When Jerry Hall saw the man nodding, he said curiously: "It shouldn't be easy to win. Hermes has a strong profitability. Will the Hermes family be willing to let go?"

"Melisandra has already obtained 21% of Hermes' shares. The single largest shareholder, even if we cannot acquire it in full, we can still get the corresponding voice." Simon said: "And Sophie's idea is not that she must take Hermes all the time. Even if it is just a simple investment, it is very worth it. The specific one depends on the negotiation results between Sophie and the Hermes family."

Simon's attitude towards this acquisition is actually quite optimistic.

The main reason is that LVMH, which once attempted to acquire Hermes, has a bad reputation because many brands under LVMH will be cleaned up after being acquired, and their business philosophy will change greatly. In comparison, although Melisandra has always been interested in controlling its brands, it is not as extreme as LVMH.

Therefore, as long as the two sides communicate properly, Melisandra is actually very hopeful to gain recognition from the Hermes family. After all, Melisandra is not just Melisandra, but also backs on the entire Westeros system. The Hermes family should understand that if the two sides are too stale and the suppression here is taken, even the top luxury brand like Hermes may not be able to withstand it.

Jerry Hall is more envious of Sophia Fessi, who is envious of the other party who follows a man very early, so he can create a huge Melisandra Group with the growth of the Westeros system, and she can only rely on Daenerys to make a small fuss.

Thinking of this, Hall couldn't help but say, "Simon, Melisandra already has so many brands, more than 80, covering all aspects, and it is still expanding. Sophie... Well, I mean, can Melisandra's management team really manage such a huge industrial cluster?"

Simon could feel the little sourness in the woman's tone and said with a smile: "It was really not easy before. Now, in the information age, company management is also keeping pace with the times. In recent years, Sophie has been trying to build an information management system covering the entire Melisandra Group. Through a large amount of data collection and analysis involving various operation links of fashion brands, all brands in the group can achieve as template-based unified management as possible in production, marketing, sales, and even after-sales. At present, this system has achieved a little success. After further improvement, it is not a problem to expand more brands."

Jerry Hall obviously didn't understand much. After hearing Simon's words, his eyes were still confused.

Simon patiently explained: "This is actually a new economic model that accompanies the arrival of the information age, called platform economy. For example, the Amazon Mall under Igret is just an e-commerce transaction system, which can install many brands. If you have experienced online shopping, it should be clear, right?"

Platform economy is familiar to later generations, but now Simon quietly proposed a business concept for reference and implementation by the heads of various companies in the Westeros system.

Simon also made considerable expansion.

Not only social networks, search engines, and e-commerce, new technology information platforms such as new technology information platforms can actually be applied at the physical industry level, combined with the current Internet big data technology.

Melisandra is a case.

Moreover, Simon is almost a capitalist instinctively, and has been implementing similar ideas into the industries involved in the Westeros system.

For example, the Rovno Oblast in Ukraine is actually a big platform to some extent.

For example, in Australia, Johnston Holdings has extensive layout of global mining assets. In addition to steel, Johnston Holdings is constantly deploying all the key mining areas needed by modern society, which is actually building a super large platform.

In the final analysis, Simon personally summarized the new platform economy concept, the ultimate pursuit is still two words: monopoly! Monopolize resources, monopoly channels, monopoly pricing power, etc., control everything that can be controlled, and ultimately obtain excess profits.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Therefore, for the so-called platform economy, you can actually change some titles.

For example, e-commerce, mastering a super platform, setting rules, indirectly controlling the life and death of many companies and making huge profits from it, this is actually a "syndicate".

For example, Melisandra currently directly abolishes many luxury brands and forms a huge super fashion industry giant. In the past, this was called a "trust". Yes, it is the "trust" of the US "Sheerman Antitrust Act".

In addition, BHP Billiton, which is controlled by Johnston Holdings, has privately formed a tacit understanding with iron ore giants such as Vale in Brazil and Rio Tinto in the UK, and has formulated a price alliance, which is called a "cartel".

In the end, the entire Westeros system directly or indirectly controls large amounts of assets involving different fields of various industries and has a considerable dominance. This is actually the ultimate form of monopoly. "Kang Caien" is more common, "Caibol".

Nothing new, right!

Of course, in modern society, smart people will definitely not use these monopoly terms that are easily triggered by the wild growth era of capitalism, and therefore they will be re-created with new names, either neutral or positive.

The essence is still the same.

Regarding the Westeros system, Simon will definitely not be stupid enough to publicly claim that his business empire will become the world's largest economy. However, in private, it is not just Kang Caien, not just a super chaebol, not just a single economy. Simon's ultimate goal is to hope that the entire Westeros system can become a country.

Within this country, there is a distinct class, a strict organizational structure, its own violent machine, the independent right to collect taxes and coins to maintain the operation of this country, etc. The people of this country are called Westero private an.

Although the economic scale of the entire Westeros system has reached a level of equality with the world's forefront countries, there are still too many things to do to truly reach the level of a country.

Simon was not in a hurry, and kept pushing it quietly, deliberately making some hammers and sticks, which made people confused. However, in many aspects, they have actually been initially formed.

Inside Jerry Hall's restaurant.

Simon talked about Amazon, Hall then realized it, thought about it and said, "A unified management system may be a good idea. However, this may cause homogeneity among different brands, isn't it?"

"Yes," Simon didn't think the woman was picking, but gave an admiring look: "This is inevitable, and it was also something Sophie has been trying to avoid. Just like this Hermes, Melisandra never thought that she must take it, or even if she could gain control, she would delegate power to the original brand family and business management as much as possible, just considering this issue."

With the rapid development over the years, Melisandra's market value has exceeded the 100 billion US dollar mark in the second half of last year.

It's just a millennium now.

It can be imagined that if it continues to expand according to the current trend, it is not impossible for Melisandra to develop into a super fashion giant with a market value of 500 billion yuan or even higher level in more than ten years. With such a huge size, it is impossible to achieve everything, so there must be some choice.

...

Simon continued to stay in New York for two days, and before returning to the West Coast, Sophia also heard news from Europe.

As Simon expected, although the Hermes family initially responded fiercely, after negotiations, they accepted Melisandra's holdings in Hermes. After Sofia made a promise that she would no longer increase her holdings in Hermes within five years, the Hermes family agreed to accept Melisandra's representatives to move to the company's board of directors. At the same time, the two parties will carry out various cooperation in the future.

In addition, the French authorities also made a judgment on Melisandra's illegal absorption of shares in Hermes, fined 10 million francs, equivalent to less than 2 million US dollars.

Just three cups.

This is mainly the result of Sofia's continuous operation in France.

Even though the Westeros system has many conflicts with France, with the continuous rotation of political parties over the years, many things continue to fade.

This is the benefit of a typical Western country.

With the failure of the French Union-Defending Republican party in the 1997 elections a few years ago, and even the failure of the EU parliamentary elections again in 1999, the party once formed by Charles de Gaulle is now in a state of disintegration after continuous divisions and will definitely no longer be able to take into account the previous grievances with the Westeros system.

It would be great if you can't remember the grudge.

The wheels of election come and go, but the capital will last forever.

Therefore, Simon, a big capitalist, is still very revengeful to carry out various operations through various NGOs, importing illegal immigration into France or forming a gang network or forming a gang network. The French government has formed and cultivated its own spokespersons.

After all, the problem that money can solve is not a problem for Simon.

As for French fashion peers, the most direct stakeholders, such as LVMH, which was not as good as the industry leader, or Chanel, even if their development is not as good as those of LVMH, or brands such as Chanel, would definitely not want to see Hermes join the Westeros system, but at the same time, they would not be able to raise enough courage to fight against Melisandra, who is backed by the Westeros system.

The strength is too great.

Just like LVMH, the current market value is only more than 20 billion US dollars, which is just one-fifth of Melisandra's size. What's more, if you want to obstruct it, it is not as simple as offending Melisandra. There is also a more terrifying Westeros system behind it.

What's more, Melisandra did not force her too hard. Even if some people understand that this is boiling a frog in warm water, it is not too hot after all, but they can't jump out and make her head bleed.

Let’s talk about Hermes.

After the two parties agreed that Melisandra would no longer invest in Hermes shares within five years, the biggest change of the Hermes family was that they did not concentrate their family shares to establish an absolute holding fund of more than 50%, which undoubtedly gave Melisandra a further opportunity to take advantage of the situation in the future.

In fact, even if the shares are concentrated again, it is nothing.

Referring to the infighting of the Gucci family back then, the three monks had no water yet, not to mention that Hermes' shares were scattered among more than fifty family members. This time, Melisandra did not make the entire Hermes family share the same hatred for the enemy like LVMH.

In short, the next step is water grinding, and the future will be long.

Hermes has come to an end, but Melisandra's expansion will not be suspended. Sofia is also negotiating several European famous watch brands to further expand Melisandra's jewelry and watch business, including Cartier, which was also a flagship brand under the luxury giant Richemont Group in the original time and space. However, this time, due to the emergence of Melisandra, neither Kaiyun Group, which focuses on Gucci or Richemont Group, which has jewelry and watches as its core business, has been able to develop.

It is impossible to expand into a giant, and lacks the scale effect. In the current fashion industry environment, fashion companies that only hold a few brands will only become weaker and weaker, and the result will either sell themselves or completely decline.

John Rupert, a billionaire from South Africa, bought Cartier in 1988. Because of Melisandra's sudden emergence, John Rupert, who had planned to be a part of the fashion field, had to invest the assets transferred from South Africa in other fields. Without sufficient support, Cartier has gradually become lukewarm in recent years. It just so happened that the global economic situation is booming. At this time, he can sell a good price. After Melisandra sent the signal, John Rupert also gave a very positive response.

...

On the other hand, back to the West Coast, Simon's first stop was San Francisco.

Time entered March 2000.

Simon arrived in the Bay Area mainly to pay attention to another brand new ‘platform’ that will be released soon.

i-wave x-10.

It was the game console that started development more than two years ago.

Simon initially planned to use it as a philosophical approach, using Microsoft's X-wave x as the name of the Tinkobaier, Egret and Daenerys teamed up to launch the host. The reason why he finally decided to replace it with I-wave x was of course not just to maintain the consistency of the naming of Tinkobaier's products.

Since we used ‘i’ as the beginning, it is not difficult to imagine that we will first determine the networking attributes of this game console product.

You should know that the game consoles of the same period, whether it is Sony's PS2, Microsoft's X-wave X, Nintendo's SFC, or Sega's Dreamst, were not connected to the Internet. Even the mainstream Sony PS3, PS4, etc. were not connected to the Internet.

As for the reason, it was because of technical limitations before, in addition to cost, it was mainly the manufacturer's concerns about piracy. To put it bluntly, just like when the video tape appeared, Hollywood was facing a great enemy. The complex sentiment of game console manufacturers towards the Internet, thinking about how many console games have taken away from online games, you can imagine it.

Therefore, X-wave x is changed to i-wave x. For the same reason, many senior executives from Tinkobaier and other three companies are also quite worried.

In the end, Simon made the decision.

Similarly, the reference is to the rich profits that the video recorder ultimately brings to Hollywood, blocking progressive technology from the door, often leaving oneself behind until it is completely eliminated.

Furthermore, the original plan for the i-wave x-10 was supposed to be released at the end of 1999, and it was postponed to this year's Tinkobaier spring press conference, which is also because various plans cannot keep up with changes.

For example, whether it is Simon or the three senior executives, they certainly hoped to design their own designs and then let the fabs produce their foundries, but later gave up. On the one hand, the ARM architecture that Tinkobaier later promoted cannot support the current game consoles, and the PowerPC architecture obtained from the acquisition of Apple has become backward compared to X86. After considering it, choose outsourcing.

In addition, whether to outsource to Intel or AMD, it was another negotiation, and chose AMD, who was willing to make more concessions.

There are also operating systems, design and procurement of various components, online game malls after determining the networking function, etc. In short, in the end, a host that is only the size of a large dictionary is a very cumbersome project to complete.

There are also the results of Simon's continuous excellence.

Simon is very aware of the setbacks that Microsoft's first generation X-wave X encountered. Therefore, even if the product launch is repeatedly delayed, he does not intend to launch a semi-finished product. After all, a game console will have a lifespan of five to ten years. If it fails at the beginning, it will not be easy to change the design plan during the period.

So until now.

Simon was following the whole process in person, and this time he came to Los Angeles was the last time he confirmed.
Chapter completed!