It has been a month since he received the US$14 billion loan, but Huang Xuan has only spent less than US$500 million. Naturally, there are some rumors within Hexin Industrial. When talking about his boss, many gentlemen said confidently: "If it were me..."
If it's Huang Xuan - he's in Texas now.
San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the United States, and sometimes the 8th largest city. Huang Xuan's deepest impression of it is: San Antonio Spurs, Stone Buddha Duncan.
that is it.
But now there is one more, the headquarters of Southwestern Bell.
Southwestern Bell's market value is US$78 billion, which is equivalent to 64 billion yuan in RMB, which is equivalent to twice the market value of China Telecom at the same time. However, Southwestern Bell is such a valuable company, but its customers are mainly concentrated in the Midwest and South of the United States. It "only" has about 50 million local customers - long-distance calls and enterprise business are AT&T's traditional strengths. This not only explains the "division of labor" of the Bells, but also illustrates the power of the US telecommunications industry.
Although China Mobile was once the world's largest telecommunications company by market value, with US$1.58 billion, which was 1.7 times that of Southwestern Bell, this was achieved under conditions of basic monopoly and weak competition. However, the world's telecommunications service expenditure alone reached 1.5 billion US dollars every year. .Trillion dollars, there is a long list of companies that can be mentioned casually - Verizon, Qest, AT&T, Sprint, World, Southwestern Bell; British Telecom, France Telecom, Telefonica, Sonera in Europe; Telstra, Optus, each of them is a powerful enterprise that has been tested for a long time and has so-called core competitiveness.
As for Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies), salivating people can flood 100,000 cubic meters with saliva.
Before Huang Xuan could drool, he met Whitaker, the current president and chairman of Southwestern Bell. If nothing else happens, he will also become the president of the merged AT&T company - SBC will inherit the golden name of AT&T. .
Whitaker is over 60 years old. He is a tall Mediterranean man with black hair, dark eyes, olive skin, and some wrinkles on his brow and at the corners of his eyes. Other than that, he has no features of an elderly person. He started at BellSouth and worked his way up to where he is today, and became the chairman of the second largest telecommunications company in the United States. It was not easy, and he can be regarded as a model of starting from scratch.
Huang Xuan currently owns 4.8% of Southwestern Bell's equity, with a market value of US$744 million (the acquisition price is approximately US$500 million), and ranks around fourth in Southwestern Bell's shareholder list.
In other words, Huang Xuan has 5% say in whether to acquire AT&T.
Whitaker shook hands with Huang Xuan in a friendly way and said, "Welcome to San Antonio, Mr. Huang. I hope you like the Mexican style here." San Antonio is a very stylish and interesting city. The Spanish came to San Antonio in the early 18th century. Here, white people began to settle here. At the beginning of the 19th century, Mexico declared independence from Spanish rule, and the small town of San Antonio became a Mexican territory at the same time. In the 1830s, in order to resist Mexican rule, Texans set up a headquarters in a building called the "Alamo Mission Church" and fought bloody battles with the oppressors. The last 187 defenders All died heroically. Some Chinese call them the Seventy-Two Martyrs of Huanghuagang in the United States, which is quite appropriate.
However, similar to many American cities, San Antonio did not carry out a revolution after the successful rebellion, but continued their Mexican-style life, so Whitaker said Mexican style.
Huang Xuan shrugged and said: "I am an internationalist." In saying this, it is actually like what many Chinese businessmen imply: I am not a communist.
God knows, he is a future Communist Party member with good roots - if Huang Jindi's arrangements are followed.
Whitaker kept smiling and did not let go of Huang Xuan's hand: "Before meeting you, Joseph said you were a young man. I didn't understand until I met you."
This was probably a Mexican-style compliment for "youthful and promising". Huang Xuanan was chatting with him calmly, while Dian Wei stared at the nearby black bodyguards in black suits, black ties, and black glasses. Speaking of which, it took a lot of effort to apply for a visa for him. If it weren't for Lorraine's excellent forgery skills and the help of Huang Xuan's uncle Zhang Shuduan, Comrade Dian Wei would have really struggled to meet these four black youths. easy.
Isaac has completely become Huang Xuan's family bodyguard. Not only does he have to take care of the little Diao Meimei going to and from school, but he also follows Cai Wenji around Beijing. Instead, Huang Xuan travels, usually only taking Dian Wei and the two with him. Bodyguards with guns, the former is used to intimidate, the latter is used to guard the door.
Whitaker's subordinates looked at Huang Xuan unkindly. Due to his Chinese identity, the US antitrust agency did not think highly of the acquisition. This consumed a lot of energy from certain gentlemen, unlike directly purchasing AT&T. Different shares, after the acquisition offer is issued, the antitrust agency can only give two answers: yes or no.
Of course, SBC was unwilling to let its long-prepared efforts go to waste, but after Huang Xuan rejected the early acquisition, Southwestern Bell had only one way to go, to forcefully pass the review and avoid the issue of Huang Xuan's nationality. In other words, it is to explain Huang Xuan.
Sitting in the Lincoln car heading to the city, Whitaker made a last-ditch effort and solemnly said: "Mr. Huang, what do you think of my recent proposal?" The recent proposal was for him to acquire Huang Xuan's shares. SBC shares, in order to cross the last threshold before the acquisition and avoid the trouble of political lobbying.
"I trust Mr. Whitaker's management of the assets." This was naturally a polite refusal.
Whittaker sighed, leaned back in his chair, and said, "Then, we have to face it together?"
He didn't say what he was facing, but everyone knew it.
"Benefits and risks are shared, as it should be." Having said that, for Huang Xuan, the actual risks have been reduced countless times. As the buffer zone becomes stronger and stronger, it can actually be regarded as a step before a certain goal. The luck value increases - of course, this is just the understanding.
Businessmen are afraid of risks and eager for profits. If there is no confirmed news, Huang Xuan, who has made hundreds of millions of dollars, would be wise to sell his stocks. Whitaker sat up, frowned slightly, thought of something, and said: "Which company does Mr. Huang think we will acquire?"
There is less than a week left before the acquisition. As a shareholder, it is not surprising to know that SBC has an acquisition plan, but it does not necessarily know the target company of the acquisition. Huang Xuan is naturally among the unknown.
"ATT." Huang Xuan smiled softly, twirling the bottle of Bordeaux wine in his hand. Whittaker is a guy who likes fine wine. There are not only expensive red wines from the 1960s but also new red wines produced in the past two years on the car refrigerator. He is a normal wine connoisseur. Most of the gentlemen who talk about 1986 red wine are arty.
Whitaker did not let his surprise show. He gave a fake smile and said, "It's hard to convince the gentlemen in Washington that we can't let this acquisition fail."
"Can I bear more legal fees, for example, 80%?" Huang Xuan asked tentatively.
In the United States, lobbying groups, that is, interest groups composed of lawyers, former government officials and well-informed people, are absolutely borderless organizations. Counting from back to front, Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, Carter, Nixon... Actually, there is no need. To say the least, except for poor Gerald V. Ford, the successor after Nixon stepped down, every president has been a lobbying star in Washington. They are the best lobbyists for the new president, and their influence in the party far exceeds that of one president. An ordinary senator. From the Japanese issue in the 1980s, we can find that the so-called former senior trade representatives (equivalent to ministerial officials in China), secretaries of state, and countless former governors and senators can all speak for Japan in the face of interests. There is no need to take into account the position of the US government. The main reason why China cannot borrow the same method is that most officials are still cautious about contact with Red China. Although McCarthy has disappeared, they still have to be on guard.
But for a Chinese or a Chinese shareholder, there is no similar problem.
In theory, any trade bill can be passed in the United States as long as there is enough interest and a little lobbying fee. Whittaker understood this, so he continued to talk to Huang Xuan.
Compared with the loan of 14 billion U.S. dollars, Huang Xuan will certainly not be stingy with the "consulting fees" of tens of millions of U.S. dollars.
Such a refreshing attitude immediately changed Whittaker's attitude. He showed a "sincere" smile and said, "Don't worry, I will convince those bureaucrats." He clinked glasses with Huang Xuan and said: “A pleasure to work with.”
"It's a pleasure to cooperate." After Huang Xuan toasted, he asked tentatively: "I heard that the Cleveland Consortium has also invested in SBC."
"Oh, you're all well-informed." This is a Washington joke.
Huang Xuan smiled and said without hesitation: "8% equity? That's 6 billion US dollars. How could the Cleveland consortium hand it over to a young man in his 00s to manage it? His name is Aiken, right?"
"Aiken Mather." Whitaker confirmed: "You know the Mather family, right?"
"Part of the Cleveland syndicate."
"Yes, about a month ago, Aiken was just an important member of the Mather family. He was the eighth heir."
Huang Xuan opened his mouth and smiled rudely: "Why do you look like royalty?"
Whittaker winked and continued: "Something has changed now."
"What kind of change?" Huang Xuan said and clicked on the energy screen.
"His father became the new head of the Mather family, so Aiken is the first in line to succeed."
The same content was displayed on the energy screen, but it was not a media report. The consortium always kept secret about their internal problems. What Lorraine showed was mainly the Mather family's lawyer documents, which were 500 pages long. In addition, there were 00 pages of additional terms and twice as many appendices.
Huang Xuan decided to ask Whitaker: "He doesn't have a brother?"
"You mean Aiken? He has two brothers, but the eldest one is still in high school, so..." Huang Xuan understood now and hesitated a little: "He fully represents the Mather family?"
"It seems so."
Huang Xuan felt terrible. (To be continued)