Chapter 133

After work, Simon went straight to George Norman's house in bellelle.

On Wednesday, he revealed his intention to Jennifer. Simon received a call from James Leibold early yesterday morning. They chatted for more than an hour. During the conversation, James Leibold cited a series of reasons to persuade Simon to give up the idea of letting him and Norman take charge of the East and west coasts respectively, saying that he was competent and more professional.

After careful consideration, Simon agreed.

On weekdays, they were busy with movies, so the leibulds came here today to plan to talk more details with Simon at the weekend, and sent Simon an invitation to dinner with Norman's family.

Now that he has promised James Leibold, Simon doesn't tell his private lawyer what he thought. As a matter of fact, George Norman is a civil lawyer, and he is not suitable to help Simon manage the assets of Westeros.

Because he didn't know that he had missed some opportunities, George Norman was also very enthusiastic in the evening, and congratulated his brother-in-law on reaching a cooperative relationship with Simon. Everyone was very happy. However, when she faced her uncle, her face occasionally showed a little guilty expression, but she was very clear that her father had taken away the opportunity that should belong to her uncle meeting.

The new year is coming.

In recent weeks, Simon has successively paid the personal income tax of 1987 and various taxes of his two companies. Of course, it's mainly taxes from Westeros.

After the completion of the tax settlement, the main assets of Westeros are the shares of the 26 companies.

It is worth mentioning that Simon confirmed the nature of the company as a limited liability company (LLC) when he applied for Westeros. The biggest advantage of LLC type companies is that they can avoid double taxation. The income of westero company is equal to Simon's personal income. Simon can enjoy his due profit only by paying income tax once. Of course, LLC companies also have their own disadvantages, such as being unable to go public.

Fortunately, Simon did not want to let westero listed.

In contrast, for the sake of listing and financing in the future, Denise pictures is a company limited by shares (Corp), which needs to pay tax on its own profits and shareholders' dividends.

As the North American stock market gradually gets rid of the haze of October's stock disaster, and the technology stocks caused by the exposure of "westero portfolio" are greatly sought after, the technology stocks held by westero company have been continuously appreciating during this period.

According to the latest statistics made by Simon's private accountant after the closing of the stock market today, the total value of technology stocks held by Westeros has exceeded 1.670 billion US dollars. Compared with Simon's initial investment of $1.1 billion in principal, the cumulative appreciation rate reached 51%.

The appreciation of these stocks is equivalent to making up all the huge taxes Simon paid.

On the other hand, westero's 4.9% stake in 26 technology companies can basically squeeze into the ranks of major shareholders of these companies, but it is not so easy to get a seat on the board of directors and share the power of a company.

However, in recent months, these companies have benefited from the impact of the "westero portfolio" and their stock prices have soared. Obviously, it is impossible to hope that their shares will be sold off. Simon is still very likely to get a seat on the board of directors of these companies.

After the weekend's negotiation, James Leibold, authorized by Simon, formally applied to all the technology companies held by Westeros to join the board of directors, and the news media soon paid attention to the matter.

It's a new week.

Hollywood's most eye-catching is undoubtedly the announcement of the new Golden Globe nomination.

At 9 a.m. on Monday, the Hollywood Foreign Journalists Association announced a series of nominations for the 45th Golden Globe Awards in the form of a press conference in the banquet hall of Beverly Hills Sunset Tower Hotel.

As the "operability" of the Golden Globe Awards is far greater than that of the Oscars with many judges, there is no doubt that "Lola Run" has become a hot spot in this year's Golden Globe Awards with five nominations for best film, best director, best actress, best screenwriter and best score.

Simon also knows that unless the Hollywood Foreign Journalists Association completely abandons its moral integrity, his best director nomination will certainly be only one nomination. As for the best film in the plot category, the winner in my memory should be Bertolucci's "the last emperor", and Simon doesn't think "Lola Run" can win over this long-standing European film master.

Of course, it's something to be happy about after all. Throughout the morning, Simon kept on answering the combination calls from all parties.

So it was until noon.

At a restaurant in downtown Santa Monica, Simon arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule as the host, and Bill Gates soon arrived.

Obviously, he did some homework. After meeting, gates politely congratulated "Lola Run" on winning the Golden Globe nomination. They sat down at the table, each looking at the other quietly.Bill Gates is only 32 years old this year, wearing a pair of large black frame glasses, looks younger, even a bit like middle school students, and is the type of nerd who is often bullied by school bully.

Just looking at his face, Simon can understand why many students in biographical films are often bullied by his peers.

However.

After opening his mouth, Gates didn't look like a bun at all.

After ordering and waiting for the waiter to leave, Gates said, "Simon, I hope you can explain why you are interested in Microsoft stock."

Ignoring Gates' questioning attitude, Simon said in a relaxed tone: "bill, I should say I am very interested in the whole electronic information industry. Microsoft is just one of them."

"If that's all," Gates said, taking a page of fax from his briefcase, "I'm afraid I can't agree with the request of the representative of Westeros to join the board of Microsoft."

"Actually, I don't want to join the board of Microsoft that much. I'm very busy. However, since so much money has been invested, in order to get more returns, I still hope to provide some personal suggestions for the development of these companies. "Simon took up the fax page, glanced at it, then put it down, sat up and looked at the opposite gates, and said," bill, you own nearly 45% of the shares in this company, are you still worried that I will compete with you for control? "

"Well, let's be frank," Gates relaxed. "Simon, if Microsoft refuses westero's request to join the board of directors, will you sell the stock?"

"I have answered you, my main purpose is to invest. If I can make more money by holding Microsoft stock, I will not sell it. As for Microsoft's board of directors, if I feel it is necessary to join, maybe I will continue to buy shares and increase my holding to 10% or more until you agree. "

"What if I insist on refusing?"

"Except for you and Paul Allen, the circulating shares of Microsoft should be 30%," Simon said with a smile. "Maybe I can buy out all the circulating shares of Microsoft. Then, you, me and Paul Allen, the three of us can discuss the future of the company together. "

After Microsoft went public last year, Bill Gates and Paul Allen still hold about 45% and 25% of the shares respectively, with 30% of the shares in the circulation market. According to the total market value of more than one billion US dollars after the rebound of Microsoft's share price, Simon can really buy all the circulating shares.

According to the regulations, once the market shares in circulation reduced to a certain proportion, Microsoft can only delist.

Bill Gates looked at the young man across the table and found that he could clearly feel the strong desire in his voice when he said what he had just said.

He would really do such a thing!

After a moment's silence, gates finally said again, "Simon, I don't like you. You are a madman."

"You all know that. I don't know if I'm cured or not," Simon said with an indifferent smile. "Well, bill, why don't we talk about windows? I've been studying Microsoft's just launched windows 2.0 recently. To be fair, it's still bad. However, your thinking is right. Compatibility, which is a necessary development strategy for an operating system to expand rapidly. Moreover, the graphical interface system can also promote the rapid popularization of personal computers in the mass market. Only by selling personal computers to mass consumers can the whole electronic information industry develop rapidly. Just like video recorders, ten years ago there were less than one million households in North America with video recorders, but now the number is 50 million. As a result, sales of videotapes in North America exceeded box office revenue last year. In my opinion, the market capacity of personal computers far exceeds that of video recorders. Moreover, due to the need for standardization, it is difficult to have too many types of operating systems in this market in the future. In this regard, Microsoft does not have an advantage, because you do not produce hardware, IBM and other companies can easily get rid of Microsoft. Therefore, while maintaining compatibility, Microsoft must also develop some unique advantages. "

Simon stopped when he said that.

Bill Gates, who had begun to listen attentively, saw that Simon had suddenly lost the following and asked subconsciously, "what kind of advantages?"

Simon pointed to the page of the fax: "give me a seat on the board of directors first."

Bill Gates insisted, "you talk first."

Simon asked, "do you have a pen?"

Bill Gates took out a pen from his briefcase and handed it to him. Simon wrote down something on the back of the fax paper. Then he handed the pen and paper to him and said, "a suggestion, change a seat on the board of directors. In fact, I feel like I'm losing money. Maybe you can sell me some shares at a discount."

Bill Gates ignored Simon's words and picked up the fax paper, but there was only one strange word on it: Wintel.