Hunting in Hollywood

After a week in the UK, and visits to Finland and Italy, Simon returned to New York on July 11.

America Online is set to officially list on the NASDAQ on July 12.

The IPO roadshow that took place over the previous two weeks generated a very strong response among investors across North America, with the number of shares subscribed exceeding 210 million, 9.5 times the volume of shares offered by America Online for this initial offering.

To coincide with the July 12 IPO, America Online released its second-quarter financial report for 1991 on July 10.

As of June 31, America Online had 3.63 million official users across the busiest regions of the East and West Coasts of the USA, a 56% increase compared to the previous quarter. From April 1 to June 31, over the span of three months, America Online's operating revenue reached $270 million, a surge of 137% from the first quarter.

Despite a quarterly loss of $160 million, no one could ignore the explosive high-speed growth of America Online.

At six in the morning, Simon woke up on time in his mansion in the northern suburbs of Greenwich.

The woman in his arms quickly opened her eyes due to Simon's movement, her face briefly clouded with confusion and a slight blush of embarrassment.

Simon couldn't help but pinch her rosy cheeks as Sophia woke up, asking, "Would you like to come with me to Manhattan?"

Sophia did not shy away from his touch, pressing gently on his hand, saying, "I need to go back to my own home later."

She had flown in with Simon from Italy the day before and, because of their revelry, had not visited her children immediately, which was the cause of her embarrassment.

Simon just smiled and said, "In that case, you can sleep a bit longer."

Sophia turned her head on the pillow and watched as Simon dressed. As the bedsheet slipped, revealing a hint of allure, she saw Simon looking and bashfully covered up, only to pretend to drop her guard again nonchalantly as she slowly found her clothes to wear.

After Simon washed up and went downstairs, the housekeeper Alice and the C-lady, Claire, along with other girls, had already prepared breakfast.

Both women would be attending the IPO bell-ringing ceremony with Simon today, marking their official public appearance.

The outside world had many speculations about Simon's increasingly low-profile private life, including the beautiful girls by his side. Their stepping out into the public eye would undoubtedly attract some remarks, but this was an experience they had to endure. It was much better to get the public used to certain things early on rather than having everything exposed at the last moment.

After breakfast and saying goodbye to Sophia, Simon and his group set off for Manhattan.

Having already experienced the IPO bell-ringing ceremony for Blockbuster, this was familiar territory for him.

However, compared to just showing his face last time, this event had many more activities planned, including a media interview that Simon would personally attend before the bell-ringing ceremony.

The IPO of America Online was clearly drawing much more media attention.

As Simon's car appeared outside the headquarters of the NASDAQ in midtown Manhattan, a crowd of reporters surrounded him, and several broadcast vans from TV stations were also parked nearby.

The bodyguards got out first, four of them surrounding Simon and the two women as they got out, with another four pushing through the crowd to clear a path for Simon to enter the exchange.

The surrounding reporters shouted various questions, but when they got no response, they quickly adjusted their strategy, frantically snapping photos of Simon and especially the two women with him today.

Some even began to speculate about the identities of the two women, and rumors of a marital split began to circulate.

Of course, such thoughts were just that—thoughts.

If anyone dared to publish such speculation without solid evidence, they would likely face bankruptcy at the hands of Westeros.

This tycoon had recently bankrupted a few greenhorns, although it was mostly Janet handling the affairs; the public naturally attributed these actions to Simon.

Struggling through the crowd into the trading hall, figures like James Lebould, Steve Case, Jeff Bezos, Carol Bartz, John Chambers, and Raymond Smith from the Westeros corporate hierarchy came forward to greet him.

Today's IPO, with Steve Case as the nominal main character as chairman and CEO of America Online, was clear to everyone that a certain young man was the center of attention.

With the continuous explosion of the internet industry, more and more people were recognizing Simon's brilliant early positioning in this emerging high-tech field in just a few years.

Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, Cisco, America Online, Egret, and even the now officially renamed Verizon Communications, all demonstrated this.

In particular, Cisco, America Online, and Egret formed an entire internet industry chain as providers of internet equipment, internet services, and internet content,

 respectively. They jointly pioneered the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web standard, achieving overwhelming adoption rates in less than two years, with other similar companies unable to keep pace.

Many anticipated that whether it was Cisco, America Online, or Egret, each would become a behemoth of the new era.

Thus, the listing of America Online was far more significant than Simon's Blockbuster IPO early last year.

With no time for pleasantries as the clock struck eight, greetings were swiftly exchanged, and everyone got busy with their tasks.

Simon was led by the staff into the interview area of the exchange, where this interview would be broadcast live on mainstream TV networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, and local New York morning news programs.

The interview was limited to ten minutes, with each journalist allowed to ask only one question.

Given that this was one of the rare public interviews with Simon Westeros, everyone was keenly alert.

Two sofas were placed in the interview area, with Simon sitting on one while the vice president of NASDAQ, Richard Himan, sat beside him as the host.

After a brief preparation, the vice president cheekily asked, "Simon, such opportunities are rare, so how about giving me the first question?"

Simon smiled and nodded, replying, "Of course, but you've already asked your question, so, next one."

The room paused momentarily before bursting into laughter.

Of course, it was just a joke.

Richard Himan didn't take it seriously and persisted with the microphone, saying, "This must be your second visit to NASDAQ, the first being for Blockbuster, and now for America Online. My question isn't about which company will be next, although I am indeed curious, but rather, how do you view the current state and future trends of the U.S. stock market over the next few years, and if possible, could you share some investment advice?"

This was clearly a broad question.

However, given Simon's stature, he was well-positioned to comment on national economic trends.

Although it was somewhat off-topic from today's IPO theme, Simon considered for a moment before responding, "As everyone knows, the federal stock market has experienced a strong rebound lasting several months in the first half of the year. Many people feel this rebound is highly speculative due to the weak real economy, but I don't see it that way. If we start from 1987, the federal has faced two major crises: the stock market bubble burst and the bond market crash. These crises squeezed out speculative components in the federal economy, so I believe this year marks the start of another bull market for the federal stock market."

People nodded at Simon's analysis, noticing he seemed to finish without intending to continue, Richard prodded, "And the investment advice?"

Simon reluctantly continued, "In a market poised for a rebound, it's very easy to profit from any investment. The key is patience. Specifically, I recommend investing in tech stocks over the next few years. For example, America Online, which goes public today."

Richard, satisfied with his answer, did not probe further, efficiently handing the opportunity for questions to an eager reporter below.

The journalist from "The New York Times" took the microphone and quickly asked, "Simon, the issue price for America Online is set at $21, valuing the company at $3.15 billion. However, America Online's revenue for the last quarter was only $270 million, with annual revenue possibly only reaching around $1 billion, giving a price-to-earnings ratio of about 35 times based on an estimated $2.1 billion stock price. Does this pricing seem high? How do you justify such a valuation for America Online?"

Simon had anticipated this question and smoothly replied, "For a company just going public, the stock price should represent more of a future. America Online is no exception, and its high growth potential is well-known. Therefore, I don't believe the IPO price is too high; in fact, I think it's somewhat low."

Simon's response was somewhat generic.

Anyone seriously analyzing America Online could see that not only did the company represent high growth potential, but it also had a strong monopolistic nature.

Due to the control of World Wide Web technology patents in the Westeros system, not only does America Online itself have exclusive agreements in the operating regions of the three major operators. Moreover, both upstream internet equipment providers like Cisco and downstream internet content providers like Egret have many ways to ensure America Online's advantage in the industry.

In the past six months, the reason the West Coast's Bell Pacific and the East Coast's NYNEX have not completely fallen out with America Online is partly due to contracts, but also due to a lack of support in technology and content from upstream and downstream providers.

If these companies decided to enter the ISP field by tearing up the original exclusivity agreements, they clearly would not receive support from Cisco and Egret, nor would they likely obtain authorization for World Wide Web technologies.

If tearing up the agreements meant only compensating according to

 the contract terms, then forcibly infringing on World Wide Web technology without a tech license could potentially lead to bankruptcy under lawsuits from the Westeros system. Any company with even a semblance of business ethics wouldn't make such a move.

However, these relatively sensitive advantages were something Simon could never fully disclose.

Revealing them would be handing over leverage.

Warren Buffett famously developed the "toll bridge" theory, suggesting that a company with a strong monopolistic advantage in a certain area possesses absolute pricing power. Initially, this theory was intended to guide Berkshire's investment targets, but since Buffett publicly discussed this idea, it has become a point of criticism against him in some company lawsuits, accusing Berkshire of intending to manipulate the market.

What company wouldn't want to be the "only one" or to have a monopolistic advantage?

However, many things often can be done but should never be spoken aloud.

Therefore, Simon's answers to some questions might seem uninformative or even mocked by some self-proclaimed savvy individuals. Yet, even entrepreneurs who like to teach success on media would likely not truly open their hearts to the public as long as they haven't completely lost their minds.

Of course, even with deliberate restraint, the following ten minutes of the interview still revealed quite a bit.

Over the years, the market's perception of Simon, who had created a series of financial miracles in just a few years, carried a strong sense of blind faith. America Online, as an undisputed core enterprise within the Westeros system, hence saw its stock price continue to soar when the opening bell rang and pre-opening inquiry began.

By 10:30 AM, after over an hour of continuous five rounds of inquiries, America Online finally started trading at $32.75 per share.

$32.75, a 56% increase from the $21 issue price, was just the beginning.

In the subsequent trading sessions, America Online's stock price continued to rise, reaching levels that made some early subscribers tempted to start selling.

At the close of trading at 3:30 PM, America Online's stock price finally settled at a high of $43.25 per share.

On its first day of trading, America Online's overall price increase reached 106%, closing with a market cap of $7.46 billion.

Following the IPO, Westeros Corporation's ownership stake in America Online decreased to 65.4%.

Suddenly, many realized that America Online, which was nearly unknown in Simon Westeros's asset tally just a year ago, had brought the young man $4.9 billion in book wealth in just one year.

This $4.9 billion alone surpassed the entire fortunes of most billionaires on the domestic and even global rich lists.

Yet, undeniably, America Online was just a part of the thriving Westeros system.

Over the weekend, as the media continued to discuss America Online's stock performance for the following week, they also started to focus on Simon's current personal net worth.

In the past year, it's fair to say, the Westeros system completed a leapfrog development, mainly including the acquisitions of MCA and Bell Atlantic. What was even more astounding to the industry was when everyone thought these two acquisitions would drag down the entire Westeros system with huge debts, what followed was a stock market rebound in the first half of 1991.

Although MCA and Bell Atlantic had both been delisted, no one could deny that Simon Westeros had perfectly timed the market bottom with these acquisitions.

If these acquisitions had been delayed by even a month or two, by the time the Gulf War began rampaging, the Westeros system would not have been able to secure these two companies at the original prices.

Thus, judging by the current state of the stock market, the current value of these two companies was definitely worth more than the initial $14 billion.

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