In a living room downstairs of the villa, Janet and Sofia Fesi discussed the business adjustments of Chateau Latour during this period, and chatted casually about other topics. Janet inadvertently raised her wrist and looked at her watch. The meeting between Simon and Raymond Smith had lasted one hour and forty minutes, far exceeding the original one-hour agreement.
Sophia also looked at her watch, stood up and said, "It's already noon, I should go back."
Janet escorted Sophia to the door of the villa, noticed her eyes looking towards the stairs inadvertently, and said with a smile: "There are a lot of things going on recently. Simon has to fly back to Los Angeles in the afternoon. You may not be able to see him this time."
Sophia rolled her eyes at Janet as if nothing had happened: "Who said I wanted to see him?"
"Yeah, who said that?" Janet caught the bug in Sophia's sentence and teased: "I didn't say you wanted to see him."
Sophia suddenly blushed.
Although Simon warned her that day in a very unkind way not to think about things that she shouldn't think about, her attitude toward that little man had unknowingly changed since they had skin-to-skin contact.
At least, the fun that afternoon was really unforgettable for her.
After placing the children here, I originally made up my mind that I would come over to see them as long as the weekends were not too busy. However, I just arrived this morning and heard that Simon happened to be here. After settling in for a while, I couldn't help but run over under the pretext of discussing the management of Chateau Latour with Janet.
Before I came, I couldn't help but change into an OL suit that the little man liked very much, and also put on makeup carefully.
Then, Simon didn't see it, but Janet saw the flaw.
Almost running away in Janet's teasing eyes, Sophia drove away from the manor, raised a hand and gently stroked her hot cheek, and her mind inexplicably lingered on how much he had left on her so roughly that day. The condition of red marks.
God, I am really hopeless.
Janet waited for Sophia to leave without going upstairs. She called the four ABCD girls to start preparing lunch. Raymond Smith was obviously going to stay at noon today.
In the study room of the villa.
Raymond Smith had already informed his assistant to temporarily cancel this European trip, and he did not avoid Simon when he made the phone call.
When he first heard Simon say that Westeros Company already held 4.9% of Bell Atlantic's shares and hoped to acquire the company entirely, Raymond Smith even thought the young man was joking.
The news that Daenerys Entertainment is about to bid for MCA with Panasonic is almost already known to everyone.
After confirming that Simon was not joking, Raymond Smith subconsciously asked him if he planned to give up MCA.
The answer surprised Smith even more.
Simon Westeros intends to launch two acquisitions with a total value of more than 10 billion US dollars at the same time.
Raymond Smith subconsciously regarded Simon's offer as a traditional leveraged buyout and almost refused it. He did not want Bell Atlantic to fall into the same situation as Reynolds Nabisco or Time Warner after being acquired.
After Simon roughly explained his intention to acquire the company, Raymond Smith gave up his intention to refuse immediately and began to inquire about more specific acquisition matters.
Because they had been fully prepared in advance, the discussion between the two people unknowingly became more and more in-depth, driven by Simon's topic. The topics involved Bell Atlantic's business strategy changes after the acquisition, debt repayment model, and the company's future. Further expansion, the federal government’s policy direction for the telecommunications industry, etc.
When the noon sun shone on the coffee table covered with various documents between the two of them, Raymond Smith realized that the time was close to 12 o'clock.
Simon did not notice the time problem, and still said: "Public companies often have to give up many long-term plans in order to meet the short-term gains that shareholders value. With the privatization of Bell Atlantic, these constraints will disappear, and we can very calmly Placing greater bets in the mobile communications and Internet business areas with great potential for future development. As long as sufficient advantages have been accumulated in advance, Bell Atlantic can immediately expand on a larger scale once the federal merger controls on the telecommunications industry are reopened. .”
Raymond Smith was brought back to the topic by Simon's words and said: "Simon, the future of mobile communications is still very bright, but on the Internet, how can you confirm that you have not made the wrong bet? You know, according to your idea, We need to invest US$1 billion just in basic line upgrades. Once the development of the Internet industry does not meet expectations, the company will not only have to face financial losses, but may even be a matter of life and death."
"Lei, I have compiled a memorandum on various ideas about the Internet industry. If you are interested, you can take it back and read it. I think an industry never exists, it requires us to develop and create it ourselves. Electronic information networks around the world have begun to sprout in the 1960s. They have been brewing for more than 20 years and have been widely used in military, commercial, scientific research and government offices. This is enough to prove the development of the Internet industry. Potential. Since the Internet can be applied in so many professional fields, there is no reason why it cannot be promoted in the general public field with wider market potential."
When Simon said this, he paused for a moment, and then quickly said: "Imagine, Lei, if one day, in addition to the news, forums, personal homepages, e-mail and other applications already provided by the Yigrit portal, people can also Through the Internet, you can obtain movies, music, games, dating, shopping, and countless other online services that you can or cannot think of now. How big is the development potential of this industry?"
Raymond Smith also browsed and tried the online services provided by the Yigrit portal. He thought for a moment, pointed to a pile of information on the coffee table, and asked: "Simon, if you tell me these ideas, you won't be afraid of me dumping you." Do you want to do it yourself? My control over Bell Atlantic is not as bad as you think."
Simon shook his head and smiled: "That's because you haven't done enough to go against the will of shareholders. For a company like Bell Atlantic, even if you have a lot of power, you can't do whatever you want. I believe that inside Bell Atlantic There are certainly a lot of executives out there who want to take your place. As a public company, any time you experience setbacks in driving these strategies, even temporarily, your so-called 'control' over Bell Atlantic will quickly fade. Compare that to As long as we can agree on the fundamental development direction of the company, I can tolerate long-term losses for management in a certain business for more than five years."
Raymond Smith fell silent for a moment.
The two had been discussing for more than an hour. Raymond Smith knew that if he had not been moved, he would not have discussed with Simon for such a long time and even canceled his original schedule.
However, there are pros and cons to accepting the acquisition offer from Westeros.
On the plus side, as this young man said, without the strict regulatory constraints of a listed company, he can boldly adopt some radical business strategies, and the company does not need to rack its brains on financial reports every quarter.
However, on the downside, as the chairman and CEO of Bell Atlantic, he does now have a lot of power. As long as he does not make too risky changes to the company, he can stay in this high-paying position very securely until retirement.
On the contrary, once the company is acquired, he who originally held the power is equivalent to finding a boss for himself. It's easy to say that the company's future development will meet this young man's expectations, but if it doesn't, he may be kicked out at any time. Even if he could get a huge termination fee through the golden parachute contract in advance, his career would basically be ruined.
After weighing and weighing for two or three minutes, Raymond Smith looked up again and said, "Simon, I need more commitment and guarantees from you."
"Ray, you're definitely aware that Amy Pascal, as the CEO of Daenerys Entertainment, is going to be paid over $100 million this year, which I believe is the highest pay ever for a female executive." West Many people in the Luo system will also receive very generous compensation this year, so you don’t need to worry about your efforts not being rewarded.”
When Simon said this, he changed the subject and continued: "However, Lei, I also understand another level of your meaning. You need to still obtain enough power after I complete the acquisition of Bell Atlantic. Frankly speaking, I I can’t promise you anything. I have read your resume and I am very sure that you have the ability to run this company well, but I will never let it go completely. If you pay attention to Hollywood, you will know that the two senior executives hired by Sony after acquiring Columbia No matter how ridiculous it is now, they are completely squandering this big studio. Before they were hired, both of them were actually very good producers. The reason for this situation is largely due to Because their power lacks restraint. I will never make the same mistake in cases like this before."
Raymond Smith's expression was still a little hesitant.
Simon waited for a moment and then said: "Ray, I remember an interesting story about Apple circulating in Silicon Valley. When Steve Jobs invited John Sculley, the current CEO of Apple, who was still working for Coca-Cola, to join Apple, he asked him, Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to seize the opportunity to change the world? In fact, I also want to say, Ray, do you want to stay at the helm of Bell Atlantic safely until retirement, and then quickly after a lively retirement party? Will you be forgotten, or will you work with Simon Westeros to create a business miracle that will be remembered by the world?"
When Raymond Smith heard Simon's words, he thought of the shining light of the young man in front of him in just a few years, and a long-lost passion gradually arose in his heart. After a brief final hesitation, he finally reached out and said, "Simon, I promise you. "
Simon shook hands with Raymond Smith tightly and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
With Raymond Smith taken care of, there are no big obstacles on the Bell Atlantic board of directors.
After everyone had lunch together, Raymond Smith hurried back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is only more than a hundred kilometers away from New York, where Bell Atlantic's headquarters is located. Smith also took away a draft of the Westeros Company's intention to acquire Bell Atlantic, which mainly included some informal acquisition offers and exit fees.
Simon initially made an informal offer totaling $6.3 billion, a 10% premium over Bell Atlantic's average share price in the previous three months. '
In terms of exit fees, the price promised by Simon this time is 2% of the final transaction price.
Although he agreed to Simon's acquisition offer, Raymond Smith quickly returned to his role during lunch and bluntly said that Bell Atlantic's recent stock price has been severely undervalued due to the impact of market conditions, so Simon must make a sincere enough offer. Only then can we impress many shareholders of Bell Atlantic.
However, due to the cooperation of Raymond Smith, this acquisition has been determined to be a goodwill acquisition, and the possibility of competitors appearing is very low. Coupled with the continued downturn in Bell Atlantic's stock price in recent months, the original US$8 billion Budget, definitely more than enough.
You know, for usual friendly acquisitions, the stock premium will basically be within 20%.
Even taking into account the fact that the market downturn has made Bell Atlantic's stock undervalued, based on Simon's original forecast of a 30% premium, the purchase price of Westeros Company will not exceed $7.5 billion. It's actually more likely to be around $7 billion.
However, Simon also promised in that intention plan that not only would he not withdraw cash from Bell Atlantic to repay debts in the future, but would continue to inject at least US$1 billion into the development of the company.
Therefore, the overall capital budget for Bell Atlantic is still US$8 billion.
After seeing off Raymond Smith, Simon also hurried back to Los Angeles.
After two days of final preparations on Sunday and Monday, Daenerys Entertainment officially made a public offer to MCA on Tuesday, October 31.
$7 billion.
complete in one step.
Panasonic has already given an acquisition offer of US$6.6 billion. If Daenerys Entertainment increased it by US$120 million, it would only appear to be very insincere, so Simon simply gave the upper limit of his own offer.
Countless people have been waiting for a long time and finally got the chance to see it.
When North American media reported on Daenerys Entertainment's move, MCA's stock price also rose sharply again. As of Tuesday afternoon's close, MCA's market value was close to the $7 billion overall offer given by Daenerys Entertainment.
Panasonic has accumulated more than 12 billion US dollars in cash reserves overseas over the years, and Simon Westero's personal cash assets have reached 8 billion US dollars. Both of them can be said to be strong.
As a result, many are already anticipating a bidding war.
On the other side, after several consecutive intensive board discussions, Bell Atlantic responded to Simon's acquisition offer on November 1 and agreed to launch formal acquisition negotiations with Westeros Company.
James Raybould personally led the team to begin negotiations with Bell Atlantic management.
Because they have already made sufficient preparations in the early stage, all the Westeros acquisition team needs to do is to re-confirm the operations, assets and liabilities of Bell Atlantic Enterprises that they already know about, and then quickly focus on specific negotiations. Acquisition details.
At the same time, the acquisition team also began to secretly contact Bell Atlantic shareholders to lobby.
As a listed company with a long history before the split, after the 1984 split, Bell Atlantic's equity was still very dispersed. Most of the shares were in the hands of many pension funds and insurance funds across North America, and there were very few shareholders. The shareholding ratio exceeds 5%, which greatly increases the difficulty for Westeros Company to acquire Bell Atlantic.