In the morning, Sophia Fessey drove her son and daughter into the Point Dume estate.
The car stopped in front of the Shell Villa, and Sophia got out, just in time to see the four ABCD women moving boxes of children's products from inside the villa and loading them onto a pickup truck.
Janette was also there; seeing Sophia approach, she went forward to greet her, then affectionately said hello to the two little ones, Daniel and Gemma.
After a few words, Sophia gestured to the busy ABCD women and asked, "What are you doing?"
Janette caressed her belly and said, "Yesterday, I bought a lot of things for the little one, but I thought it was a bit early, so I decided to donate them, otherwise it would be a waste".
Sophia understood what was going on as soon as Janette explained.
However, glancing again at the truckload of items and remembering Janette's habit of never picking cheap goods when shopping, Sophia couldn't help but have a similar thought to Simon's from yesterday afternoon.
Everyone chatted and entered the villa together.
Noticing that Daniel and Gemma seemed very interested in the Shell Villa, Janette proactively offered to take the two little ones on a tour and instructed Ms. A to take Sophia to the study on the second floor, where Simon was.
Following Alison to the second floor, Sophia reached a door and indicated that Ms. A could leave. She then knocked on the door.
Receiving a response, she pushed the door open and walked in.
Simon, however, was not behind the desk but was leaning on a single sofa by the window, flipping through a book, his feet casually propped on a footrest. On the small table beside him were juice and snacks, making him look very relaxed.
The spring sunshine was just right.
The bright light streamed into the study through the glass window, giving the room an ambiance that was very conducive to laziness.
Sophia greeted Simon, closed the door casually, and turned to notice a toy truck on the study floor.
Picking up the toy truck and coming over to Simon, Sophia held up the toy in her hand and asked with a smile, "Is this also for your little one?"
"Of course not, that one is for me".
Simon said, pulling out a remote control and fiddling with it. The toy truck in Sophia's hand immediately started buzzing.
Placing the toy truck on the floor and watching the little thing clatter away, Sophia didn't go to the other sofa but sat directly on the armrest of Simon's single sofa, asking, "What book are you reading?"
Simon showed the woman the cover and said, "A pregnancy manual".
Sophia took the book and flipped through it: "Are you already very much looking forward to being a father?"
"More apprehensive, you know, it's the first time".
"I really envy you two".
Sophia suddenly said this, placed the book on the nearby small table, and subtly moved closer to Simon.
The woman was wearing a beige knitted straight dress today, unlike her usual office lady style, giving off a very casual vibe. Her perfume scent had also changed to a very light and warm type, which perfectly matched the sunny atmosphere at the moment.
Simon noticed Sophia's subtle movement but just smiled and praised, "You look very beautiful today".
Sophia also knew that the time and occasion weren't quite right. Since the man wasn't taking the initiative, she didn't hint any further. She casually brushed her hair from her forehead, seemingly brushing away some subtle emotions, and then brought up the main topic: "Have you seen the information on Van Cleef & Arpels?"
Simon nodded: "I've seen it. It's a very good company".
Van Cleef & Arpels is a French luxury company, also with nearly a century of history, primarily dealing in jewellery and high-end watches. As a brand favoured by many royals, nobles, and celebrities, it is on par with companies like Tiffany and Cartier.
It is also the next acquisition target for Melisandre Company.
In the past year, Gucci, controlled by Melisandre, can definitely be said to be the most talked about luxury brand.
Starting with 'The House Of Gucci', many films produced by Daenerys Entertainment in 1990, including the blockbusters 'Pretty Woman' and 'Ghost', all featured Gucci products to varying degrees.
Gucci's brand events at major film festivals and extensive traditional advertising campaigns also significantly boosted Gucci's brand influence. Coupled with Sophia's strict control over Gucci's product and service quality, Gucci achieved an explosive 73% revenue growth throughout 1990, with annual revenue reaching $670 million.
In comparison, Dior, the core brand of Gucci's most direct competitor, LVMH Group, only saw an 17% revenue growth during the same period, with its 1990 revenue reaching $1.09 billion.
Sophia had proposed the idea of Gucci surpassing Dior in 1991 two years ago. Although it now seems a bit optimistic, as long as both parties maintain their revenue growth pace of the past two years, after this year, Gucci's revenue level will at least enter the billion-dollar revenue club, reaching a similar magnitude to Dior.
Judging from Gucci's operating conditions in the more than two months that have passed in 1991, the company is sufficiently assured of a 50% revenue growth rate for 1991, making the goal of $1 billion in revenue easy to achieve.
Due to the intention of meticulously cultivating the Gucci brand, Melisandre only added one subsidiary, Chateau Latour, in the past two years, which falls under Simon's personal collection type.
Gucci originally had a very deep brand heritage. Its near-bankruptcy plight in previous years was more due to infighting within the Gucci family.
Now that Gucci has fully recovered, and the heritage accumulated over more than half a century is being re-released, Melisandre can also appropriately expand outwards. However, Sophia is still not eager to acquire luxury brands that overlap with Gucci's areas of involvement, instead choosing Van Cleef & Arpels, which primarily deals in jewellery and watches.
According to the information Sophia collected in advance, Van Cleef & Arpels' revenue in 1990 was $176 million, with a profit of $19 million.
After several negotiations between Melisandre and the Arpels family and the Italian company Fingen SpA, who hold shares in Van Cleef & Arpels, the preliminary valuation of Van Cleef & Arpels was set at $230 million. Van Cleef & Arpels shareholders are willing to transfer a total of 60% of the company's equity for $138 million in cash, while also relinquishing control of Van Cleef & Arpels.
Simon was actually very optimistic about this deal.
Simon and Sophia had discussed Melisandre's development plan privately and intermittently, ultimately settling on the company's 'carrier battle group' expansion model.
A carrier battle group usually consists of one to three core aircraft carriers and a large number of cruisers, destroyers, frigates, supply ships, and submarines.
Similarly, the future Melisandre should also consist of two to three core brands plus a large number of smaller, secondary luxury brands, with several core luxury brands accounting for more than 50% of the entire luxury group's revenue.
The remaining 50% will be shared by other subsidiary brands, with the revenue volume of a single subsidiary brand likely only being about one-tenth that of a core brand.
Such a structure can ensure that core brands like Gucci maintain sufficient visibility and competitiveness, and also guarantee that the luxury group does not lack backup brands to provide growth potential. On the other hand, continuously acquiring a large number of subsidiary luxury brands can also prevent the emergence of other latecomers in the market that could compete with core brands like Gucci, which is essentially a suppression strategy.
Now, the soon-to-be-acquired Van Cleef & Arpels will serve as Melisandre's second 'carrier' seed.
It can even be said to be the seed for a second 'carrier battle group.'
Because Van Cleef & Arpels does not have too direct a competitive relationship with Gucci.
Moving forward, Melisandre can develop two 'carrier battle groups,' one focused on bags and apparel with Gucci as its core, and another focused on jewellery and watches with Van Cleef & Arpels as its core.
As for the acquisition of subsidiary luxury brands, this can proceed slowly throughout the 1990s.
The current major luxury giants, LVMH and Richemont Group, are also focused on operating their core brands and have not yet begun large-scale expansion.
LVMH primarily features Dior and LV, while Richemont Group's core brand is Cartier.
Melisandre's planned two 'carrier battle groups' will directly compete with LVMH, which mainly deals in bags and apparel, and Richemont Group, which mainly deals in jewellery and watches.
As for Kering Group, which acquired the Gucci brand in the original timeline and became one of the three major luxury giants alongside LVMH and Richemont Group, it is currently still operating its retail chain business. With Melisandre having already acquired Gucci and eyeing the entire luxury industry, Kering Group is destined to find it difficult to follow its original development path.
Sophia came to Los Angeles this weekend, of course, not just to visit Simon.
Next Monday is the new Academy Awards ceremony, and Gucci will, as usual, host its brand party after the Oscars.
Leveraging Daenerys Entertainment's connections and influence in Hollywood, after two years of development, this party has already shown a tendency to replace the Vanity Fair party in the original timeline as a regular post-Oscar gathering.
Staying in the study, casually chatting with Simon about various trivial matters, and having lunch together, Sophia then rushed back to the city to busy herself with the preparations for the themed party.
Janette declared that she wanted to get a head start on the feeling of looking after children. The two little ones had always liked their Aunt Janette, so they stayed at the estate until Sunday afternoon when they had to rush back to the East Coast to prepare for school the next day. Only then did Janette send the two little ones back to New York on her family's Boeing 767.
After a cozy weekend, the date also arrived at March 25th, 1991.
From March 22nd, the Easter holiday period began. Madonna's concert documentary 'Truth Or Dare' opened on 733 screens, earning $4.93 million at the box office in its first three-day weekend. The estimated first-week box office is around $7 million.
Judging from the film's popularity and reputation, 'Truth Or Dare' is likely to achieve a minimum of $20 million at the North American box office. While it cannot compare to 'The House Of Gucci' which exceeded $60 million in total North American box office, it far surpasses other similar music documentaries, making it a decent success.
However, 'Truth Or Dare' only ranked third at the box office during the first weekend of the Easter holiday.
The number one spot on the list was the action film 'Out For Justice', starring Steven Seagal and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, which earned $10.52 million in its first three days.
The strong-performing 'Wayne's World' ranked second, collecting another $5.71 million in three days.
From its opening on February 8th until now, 'Wayne's World' has accumulated $87.18 million at the North American box office, with its box office trend remaining strong and steadily moving towards the $100 million threshold.
Fourth and fifth place were the crime film 'Class Action', starring Gene Hackman and produced by Fox Pictures, and the crime comedy 'The Hard Way', starring Michael J. Fox and produced by Universal Pictures, respectively.
Upon closer inspection, Daenerys Entertainment actually occupied three positions in the top five of the Easter opening weekend box office list.
Of course, Simon actually didn't want too many people to notice this.
Daenerys Entertainment City.
Simon put down the box office report from the past weekend and looked at Nancy Brill, who had just entered his office.
After acquiring MCA, the short woman will now control all of Daenerys Entertainment's non-film and television businesses, excluding theme parks, which included music records, cinemas, publishing, games, consumer products, video rental chains, etc. Her power is second only to Simon and Amy, and even more influential than Robert Rehme, who is currently in charge of distribution, and Robert Iger, the head of television business, both of whom are presidents.
During this compensation and position adjustment process, Nancy was also promoted to the third president of Daenerys Entertainment Group, alongside Rehme and Iger.
Speaking of which, Daenerys Entertainment's management structure is different from other studios.
For comparison with Disney, Simon's position as chairman is actually more akin to Michael Eisner, Disney's chairman and CEO, guiding the development direction of Daenerys Entertainment.
Although Amy is the CEO of Daenerys Entertainment, her authority is similar to that of Michael Eisner's deputy, Frank Wells.
The three presidents of Daenerys Entertainment are more akin to the heads of major business departments in other studios.
Of course, the power system in Hollywood has never had a fixed model, and Daenerys Entertainment is not listed, so it can naturally choose any management structure it deems appropriate.
However, for the planned IPO, Simon will also make appropriate adjustments to Daenerys Entertainment's management in the future.
Nancy sat opposite Simon, and they began discussing Daenerys Entertainment's gaming business.
In the past year, Blizzard Entertainment, wholly owned by Daenerys Entertainment, and EA, in which it holds a 35% stake, have both seen very good development.
Blizzard Entertainment's two 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' second games, the fighting version in the first half of the year and the action-adventure sequel in the second half, are both expected to sell over 2 million copies in total.
EA's PC real-time strategy game 'Dune', developed under Simon's guidance, has sold over 1.1 million copies since its release in September last year. Its flagship sports games and other types of role-playing games also achieved good results in the past year.
At the same time, EA also leveraged the advantage of its continuously rising stock price to consecutively merge several game studios with good game brands, beginning its own expansion pace similar to that in the original timeline.
What Simon and Nancy discussed today was primarily EA's plan to develop online games..
This was also out of consideration for enriching internet content resources as quickly as possible.
Over several months, the growth rate of internet users far exceeded Simon's initial expectations.
Beyond the Ygritte portal, more and more content websites began to join the World Wide Web, but this still did not reach a level that satisfied Simon.
At this stage, while developing large-scale role-playing online games with tens of thousands of simultaneous players is still not very realistic, transforming games like 'Dune', which already have some accumulation, into turn-based online battle platforms, is very feasible.
Moreover, the online payment system, Y-Pay, which the Ygritte portal has already started developing, can conveniently solve the payment issues that online games need to face.