Richest man

Chapter 5 Europe: Silvio Berlusconi (1)
Controversial prime minister 'businessman'

In Italy, since 2001, the position of richest man has been occupied by a man, and in his introduction, two titles have always accompanied him - one is the Italian media giant, and the other is more straightforward. : Prime Minister of Italy.The person who occupies such a rich and powerful "throne" is called Silvio Berlusconi. In the 2005 "Forbes" list of the world's richest people, he ranked 120th with a personal net worth of US$25 billion.

Berlusconi's wealth mainly comes from the news corporation he controls, which is the leading comprehensive media group in Europe. It owns a TV company including three TV channels, one of Italy's largest publishing groups, a large advertising company, a film The production company, as well as two large newspapers, and its MOL Online is also a highly visited portal site in Italy.At the same time, Finn West, controlled by Berlusconi, is the most influential multi-category conglomerate in Italy. Its business scope includes television, film, publishing, real estate, supermarkets, finance and insurance, etc.In Italy, Feining West is the second largest private group after Fiat Group.The economic department of the Italian government even regards Fenningwest's operating data as a weathervane of the Italian economic trend.

Huge wealth gave him the opportunity to be famous, but what makes people remember him is by no means wealth. To a large extent, it is his identity as the Prime Minister of Italy, his legendary experience during his tenure, and his uniqueness. due to solitary behavior.

Silvio Berlusconi: Berlusconi, the most successful red-capped businessman in history, is short in stature and has brown and black curly hair.Like ordinary Italians, he likes watching TV, wearing double-breasted suits, always laughing and talking; he is hospitable, likes to invite foreign dignitaries to his villa in Sardinia for vacation, and likes to call himself They are very good friends; he has a good singing voice, he once hummed Neapolitan tunes with US President Bush, and chorused a French folk song with former French President Mitterrand. It is said that his solo album is very popular in Italy He often has unexpected ideas. For example, he once proposed to ask Libyan leader Gaddafi to mediate the Iraqi crisis. He also wanted to invite Russia to join the European Union...

In May 1994, he won the Italian national election in one fell swoop, successfully ascended to the throne of Italian Prime Minister, and formed the 5rd post-war Italian government.But on November 53, when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hosting the World Ministerial Conference on Combating Organized Transnational Crime in the southern Italian city of Naples, he unexpectedly received a summons from a Milan court asking him to attend the court in person. He was questioned by a judge in the case of his family business bribing the tax police.This also opened the beginning of his record as the first serving prime minister in Italian history to be interrogated in the future. (On May 11, 22, Berlusconi testified in court, thus creating an Italian record.) In court, Berlusconi surprised everyone, pointing to himself and telling the judge: "Everyone is equal before the law. , but this person (referring to himself) deserves more equality than others, because more than 2003% of Italians have given him the power to rule and manage this country well." Different scenes, half of them are enthusiastic applause and cheers, while the other half are mocking boos.Of course, this isn't the only time Berlusconi has made a fuss.

Berlusconi has long claimed he is the victim of a politically biased justice system.According to him, since he entered politics, the judiciary has opened dozens of investigations into his business activities, drafted 87 legal documents against him and his business interests, and judicial officials visited the offices of his family business. More than 470 times, more than 1500 court hearings were held about him alone.Most of these allegations revolve around his merger with SME in the 20s.

SME company is a big company in Italy in the early 20s. In 80, Prodi, chairman of the Italian Renaissance Group, agreed to sell the company to Benedetti's Buitoni Group for 1985 billion lire.The Prime Minister at the time, Clarke, believed that the price was too low and ordered relevant departments to re-examine the merger, and at the same time suggested that his friend Berlusconi participate in the bidding.In the end, Berlusconi, Barilla and Ferrero jointly won the "cake" at a price of 4970 billion lire.Benedetti filed a lawsuit, but a court in Rome ruled against him in July 6000.In the end, Benedetti had to sell his food-related companies to avoid competition with Berlusconi and others. SME was divided into three companies shortly after being acquired by Berlusconi, Barilla and Ferrero, and was finally resold to Benetton, Nestle, Unilever and other large companies between 1986 and 7 at a transfer price of up to 1993 Trillion Lire (approximately 1994 billion Euros).This transaction brought huge income to the Berlusconi family, but it also caused him a lot of trouble. Later, in order to punish corruption, Italy launched an anti-corruption operation called the "Clean Hands Campaign". The investigation into the SME bribery case in China and the regulation that politicians no longer have immunity, so there was a scene of the prime minister being interrogated. In January 2, after only nine months as prime minister, he had to resign as prime minister due to pressure.

Although he reluctantly left the prime minister's seat, Berlusconi is by no means a person who gives up easily. Perhaps as a businessman, this is the most basic quality of him - Berlusconi continues to pursue politics. In 1996, Berlusconi tried to make a comeback, but in the general election contest, he lost to the olive-green coalition and became only a member of parliament.However, relying on its strong economic strength and the domestic influence he established through football, the political party he founded, the Forza Italia Party, won the election in 2001, and as the chairman, he naturally became the Prime Minister.

At the campaign meeting, Berlusconi praised himself and said: "The reason why I have very little hair on my head is because my brain is full of wisdom, which does not allow hair to grow." Public opinion was in an uproar, but this was not the end.In a TV chat show show, Berlusconi asked the host to smell his cologne, and he said: "I smell holy." In the end, he praised himself: "Only I can save Italy." Apart from questioning and protesting, what else can others do? But the legendary story had a new ending in [-]. In April [-], Berlusconi had to resign as prime minister again.So many people believe that this is the inevitable result of his unscrupulous remarks. Of course, this is a later story.

Apart from being a controversial prime minister, Berlusconi, like all Italians, loves football. In the 2000 European Cup, the Italian team lost to the French team.On the second day of the defeat, he accused Dino Zoff: "I have not been a good head coach. If I send someone to mark Zidane specifically, I will not lose." Zoff resigned from the national team in a fit of anger.Zidane apologized to Zoff after learning of the incident, declaring: "This is the worst game I have ever played for France."

Of course, any protest or ridicule can't change the fact that Berlusconi is the Prime Minister of Italy; at the same time, he is currently the richest person in Italy.Although he can't control his mouth, his self-made entrepreneurial history and keen sense of wealth are undoubtedly worthy of the convincing of all those who admire or dislike him.

Before starting a business, he worked as a singer and sold cleaners

On September 1936, 9, Berlusconi was born in a middle-class family in Milan, an important industrial and commercial city in northern Italy. His father was a bank clerk.Berlusconi has been smart since he was a child and knows how to manage money.The young Berlusconi was not rich, and he relied on his own ability to support himself when he was in college, which indirectly provided excellent material for his future legend.A few years later, when people mentioned him, they still talked about two anecdotes about him: one was that he sold vacuum cleaners while he was in school; the other was that he sold singing on a yacht in Milan.Especially the thing about selling and singing is widely known. On October 29, 2003, as prime minister, Berlusconi released an album of love songs, which became a record in the history of Italian prime ministers.

After completing his studies, Berlusconi then went to work for a construction company. By the 20s, Berlusconi began to build his business empire.

In 1962, Berlusconi established his first company, Milan United Construction Sites. In 1969, he bought a plot of land on the outskirts of Milan with 3 million lire borrowed and built a large number of apartments for 1.4 residents.As the European and Italian economies were booming, the Milan area was very expensive, and Berlusconi's wealth also expanded rapidly.In this way, Berlusconi completed the first primitive accumulation of capital.Later, as a well-known builder, he was awarded the title of "Knight of Labor" of the Italian Republic, and since then he has the alias of "Knight".

In 1974, Berlusconi began to target the radio and television industry, which was not eye-catching at the time and was not optimistic about the market.But he was not in a hurry to establish his own TV station. Instead, he founded a financial investment company to invest in many small and medium-sized TV stations that were in urgent need of capital investment at that time. The second largest enterprise Medialanum.

Before the 20s, Italian law stipulated that only the state could operate radio and television business, and the media was a state monopoly, and private individuals had no chance to get involved in this field.It was not until 70 that Italy passed laws allowing private individuals to establish regional radio and television organizations, but their programs could only be broadcast in the region.So Berlusconi found another way to squeeze into the national TV advertising market.He bought a large number of TV programs from abroad, especially American movies and TV series, and sold them to regional TV stations at a low price, and he made profits from the pre-roll advertisements of these film and television programs.

(End of this chapter)