Unlike sunny Los Angeles and drizzling Seattle, New York was still in the coldest season of the year.
Winter days are short.
By the time Simon arrived on the East Coast and travelled from JFK Airport to his Fifth Avenue apartment, darkness had already fallen.
He wasn't the only one in the apartment; Sophia Fessey had arrived from Europe yesterday.
Simon was still working, but Janette and many people around them were busy preparing for their wedding in early March.
The wedding was confirmed to be held in Melbourne, and the guest list had been tentatively finalized; the Johnston family had even arranged several charter flights for the occasion.
Sophia's visit to New York this time was for the wedding dress. The Gucci design team had begun designing wedding dress proposals after Simon and Janette's wedding date was set. The housekeeper had specifically come to discuss some production details with Janette in person.
Janette kept him up until early morning discussing wedding dress styles, yet Simon still woke up early the next day.
He fumbled for his watch and checked the time; it was 6:50 AM on the East Coast.
The woman in his arms sensed Simon's movement, snuggling closer and wrapping herself tighter around him. Still in her sleep, she opened her mouth slightly and bit his shoulder before falling silent again.
Feeling Janette's affectionate cling, Simon abandoned the idea of getting up and closed his eyes again.
Winter truly is a season well-suited for laziness.
He woke up again around nine in the morning; Janette was no longer beside him.
After getting dressed and washing up, Simon pulled open the bedroom curtains. The desolate Central Park was bathed in the soft, pale sunlight characteristic of the season, looking equally reluctant.
At least it was a sunny day.
Downstairs, Janette and Sophia had just finished preparing breakfast. Seeing Simon, Janette leaned in and kissed him, saying, "I was just about to call you to get up".
Simon embraced her, said good morning, and then greeted Sophia before sitting down at the dining table.
Sophia served breakfast and placed several newspapers for the day beside Simon. Only then did she sit down. During the meal, she brought up some matters concerning Gucci; February Fashion Week was approaching, and the housekeeper was not idle during this period, planning to return to Europe tomorrow.
After breakfast, Sophia rushed off to Gucci's US headquarters. Simon and Janette had no work scheduled for the day, opting to stay cooped up in the apartment like hibernating cats, enjoying their time together.
"...I've already had people start preparing. The area around our wedding venue in Yarra Valley Park will be surrounded by a labyrinth made of flower walls, with all sorts of flowers. It's definitely going to be beautiful..."
In a living room on the second floor of their duplex apartment, Janette held a thick binder filled with various wedding planning materials and chattered away to Simon.
Looking at her flushed cheeks as she spoke, Simon chuckled, "Don't women usually get pre-wedding jitters? You don't seem to have any reaction at all."
Janette affectionately leaned against Simon, saying, "Only women who doubt if they've found the right man get pre-wedding jitters. I certainly don't."
Hearing this, Simon kissed Janette's smooth cheek, feeling a bit unsatisfied, and then reached out to pull her closer.
Janette naturally began to respond.
They entangled for a moment, and soon the scene turned PG-13.
They spent the entire day cooped up in the apartment. Sophia didn't return to disturb them that evening. The next day was Monday, and they had to resume work.
On Saturday morning, Sela Ward was puzzled by Simon's mention of Saddam's speech at the Arab Cooperation Council meeting. However, the Cersei Capital team in New York used this news, along with recent developments in various European and American countries, to begin pre-positioning in the oil futures market.
With the hedge fund industry flourishing in the past two years, Cersei Capital was not the only one eyeing the oil futures market.
However, regarding Saddam's statement, many hedge funds believed that international oil prices should start to rise in the coming period, but Cersei Capital bet on a drop in oil prices.
In Simon's memory, because Saddam had shown a 'non-cooperative' stance with the West since last year, coupled with the Bush family, a family closely connected with various oil giants, coming to power in the United States, European and American oil groups finally decided to act against Iraq.
The first step, however, was not war, but rather targeting Iraq's increasingly fragile domestic economy after a decade-long Iran-Iraq War.
Iraq's economy was heavily reliant on oil. The best way to cripple the country's economy was to drive down international oil prices.
Therefore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other countries closely linked to European and American oil groups would drastically increase production in the coming months to push down international oil prices. This was also the most direct reason for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
In the original timeline, international crude oil prices plummeted from $19 at the beginning of 1990 to $13 in just a few months before the Kuwait War, a drop of over 30%.
After the outbreak of the Kuwait War, international crude oil prices soared directly from the $13 bottom to a high of $40, an increase of over 200%.
Then, the Gulf War broke out. While most crude oil speculators expected international crude oil prices to continue to climb, the war ended swiftly and decisively. International oil prices quickly fell back to below $20. Such an outcome was unexpected even by the European and American countries that initiated the war.
Over half a year, the continuous dramatic rises and falls in international crude oil prices led countless investors engaged in crude oil futures trading to either become rich overnight or lose everything.
It could be said that if Simon didn't have the foresight of a reborn person, even if he could roughly predict the coming situation, he wouldn't dare to place such heavy bets in such turmoil.
Otherwise, perhaps just one wrong judgment could turn substantial profits into losses.
Just like the Quantum Fund in the original timeline, Soros was invincible in the Asian market, but due to misjudging Russia's economic situation, he suffered a colossal loss of over $3 billion in the following year.
Moreover, Cersei Capital's decision to accept local North American capital this time was also to minimize human variables and, at the same time, gain some useful insider information through this exchange of interests.
Simon stayed in New York until Wednesday.
For two consecutive evenings, he attended fundraising cocktail parties hosted by Cersei Capital. Funds for Cersei Fund Management Company had already been secured. These two parties were primarily for Apollo Management Company, headed by Leon Black, and BlackRock Asset Management Company, led by Laurence Fink.
Apollo Management Company had set its sights on the bond assets of Columbia Savings and Loan Bank, which was being auctioned off after being taken over by the federal government, with an initial fundraising target of $1 billion. This $1 billion was actually insufficient, so for the subsequent vulture investing operations, Apollo Management Company's investment team would also collaborate with other Wall Street financial giants.
Doing so would, on one hand, reduce risk and, on the other hand, eliminate Wall Street's hostility towards Cersei Capital while establishing Cersei Capital's network of relationships on Wall Street.
Most Wall Street financial giants are in a state of both competition and cooperation.
The once-unbeatable Drexel Burnham Lambert quickly went bankrupt within a few months of falling into crisis primarily because Drexel Burnham Lambert had no friends on Wall Street.
Over the previous decade, with more than $80 billion in junk bond issuance, Drexel Burnham Lambert had always monopolized the business, unwilling to share any of the lucrative issuance and underwriting fees with other companies. As a result, when Drexel Burnham Lambert faced a crisis in the latter half of last year and sought help from Wall Street peers, not a single one offered assistance.
Compared to Apollo Management Company's initial $1 billion fundraising plan, Cersei Capital intended to raise an additional $3 billion for BlackRock Asset Management Company, matching BlackRock's existing capital.
The reason for this difference primarily lies in the varying risk profiles of the two companies' businesses.
Apollo Management Company's operations, such as leveraged buyouts, equity investments, and vulture investing, could lead to heavy losses if not handled carefully. In contrast, BlackRock Asset Management Company's investments in stocks, bonds, and fixed-income products carry very low risk. Of course, the returns are also very low, which necessitates relying on scale to succeed.
Amidst the busy schedule, time had arrived at the last day of January.
Simon was due to return to Los Angeles in the afternoon, so he spent the entire morning at the Daenerys Entertainment New York branch in Greenwich.
The TV spring season had quietly begun. Although the annual TV program upfronts are in May, from the beginning of the year, various TV production companies start looking for projects for the new year.
Daenerys Television, led by Robert Iger, produced a total of 10 TV programs last year. Four of them were reality shows originally spearheaded by Simon, three were TV dramas taken over by New World Entertainment, and three were entirely new series launched last year.
Currently, Daenerys Television's main revenue still comes from the four reality shows, including 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'.
Of the three new dramas from last year, only one has been renewed by the networks so far. Another one of the three older series was cancelled again after the fall season last year due to low viewership.
Moreover, among the four reality shows, 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills', broadcast on CBS, also encountered some problems.
Phenomenal reality shows are never easy to come by. In Simon's memory, whether in the nineties or after the new millennium, there have only been a handful of reality shows that reached household name status. 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' and 'Survivor' fall into this category. 'Big Brother' is slightly less popular, but no hotter projects than these three reality shows have emerged in the past two years.
However, in the original timeline, 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills', which belonged to a basic cable channel, wasn't so lucky.
Joining the public broadcast network lineup, 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' already had the lowest viewership ratings compared to 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' 'Survivor', and 'Big Brother'.
At that time, CBS also launched two reality shows simultaneously. Although their viewership data was even lower, they could barely continue, which meant CBS's reliance on 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' wasn't as strong.
Therefore, even before the second season of 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' had finished airing, CBS attempted to further lower the renewal price for the third season of this reality show.
Inside the New York branch building, Simon listened to Robert Iger's introduction of the situation in the conference room. After tapping on the table and considering for a moment, he said, "In that case, let's cancel the cooperation with CBS".
Robert Iger was a bit surprised: "Simon, even if the offer is reduced by another 20%, we would still be profitable. There's no need to cancel".
Simon glanced at the other TV department executives in the conference room, waved them out, and then said to Iger, "Bob, regarding 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills', I originally intended to produce it as a complete 'Housewives' series".
Robert Iger nodded and said, "I know, you've mentioned it before. However, Simon, that's not very realistic. The four major networks won't be able to give us too many time slots to broadcast an entire series of reality shows".
"So, we need to find a separate platform for this series".
Robert Iger also knew that Cersei Capital had accumulated a large sum of money overseas, and he probed, "Simon, are you planning to acquire a television network?"
"It's not time yet", Simon shook his head and said, "Bob, there are some things I can't tell you yet, but if everything goes smoothly, we will have our own television network in the second half of the year. Although it won't reach the scale of the four major public television networks, it will be more than enough to accommodate the 'Housewives' series. Coincidentally, by utilizing the 'Housewives' series, we can also build our own television network into a branded female television station".
Having been in the television industry for a long time, Iger quickly understood the general situation after hearing Simon's words.
After reviewing the information he had in mind about a series of media groups in the industry, Iger tentatively asked, "USA?"
USA, like The CW, AMC, and MTV networks many years later, belongs to the national basic cable television networks in the United States.
Unlike public television networks, basic cable channels are a type of cable television but differ from pay cable channels. Basic cable channels do not directly charge users but instead receive a share of revenue from cable television operators, along with some advertising revenue.
Currently, USA Network is still jointly owned by Paramount Communications and MCA, each holding a 50% stake.
Although USA's brilliance was completely overshadowed by networks like The CW, AMC, and MTV after the new millennium, and compared to AMC with its phenomenal hit series like 'The Walking Dead' or The CW with its DC superhero series, USA's television productions seemed uninspired, in this era, thanks to the combined support of two giants, Paramount Communications and MCA, USA was at the forefront in terms of popularity and scale among the newly emerging basic cable channels.
Seeing that Iger had guessed correctly, Simon did not deny it, smiling and nodding, and instructed, "Remember to keep this matter confidential".
"Of course".
Iger agreed, and wisely did not press further, but in his mind, he pondered whether Simon's next target was MCA or Paramount Communications.
MCA seemed easier.
Martin Davis of Paramount Communications had waited until the previous head of the company passed away to gain control, and he would not easily let go.
Because of the original contract, to reclaim 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills', CBS had to voluntarily give it up. The two discussed this matter for a moment, and Simon handed a folder to Iger, saying, "I've had a chance to look at the TV drama project materials the company is currently looking for. I've selected two of them; remember to secure them. As for the others, you can decide based on the situation".
Iger took the folder Simon handed him and opened it. The first thing that appeared before him was information on a sitcom, with the title 'Seinfeld' printed on the cover.
'Seinfeld', a sitcom whose popularity was on par with 'Friends' in the 90s. This series didn't have as much popularity overseas as 'Friends', but it was very popular in North America. In the original timeline, 'Seinfeld' even set a viewership record of over 70 million when it finally concluded.
Simon had seen the project's information when he was in Los Angeles. Another purpose of his trip to New York was to instruct Iger to secure this project.
As for the other one, it was a random inclusion by Simon, a bit of sand he habitually threw in. Its success or failure didn't matter; in fact, failure might be for the best.