Brisbane on the east coast of Australia.
It was July 27th, and Hollywood's summer blockbuster season was still ongoing, forcing MGM CEO Sherry Lansing to fly here in a hurry.
This was because Christopher Skase, chairman of Qintex Group, MGM's Australian parent company, had suddenly absconded.
The story begins with the Japanese stock market bubble.
As is well known, Australia is a highly dependent economy. Throughout the 1980s, the Australian economy grew rapidly thanks to Japan's demand for minerals and agricultural products.
With the collapse of the Japanese stock market bubble at the end of last year, Australia was also dragged down, and after 1990, its economy began to slump.
During the prosperous 1980s, Qintex Group rapidly expanded by taking on massive debts.
If the Australian economy had continued to grow strongly, it might have been able to barely sustain itself, but as the economic situation deteriorated sharply, bank credit tightened, and investors became more conservative, Qintex Group quickly became unsustainable.
After completing the acquisition of 70% of MGM's shares last year, Qintex Group's total debt still reached $1.7 billion after a period of asset restructuring, not including MGM's own debt, which had already exceeded $800 million compared to last year.
Perhaps sensing that Qintex Group would not be able to last much longer, from the end of last year, Christopher Skase continuously siphoned funds from the company through various channels and transferred them to offshore accounts.
During a recent financial audit, the Qintex Group board discovered an anomalous '$13.5 million management fee' expenditure that had been illegally transferred to an offshore company.
Upon further investigation, it was revealed that this was a shell company registered by Christopher Skase.
After urgent consultations with shareholders, creditors, and the Qintex Group board, they ultimately decided to report the matter to the police.
Christopher Skase was arrested and imprisoned for one night, and after being released on bail the next day, he wasted no time in fleeing to Spain.
With Christopher Skase's abscondence, Qintex Group immediately became a mess on the verge of collapse.
Shareholders and creditors now don't even have the energy to pursue Christopher Skase; the most important thing is how to prevent the Qintex Group from collapsing completely.
At its peak, Qintex Group was involved in various industries such as media, film, resorts, and jewellery retail.
However, after all the turmoil, the company's two most valuable assets at this time were only Australia's local Seven Network and the American company MGM; other industries had basically been sold off.
The Seven Network's operations have been quite good in recent years, but although it is a national television network, an Australian television network naturally cannot compare to those in North America, and its current valuation is only US$800 million.
MGM's 70% stake was acquired for US$1 billion last year, and if it were to be sold now, US$1 billion should not be a major problem.
Coupled with some other fragmented assets, the overall valuation of Qintex Group's assets could actually cover its debts.
However, if bankruptcy liquidation were to occur, these assets would certainly depreciate.
Moreover, involving assets worth billions of dollars, with various complex bond relationships, direct liquidation would definitely not be completed in the short term.
Qintex Group could only try its best to maintain operations and gradually restructure its assets to minimize losses for shareholders and creditors.
Qintex Group headquarters in Brisbane.
When she saw Simon, Sherry Lansing's initially flustered thoughts finally relaxed considerably.
Originally, upon hearing the news, Sherry Lansing felt that her position as MGM CEO, which she had only recently secured, would soon be lost.
Now, since this young man was willing to intervene, and she herself had been introduced by him to MGM, then, unless MGM changed hands, she should not be swept out in the short term.
Apart from her, the Australians would not be able to find a second suitable company manager in Hollywood for some time.
She just didn't know if Westeros was going to take over MGM.
Recalling some recent Hollywood rumours, Sherry Lansing felt a faint sense of anticipation.
Amy Pascal's full-year salary this year might exceed $100 million, which is something most Hollywood executives wouldn't even dare to dream of.
As a woman who has climbed step by step to the top of the Hollywood pyramid, Sherry Lansing naturally has her own ambitions and aspirations.
She also believed that if Westeros could take over MGM, the company would immediately pull itself out of the mire.
The meeting concerning Qintex Group's asset divestment and management adjustments after Christopher Skase's departure lasted an entire day.
Sherry Lansing, being a senior executive within the Qintex system, attended the entire meeting and thus knew that Simon's purpose for attending was not related to MGM, but rather to the Seven Network held by Qintex Group.
To be precise, the Johnston family hoped to buy the Seven Network.
After two years of operations in the capital market, the Johnston family also held a large sum of cash.
According to Raymond Johnston's intention, this capital would certainly be used first to expand the family's businesses in mining and transportation.
Simon also knew that Australia's mining resources would undergo large-scale consolidation in the coming 1990s, eventually leading to world-class oligarchs like BHP Billiton.
In such large-scale industrial consolidation, the Johnston Holding Group, with an overall market value of only about $5 billion controlled by the Johnston family, would find it difficult to influence the overall situation.
Unless it could rapidly transform itself into a behemoth, in the face of industry oligarchs like BHP Billiton, which are in the hundreds of billions of dollars, small and medium-sized mining companies would either be merged or squeezed out, making it very difficult to stand alone.
Currently, BHP and Billiton are still two separate companies, and their market value is not as terrifying as it later became.
If some means were employed and funds were sufficient, it wouldn't be impossible for the Johnston family to swallow a giant like BHP or Billiton, but Simon wasn't familiar with this area.
The advice he could temporarily offer was to diversify and accumulate self-strength.
Moreover, media has always been a weakness for the Johnston family, and now with Simon's resources throughout Hollywood, not developing business in this area would be a waste.
Australia, like North America, currently has many restrictions on foreign capital investing in its domestic media industry, but similarly, these restrictions will gradually be relaxed in the 1990s.
Simon's relatively long-term plan was for the Johnston family to achieve good results in this area of operations after the Australian media industry opened up to foreign investors.
Then, in North America, the internet industry and media industry could also provide Simon with large sums of cash.
At that time, Simon could buy out the Johnston family's peripheral businesses in one go, providing the Johnston family with enough capital to leverage a small investment to acquire an industry giant like BHP or Billiton and continue to expand.
Relatively speaking, if the Johnston family directly invested its cash into the mining sector, due to the decline in demand for mining resources caused by the Japanese economic recession throughout the 1990s, this money would simply not yield a very high return.
To help the Johnston family accumulate more capital, not just in media, Simon has also been discussing with the old man about getting involved in Australia's telecommunications and internet industries these days.
Australia's telecommunications industry has historically been a state monopoly, and discussions are now underway to open it up.
Furthermore, in mobile communications and the internet, the Westeros system can coincidentally provide sufficient technical support here.
If these industries can be listed in North America in the next few years, it would be easy to cash out large sums of money, riding the wave of the new technology boom.
It can be said that, in addition to purchasing land in Tasmania, Simon is indeed planning to operate Australia as his own overseas base.
If Simon's most important plan is realized, and Johnston Holdings can eventually develop into a behemoth like BHP Billiton, coupled with the layout of other industries, then by that time, the Australian economy will basically be under the control of Simon and the Johnston family.
Of course, these things cannot be achieved overnight.
In the next decade, it would be extremely impressive to even complete the initial layout.
However, the one thing Simon has in abundance is time.
If he can control a country in ten or twenty years, achieving an economic status similar to that of the Samsung Group in South Korea, it would be entirely worthwhile.
After a day of discussions, the Qintex Group shareholders and creditors finally reached an agreement with the Group willing to sell the Seven Network to Johnston Holding Group for $700 million in cash.
At the same time, as a friends benefit, on the Hollywood front, Daenerys Entertainment would partner with MGM on two films from its original 10-film plan to help MGM recover.
It wasn't until night fell that the various meetings and discussions, which had lasted all day, finally concluded.
As everyone was leaving the conference room, Sherry Lansing finally stepped forward and stopped Simon, saying, "Simon, would you like to have dinner together tonight?"
Simon nodded, thought for a moment, and then said to Veronica Johnston, who had accompanied him to the negotiations today, "Let's go together".
Veronica paused, nodded lightly, and hummed in agreement.
Having been introduced earlier in the day, Sherry Lansing knew that this outwardly cold woman was Janette Johnston's aunt.
However, with a woman's innate keen intuition, Sherry Lansing clearly sensed that there was something unusual between Westeros and this woman.
However, this thought occasionally flashed through her mind, and Sherry Lansing no longer dwelled on it.
After all, it was someone else's business.
Thinking too much and angering this young man would be completely counterproductive for her.
They casually chose a nice restaurant near the Qintex Group headquarters. The three sat down, ordered, and Simon was the first to ask, "How is the 007 copyright issue being handled?"
"We're still negotiating. I plan to buy the SPECTRE copyright from Kevin McClory to completely resolve this dispute. McClory is asking for $5 million, which is a bit high. As for the script, based on your earlier reminder, the company has completed the first draft of 'GoldenEye'. I happened to bring it with me, Simon, would you like to take a look?"
"I'll be returning directly to Melbourne later. After you go back, have someone send the script to Malibu", Simon nodded and said, "Also, the male lead needs to be changed. Timothy Dalton is really not suitable for the role of 007. You can contact Pierce Brosnan and see if he's interested".
Sherry Lansing recalled Pierce Brosnan, who had entered Hollywood's radar earlier this year with 'Pretty Woman', and after some thought, said, "Brosnan probably won't take on this role easily".
If Brosnan were still a second- or third-tier actor, he would certainly be interested in 007.
However, having already become a first-tier star, few actors would be willing to confine themselves to the straitjacket of the 007 image.
Although 007 does bring great fame, once an actor participates, it is often difficult for them to transition.
Among the many generations of 007 over the years, only Sean Connery's career developed quite well, and that was entirely due to CAA's full support.
Simon quickly understood this and said, "You contact him. If it doesn't work out, find someone else. The most important thing is to sign him for several films".
Sherry Lansing nodded, indicating she had noted it.
After a moment's thought, she couldn't help but ask, "Simon, why don't you just buy MGM?"
Simon seemed to have anticipated Sherry Lansing's question, but he didn't answer, merely casually turning the conversation to the collaboration on those two films.
If it weren't for the planned MCA acquisition, Simon would certainly have bought MGM without hesitation, or even if he had taken over a portion of the shares from Qintex Group, he believed Qintex would have been extremely pleased.
However, no matter how dilapidated MGM was, it was still one of the Big Seven. With anti-monopoly regulations for the media industry in the early 1990s in the United States still being very strict.
Daenerys Entertainment was already powerful enough; if it also controlled MGM, the MCA acquisition would certainly face anti-monopoly investigations, and Simon didn't want to lose the bigger picture for a small gain.
After dinner, after sending Sherry Lansing to her hotel, Simon and Veronica went to the airport together.
The flight from Brisbane to Melbourne only takes a little over an hour, and since there was no place to stay there, Simon planned to return that night.
Veronica was still coming over tomorrow, but Simon returned to Melbourne, and she silently followed Simon back to Melbourne.
The Boeing 767 landed at Melbourne Airport, and the two rushed to the mansion together; it was just nine o'clock here.
Anthony Johnston was also there tonight.
As soon as Simon and Veronica arrived home, Anthony walked over and handed him a recently received document.
In the past few days, the situation in the Middle East had been on the verge of erupting, but many people still firmly believed that Iraq would ultimately not resort to military action against Kuwait.
However, after reading the information in his hand, Simon's last trace of worry vanished.
The news in the document showed that this afternoon, Baghdad local time, Saddam suddenly met with the US ambassador to Baghdad.
The content of their discussion was not made public, but the information Simon received clearly revealed the content of this meeting.
The US ambassador to Baghdad promised Saddam that Washington would not interfere with Iraq's military actions in the Middle East.
Based on Simon's memory of later events, he clearly knew that such a promise was simply nonsense; the Bush administration's goal was merely to drag Iraq back into the quagmire of war.
However, Saddam apparently believed it, or perhaps he had no other option than to believe it.
Since the overall situation was decided, the next day, Simon quietly flew back to North America.
The last few days of July quietly passed.
Then, on August 2nd, the explosive news quickly spread across the globe.
In the early hours of August 2nd, local time, the Iraqi Republican Guard suddenly crossed the Iraq-Kuwait border, crushing Kuwait City with overwhelming force.
This war, which brought together countless conspiracies, overt schemes, and calculations of interest, finally erupted.