America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM.

Chapter 339 337. The World's Richest Man
New York, Nasdaq Stock Exchange, one of the world's largest stock trading centers.

There are countless companies around the world that dream of ringing the bell here, but the threshold is there, and you can't just enter if you want to.

The so-called ringing of the bell is actually a Chinese term.

Because in the 19th century, the opening and closing of stock trading was achieved by human knocking.

At first they struck the judge's gavel, but the sound was too quiet.

If someone on the second floor knocks on the first floor, they might not be able to hear it, so later they replaced it with a large gong brought by overseas Chinese.

After entering the electronic age, it was changed to electric bells, but the term "ringing the bell" was still passed on to China and is still used today.

For example, the Shanghai Stock Exchange has a real big bell, while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has a gong.

The United States naturally does not use these items. It just holds a ceremony, and then the Nasdaq big screen counts down, which is equivalent to an official announcement.

There are a lot of people here today, including not only countless investors, but also reporters from all over the world.

The reason is self-evident, because Facebook is about to officially enter the stock market.

As a country with an extremely developed financial industry, it cannot be said that stocks are listed in New York every day, but the frequency is still relatively high.

It is one of the few big events in recent years that has attracted so much attention and created such a big fuss.

At least it's much more grand than when MGM went public again.

Different from those companies that are trying hard to squeeze in.

Since last year, countless organizations and groups have urged Facebook to go public as soon as possible.

Especially after the collapse of MySpace, more lobbyists lingered around Eric, but he rejected them all mercilessly.

Facebook is like an unattainable goddess, but today she finally steps down from the palace and unveils her veil.

Eric took Fitz out of the car and headed straight for the exchange door.

Seeing the real owner show up, the reporters who were waiting outside immediately surrounded him.

Brush brush brush brush!

Flashbulbs kept flashing and all kinds of cameras were pointed at them.

"Mr. Cooper, can you tell me how you feel right now?"

"Mr. Cooper, what do you think Facebook's market value will be?"

"Mr. Cooper, how is Facebook's business going in South America?"

……

Fitz pointed to his watch: "Sorry everyone, please move aside, the time is almost up."

Walking through the passage, two people stood at the front as representatives.

Generally, when a company goes public, there will be at least a few dozen people attending the ceremony, while at most a hundred people will attend.

Because companies that can make it to the stage of listing have often gone through many rounds of financing.

The boss will come, and all the major shareholders will come too.

Facebook had no such considerations and was almost a sole proprietorship of Eric.

The reason is that the fewer people there are, the more powerful the person standing on the stage is.

After speaking for just a few minutes, Eric pressed the button.

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

Numbers appeared on the Nasdaq big screen, and countless people looked here at the same time, counting down together in their hearts and out loud.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

As the last number fell, the Facebook logo was projected on the big screen.

At the same time, follow the slogan: "Facebook, connects you and me!"

The stock code symbolizing Facebook lit up, and almost all traders inside the exchange entered the market at the same time and began buying frantically.

It was an incredibly thick cake that countless people wanted to take a bite of.

In the end, the 3% internal shares were not fully digested.

There are no second-generation rich people among Facebook’s staff; at most they are an elite class.

Fitz, the richest man, scraped together less than $5000 million.

According to him, he had maxed out his credit and borrowed the money by overdrawing from major banks using his identity.

This was the case for him as the CEO, and even fewer for others. In the end, only about 1.3% of the shares were purchased internally.

That is to say, almost 60% of the shares in this wave were put on the market, and based on the opening price of US$56.6, the value was close to US$700 billion.

And as trading opens, the stock price is jumping up as fast as a kangaroo climbing a mountain.

"Mr. Cooper, how much revenue do you expect the listing to bring you?"

As soon as the ceremony ended, a reporter from the Financial Times rushed forward to ask.

Eric smiled. This was a very interesting topic.

He naturally didn't know how much income he could eventually earn, but he estimated that even if it didn't reach 100 billion, it would at least be 800 to 900 billion.

Anyway, after this wave, surpassing Buffett and Bill Gates is a foregone conclusion.

"I know everyone has a lot of questions to ask, and I also have something else to say besides what I just said."

"There's limited space here, let's go outside and share this moment together. You all bought stocks, right?"

Everyone at the scene smiled knowingly and followed Eric out of the exchange.

Seeing that he came out so quickly, most of the media who were not allowed to attend the bell ringing ceremony gathered around him again.

Not far away, many passers-by were also waiting in Times Square.

"Quiet, everyone, quiet down, Mr. Cooper has something to say." Fitz shouted.

Facing the gaze of thousands of eyes, Eric cleared his throat.

"Today is a special day. Facebook's journey to this point is related to every user."

“Just like our slogan, Facebook connects you and me!”

"Going public is just the first step for the company. Next, we will continue to expand our business globally and serve everyone with a better attitude."

"I hope you will continue to support Facebook and let us grow together. Thank you!"

Clap clap clap!

Many people spontaneously applauded.

"That's the first part of what I'm going to say, and here comes another big decision."

After a pause to fully attract the media's attention, he announced loudly: "I will initiate a takeover bid from Time Warner Group and plan to acquire Warner Bros. Pictures in full!"

When these words were spoken, there was a moment of stunned silence, followed by an uproar.

Everyone thought he had some plans for Facebook, but unexpectedly, there was even more explosive news. Indeed, there are countless film and television companies in Hollywood. To exaggerate, some close down and new ones open every day.

But that is Warner Bros., a time-honored brand with a history of nearly a hundred years, one of the world's top film and television companies, with a market value of nearly 200 billion US dollars. It is definitely not just any nobody.

Everyone knows that MGM won the battle, but directly acquiring Warner is a big step.

And when you acquire someone, you have to pay a premium, 1.5 times or even twice is possible.

If the deal goes through, it will likely be worth as much as 40 to 50 billion U.S. dollars, making it the largest acquisition in recent years.

Reporters grabbed the microphone and started asking questions, and the scene instantly became chaotic.

Eric didn't stay for long and left quickly under the escort of his bodyguards.

But even though he left, the turmoil caused by the listing ceremony did not stop, but became more and more intense.

The headlines in the fields of Internet, finance, and entertainment have all been occupied, and even social news is no exception, with the level of discussion reaching an unprecedented level.

People are speculating how much Eric is worth and whether he can surpass Bill Gates to become the world's richest man.

The answer to this question came at the close of the afternoon trading. After a day of trading, Facebook's stock price began to stabilize.

The final market value reached US$1533 billion, far exceeding the initial valuation of US$1145 billion, fully demonstrating the market's optimism about Facebook's future development potential.

This number directly surpassed companies such as Oracle, IBM, Apple, ExxonMobil, Samsung, Berkshire, and JPMorgan Chase, and became the runner-up in the technology category and the third place in all categories.

Ranked second is Saudi Aramco Group. As the name suggests, it is a big investor in the Middle East and an energy giant with a market value of US$2169 billion.

The technology category also ranks first among all categories. The company with the largest market value in the world is Microsoft, with a market value of more than 2400 billion US dollars. The difference is quite large.

But even though Microsoft's market value is much higher than Facebook's, Bill Gates, as its president, has fewer assets than Eric because he holds a smaller total stake.

According to the latest Forbes statistics, Bill Gates' personal worth is 571 billion US dollars.

And Eric has made a profit of $824 billion just from today's stock trading.

No matter how much hidden wealth Gates has, it will never exceed this number, not to mention that he also owns companies such as MGM and Hasbro.

Even with publicly available wealth, Eric's worth is already over 100 billion.

No comparison, no comparison at all.

Beverly Hills, Cooper's House.

A big celebration party is being held and besides family members, some close friends are invited.

Looking at Liu chatting with Gadot, and Avril whispering with Elizabeth.

Although they were still unclear about their relationship to each other, Eric felt that he was becoming more and more confident in bringing this group of women together.

Maybe this is the confidence that wealth and fame bring to men.

Standing by the swimming pool with his arms open, he suddenly thought of Iron Man Tony Stark.

"Stark, I'm afraid Stark is not as rich as me, and he would envy my life."

In stark contrast to the enthusiastic celebrations in Beverly Hills, there was already a sense of panic inside Warner at this moment.

When Eric announced the acquisition in front of the media, Barry Meyer suddenly felt a chill in his hair and his heart tightened instantly.

He fell directly on the sofa. His wife wanted to send him to the hospital, but he didn't care about that.

As soon as I was able to walk, I hurried to the company.

During this period, MGM gave its schedule to other companies, and Warner and Disney did not release many new films.

This was something that Barry Meyer and Michael Ainas had discussed before. They would definitely not be able to swallow the humiliation of giving up so hastily.

They must accumulate strength to compete with MGM again and take back the top spot.

But I never expected that Eric would actually do this.

Acquisition, and in fact Facebook announced the acquisition just after it went public.

It comes with such a huge momentum that it is obvious that it is trying to cut off the source of the problem.

"Charles, don't you usually have the most ideas? I need your advice! Say something!"

The middle-aged man who was named sighed: "I've said enough, Barry. This is not a situation we can control."

"Haven't you seen the market value of Facebook? Eric Cooper, the last thing he needs right now is money."

"If Eric Cooper threw out $300 billion, Richard would probably laugh."

"But at $350 billion, he would think the deal is worth it."

“Once it increases to $400 billion.”

"Bang! He would run to Eric Cooper overnight and beg him to sign quickly."

Hearing this, Barry Meyer pointed at his nose and shouted angrily: "I don't want to listen to your complaints, I need a solution. If he succeeds in acquiring us, we all know what the outcome will be."

"I will definitely leave, but you guys won't have an easy time either."

"Think about it, when that guy took over MGM, he almost cleared out all the old guys in the company as soon as he took over."

"Everyone, who among you has not done something against him? This is a battle to defend our interests."

A senior executive took off his glasses in distress: "But what can we do? You know the decision is not in our hands, Barry."

“Everyone is aware of the group’s current situation, with hundreds of billions of dollars of debt waiting to be repaid.”

"We are meeting here to discuss this, and I'm afraid they are also meeting at headquarters to discuss this."

"It's just that we are discussing how to keep ourselves, while they are discussing how to sell Warner and how to get a better price."

At this moment, the door of the conference room was pushed open, and another senior executive threw his cell phone on the table.

"I just inquired. After Richard learned the news, he flew back from Europe urgently."

"Not long ago, an emergency meeting was held there, and the content was what we speculated."

"I can't count on those old foxes. They want money more than anyone else, especially cash transactions."

"The only thing that can save us is an antitrust investigation by the government."

"Eric Cooper already owns MGM. If he takes control of Warner, it will put pressure on other Hollywood companies to dominate."

"Is it feasible? This reason seems a bit lame no matter how you look at it. After all, Sony took the lead and planned to acquire MGM a few years ago, but was beaten to it by Cooper and his son." Barry Meyer was a little worried.

"We have to give it a try whether it's feasible or not. This is the best solution we can find at the moment."

"No, wait a minute, let me think about it."

“Maybe starting with film and television is not a good idea. We should consider the comics business.”

"What? Comics?"

"It's about comics. We overlooked a very important point. Don't forget that Eric Cooper has Marvel in his hands besides MGM."

"Marvel's comic sales now account for about 35% of the market, and DC's market share is about the same."

"The two combined already account for 70% of the comic book market, which is even more terrifying than the market share of MGM and Warner combined. They are definitely expected to form an industry monopoly."

Barry Meyer slammed the table heavily. "That's a good point."

"Hahaha, who would have thought that a worthless comic book business would become our life-saving straw."

"Everyone, we must hold our ground, and victory will be ours!"

(End of this chapter)