Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan.
The date was April 9th. After staying in Paris for another week, Simon and Janette flew back to New York yesterday and resumed work today.
Cersei Capital's headquarters was not chosen to be in Lower Manhattan where financial firms gather, but was instead established in Building 1230 of Rockefeller Center, with each of the three subsidiaries occupying one floor.
Compared to work, Janette prioritized their life together.
Therefore, unless necessary, the woman only planned to work three days a week, one for each of the three subsidiaries. Moreover, even during work hours, she would still live in Los Angeles with Simon most of the time.
Wall Street is full of various workaholics, but it has never lacked people like Janette who work very little yet achieve great things.
During the process of acquiring BlackRock from the Blackstone Group recently, Simon discovered that John Schreiber, the head of Blackstone's real estate investment department, worked only 40 days a year yet held a 20% stake in the partnership subsidiary and lived in Chicago, far from New York.
It was actually quite simple; to achieve this hands-off style of working, the key was choosing the right team.
In the two months leading up to the wedding, this was exactly what Janette had been doing.
The team at Cersei Fund Management Company had undergone a year of refinement and screening, making it the most reassuring one. The heads of the Apollo Management Company and BlackRock teams, Leon Black and Laurence Fink, were vetted by Simon's prophetic advantage and were equally reliable.
Inside the large conference room at Cersei Capital's headquarters.
The meeting regarding 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 Janette throughout the entire process, patiently listening to the whole meeting.
Laurence Fink was very much looking forward to Simon expressing some of his own views during the meeting. However, this behind-the-scenes boss, who presumably held even more power than his wife, remained silent the entire time, making Laurence Fink feel he was unpredictable. Sometimes he felt Simon might not understand the asset management industry; at other times, he felt that even if that were true, Fink dared not underestimate a young man who had amassed such a massive fortune for himself in just over three years.
In reality, Simon was just trying his best to be a hands-off boss.
There was another meeting with the Apollo Management Company team in the afternoon. Everyone left the conference room and went to a restaurant in the building for lunch. In the hallway, as the elevator opened, they happened to see Blockbuster's Chairman Wayne Huizenga and Leon Black inside.
After greeting each other, they naturally joined together.
During the small talk, Simon learned that Wayne Huizenga had come this time regarding a recent acquisition by Blockbuster.
After Blockbuster completed its IPO, in order to stimulate the company's stock price, it quickly announced an acquisition of Erol's, a company headquartered in Baltimore on the East Coast.
Originally, this acquisition had been settled with a bid of $40 million.
However, recently, Nancy Brill noticed something amiss while reviewing Erol's financial records and hired the newly formed Apollo Management Company team to re-audit the acquisition. M&A consulting was also a business of the Apollo team; the largest M&A consulting case in Leon Black's hands happened to be Daenerys Entertainment's planned acquisition of MCA.
As it turned out, after taking on this relatively small task, Leon Black's team quickly discovered over $8 million in hidden debt under Erol's.
The $40 million acquisition price was already somewhat high relative to Erol's size and liabilities.
Once the extra hidden debt was exposed, Blockbuster immediately halted the progress of the acquisition and began renegotiating with Erol's management team.
As video rental is a capital-intensive industry, although Erol's scale could not compare to Blockbuster's, it had expanded to 250 stores and was similarly heavily dependent on loans during its expansion. If the acquisition fell through, Erol's, which had not yet achieved economies of scale, would likely go bankrupt.
Therefore, there was a good chance the final transaction price could be pushed down to $30 million.
Back in Los Angeles, Nancy Brill also spoke to Simon about this matter.
However, Nancy pointed the finger at Wayne Huizenga.
If she hadn't reviewed the acquisition at the last minute, Blockbuster likely wouldn't have found the problem and would have suffered additional losses. This was clearly an error on the part of Wayne Huizenga, the Chairman and CEO.
After Blockbuster's IPO, because the equity of founders like Wayne Huizenga was further diluted, Daenerys Entertainment, with its 35% stake, essentially gained control of the company. Nancy had long been dissatisfied with Wayne Huizenga's abilities. Taking advantage of this opportunity, she proposed selecting a new CEO for Blockbuster to split Huizenga's power.
"Blockbuster's core operating philosophy is to continuously improve efficiency and reduce costs while expanding, in order to gain a stronger competitive edge in the industry. I agree with finding a new CEO. However, Blockbuster just went public, and I don't want internal instability. You communicate this with Huizenga yourself. Furthermore, the new CEO must not violate Blockbuster's operating philosophy by arbitrarily changing business strategies".
Inside Daenerys Studios
in Malibu.
The various teams of Daenerys Entertainment would be able to move in starting next month. Simon came here in the morning to check on the nearly finished renovation, and Nancy also rushed over from Santa Monica.
"I certainly understand, and that's also where I'm dissatisfied with Wayne", Nancy nodded. "He can no longer see clearly where Blockbuster's next step should be. Last time he even discussed with me wanting to buy a cable operator to try the cable television field. Blockbuster hasn't even reached its peak in the video rental chain yet; developing cable TV now is simply reckless".
Simon and Nancy walked along the corridor from the executive area to the lower-level office area. He asked, "If Daenerys Entertainment tried to expand into the cable television field, do you think that's a good idea?"
Nancy asked, "A cable TV station or a cable TV operator?"
Cable TV stations and cable TV operators are clearly two different concepts. However, because the government deregulated media in recent years, many cable operators also got involved in the TV station business. For example, Time Warner owns Warner Cable, which handles cable operations, and cable stations like HBO.
Being involved in both content and distribution is clearly the best way to avoid being held by the throat, but it can also easily distract the management team.
In this regard, Disney and Time Warner in the original timeline were two typical examples.
Disney focused on content and never got involved in distribution operations; its subsidiary ESPN is indeed the highest-charging basic cable channel. Time Warner was involved in both distribution and content; CNN and HBO were very successful, but both businesses were acquired. Furthermore, although Warner Cable held a significant market share, it could never compete with rivals like Comcast.
Hearing Nancy's question, Simon said directly, "TV stations".
"A good idea", Nancy nodded. "However, no extra action is needed. As long as we take MCA, we'll have our own cable network".
Simon smiled. He didn't react much to Nancy casually pointing out Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA, but followed up: "Why oppose Blockbuster getting into cable TV, yet agree with Daenerys Entertainment expanding in that direction?"
Nancy was a bit dissatisfied with Simon's testing; did such a simple question even need to be asked? She just said, "Because there's no synergy between video rental and the cable TV business at all".
Strictly speaking, the video rental and cable TV industries were in competition with each other.
Blockbuster getting into cable TV wouldn't in turn promote the development of the video rental chain; instead, it would distract Blockbuster's management.
However, this was not an issue for Daenerys Entertainment.
Horizontal integration of media groups was already a major trend in this field. Entering cable TV would allow for the maximum utilization of Daenerys Entertainment's content advantages.
Speaking of which, regarding 'The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills' series, after Daenerys Entertainment refused to yield an inch, CBS had confirmed it would not renew it.
According to the original agreement, unless CBS voluntarily gave it up, Daenerys Entertainment could not sell this reality show to other networks.
Now, Daenerys Entertainment had essentially regained full control over the project.
CBS was also 'fearless.' The ratings for 'The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills' weren't that outstanding to begin with. The interests of the major networks regarding content providers were actually aligned. CBS assumed that since it gave up the project, ABC, NBC, and FOX wouldn't pick it up either. Daenerys Entertainment could at most sell the series to a second-tier basic cable station, which obviously meant a lower price.
However, CBS obviously couldn't see Simon's specific plan.
As long as the acquisition of MCA could be completed, moving 'The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills' to MCA's USA Network might not yield the revenue of a broadcast network, but it could further expand the Housewives series, build it into a brand, and simultaneously increase the value of USA Network itself. This could be described as killing several birds with one stone.
Malibu Studios was very close to Point Dume. Simon wandered around the studios until noon and then returned directly to his home on the west side of Point Dume for lunch. He casually invited Nancy, but the female executive declined on the grounds that she had to rush to Burbank.
Back home, Janette wasn't the only one in the villa; Kathryn had also come over. The two women were bringing lunch into the dining room.
'Point Break' was about to start filming here in Los Angeles, so Kathryn would be around for the near future.
Kathryn had naturally been on the guest list for the wedding last month, but it was too busy then, and Simon hadn't had a chance to spend time with her.
After all, they couldn't go back to how things were, but as they sat down in the dining room, there was still a strangely harmonious feeling.
After chatting a bit about point break, Simon asked the woman, "That project, 'Thelma & Louise', how have you considered it?"
Kathryn helped serve the mushroom soup and nodded slightly. "It's a very good script".
Simon smiled. "So are you taking it or not?"
Janette also said to Kathryn at this time, "Kate, just take it. I think the two of us could even star in it together".
Simon couldn't help but look at the two women. He suddenly realized that the two of them really did resemble the original Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. So he looked at Janette and said, "Do you know that much about it?"
Janette gave Simon a look. "I've read the script, of course I know".
Simon was curious: "When did you read it?"
"None of your business when I read it".
"Alright…. But this is a story about two women rebelling against patriarchy. Do you think it's appropriate for you two to star in it?"
"Of course".
"Then people will think I'm mistreating you two".
Kathryn placed a bowl of cream of mushroom soup in front of Simon and said reproachfully, "It's enough that you mistreat Janette. Why drag me into it?"
"What do you mean it's enough to mistreat me? Kate, I didn't think you were so wicked. You're like Snow White's stepmother".
Simon picked up his spoon and took a sip of the mushroom soup, nodding with a smile. "Not bad. Snow White and the stepmother, a very good play".
Kathryn clearly didn't catch on.
Janette, however, pinched a piece of bread and threw it over. "Little Bastard".
Kathryn was confused for a moment, then also glared over, her face flushing slightly.
Simon thick-headedly pretended he hadn't said anything just now and said, "So, Kate, this project is completely prepared for you. Think about it: desert sands, two women driving off a cliff, how impactful".
Janette, however, said, "Why do they both have to die in the end?"
"Isn't death their best destination? Or would you rather they end up full of holes like in Spielberg's The Sugarland Express?"
"I'm saying, why can't it be two women beating the police to a pulp and then escaping to Mexico together?" Janette retorted dissatisfiedly, and finally snorted. "So, in the end, this is still a movie dominated by your patriarchal thoughts. I bet if the leads were two men, after they've killed everyone in sight, they would surely enter Mexico like 'heroes' and regain their freedom".
Listening to the word 'Hero' that Janette emphasized, Simon thought for a moment and said, "It seems filming it that way wouldn't be bad either".
"Hmm?"
Simon smiled at Janette and said, "You should know, I'm a feminist".
"Pah, and I'm a masculinist then".
"So, we're a very well-matched pair".
Simon laughed and turned to look at Kathryn.
Kathryn unhurriedly spread caviar on her bread and said, "I also think Janette's suggestion is good. Let Louise and Thelma escape into Mexico in the end instead of driving off a cliff. Why must women die just because they made a mistake?"
"Only death would be more impactful".
"Hmph, male chauvinism!"
Simon thought for a bit and said, "In that case, some of the plot would need to be revised".
Kathryn said lightly, "I just happen to have time".
Simon added, "And the box office might not be as good".
Janette said, "Do you need more money?"
"I don't mind having more".
"I'll hit you".
Simon laughed and dodged Janette's reaching hand, helplessly making a compromising gesture. "Alright. At least, with that arrangement, maybe we can film a sequel".