Starting the week of May 22, countless investors turned their attention to Washington.
On this day, the U.S. Congress officially began voting on the "Capital Gains Tax Reform Bill." By noon Eastern time, the results were in: 328 votes in favor, 106 against, a decisive majority.
The next day, the Senate voted.
With 69 votes in favor and 31 against, it passed with the same overwhelming majority.
According to the U.S. Constitution, if more than two-thirds of both houses of Congress approve a bill, it can automatically take effect even if vetoed by the president. Clearly, this reform had widespread support.
Naturally, the White House had no intention of vetoing the bill.
On May 24, President Clinton signed the bill into law and held a press conference at the White House to announce the enactment of the new capital gains tax legislation.
The new bill repealed the 28% fixed capital gains tax rate established during the Reagan tax reforms, introducing a two-tier tax structure. For securities investors holding stocks or bonds for more than 12 months, the capital gains tax rate would drop to 15%. For assets held for less than 12 months, the tax rate would increase to 30%.
In his speech, the president stated that the new capital gains tax rules would discourage short-term speculation in the capital markets while encouraging long-term, healthy investments by offering tax relief. This would also attract more foreign capital into U.S. markets, boosting the economy.
The U.S. stock market had long since moved away from the era of individual retail investors. Even though recent years saw a surge in personal investors thanks to new tech trends, retail investors now account for only 17% of total trading volume. The remaining 83% comes from domestic and foreign institutional investors.
Because this reform didn't directly impact the general public, it stirred little public outcry. Some complaints appeared on internet platforms and a few critical voices in the media, but overall, the capital gains tax reform sparked few ripples.
Of course, some tried to direct attention toward the Westeros system.
Simon holds a large number of tech stocks, which many have described as significantly overvalued. Since he's held these stocks for over a year, if he were to cash out, the tax savings under the 15% rate would be staggering.
However, even these murmurs were weaker than the criticism of the reform itself.
Since the collapse of the Hearst family last year, after being crushed by the Westeros system, no media outlet dared provoke the ruthless young tycoon.
The Westeros family made no comment on these discussions.
Yet, anyone following entertainment news could see that Daenerys Entertainment had ramped up promotion for its two summer blockbusters, Jurassic Park 2 and Apollo 13. The advertising was so omnipresent it nearly overshadowed every other film of the season.
A pacifier.
Just a pacifier.
Then, on May 26, the final trading day of the week, Nokia officially listed on the Nasdaq.
Since its London Stock Exchange IPO in August 1993, Nokia stock had undergone two splits, one 2-for-1 and one 3-for-1. Unlike later tech companies that sought high stock prices, it was generally believed that lower stock prices were more attractive to investors. Combined with other changes like stock options and small mergers, Nokia's total share count had grown to 1.169 billion shares.
For the Nasdaq listing, Nokia issued 120 million new shares. Since demand was six times the offering, the pre-arranged over-allotment option was triggered, and an additional 18 million shares were issued, totaling 138 million new shares at an offering price of $27.5. This raised $3.795 billion.
Simon returned to Los Angeles after dealing with the TV division last Friday, only to head back to the East Coast on Thursday to attend Nokia's Nasdaq debut.
This listing process was similar to an IPO. The only difference was that the price of the new shares was set based on recent London market prices, and shares from both markets could be traded interchangeably. Thus, there was little room for surprises for investors.
Still, as a Westeros-concept stock returning to the Nasdaq, the market was optimistic, with many predicting a 5% price increase on its first day.
In reality, this prediction severely underestimated the market's enthusiasm for Westeros stocks.
The capital gains tax reform, just passed earlier that week, also greatly stimulated market activity.
Around 10 a.m., Nokia stock began trading and immediately soared past $29, easily surpassing the 5% rise predicted by many analysts.
The positive opening attracted even more capital to the stock.
By the 4 p.m. close, Nokia had risen by 11.8%, closing at $30.75. With its post-issue share count at 1.307 billion, the mobile communications giant now had a market value of $40.1 billion.
In mature capital markets like Europe and North America, the prices of dual-listed stocks don't typically differ much. Due to time zone differences, the London market had already closed for the week, with Nokia's market value there at around £24.6 billion, or $37.7 billion. Unless a major unexpected event occurred, Nokia's stock price in London would inevitably surge on Monday to match its North American counterpart.
After this share issuance, Westeros Corporation's stake in Nokia fell to 67.2%.
Based on Nasdaq's first-day closing price, Simon's holdings in Nokia alone were worth $26.9 billion.
Several media outlets, following Simon's wealth closely on platforms like Facebook, adjusted their estimates of his personal fortune based on Nokia's performance. Fortune magazine's editor-in-chief shared a new figure, widely circulated online:
$620 billion!
This was the highest estimate of Simon's wealth since the beginning of the year when the media first reported his net worth surpassing $500 billion. The figure was calculated based on the current stock prices of Westeros' publicly listed companies.
Cisco, whose market cap surpassed $150 billion in January, had reached $192.6 billion by May 26, an increase of nearly 30% in four months. It was just shy of becoming the first U.S. company with a $200 billion market cap.
Beyond Cisco, shares of other core Westeros companies also continued to reach new heights.
Fortune's editor remained conservative in his $100 billion valuation of the soon-to-be-listed Eaglet.
Even so, adding it all together, Simon Westeros' net worth now stood at $620 billion. On the U.S. 400 wealth list, and even the global wealth rankings, most other billionaires couldn't match even a fraction of Simon's staggering fortune.
Numbness.
Only numbness.
Whether $500 billion or $620 billion, these figures were beyond the comprehension of most Americans, who weren't great at math to begin with.
One popular Facebook blogger's complaint probably summed up the feelings of many bystanders: "Let Simon Westeros float up there like a god in the sky, while we live our own lives."
Some even fanned the flames online.
"We should start a revolution against Simon Westeros; no one should own that much."
Blah, blah.
Then, users who made extreme remarks were banned for "spreading hate speech."
Banned from everything.
Recognizing that its massive user base was vital to its growth, Eaglet had implemented tighter security in recent years, with Simon personally overseeing the effort. Eaglet's cybersecurity team was more powerful than those of many sensitive government agencies.
Moreover, as Eaglet's business expanded, its user accounts became increasingly valuable. A single account often linked to email, payment tools, instant messaging, social media, online shopping, and more. Losing access to an account was something most users could not afford.
As word spread, the call to overthrow Simon Westeros faded quickly.
Neither the capital gains tax reform nor Nokia's Nasdaq debut slowed the summer box office in North America.
After the release of three new films last week, the U.S. box office saw a small surge.
The box office week of May 19 to May 25.
Fox's action film Die Hard with a Vengeance, starring Bruce Willis, opened with a seven-day total of $29.88 million, easily taking the top spot for the week.
However, given its $90 million production budget and $40 million marketing spend, this result fell short of Fox's expectations.
By over $10 million.
Industry predictions had placed Die Hard with a Vengeance's opening at $40 million to $50 million. Such numbers would have broken records in the 1980s, but in the current era, where North American markets have seen first-week grosses exceed $100 million, an opening under $40 million for a film of this scale was below par.
With Jurassic Park 2 hitting theaters on June 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance's opening weekend gross of $29.88 million suggested a total domestic take of around $70 million. Its most important market, North America, would only recover a fraction of its $130 million investment, and its overseas prospects were even more uncertain. After all, Jurassic Park had performed far better internationally than domestically.
The global box office isn't any bigger than the North American market, and success for one film often means failure for another.
DreamWorks' family film Casper came in second with $25.71 million. Although slightly behind Die Hard with a Vengeance, Casper's family-friendly appeal meant it was also likely to reach around $70 million domestically. With a production cost of just $50 million, DreamWorks and Paramount had a strong chance of recouping costs and turning a profit through global distribution.
However, tensions over release dates left Spielberg far from satisfied with Cas
per's performance.
The third major release last week, Forget Paris, directed and starring Billy Crystal, opened to a modest $6.23 million, as expected. Its box office was even lower than Ace Ventura 3, now in its seventh week. Despite the new competition, Ace Ventura 3 dropped only 35%, adding $7.19 million to bring its total to $161.72 million.
Seven weeks, $160 million. With Jurassic Park 2 on the horizon, Ace Ventura 3's domestic total might end up between $170 million and $180 million, falling short of the earlier $200 million forecasts.
Still, with a $40 million production cost and a domestic gross of over $170 million, Ace Ventura 3 was one of the biggest successes of 1995.
Another film scripted by Simon, The Man from Earth, earned another $2.25 million last week from 431 screens, bringing its cumulative box office to $231.56 million. With fewer screens, it had another $5 million left in it but would fall short of its original $250 million target.
Overall, The Man from Earth and Ace Ventura 3 exceeded Daenerys Entertainment's expectations. Ironically, their success in the relatively limited first half of the year ended up competing with each other, slightly shrinking both films' box office totals compared to projections.
Last week, the same situation unfolded between Die Hard with a Vengeance and Casper.
With the start of the new box office week on May 26, when Nokia debuted on Nasdaq, two more films hit theaters: The Bridges of Madison County, directed and starring Clint Eastwood, and the Keanu Reeves-starring sci-fi flick Johnny Mnemonic.
Neither film was a heavy hitter. And with Jurassic Park 2 coming the following week, it was clear the studios weren't betting big on these releases.
Still, The Bridges of Madison County held a certain reputation for Simon.
As one of the early Hollywood romance films to enter China, this movie, with its poetic title and controversial themes, remained a topic of discussion.
Keanu Reeves' Johnny Mnemonic, set in the future, explored the idea of storing and transmitting information through modified bio-memory, an intriguing concept reminiscent of The Matrix. Unfortunately, Johnny Mnemonic lacked much else. With a production cost of just $26 million and a release right before Jurassic Park 2, Sony had all but written it off as a sacrificial lamb. It was expected to perform similarly to Billy Crystal's Forget Paris.
After expelling Peter Guber and Jon Peters and gaining full control of Columbia Pictures, Sony had released a string of films over the past two years, all of which had flopped.
Every failure sparked rumors that Sony was planning to exit Hollywood.
But so far, none had come true.
As the new box office week began, Jurassic Park 2 was drawing ever closer.
Like any other massive blockbuster, Daenerys Entertainment had planned an extravagant premiere for Jurassic Park 2, scheduled for May 31, two days before its release.
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