New York 2006

Chapter 268 20 Days Later
On the morning of March 2009, 3, at home in New York.

Luo Ji, lawyer Jamie, Xu Youyu and John Waldron of Goldman Sachs were sitting on the sofa watching the FOX News program on TV.

In the TV picture, President Barack was sitting at the White House meeting round table and signing the document surrounded by a group of people.

The host began to explain: "Today, President Barack reversed the Bush-era policy of limiting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and promised to ban human cloning."

Jamie looked unhappy and said sarcastically: "This black president is always so outrageous in what he does. For a scientific matter, we must discuss ethics."

Xu Youyu answered: "Artificial life is indeed a serious issue, but directly banning human cloning is a bit too much."

"This matter cannot be resolved through discussion. Both sides have their reasons, so don't talk about it." Luo Ji looked at a few people and asked curiously: "What do you think of this black president?"

"He is trash. I feel that the United States is going to be destroyed in his hands." Jamie, an old Republican, fired directly: "Some time ago, he ignored the political understanding between the two parties and forcibly passed the recovery bill with the Democratic majority in both houses. Bill. No president has ever done this before. He has completely destroyed the political ecology of the United States. I feel that the two parties will not cooperate seriously in the future, but will only fight partisanship, which is very detrimental to the United States!"

"Stop talking nonsense, the Republican Party is not a White Lotus." Luo Ji said, "When the Republican Party seized on President Clinton's erotic time, it had already destroyed the tacit understanding between the two parties. He just went one step further."

Jamie looked at Luo Ji and said, "You are saying that because you funded him, right?"

"I'm telling the truth." Luo Ji continued, "I think he has actually done a pretty good job. Haven't you seen that since March, the stock market has started to rise?"

"That's because you are a rich man and have huge investments in the stock market. People like you are the ones who have gained the most when the stock market rises."

Jamie changed the subject and then said: "Those middle class people don't think so. Haven't you seen the recent vigorous Tea Party movement? This is proof that the core group of a country is the middle class, and now he is taking advantage of it." It is very un-American to save the rich and his black brothers at the bottom of the class with the taxes of the middle class."

"What you said makes sense." Luo Ji nodded in agreement.

In the American culture of self-reliance, this is indeed very un-American.

This year’s recovery bill will also help businesses create jobs.But there is still a large part of the funds that support the people at the bottom who have always had bad credit and suffered heavy losses in the subprime mortgage crisis.

Most of these people at the bottom are black and Latino.The middle class gets nothing from the bill, and they have nothing to lose from the financial crisis.

This Tea Party movement was initiated by middle-class white Americans.

Because of political correctness, it is difficult to talk about racial issues.The slogans they shouted were to reduce taxes on the middle class, oppose the expansion of government spending to stimulate the economy, oppose the policies of the Barack administration, and oppose the policies left by George W. Bush.

In short, they oppose both Democrats and Republicans.He doesn't recognize his relatives.

In the past, it was the people at the bottom who protested, and the middle class was very peaceful. This time, the Tea Party movement and the middle-class people protesting all over the United States are really unexpected. I don’t know what impact it will have in the future.

Luo Ji looked at John from Goldman Sachs: "What do you think of President Barack?"

John said: "I think he was too harsh on Wall Street and formulated a series of regulatory policies after coming to power. This is very detrimental to the U.S. financial industry."

Xu Youyu answered: "It's not that you have gone too far. During the financial crisis last year, the entire Wall Street paid huge bonuses to executives. The Tea Party movement has been so violent this time, and it has a lot to do with you. relation."

John did not answer directly: "Wall Street will not support him in the future anyway."

"OK." Luo Ji looked at Xu Youyu: "What do you think of him?"

"Most of them are positive." Xu Youyu continued: "But there are also some bad ones. I think he pays too much attention to LGBT. They are originally a minority group, but now they act like they are the majority. This atmosphere is very Something’s wrong.”

Jamie immediately agreed: "Indeed!"

"I also agree with Dr. Xu's statement." John said.

"Hahaha, it looks like everyone is straight!" Luo Ji continued: "This is the end of the discussion about President Barack. Let's continue talking about Marvel!"

…………

Meeting room at Marvel headquarters in Manhattan, New York.

Chairman Isaac Perlmutter presided over today's closed-door meeting: "Are all the board members here?"

CEO Avi Arad said: "We're all here."

"Then let's get started."

"Okay." CEO Allard took out a document and read it: "Yesterday, Goldman Sachs provided us with the latest acquisition plan. This time the acquisition price was increased to 29 billion US dollars, and they promised that after the acquisition is successful, Within three years, there will be no relocation of the company's top executives, and the salary of all senior executives will be increased by 20% based on the existing salary..."

Arad spoke eloquently for more than ten minutes, basically explaining all the acquisition conditions clearly.

Perlmutter frowned as he observed the members of the board of directors.When several people heard about the 20% salary increase, their faces clearly lit up with joy.

Marvel's board of directors not only has shareholder representatives, but also several company executives, who also have voting rights.

Perlmutter previously thought that Logic would be very impulsive and would just throw money at him.Unexpectedly, after the acquisition began, he never showed up and rarely even gave interviews to the media, leaving everything to Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs is naturally playing it safe. During this period, it used various benefits to bribe board members. For board members who are senior executives, they promised to increase their salaries.For board members representing shareholders, Logic's private equity fund is guaranteed to accept them.

Now, Logic has bought almost 30% of the voting rights.Fortunately, after so many years, I have enough control over the company to maintain the status quo.

However, the struggle has become increasingly fierce, and it seems that he has returned to the time when he was fighting with Perelman and Carl Icahn for control of the company.

He then glanced at CEO Arad. He didn't know if his confidant had been bribed by Logic.Forget it, don't be suspicious, at least he still respects her very much.

Perlmutter said directly: "If you have anything to say, feel free to say it!"

A director representative of a small shareholder asked: "Mr. Chairman, what do you think of this acquisition condition?" This was the board member who was bought by Logic. Perlmutter glanced at him, and then looked at Morgan Stanley. representatives, they were the financial consultants hired by Marvel after the acquisition began.

The representative of Morgan Stanley said: "You have also seen Logic's operations during this period. His willingness to acquire this time should be very strong, otherwise he would not deliberately bribe the members of the board of directors. Therefore, I suggest that we continue to delay. Test out their bottom line and then respond."

"You want to charge more for consulting fees?" the board member who just spoke said.

"How do you talk?" Perlmutter said unhappily: "Logic hasn't been successfully acquired yet, and you are so anxious to show your loyalty to the owner? Remember, I am still the owner of Marvel."

This person stopped talking for a moment, and the atmosphere in the conference room became weird.

The representative of Morgan Stanley smiled and smoothed things over: "An acquisition is not that simple. Sometimes it can be extended to a year or two."

The board member who just spoke continued: "But there is no way for us to drag it out like this. Logic has repeatedly asked us to provide our conditions."

Perlmutter rolled his eyes at him first, and then said: "During this period, in addition to testing Logic's sincerity, we also prepared a set of our conditions, which is also the focus of our meeting today. The following is from Morgan Stanley Representatives from Leigh told us.”

…………

John Waldron of Goldman Sachs said earnestly: "Logic, don't be impatient. Acquisitions are not that simple. You have to be patient."

"But it's been more than 20 days, and Marvel hasn't put forward their conditions yet." Luo Ji said a little irritably, "Does Perlmutter have no intention of selling Marvel at all? Is he kidding me?"

"How is that possible? Don't be suspicious." John said with a smile: "Marvel also hired people from Morgan Stanley, which shows that he has plans to sell Marvel. It's just that it's in the testing stage now. It's probably just in the next few days. Marvel should make us an offer that we can't possibly accept."

"Ok."

While several people were talking, John's phone rang.He walked outside the villa and answered the phone. He came back about 10 minutes later.

"Logic, Marvel just gave us their quotation. It's US$42 billion! If we agree, we can sign the contract tomorrow."

Luo Ji frowned: "This is half a Marvel less than our current quotation!"

John explained: "This is originally a process of testing, asking for high prices, and then paying back the money when you get there."

"Okay." Luo Ji shook his head helplessly.

John smiled and said: "However, this is good news. Since Marvel has put forward their conditions, it proves that the Marvel board of directors has collectively approved the intention to sell. The progress of the subsequent negotiations should be greatly accelerated."

"Then look forward to your good news."

“Leave it to us, Goldman Sachs.”

…………

Three days later, Luo Ji arrived at the SB Brokerage Company, which he had not been to for nearly half a year.As soon as he walked in, he felt that the entire company had changed.The decoration is more luxurious and there are more employees.

Braun greeted him with a smile: "Hi Logic, long time no see!"

"long time no see!"

Braun introduced the current situation of the company to Luo Ji: "Now the company has 23 employees and 66 contracted artists. Most of them are..."

"Wait a minute." Luo Ji asked in confusion, "Why are there more contracted artists than employees?"

"This is normal in the agency industry. It is very common for one agent to have several artists under him." Braun continued: "Actually, there are only six agents in our company including me, and the others are clerical staff. .”

Luo Ji said, "Okay, you continue."

"Of these 66 signed artists, 22 are singers, 16 are electronic music producers, and 12 are Hollywood actors. There are also other professions." Braun said with a smile: "Our company is actually a small company. CAA."

"Hahaha, don't talk nonsense!" Luo Ji continued: "Besides the projects of my music and film companies, can you receive other projects?"

Braun said: "Yes, there are, but relatively few."

Luo Ji nodded. As expected, this agency.It's almost like a parasitic subsidiary of Luo Ji Film Company and Music Company.

Braun said with some anxiety: "You won't blame me for rejecting CAA's acquisition, right?"

"How could it be? This is your career." Luo Ji then said, "However, what I didn't expect is that CAA asked you to be the senior president of their music department, and you actually refused."

Braun said: "The main thing is that I'm not satisfied with their offer. I think they seriously underestimated our company. People like Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and Caitlyn Rose all have the potential to become A-list stars. Now they can't give us a satisfactory offer no matter what. So in the end I refused."

When Luo Ji heard that he was not satisfied with the quotation, he felt a little disappointed. He was not in the mood to visit, so he said casually: "Yeah,"

Braun knew Luo Ji too well: "What's wrong? Are you worried?"

"Ah."

"Is it about acquiring Marvel?"

"Yes." Luo Ji said with some annoyance: "The same reason is that we still can't agree on the price. The negotiations have reached a stalemate again in the past few days."

“How much does Marvel want?”

"38 billion knives."

(End of this chapter)