Chapter 334: The Biography of Simon

Unlike the sunny Los Angeles and the drizzly Seattle, New York remains in its coldest season of the year.

Days are short in winter.

Simon arrives on the East Coast, rushing from Kennedy Airport to his Fifth Avenue residence, just as the daylight fades.

Inside the apartment, Janet isn't the only person there; Sophia Fesi came from Europe yesterday.

Simon continues to work, while Janet and many around her are busy preparing for the wedding in early March.

The wedding is set to be held in Melbourne, and the guest list is already being finalized. The Johnston family has even prepared several chartered flights for this.

Sophia's trip to New York this time is for the wedding dress; Gucci's design team started working on the dress as soon as the wedding date was confirmed. The housekeeper came specially to discuss some production details with Janet.

Last night, Janet dragged Sophia into discussing the wedding dress styles until dawn, but Simon woke up early the next day as usual.

Groping around, he looked at his watch; it was still 6:50 AM on the East Coast.

The woman in his arms noticed Simon's movement and cuddled closer, sleepily biting his shoulder before falling quiet again.

Feeling Janet's affection, Simon abandoned the idea of getting up and closed his eyes again.

Winter indeed is a season well-suited for laziness.

When he woke up again, it was about nine in the morning, and Janet was no longer by his side.

After getting dressed and freshening up, Simon pulled back the bedroom curtains. The desolate Central Park was covered in the season's characteristic soft sunlight, pale and seemingly reluctant.

At least it was a sunny day.

Downstairs, Janet and Sophia had just prepared breakfast. Seeing Simon, Janet came over and kissed him, saying, "I was just about to wake you up."

Simon greeted her with a good morning and also greeted Sophia before sitting down at the dining table.

Sophia served breakfast and placed today's newspapers next to Simon before sitting down. During the meal, she brought up some matters about Gucci. The fashion week of February was nearing, and the housekeeper was not idle during this period; she would return to Europe tomorrow.

After breakfast, Sophia hurried to Gucci's American headquarters, while Simon and Janet had no work planned for today, enjoying their world in the apartment like hibernating cats.

"...I've already started preparing, oh! On that day, the perimeter of the Yarra Valley Park, where our wedding venue is, will be bordered by a maze made of flower walls, full of various flowers—it will definitely be very beautiful..."

In the living room on the second floor of the duplex, Janet held a thick folder full of wedding planning materials and chattered to Simon.

Looking at her flushed cheeks as she spoke, Simon said with a smile, "Aren't all women supposed to have pre-wedding jitters? You seem to have none."

Janet affectionately snuggled up to Simon and replied, "Only women who doubt they've met the right man have pre-wedding jitters. I have no such doubts."

Hearing this, Simon kissed her smooth cheek, somewhat lingeringly, and then pulled her closer.

Janet naturally began to respond.

The two entangled for a moment, soon turning into scenes not suitable for children.

They stayed in the apartment all day, and Sophia did not return to disturb them. The next day was Monday, and they could not avoid starting work again.

That Saturday morning, Sheila Ward spoke to Simon about Saddam's unclear speech at the Arab Cooperation Council member state meeting, while here in New York, the Cersei Capital team was already making early moves in the oil futures market based on this news and recent moves by various Western countries.

As the hedge fund industry has grown more robust in recent years, Cersei Capital is not the only one watching the oil futures market.

However, many hedge funds believe that international oil prices will rise in the next period due to Saddam's stance. Cersei Capital, on the other hand, bets on a drop in oil prices.

Simon remembers, because from last year Saddam has shown a 'non-cooperative' stance with the West, and with the Bush family, closely linked with various oil giants, in power in the USA, the Western oil groups finally decide to take action against Iraq.

The first step is not war but targeting Iraq's economy, which is already battered after a decade-long Iran-Iraq war.

Iraq's economy heavily depends on oil, so the best way to strike at the country's economy is to drive down international oil prices.

Thus, in the coming months, countries closely related to the Western oil groups like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will adopt a significant increase in production to lower international oil prices, which is also the direct cause of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

In the original timeline, international oil prices plunged from $19 at the beginning of 1990 to $13 within a few months before the Kuwait War, a drop of over 30%.

After the outbreak of the Kuwait War, international oil prices soared from the $13 nadir to a high of $40, an increase of over 200%.

Then, the Gulf War broke out, and when most oil speculators thought the prices would continue to climb, the war ended quickly. International oil prices quickly fell back below $20, a turn of events not even the belligerent Western nations had anticipated.

Over half a year, the continuous sharp rises and falls in international oil prices made or broke countless investors in the oil futures market.

Indeed, without the foresight of a reborn person, Simon would not dare to make heavy bets in such turbulence, even if he could roughly predict the upcoming situation.

Otherwise, just one wrong move could turn a substantial profit into a significant loss.

Like in the original timeline with Quantum Fund, Soros was unstoppable in the Asian markets but lost over $3 billion in a single year due to a misjudgment of Russia's economic situation.

Moreover, Cersei Capital's decision to accept domestic capital this time is to minimize human variables and gain some useful insider information through this exchange of interests.

Simon stays in New York until Wednesday.

He attends two fundraising dinners organized by Cersei Capital for two consecutive nights. Cersei Fund Management Company's funds are already in place, and these dinners mainly support Leon Black's Apollo Management Company and Lawrence Fink's BlackRock Asset Management.

Apollo Management Company has its eye on the bond assets of Columbia Savings and Credit Bank, which is being auctioned off by the federal government, with a first fundraising target of $1 billion. $1 billion is actually not enough, so Apollo's investment team will also collaborate with other Wall Street giants for vulture investing.

This approach reduces risks and also helps eliminate Wall Street's hostility toward Cersei Capital, simultaneously establishing Cersei's network on Wall Street.

Most Wall Street financial giants are in a state of both competition and cooperation.

The reason why the once-unassailable Drexel Securities Company quickly went bankrupt within months after falling into crisis was that Drexel had no friends on Wall Street.

For over a decade, Drexel monopolized the issuance of over $80 billion in junk bonds, unwilling to share the lucrative underwriting fees with other companies. When Drexel fell into crisis last year and sought help from Wall Street peers, no one was willing to lend a hand.

Compared to Apollo's initial $1 billion fundraising plan, Cersei Capital plans to raise

 funds for BlackRock Asset Management comparable to BlackRock's existing funds, amounting to $3 billion.

This difference mainly stems from the risk disparity in the businesses the two companies engage in.

Apollo's operations, involving leveraged buyouts, equity investments, and vulture investing, can lead to substantial losses if not managed carefully. In contrast, BlackRock's involvement in stock, bond, and fixed income investments is very low-risk. However, the returns are also low, necessitating victory through scale.

Amidst the busyness, time also reaches the last day of January.

Simon plans to return to Los Angeles in the afternoon, spending the entire morning at Daenerys Entertainment's New York division in Greenwich.

The TV spring season has quietly begun. Although the annual TV program promotion season is in May, starting from the beginning of the year, each TV production company begins scouting for new projects for the year.

Robert Aeg, who is responsible for Daenerys Television Company, produced ten TV programs last year, four of which were reality shows led by Simon, three new dramas taken over by New World Entertainment, and three brand-new series started last year.

Currently, Daenerys Television Company's main income still comes from four reality shows, including "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Last year's three new dramas, the TV network has only renewed one, and one of the three old dramas was also cut after last fall's season due to low ratings.

Moreover, among the four reality shows, the one aired on the CBS platform, "Beverly Hills Wives," also encountered some issues.

Phenomenal reality shows are never easy to come by. In Simon's memory, only a few reality shows, whether in the 1990s or after the new millennium, reached a well-known status, such as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "Survivor," and "Big Brother." None were hotter than these three in the last two years.

However, "Beverly Hills Wives," originally on a basic cable channel, wasn't so lucky.

Joining the public channel lineup, compared to "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "Survivor," and "Big Brother," "Beverly Hills Wives" ranked last in viewership data.

Initially, CBS also launched two reality shows at the same time. Although they had lower viewership, they could still continue, reducing CBS's reliance on "Beverly Hills Wives."

Thus, before the second season of "Beverly Hills Wives" was completed, CBS tried to further lower the renewal price for the third season.

Inside the New York division's building, Simon listened to Robert Aeg's explanation in the conference room and thought for a moment before saying, "If that's the case, then cancel the cooperation with CBS."

Robert Aeg was somewhat surprised: "Simon, even if the price is reduced by another 20%, we still profit significantly, there's no need to cancel."

Simon glanced around the other TV department executives in the conference room, gestured for everyone to leave, and then said to Aeg, "Bob, I actually intended to develop 'Beverly Hills Wives' into a complete 'Wives' series."

Robert Aeg nodded: "I know, you've mentioned it before. But, Simon, that's not very realistic; the big four TV networks won't give us enough time slots to air an entire series of reality shows."

"That's why we need to find a separate platform for this series."

Robert Aeg, aware of Cersei Capital's accumulation of a significant amount of funds abroad, probed: "Simon, are you planning to acquire a TV network?"

"Now is not the time," Simon shook his head, "Bob, there are some things I can't tell you yet, but if everything goes well, we will have our own TV network by the second half of the year. Although it won't reach the scale of the big four public networks, it will be more than enough to accommodate the 'Wives' series. Ideally, using the 'Wives' series, we can also brand our network as a specialty women's channel."

Having been in the TV industry for a long time, Aeg quickly understood what was happening.

After organizing his memory of various media groups in the industry, Aeg tentatively said: "USA?"

Like CW, AMC, and MTV in later years, USA belongs to the national basic cable television networks in the USA.

Unlike public networks, basic cable channels are of the cable TV type but differ from premium cable channels in that they do not charge users directly. Instead, they receive revenue sharing from cable operators, along with some advertising revenue.

Currently, USA Network is jointly owned by Paramount Communications and MCA, each holding a 50% stake.

Although USA's presence was completely overshadowed by networks like CW, AMC, and MTV in later years, compared to AMC, which produced phenomenally popular series like "The Walking Dead," or CW with its DC superhero series, USA's offerings seemed less noteworthy. But at this time, with the strong support of the two giants, Paramount Communications and MCA, USA is among the top in popularity and scale among the emerging basic cable channels.

Seeing that Aeg guessed it, Simon did not deny it but nodded with a smile, cautioning, "Keep this confidential."

"Of course."

Aeg agreed, tactfully not asking further, though he couldn't help speculating about Simon's next target—MCA or Paramount Communications.

MCA seemed more feasible.

At Paramount Communications, Martin Davis had struggled to take control after the company's previous leader died and was not likely to let go easily.

Due to the original contract, "Beverly Hills Wives" could only be dropped if CBS gave it up voluntarily. The two discussed this matter for a while longer, and Simon handed a folder to Aeg, saying, "I've looked through the TV drama projects the company is scouting when I had time. I selected two from them, make sure we secure them. For the others, you can decide based on the situation."

Aeg took the folder Simon handed over and opened it; the first thing that appeared was a sitcom, named "The Biography of Simon."

"The Biography of Simon," a sitcom that was as popular as "Friends" in the 90s. While not as popular overseas as "Friends," it was very well-received in North America. At its conclusion, it even set a record with over 70 million viewers.

Simon had seen the project information when he was in Los Angeles, and another purpose of his trip to New York was to remind Aeg to secure this project.

As for the other, it was a project Simon had casually included, indifferent to its success or failure, or rather, hoping it would fail.

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