Hunting in Hollywood

As an essential part of everyday American life, Los Angeles never lacked for parties, nor did it lack 'party animals' who attended hundreds of gatherings each year.

Simon Westeros' 23rd birthday party was both special and not so special among these numerous events.

The meticulously prepared birthday party on the evening of February 22 at the mansion on the Palisades hillsides allowed some to expand their networks and others to gain bragging rights. Simon himself received gifts that could be enjoyed throughout the following weekend, making it a joyful occasion for hosts and guests alike.

Following the birthday party, Hollywood's award season PR efforts entered their final sprint.

Due to the Gulf War, this year's 61st Academy Awards were scheduled later than usual, on March 25.

Daenerys Entertainment's award-contending film, "Dances with Wolves," had been unstoppable since its release on November 2 of the previous year, sweeping major awards at the Golden Globes in January and continuing its success at various guild awards and film critics' associations.

With a total of 12 nominations, "Dances with Wolves" was the most nominated film at the 61st Academy Awards.

However, the most noteworthy aspect was the film's box office performance.

From its release on November 2 until the day before Simon's birthday on February 21, over 16 weeks, the film had quietly accumulated $113 million in North American box office receipts, becoming Daenerys Entertainment's third film to break $100 million in that release period.

Reflecting on the entire 1990 film slate from Daenerys Entertainment, seven films including "Pretty Woman," "Ghost," "Sleeping with the Enemy," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "Dances with Wolves," "A League of Their Own," and "Home Alone" all broke $100 million in North America, each making it into the top ten box office hits of the year. Daenerys Entertainment's independently distributed films "Home Alone," "Ghost," "Pretty Woman," and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" even dominated the top four spots of the annual box office chart.

With the strong performance of "Dances with Wolves," it was almost certain to surpass the fifth-place film produced by Paramount, "The Hunt for Red October," thereby ensuring Daenerys Entertainment films occupied the top five spots of the 1990 box office chart.

Moreover, as of December 31, 1990, just the cumulative domestic box office receipts from these seven films totaled $910 million, equivalent to 17% of the total North American box office of $5.26 billion for 1991.

Daenerys Entertainment-related films like "Children of the Corn II," "Poltergeist III," "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," and "10 Days in a Madhouse," among others, also amassed a total of $350 million, accounting for 6% of North America's box office share in 1991.

Combined, Daenerys Entertainment's films for the year represented 23% of the North American box office.

Additionally, this did not even account for revenues from films like "Home Alone" in 1991, making the calculation not entirely precise. Properly including the 1990 revenues from late 1989 releases like "Driving Miss Daisy," "Batman: The Beginning," and others would mean Daenerys Entertainment's control of the box office could easily exceed 30%.

With the formal completion of the MCA shareholder equity handover at the end of February 1991, Daenerys Entertainment was set to possibly control over 40% of the North American box office share for the year if it could maintain the previous years' momentum.

This possibility was very likely.

While other film studios were still warming up for the 1991 box office, Daenerys Entertainment's first blockbuster of the year, "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones," released on February 8, had already made a splash. By February 28, just three weeks post-release, it had rapidly accrued $49.69 million in North America. With a mere 16% drop in its third week, the film displayed a clear potential for long-term performance.

A three-week total nearing $50 million, coupled with such a robust trend, virtually guaranteed that "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" would reach $100 million in North American box office receipts.

Also, on February 28, as multinational forces officially ceased their attacks on Iraqi troops, the 42-day Gulf War formally ended.

This conflict highlighted a significant shift from mechanized to information-based warfare for many nations, suggesting that massive troop strategies would be increasingly ineffective. The Soviet Union's negligible role in this critical regional conflict further indicated that this red empire was on the brink of collapse.

The day after the Gulf War ended, on March 1, North American stock markets surged, with both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes climbing over 5%.

Many had anticipated a prolonged conflict

, but the swift resolution of the war, combined with the substantial military fees collected from Europe and the Middle East, unequivocally positioned the United States as the war's biggest winner.

Not only did the decisive victory bolster the U.S. stock market over the past month, but the direct financial gains from the war, totaling $19 billion, significantly alleviated the growing federal deficit.

The Bush administration reaped substantial political and economic benefits from the conflict, with domestic approval ratings climbing steadily.

However, Simon knew that the resurgence of the North American stock market did not signify an economic recovery. The federal economic downturn would persist throughout 1991, setting the stage for the Bush administration's defeat in the 1992 presidential election.

The expansion of the Westeros system, however, was unaffected by the domestic economic slump.

With America Online, by the end of February, all users who joined in January had concluded their free trial periods.

Of the 810,000 free trial users in January, over 430,000 converted to regular subscribers, a conversion rate of 53%, far exceeding America Online's initial expectations of 20-30%.

Although the number of free trial users in February dropped significantly from 2.3 million in January to 1.6 million, the number of users who successfully completed the trial rose to 970,000, essentially meeting the target of one million new users per month.

The queue for free trials even surpassed two million users.

Among major U.S. telecom operators, aside from AT&T—a behemoth even after its breakup—companies like the seven regional Bell operating companies typically had fewer than ten million subscribers each.

With such a clear explosive trend in the internet industry, major operators could no longer afford to underestimate it.

Aside from the three regional telecom operators, including Bell Atlantic, which had exclusive agreements with America Online, other telecom giants, including AT&T, had begun rapidly strategizing for the internet sector over the past two months. Some had outright acquired companies that had received Igritte licensing for World Wide Web access in their operating areas, or they had established their own internet access services through licenses from Igritte.

Due to the explosion in the internet sector, the advantages of Simon's early purchase of Bell Atlantic became increasingly apparent.

Had it not been for the Westeros system's control over Bell Atlantic, the strongest of the three regional operators, even with exclusive contracts in place, if the three giants had pressured America Online together, significant concessions would have been inevitable.

Now, with Bell Atlantic firmly on America Online's side and the other two operators situated on the U.S. coasts, making a united front difficult, America Online could continue to leverage its exclusive agreement advantage.

In contrast, most other regional internet service providers had to accept 'subjugation' by the telecom giants, quickly becoming targets for acquisition. Otherwise, they risked being squeezed out by these giants looking to dominate the ISP market by cutting off network resources.

As the internet industry boomed, Igritte's tight control over World Wide Web technology gradually attracted the attention of major manufacturers.

However, for the time being, it was just attention.

Because Igritte maintained a very open licensing posture, and considering that Igritte had lost over $50 million just in January, its business prospects were not as promising as the ISP business. Thus, Igritte's monopoly on graphical interface browsers and its various portal services did not attract undue envy from other telecom companies.

Indeed, in the aggressive expansion, Igritte had earned $15 million in January alone, but its overall loss exceeded $50 million.

To quickly boost the portal site's visibility among the general public, Igritte had invested $20 million in marketing costs in just the past month.

The portal site had poached a large number of journalists and columnists from traditional print media to build Igritte's content team, with similarly substantial investments. Coupled with expenses for email services, social networking, online gaming investments, and Igritte's ongoing technical development and infrastructure costs, the company achieved the 'feat' of losing $50 million in just one month.

Of course, this rate of spending was actually small-scale in Simon's view, as internet companies burning through billions annually were not unheard of. The funds Igritte was burning now would yield far greater returns compared to those that burned money in the cutthroat internet market of his memory.

As the entire tech field began to appreciate the internet sector, Igritte, with its extensive array of technical patents and software products, was poised for a revenue surge in 1991 as operators increasingly demanded IE browser software, World Wide Web utility software, and portal site advertising.

Maintaining its current performance growth, Igritte's total losses for 1991 were likely to be kept under $500 million, far below Simon's threshold of concern.

Under the trend of rapid user growth over two consecutive months, Wall Street investment banks valued this emerging tech company at over $1 billion in anticipation of America Online's IPO, with analysts from Morgan Stanley even suggesting a valuation

 of $2 billion.

It was foreseeable that after completing the three-month free trial plan, America Online's IPO valuation would likely increase further.

Beyond the broad direction, the Westeros Corporation continued to strategically position itself in seemingly minor new tech sectors.

After Claire presented her business plan to Simon, she quickly established a card camera company with the senior engineer who had left Kodak.

She also connected with a newly established graphic processing software company.

The software's developer, named Thomas Knoll, initially developed a graphic editing software called Display in 1987 on an Apple computer for processing black-and-white images. After two years of continuous development and improvements, the software was renamed Photoshop and began to be used in scanners and digital typesetting.

Upon hearing this, Simon directed James Redbird to attempt to purchase the software outright.

However, the Knoll brothers did not agree to sell the software but were interested in collaborating with the Westeros Corporation.

After several negotiations, the Westeros Corporation invested $800,000 for a 50% stake in the company founded by the Knoll brothers, who continued to control the development of Photoshop.

Simon did not want a professional-grade image processing software to become something like Meitu Xiuxiu. He suggested that the Knoll brothers develop two versions of the software: one that continued to deepen Photoshop's professional features, to be sold through Igritte's online software store, and another, a simplified free version for Claire's card camera company.

In San Francisco's Woodside, in a mansion nestled in the hills, it was March 5. Simon had once again hurried to Silicon Valley to attend the monthly meeting of several Igritte companies.

His assistant hadn't exhausted him the previous evening, allowing Simon to rise early and jog through the Woodside hills as usual.

By eight o'clock, he returned to the villa, where Jennifer had prepared breakfast.

The two sat down in the dining room, and as Jennifer ate, she casually brought up work matters: "I think that Igritte, if it continues to develop this way, will eventually encounter antitrust obstacles. You now want to create a hardware ecosystem, which will directly impact the interests of traditional tech giants like Intel and IBM."

Simon, glancing at the newspaper by his hand, picked up his utensils and smiled, "Think about the personnel arrangement I've made for Igritte."

Jennifer tilted her head in thought for a moment, catching onto something, she said, "Bartz handles software, Bezos oversees the network, and soon, Ferguson might take charge of e-commerce. Hmm, did you plan to split Igritte from the beginning?"

"If it could stay whole, that would obviously be best," Simon nodded, "But that's unlikely. The major operators are now entering the ISP business, meaning the internet industry's expansion will accelerate further. Igritte is just in massive losses now, so many can't see the business potential, plus the company is involved in a completely new tech industry, not infringing on the traditional giants' interests, which is why it hasn't faced much resistance. However, once the industry expands to a significant production value, we can't expect this situation to continue."

Splitting Igritte was indeed an idea Simon had from the start, given the immense industrial value involved in the sectors it touched.

Moreover, Simon acted mainly for Igritte's own development; he didn't want it to suffer from the severe 'big company disease' by holding too many resources too soon. The internet era was just beginning, and facing many challenges ahead, complacency could lead to obsolescence despite having ample resources.

As they were talking, Simon's personal cell phone suddenly rang.

Picking it up, he hadn't even spoken when a series of squeals came from the other end: "Ah, ah, ah..."

That was Janet's voice.

Simon showed a resigned expression—here we go again.

Just as he was about to reassure her, Janet excitedly continued on the phone: "Dear, it's happened, it's happened, I'm pregnant, come back quickly."

Simon paused, making sure he heard right, then instinctively stood up.

Jennifer looked over, puzzled.

After speaking gently with Janet for a while and promising to rush back to Los Angeles, Simon ended the call.

Jennifer, understanding the conversation between Simon and Janet, knew Simon had been stressed lately about the child situation. Now that Janet had finally achieved her wish before her 31st birthday, although slightly jealous, the assistant set her utensils down and said, "In that case, let's head back now."

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