After receiving the conditions issued by Simon, the Hurst family fell silent again.

If it were before all this storm began, even if you lost ESPN shares and paid a huge compensation of US$370 million, the Hurst family would not be hurt.

It's different now.

Due to the comprehensive ban and litigation bombing of the Westeros system, the continuous abandonment of business partners and the exposure of murder scandals, the large-scale unsubscribe of its newspapers and magazines, the assets of the Hurst Group have recently depreciated at a speed that is visible to the naked eye.

Just as Simon has 100% control over Westeros, the Hurst family also firmly controls all the shares of the Hurst Group, the final parent company of the Hurst Media Empire through personal holdings of family members and family trusts.

Although many of its newspapers, magazines and TV assets have joint venture components, most of the losses in this storm still need to be borne by the Hurst family.

As the business conditions deteriorate, its own cash flow is exhausted, external financing channels such as bank loans and bond issuance have been cut off. Hurst Group now wants to raise $370 million, but it can only sell its assets.

However, not only are the major newspapers and magazines under the Hearst Group's assets depreciated significantly recently, but the potential buyers will not miss this opportunity to further reduce prices. If the Hurst family wants to cash out by selling assets, they can only sell at most half of the price before the storm in the short term. That is to say, if they want to raise $370 million in funds, the Hurst Group will have to pay a price equivalent to the initial double.

As ESPN shares, the Hurst family only solves the troubles in the Westeros system, which is equivalent to paying $1 billion.

Even though many people in the Hurst family understand that the best way to survive is to cut off their arms, it is difficult to convince themselves and other members of the family to suffer such a one-time loss of $1 billion in fatal bleeding, and would rather lose a little blood and die.

Of course, Simon would not pay attention to the conditions after he would not give them the conditions.

Under the operation of the Westeros system, the media continues to criticize the Hurst Group in high intensity. Under the pressure of public opinion, the federal authorities have recently launched other investigations against the Hurst Group.

Because William Hurst III's escape from crime, after the Doris Fercher family also filed a sky-high claim of up to $600 million, in order to avoid William Hurst III's transfer of assets, federal authorities also urgently seized the stocks, properties and other assets under William III's name.

Not only did William III assistant Roger Halls, who has been arrested and failed to pay enough bail and continue to be detained, other members of the Hurst family and some senior executives of the Hurst Group were frequently summoned by the FBI's Doris Fitcher murder task force to cooperate with the investigation.

The murder case has been rampant and continues to erode the credibility of the Hurst Group.

Simon did not make people publicly monitor the entire process of Doris Fercher's suicide by swallowing medicine, because it could easily remind the public of not saving him. However, this evidence that could completely lose the room for reversal of the case was not ignored, but he would not ignore it, but sent it to the FBI task force through anonymous channels.

On the other hand, under the instigation of media and public opinion, the trend of unsubscribed to newspapers and magazines under the Hearst Group continues.

Many competitors of newspapers and magazines under the Hearst Group will naturally not miss this opportunity. Recently, they have launched various marketing promotional activities and spared no effort to seize user resources from the media under the Hearst Group. Apollo Management Company, a subsidiary of Cersei Capital, has specially established a support fund of about US$200 million to provide financing for newspapers and magazines that compete with media under the Hearst Group.

The decline in the US print media industry is unstoppable.

If it were decades ago, Hurst Group could have survived until after the storm, it could regain its lost market share through various means. Now, due to the overall shrinkage of American print media users, this kind of user loss is basically irreversible.

The Hurst Group is slow to move. Under the influence of the Westeros system and other capital forces, many newspapers and magazines under the Hurst Group are unwilling to sit still and wait for death.

During this period, the joint venture shareholders of seven newspapers under the Hirst Group have already proposed to buy back the newspaper shares in the Hirst Group. They even asked the authorities to intervene and actively promote the transaction on the grounds that the Hurst Group was deeply involved in the scandal that affected the newspaper itself and the work of employees.

Of course, the offers of these joint venture shareholders are very low.

It can be said that under the pressing of the Westeros system, if the Hurst family cannot cut off their power as soon as possible, the old media group will fall apart in at most one year due to the overall deterioration of the business conditions of the company.

After the weekend, Simon and Janet flew to the East Coast together, but Veronica stayed in Los Angeles this week to assist Daenerys Entertainment management in some audit work before the listing roadshow.

The Hurst family is in turmoil, and the Westeros system is definitely not too easy during this period.

Not only do we need to deal with the public opinion storm caused by a series of revelations from the Hurst family, but also the vigilance and suppression of the continued rise of the Westeros system in all sectors of federal politics and business are also more frequent.

A series of lawsuits triggered in March against the Internet’s Big Three’s monopoly trust allegations of ‘Cisco-American Online-Igrit’, have now reached only three settlements, and the others have entered formal litigation proceedings.

The Westeros system is rich and powerful. If it is a simple lawsuit, it will be enough to fight many small businesses to go bankrupt. However, the potential large-scale antitrust risks brought by these lawsuits are something that the Westeros system has to be cautious about.

Therefore, it has to be admitted that the racist massacre in Rwanda in April not only removed the attention of the federal public from some explosions, but also greatly successfully concealed the various lawsuits faced by the Westeros system.

The Westeros system has spared no effort to crack down on the Hirst Group and its enlistment of other old-fashioned print media forces to a large extent, which has greatly curbed the North American media's motivation on the topic of "Westeros system monopolizing the Internet industry".

After the federal political circles rushed forward to "speak their opinions" against the Westeros system some time ago, although most targets were still in a verbal state, Washington was no longer so easy to talk to the Westeros system in many aspects. At least, all the bills previously promoted by the Westeros system have fallen into a state of stranding.

On the other hand, Cersei Capital's recent acquisition of State Street's asset management department has also encountered obstacles in Congress.

The House Financial Services Committee questioned the deal, asking Cersei Capital to explain how Black Rock Asset Management can still ensure the safety of investors' funds by 100%.

If Cersei Capital cannot make a guarantee, Congress will prevent further advancement of the merger.

This kind of doubt is quite a scoundrel.

Because in the inquiry letter, the House did not define the "security of funds" it requires at all.

For various financial giants on Wall Street, ensuring the safety of investors' funds is the most basic requirement. The general rule is to actively inform investors when conducting major investment activities, not use funds to conduct transactions outside the contract, not conduct insider operations, etc.

If it were just these, Cersei Capital could of course guarantee it.

Although the overall asset scale of Black Rock Asset Management Company is very large, the investment purposes used by the dozens of sub-funds have been clearly defined in the contract. Many of the funds are even kept by Cersei Capital, and the investment decision-making power is still in the hands of investors.

However, after Cersei Capital responded to the House of Representatives' inquiry, the other party was still entangled.

After several temptations, Janet roughly figured out that the members of the House of Representatives probably wanted Black Rock Asset Management to make a promise that he would only make money but not lose money. This is what the other party calls "fund security".

There has never been a business in this world that only makes money but not lose money, and Wall Street has no such reason.

Ultimately, Washington is making things difficult for him and does not hope that the deal between Cersei Capital and State Street can be reached.

Many large mergers took two or three years to pass the federal government's approval, and this kind of thing is very common in the United States. However, the Simons and his wife are very clear about this transaction. If it is delayed for too long, it will only change.

Because unlike those physical companies, for Wall Street Financial Companies, investors not only value the profitability of these companies, but also care very much about corporate reputation, public opinion trends and legal risks. A slightly larger disturbance may lead to large-scale withdrawal of investors.

If it takes too long, State Street Bank withdraws its investment to ensure that its customers will not feel anxious, or it also realizes that it should not give up this part of its business easily, then this merger case may be ruined at any time.

The couple arrived on the East Coast, Simon stayed in New York, and Janet directly rushed to Washington.

And he also made up his mind that if the mediation with the House of Representatives is invalid, Cersei Capital will not hesitate to sue. After all, the intentional difficulties of the House Financial Services Committee are too obvious.

Connecticut, on a manor outside Greenwich City.

It is Wednesday, May 25th.

Instead of going to Manhattan in the morning, Simon met with the political lobbyist Paul Spicets who came from Wisconsin at Greenwich Manor.

Paul Spetz was once the head of Verizon's political lobbying department and the corporate affiliated political action committee. Some time ago, after the Westeros system's sniping plan for this year's midterm elections was launched, Paul Spetz, who grew up in Wisconsin, was sent to the local area to be responsible for sniping, the Wisconsin left-wing Democratic Congressman who has been targeting the Westeros system recently.

Now, Paul Spetz has become the campaign manager for Craig Ames's rival, Wisconsin's moderate Republican Senate candidate Robert Hotwell.

During this period, Paul Speitz worked in concert with his temporary employer to formulate a detailed and clear campaign program based on the specific situation of Wisconsin when the 1994 midterm elections were generally lacking in hot political issues.

Paul Spetz even went further, dividing voters in Wisconsin very carefully, formulating special campaign plans and propaganda slogans to accurately target different voter groups such as middle class, veterans, minorities, etc.

In fact, this kind of refined operation is not without precedent in the US political campaign. However, most political campaigns, even in the presidential election, need to face a very critical obstacle and funding problem to achieve such refined operation.

The money issue is the least problem for the Westeros system.

Although the federal campaign laws at this stage are still very strict and have many restrictions on political donations, it is not a problem to bypass these obstacles as long as you are willing.

For example, this time, the large number of voter surveys needed by Paul Speitz to control the team were conducted in the name of Westeros system such as American Online and Egret in Wisconsin local business surveys. This can not only allow Paul Speitz's team to obtain precious voter feedback data, but also save a lot of money in disguised position of the campaign team.

This model is not new in the US political campaign. Even if the matter is exposed or even subsequently investigated by the federal government, the result will be a mess.

The fierce election campaign in the second half of the year has not yet begun. Paul Speitz has spent more than $5 million in Westeros system just in Wisconsin, which is equivalent to the average campaign funding scale of every senator candidate this year.

However, Simon didn't care about this because he was very satisfied with the results of the political lobbyist's work.

Paul Spetz's precise idea of ​​designating special campaign planning for different voter groups has given Simon a feasible solution that can quickly push the political influence of the Westeros system to the entire United States.

After all, the fundamental thing about political campaigns is to attract votes. If you do anything to get votes from a variety of voters, you are the winner.

In many previous political campaigns, politicians often offended the lower-class groups while pleading with the middle class; while gaining favor with veterans, they offended the anti-war groups; and even when they gained votes from male voters, they offended a large number of female voters.

The result is often like a bear breaking a stick.

Even if some candidates think of targeted canvassing lobbying, they are often limited to factors such as campaign funds or campaign team organizational capabilities and cannot achieve true precise operations.

The Westeros system has sufficient capital and also has political ambitions that affect the trend of the entire federal political circle. Therefore, this refined operation plan, which is often a bit large and inappropriate for other politicians, is almost tailor-made for the Westeros system.

In the villa study, Simon and Paul Stipetz spent more than two hours discussing the matter in detail before turning the topic to the current sniper plan.

"In 1993, the average income of middle-class families in Wisconsin fell by 2.7% compared with 1992, far exceeding the national average of 1%. The unemployment rate also reached 8.6%, exceeding the national average of 6.4%. Employment issues are our focus this year."

Located in the Rust Belt area of ​​the Great Lakes where heavy industry in the United States declined, Wisconsin's economy has been in a recession for a long time. The deterioration of the US economic environment in recent years has made Wisconsin even worse.

Simon did not interrupt, but just signaled Paul Speitz to continue.

"In fact, economic issues are also the focus of Wisconsin's local government and members of the two houses of Congress over the years, and Craig Ames also attaches great importance to this issue. However, due to the economic recession across the country, the continued deterioration of the Wisconsin economy is an established fact. As long as we operate properly, the public will not know the efforts of politicians such as Craig Ames. They will only see the economy of their states continue to decline, the unemployment rate continues to rise, and the family income is declining again and again. Then, our candidates can take advantage of the momentum."

"At the same time, Craig Ames has been pushing for increased subsidies to low-income families and minorities over the past few years, and voted in favor of the federal fuel tax bill last year, which indirectly harmed the interests of the middle class that accounts for most of Wisconsin, which happened to have a decline in average incomes in recent years, and their lives are not easy. Craig Ames is subsidizing the bottom of society in a way that harms the interests of the middle class, which will make him lose further points in this election."

When Simon heard Paul Spetz say this, he suddenly said: "According to you, Craig Emes seems to be difficult to be re-elected even without our support. Do you think I still need you?"

This sudden problem is a bit sharp.

Paul Spetz was just stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Boss, these are the impressions I want to instill in Wisconsin voters. Judging from your performance, my strategy is very successful, so you need me."

Before the sniper plan was launched, the Westeros system investigated Craig Ames.

As a skilled veteran politician, although his political views are on the left, Craig Ames is also a practical person, so his local support rate in Wisconsin has always been very high.

The problem just now is just a small test of the excitement.

He nodded, and Simon said, "Paul, you can continue."

Paul Spetz temporarily gave up on his intention to think about the small problem just now, and then said: "In addition, we have also dug up some of the black materials from Craig Ames during this period, and we plan to release them at the right time in the second half of the year."

In this year's midterm elections, due to the lack of clear political issues, many campaigns have become more dirty games to expose scandals.

Paul Spetz said and handed a document to Simon, saying, "Craig Ames himself is relatively clean, he has no gray income, no secret lover, and his background is very ordinary. However, in order to build his own connections, this politician has written university recommendation letters for many Wisconsin students in the past few years. Boss, you know, the recommendation letter at the Congressional Senate level is very helpful for admission to prestigious Ivy League schools. Ordinary colleges and universities in each state are even more like direct admission tickets. Craig Ames' recommendation letter is of course not short of students with excellent character and academic performance, but most of them are children of wealthy people, so the problem lies here."

Simon opened the folder and saw a copy of the recommendation letter, recommending a student named Paul Scotter to the University of Wisconsin.

Paul Spetz waited for Simon to open the document and continued: "This Paul Scotter is the son of a local food company owner in Wisconsin. Because the Scotter family is the main supporter of Craig Ames, two years ago Craig Ames issued this letter of recommendation for Paul Scotter to help the young man whose SAT score is far from meeting the admission standards to enter the University of Wisconsin. Then, according to our investigation, Scotter has been suspected of assaulting at least six girls at the University of Wisconsin in the past two years, and the matter has been suppressed by the Scotter family. All we need to do is to break this up and exaggerate the unscrupulous wealthy children supported by Craig Ames will arbitrarily infringe on civilian girls on the university campus. This scandal will directly impact Craig Ames's base voter base."
Chapter completed!