Chapter 537

When she came to Simon's desk, a girl in ol suit handed over several pieces of information and said, "boss, this is the latest meeting memorandum of Christie's acquisition negotiation in Europe, as well as the collection of auction industry information you ordered. Besides, this is the schedule for tomorrow's work in San Francisco. "

Simon turned off the computer on his desk, just picked up a memo about Christie's acquisition and said, "let's go back. The rest of the information can be read at home."

Alison quickly put away the remaining information and left the office with Simon in her arms.

Walking into the elevator, Simon opens the memo and goes straight to the part he cares about most.

A few days ago, after agreeing to Sofia's proposal to buy Christie's auction house, female executives began to negotiate with Christie's shareholders who wanted to sell their shares.

It has been established for more than 200 years. Like Sotheby's rival, Christie's has long been a listed company.

Because the auction industry is in a downturn due to the global economic recession, Christie's recent market value is only 430 million pounds, about $670 million, which is only 13 times the price earnings ratio compared with its profit in the previous fiscal year. The stock price of a listed company tends to reflect its long-term business performance. The price earnings ratio of 13 times undoubtedly indicates that the capital market is not optimistic about the future of the auction company.

After confirming the acquisition plan, melisandro company, on the one hand, made secret contact with Christie's shareholders and management, on the other hand, began to absorb shares of the company in private. In this way, melisandro can make a small profit even if the acquisition can not be completed in the end.

The reason for doing so is that Simon is not determined to win the auction giant with a long history.

In the initial contact process, Christie's board of directors directly put forward a purchase price of 20 times the P / E ratio, with a total value of US $1 billion, equivalent to a 50% premium.

If it is a malicious acquisition, the transaction price is actually not high. Christie's, however, is different.

Mainly the limitations of the auction industry itself.

If Simon invests in the Internet, he may get a hundred times return in the future. If he invests in the fashion field and operates properly, he will get a ten times return in the future. However, because the auction industry is mainly aimed at the crowd and the annual market capacity is unlikely to show a stable rising curve, even if it can be determined that the auction house will bring very stable income in the next ten or twenty years because of the sustained economic prosperity, the value of Christie's itself will not rise too much. Ten years later, if the market value can be doubled or tripled, it will be the limit.

Therefore, Simon's plan is to give Christie's a 30% premium, or about $870 million, on the basis of the recent market value of $670 million.

If we can't reach a deal within the 30% premium range, Simon will give up the acquisition decisively.

At that time, it's not illegal to sell the stock that has been absorbed in advance and make a little difference at the high stage after the news leaked.

Moreover, Simon does not plan to have melisandro pay for all the $870 million in the plan. Cersei capital's black rock asset management company has agreed to join the company with $100 million. Sofia is still looking for other partner investors recently. Simon's goal is to realize melisandro's absolute control of Christie's.

It's just that Simon thinks so, and others obviously don't.

In recent years, the promising fields of westero system have basically shown a very strong growth momentum.

Perhaps, when melisandro made a takeover offer to Christie's, many shareholders and management of Christie's had changed their initial attitude of looking down on the development prospects of the auction house.

This is a company that Simon westrow is interested in.

As a result, Christie's either wants to take Simon, who has abundant financial resources, as a big wrongdoer, or it has already given birth to the idea that it does not intend to sell him.

The U.S. economy has not yet recovered, and Europe has just experienced a financial catastrophe. At this time, the possibility of competing with Simon for the auction house is very low. If the two sides can't reach an agreement, Simon has absolutely no intention to launch a hostile takeover in public. Christie's is not worth a hostile takeover at all. This is a matter that all parties know very well.

In short, the prospect of this acquisition is very uncertain.

Simon's memo also shows that.

In the past two weeks, the board of directors of Christie's has not given in to two contacts.

Moreover, Christie's share price also rose to a certain extent. Compared with two weeks ago, the share price rose by 11%. Obviously, the news has been leaked out quietly.

Melisandro's shares in Christie's have reached 3% and are worth more than US $20 million.

It's a short journey back to domay point manor from Malibu danelis studio. Girl a sits quietly beside Simon and finds that she is about to get home. The man is still reading the documents carefully and thinks about it. She says, "boss, I don't think it's a good business to buy Christie's

Simon looked up at the girl beside him and asked, "why?"Girl a has obviously made a lot of preparations, saying: "the development potential of the auction industry itself is very small, and the performance uncertainty is also very large. Even if the boss thinks that the world economy will improve rapidly in the next few years, the $800 million cash investment is still not worth it. If this money is invested in other fields, it will definitely get more returns. "

Simon nodded with a smile: "you're right, but buying Christie's is more than just buying an auction house."

Simon didn't go any further.

The top auction industry, involved in which are basically a group of people at the top of the pyramid in the world, if you can have Christie's, it is equivalent to directly have a pass to establish a huge network of contacts.

Simon's wealth at this time has reached a peak that ordinary people can't reach, and his power in Hollywood is no different for a while. However, even if he has reached the present height, Simon doesn't think that the network is no longer important for him. On the contrary, for him now, the network is more and more important.

On the other hand, the top social circle is just the light part of the auction industry.

In fact, this industry is more exciting below the surface.

Money laundering, tax avoidance, profit transfer and so on.

If possible, Simon of course hopes that all the business activities of the westrow system can be carried out in a proper way.

However, this is only a fantasy after all.

Simon has been discussing with some of the core senior leaders of the westero system these days to greatly increase the "investment" of the westero system in the political field.

According to the preliminary plan, only this year, the westrow system is not only a consulting company directly controlled by westero, but also includes the core enterprises of the westrow system, such as Denise entertainment, Cisco, AOL, Verizon Telecom, cersei capital and igritte. It is expected that in 1993, it will be used for political donation and lobbying The sum of gold will reach 100 million US dollars.

In this era, with $3.5 billion, it is enough to be included in Forbes' list of 400 rich Americans.

The investment in the political field planned by the westero system will reach 100 million US dollars in one year. However, this money has to be spent. Even though a large part of it may be wasted, this money will not decrease and will continue to increase every year in the future.

It's just that this part of the investment can't be operated completely in the public. Perhaps less than one fifth of US $100 million is registered according to the US travel policy.

But it's still not enough.

If you have an auction house like Christie's, you can do a lot in the future.

People outside the United States always think how good this country is. After living in it and experiencing more, they may be able to understand that the system may be different, but many things are similar.

Because human nature is the same.

A girl's brain is very smart, Simon just wake up, she immediately understand, and wittily did not express any views on this.

The next day was February 25th, Thursday.

Simon flies to San Francisco early in the morning.

Igrit's 1992 financial report has also been published recently.

Compared with Denise Entertainment's "normal" annual growth rate, melisandro's just past year can be described as savage growth.

Therefore, when the new year's financial report came out, the whole igritte was a little uneasy with joy.

If this financial report is released to the public, it will be too eye-catching.

In 1991, igritte's annual revenue was 491 million US dollars, and its loss amount reached 381 million US dollars, which almost lost one of the wealthiest assets in the Forbes 400 us rich list.

Both the revenue of 491 million US dollars in a new industry and the loss of 381 million US dollars caused a heated discussion in the media at the beginning of last year.

However, this year's data, if released, will definitely attract more people's attention.

In 1992, just at the beginning of last year, Amazon online mall, relying on igritte's super traffic import with the only world wide web interface, achieved an annual turnover of US $623 million in its first year of operation.

Although it is well known that the sales volume of the retail industry is often much easier to achieve and the profit margin is often very low, the annual sales volume of Amazon online mall, which is only 623 million US dollars, still easily exceeds the annual revenue of igritte in 1991.

In addition, relying on the nearly exponential growth of the world wide web site in the past year, the YWS Department of igritte company realized a revenue of 437 million US dollars by relying on the sales of application software, server space leasing, solution services and even enterprise e-mail and other businesses, among which the most basic web design software sold for 283 million US dollars, surpassing ie browsing in one fell swoop 233 million dollars for software.

Simon's most important network business, compared with the annual revenue of 83 million US dollars in 1991, in 1992, because the traditional big advertising companies such as Coca Cola and Procter & Gamble began to advertise on the Internet platform, plus the original technology advertisers such as IBM, Compaq, HP, Microsoft and Intel, the advertising revenue of igritte company in 1992 also increased significantly to 278 million US dollars , up more than 330%.Finally, scattered revenue from application software stores such as ystore and ypay, online payment tools and other aspects also achieved $366 million in the whole year.

In 1992, the total revenue of igrit reached 1.937 billion US dollars. Compared with 1991, the revenue growth rate reached 394%.

Even after accounting, the annual loss of igrit company in 1992 still reached 139 million US dollars. However, in the face of such a crazy annual growth rate of performance, not to mention the annual loss of 139 million US dollars, even if it is several times more, it is completely worth investing.

If the financial data in 1991 only made the outside world aware of the huge growth potential of the Internet industry, then the revenue performance of igritte in 1992 was totally enviable.

The global economic downturn does not mean that there is a lack of funds in the hands of capital. On the contrary, more accurately, many funds can not find the right investment direction.

Once the financial report of igritte company in 1992 is published, it is like lighting a bright light suddenly in the dark night.

If one or two moths come, they may only be killed by the lamp flame. When countless moths swarm in, the lamp may be put out.

This lamp of igritte company just has a very obvious fatal weakness.

Monopoly.

In the original time line, the Internet industry began to rise in 1995, basically in a state of blooming flowers. Netscape and Microsoft have browser software, Yahoo provides portal business, Amazon and eBay operate e-commerce. At that time, the Internet cloud service did not appear, website design software, server leasing business and other basic software and services It's also a lot of companies that share the share.

Now, because igritte has built the world wide web technology patent barrier ahead of time, it basically represents the world wide web platform of the entire Internet industry. From the bottom tool software to server leasing, to graphical interface browser, and even the online businesses such as portal websites and online shopping malls that have proved successful on the original time line, all are igritte One family alone.

As a result, when the Internet industry began to break out, igrit was immediately supported.

The annual performance growth rate is close to 400%. We don't have to persist for a long time, even if it only lasts for another two or three years, igritte will grow into an industrial giant with a revenue volume of 10 billion.

Other industries continue to be depressed due to the impact of the general environment, and everyone is carefully looking for prey. Igritte company, however, alone guards a pasture full of fat cattle and sheep.

Capital comes into the world, from head to toe, with blood and dirty things dripping from every pore.

If there are 10% profits, capital will be used everywhere; if there are 20% profits, capital will be active; if there are 50% profits, capital will take risks; if there are 100% profits, capital will dare to trample on all human laws; if there are 300% profits, capital will dare to commit any crime or even risk hanging.

This is what Marx said in capital.

Now, the Internet industry in which igrit is involved obviously represents more than 1000% interests.