Hollywood Hunter

Seeing the man nodding, Jerry Hall asked curiously, "It shouldn't be easy to win, right? Hermes is very profitable. The Hermes family won't let it go willingly?"

"Melisandre has already obtained 21% of the shares of Hermès. Even if the single largest shareholder cannot buy it all, we can still obtain the corresponding right to speak." Simon said: "Besides, Sophie's idea is not necessarily It is very worthwhile to eat Hermès in its entirety, even if it is only a simple investment, specifically, it depends on the negotiation results between Sophie and the Hermès family."

For this acquisition, Simon's attitude is actually quite optimistic.

The main reason is that LVMH, which once attempted to acquire Hermès, has a really bad reputation, because after many brands under LVMH are acquired, the original team will be purged, and the business philosophy will undergo great changes. In comparison, although Melisandre has always been interested in controlling her brands, she is not as extreme as lvmh.

Therefore, as long as the two sides communicate properly, Melisandre is actually very hopeful to be recognized by the Hermes family. After all, Melisandre is not just Melisandre, but also relies on the entire Westeros system. The Hermes family should understand that if the quarrel between the two sides is too rigid, even the top luxury brand like Hermes may not be able to hold back if they take action to suppress it.

Jerry Hall is more envious of Sophia Fisher, envious of the other party who followed a certain man very early, so he was able to create a huge Melisandre group with the growth of the Westeros system, and she can only rely on Dany Liz made a small fuss.

Thinking of this, Hall couldn't help but said: "Simon, there are already so many brands under Melisandre, more than 80, involving all aspects, and they are still expanding, Sophie, well, I mean, Melisandre Can Sandra's management team really manage such a huge industrial cluster?"

Simon could feel the slight sourness in the woman's tone, and said with a smile: "It was really not easy before, but now, in the information age, company management is also advancing with the times. In recent years, Sophie has been trying to create a The information management system covering the entire Melisandre Group, through the collection and analysis of a large number of data related to various operation links of fashion brands, makes it possible for all brands in the group in terms of production, marketing, sales and after-sales, etc. Template-based unified management, the current system has achieved some results, and after further improvement, it will not be a problem to expand more brands.”

Jerry Hall obviously didn't understand very well. After hearing Simon's words, his eyes were still puzzled.

Simon patiently explained: "This is actually a brand-new economic model that accompanies the advent of the information age, called the platform economy. For example, the Amazon mall under Eaglet is just an e-commerce transaction system. How many Brand, if you have experienced online shopping, you should be very clear, right?"

The platform economy is familiar to those who come later, but it is still a business concept quietly proposed by Simon for the reference and implementation of the leaders of various companies in the Westeros system.

Simon has also expanded quite a bit.

Not only new technology information platforms such as social networks, search engines, and e-commerce, but also at the level of real industries, combined with the current Internet big data technology, can actually be applied to a certain extent.

Melisandre is a case in point.

Moreover, Simon is almost instinctive as a capitalist, and has been promoting similar ideas to various industries involved in the Westeros system.

For example, the Rivne region in Ukraine is actually a big platform to some extent.

For another example, in Australia, Johnston Holdings has an extensive layout of global mining assets. In addition to steel, Johnston Holdings is constantly laying out all the key mining fields needed by modern society, which is actually building a super large platform.

In the final analysis, the ultimate pursuit of the brand-new platform economy concept summed up by Simon is still two words, monopoly! Monopoly resources, monopoly channels, monopoly pricing power, etc., control everything that can be controlled, and finally obtain excess profits.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Therefore, the so-called platform economy can actually be called differently.

For example, e-commerce, mastering a super platform, formulating rules, indirectly controlling the life and death of many enterprises and making huge profits from them is actually a "syndicate".

For another example, the current Melisandre has directly annexed many luxury brands to form a large-scale super fashion industry giant. Earlier, this was called 'Trust'. That's right, it is the 'trust' of the Sherman Antitrust Act of the United States.

In addition, BHP Billiton, which is controlled by Johnston Holdings, has formed a tacit agreement with iron ore giants such as Brazil's Vale and Britain's Rio Tinto in private to formulate a price alliance, which is called a 'cartel'.

In the end, the entire Westeros system directly or indirectly controls a large amount of assets involving various industries and fields, and has a considerable dominant position. This is actually the ultimate form of monopoly. 'Concern', in more popular terms, is ' Plutocrats'.

Nothing new, right!

Of course, in modern society, smart people will certainly not straightforwardly use the various monopoly nouns produced in the era of the savage growth of capitalism that easily arouse the public's stress response, so they re-create various neutral or positive new names.

The essence remains the same.

Regarding the Westeros system, Simon will definitely not be so stupid as to publicly declare that his business empire will become the world's largest economy, but in private, it is not just Concern, not just a super chaebol, not just a single The economy, Simon's ultimate goal, is to hope that the entire Westeros system can become a country.

Within this country, there are distinct classes, strict

It has a secret organizational structure, has its own violent machine, has the independent right to tax and mint coins to maintain the operation of the country, and so on. And the people of this country are called westerosians.

Although the economic volume of the entire Westeros system has reached the level equivalent to that of the top countries in the world, there are still too many things to do to truly reach the level of a country.

Simon wasn't in a hurry, he kept pushing quietly, and deliberately swayed here and there, making it confusing. However, in many aspects, it has already taken shape.

Inside the dining room of Jerry Hall's house.

When Simon mentioned Amazon, Hall realized it. After thinking for a while, he said, "It may be a good idea to have a unified management system. However, this may cause homogeneity among different brands, won't it?"

"Yeah." Simon didn't feel that the woman was picky, but gave him an appreciative look: "It's inevitable, and it's something Sophie has been trying to avoid, just like Hermes this time, Melisandre didn't think However, it must be taken down, or even if it can gain control, it will delegate power to the original brand family and corporate management as much as possible, just to consider this issue.”

With the rapid development of these years, Melisandre's market value has already exceeded the 100 billion US dollar mark in the second half of last year.

It's still only the millennium.

It is conceivable that according to the current trend of expansion, it is not impossible for Melisandre to develop into a super fashion giant with a market value of 500 billion or even higher in more than ten years. With such a huge volume, it is impossible to achieve everything, so there must be a trade-off.

Simon continued to stay in New York for two days. Before returning to the West Coast, there was news from Sofia in Europe.

As Simon expected, although the Hermes family reacted fiercely at first, after some negotiations, they still accepted the fact that Melisandre held shares in Hermes. After Sophia made a promise not to increase her shares in Hermes within five years , The Hermes family agreed to accept Melisandre to send representatives to the company's board of directors, and the two parties will cooperate in various aspects in the future.

In addition, the French authorities also made a judgment on Melisandre’s illegal acquisition of shares in Hermès and fined it 10 million francs, which is equivalent to less than 2 million US dollars.

Just three cups.

This is largely the result of Sofia's ongoing operations in France.

Even though the Westeros system has had many discords with the French side, with the constant rotation of political parties over the years, many things continue to fade.

This is the benefit of a typical Western country.

With the failure of the French Rally for the Defense of the Republic in the 1997 elections and the failure of the 1999 European Parliament elections, the party once formed by Charles de Gaulle is now in a state of collapse after successive splits. In the state of solution, it is certainly impossible to take into account the previous grievances with the Westeros system.

Can't remember grudges, how nice.

The wheels of elections come and go, but capital remains forever.

Therefore, Simon, a big capitalist, is still carrying out various operations through various NGOs with a grudge. Importing illegal immigrants to France or forming a gang network is the next best thing. The French government has already formed and cultivated its own spokesperson.

After all, the problems that money can solve are not problems for Simon.

As for the fashion industry in France, the most direct stakeholders, such as lvmh, which is still the leader in the industry even if its development is not as good as it used to be, or brands such as Chanel, are definitely unwilling to see Hermes join the Westeros system, but they are also not happy. Have enough courage to confront Melisandre, who is backed by the Westeros system.

The disparity in strength is too great.

Just like lvmh, the current equivalent market value is only more than 20 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to one-fifth of Melisandre's size. What's more, if you want to obstruct it, it is not as simple as simply offending Melisandre. The even more terrifying and huge Westeros system.

What's more, Melisandre didn't force her too hard. Even if some people understood that it was boiling a frog in warm water, it wasn't too hot after all, but it wouldn't be worth jumping out instead of bleeding.

Let alone Hermès.

After the two parties agreed that Melisandre would no longer take shares in Hermès within five years, the biggest change in the Hermès family was that they did not gather family shares to form an absolute holding fund of more than 50% as before. Sandra will take advantage of the opportunity further in the future.

In fact, even if the shares are concentrated again, it's nothing.

Referring to the infighting of the Gucci family all over the place, the three monks have no water to drink, not to mention that the shares of Hermès are scattered among more than 50 family members. This time, Melisandre did not let the entire Hermès The family is united in hatred.

In short, the next step is to grind our efforts, and the future will last forever.

Hermès has come to an end temporarily, but Melisandre’s expansion will not be suspended. Sophia is also negotiating with several European famous watch brands to further expand Melisandre’s jewelry and watch business, including Cartier. It is also the flagship brand of the luxury goods giant Richemont Group. However, this time, because of the appearance of Melisandre, whether it is the Kering Group with Gucci as its main business or the Richemont Group with jewelry watches as its core business, Neither developed.

Unable to expand into giants and lacking economies of scale, in the current fashion industry environment, the competitiveness of fashion companies that only hold a few brands will only become weaker and weaker, and the result will be either selling themselves or completely declining.

John Rupert, a billionaire from South Africa, bought Cartier in 1988. Because of the birth of Melisandre, he planned to

John Rupert, who has made a career in the fashion field, had to invest the assets transferred from the family from South Africa in other fields. Lacking enough support, Cartier has gradually become tepid over the years. It just so happens that the current global economic situation is booming. At this time, it can be sold at a good price. After Melisandre sent a signal, John Rupert also gave quite positive response.

On the other hand, returning to the West Coast, Simon's first stop was San Francisco.

The time entered March of 2000.

Simon came to the Bay Area mainly to pay attention to another new 'platform' that will be released soon.

ibox-10.

It is the game console that started development more than two years ago.

Simon originally planned to use doctrine, and directly used Microsoft’s xbox as the name of the console jointly launched by Tinkber, Igret and Daenerys. The reason why he finally decided to change to ibox was of course not just to keep Ting The consistency of product naming under Colbert is as simple as that.

Since 'i' is used as the beginning, it is not difficult to imagine that the networking attribute of this game console product is determined first.

You must know that the game consoles of the same period, whether it was Sony's ps2, Microsoft's xbox, or Nintendo's sfc or Sega's dreamcast, were not connected to the Internet. Even later, the mainstream Sony ps3, ps4, etc., did not connect to the Internet.

As for the reason, it was due to technical limitations before, but after that, apart from the cost, it was mainly due to manufacturers' concerns about piracy. To put it bluntly, just like when the video tapes appeared back then, when Hollywood was on the verge of a formidable enemy, game console manufacturers have complicated emotions about the Internet. You can imagine how many console game markets have been taken away by online games.

Therefore, the xbox was changed to ibox. For the same reason, many high-level executives of the three companies, including Tinkber, were also quite worried.

In the end it was Simon who made the decision.

In the same way, referring to the huge profits that the video recorder eventually brought to Hollywood, blocking advanced technology from the door often makes itself lag behind until it is completely eliminated.

What's more, ibox-10 was originally planned to be released at the end of 1999, but it was postponed to this year's Tinkber Spring Conference, and various plans could not keep up with the changes.

For example, the processor, whether it is Simon or the three high-level executives, of course hoped to be able to design it by themselves at first, and then let the foundry manufacture it, but later gave up. On the one hand, the arm architecture promoted by Tinkobel cannot support the current game consoles, and the powerpc architecture obtained from the acquisition of Apple has fallen behind compared to x86. After careful consideration, choose outsourcing.

And, whether to outsource to Intel or amd, it was another round of negotiations, and amd was chosen, which is willing to make more concessions.

There are also operating systems, the design and procurement of various components, the online game mall after the network function is determined, etc. In short, it is a very cumbersome task to complete a host that is only the size of a tome dictionary. big project.

There is also the result of Simon's excellence.

Simon is well aware of the setbacks encountered by Microsoft's first-generation xbox. Therefore, even if the product launch is delayed again and again, he does not plan to launch a semi-finished product. After all, a game console has a lifespan of five to ten years. If it fails at the beginning, it will be replaced during the period. The design scheme is not easy.

So until now.

Simon has been personally following the whole process, and this visit to Los Angeles is also the last confirmation.

The release date of the ibox-10 has also been confirmed. On April 15th, Tinkobel's spring conference will be held, and it will be officially launched on the following Easter weekend.