Simon stayed in San Francisco until Saturday afternoon before returning to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with his family. By Monday, he was on the move again, heading to the East Coast.
Today was May 15th.
The television spring season had come to a close. May is the month when major networks and production companies finalize their plans for the upcoming TV season. As New York is the television industry hub on the East Coast, numerous pitch meetings were being held to allow production companies to present their shows to networks.
With the acquisition of ABC already in motion and expected to be completed by the second half of the year, Simon's company, Daenerys Entertainment, needed to start preparing to ensure a smooth transition. They didn't want to go through the years of turmoil that Tom Murphy and Warren Buffett had experienced before stabilizing ABC after their acquisition.
Content is the core of any television network, making this May crucial.
On Monday morning, Simon left the West Coast. While still on the plane, a message that had been discussed with Igret's management the previous week was released to both online and traditional media, garnering widespread attention and discussion.
The topic originated from Washington.
Without realizing it, 1995 had reached its midpoint, and the early campaigns for the 1996 U.S. presidential election had begun. Since taking office, although plagued by scandals, President Clinton had largely kept his campaign promises.
The central issue remained the economy.
As the U.S. economy recovered, the unemployment rate, which had been close to 8% when Clinton took office in 1992, had now dropped to around 5%. In addition, the rise of the new technology sector had become a key highlight of the Clinton administration's achievements.
To build momentum for the upcoming election, the White House was planning a gathering of leaders from the new technology industry in Washington to showcase the federal government's successes in this field.
Since last year's midterm elections, Simon had not intended to overly influence the next presidential election. However, given the long-standing tacit understanding between the Westeros system and the Clintons, it was inevitable that some "small gifts" would be sent to the White House. Taking advantage of the upcoming tech industry gathering, Igret released a six-month operational report for its outsourcing platform on Monday.
In the six months since its launch, Igret's outsourcing platform had reached 1.67 million members who had completed at least one paid task to activate their membership. The platform had processed a total of 12.29 million outsourced tasks, paying out $127 million in compensation.
The eye-catching data immediately dispelled many conservative arguments that the rapid growth of the internet industry would harm traditional employment sectors. Even though the average member had only earned $76 over six months from Igret's outsourcing platform, the fact that over a million people had gained access to more than twelve million job opportunities in such a short period underscored the enormous potential of the new tech industry to transform society.
Igret also deliberately highlighted several key details.
The most important was that over 90% of the 1.67 million activated members were based in the USA, as were the majority of the 12.29 million outsourced tasks.
In reality, such high activity within six months would not have been possible without deliberate efforts. The Westeros system had intentionally kept most of the outsourcing orders within the U.S., instead of relying on overseas labor to minimize costs, as had been originally planned.
This was essentially a subsidy plan carried out by several companies within the Westeros system.
Subsidies were already becoming common practice in the tech world. Many internet companies had started fierce subsidy battles to attract users, and while Simon understood the benefits of this approach, he also knew that rewarding work rather than giving things away for free would yield better results.
People often don't value things they receive for free.
Thus, Igret's outsourcing platform, in collaboration with several other Westeros tech companies, rolled out this disguised subsidy plan.
In terms of execution, Igret's system automatically identified eligible users and sent them task invitations via email, whether it was for image classification, web content editing, or product data entry. The tasks were simple enough for anyone with basic computer skills to complete.
After completing one paid task, users' accounts were activated on the outsourcing platform.
On the flip side, Igret placed a small restriction on the withdrawal of earnings. Users could only withdraw funds once their balance reached $100, but the average earnings over six months were just $76, meaning most users couldn't withdraw their funds.
However, these users could spend their earnings in Igret's app store, game marketplace, online mall, or even to pay for services like America Online subscriptions or Blockbuster video rentals. This way, much of the money Igret paid out ended up back in its own ecosystem.
As a result, many websites in the Westeros system that required manual editing of webpages, images, audio, and so on—such as Igret's search engine, online mall, and Broadcast—were able to process massive amounts of content at minimal cost.
Especially the search engine.
Igret's search engine team had spent several years optimizing their search algorithm to ensure users received the best possible results, enhancing the overall user experience. While the algorithm could be optimized, machines couldn't match the human ability to categorize and identify information. Thus, humans were needed to label vast amounts of content, including web pages, images, audio, and video. Once labeled, the search engine team could use the tagged content to further refine the system's algorithms, ultimately training the system to recognize patterns automatically—this was the essence of artificial intelligence.
This idea came from Simon's fragmented memories.
It was akin to early childhood education.
Just as children learn basic knowledge by identifying numbers and letters on building blocks or cards, once they recognize the symbols, they can apply that knowledge wherever they encounter it.
Many companies were now trying to develop search engines, and several websites had launched their own search functions. However, through a more advanced search model and significant financial investment, Igret's Google search engine had already pulled far ahead of the competition and was quietly establishing a monopoly.
The cheap labor provided by Igret's outsourcing platform played a crucial role in this.
In addition, the plan significantly boosted user adoption of Igret's online payment tool, Ypay, as activating a Ypay account was a prerequisite for participating in the platform. When assigning tasks, the system prioritized active users who had not yet activated Ypay.
Finally, since most users couldn't reach the withdrawal threshold, many were guided to spend their earnings on platforms like Ystore, Steam, Amazon, and Broadcast. Not only did this allow Igret to recapture much of the money, but it also created a new pool of potential consumers for its e-commerce ventures.
Online shopping is known to be addictive, a truth Simon had seen confirmed in his memories.
Once users make their first purchase, they're likely to make a second, third, and fourth. When their outsourcing earnings no longer suffice to satisfy their spending habits, they'll naturally start dipping into their own pockets.
Tracking user activity confirmed this.
In summary, through this plan, Igret had gained over a million low-cost workers, helped several companies within the Westeros system complete vast amounts of work, further optimized its search engine, and expanded its online payment and e-commerce businesses. It was a win-win situation.
Moreover, the plan had now become a major highlight of the new tech industry.
Even though some media outlets keenly pointed out the flaws—such as the fact that earning just $76 in six months wouldn't make a significant difference—the key point was that this was only the beginning. A burgeoning industry that had achieved such scale in just six months could very well support millions of people in the future. Who could say that wasn't possible?
Furthermore, this was just the tip of the iceberg of the new jobs created by the rise of the tech sector in recent years.
It was easy to imagine that when the president gave his speech at the upcoming tech industry gathering, a simple mention of these figures would spark applause and cheers.
After Igret released its data in the morning, the White House's official Facebook page quickly reposted the news, praising the president's efforts in promoting the tech industry.
Additionally, this positive news had an immediate effect on the East Coast stock market. When trading opened for the week, tech stocks on the Nasdaq saw a notable rise. The topic of Igret's IPO, already a hot topic due to the outsourcing platform news, once again became a focal point for the media.
Both capital markets and the public eagerly awaited Igret's IPO.
Investors were in it for the profits.
The public, on the other hand, was curious to see how high Igret, a tech giant with a pre-IPO valuation already in the hundreds of billions, would soar once it went public.
Simon left Los Angeles at 9 a.m., arriving on the East Coast by the end of the workday, due to the time difference.
He had arranged to have dinner with Robert Iger to discuss the details of the ABC acquisition.
While Simon and Amy were the public faces of the deal, Robert Iger, a senior executive in Daenerys Entertainment's television division, would handle the day-to-day responsibilities. Once the merger was complete, Iger was slated to take over as the head of the network.
The dinner was scheduled at a restaurant in Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, and Simon arrived at 6 p.m. to find that Iger had already arrived.
They had booked a quiet, secluded corner to avoid interruptions.
After placing their orders, Iger quickly dove into the discussion.
Mergers worth over $20 billion, like this one, required more than just a few high-level meetings to finalize. The integration process was a massive undertaking.
Take ABC, for example.
More precisely, the entity in question was Capital Cities/ABC, which owned far more than just a television network.
In addition to ABC, which had over 200 affiliate stations, the Capital Cities
/ABC group also owned a nationwide radio network, several fully owned local TV stations, national cable channels like A&E and ESPN, numerous newspapers and magazines, and an enormous amount of intellectual property and real estate.
When Warren Buffett and Tom Murphy had acquired ABC years ago, the company even had an extensive art collection. Its headquarters in Rockefeller Center was also extremely valuable, although most of this had been sold off by the two old-school businessmen to offset losses.
In short, completing the acquisition would require untangling a vast web of assets, shares, debts, and intellectual property. Without due diligence, it would be easy to fall into a trap.
When Sony bought Columbia Pictures, they failed to understand these complexities, and after spending a fortune on the acquisition, they lost over a billion dollars to lawsuits and disputes. One lawsuit alone, from Warner Bros. over the hiring of producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters, cost Sony $800 million.
There were traps everywhere.
If Daenerys Entertainment wasn't careful, it could easily be taken advantage of.
Before joining Daenerys Entertainment, Iger had been an executive at Capital Cities/ABC, so he was not only familiar with the company but also aware of the hidden pitfalls within the industry. He was the perfect person to oversee the acquisition.
In the restaurant, Iger discussed these potential pitfalls: "This is a critical time for program acquisitions. If we've decided to go through with the deal, we should notify them that Daenerys Entertainment must have the right to be informed and to veto any new contracts signed during this period. Otherwise, some executives might sign deals behind our backs, and we could end up with programs that are either overpriced or of poor quality."
Dinner was served.
Simon, cutting into his steak, replied, "You can have a private conversation with Tom Murphy about this, but be discreet."
This was one of the things Simon appreciated about Buffett's professional ethics.
At the March Melisandre party, Warren Buffett had essentially confirmed Simon's interest in Capital Cities/ABC. Unlike CBS's largest shareholder, Larry Tisch, who had leaked the news to inflate the price, there had been no such leaks from Capital Cities/ABC.
Iger nodded in understanding and continued, "There's also ESPN. Steve Bornstein is a very aggressive leader. I've estimated that over the past few years, ESPN has signed contracts worth over $2.7 billion with various sports leagues. These contracts are paid out gradually, and while they're normal operating expenses, the large sums involved can be used as a bargaining chip in the acquisition. We could use them to offset some of the purchase price."
Simon thought for a moment and then shook his head. "If all goes well, I should be able to finalize the deal with Buffett after a few more discussions. You know Buffett isn't someone who haggles over minor details, and neither am I. It's likely we'll simply agree on a premium over the current stock price and close the deal."
Iger considered this and nodded in agreement.
After all, he had worked at Capital Cities/ABC for years and was familiar with the styles of its two key decision-makers.
Seeing that Iger understood, Simon added, "So your job is to ensure there are no unexpected risks within the company. I'll handle the money and the signing; your role is to make sure everything is as smooth as possible."
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