Bill Gates felt that today's meeting with Simon was a complete mistake.
If it weren't for this young man's sudden rise, Gates believed he should be the richest person in the United States. Unfortunately, his $10.5 billion fortune on this year's Forbes list was completely dwarfed by the young man's $120 billion.
The interaction between the two reminded Gates of his early encounters with Steve Jobs during Microsoft's development phase.
At that time, Jobs was already a rising star with a net worth of over a hundred million, and Microsoft was merely a supplier of office software to Apple. Due to various disagreements between Apple and Microsoft, Gates and Jobs had numerous heated arguments.
Or, to be more accurate, Gates was completely berated by Jobs back then.
Now, Jobs no longer had the brilliance he once had, and Microsoft's rise seemed unstoppable.
However, Gates found that he now had an even more unpleasant individual over his head than Jobs ever was.
This young man didn't shout like Jobs used to. He didn't even bother to show any emotion in response to Gates' anger, which felt like an even more severe form of disdain.
It seemed as though Simon was operating on a completely different level, looking down on everyone from above.
That might be the case, but Bill Gates was unwilling to admit it.
This meeting ended on a sour note.
Regarding the two issues of Linux and IE, the conditions Simon provided were essentially the plans he had already decided on, giving Gates no room for maneuver.
As Gates left, he had already made up his mind.
IE still had to run on the Windows platform, and it wasn't hard to control it.
Simon didn't care about Gates' thoughts. His current attitude was to watch coldly from the sidelines while the specific strategies were handled by the executives of his various companies.
It was akin to raising gu, a poison derived from venomous creatures fighting in a jar. No matter which side won, the Westeros system would have a significant share of the benefits.
Moreover, Simon could also predict the kinds of tricks Gates might play. However, if pushed too far, the Ygret team might actually launch a free Linux desktop operating system.
Windows had risen due to the internet boom, but it still had some way to go before achieving complete monopoly.
Releasing a free Linux desktop operating system now wasn't without a chance to redefine the operating system market landscape. Android once surpassed Apple's iOS despite its late arrival, and the key issue of software ecosystem dominance was something Microsoft hadn't yet achieved. Ygret had the resources to coordinate software developers to create software for Linux.
Of course, this strategy would be mutually destructive.
Unless absolutely necessary, the Ygret team wouldn't do this.
Severely damaging Microsoft would also bring significant losses to Simon as its second-largest shareholder.
Returning to Los Angeles on Monday, the most notable news was that Canada's Seagram Group had officially announced its acquisition of Paramount Communications.
Prior to this, the two companies had been secretly negotiating for over three months.
In fact, it was already not much of a secret.
Over the past few months, rumors about Seagram Group acquiring Paramount Communications had been frequently reported, leading to a more than 25% increase in Paramount's stock price since the end of May, with a recent market value of $5.9 billion.
Now that the news was public, it was clear that the two sides had reached an agreement.
Seagram Group would acquire Paramount Communications at $66 per share, a total value of approximately $8 billion, paid in full cash. Additionally, Seagram Group would assume $1.2 billion of Paramount's debt, making the total transaction amount $9.2 billion.
On the day the news was announced, Paramount's stock price rose another 11%.
In the coming period, as long as no other bidders emerged, the transaction would be finalized following a vote by Paramount's board of directors and approval by federal authorities.
Many believed the likelihood of other bidders appearing was low.
Compared to the initial negotiations, Seagram Group's offer of $66 per share already represented a 70% premium. The key point was that this transaction was entirely cash-based. Bidders like Barry Diller's QVC or Sumner Redstone's Viacom, even if interested in acquiring Paramount, couldn't match such an offer.
With the news public, the focus of federal media discussions shifted again to whether the media industry regulations should be relaxed sooner.
Due to the ban on public television networks merging with large content producers, the three major federal television networks, despite their strength, couldn't participate in the acquisition of Hollywood studios, leading to Columbia and MGM falling into foreign hands, and Universal almost being acquired by Panasonic.
Now, another Hollywood studio, Paramount Communications, was about to become a subsidiary of foreign capital.
The New York Times argued that such acquisitions were threatening America's cultural industry, and the federal government should prohibit Seagram from acquiring Paramount.
Such appeals were unlikely to be effective.
Since Sony could complete its acquisition of Columbia Pictures, and Australian capital could swallow MGM, there was no legal basis for the federal government to block Seagram Group's acquisition of Paramount Communications.
Unless media regulations were immediately relaxed, allowing the powerful three major public television networks to join the acquisition.
The media giants had been lobbying for the relaxation of industry regulations, and this issue had already become a consensus among federal authorities. However, repealing the initial legislation wouldn't happen overnight.
At least for now, Seagram Group's acquisition of Paramount Communications was unavoidable.
Cape Dumay Estate.
The date was Wednesday, September 29.
Simon was invited by Paramount Pictures President Robert Rehme to a party at his Beverly Hills home and left early around nine in the evening.
Returning home, Janet was still awake, discussing something with A-girl in a living room of the villa.
Simon sat next to Janet, inquiring about their child. Janet said the baby was asleep and being taken care of by B-girl, so he curiously looked at the documents in her hands.
Janet handed the folder to Simon, saying, "These are the just-sorted lists. What do you think?"
Simon took the folder, which contained a thick stack of resumes, casually flipping through them. They were all girls aged 18 to 22 from top universities in North America, Australia, and Europe.
With the current A, B, C, and D girls gradually transitioning out of their roles, Janet had started selecting a new batch of personal maids.
Simon originally thought there was no need to find overly intelligent girls, but seeing how the ones brought out by housekeeper Alice frequently caused 'incidents,' it seemed that smarter girls might be more reliable. Smart people often knew what to do and what not to do.
As he casually looked through the resumes, Simon said, "I think we could pick younger girls and train them from the start. These are a bit too old."
Janet shifted, snuggling closer to Simon as they looked through the resumes together. "I know it's better to train them from a younger age, but how do you plan to find little girls? We can't just buy them, can we? That would be too troublesome."
Simon put his arm around Janet, making her more comfortable, and continued flipping through the files on his lap. After thinking for a moment, he said, "That's easy. We can pick from Latin America or Eastern Europe."
Janet was still a bit puzzled. "Hmm?"
Simon explained, "You know, in Latin America and Eastern Europe, there are modeling scouts everywhere selecting promising girls for major agencies. We can choose who we want from those channels."
Janet nudged Simon's shoulder. "It's what you want, right?"
Simon smiled. "Yes, you don't need them."
Janet pretended to be upset, pouting and then turning to A-girl. "A, let B handle this before she leaves. It will be her final task."
Allison nodded, making a note.
Janet turned back and indicated the folder on Simon's lap. "What about these?"
"We can select a few to train."
As Simon said this, he continued flipping through the resumes and suddenly paused on one.
It was a girl named Marissa Mayer, who had just entered Stanford University's computer science department this year. Glancing at the photo in the top right corner, Simon realized it was indeed the Marissa Mayer he remembered.
Since the resume had reached Simon and Janet's hands, the preliminary work intention had already been agreed upon.
Simon didn't expect the well-known future Silicon Valley executive to be interested in this job.
Not hesitating, Simon pulled out Mayer's resume and said, "This one looks good."
Simon didn't hide his preferences in front of Janet, and she didn't mind, curiously taking the resume to look at it. "She's only a freshman. But two years should be enough, and it doesn't really matter if she gets a Stanford degree or not."
Simon nodded, continued looking through the resumes, and didn't find any other familiar names. He then discussed with Janet and selected seven from the sixty-plus resumes, including Marissa Mayer, forming two new four-person teams. After targeted training, half of them might be filtered out, leaving four.
A, B, C, and D were chosen the same way.
The Westeros family's maid team, besides the dispersed ABCD, included the Indian girl Arya and two girls, Zoe Parks and Isabel Dunn, brought out by housekeeper Alice's team, who were the closest maids. Additionally, there were several girls managing Simon's various properties in North America and Europe, who rarely appeared around the Westeros couple.
At the current rate of ABCD leaving, Marissa Mayer and others would be enough to replace them.
Later, they could select girls from Latin America and Eastern Europe.
There was also a little pixie hiding in Stanford, Simon's third Jennie, Jennifer Bray. However, little Jennie was positioned as
another assistant to Simon, and she still needed two years.
After discussing this matter, they sent A-girl to rest. The couple then checked on the sleeping baby before heading upstairs to bed.
The next morning, Janet held onto Simon, not letting him leave, so they didn't get up until after eight.
Ironically, the baby had already woken up earlier and was playing in the estate with B-girl, showing a very independent and lively demeanor.
After having breakfast together, Simon accompanied Janet to the Westeros Family Hospital for her routine prenatal checkup and then attended a pregnancy class with her. They returned to Cape Dumay Estate for lunch.
The pregnancy schedules of both Jennies were similarly simple and boring. After all, it wasn't a real vacation. With a baby in the womb, many activities were off-limits, and the female assistant faced even more restrictions, including not appearing in public.
After lunch, Janet and the baby took a nap, but Simon wasn't sleepy.
Taking advantage of the warm afternoon sun, he swam in the villa's outdoor pool by the sea. After swimming, B-girl handed him a towel. Simon wiped himself down briefly, walked to a lounge chair by the pool, sat down, picked up the juice from the nearby table, and motioned for B-girl to come over. "How's your financial information platform coming along?"
B-girl sat on the lounge chair to Simon's left, glancing at his muscular physique before discreetly lowering her gaze. "The software development team is in place. Goldman Sachs, Morgan, and Cersei Capital have all agreed to cooperate. Yahoo Finance also agreed to provide news content. Recently, I've been negotiating with traditional financial media for cooperation."
Simon smiled. "There are difficulties, right?"
B-girl nodded.
The Ygret company's 58list website had just offended the traditional print media, so reaching agreements with Thomson, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week wouldn't be easy. Moreover, these companies already had their own partners and interests in financial information.
"Take it step by step," Simon continued. "Your 'Gresham's Law' idea is actually quite good. It's not about providing inferior service but recognizing our gap with established financial information platforms. This is important. Many fail because they don't understand their positioning."
B-girl wanted to create a financial information company similar to Bloomberg, a very promising idea.
In the next twenty years, the U.S. financial industry would become more developed, and the demand for professional financial information would increase significantly.
Take Bloomberg, for example. Currently, there were only about 15,000 Bloomberg terminals sold globally, with an annual revenue of around $200 million.
In Simon's memory, Bloomberg terminals peaked at 300,000 units sold annually, twenty times the current market size. Michael Bloomberg accumulated over $50 billion in wealth from this company alone, showing the vast potential of professional financial information platforms.
With the resources of the Westeros system, even if B-girl's platform couldn't completely surpass Bloomberg, just securing a foothold in the industry and gaining some market share would mean a company worth hundreds of billions in the future.
Bloomberg was founded in 1981 and had ten years of experience. Catching up wouldn't be an overnight task for B-girl's company.
Therefore, Becky developed a plan code-named 'Gresham's Law.'
The idea was to create a basic financial information platform aimed at entry-level users. Then, gradually improve it to compete with Bloomberg terminals, using lower prices to invade the market of Bloomberg and other existing stock market devices, achieving a 'bad money drives out good' effect. Over time, the company would evolve from 'bad money' to 'good money.'
The upcoming tech wave would ignite a stock trading craze in the next few years.
By then, not only Wall Street professionals but many ordinary people would need financial information platforms, and the high cost of Bloomberg terminals wouldn't be affordable for everyone, giving B-girl's company the best opportunity for growth.
Thinking about this, Simon asked, "By the way, have you named the company?"
B-girl nodded. "Alphabeta."
Simon paused, recognizing the name. It seemed familiar.
Hmm.
Google's parent company!
"Why that name?"
"It's sort of mine and A's company. Allison gave me a lot of advice during the project planning phase, and her $10 million vase fund is also investing in it. She'll continue to help me privately."
A and B, Alphabeta, made sense.
Thinking it over, Simon asked, "How exactly is it spelled?"
B-girl quickly spelled it out.
Simon realized the names were different after all.
Google's parent company was Alphabet, lacking an 'a' at the end. A and B girls' company was Alphabeta, with a complete spelling.
Confirming it was just a small coincidence, Simon nodded and smiled. "It's a very good name."
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