Midtown Manhattan, Rockefeller Center.
The date was April 9. After staying in Paris for another week, Simon and Janet flew back to New York yesterday. Today, they were back at work.
Cersei Capital's headquarters wasn't located downtown where the financial firms clustered, but inside the 1230 building at Rockefeller Center. Each of the three subsidiaries occupied a floor of its own.
Compared to work, Janet cared more about their life together.
So unless it was necessary, she only planned to work three days a week, one day for each subsidiary. And even during working periods, most of the time she still intended to live with Simon in Los Angeles.
Wall Street was full of workaholics, but it had never lacked people who worked very little and still achieved staggering success.
During the recent acquisition of Blackstone Financial Management under the Blackstone Group, Simon discovered that John Srebber, the head of Blackstone's real estate investment division, worked only forty days a year, yet still held twenty percent equity in the partner firm, and lived in Chicago, far from New York.
It was actually pretty simple. If you wanted that kind of lifestyle, the key was choosing the right team.
That had been what Janet spent the two months before the wedding doing.
Cersei Fund Management's team had been refined and filtered over the course of a full year. That was the most reassuring one. As for Apollo Management and BlackRock Asset Management, their leaders, Leon Black and Laurence Fink, were both vetted with Simon's advantage of foresight. They were just as reliable.
Inside the large conference room at Cersei Capital headquarters.
The meeting on Laurence Fink's team's investment plan for the new quarter lasted two and a half hours. By the time it ended, it was nearly noon.
Simon sat beside Janet the whole time, patiently listening through the meeting.
Laurence Fink had been hoping Simon would offer some opinions during the discussion. Yet this behind-the-scenes boss, who arguably held even more authority than Janet, never said a word. It only made Fink feel as if he couldn't read him at all.
Sometimes he thought Simon simply didn't understand asset management. Other times, he thought that might be true, but a young man who had built such a vast fortune in just a little over three years was not someone Fink dared to underestimate.
In truth, Simon was simply doing his best to be the kind of boss who delegated everything.
There was still a meeting with Apollo's team in the afternoon. Everyone left the conference room and went together to a restaurant in the building for lunch.
In the corridor, the elevator doors opened and they happened to see Blockbuster's chairman, Wayne Huizenga, inside with Leon Black.
They exchanged greetings and naturally fell into step together.
In idle conversation, Simon learned that Huizenga had come over because of Blockbuster's recent acquisition deal.
After completing its IPO, Blockbuster had moved quickly to stimulate its stock price by announcing an acquisition of Erol's, a Baltimore-based video rental chain.
Originally, the deal had been agreed at an offer of forty million dollars.
But a few days ago, when Nancy Brill reviewed Erol's financials, she noticed something off. She then hired Apollo's newly formed team to re-audit the acquisition.
Mergers and acquisitions advisory work was also part of Apollo's business. Leon Black's largest consulting case in hand just happened to be Daenerys Entertainment's planned acquisition of MCA.
After taking on this relatively small deal, Leon Black's team quickly discovered more than eight million dollars in hidden debt on Erol's books.
A forty-million-dollar purchase price had already been somewhat high relative to Erol's size and liabilities.
Once the hidden debt was exposed, Blockbuster immediately halted the acquisition and reopened negotiations with Erol's management.
Video rental chains were capital-intensive. Erol's might not compare to Blockbuster, but its expansion relied heavily on loans as well. If the deal collapsed, Erol's, which had not yet achieved true scale, could very well go bankrupt.
So the final price had a good chance of being pushed down to thirty million.
Back in Los Angeles, Nancy Brill had also brought the matter up with Simon.
But Nancy aimed her criticism at Wayne Huizenga. If she hadn't rechecked the deal at the last moment, Blockbuster might never have found the problem and would have absorbed the additional loss. That was clearly a mistake by Huizenga as chairman and CEO.
After Blockbuster's IPO, because the founders' shares, including Huizenga's, had been further diluted, Daenerys Entertainment, holding thirty-five percent, essentially had control of the company.
Nancy had long been dissatisfied with Huizenga's abilities. Seizing this opportunity, she proposed choosing a new CEO for Blockbuster and splitting Huizenga's authority in two.
"Blockbuster's core operating philosophy is to keep expanding while continuously improving efficiency and cutting costs so it can compete harder within the industry. I agree we should find a new CEO," Simon said. "But Blockbuster just went public. I don't want internal instability. You handle the communication with Huizenga yourself. Also, the new CEO can't violate Blockbuster's operating philosophy and change strategies on a whim."
Daenerys Studios in Malibu.
Daenerys Entertainment's various teams would be moving in over the next month. Simon came over this morning to check the almost-finished renovation, and Nancy came over from Santa Monica.
"I know," Nancy nodded. "That's exactly why I'm unhappy with Wayne. He can't see where Blockbuster needs to go next. Last time he even talked to me about buying a cable operator and trying to get into cable. Blockbuster still hasn't pushed video rental to its limit. Jumping into cable now would be sheer chaos."
As Simon and Nancy walked down the corridor from the administrative area to the next level of offices, Simon asked, "If Daenerys Entertainment tried to expand into cable, would you think it's a good idea?"
Nancy asked, "A cable channel, or a cable operator?"
A cable channel and a cable operator were two different things. But since media deregulation had been loosened under Reagan in recent years, many cable operators had begun stepping into channel businesses too. Time Warner, for instance, had Warner Cable on the distribution side, and channels like HBO on the content side.
Owning both content and distribution was obviously the best way to avoid having your throat held in someone else's hand, but it also made it easy to scatter management attention.
In that respect, the later versions of Disney and Time Warner in another world would be two typical examples.
Disney focused on content and never touched distribution, yet ESPN under its umbrella became the highest-fee basic cable channel.
Time Warner did both distribution and content. CNN and HBO were both huge successes, but those businesses were acquired. And while Warner Cable held a substantial market share, it was never able to compete head-on with rivals like Comcast.
Hearing Nancy's question, Simon answered directly, "A channel."
"Not a bad idea," Nancy nodded. "But we don't need any extra moves. Once we take MCA, we'll have our own cable network."
Hearing Nancy casually expose Daenerys Entertainment's plan to acquire MCA, Simon showed little reaction. He asked again, "Why are you against Blockbuster getting into cable, but you support Daenerys Entertainment expanding into it?"
Nancy was a little irritated by his test. Did he really need to ask something that obvious? "Because video rental and cable don't complement each other at all."
Strictly speaking, video rentals and cable television competed with each other.
If Blockbuster got into cable, it wouldn't boost the video rental business. Instead, it would distract Blockbuster's management.
But it was different for Daenerys Entertainment.
Diversified horizontal integration was the big trend for media conglomerates. Entering cable could maximize Daenerys Entertainment's content advantage.
On that note, regarding The Beverly Housewives series, after Daenerys Entertainment refused to yield an inch, CBS had confirmed it would not renew.
Under the original agreement, unless CBS voluntarily gave it up, Daenerys Entertainment could not sell the reality show to other networks.
Now, Daenerys Entertainment had effectively regained full control of the project.
CBS wasn't worried. The ratings for The Beverly Housewives weren't outstanding to begin with, and the major networks, when facing content providers, were essentially aligned in their interests. CBS believed that if it dropped the project, ABC, NBC, and FOX wouldn't pick it up either. At most, Daenerys Entertainment could sell the series to a second-tier basic cable channel, which obviously meant a lower price.
But CBS couldn't possibly see Simon's actual plan.
As long as they could complete the MCA acquisition and move The Beverly Housewives onto MCA's USA Network, they might not get the returns of a broadcast network, but they could expand the Housewives series into a brand while increasing the value of USA itself. It was a win on multiple fronts.
Daenerys Studios in Malibu was close to Point Dume. After touring the studio until noon, Simon returned home on the west side of Point Dume for lunch.
When he got back, Janet wasn't the only one there. Kathryn had come over as well. The two women were carrying lunch into the dining room.
Point Break was about to start filming in Los Angeles, so Kathryn would be on the West Coast for a while.
She had naturally been invited to last month's wedding, but it had been too hectic. Simon hadn't had a chance to spend time with her then.
There was no going back to the way things once were, yet as they sat down together in the dining room, there was still a strangely harmonious feeling.
After a few lines about Point Break, Simon asked her, "That project, Thelma & Louise, what do you think?"
Kathryn ladled mushroom soup for everyone, giving a noncommittal little nod. "It's a very good script."
Simon laughed. "So are you taking it or not?"
Janet turned to Kathryn as well. "Kate, you should take it. I think the two of us could even act in it together."
Simon couldn't help looking at them both. Suddenly he realized that the two of them did resemble the original Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis a little. He looked at Janet and said, "Do you know what I'm thinking?"
Janet shot him a look. "I read the script. Of course I know."
Simon was curious. "When did you read it?"
"Since when is that any of your business?"
"All right. But it's a story about two women pushing back against male dominance. Do you really think it suits the two of you?"
"Of course."
"And then people will think I abuse you."
Kathryn set a bowl of creamy mushroom soup in front of Simon and scolded him lightly. "Just abuse Janet if you want. Don't drag me into it."
"What do you mean, abusing me is fine? Kate, I didn't know you were this vicious. You're practically Snow White's wicked stepmother."
Simon took a spoonful of soup, smiling as he nodded. "Snow White and the stepmother. That's some pretty great role-play."
Kathryn clearly didn't process it at first.
Janet did. She grabbed a slice of bread and threw it at him. "You little bastard."
Kathryn stared for a moment longer, then glared too, her cheeks flushing.
Simon shamelessly pretended he hadn't said anything at all and continued, "Anyway, Kathryn, this project was made for you. Picture it. Desert sand, the sun setting, two women surrounded by police, refusing to bend, driving together straight toward the cliff. What a breathtaking scene."
Before Kathryn could answer, Janet cut in, "Why do they have to die at the end?"
"Isn't death their best destination? Or would you rather they end up like Warren Beatty's Bonnie and Clyde, riddled with bullets?"
"I mean, why can't the two women beat the cops to a pulp and then escape to Mexico together?" Janet snapped back, then huffed at the end. "So in the end, it's still a male-chauvinist movie. I bet if the leads were two men, they'd slaughter their way out and then charge into Mexico like heroes."
Hearing the way Janet bit down on the word "heroes," Simon thought for a moment. "Honestly, that version might work too."
"Hm?"
Simon smiled at Janet. "You know, I'm a feminist."
"Pah. Then I'm a male supremacist."
"That's why we're such a perfect match."
Still joking, Simon looked at Kathryn again.
Kathryn spread caviar on bread with unhurried elegance. "I think Janet's suggestion is great. Let Louise and Thelma escape into Mexico instead of going off the cliff. Why should women have to die just because they made mistakes?"
"Disappointment is what hits the audience hardest," Simon said. "In your Point Break, Bodhi dies at the end too, doesn't he?"
Janet immediately went, "Hah. Male chauvinism."
Kathryn said, "The ideas those films express aren't the same. I want Louise and Thelma to live."
Simon considered it. "If we do that, some of the plot will need to be rewritten."
Kathryn said decisively, "I have time."
Simon added, "And the box office probably won't be very good."
Janet said, "Since when do you need more money?"
"I never have too much."
"I'm going to hit you."
Simon laughed and dodged Janet's little claw reaching for him, then raised his hands in surrender. "Fine. At least if we do it that way, maybe we can even make a sequel."