In Brisbane, on the east coast of Australia, it was July 27th. The Hollywood summer blockbusters were still in full swing, but MGM CEO Sherry Lansing had to rush here due to an urgent situation.
The chairman of MGM's Australian parent company, Qintex Group, Christopher Skase, had suddenly fled the country.
This issue stemmed from the Japanese stock market bubble. As is well known, Australia's economy is highly dependent on external factors. Throughout the 1980s, benefiting from Japan's rapid rise, Australia's economy grew quickly through exports of minerals and agricultural products to Japan, doubling its GDP to $300 billion in just a decade.
However, as the Japanese stock market bubble burst at the end of last year, the Australian economy began to decline from the start of this year.
Qintex Group had rapidly expanded in the flourishing Australian economy of the 1980s by accumulating substantial debt. The company might have managed if Australia's economy had continued to grow robustly, but as the domestic economic situation took a sharp downturn and banks tightened credit, investors became conservative, and Qintex quickly became unsustainable.
After acquiring 70% of MGM's shares last year, Qintex had undergone asset restructuring, but the total debt still reached $1.7 billion, not including MGM's own record high debt of over $800 million.
It seems Christopher Skase knew Qintex couldn't last much longer. Since the end of last year, he had been siphoning money from the company and transferring it to overseas accounts.
Recently, a financial audit revealed an irregular "management fee" of $13.5 million transferred illegally to an offshore company, which turned out to be a shell corporation registered by Skase.
After urgent discussions with the board of directors, shareholders, and creditors, the decision was made to report him to the police.
Skase was arrested and released on bail the next day but promptly fled to Spain without delay.
With Skase's flight, Qintex instantly became a hot mess on the verge of collapse. Shareholders and creditors were now more concerned about preventing the company from imploding than chasing down Skase.
At its peak, Qintex Group was involved in media, movies, resorts, and jewelry retail. Now, the company's most valuable assets were Australia's Channel Seven and MGM in the United States.
Channel Seven was performing relatively well, but being an Australian network, it couldn't compare with North American networks and was valued at only $800 million. The 70% stake in MGM, acquired last year for $1 billion, could likely fetch the same amount if sold now.
Plus, with other minor assets, the total estimated value of Qintex's assets was just enough to cover its debts. However, immediate liquidation would devalue these assets.
Also, dealing with over a billion dollars in assets and various complex bond relationships would make immediate liquidation impossible in the short term. Qintex could only maintain operations and restructure assets step-by-step to minimize losses for shareholders and creditors.
At Qintex Group's headquarters in Brisbane, seeing Simon eased Sherry Lansing's initially uneasy mind.
When she first heard the news and rushed to Australia, Lansing feared she might soon lose her recently secured position as CEO of MGM. But now that Simon, who had recommended her for the MGM role, was involved, she felt secure unless MGM changed ownership. After all, it was unlikely for Australians to find another suitable corporate manager in Hollywood so quickly.
However, she wondered if Westeros would directly purchase MGM. Recalling recent Hollywood rumors, Lansing harbored some expectations.
Amy Pascal's annual compensation might exceed $100 million this year, a figure most Hollywood executives wouldn't even dare dream of.
As a woman who had climbed to the top of the Hollywood pyramid, Lansing had her own ambitions and aspirations. She believed that if Westeros took over MGM, the company could quickly recover from its prolonged slump.
The meeting about Qintex Group's asset restructuring and management reshuffle lasted all day. Lansing, as part of the Qintex hierarchy, attended throughout. She knew Simon's attendance wasn't primarily about MGM but for Qintex's Channel Seven.
Specifically, the Johnston family hoped to acquire Channel Seven.
After recent maneuvers in the capital market, the Johnston family had accumulated substantial cash.
Raymond Johnston preferred to use this cash to expand the family business in mining and transportation. Simon knew that the Australian mining resources would undergo significant consolidation in the 1990s, eventually leading to the emergence of global mining giants like BHP Billiton.
In such a large-scale industry consolidation, Johnston Holdings, controlled by the Johnston family with a market value of around $5 billion, would struggle to make an impact.
Unless Johnston Holdings could quickly transform into a behemoth, it would be difficult for medium-sized mining companies to survive independently against industry giants like BHP Billiton, which were likely to either merge with or crush them.
BHP Billiton, still separate
companies at this time with a market value not as staggering as later, might be taken over by a well-funded Johnston family using strategic plays. However, Simon's advice was for them to quickly build strength through diversified development.
Moreover, compared to the slowly accumulating mining sector, the media field in the 1990s had massive growth potential. Given Simon's resources in Hollywood and the Johnston family's deep-rooted connections in Australia, it would be a waste not to expand into this area.
Australia, like North America, had many restrictions on foreign capital investment in the media industry, but these were expected to gradually relax over the years.
Simon's long-term plan was to take advantage of the liberalization of the Australian media industry to foreign investors, allowing Westeros Corporation to leverage its substantial funds accumulated from finance, the internet, and media to buy out Johnston Holdings' non-core mining business.
This would enable Westeros to expand in Australia while providing the Johnston family with the capital to leverage financial instruments for aggressive expansion, possibly taking over an industry giant like BHP Billiton.
To help the Johnston family accumulate more capital, not just in media, Simon had also discussed entering Australia's telecommunications industry, which had been monopolized by the state but was now under discussion for liberalization.
With mobile communications and the internet just budding in telecommunications, Westeros was perfectly positioned to provide sufficient technological support. If these industries could go public in North America in the next few years, they could also capitalize significantly on the new tech wave.
Overall, Simon was indeed planning to make Australia his overseas base, not just purchasing land in Tasmania.
If Simon's plans were realized, and Johnston Holdings became a behemoth like BHP Billiton, coupled with other industry arrangements, then the Australian economy would largely be under the control of Simon and the Johnston family.
Of course, such achievements couldn't be realized overnight.
If they could set up the initial framework in the next decade, it would be quite an accomplishment.
But what Simon had in abundance was time.
If it took ten or twenty years to control a country and achieve an economic status akin to Samsung's in South Korea, it would be well worth it.
After a day-long meeting, Qintex's shareholders and creditors finally agreed with the Johnston family to sell Channel Seven for $700 million in cash to Johnston Holdings Group to pay off their maturing debts and sustain business operations.
Additionally, as a potential exchange of benefits, Daenerys Entertainment in Hollywood would collaborate on two of the ten movie projects initially planned with MGM to help rejuvenate the latter.
As the night fell, the long day of meetings finally ended.
Sherry Lansing, as people began to leave the conference room, finally approached Simon and invited him, "Simon, would you like to have dinner together tonight?"
Simon nodded and thought for a moment before saying to Veronica Johnston, who had accompanied him to the negotiations, "Let's go together."
Veronica paused, nodded slightly, and hummed in agreement.
Lansing knew this cold-looking woman was Janet Johnston's aunt. However, driven by a woman's instinctive intuition, she felt that there seemed to be something unusual between Westeros and Veronica.
But that thought only occasionally flickered through her mind, and Lansing did not probe deeper.
After all, it was someone else's business.
Thinking too much and possibly angering this young man would be a loss for her.
Choosing a nice restaurant near Qintex headquarters, the trio sat down and ordered. Simon opened the conversation by asking, "How's the handling of the 007 rights going?"
"We're still negotiating. I plan to buy the rights to the Spectre organization from Kevin McClory to settle this dispute completely. McClory is asking for $5 million, which is quite high. Regarding the script, based on your initial suggestion, the company has completed the first draft of 'GoldenEye.' Do you want to see it, Simon?"
"I'll be heading back to Melbourne shortly, so have someone send the script to Malibu after you return to Los Angeles," Simon replied, adding, "Also, it's time to change the lead actor. Timothy Dalton really isn't suitable for 007. You could touch base with Pierce Brosnan to see if he's interested."
Lansing thought of Pierce Brosnan, who had risen to prominence in Hollywood with 'Pretty Woman' earlier this year, and said, "Brosnan seems suitable, but he probably won't easily take on the role."
If Brosnan were still a second-tier actor, he'd undoubtedly be interested in 007.
However, now that he was among the leading stars, few would want to confine themselves to the 007 stereotype. Although the role could bring great fame, once actors took it on, it was often hard for them to shed the character's impact.
Since its inception in the 1960s, many actors had portrayed 007, and currently, only Sean Connery had managed a successful career, largely thanks to full support from CAA.
Simon understood this but said, "
Try contacting him. If it doesn't work out, we'll find someone else. The most important thing is to sign a few more film contracts."
Lansing nodded, remembering this, and hesitated but couldn't resist asking, "Simon, why don't you just buy MGM outright?"
Simon anticipated Lansing's curiosity but did not answer, instead steering the conversation towards the collaboration on the two films.
If not for the planned acquisition of MCA, Simon would have undoubtedly purchased MGM outright, or even taken over a portion of the shares from Qintex, which he believed Qintex would be more than happy with.
However, MGM, despite its decline, was still one of the big seven.
U.S. antitrust regulations on the media industry were still very strict in the early 1990s.
Daenerys Entertainment was already powerful enough. If it took control of MGM, the MCA acquisition would definitely face an antitrust investigation, and Simon didn't want to risk losing everything for a small gain.
Simon had also considered having the Johnston family buy into MGM.
However, to U.S. regulators, this would appear almost the same as if Simon himself controlled MGM. Under federal antitrust laws, even without direct shareholding, conspiring to monopolize was still considered monopolistic.
After dinner, sending Lansing to her hotel, Simon and Veronica headed to the airport together. The flight from Brisbane to Melbourne took just over an hour, and Simon didn't plan to stay overnight.
Veronica was supposed to come here again tomorrow, but she silently followed Simon back to Melbourne.
Arriving in Melbourne, they reached the Johnston family estate by 9 PM.
Anthony Johnston was waiting for Simon, handing him a document he had just received as soon as they arrived home.
Despite many still believing Iraq wouldn't ultimately move against Kuwait, the Middle Eastern situation had grown increasingly tense.
Having reviewed the document from New York, Simon's last bit of worry evaporated.
The document revealed that that afternoon in Baghdad, Saddam had unexpectedly met with the U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie. The content of their discussion wasn't public, but Simon's document clearly detailed their conversation.
Ambassador Glaspie had assured Saddam that Washington would not intervene in the dispute between Iraq and Kuwait.
According to Simon's recollection, such a promise was mere posturing; the Bush administration's real intent was to drag Iraq back into the quagmire of war.
Yet, Saddam appeared to believe it.
With the situation resolved, Simon quietly flew back to North America the next day, intending to personally witness the many repercussions of this war.
As the final days of July quietly passed, explosive news spread globally on August 2nd.
In the early hours of August 2nd, Iraq time, the Iraqi Republican Guard suddenly crossed the border and swiftly advanced towards Kuwait City.
The war, a culmination of countless conspiracies, calculations, and interests, officially erupted.
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