Dume Cape Estate.
Inside the master bedroom of the Shell Villa, Jennifer was the first to wake up. Feeling the man's presence beside her, her body instinctively snuggled closer to him.
Then she realized something.
Opening her eyes, she immediately saw the beautiful, sleeping face of Janet on his other side.
Last night's events flooded back into her mind.
The two women had left early, and the female assistant had been dragged by Janet to Dume Cape Estate. Originally, there was nothing to it, but after 11 o'clock, Simon still hadn't returned. Janet complained that a certain guy was probably out fooling around again and declared that she would also 'fool around.' So, the female assistant was pulled and tugged into the master bedroom of the villa.
Unexpectedly, after the two of them showered together, did their pre-sleep skincare routines together, and got into bed, Simon returned before they had even fallen asleep.
She only remembered one thought.
Consider it a reward for him not going out and fooling around.
Now, waking up, she couldn't help but feel awkward and shy.
Gently withdrawing the arm she had wrapped around the man's chest, she tried to get up and sneak away. Before she could make many moves, Janet on the other side grunted twice, rubbed her face against Simon's shoulder, and suddenly opened her eyes, directly meeting the female assistant's gaze.
After silently observing the female assistant's expression, which was like a cat caught stealing, Janet's face showed a mischievous smile. She pushed hard against him.
Simon immediately woke up as well.
With warm fragrance in his arms on both sides, Simon naturally reached out and embraced them both, greeting, "Good morning, my dears..."
It was confirmed.
They both were 'dear'.
However, the phrase 'my dears' sounded incredibly strange.
You jerk.
The female assistant thought to herself, then simply closed her eyes again, playing ostrich, hoping Janet would leave first.
It was too embarrassing.
Janet was clearly also not very pleased with the guy's 'dears.' She bared her small white teeth and nibbled on Simon's shoulder a few times, saying, "Jerk, get up quickly! You're in charge of breakfast today."
After being pushed and bitten by Janet for a while, Simon had no choice but to get out of bed first.
After Simon left, the female assistant was helplessly caught by Janet, who licked her neck and tickled her breasts for a while, before finally escaping the tiger's maw.
However, she felt too embarrassed to go downstairs, so she hid in a bathroom and, to kill time, simply took a comfortable bath.
At one point, she remembered something.
Last night, during their intimacy, it seemed that no safety measures were used.
He was usually very conscientious about it.
Clearly, it was due to the different circumstances. With two women, when a man's interest was piqued, he naturally didn't want to be constrained.
Moreover, it happened to be her fertile period recently.
Soaking in the bathtub, she hesitated for a long time, finally deciding to let nature take its course.
After much dawdling, she finally had to go downstairs.
The large Shell Villa was very quiet. The pretty maids had clearly been sent away. Since Simon was personally preparing breakfast, it was quite simple.
He didn't have much talent in cooking.
She had known this before and had even teased him, saying she had finally discovered he wasn't omnipotent. He had retorted that their 'Earthling food' was too unsophisticated, and he couldn't be bothered to put effort into it.
The three of them ate breakfast together. The other two didn't show any abnormalities, so she naturally adapted. However, seeing Janet sitting closely beside him, she felt a little envious and also blamed herself for being too shy. His other side was clearly empty, but she insisted on sitting opposite him.
Still, being able to meet his gaze felt pretty good.
The breakfast conversation couldn't escape last night's Golden Globes.
31 nominations and 12 major awards were truly eye-catching.
Or rather, the entire Daenerys Entertainment had been exceptionally prominent in the past two years.
This clearly didn't quite align with his style of actively holding back in previous years.
Although, that kind of restraint never seemed to have much effect anyway.
Simon, of course, was not oblivious to the situation.
In previous years, Daenerys Entertainment had not yet established a firm foothold in Hollywood, so it had to actively restrain itself and cooperate with other Hollywood studios to avoid being targeted.
Since the successful merger with MCA, many things had changed.
Before the merger with MCA, Daenerys Entertainment's strength grew rapidly, but it was never considered one of Hollywood's major players; the traditional Big Seven were. After the merger, Daenerys Entertainment completely transformed from within, officially becoming a player in Hollywood.
This was one reason.
Additionally, the strength of the entire Westeros system rapidly increased.
Economically, Simon's net worth of $65 billion last year already indicated that the Westeros system had become a powerful capital empire. Politically, not to mention the several years of private investment layout, the successful bet on Clinton alone was enough to ensure that the Westeros system would not face too strong opposition for at least the next four years.
Not only that, relying on the newly emerging Ygritte portal, Westeros also gained strong media influence, making it less passive when targeted.
With these foundations, Daenerys Entertainment and even the entire Westeros system had enough confidence to maintain a strong expansion momentum.
For many old super-rich families, from Rockefeller to Morgan, the process of wealth accumulation was never smooth sailing, filled with overt and covert struggles and intrigues.
The key to Simon's relatively smooth and rapid ascent to the top in just six or seven years lay in the word 'fast.'
The rise of the Westeros system was simply too fast.
So fast that competitors didn't have time to react much before a powerful new capital force had already formed.
Not only that, many old super-rich individuals' wealth accumulation often involved plundering others, reshuffling, and manipulating the redistribution of wealth.
The Westeros system, however, was different.
Simon's initial accumulation of capital in the capital market could be described as taking an unconventional approach.
Although in financial disasters like the 1987 stock market crash, many people lost everything, Simon's operations in the stock index futures market at the time did not have too direct a causal relationship with the utter defeat of those losers. Instead, he became a legend in the financial market.
Subsequently, in his accumulation in Hollywood, Simon always maintained a win-win situation.
The most important new technology sector also did not involve the redistribution of wealth.
Because this was a completely new industry sector that was in a state of rapid growth.
Especially the involvement in the internet.
By investing in companies like Cisco, America Online, and Ygritte, the Westeros system essentially opened the door to the internet industry.
Perhaps in the future, more and more people will discover how vast the profits will be from this industry pioneered by the Westeros system. But in the early stages of internet development, as a pioneer of a brand new 'instance,' the Westeros system did not have strong conflicting interests with competitors.
The rapid rise and the fact that it did not involve intense wealth redistribution were also reasons why the Westeros system was able to expand to its current scale so quickly.
As for the future.
Simon could fully imagine that limiting the expansion of the Westeros system and preventing the emergence of a powerful capital oligarchy would likely become a kind of political correctness across America. Many people would inevitably jump out to demand restrictions on the development of the Westeros system.
After all, the current Westeros system was already too conspicuous.
Since this was a foreseeable inevitability, there was no longer much need to keep a low profile.
While external resistance was not yet too strong, Simon hoped that the Westeros system could expand as quickly as possible.
After the Golden Globes, media discussions about the award results were, as usual, heated.
There was not much disagreement in the media about *Scent of a Woman* becoming a big hit this awards season. Other films released at the same time simply weren't strong competitors. In fact, some media even suggested that Daenerys Entertainment had to actively suppress several other excellent films under its banner to avoid being too ostentatious.
This was actually true.
For the 1993 awards season, it seemed to be a 'small year.'
However, for Daenerys Entertainment, films like *Scent of a Woman*, *The Crying Game*, *Howards End*, and even mainstream films like *Wonder Woman*, if separated and distributed among Hollywood's major studios, could absolutely compete for awards.
After the Golden Globes ended, as per tradition, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences immediately announced the nominations for the new Oscar season.
Out of the five Best Picture nominations, Daenerys Entertainment only secured one spot.
Naturally, it was still *Scent of a Woman*.
However, cumulatively, Daenerys Entertainment still received a total of 23 nominations across all categories, ranking first among Hollywood's major studios.
Even though there were some sour comments in the media, the overall nominations were largely undisputed.
Traditional Hollywood always had multiple companies sharing the market. Apart from fallen giants like MGM, it was often difficult for the other studios to create significant distance between themselves.
However, imperceptibly, Hollywood, from top to bottom, gradually discovered that the traditional landscape was changing, transforming from a situation of many powerful players to one dominated by a single entity.
Many industries in the United States, such as telecommunications, oil, and aviation, have a situation where one company dominates. However, this phenomenon had not yet occurred in Hollywood. Even before the Paramount Decree, in the era when film companies directly controlled the film and television industry chain, Hollywood still had equally matched competitors like MGM, Warner, and Paramount.
This was primarily due to the specific industry model of Hollywood films.
The film industry has fixed annual release schedules. Film companies, within specific periods, often manage too many projects simultaneously, otherwise they would be distracted. At the same time, unlike other industries, the film industry carries a strong gambling-like risk. It is difficult for any single company to maintain continuous success; everyone has their misses. These misses also prevented the formation of a single dominant entity in Hollywood.
Daenerys Entertainment, however, largely changed this specific industry model.
Firstly, due to the presence of Simon Westeros, a film genius, Daenerys Entertainment produced too many classic films for several consecutive years, making the probability of failure very low.
Secondly, there was also the rise of blockbuster films, especially the establishment of the DC Extended Universe, which allowed Daenerys Entertainment's success to maintain sustainability. The consecutive blockbusters *Batman Begins*, *The Dark Knight*, *The Flash*, and *Wonder Woman* all proved this point.
Thirdly, Daenerys Entertainment's three labels operated in parallel, meticulously cultivating different fields, and maintained an excellent synergy mechanism internally. This was also a major reason for Daenerys Entertainment's strong rise.
Speaking of which, other studios, after careful study, could understand Daenerys Entertainment's operating model. However, trying to blindly copy this model was extremely difficult.
It's like Walmart in the retail industry.
The barrier to entry for supermarkets is much lower than for the film industry, and Walmart's business strategy isn't an absolute secret to the outside world. But in this world, ultimately, only one Walmart can emerge.
Simply superficially imitating Daenerys Entertainment, such as creating an independent label focused on art-house films, but failing to delve into every aspect of its operations, would only result in a poor imitation.
After the Golden Globes, time quickly moved into February.
Two companies within the Westeros system, America Online and Cisco, released their fourth-quarter 1992 financial reports and full-year financial reports in the same week in February, just one day apart.
As emerging technology companies, both companies' fiscal years were calculated according to the normal calendar year, meaning from January to December of each year.
In fact, even before the financial reports were released, there were already rough estimates of Cisco's and America Online's financial data in the outside world. Due to the high-speed growth of the entire internet industry over the past year, the stock prices of both companies had also been rising rapidly.
With the official release of two financial reports showing annual growth rates exceeding 100%, the stock prices of both companies simultaneously surged again.
America Online's market capitalization had already approached $20 billion in the weeks prior. With the release of its 1992 financial report, this new technology company's market capitalization easily surpassed the $20 billion threshold.
During its IPO, Cisco's valuation had exceeded America Online's. However, this infrastructure company was not as prone to grandstanding as America Online, and its market capitalization was suppressed by America Online for most of last year. However, with the release of its annual financial report, seeing Cisco's rapid growth in global business performance, this company's market capitalization also quickly broke through the $20 billion threshold and overtook America Online.
The rise in the stock prices of both companies even drove the entire Nasdaq technology stock sector.
As of the close of trading on February 5th, the first week of February, America Online's market capitalization ultimately settled at $22.1 billion, while Cisco's market capitalization was even more striking, reaching $26.3 billion, a full $4 billion ahead of America Online.
Westeros Company's shareholding percentages in America Online and Cisco were 66.1% and 53.6%, respectively, both showing an increase compared to when they first went public.
Thus, calculated based on these shareholding percentages, America Online and Cisco alone brought Simon $14.6 billion and $14 billion in wealth, respectively, totaling $28.6 billion.
At $28.6 billion, this portion of assets alone already exceeded the personal net worth of all other super-rich individuals in the world.
However, this was only a portion of Simon Westeros's many personal assets.
Last year's $65 billion had already made many media outlets feel incredible. Now, facing this wealth of $28.6 billion from just two companies, many people had even developed a sense of numbness, shocked to the point of numbness.