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Of course, the IPO so far has been smooth sailing.

Even with the psychological preparations, the 106% stock price increase of 43.25% throughout the day on Friday exceeded many people's expectations. The closing price of US$74.6, the market value of US$49 billion, and Simon Westero's wealth appreciation of US$[-] billion all arouse the nerves of countless people.

A company that is still burning money and losing money has achieved a price-earnings ratio of 72 times on the day of listing. While all parties are admiring and envious, they are also discussing whether this company is worth such a stock price.

In this discussion atmosphere, in the new week, AOL's stock price will inevitably begin to pull back.

即使如此，7月15日到7月19日的连续五个交易日，美国在线的市值最低也始终维持在50亿美元以上。

After paying all investment banks, lawyers and other expenses, AOL finally received more than 4.3 million US dollars in funds.

With the success of the IPO, America Online immediately started the second phase of the free trial program.

Because it has accumulated enough reputation, the free trial discount this time is no longer as strong as in the first half of the year. Users only have 1 hour of free trial time per day. If they want to exceed 1 hour, they must become regular users.

In addition, free trial users must also pay a certain deposit for installation equipment. Once the trial period ends and the user does not become a regular, the deposit can only be returned after the user returns the modem and other equipment.If you become an official user, this part of the deposit will be directly transferred to the network fee, and you can get an additional part of the subsidy.

In addition to the free trial plan in the second phase, AOL will further increase its investment in basic network construction, which is the most expensive project.

Therefore, the deposit measure is actually mainly a plan for AOL to increase its own cash flow.

Also on July 7, the day of AOL's IPO, Daenerys' collaboration with Warner Bros. "The Fugitive" opened in North American theaters.

Harrison Ford had already tried an action movie similar to being involved in a conspiracy and deciphering survival three years ago. The movie was directed by Roman Polanski and called "Dead Night in Paris", but the box office did not cause much response. .

This time "Desperate World", whether it is the word-of-mouth or publicity of the film, far surpasses "Desperate Night Paris".

With the completion of the story in one go, the film's comprehensive media score reached 9.1 points. The "Los Angeles Times" commented on the film's smooth and tense plot, giving people a sense of tension as if injected with adrenaline.

Warner Bros. had previously focused most of its attention on Batman: The Dark Knight, and The Fugitive inevitably got a certain amount of neglect.

However, in the first week of its opening, relying on only 2340 screens, "The Fugitive" still earned a strong box office of 3761 million U.S. dollars, with an average of more than 1 U.S. dollars.

With a box office of US$3761 million in the first week, it also left "Batman: The Dark Knight" and "Terminator 2" behind, and successfully won the new week's box office champion position.

In comparison, Disney's new film "Tiger Detective Angels", which opened in the same period, only had a box office of 527 million U.S. dollars in its first seven days of production.

On July 7th, the new week of the second half of the summer schedule, North American theaters once again registered two new films, namely "Cosmopolitan" produced by the original Universal Pictures and "The Adventures of Abbie and Brother 19" produced by Orion Films.

"Cosmopolitan" is an old American gangster movie similar to "Once Upon a Time in America" ​​and "Scarface".

"The Adventures of Abby Brother 2" is the sequel to Orion's sci-fi comedy two years ago. The first North American box office made more than 4000 million U.S. dollars, which is also considered a hit.

In addition, this is also a comedy series starring Keanu Reeves.

Keanu just relied on Catherine's "Point of Horror" to transform into a tough guy actor at the beginning of the year, and gained a lot of popularity. The silly and silly performance in "The Adventures of Abby and Brother 2" has a feeling of ruining his image. .

7月19日到7月25日一周，《四海一家》以1513块银幕的开画规模，只收获了879万美元票房，馆均勉强超过5000美元。

As a key project of Orion, "The Adventures of Abby and Brother 2" got off to a pretty good start, with 1620 yuan for the opening screen, and a box office of 1566 million US dollars in the first week. .

However, the word-of-mouth of the film has collapsed, and it is expected that it will be difficult to get out of a long line.

The box office performance of the two new films was mediocre. This week's box office champion is still "The Fugitive". The next week's box office fell by only 11%, and it collected another 3336 million US dollars. The cumulative box office in two weeks also reached 7097 million US dollars.

Because Harrison Ford's salary was as high as $1000 million, the production cost of "The Fugitive" eventually reached $4000 million, with a publicity budget of $2000 million.

With a North American box office of US$7097 million, Daenerys and Warner Bros. have recovered most of the production and publicity costs in just two weeks according to the step-sharing contract signed by Warner Bros. and the theaters.

The opening of more than 3000 million U.S. dollars for two consecutive weeks means that "The Fugitive" obviously still has very large box office potential.

In addition to "The Fugitive", which averaged the box office in a single week, it is worth mentioning that during the week from July 7th to July 19th, "Batman: The Dark Knight", which was released for the seventh week, officially broke through the total box office in North America. billion, reaching US$7 million.

However, the weekly box office of "Batman: The Dark Knight" has also slipped to 1511 million US dollars, behind "Desperate World", "Terminator 2" and "The Adventures of Abby Adi 2", ranking the single-week box office list No.4.

According to the box office curve since the opening of the film, the distribution department of Warner Bros. Pictures predicts that the final North American box office of "Batman: The Dark Knight" may be between 3.6 million and 3.9 million US dollars, and the 4 million mark should be hopeless.

In addition, the overseas box office of "Batman: The Dark Knight" also exceeded 3 million US dollars a little earlier than the domestic box office.

Because there are still many overseas box office countries waiting to be released, Warner Bros. predicts that the expected overseas box office of "Batman: The Dark Knight" will be between 5 million and 5.5 million US dollars, which is basically the same as the first one.The global box office total is the same as "Batman: Begins", which will be around $9 million.

上映第四周的《终结者2》，7月19日到7月25日的单周票房数字为2322万美元，排行周票房榜单No.2，影片四周票房累计已经达到1亿5330万美元。

Simon found that the domestic box office of "Terminator 2" in North America is expected to exceed the figure of more than 2 million US dollars in the original time and space.

This is actually not surprising.

"Terminator 2" in the original time and space was produced by Hollywood outsider Carlock Films and released by Columbia Pictures' Samsung label.Neither company can match Daenerys and Fox in terms of production and publicity resources.

Of course, this time, "Terminator 2" could no longer become the North American box office champion in 1991.

On July 7, the summer file of 26, which began to wrap up, is still two new films, namely "A Few Good Men" co-produced by MGM and Daenerys, and the horror film "Separated People" produced by Paramount Pictures.

The new version of "A Few Good Men" stars Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Demi Moore. The story of a Marine defending himself.

From the outset, "A Few Good Men" was confirmed as a court crime movie like Harrison Ford's blockbuster "The Push for Innocence" last year. The film cannot be released like a popcorn movie. Long line of word of mouth.

Fortunately, although the story has been revised, the media evaluation of the film is still very good. Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Demi Moore are enough to support the popularity of this film.

In the first week of painting, "A Few Good Men" earned a box office of 1902 million US dollars on a scale of 2673 screens, although it was not as good as any of "Batman: The Dark Knight", "Terminator 2" and "The Fugitive". The $1 show also met the expectations of Daenerys and MGM.

Moreover, in the first week of August, the second week of "A Few Good Men" was released, the film's single-week box office fell by only 8%, and it received another US$13 million.Such a box office trend has obviously ensured 2339% the birth of another member of the [-] million box office club.

Released on August 8, Kevin Costner's new film "Robin Hood" once again brought a surprise to the producer Warner Bros. Pictures.

The schedule of this ancient costume action film independently produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures is set on August 8, which shows how it is treated in this summer.However, the film earned $2 million at the box office in the first seven days, which is better than "The Fugitive", which was released on July 3919.

Subsequently, on August 8, "The Silence of the Lambs" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures basically announced the end of the 9 summer vacation.

Moreover, the comprehensive media score of "The Silence of the Lambs" is as high as 9.6 points, which also means that this is a perfect ending.

Before its release, the outside world basically didn't pay much attention to the film, which cost only $1500 million to produce and was distributed by Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures label.

However, many people in the Hollywood circle paid attention to this film, mainly because the heroine of the film is Sandra Bullock.This new-generation actress, who relied on Simon Westero's "Run Lola Run" to rise rapidly, has been so smooth in recent years that most Hollywood actresses are so jealous that they are crazy.

In addition, there are rumors that "The Silence of the Lambs" is still a project that Westeros personally selected for Sandra Bullock, which cannot be ignored in the circle.

Facts have once again proved the accuracy of Simon Westeros' gaze.

As soon as "The Silence of the Lambs" was released, elements such as the film's plot, performance and religious implications aroused intense discussions in the media.

Robert Duvall, who has the Oscar winner and multiple Oscar nominations, performed no less than the original Anthony Hopkins, and the "Hollywood Reporter" praised 'Robert Duvall's thrilling performance is enough for him to win the second honor Oscar statuette', director Jonathan Demme and actress Sandra Bullock are also frequently mentioned by the media.

The "New York Times" even predicted that "The Silence of the Lambs" is expected to become the second horror movie to be nominated for Oscar for Best Picture after "The Exorcist".

Under the hot discussion of the media and the marketing campaign of the New World Pictures team, "The Silence of the Lambs" won a box office of 1561 million US dollars in the first week of production, with only 2393 screens, and the average box office exceeded 1 US dollars.

Although the start was not too amazing, but with the media popularity shown by the film, no one would doubt that this film has the potential to hit the [-] million yuan mark.

With the official end of the summer file, the media suddenly discovered that a series of blockbuster films in the summer file in 1991, if the box office or expected box office is expected to exceed 2 million as the standard, there are a total of seven films. The Hillbilly, Batman: The Dark Knight, Terminator [-], The Fugitive, Few Good Men, Robin Hood and The Silence of the Lambs.

Among the seven films, although Daenerys Entertainment released only "The Silence of the Lambs" alone, there are four other movies related to Daenerys Entertainment, only "Urban Hillbillies" and "Robin Hood" respectively belong to Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Given the strong gambling nature of the film industry, such a proportion of blockbuster films is simply unprecedented.

Compared with the previous few years, the media and the industry have begun to be more curious about how this situation happened. Does Simon Westero have the ability to turn stones into gold?

These superstitious viewpoints are naturally doomed to be unanswered.

However, the "Hollywood Reporter" gave a relatively reasonable explanation in an article in mid-August.

Simon Westeros, or rather Daenerys Entertainment, has clearly sucked up most of Hollywood's resources in recent years.

Take the most typical "Batman: The Dark Knight" as an example. For the first time, the opening scale of more than 3000 screens and the publicity budget of 8000 million US dollars are destined to be popular in the film schedule, theater platforms and publicity channels. It actually crowds out the living space of other movies, and it is a very strong crowding out.

This is actually the case for other such as "Terminator 2", "The Fugitive" and "A Few Good Men".

The way Daenerys Entertainment chooses to cooperate with other studios seems to give up half of the benefits, but on the other hand it occupies the due resources of these studios' own films.

In addition, the "blockbuster" films that have emerged in recent years have also broken away from the elements of Hollywood's previous films that can only be hit and miss.

Blockbuster movies have already had a strong box office advantage since the project was approved.

All in all, a sufficient budget was invested in the production process, an excellent enough creative team was selected, the most advanced film technology was applied, and a film all-rounder like Simon Westeros took full control.The later release of the film occupies Hollywood's best schedule every year and spares no effort in publicity and distribution resources. As long as the quality of this series of films is not too bad, it is really not too difficult to sell them well.

Therefore, the growing strength of films produced by Daenerys Entertainment in Hollywood cannot be regarded as a coincidence to a large extent.

Several other major studios are eager to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment. Except for the phenomenon-level super blockbuster project such as "Batman: The Dark Knight", it is difficult to say whether they have taken advantage of it or suffered a big loss.

Simon has always been worried that his "talent" like a prophet in the movies will cause unnecessary troubles. Although this article in the "Hollywood Reporter" will wake up several other major Hollywood studios, it is still true. It is also a result that Simon very much hopes to see.

Chapter 429 Quarterly Financial Report (Revised)

In July and August, most of Simon's energy was focused on the financial reports for the second quarter of 1991 of the Westeros system.

Because the size of the company has doubled and it is the early stage of the merger, it was not until August 8 that the first quarterly financial report after the merger of Daenerys Entertainment and MCA was finally released.

During the three months from April to June 1991, the brand-new Daenerys Entertainment Group had a total quarterly revenue of US$4 billion, second only to Time Warner, whose annual revenue reached tens of billions. Group, ranked second among the top seven in Hollywood.

However, compared with the huge profit in the same period last year, this time, due to the large amount of funds consumed by employee layoffs, debt settlement, and asset write-downs during the merger process of the two companies, Daenerys Entertainment’s net after-tax income in the second quarter The profit scale left a paltry $2800 million.

After the completion of large-scale corporate mergers and acquisitions, it often means huge losses lasting for one or two years. This is the case for Time Warner in the past one year or more.

Steve Ross is struggling to deal with Time Warner's massive debt from its last acquisition.

Therefore, Simon is generally satisfied with the results of such financial reports.

After AOL's successful IPO, Cisco's IPO began to accelerate.

As the Internet industry has begun to take off in the past year or so, Cisco's revenue has also grown rapidly.

In the past second quarter, Cisco's revenue scale was 2.98 million US dollars, compared with the first quarter, the revenue scale increased by 26%.According to this revenue growth rate, the company's annual revenue in 1991 is expected to reach 12 billion US dollars.

With most of the revenue invested in business expansion, Cisco's quarterly net profit still reached $1679 million.

Because the entire Westeros system almost monopolizes the core patents of the World Wide Web platform, Cisco's market share of network equipment products such as routers and switches has reached more than 95%.Because of this obvious monopoly, management predicts that in the next few years, as long as Cisco can maintain its advantage in the Internet equipment market as much as possible, the company's net profit margin is expected to reach more than 20%.

Unlike AOL, which is limited to the three major operators on the east and west coasts of the United States, Cisco is targeting the entire North American and overseas Internet equipment market.Coupled with the monopoly on the basic patents of the World Wide Web, the capital market is looking forward to Cisco's IPO prospects.

Before AOL was officially listed on the Nasdaq exchange, Cisco had already submitted a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It is also about 15% of the new share issuance ratio. According to Cisco's adjusted total share capital of 2.71 million shares before the IPO, the number of new shares issued this time is rounded up to 4000 million shares.

In addition, this IPO, Cisco's stock will also be adjusted to a dual-class structure.

维斯特洛公司持有的思科1.56万股股份在IPO之后，持股比例从57.5%降低到50.1%。持有10倍与流通股投票权的A类股，依旧保证了维斯特洛公司56.7%的绝对多数投票权。

For Westeros' strong demand to maintain absolute control over Cisco, other shareholders of the company have naturally expressed their opposition.

Westeros' 57.5% stake in Cisco is not as high as the 75% held before AOL's IPO.

However, after Simon unflinchingly expressed his tough attitude of either a dual-class share structure or canceling the IPO, other shareholders who were not reconciled stopped.

Different from the calculation method of 35 times the expected price-earnings ratio adopted during the AOL IPO process because the company’s net profit was negative, Cisco maintained a relatively considerable net profit in the first two quarters of 1991. It is estimated that the net profit for the whole year of 1991 The scale will be around $6500 million.

Morgan Stanley did not calculate the price-earnings ratio based on Cisco's net profit ratio of only 5% in the second quarter and make a valuation, but based on elements such as corporate revenue, cash flow, and market share, it gave a price-earnings ratio comparable to that of AOL. $30 billion valuation.

Simon is not satisfied with such a valuation.

In my memory, at the peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000, Cisco’s market capitalization once exceeded $6000 billion, and America Online’s peak did not reach $2000 billion.

That's exactly a three-fold difference.

Even now, although the revenue volume of the two companies is temporarily equal, the gap is obvious.

America Online only operates in several states on the east and west coasts of the Commonwealth. Not only does Cisco almost monopolize the Internet equipment market in North America, even overseas, it does not have any competitors.

Therefore, Simon insists that Cisco is more valuable than AOL, and it is very high.

After several hagglings, the company's IPO valuation was confirmed at $50 billion, and the revised SEC filing price range was between $17 and $19.

Although it has the success of America Online, but because of the high valuation strategy insisted by Simon, Cisco had to start the green shoe mechanism for this IPO in order to deal with the possible fluctuations in the stock price after listing.

However, the green shoe plan this time is not to issue new shares, but to take out 600 million shares from Cisco's other shareholders as a spare.

Cisco's shareholders have held shares for up to seven years since the company was founded in 1984.

For example, the famous Sequoia Capital, these companies have a relatively strong desire to cash out, and the launch of the green shoe mechanism can just meet their needs.

Westeros agreed with other shareholders of Cisco that once the stock price rises after listing, other shareholders will provide investors with an additional 600 million shares of stock.If the stock price falls after listing, Westeros will buy about 600 million shares at its own expense to stabilize Cisco's stock price.

In fact, Simon wouldn't mind buying out all of Cisco's outstanding shares and taking the company private again if necessary.

However, Simon is confident that it is unlikely that Westeros will need to invest in buying stocks.

Through the operation during this period, the final date of Cisco's IPO was confirmed as September 9, which is also a Friday, and the date is about 6 months later than the AOL IPO.

The two consecutive IPOs also made Simon realize that he has opened the Internet era ahead of schedule.

You know, the World Wide Web standard in memory was gradually formed in 1993, and then, in 1995, the Internet industry began to explode.

Now, Simon proposed a complete World Wide Web technology solution in 1990 ahead of schedule, and the Internet era came ahead of schedule.

The Internet has sprouted in the 60s, and computers began to appear in the 70s. After decades of accumulation, the Internet industry has already had a very fertile "soil". The World Wide Web is like a seed that was planted three years in advance. On the land that is already fertile enough, this seed will quickly take root and germinate and spread with the wind.