount's Orion was also opened. The crime thriller "Violence Metropolis" from the film industry and several other stand-alone films from second- and third-tier studios are not worth mentioning.

Among them, Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Evaporation Order", the number of screens reached 2816. The opening screen of "Romeo and Juliet" starring Xiao Lizi is 2017, and finally, "Violence Metropolis" is a little larger, and the number of opening screens is 474.

Because of Simon's emphasis on "Romeo and Juliet", although there was only a publicity budget of 15 million US dollars, the New World Pictures team still made the film's publicity to the extreme within the budget, drawing on paper media, TV and the Internet. The main creator of the film has also been driven like a donkey recently, overwhelmed by various announcements, and also deliberately hyped up the two protagonists.

Because it is the most direct competitor, the New World Pictures team also used some less popular means for the 'big guy' "Evaporation Secret", deliberately releasing the news of the poor quality of the film's internal preview on the Internet, provoking Schwarzenegger had to fight back on his official Facebook page.

However, Arnold's facebook and even the news related to "Evaporation Secret Order" have been unknowingly restricted on the online platform that is more and more important for movie promotion at this time.

The Internet is Westeros home.

Limitation is not a word yet.

Daenerys' alliance with Time Warner is well known.

However,

This is capital seeking profit!

Even if it is Simon or Jack Welch, the chairman of General Electric, who has become the top boss of Time Warner at this time, he has enough tolerance not to do this, but the lower-level team of the enterprise will involuntarily take various measures for its own performance. Such a competitive means that can be used.

Immediately, from the opening of the box office on the first day of the summer season on May 10, the entire Hollywood once again felt the fear of being dominated by Daenerys Entertainment.

"The Evaporation Order", the unsuspenseful single-day box office champion, made $80,000 on the first day of its opening.

Followed by.

"Romeo and Juliet," $20,000 on its first day!

It seems that "The Evaporation Order" obviously won, but, even if we don't mention the huge disparity between the production cost and the investment in the publicity of the two films, we only talk about the size of the screen, which is 2816 yuan for one and 2017 yuan for the other. "The first-day pavilion averages $3,086, while "Romeo and Juliet" averages $3,431 for the first-day pavilion.

The small man with a production cost of 15 million US dollars unexpectedly overturned the big man with a budget of 100 million US dollars in terms of museum average.

You know, this is not a small-scale screening that does not have comparability. Both films are released on a large scale. Perhaps "Romeo and Juliet" lacked nearly 800 pieces of canvas, which pushed up the average box office to a certain extent, but the suppression of a super blockbuster with a cost of 100 million yuan by a low-cost love film is itself a failure.

Moreover, the reputation of the two films is the same.

Although the New World Pictures team released the news in advance, it did not deliberately discredit it. The comprehensive media score of "Evaporation Secret Order" is only a pitiful 3.7, which is comparable to the 3.6 of the "Phantom Hero" that Arnold screwed up last time. Indistinguishable.

"Romeo and Juliet" has an overall media score of 8.1

point.

Excellent level.

Of course, there will be some PR factors, but if the quality of the film itself is not good enough, it is impossible for a North American filmmaker who is still very disciplined to call a film that fails to be excellent, like a big man with a score of 3.7.

After the first day, the news of "little guys overturning big guys" also quickly occupied the entertainment page, and the attention of "Romeo and Juliet", which relied on the national level IP, increased significantly.

Now that it has made a good start, the screen aspect is of course not a problem for Daenerys Entertainment. After the box office was released on the first day, the New World Pictures team quickly contacted major theater chains. It is expected that the number of screens for "Romeo and Juliet" next week will increase to about 2,500.

It still can't keep up with the 2816 yuan of "Evaporation Order", but it is enough for this film to further develop its box office potential.

The first three days of the first weekend passed quickly.

The box office statistics are released. The box office of "Evaporation Secret" was 24.57 million US dollars in the opening three days, and the box office of "Romeo and Juliet" in the first weekend was 20.17 million US dollars.

The difference is just over 4 million.

Under the operation of the New World Pictures team, Leonardo DiCaprio, who quickly began to cooperate with the official launch of the second wave of publicity, broke out directly from his previous acting skills in "Different Sky" to a popular popular first-line student in Hollywood. .

Daenerys Entertainment did not miss this opportunity, and began to properly warm up for "Titanic", which will start filming in June, and also on the "Late Night Show with David Letterman" that has already aired on the abc network. The team of "The Mummy" released this week carried out a joint promotion, because Rachel Weisz, who participated in "The Mummy", is the heroine of "Titanic".

All kinds of male and female protagonists, all kinds of sparks.

In the end, in the box office week from May 10th to May 16th, "Evaporation Secret Order" still easily won the single-week box office champion, and it earned 36.42 million US dollars in seven days.

The second-place "Romeo and Juliet", the first week of box office, 31.46 million US dollars.

As for the other "Violence Metropolis" and other small films, there was no splash, and everyone's eyes were focused on the top two films.

The $36.42 million in the first week, which seems to be not bad, is actually far lower than Warner Bros.'s expectation of $50 million to $60 million in the first week. After all, the production cost of "Evaporation Secret" is $100 million, and Warner Bros. also invested a $30 million publicity budget. The total investment of 130 million US dollars requires a global box office of 400 million US dollars to recover the cost.

Now, even if it is quite optimistically estimated, it is fortunate that the domestic box office of "Evaporation Secret" can exceed 100 million US dollars. Even if it is counted as twice the domestic box office, the global box office is only about 300 million US dollars.

Warner can only expect follow-up channels to recover the cost.

Looking at "Romeo and Juliet", it only made a box office of 31.46 million US dollars in the first week. According to the step-by-step accounting rules, it has easily recovered most of the production budget of 15 million US dollars and the publicity cost of 15 million US dollars. It was almost profitable in the second week of its release. is inevitable.

It would be nice if the movie grossed only about $30 million overall, but that's just the beginning.

With the market reputation and audience popularity of "Romeo and Juliet", although the opening box office is lower than that of "Evaporation Secret Order", the ending of the following local total box office is really uncertain, and it is obvious that "Romeo and Juliet" will win. Even bigger.

May 17, the second week of the summer program.

Leading the same are two films, Fox Pictures released Daenerys and Fox's fantasy adventure blockbuster "The Mummy", and Disney produced Mike Myers' new film "Ace of Power".

The final production cost of "The Mummy" was 70 million US dollars. Because of the relative cost advantage, Fox set a budget of 35 million US dollars, which was 5 million higher than that of "Evaporation Secret". The film also reached 2986 pieces on the screen. .

"Ace Power Spy" is a work that Mike Myers and Daenerys Entertainment switched to Disney after failing to negotiate a follow-up cooperation agreement after the "Wizards" series last year. Success, Disney generously gave Myers a salary of up to 15 million US dollars and a corresponding sharing contract. The production cost of this "Ace Power Spy" reached 40 million US dollars, and the announcement budget was 20 million US dollars. The number of screens is 2187.

There are four movies in two weeks. Before the summer season opens, almost everyone thinks that "Evaporation" and "The Mummy" will be the most direct competitors. If "Ace Power Spy" can continue the success of the "Reverse Wisdom" series , will also be juxtaposed with the former two.

The three films are the core of the summer season starting in May.

Although "Mission Impossible 2" was released on May 31, that was already a June schedule.

Unexpectedly, very Kong will kill a dark horse named "Romeo and Juliet". With the further spread of the film's popularity, this film has formed a wave among the young audience at the core of the summer vacation, especially the young female audience. Movie craze. Maybe not all age groups, but who would doubt a woman's spending power?

So the situation suddenly became delicate.

In case "The Mummy" messes up again, although the chances are very small, this summer session will be quite lively. Moreover, because of the popularity of "Romeo and Juliet", the attention of Mike Myers' "Ace of Power" has been unknowingly covered up a lot.

Los Angeles.

when many people are close

When looking at the latest two new films and the follow-up performance of last week's opening film, some people can't calm down.

In the wealthy area of ​​Brentwood, north of Santa Monica, a luxury car drove into the private residence of Fox Films President Joe Ross at more than seven o'clock in the evening. Arnold Schwarzenegger got out of the car and followed Joe who was approaching. · Ross entered the villa party scene, and almost immediately felt the eyes of other people around him full of meanings.

There are not many people in Hollywood who have not experienced failure, um...except maybe someone, not to mention, "Evaporation Secret" is not too a failure, at least it is much better than "Phantom Heroes" three years ago.

However, after the failure of "Phantom Heroes", because there was "Terminator 2" before, and then quickly used "True Lies" to regain popularity, so that project did not cause much damage to Arnold's popularity .

This time was markedly different.

After all, everyone has felt the changes that have become increasingly apparent in Hollywood in recent years.

The most obvious point.

Because of the rise of the DC movie universe and the prosperity of movie special effects, the once-hot superstars seem to be less valuable. If that's the case, of course, it's nothing, and the salary will shrink a little bit, but because it's no longer "valuable", it actually means that Hollywood's tolerance for superstars has also been greatly reduced.

The former big star, failed one or two films, and has a third chance to rise again. Now, it may just be a movie failure, and it will be difficult for you to get better resources in the future. With the mediocre opening of "Evaporation Order", everyone realized that Arnold Schwarzenegger was probably the first superstar to fall into such an embarrassing situation.

Moreover, it is definitely not just caused by the movie "Evaporation Order".

It is a logical result after a series of accumulations.

First of all, the unsatisfactory market performance of "Evaporation Order" may actually mean that Schwarzenegger's best old-fashioned muscular action movies are no longer popular. This trend has recently become obvious. Among a series of similar movies, only "Real" The Lies" stands out, but a list of failed projects can be listed.

Sylvester Stallone's, Arnold Schwarzenegger's, Kevin Costner's, "Phantom Heroes", "Heroes of the Mountain", "Law Enforcement", "Special Police Judge", etc., and even The most recent "Evaporation Order".

The type is not very popular, in fact, it is nothing.

As long as it can be transformed in time.

That's the problem.

After experiencing a lesson from "Phantom Heroes", Schwarzenegger obviously did not fully react. After the success of "True Lies", he thought that the type he was good at was still full of market, so he missed an excellent opportunity last year.

That's right.

"Jumanji's Game".

And it's obviously a series.

It is also a special effects blockbuster series that almost represents a major trend in Hollywood.

Because the value of the first-line celebrities is too high, in fact, there are not many opportunities for them, because the special effects-based super blockbuster, since it already has a selling point, the producers often choose relatively affordable actors.

It is even more difficult to find a project that suits you on the basis of the corresponding type.

There are no secrets in the circle.

Everyone knows that Simon Westeros initially preferred Arnold, and the conditions he gave were actually quite good. It's a pity that this superstar wants more, and as a result, the opportunity was abruptly delayed.

What makes the gossip crowd even more crazy is that this opportunity also fell into the hands of Stallone, Arnold's nemesis.

Prior to this, Arnold had been playing against Stallone for many years.

Not necessarily in the future.

After all, Arnold rejected Simon Westero's project. Who knows if it will leave a pimple in the heart of a young tycoon. Now in Hollywood, as we all know, almost all the best opportunities come from Daenerys Entertainment, All controlled by a young man who is only 28 years old.

Inside Joe Rose's mansion.

Schwarzenegger, who pretended not to feel the different eyes, greeted some familiar guests, and soon avoided the party scene with Joe Ross and came to a reception room in the villa.

Whether it is the two parties involved, or the guests at the party in the hall, you can actually guess one or two.

Because it is easy to guess.

"The Evaporation Order" was not satisfactory at the box office, and Arnold must consider regaining his popularity.

In the original time and space, Schwarzenegger chose 1997's "Batman and Robin". Although he received a huge salary of 20 million US dollars, it also caused an even greater disaster.

This time there is no Batman series for Arnold to choose from.

So.

what else?

Yep, The Terminator.

The rights to the Terminator series are jointly held by Fox and Daenerys Entertainment. In the movie, Arnold is the savior of the human world. Outside of the movie, this movie is almost Arnold's savior.

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