Jonathan Friedman and others are still waiting for him at MA headquarters, and in the afternoon everyone is going to discuss the heroine of "Instinct", and Simon has recently taken a fancy to a candidate for the heroine. After a few words with Amy, Simon left the company office building, and Jennifer followed the car with a stack of papers.

As the SUV shuttled through the streets of Los Angeles, Jennifer handed Simon a memo of the meeting and said, "Dad held a conference call with SUN executives this morning to confirm his participation in the board of directors of this company. So far, we have secured board seats in 16 companies. Dad said that Apple and a few others are actually very promising, don't you really plan to join?"

Simon flipped through the memo in his hand.

Sun-Microsystems-Inc., a new technology company that produces servers and workstations, developed the powerful Java language.

Simon's memory shows that SUN's market capitalization at the height of the dot-com bubble once exceeded $200 billion. However, after the dot-com bubble burst, the company began to decline rapidly for various reasons, and was eventually acquired by Oracle.

During last year's stock price crash, Westeros began to buy bottoms when SUN was worth around $850 million. Counting the recent small additions, Simon spent less than $45 million on a 5% stake in Sun.

If history doesn't change, the stake will be worth $10 billion at the peak of SUN's market capitalization in the future.

However, the potential return on investment ratio of SUN is clearly not comparable to Microsoft's.

Simon bought a 4.9 percent stake in Microsoft for only $56 million last year, and in the latest increase, he unwittingly increased the number of shares to 3 million shares, which is exactly 6% compared to Microsoft's total share capital of 50 million shares at this time.

According to the peak of Microsoft's market value of $600 billion in 2000, just this 6% Microsoft stake will increase Simon's personal wealth by $36 billion.

Therefore, whether it is SUN or Microsoft, the next few years are Simon's key targets for increasing holdings. Simon plans to increase its stake in these companies to at least 10 percent or more.

In comparison, Simon is not so interested in Apple now.

Simon spent about $150 million on Apple's 4.9 percent stake at the company's lowest point of around $3 billion last year, more than Microsoft and SUN combined, behind Motorola's $250 million and Intel's $170 million.

However, according to the information in memory, Apple's market value will begin to flourish and decline after exceeding $7 billion in the next few years, and Simon naturally has no intention of holding it for a long time.

Reading the meeting memo in his hand carefully, Simon heard Jennifer's question and said, "Last time, I made a promise to join the board of directors for three years without reducing my holdings." Westeros certainly won't be able to sustain three years with the money it has now, so we have to be selective and selective to join the board now. ”

Jennifer nodded, said something else, and said, "Also, before today's closing, we have bought 1.23 million shares of New World Entertainment stock at an average price of about $7.5, and the total expenditure is about $9 million. The total share capital of New World Entertainment is 25 million shares, and we happen to be stuck at about 4.9% of the report. After filing with the SEC next Monday, the stock price is sure to rise sharply as the news becomes public, and Dad plans to continue to absorb it under $10 before making a takeover offer to New World Entertainment. ”

Due to problems in the capital chain, the current share price of New World Entertainment is well below its actual value. In the acquisition package previously discussed by Simon and James, a 50% premium was capped on the final transaction price.

Simon said: "This matter, just let your father follow the plan, there is no need to tell me all the details." ”

Jennifer answered, handed over another thick folder, and said: "Also, this is some aircraft information you asked me to collect a few days ago, the price on the document is only the public quotation of the airline, and in the actual transaction process, buyers can usually get a certain discount." ”

In order to meet the needs of work travel with Amy, James and others, Simon decided to buy a business jet a few days ago and randomly asked Jennifer to collect some information.

Glancing out the car window, there was still some distance from the MA headquarters, Simon opened the folder and asked Jennifer, "Do you have a favorite type? ”

Although the man next to him didn't look at him, Jennifer's gaze still dodged slightly, and said, "This, of course, is your own decision." ”

Simon smiled, looked at the latest Gulfstream IV business jet information in front of him, and said: "Speaking of which, I haven't officially thanked you for the videotape, if you have a favorite type, this time I will buy it according to your mind." ”

Listening to Simon's relaxed tone, Jennifer was a little dissatisfied, and couldn't help but say: "It's yours to buy it, it's so insincere." ”

Simon glanced at Jennifer and noticed that she tied her hair back up today, revealing her fair neck: "If I change the ownership of this plane to your name, will your dad think there is something about the two of us and beat me up." ”

Jennifer felt Simon's gaze, shrunk her neck, and shook her head, "My dad won't, Miss Johnston will, maybe I'll be beaten too." ”

Simon pretended to hesitate and shook his head: "Then forget it, it's not cost-effective to be beaten even though it's nothing." ”

Jennifer's face immediately turned red, and a certain image resurfaced in her mind.

Noticing that Simon turned his gaze to the information in front of him, he raised his hand, carefully touched the back of his head, and secretly pulled off the ribbon tied in his hair, feeling the hair that was spread out, and then he relaxed a little.

I thought he hadn't noticed, and just as he was about to quietly put the ribbon in his satchel, a voice came from her ear: "This doesn't look good." ”

Oh, my God.

Resisting the urge to jump out of the car and run away, Jennifer grabbed her satchel and mustered up the courage to glare at Simon: "I won't let you see it." ”

Feeling a slight trilling in the girl's tone, Simon stopped ridiculing and focused entirely on the aircraft information in front of him, although he was still a little unclear.

Due to the lax air traffic control system, the private jet industry in the West is very developed, and the price is not too high.

According to the information in Simon's hand, the latest Gulfstream IV luxury business jet, with a total passenger capacity of about 20 people and a cruising range of nearly 8,000 kilometers, is currently only $16 million. According to Jennifer just said, this price can also be discounted.

Of course, cheapness is certainly only relative.

According to the latest media statistics, Simon's current net worth of about $1.6 billion is enough for him to squeeze into the top 50 of this year's Forbes rich list. What's more, most of Simon's assets are stock assets that can be quickly converted into cash, which further enhances the gold content of his personal wealth.

By comparison, many billionaires about Simon's net worth won't necessarily be able to easily come up with $16 million in cash to buy a private jet.

Looking through some of the smaller business jet brands in front of him, Simon quickly saw some models that he was more interested in.

Boeing 747-300, with a price tag of $120 million.

That's Simon's ultimate goal.

At present, the Boeing 747-400 is still in the development stage, and the Boeing 747-300 is the latest model in the Boeing large aircraft series. Such a model is enough to connect to any two locations on the planet when fully fueled. With a six-story fuselage, a body length of 70 meters, and a spacious interior, there is no problem in building a swimming pool.

But.

Simon can only look at the $120 million cost, although it is almost twice as cheap as the same type of large passenger aircraft more than a decade later, and he can afford it, but he can't buy it now.

It's too flamboyant.

If Simon buys it now, he will definitely be drowned in the spitting stars of the entire North American media.

Even if Simon doesn't care about this, buying such a Big Mac, parking and maintenance problems will definitely make him anxious. In the final analysis, it is a question of heritage. If the Rockefeller family had bought such an airplane, even if it would still have been criticized, more people would have taken it for granted.

As for Simon Westeros.

All right.

Upstart.

The car pulled up outside the MA headquarters on Camino Street, and Simon had made a smart decision to buy a Gulfstream IV first. Compared to the large Boeing, the small aircraft also has a short delivery deadline, and can be delivered after three months after the order is placed.

Entering the MA headquarters with Jennifer, Jonathan Friedman, Brian De Palma and others were already waiting for Simon.

For more than a year, Simon has changed from what it used to be, but the turmoil within MA has not stopped.

At the beginning of the new year, Ed Limato, one of MA's vice presidents, took a large number of stars under his name, such as Mel Gibson, Steve Martin, Denzel Wastington, Michelle Pfeiffer, etc., to ICM, which once again hurt MA's vitality.

In Simon's view, this is almost inevitable.

MA is still firmly controlled by Norman Broca and several other old men, and Ed Limatto is unlikely to go further in the short term, but the gold agent jumped ship to ICM and immediately won the title of partner and co-president of ICM.

After Ed Limatto jumped ship, due to the agency of Brian De Palma, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock and Simon and a number of top filmmakers, coupled with the support of MA Chairman Lou Weiss, Jonathan, who was not too conspicuous among a bunch of vice presidents, has unwittingly become a popular candidate for the next president of MA.

Simon is actually very interested in the talent agency industry.

However, due to California's Talent Brokerage Act restrictions, agents are not allowed to enter the production field, and likewise, film companies cannot get involved in the talent agency industry. Simon can only slightly interfere with the changes in the pattern of the talent agency industry based on his limited influence, but he cannot affect the overall situation.

In a large conference room at MA headquarters.

Simon greeted everyone one by one, and soon came to a tall brunette actress, who was none other than Simon's chosen heroine of "Instinct", Linda Fiorentino.

In the original time and space, Linda Fiorentino's most well-known character is the female forensic doctor in "Men in Black".

However, Simon chose the other party because she starred in another film "The Last Temptation", which was a 1995 film in the original time and space and is a thriller genre that clearly follows "Instinct". Linda Fiorentino's femme fatale in the film skillfully plays with the men around her between applause.

After the release of "The Last Temptation", Linda Fiorentino's performance won almost unanimous praise from critics. It was only because the movie was first broadcast on HBO and did not meet the Oscar selection criteria that the actress unfortunately failed to get the Oscar nomination that year.

Simon shook hands with Linda Fiorentino, and everyone sat down around the table.

The other day, after Simon picked Linda Fiorentino in a group of actress profiles, he had an audition scheduled for her and Michael Douglas. The results are also very satisfying.

Michael Douglas didn't show up again today, the audition tape was shown, and Brian De Palma agreed, and everyone discussed the details of the film and the contract with Linda Fiorentino's agent, George Lipton.

Several large men were discussing enthusiastically, and a somewhat hoarse female voice said, with obvious dissatisfaction, "Isn't there anyone who wants to ask my opinion?"

Simon and the others looked over together, and Linda Fiorentino's agent, George Lipton, hurriedly said: "Linda, in this way, you can go back first, I will call you after work." ”

Linda Fiorentino glanced at her agent, did not speak, reached out and seemed to fumble in the pocket of her jeans for a moment, took out a box of cigarettes, completely ignored George Lipton's almost begging expression, continued to take out the lighter, lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, spit out the green smoke, and then looked directly at Simon: "Mr. Westeros, George handed me the resume, I didn't say I wanted to play this role." ”

Simon looked at the woman's style with interest, and suddenly remembered some rumors in his memory about this actress being very difficult, but just smiled and said: "Then you didn't refuse, and you cooperated with the audition?"

Linda Fiorentino said: "I just wanted to try what it was like to play with a big star like Douglas. ”

Simon was good-natured and said, "So, now?"

Linda Fiorentino skillfully flicked the cigarette ash and said, "Your script is very good, but there are more nude scenes, if I can delete some of these scenes, I can agree to play it." ”

Simon directly made a gesture of invitation and said, "Ms. Fiorentino, if you are asking for this, you can go out now." ”

Linda Fiorentino didn't move, nor did she show a weak expression, she took a slow puff of cigarette again, looked at Simon, and said, "Mr. Westeros, as far as I know, "Instinct" will start filming next month, and the schedule is very tight. You can't find a second actor who is more suitable than me in a short period of time. ”

Simon shook his head and said, "Actually, I already had a very suitable candidate in my heart before you, but I hate the other party more, so I don't plan to use her." So, you want to make yourself more annoying than she is?"