Perhaps sensing that Westeros Company was no longer in close contact with Reynolds Nabisco Group, the Hearst family delayed their response to Simon's conditions until October 3rd.
William Randolph Hearst III did not intend to share the news resources of the San Francisco Chronicle, but stated that the Hearst Group's Los Angeles Herald on the West Coast could engage in comprehensive content cooperation with Ygritte.
The Los Angeles Herald sounds like a serious newspaper, but in reality, it's similar to News Corp's New York Post, mainly reporting on social news and entertainment gossip.
Ygritte Portal's positioning in news is a comprehensive information platform, and because it primarily targets affluent middle-class elites at this stage, it places greater emphasis on the professionalism and seriousness of its news content.
Although there will be entertainment news, Simon has no intention of turning Ygritte Portal into an entertainment gossip portal.
Most importantly, William Randolph Hearst III offered the Los Angeles Herald for cooperation with Ygritte primarily to 'save' the newspaper, as the Hearst Group had originally planned to shut down this paper, which had been underperforming for many years. Now, if it could receive financial support through cooperation with Ygritte, the newspaper could undoubtedly continue to exist.
It could be said that Hearst III showed no sincerity at all.
Simon then took another step back, conveying through Raybould to Hearst III that Ygritte Portal only needed to share content from the domestic news section of the San Francisco Chronicle; other international news, local news, entertainment news, and sports news, etc., were not needed by Ygritte.
The offer was still rejected.
On the other hand, after more than a month of negotiations, America Online finally reached that exclusive agreement with three regional telecommunications operators: Bell Atlantic, Bell Pacific, and NYNEX.
The negotiations for the agreement were fraught with difficulties, at one point reaching an impasse over the buyout price of $1.50 per user.
The three operators collectively insisted that America Online must pay an exclusive fee of $1.50 per user for each of their networks, which was 50% higher than America Online's team's estimated bid of $1.
When the three operators thought they had America Online and Westeros Company, which backed it, completely cornered, Steve Case unexpectedly broke the deadlock with a strategy of division, claiming that if the three operators insisted on a $1.50 buyout price, America Online would be unable to bear the cost and would have to choose only two of the three companies.
By simply opening up their network lines, America Online's current size meant it would incur almost no cost to gain tens of millions of dollars in total funding. Furthermore, with America Online's growth in a few years, the agreement price could be renegotiated. The three operators were not as indifferent to this deal as they seemed.
After the 1984 breakup, the Bell system could no longer be entirely united. After confirming that Steve Case was not making an empty threat, the three ultimately made concessions.
Thus, the final transaction price was confirmed at $1.30.
The three operators; Bell Pacific, Bell Atlantic, and NYNEX, had a total user base of 23.61 million, including both residential and business users. The initial combined exclusive fee to be paid was $30.69 million annually.
Furthermore, the exclusive agreement had a term of 10 years, only half of the originally anticipated contract duration. Both parties to the agreement would renegotiate the exclusive fee price every two years, with each price increase not exceeding 50%.
After the agreement was signed, America Online would be able to directly utilize the network lines of the three operators to provide its own internet access services. However, the three operators would not provide additional equipment and technical support for America Online beyond their existing network lines. If America Online had such needs, it would have to pay separately.
Although the terms of this contract superficially leaned heavily towards the three operators, in Simon's view, signing this exclusive agreement was a victory.
America Online's user base had been growing rapidly in recent months; however, the three operators clearly still hadn't realized the immense potential of the internet industry.
Such a thing is completely unimaginable for a latecomer like Simon. However, just as Hewlett-Packard didn't realize the importance of the personal computer invented by one of its employees named Steve Wozniak back then, the printer giant Xerox, which followed closely, made the same mistake. The first computer graphical user interface operating system they developed only earned a 'very convenient' comment from the company president, and then it was copied to create two companies: one called Apple, and the other called Microsoft.
Ultimately, apart from Simon, no one else in this world could see the future so clearly.
Based on the current user scale of the three operators, even if the price increased by 50% five times during renegotiations, America Online would still pay less than $200 million annually in exclusive fees. However, if it fully captured these over 20 million users, America Online could generate billions of dollars in revenue each year simply from internet access services.
What's more, within 10 years, as long as US telecommunications industry regulations reopen as they did in the original timeline, Simon is confident that America Online, currently in a vine-like state, will be able to turn the tables and swallow the large trees it is now attached to.
Simon has been discussing acquisition plans for the two companies with his team in recent days.
Since there was no rush, he continued to stay with Janette at the Greenwich estate every day.
Suddenly, it was October 5th, Friday.
Simon had just arrived at the Westeros Company headquarters in Manhattan that morning when James Raybould followed him to his office with a newspaper photocopy and said, "Simon, take a look at this".
Simon sat behind his desk, took the newspaper photocopy, and couldn't help but frown after just glancing at the headline.
The photocopy contained an article titled "Beware of Emerging Internet Telecommunications Potentially Falling into a Monopoly", and its target of commentary was precisely the exclusive agreement America Online had recently signed with the three major operators.
As for the content, it was evident just from the title.
However, that wasn't the most important thing; the key was that this article came from the San Francisco Chronicle.
After roughly scanning the article, Simon shook his head and said, "The Hearst family doesn't want to pay any price at all".
America Online is still just a company with a user base of less than 500,000. Not to mention AT&T, even any one of the Baby Bells would be an absolute behemoth compared to America Online at this time.
Moreover, similar exclusive agreements were not invented by America Online. Many companies operating in telecommunications-related peripheral services sign exclusive agreements with these giants to maintain their market advantage. Internet access services are currently still considered a peripheral industry to telecommunications.
However, the San Francisco Chronicle directly slapped America Online with the big hat of suspected monopoly.
The impact of the AT&T breakup case from years ago had not completely dissipated, and telecommunications monopolies were still a relatively sensitive topic. Most companies preferred not to touch such a troublesome issue.
Therefore, the Hearst family's intention in doing this was obvious.
Perhaps sensing Simon's proactive avoidance in the matter of acquiring ESPN shares, and having rejected cooperation on content sharing for the San Francisco Chronicle, dragging things out until now, William Randolph Hearst III had probably lost patience and simply gave Simon a clear warning, demanding his active withdrawal.
James also showed a wry smile and asked, "What do we do now?"
Simon tossed the newspaper photocopy onto the desk in front of him and said, "Call Reynolds Nabisco and tell them we're pulling out."
James was a bit surprised: "Now?"
Simon nodded, his tone flat: "Do it. No need to drag it out. Since the Hearst family doesn't want to cooperate with us at all, then so be it".
James actually didn't want to conflict with the Hearst family either. He had originally worried that Simon, being young and impetuous, would react strongly. Seeing him give up so calmly, James instead felt a faint sense of resentment towards the Hearst family.
However, James also understood that, from today onwards, the Hearst family was officially on his boss's blacklist.
It's just that the Hearst family isn't like Daenerys Entertainment's Hollywood counterparts. Such an old family, with a century of accumulated wealth and control over a vast print media network, is certainly one that many people dare not provoke.
After James left, Simon calmly began to prepare for the morning meeting.
According to the latest news, this week, Panasonic President Akio Tanii had a phone conversation with MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman. Perhaps, Panasonic's acquisition of MCA might take an unexpected turn, different from Simon's predictions.
If that happens, Daenerys Entertainment must act pre-emptively.
Combining information from memory with the current situation, Simon felt that the reason Panasonic's acquisition of MCA in the original timeline dragged on for several months after its official announcement was likely due to a lack of competitors. Since there was no competition, Panasonic could naturally take its time negotiating with MCA.
Now, with Daenerys Entertainment lurking like a tiger, Panasonic, although not appearing entirely determined to acquire MCA due to Japan's domestic economic situation, should still hope to buy MCA and therefore will not delay much longer.
All preparatory work for MCA had already been completed. The morning meeting was still about the plan to acquire Bell Atlantic.
Over two months, influenced by the Kuwait War, oil prices continued to rise, and the US stock market continued to fall.
Bell Atlantic's latest market value has fallen to the brink of $5 billion, closing yesterday at only $5.03 billion, a further decline of over 10% compared to the initial outbreak of the war.
Now is undoubtedly the best time to make a move.
Relying on its abundant assets as collateral, the Westeros Company team has already resolved the funding issue. Several secretly contacted banks have collectively agreed to provide Westeros Company with a total of $10 billion in funding.
Such a large loan application certainly couldn't be kept secret within the industry.
Therefore, the banks had more than once probed Simon, asking if he intended to rely solely on loans to acquire the company while keeping the massive overseas funds abroad.
This speculation is actually very reasonable.
Repatriating overseas assets to the domestic market requires a one-time payment of a hefty 28% capital gains tax. In comparison, obtaining funds through loans has an annual interest rate of only around 5%. If overseas funds can be managed properly, even generating a 10% return annually, doing so would be very cost-effective.
Simon had actually considered this option.
But in the end, he gave it up.
On one hand, in the coming years, no market outside North America can accommodate the multi-billion dollar investment that would bring Simon sufficient returns.
On the other hand, this capital, or more precisely, the taxes on this capital when it is repatriated, also serves as a bargaining chip, a chip that can push the federal government to approve Simon's acquisition plan.
After all, a one-time capital gains tax of over $2 billion is certainly not a small sum that can be casually ignored by the federal government, which is currently facing a severe budget deficit. If the federal government does not approve Simon's simultaneous acquisitions of MCA and Bell Atlantic, Simon will certainly continue to keep this capital overseas, which is definitely not what the federal government wants to see.
"We have already acquired 2.7% of Bell Atlantic stock, and we expect to reach 4.9% ownership by the end of the month. However, the main issue we face with Bell Atlantic is actually the management. If we can secure the cooperation of Raymond Smith, Bell Atlantic's Chairman and CEO, with sufficient financial support, this acquisition should proceed very smoothly. I don't believe that given the current economic environment and Bell Atlantic's company nature, there will be other competitors jumping out to contend with us for this company."
Having lunch with James, Simon nodded when he heard this and said, "Let's wait until the end of the month. If the timing is right, I'll meet with Raymond Smith personally".
James said, "Raymond Smith is very interested in literature and theatre. You two will definitely get along well".
Simon had also reviewed the personal information of Raymond Smith collected by the company and said, "That's not enough, though. If he agrees to Westeros Company's acquisition of Bell Atlantic just because we have similar interests, I'd have to consider whether to keep him after the acquisition is complete".
James confirmed: "Raymond Smith's ability is beyond doubt. However, if you don't expect to achieve cooperation simply because you share common interests, then we'll still have to put in a lot of effort ourselves".
Simon chuckled, "For a multi-billion dollar deal, if everything goes too smoothly, I'd start to wonder if I've fallen into some kind of trap".
As they discussed these matters and finished lunch, Simon, according to his schedule, headed to Daenerys Entertainment's East Coast headquarters in Greenwich Village. Having been away from Los Angeles for a week, many accumulated matters from Hollywood required his attention.
From his arrival at 1 PM until nearly 4 PM, after three hours of busy work, having roughly dealt with a week's worth of accumulated tasks, Simon leaned back in his office's leather chair and picked up a draft plan for an Antarctic documentary expected to be produced by Highgate Film, flipping through it.
This was triggered last week when Janette made a promise to little Gemma during lunch at Sophia's house.
Janette had originally only intended to have some people traveling to Antarctica film some videos to bring back for the little girl. However, Simon, recalling the documentary 'March Of The Penguins', which set box office records in his memory, decided to produce a proper Antarctic documentary.
However, Simon didn't know much about Antarctica, so he planned to first test the waters with a regular documentary, build up a team, and then bring out the filming plan for 'March of the Penguins' from his memory.
It's already autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, but it's springtime in the Southern Hemisphere.
Starting preparations now, they could Just right enter Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere's summer and finish filming by autumn.
Flipping through the plan in his hand, Simon suddenly thought of Sophia again.
Sophia has been in Manhattan recently, preparing for tomorrow's Gucci brand event on Saturday. His own work for today is done.
After a moment of hesitation, Simon dialled the woman's cell phone number.
After a few casual words, it seemed she wasn't that busy, so Simon asked Sophia if she wanted to come for coffee. The woman reminded him that he had quit coffee a long time ago.
Then it got a little awkward.
And then, Simon simply put on his boss persona, telling Sophia to wait for him at his penthouse apartment on Lexington Avenue, as there was something they needed to discuss.
Sophia pressed, asking what it was.
She was being persistent.
Well, that, of course, would be discussed upon arrival. Could a boss not find something for an employee to do?