Chapter 400: Formal Merger

Simon carefully deliberated and quietly made up his mind.

Coming back to his senses, he noticed the stiff posture of the female housekeeper beside him and asked with a smile, "Would you like to leave your current job and start early at Igneel?"

Alice tilted her head slightly and countered, "Would you let me leave, boss?"

"If you leave early, you'll miss out on the $10 million vase fund."

This time, the business plans did not tap into the vase fund under the housekeeper's name. For one thing, $10 million was indeed too little, not even enough to subsidize the promotion of an online payment system. On the other hand, Simon also did not allow these two business plans, crucial for the expansion of Igneel, to operate independently.

The housekeeper wasn't too concerned about the $10 million fund, but she quickly realized that the boss was teasing her again, so she simply stopped responding.

Just as Simon was about to say something else, he heard the voice of his female assistant, "Simon, are you coming up to rest?"

Turning his head, he saw the assistant standing at the staircase in a bathrobe.

It was clear that he couldn't just not go.

Simon quickly nodded, "Yes."

Jennifer didn't move; her gaze still fixed on him, leaving Simon no choice but to stand up and follow the assistant upstairs.

Alice sat there, watching the two disappear, a hint of envy arising within her.

Upstairs in the villa.

Jennifer entered the master bedroom and casually walked over to the bed, lying down to flip through a magazine.

Seeing Jennifer ignoring him, Simon chuckled and lay down beside her, turning to kiss her cheek.

Jennifer only slightly dodged before he kissed her cheek, then she pushed him lightly, "Go take a shower."

"How about you join me?"

"I just took one."

Simon didn't insist and headed to the bathroom. After a quick shower, he returned to find the bedroom lit only by the soft yellow light of the bedside lamp.

Jennifer had changed out of her cotton robe into a pink silk nightgown. She sat at the edge of the bed, pretending to read her magazine, but her casual glance carried a hint of subtle expectation.

Recently, having been thoroughly "exploited" by Jennifer, Simon really wanted to do nothing and just rest for the night.

However.

Feeling his assistant's hopeful gaze, he certainly couldn't say no now.

As the first light of dawn seeped through the cracks of the curtains, the ringing of the bedside phone awoke them. A fair arm reached out to pick up the receiver and hand it over to Simon.

After a brief conversation on the phone, Simon hung up quickly.

It was good news.

During working hours on the East Coast, the Department of Justice had officially approved Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA.

Simon had already known the outcome two days ago, so today's official notification was neither exciting nor surprising. Everything was falling into place.

Now, sleeping was the priority.

He had been exhausted last night.

Tucked back into Simon's arms, Jennifer no longer felt sleepy. She pressed her hand against his chest and whispered softly, "Should I get up first and prepare breakfast?"

"Mmm..."

Listening to Simon's feigned weary response, Jennifer chuckled lightly. She knew all too well Jennifer's increasing urgency to have children. If it weren't for seeing him tease the housekeeper last night, she probably wouldn't have pushed so hard.

Now.

Hmph!

See if you still have the energy to flirt with other women.

After a slight struggle, the assistant effortlessly slid out of his embrace, not forgetting to peck his cheek before heading to the bathroom.

After freshening up quietly, Jennifer dressed and left the bedroom.

Just outside the bedroom corridor, she saw a stunning figure standing at the hallway leading to the staircase, mop in hand.

This figure was dressed in a suit skirt, blonde hair tied up, revealing a fair neck. A slim waist accentuated by the fitting women's suit, and further down, the skirt stretched over an enticing curve. Below, legs clad in black stockings were equally seductive.

Unable to help herself, she inhaled softly.

The assistant thought.

If it were a certain someone walking out of the bedroom right now, he definitely couldn't resist stepping forward, not with a slap but perhaps with a hand pressing down.

Then it would happen right there in the hallway.

What a temptress.

What a scoundrel.

Sensing movement behind her, the figure turned around.

The assistant vaguely remembered, this girl's name was Zoe Parks.

Seeing it was the assistant coming out of the bedroom, Zoe's expression showed no flaws. Leaning on her mop, she moved aside slightly and greeted with a smile, "Good morning, Jennifer."

"Morning."

The assistant responded softly, without a smile, her demeanor cool as she passed the young woman and headed down the stairs.

Regretting a bit.

Should

 have exhausted that certain someone last night, so he wouldn't be able to get up all day, that would be best.

Descending to the ground floor, there were two other girls also cleaning.

The assistant greeted them nonchalantly and was about to head to the kitchen when the housekeeper entered from outside the villa, carrying a stack of newspapers. Seeing her, she also greeted.

Thinking for a moment, the assistant approached, took the newspapers from the housekeeper's hands, and instructed, "After you finish cleaning, take them out for breakfast, and come back after nine o'clock."

The housekeeper paused, then nodded, pointing towards the kitchen, "Need help?"

"No need."

Saying this, the assistant carried the newspapers to the kitchen.

The housekeeper stood watching the assistant disappear before joining the cleaning crew, instead turning to her own bedroom.

At the desk by the bedroom window sat a Compaq laptop. The housekeeper sat down, turned on the laptop, and patiently waited for it to boot, the machine running last year's Microsoft Windows 3.0 system, albeit not the latest model with a monochrome screen.

After booting up, she connected to the internet and opened the IE browser software.

Looking at the software interface set by default to a text-only version, the housekeeper couldn't help but feel a bit sentimental. A graphical interface browser software, capable of being compatible with Macintosh, Windows, and DOS, and adapting perfectly to different years' models, achieving this was indeed rare.

If Igneel could raise the price of the IE browser for specialized commercial operations, the company would already be earning substantial income.

Currently, with so much human and material resources invested to adapt to so many model versions and having a rich content platform like the Igneel portal to support, each software set being sold for only $10 was practically a giveaway.

For instance, even with her laptop set to a text-only version due to its limited specs, the layout of the Igneel homepage was still pleasing to the eye.

The housekeeper had also experienced this software on other machines.

In the computer room of the manor at DuMay Point, it was like a recently booming internet café, housing over thirty mainstream PCs ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars, from old machines of the '70s to the latest IBM desktops.

Setting up such a computer room was to monitor the IE browser's compatibility with different machines and operating systems in real time.

After briefly browsing the portal homepage, the headline news was still about the ongoing war in the Gulf.

The reason why America Online had secured 2.3 million subscribers in the past month was closely linked to the Igneel portal's timely coverage of the Gulf War.

Even though traditional media recognized the potential threat from the Igneel platform and deliberately reduced coverage of related news, this new content platform's spread among the public was unhindered.

For a monthly fee equivalent to a newspaper subscription, users got access to not only richer news content but also online games, blogs, email, and other highly functional extra features, which were very attractive to users.

This was also a key selling point highlighted in advertisements by Igneel and America Online across various platforms.

Recently in San Francisco, Igneel was seen developing richer multimedia functions like music and animation. Once fully operational, the housekeeper thought, traditional paper media indeed had no substantial reason to exist.

After staying briefly on the portal content, the housekeeper opened her email.

She was currently recruiting to expand her team, planning to hire at least 10 more girls, all under her direct supervision. Additionally, a manor was being designed in Miami, also overseen by her, along with the various properties her boss owned across North America...

Besides cooking, laundry, and making beds, she was actually very busy.

Now, she also had to manage work for Igneel.

Inevitably, she thought back to last night when her boss teased her about whether she wanted to quit this job.

Of course, she did.

But, to gain a lot, one must pay a lot.

This principle, she still understood.

Otherwise, even with a high degree, entering the job market, she'd still have to start from scratch. After all, her family didn't have the kind of background that could leapfrog her beyond the common starting line.

After browsing through all her emails and replying, she spent over twenty minutes busy. Looking at the time, the housekeeper knew she needed to lead the others out.

Yet.

She still felt somewhat indignant.

You're just someone who got to his side a bit earlier than us, right?

Everyone.

Maybe no one is really worse off than you.

Of course, these were just thoughts; she was somewhat unclear about her boss's character. Sometimes warm, sometimes cold, sometimes flirty, sometimes aloof, completely unpredictable.

Moreover, she originally thought that after working for him, she would quickly be "consumed" by him. However, months passed, and the closest

 he ever got was just lifting her chin last night.

Neither playing hard-to-get nor pretending indifference worked, nor did being smart and competent or seductively charming.

Last night, she deliberately changed her approach, pretending to be shy and timid.

Still no good.

Really...

Where exactly is the problem?

It's frustrating.

Could it be necessary to act spoiled and willful like the mistress?

But, if she really did that, she felt the outcome might not be good.

The mistress could act spoiled without care in front of him, but if she did that, it might backfire more likely than not.

After all, her status was there; she was just his housekeeper, merely a vase.

He could pick up the vase and play with it whenever he was interested, but if she got too restless and approached him, he might accidentally drop her, smashing her to pieces.

Simon, upon hearing the Department of Justice's formal approval of Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA, could calmly continue his nap. Hollywood, however, could not remain calm about this.

The approval of the acquisition meant that a real Hollywood behemoth was about to be born.

Once the merger was complete, the new Daenerys Entertainment would delve into multiple media businesses including movies, television, music, games, cinemas, publishing, theme parks, merchandise, and video tape retail. Moreover, most of these were not just trivial endeavors.

The movies, of course, were self-evident, although Daenerys Entertainment and MCA had more than 30 films lined up for release in 1991 alone.

Although Daenerys Entertainment's main films this year like "Batman: The Dark Knight," "Terminator 2," and "Wild at Heart" were collaborations with other movie companies and it wasn't handling distribution, the sheer volume of over 30 films being distributed was indeed, as the three major unions had stated in their lawsuit, likely to control over 40% of Hollywood's box office shares.

In any industry, a market share of over 40% is basically considered a monopolistic behemoth.

On the television front, besides owning a series of popular dramas and reality shows at Daenerys TV, MCA also held 50% of the shares of MCA Television and the USA Cable Network, with assets including a television production department comparable to Daenerys TV and six local TV stations across the U.S.

Thus, this merger would further consolidate Daenerys Entertainment's strength in the television field and give it its own television station assets.

Moreover, the acquisition of thousands of films and TV show assets from MCA would significantly compensate for its own lack of content accumulation.

Beyond the movie and television businesses, the biggest gain for Daenerys Entertainment was undoubtedly MCA's record company and theme park operations.

MCA Records, which later became Universal Music, was initially established in 1913 as a subsidiary of Universal Pictures.

After nearly half a century of development, MCA Records had become one of the world-class record giants, on par with Warner Records, Columbia Records, PolyGram, and EMI, with a rich library of tracks and its own distribution networks across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

With this acquisition, Daenerys Entertainment would no longer need to rely on other record companies to distribute the soundtracks of its movies.

However, MCA Records did have a clear shortcoming; the company lacked superstars like Michael Jackson or Madonna Ciccone.

As for the theme parks, although MCA only had Universal Studios in Los Angeles and Orlando at the moment, both were quite successful, continuously providing MCA with substantial cash flow from millions of visitors each year. Moving forward, Daenerys Entertainment was also set to start construction of Universal Studios in Osaka with Panasonic.

___________________

(Support with power stones, comments or reviews)

If you guys enjoy this story, In support me on Patreon and get access to +200 advance Chapters

Read Ahead

Patreon.com/INNIT

___________________

50% OFF ON ALL LEVELS WITH CODE 3EFEF ON PATREON