The female assistant was the second person to know Simon's idea of ​​acquiring Bell Atlantic Ocean, and the first one was naturally Janet.

Simon plans to end his trip to San Francisco and rush to New York to discuss with senior executives of Westeros and Cersei Capital at the same time the feasibility of launching the two-line operation of the MCA acquisition and the Bell Atlantic acquisition.

This trip to San Francisco was mainly for the matter of Igret and American Online.

Igret's problem is very simple, the company has no money again.

After Carol Butz and Jeff Bezos jointly took over Igret, Simon's recent work results have been quite satisfied.

Through continuous investment in technology research and development, Igrit continued to consolidate the company's patent barriers in the technology field of World Wide Web. The software sales business quickly opened up with Carol Butz's years of work experience in the industry. The number of users of the portal website continued to increase, and it also successfully launched the Internet advertising business, etc.

All of these mean a large amount of capital consumption.

Simon is very clear about what the hundreds of core patents for the WWW technology that Egret has mastered means. The complete set of graphical interface browser software, server software, web design software and other application tools based on the WWW technology that Egret has developed and completed are software products with very solid business prospects.

Therefore, Simon plans to invest another $50 million this time to continue the development and promotion of World Wide Web technology.

At the beginning of its establishment, the total share capital was 10 million shares, of which Westeros accounted for 9 million shares with an investment of US$10 million, and Tim Berners Lee held another 1 million shares. The last time the capital injection of US$20 million, the total share capital of Egrter doubled. The number of shares held by Tim Berners Lee remained unchanged, and it was still 1 million shares, but the shareholding ratio decreased to 5%.

This time, Simon did not let the professional asset appraisal team intervene and personally finalized the valuation of Igrit Company at $50 million. For a startup technology company that has not yet formed stable revenue, this number is a bit high, but Simon believes that the valuation of Igrit value.

On the other hand, Simon still did not deliberately squeeze the shareholding ratio of Tim Berners Lee. He has always been very fond of the founder of World Wide Web. Therefore, as last time, he provided Lee with a plan to maintain his shareholding ratio through loans.

However, Tim Berners Lee did not accept it this time, and he was very satisfied with his holdings and his current work.

Although Simon plans to give away part of the equity of Igret to the company's executives and employees at the right time, he will not give the equity to someone in vain.

As a result, the total share capital of Igrit doubled again to 40 million shares. Westeros' shareholding in Igrit increased to 97.5%, Tim Berners Lee's shareholding ratio decreased to 2.5%, and the number of shares held was still 1 million shares.

In terms of American Online, it is mainly about Steve Case's exclusive agreement negotiations.

Although Simon plans to acquire a regional telecommunications company in advance, the development pace of AOL will not be adjusted in the short term. As long as it can sign exclusive agreements with three regional telecom operators, Bell Atlantic, NYNEX and Bell Pacific, the development of AOL will achieve twice the result with half the effort in the next few years.

Of course, the biggest problem with this matter is funding.

Unlike Tim Berners Lee, shareholders of the United States Online, propose that after the agreement is negotiated, they plan to raise funds for the first year of the three companies in the form of loans and other forms of self-raised funds.

The three companies still insist on paying exclusive fees based on the overall number of users, but there is still a lot of room for negotiation. In the end, the exclusive fee will probably be reduced to about USD per household, just as the female assistant predicted at breakfast last time. At that time, the amount of over 20 million will be completely within the credit capacity of AOL.

This time, Simon also had a rough understanding of the operation status of the 100 Internet cafes under AOL.

After one month of opening, thanks to its outstanding promotion in the early stage and the public's curiosity about this brand new leisure and entertainment venue, the total revenue of 100 Internet cafes under AOL reached US$2.06 million in the first month, and the average turnover of each Internet cafe exceeds US$20,000.

If the preliminary investment is not considered, except for store rent, employee salaries and power grid expenses, in just this month, the American Online Internet cafe chain generated a gross profit of US$530,000.

If this business situation continues, AOL will be able to recover its early investment in about two years.

Because of the demonstration role of these 100 Internet cafes, some people have begun to contact American Online to open a franchise chain store.

Moreover, a month ago, the number of users who received customized Internet access coupons through the Internet cafe channel under the United States Online reached more than 2,600, which is equivalent to 5% of the proportion of US Online's Internet access users during the same period. This is what Simon values ​​the most.

The fundamental purpose of Simon's suggestion to open an Internet cafe was to guide people to become familiar with and access the Internet.

It only brought more than 2,600 new users in the first month, and the conversion rate far exceeded the initial expectations of the American Online team. It can be imagined that with the continuous improvement of the IE browser functions and the further increase of content services that the IGRENT portal can provide, more people will definitely prefer to access the Internet at their homes.

Since this goal has been achieved and will continue, AOL does not intend to hold this ‘Internet Bar’ subsidiary in his hands.

It’s still a bit long to make a profit after two years.

Palo Alto A.O.O.

After ending the discussion meeting on the progress of the negotiation of the exclusive agreement between the three telecom operators, Simon and Steve Case stayed alone in the conference room, and Steve Case talked about the Internet Bar.

"We have been in contact with several private equity funds on Wall Street, three of which are interested in Internet Bar. The highest 50% stake in AOL gave a quote of $10 million, and I think it should be possible to talk about $15 million in the end. If cash out in advance, most of the first year of our exclusive agreement with the three Bell Atlantic companies will be solved."

Since he didn't plan to make money with these 100 Internet cafes from the beginning, Simon actually didn't oppose cashing out.

However, it is definitely a bit of a loss to sell it after just one month of opening.

Whether it is US$10 million or US$15 million, it is just a quote for 50% of the existing 100 Internet cafes. If you operate it patiently for one or two years and develop the Internet Bar into a larger chain operation system, the value of this company will definitely increase significantly.

Simon waited for Steve Case to finish speaking and asked, "Where is IBM?"

"IBM intends to continue to hold its own shares, but they are not opposed to us selling our shares. After we exit, IBM's team can take over the Internet Bar."

A behemoth like IBM with a market value of more than $50 billion recently would not care about a small startup like Internet Bar. To be precise, the last time it participated in the investment was only IBM's venture capital department. Every giant company would have a similar department.

Compared with the American Online, which urgently needs funds, IBM's investment team understands that Internet Bar still has a lot of room for appreciation, so naturally there is no need to choose to cash out too quickly.

Simon understood why Steve Case lacked patience in this matter. The AOL team was worried that he would continue to spend money to dilute the shareholding ratio of other shareholders. After thinking for a while, he did not insist, saying, "Since you think it's appropriate, then sell it. However, be sure to ensure Internet Bar and AOL cooperate in user promotion."

Steve Case saw Simon let out and nodded, "I understand that this matter was actually under the negotiation conditions of my contact with those private equity funds. By the way, Simon, if Cersei Capital is interested in the Internet Bar, $13 million is enough."

AOL has invested only US$3.5 million in the Internet cafe project, and even if it sells for US$13 million, it can still get nearly 300%.

Simon shook his head, he had discussed this matter with Janet a long time ago.

Cersei Capital is a very important layout for Simon on Wall Street. Unless necessary, he does not intend to intersect Cersei Capital with too many businesses under Westeros, which is easy to cause conflicts of interest and criticism. There is no need to take advantage of $2 million.

"Cersei Capital will not participate in this matter," Simon refused, and said again: "Speak another thing, you should know that I have made a lot of money overseas in the past two years."

Seeing Simon refuse, Steve Case breathed a sigh of relief. $2 million is nothing to Simon, but AOL now needs to care about every little expense.

Then when Simon changed the subject, Steve Case nodded and waited for him to continue.

Simon continued: "The Kuwait War has caused the federal stock market to fall recently, and now is a good time to expand. My recent idea is to acquire a regional telecommunications company, with the initial goal of one of the three companies that AOL is negotiating."

Steve Case showed a surprised expression on his face, and after a moment of calmness, he smiled and said, "Simon, I thought you would use that money to acquire a large Hollywood studio. Daenerys Entertainment's foundation is not as deep-rooted as the seven studios."

Simon knew that this was probably the idea of ​​many people, and laughed: "A lot of things are not sure. This time I just say hello to you first. I will go to New York tomorrow and I will officially discuss this with James and the others. In addition, even if you acquire a regional telecommunications company, the whole process will take about a year. So, everything on the same side of AOL is as usual. What you have to do is to negotiate the exclusive agreement before the end of September as much as possible. Also, remember to keep it confidential."

Steve Case solemnly agreed, but he couldn't help but think about which company Simon's target was.

Although Simon is permanently located on the West Coast, Case thinks it shouldn't be Bell Pacific.

The name Bell Pacific sounds more generous than Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, but in fact it is the smallest among the three companies and should also be the smallest among the seven small Bells. Its business scope is limited to two states, California and Nevada.

NYNEX includes the abbreviation of New York and New England. Several states in the northeastern United States, including Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, etc., are very small in size and are called the New England region due to historical reasons.

NYNEX, one of the seven Bells, also operates in both areas and is equally divided with the Bell Atlantic Ocean's Boston-Washington metropolitan area.

Because Pennsylvania and Virginia, where the Bell Atlantic is located, are both continents in terms of area and population, the scale is slightly better than NYNEX.

Steve Keys feels that with Simon's appetite, the acquisition targets can only be the West Coast's NYNEX and Bell Atlantic, and more likely the latter.

However, since Simon did not reveal more to him, Steve Case did not find the bottom line. Any of the three potential target companies is a behemoth for AOL. The multi-billion-dollar acquisition is not something he can participate in.

Of course, if Simon's goal was really achieved, Steve Case could also imagine how much benefit it would have to AOL. During this period, he racked his brains to sign exclusive agreements with the three companies in order to gain access to his telecom network.

Huge buyout funds are not just for a simple and empty exclusive agreement.

As long as the plan is reached, the three companies will open their network permissions to the United States Online. The United States Online will no longer need to invest huge amounts of money to spend time and effort to lay its own network lines. It only needs to complete the construction of the backbone cable and server, connect to the network of the three companies, and then install a modem in the homes of telephone users covered by these networks, which will be able to easily achieve users' access to the Internet.

After ending the matter with AOL, Simon also went to Cisco headquarters.

Westeros has completed an increase in Cisco's shares, with a shareholding ratio of 57.5% of the absolute holding.

Because the US stock market has been falling recently due to the impact of the Kuwait War, Cisco's IPO plan that was originally being promoted has slowed down. Simon did not ask Cisco's team to completely stop preparing for the IPO. After all, no one knows better than him the economic downturn will probably last.

It was Thursday in a blink of an eye.

I woke up early in the morning, ran in the Woodside Mountains as usual, and planned to fly to New York after breakfast. Because of Simon's schedule, Janet remained there and planned to spend the weekend on the East Coast together.

Shuving through the cool mountain road, passing by a fork in the road, a middle-aged man in sportswear followed from the other side.

Simon glanced at the other party and greeted him with a smile: "Good morning, Larry."

Larry Ellison knew from Simon's smile that the young man had seen through him that he had appeared here on purpose. Fortunately, he was thick-skinned and there was nothing unusual on his unshaven hairy face. Instead, he grinned enthusiastically and responded with a cheerful and cheerful smile: "Good morning, Simon."

The bodyguards following Simon saw that the two met each other, and then slowed down a little further.

The two jogged side by side for dozens of meters, and Larry Ellison took the initiative to speak: "Simon, Westeros has recently increased its stake in Oracle to 15%. Do you still want to buy it?"

Simon said: "Oracle's stock price is so cheap recently. If you can buy more, you must take action. I am very optimistic about this company."

Larry Ellison didn't know if Simon was laughing at him.

Oracle's stock price in recent months is indeed very low. Compared with the single stock price of $28 in the past 12 months, Oracle's stock price has recently fallen to around $8, a drop of 70%. The market value has also dropped from the highest $3.6 billion to $1 billion now, which is a terrible sight.

Due to the continued decline in stock prices, many shareholders have been selling Oracle stocks in the overall situation during this period.

However, in a recent increase filing file submitted by Westeros to the SEC, its shareholding in Oracle increased to 15% against the trend, and it increased by 4% in just one month.

Larry Ellison holds only 33% of Oracle, and Oracle does not have a multiple equity structure that allows him to maintain absolute control of the company. If Simon is allowed to buy this, his control over Oracle will be in danger.
Chapter completed!