James Raybould arrived at NB TV headquarters in Midtown Manhattan at seven o'clock in the morning.

Simon doesn't like to be in front of the media, but he has to face a lot of things. Today I'm going to take part in an interview on the NB Morning News program to answer some of the recent media discussions and controversies about Westeros.

After spending more than half an hour reconfirming the rest of the interview with assistants, media publicists and producers, James was guided to the studio entrance at 7:40 a.m.

At $21 billion, an astonishing figure, this is the latest personal net worth of Simon Westeros on the magazine's list of America's 400 richest people launched on Monday. Compared to last year, the 22-year-old super-rich man's personal net worth has increased by $15 billion in the past year, which is equivalent to a net profit of $41 million a day. ”

"What kind of magic did Simon Westeros have, and how did he quickly accumulate such a huge personal fortune? Today, we have asked Mr. James Raybould, President of Westeros, to share with us the rise of Westeros. ”

Deborah Nowell, the show's hostess, finished her presentation and got up to shake hands with James, who entered the studio.

In front of the televisions of countless homes on Sunday mornings.

The audience who originally heard Deborah Nowell's statement and thought that Simon Westeros would appear in person was disappointed, but not many people changed the channel.

After making a cameo appearance at Madonna's concert at the end of June, Simon began to avoid the public eye again, and the recent media hype about the new issue of the US 400 rich list is enough to satisfy the public's curiosity to a large extent.

In the studio, after a few simple greetings, Deborah Nowell began to cut to the topic and said, "Jim, first let me ask a question that everyone is most concerned about, what is Simon doing these days?"

"It's mainly about movies, Daenerys Entertainment has a lot of projects in the pipeline lately, and Simon has been traveling around the federation this week. ”

"Sounds busy," Deborah Nowell teased with a laugh and asked, "So, how did he react when he found out where he was on the list this year?"

"I'm glad it's a great thing after all. ”

"It's really remarkable, from 1986 to now, Simon has done all this in just four years, and he's only 22 years old now. As the president of Westeros, Jim, you know him very well, why do you think he was able to create what he is today, or is he really a psychic?"

The hostess's final tone was a bit of a light-hearted joke.

James smiled as well and said, "Simon often jokes about being a psychic in his life, but he's not. He also said that he really wanted to be a psychic, so that he could prove that there are ghosts in this world, and if that happens, it means that death is not the end of everything, and we don't need to fear death anymore. ”

These words were actually said by the female assistant when chatting with his daughter, and James was impressed by them.

Deborah Nowell showed a look of realization, and said, "I never thought of this, and frankly, I used to be afraid of both death and ghosts, but now, I don't seem to care so much." ”

"Actually, so am I," James nodded in agreement, and took the initiative to answer Deborah's question just now, "Simon is a very special person, he is not only capable in many aspects, but also has extraordinary foresight and creativity, I think, these are probably the keys to his today's achievements." ”

"I'm sure many people are well aware of this," Deborah Nowell agreed, and then changed the subject: "Jim, according to yesterday's news, Daenerys Entertainment will launch an acquisition of the MA Group, which owns Universal Pictures, is it true?"

Talking about the key topic of participating in this interview, James Raybould secretly cheered up, saying: "Since the beginning of the year, there have been many media reports about Simon's intention to use the overseas money, and we have been thinking about this and discussing a lot of goals, but there is no conclusion yet. ”

Deborah Nowell didn't take it with her, and asked, "But, Jim, according to the revelations, Westeros has set up a 60-person acquisition team for this, how do you explain this?"

James shook his head and said: "I don't know how I got the news, Simon has always attached great importance to the synergy of various companies in the Westeros system, whether it is Cersei Capital or Daenerys Entertainment, or the company's technology companies, they communicate with each other very frequently, and some people may have misunderstood because of this." ”

Deborah Nowell looked at James and said, "So, Simon doesn't have any intention of buying MA?"

James didn't give an affirmative answer, and said tactfully: "I just said that we have considered a lot of goals, and MA is indeed on the table, but everything needs to be decided by Simon himself. And, Simon hasn't even decided whether or not to bring that money back home, which you know, means a very high 28% capital gains tax. ”

Yesterday's sudden revelation that Daenerys Entertainment was about to acquire MA did catch the top executives of the Westeros system a little off guard. Prior to today's interview, James and everyone discussed it carefully and finally decided to give an uncertain reply, so as to avoid the passive situation where silence is the default, and not to let speculators flock to MA stocks.

James Raybould took the initiative to change the topic, Deborah Nowell no longer chased after him, and NB didn't want to get an interview opportunity in the future, so he followed James's words to change the topic.

"Speaking of capital gains tax, Mr. President publicly stated last month that he would have to go against his campaign promise of 'no tax increases' and plan to raise taxes to address the growing federal deficit. Because of the rise of the hedge fund industry in the last two years, this Wednesday Republican Senator Peter Briegel of Texas proposed to strengthen the regulation of the hedge fund industry and readjust the relevant tax package to prevent excessive financial speculation from hurting the federal economy.

Both Simon himself and James Raybould got the news as soon as Peter Brigel's motion was filed.

As we all know, Texas is completely the stronghold of the Bush family and the Republican Party, and the relevance of Peter Brigel's proposal could not be more obvious.

Moreover, there are deeper reasons for this proposal.

It just so happens that the Westeros system has unwittingly invested $20 million in the political field this year, and has now become a very important financier of the Democratic Party.

In the government's 1986 tax cut, the only way to unify the capital gains tax rate, which was originally divided into two tranches, long-term and short-term, to 28% is equivalent to income tax, which is controversial. If the Bush administration adds more, it will not only offend the entire Wall Street, but will also seriously restrict the liquidity of the capital market and make the already sluggish US economy even worse.

As for raising taxes specifically on the hedge fund industry, regardless of whether it will work, if it does, it will only drive a large number of hedge fund companies out of the United States, and the huge overseas gains will not be transferred back to China, and the loss will be the United States itself.

The most critical point is that through the three operations of the 87 stock market crash, the Japanese stock market bubble and the crude oil futures market, Simon has completed his own primitive accumulation, and will no longer rely too much on Cersei's capital in the future, even if the Bush administration really strengthens supervision and increases taxes, it will not have much impact on him.

Simon is not worried about being targeted by the Bush administration because of his political stance.

The two parties in the United States are holding each other back, the Republican Party is targeting itself, and the Democratic Party will naturally take action, if you can't even protect your big financier, who will stand by you in the future?

In the studio, James Raybould, of course, did not go toe-to-toe with the congressman for the above reasons, but just expressed his opinion on the matter.

The two continued to discuss a number of topics, and the ten-minute interview ended quickly.

Leaving the NB headquarters, it was not yet eight o'clock.

After making an appointment for breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Simon, James Raybould hurried to the Upper East Side, where his wife, Carol Raybould, had already arrived early.

Naturally, the topic of conversation at breakfast is all about the recent events.

Because of the intense media scrutiny of these days, the matter has been temporarily halted in order to avoid the early leakage of Bell Atlantic's acquisition plans.

AOL's negotiations with the three companies on the exclusive plan were also clearly affected by Simon's personal wealth exposure, and the three companies were a little dead on the terms of cooperation. Simon now insists that he will not accept the three companies to take a stake in AOL.

As for the acquisition of MA, considering the impact of the exposure of Daenerys Entertainment bidding news, Simon also began to make preparations.

Even though it was Sunday, after breakfast, James Raybould was still busy at the company's headquarters in Westeros in Midtown.

These days, as Simon's spokesperson, James has been maneuvering between countless invitations, and he is also full of energy. Moreover, not just the superficial scenery, the Westeros system of 100 million yuan club members exposed by the magazine in three months actually missed James.

Having personally experienced the operation of the capital market last year and this year, James naturally would not miss such an opportunity, and Simon also personally arranged for James to participate in it.

Although only $20 million was raised initially, it was more convenient to maximize the benefits with less capital, and after more than a year of continuous operation, the funds recently transferred back from overseas still exceeded $160 million after paying taxes.

The last place on this year's list of America's 400 richest people, the heir Donald Graham, has a personal fortune of only $260 million. With a net worth of $160 million, Raybould is already among the top billionaires in the American pyramid in this era.

Under Simon's guidance, the couple took advantage of the recent stock market downturn and put all the money on two stocks, Microsoft and Intel. If Microsoft and Intel can still reach the market value of the highest point of the Internet bubble in the original time and space this time, this investment alone can make the Raybould family enter the ranks of tens of billionaires.

Of course, that's all for later.

In the Fifth Avenue apartment, seeing off the Rayboulds, Simon and Janet didn't go out today.

After returning to New York yesterday, Simon flew his Boeing 767 to Los Angeles, and not many people now know that he is in New York, just in time for a quiet day.

The apartment's rooftop has been transformed into a garden by Janet, and the two sit at a simple wooden table with the perfect amount of autumn sunshine on which Janet has collected all the materials she has collected throughout the week.

"The hedge fund team will definitely make good profits in the next few months, but there will definitely be some money overseas, and the amount that can be transferred back by the end of the year is about $6 billion. If we were to complete two acquisitions at the same time, we would need to raise an additional $9 billion in loans, based on MA Group's $7 billion and Bell Atlantic's $8 billion. It's easy to get your hands on the money, but even at a 10-year interest rate of 4.5% per annum, the total interest amounts to $2.19 billion, and about $1.12 billion a year needs to be repaid. ”

Janet was still next to Simon, and after speaking, she found a document and said: "This is the current management information of Bell Atlantic, the current chairman and EO of Bell Atlantic is named Raymond Smith, a very good professional manager, 56 years old this year, he started as a low-level intern in the earliest Bell system, step by step to today, before the collapse of AT-T, he had achieved the position of financial director, and was once one of the contenders for the top executive of AT-T." ”

Simon took the information and began to carefully look through Raymond Smith's information.

In addition to being the head of Bel Atlantic, Raymond Smith is an accomplished poet and playwright with several published works. In addition, he holds several directorships in large corporations and holds five Ph.D. titles.

Moreover, collecting the information in his memory, Simon also discovered that in the original time and space, it was Raymond Smith who gradually expanded Bell Atlantic into Verizon, the second largest telecommunications company in North America. In comparison, none of the other six small bells that were spun off by AT-T in 1984 have been able to escape the fate of being acquired or bankrupt.

Simon had no intention of removing management immediately after buying Bell Atlantic, and after reading Raymond Smith's profile, he had no such thoughts.

Janet waited for Simon to finish reading Raymond Smith's information, and before he could speak, she said, "It's amazing." However, he was also the biggest obstacle to our acquisition of Bel Atlantic. Bell Atlantic is now running far better than neighboring NNEX, and Smith is also a man with great career ambitions. Once we acquire Bell Atlantic, this company will definitely be saddled with huge debts, which will be very detrimental to its future growth. Unless we can fix this, Raymond Smith won't be relenting about our takeover. ”

Simon looked at the information in front of him and thought for a moment, picked up the pencil in his hand and listed and calculated in the blank space of the document, and said: "Bell Atlantic's equity is too dispersed, even if it is negotiated, we may not be able to get 100% of the company's shares in the end, so that we can temporarily save a sum of money, and absorb a batch of shares at the current stock price in advance, and we can save another one." For the time being, based on the calculation of 75% of the shares, we only need to pay $6 billion for the transaction price of $8 billion. ”

Janet looked at Simon's calculations and said, "However, if you want to start an ISP business, you definitely need to invest a lot of money in technology research and development and infrastructure construction, and the remaining $2 billion can't be saved, and you can't necessarily get only 75% of the shares, if our shareholding ratio exceeds 90%, according to the federal securities laws, we can force other shareholders to sell their shares for full privatization." ”

"Well, I mean," Simon said, scribbling down a few quick numbers on a piece of paper, "to transfer the debt to Westeros as much as possible, and if necessary, to acquire MA with all loans, so that there will be minimal resistance to acquisitions on Bell Atlantic's side." ”

In this case, because the debt ratio is too high, Daenerys Entertainment's future IPO will definitely be seriously affected. ”

Simon couldn't help but smile wryly.

It's really hard to get the best of both worlds.

Simon's original plan was to launch Daenerys Entertainment's IPO after its release next year, but once the acquisition of MA is completed, it is impossible to digest the company without two or three years, and the IPO can only be postponed.

Speaking of which, Simon is not short of money.

It's not just the overseas money, but the technology stocks held by Westeros can be sold next year according to the original three-year agreement. Simon could easily cash out more than a billion dollars if he wanted to, as was the case with many of the other assets of the Westeros system.

If you are willing to accept external shareholders to join the core enterprises of the Westeros system such as Daenerys Entertainment, you can raise large sums of money at any time.

However, whether it is the technology stocks in his hands, or Daenerys, Igret, Melisandre and other companies, there is a lot of growth potential, and Simon is reluctant to sell or share these shares too easily.

After thinking about it for a while, Simon finally decided: "Let's reformulate the acquisition plan according to this line of thinking for the time being, MA will completely use the loan method to acquire, and Bel Atlantic will use its own funds as much as possible, and the future will be discussed in the future." ”

Jenny nodded, and the two began to discuss more specific implementation plans.