After the bell-ringing ceremony concluded and the inquiry phase began, some participants felt an unreal sensation as they watched Cisco's stock price continually soar.
After two hours of continuous bidding over seven rounds, Cisco shares began trading officially with an opening price of $28, a 55.5% increase from the IPO price of $18.
The opening surge of 55.5% was akin to America Online's two months prior, yet Cisco's opening market capitalization reached $8.7 billion, surpassing America Online's peak market cap during its IPO.
However, the $8.7 billion market cap was just the beginning.
Throughout the day, the entire capital market watched Cisco's continually rising stock price.
Excluding the pre-market inquiry phase and continuing for over four hours of trading, Cisco's stock price peaked at $49.75, equating to a 276% increase from the IPO price, with the highest market cap momentarily reaching $15.47 billion.
Such a market value had already surpassed those of established tech giants like Microsoft and Intel.
By the end of the day, Cisco's stock price settled at $36.25, a 101% increase for the day, reaching a market capitalization of $11.27 billion.
In just one day, a corporate behemoth with a market value of over ten billion dollars was officially born.
Simon remembered Yahoo's IPO day, where the stock price at one point was over three times the IPO price. However, even at its peak that day, Yahoo's market cap was around $1 billion.
A $1 billion market cap company and a $10 billion market cap company clearly aren't comparable.
Moreover, it was still 1991.
At this time, North America had not yet seen a corporate behemoth with a market value reaching into the hundreds of billions.
A market value of $10 billion was already a significant threshold.
For instance, Time Warner, a media giant with corporate net assets of $25 billion, saw its market value drop to just over $8 billion last year due to the economic environment and high debt. This year, after the rebound in the U.S. stock market, it finally re-entered the $10 billion market value club.
Therefore, Cisco's market value surpassing the $10 billion mark on its first day was indeed a miracle.
Previously, many Wall Street analysts had predicted Cisco's ideal IPO market cap should be around $3 billion, expecting it to possibly break $5 billion if the market responded well post-listing.
For Simon to set Cisco's IPO market cap at $5 billion was widely considered by Wall Street as a risky, even foolish move, akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Setting a high IPO price was believed to limit the stock's upward potential. Even if the IPO barely succeeded, it could likely lead to a stock price crash post-listing.
An IPO failure could shadow a company's development for years.
The eventual outcome was beyond everyone's expectations.
The highest single-day gain of 176%, with a peak market cap of $15.47 billion.
A closing gain of 101%, with a closing market cap of $11.27 billion.
Such an impressive start, even if followed by some price corrections, couldn't hide the fact that Cisco was highly favored in the capital market.
In retrospect, many realized that Cisco's IPO success wasn't accidental.
The most notable aspect was that compared to America Online's last IPO, Simon Westeros's public demeanor was much more prominent and assertive this time, with the entire Westeros System rallying behind Cisco's IPO. Simon's unprecedented byline article in The New York Times added significant momentum.
A young man who accumulated billions in wealth in just a few years was enough to garner enthusiastic pursuit from the capital market.
Simon's statement during the bell-ringing ceremony about Cisco potentially exceeding $50 billion in market value within five years ignited the market enthusiasm accumulated by the Westeros System for Cisco's IPO.
Since the 1987 stock market crash, the average annual return on the U.S. stock market had been less than 10% due to prolonged economic stagnation.
Even at Cisco's closing market value of $11.27 billion on its first day, a projected market value of $50 billion in five years would offer a return enticing enough to attract countless North American pension funds, insurance funds, and other capital entities.
Influenced by Cisco's successful listing and substantial gains on its first day, the entire tech sector in the U.S. stock market also experienced an overall upsurge.
Microsoft's stock rose by 6.3% that day, closing with a market value of $13.39 billion.
Intel's stock increased by 3.7%, closing with a market value of $11.09 billion.
America Online's stock rose by 7.1%, reaching a market value of $7.19 billion and returning to its peak state from its IPO in July.
In contrast, Motorola, whose stock fell by
3.9% on the same day, stood out as an anomaly.
This result was simply because of Simon Westeros's comment during an interview on the day of Cisco's listing: "I have already sold my Motorola shares."
In fact, Simon remembered that Motorola, around the peak of the new technology wave near the year 2000, had a market cap reaching into the hundreds of billions. The company had shown continuous performance improvement over the last two years due to the rise in mobile communications, making it a worthy investment.
However, since a feud had already been established, Simon had no intention of easing tensions.
Moreover, with Nokia aiming to enter the North American market, Motorola was undoubtedly the biggest obstacle.
During the acquisition of Bell Atlantic, it was precisely because Motorola raised objections with federal regulators that Simon had to publicly promise that Nokia would not enter the North American market.
This time, Motorola's retired chairman, Robert Galvin, did not disappoint the public, once again stepping forward to attack Simon in the media. Galvin argued that Simon's comments at Cisco's bell-ringing ceremony were extremely irresponsible and misleading to investors, suggesting that the SEC should investigate Simon's statements.
Following the weekend after Cisco's listing, Motorola's management had to publicly clarify once again that the company was performing exceptionally well and even claimed that it would enter the internet equipment market to break Cisco's monopoly.
Due to the high stock prices on Cisco's first day of trading, Wall Street inevitably saw short-selling activity.
Galvin's attack on Simon was exactly what some hedge funds had hoped for.
Consequently, the media saw a wave of articles attacking Simon's reckless predictions about Cisco's future stock prices, although predicting a company's future stock trajectory is a common practice on Wall Street.
Every Wall Street investment bank regularly publishes corresponding evaluation reports.
Simon's claim about Cisco reaching a $50 billion market value in five years, though extravagant to many, did not violate any federal stock market regulations.
Despite some controversies, Cisco's IPO was undeniably a huge success.
With $720 million raised from the IPO, after deducting various fees, Cisco ultimately netted $660 million.
The management team announced a series of corporate development measures in the following week.
Influenced by these positive announcements and highly active market trading, Cisco's market value remained steadily above $10 billion in its second week of listing.
Additionally, the previously planned greenshoe option was smoothly implemented.
Other shareholders of Cisco sold an additional 6 million shares at the IPO price of $18, cashing out $108 million.
Initially, these shareholders were pleased that Simon had agreed to trigger the greenshoe mechanism. As long as the IPO was successful, even if the stock price didn't rise much, cashing out the additional 6 million shares wouldn't be difficult.
However, once Cisco's market value surpassed $10 billion on the first day, those who had facilitated the greenshoe option inevitably felt regret.
At Cisco's current stock price, these 6 million shares were practically given away at half price. The selling shareholders effectively lost hundreds of millions of dollars in one go, which was undoubtedly painful.
Especially considering Simon Westeros's prediction of a $50 billion value in five years.
Most investors are not short of patience; the decision to cash out is often driven by immediate financial needs and uncertainties about the future of the company.
Who knows what will happen to a company in the future?
However, if Simon Westeros's prediction about Cisco reaching a $50 billion market value in five years comes true, selling those additional shares now would seem unwise.
For the Westeros Company, other shareholders choosing to cash out also had some benefits.
According to the stock ownership structure planned before Cisco's IPO, once the initial shareholders sold their Class A shares, these would automatically convert to Class B shares, which had only one-tenth the voting power of Class A shares unless otherwise agreed in advance and approved by the controlling shareholders and the board of directors, including shares held by the Westeros Company.
Simon would certainly not agree to a change in the nature of the equity after other shareholders sold their shares.
Therefore, converting 6 million Class A shares to Class B shares meant that the Westeros Company's voting power in Cisco increased further.
With Cisco's IPO successfully completed, the media continued to discuss the company's stock price and soon shifted focus to another hot topic.
How much was Simon Westeros's net worth now?
This interest was spurred by Forbes magazine's announcement that it would publish the new annual list of America's 400 richest people in mid-September.
Although the U.S. stock market had begun to recover in the first half of the year and the Gulf War had been swiftly concluded, the persistent downturn in the U.S. economy had not immediately improved.
Affected by the overall environment, many top billionaires saw their wealth stagnate. Some real estate moguls even went bankrupt and were completely removed from the North American wealthy list.
Simon was clearly an exception.
In just the past year, the Westeros System had absorbed MCA and Bell Atlantic,
two corporate giants with a combined market value of $14 billion, pushing the total debt of the entire Westeros System above $10 billion.
However, following the consecutive successes of America Online and Cisco's IPOs, coupled with significant stock price increases over the past year of Westeros Company's heavily held tech companies like Microsoft, Intel, and SUN, no one believed Simon Westeros's personal assets had declined.
From the previous year, Simon had already secured his position as the richest person in North America and the world.
The real question now was, how much had this super-billionaire's fortune grown this year?
Simon himself had no time to tally these figures.
Although the Cisco IPO was a resounding success, John Chambers and the rest of the management team felt immense pressure due to Simon's bold five-year prediction of $50 billion.
Since the claim was made, Simon had to pay even more attention to Cisco, spending the following weekend and the first few days of the new week in San Francisco, personally participating in planning Cisco's next steps.
Only on Thursday, September 12, was Simon able to return to Los Angeles.
His return did not mean he could relax.
On the same day as Cisco's listing, September 6, a film directed by Catherine, "Thelma & Louise," premiered across North America on 1,216 screens.
From September 6 to September 12, "Thelma & Louise" grossed $7.74 million in its opening week, essentially meeting the expectations of Daenerys Entertainment.
With solid media acclaim, the film was expected to perform well over the long term.
Besides the newly released "Thelma & Louise," a series of movie projects from Daenerys Entertainment were continuously progressing. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Simon immediately began to busy himself with these projects.
Strictly speaking, Hollywood isn't suited for a professional management system; major studios have always preferred a more paternalistic decision-making process.
Peter Guber and Jon Peters, the current 'professional managers' at Columbia Pictures under Sony, are undoubtedly classic examples of the opposite approach.
Due to Sony's initial promises not to interfere with Columbia Pictures' operations, under the management of these 'professional managers,' Columbia Pictures' recent business conditions had deteriorated.
Therefore, even though Daenerys Entertainment had split into Daenerys Film, New World Cinema, and Gate Cinema, three production and distribution networks, Simon still retained ultimate authority over all projects. What he really delegated was more the execution rights of his film projects.
Moreover, the planned annual production and distribution volume of about 40 films by the three companies wasn't considered high.
Moreover, each film project typically signifies an investment of millions, if not tens of millions of dollars. As long as Simon could appropriately schedule his time according to the specifics of each project, he was generally able to manage.
As mid-September approached, the end-of-year movie season was no longer far off.
The final installment of the "Scream" series, "Scream 3," was scheduled for October 25, just over a month away, marking the beginning of Daenerys Entertainment's end-of-year season for 1991.
During this period, not only "Scream 3" but other Daenerys Entertainment projects for the end of 1991 like "Toy Story," "Cape Fear," "Fried Green Tomatoes," and "The Piano" were all nearing completion.
"Toy Story" was undoubtedly the highlight of the 1991 end-of-year season.
The box office potential of this 3D animated film was actually secondary. If it could achieve the same success as in the original timeline, merchandising sales alone could reach billions of dollars, which was key.
Moreover, "Toy Story" would provide Universal Studios with an animated IP that could compete with Disney, which was equally crucial.
If it weren't for planned projects like "Toy Story" and next year's "Jurassic Park," Simon wouldn't have dared to start constructing Universal Studios Osaka so hastily.
As a movie-themed park, if it lacked iconic big-screen characters to attract visitors like Disney, its future business conditions would be obvious.
Compared to Disneyland, Universal Studios had always had a significant shortcoming in terms of IP.
Before Daenerys Entertainment took over MCA, Universal Studios often had to buy licenses from other studios to build attractions and compete with Disneyland. Universal had also tried to develop many animated film projects, but none were particularly successful, and over the years, there hadn't been any that could provide Universal Studios with IP characters.
In the original timeline, the appearance of popular 3D animated films like "Despicable Me," "Minions," and "The Secret Life of Pets" under Illumination Entertainment, which was part of Universal Pictures, was also the result of Universal Pictures' strategic necessity to continuously invest in 3D animation.
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