"This is the statistical buying situation."
The company's financial department took some steps to list the brokerage firms that had been buying Coca-Cola stocks sporadically and continuously for some time.
"This is a premeditated action. You see, a fixed quota is scanned every day to keep the transaction volume slightly higher than the past year. While reducing costs, it does not attract the attention of the market. Once they exceed 5%, they will It must be disclosed to the Securities Regulatory Commission. At this time, it is time for them to join other small shareholders and propose a motion to replace the director's seat at the annual shareholders' meeting." Donald Keogh's fighting spirit was inspired by this behavior.
"In fact, they have exceeded 5%. In addition to these relatively consistent purchases, which have accumulated to more than 4.5%, they also have several other hidden purchases. I suspect they are from the same acquirer.
If you look at these accounts, they are very similar to the buying style of this major stock brokerage seat. Since the beginning of the year, they have bought 0.2% of the stock in two batches. Recently, they have been even more cautious, buying no more than 0.2% of the stock every day. Two million dollars worth of stock. If we're not careful, they can launch a surprise attack. "
People in the financial department pointed out that the other party might use the number of shares held to combine with the S&P 500 fund that currently holds part of Coca-Cola to propose a special shareholder meeting, which might catch the management off guard.
"Sergio, what do you think?" While everyone was expressing their opinions, President Donald Keogh discovered that the marketing director Sergio Seaman, who had returned from Ronald, was buying stocks. Recorded in meditation.
Sergio Seaman was originally a strong contender to succeed the president. During his tenure, Diet Coke was a huge success. After Coke fell into a trough in the 1970s, it entered the market segment for the first time. Won Pepsi.
But the subsequent disastrous failure of New Coke in the southern market kept him away from the successor echelon. However, in some aspects, this also made President Keogh more trustful in his opinions.
"Have you noticed that these stocks were not purchased by Wall Street stock brokerage firms?"
"Um?"
After everyone was reminded, they all looked at the form. Sure enough, only the first two suspected purchases of 20 million US dollars each were from Wall Street brokerage seats. After that, they all purchased company seats in the Midwest and West Coast. Among them, Charles Schwab is the most common.
"The Midwest and the West Coast, damn, aren't they my old friends?"
President Donald Keogh cursed and went back to make a phone call.
"Warren, this is Donald. Hello, is it you? You happen to be buying Coca-Cola, right?" Keough asked his old friend directly without going around in circles with the boss of Berkshire Hathaway. of stock purchases.
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment, then Warren Buffy responded, "As luck would have it, I'm buying. But I'd appreciate it if you could keep silent until I make a holding statement."
"You still want to buy?" Keogh was surprised. Are you going to buy 10% of the shares and then launch a special shareholders' meeting alone?
What Buffett means is nothing more than this. If the news of his purchase of Coca-Cola shares leaks out, other investors will rush in, eventually pushing up the stock price, and then Berkshire's purchase goal may not be achieved.
"Yes, I have been following your stocks for several years. At the Millennium Berkshire shareholders' meeting, I even used cherry-flavored Coca-Cola as the custom drink. I like your style of doing things very much.
I also think your business is very good. As a shareholder, I will continue to respect and support the efforts of your management team. After all, management ability is also the most important aspect of a company's operating ability. "
"If you join the board of directors, will you promise not to interfere with the operations of our management team? Coca-Cola has been defeated steadily by a bad management team, and I don't want Robert (Goinzueta, Keogh's boss) and I... "
"This is exactly why I want to buy. You have increased your profit margin from less than 8% when you took over to 17% last year...I also appreciate your new strategy of the bottling plant..."
"Okay, okay," Keogh said, believing Warren Buffy's story. When he previously invested in the Washington Post, he also kept his promise and never interfered with the operations of his boss, Mrs. Graham. "But Warren, don't overdo it..." Keogh expressed his appreciation for having such a strategic investor who supports his team. Still very welcome, the alarm is off.
"I plan to buy more than 5%. After reporting to the Securities Regulatory Commission, it will depend on the market price..." Buffy is very optimistic about this stock this time and plans to exchange one-third of the company's total assets for Coca-Cola. , bet on this once-in-a-decade opportunity.
"What do you mean by buying more than 5%? Those hidden investments in New York and Los Angeles were not made by you?"
"Los Angeles? No, my purchases are all from the Midwest brokerage offices around Omaha. I don't want you to misunderstand. But someone actually thought of it with me? This is very interesting. After you find out who it is, , I would like to meet him."
"He only bought about 0.6%. I think he may be an individual investor. That's it. See you at the shareholders' meeting."
"It's Warren. We don't have to worry too much. He has a good reputation and everyone knows he is a passive investor." After President Keo came out, he said to the others waiting outside the door, "But he denied the other purchase. It’s him, who do you think it is?”
"I guess he is a discerning individual investor. Those public funds that focus on the standard 500 ingredients to buy are not this style, and they have not greeted us. Do you know which rich person is buying? The Middle East or Japan?" Finance The director breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was Buffy. If those predators used Wall Street junk bonds to engage in leveraged hostile takeovers, they would have faced a tough battle. Even if it wins, Coca-Cola's development strategy will be affected.
Marketing Director Sergio Seaman suddenly remembered something and said, "Interesting, I just heard a film director say that he bought a lot of our stocks before. But I didn't take it seriously. A young director , you won’t be so rich, right?”
"Ask someone from Columbia Pictures, how much does a director earn? What's your director's name?"
…
"Cut! I need a little passion here, Julia, passion!"
On the set of Steel Magnolias , director Herbert Ross had restrained himself a lot. However, he will still severely point out actors who do not meet his performance requirements, but he no longer accuses Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton of not being able to act.
"Herbert has not been normal since the death of his wife Nora." Shirley MacLean was relatively familiar with him and was disgusted with Rose's behavior. Among these actors, she is the only one with seniority who is not afraid of the bad temper of directors with huge egos.
With the support of Ronald, she formed the Oscar Club (a gang of actors who have won statuettes) with Sally Fields, Olympia Dukakis and others. Discussing the director's bad temper and how to perform well under such circumstances.
"His fiancée will come to visit soon. I hope his temper will be better by then." Ronald also participated in the discussion, "I'm leaving soon, so I ask you to take care of me here. If it's Diane, hey, and If Julia is physically attacked by him, you can fight back. I'm not worried about Dolly."
"She's depressed," Sally Field said. Originally, Dolly Parton came here because of Ronald's invitation. She really didn't know how to act. She was not as experienced as the three of them and knew what the director wanted. What.
"Don't worry, your little sweetheart, we will take care of you." Shirley MacLean laughed. A pat on Ronald's shoulder.
"And you guys, my big sweethearts... take care of yourselves and call my assistant if you need anything..." Ronald smiled and hugged the three Oscar winners one by one.
"Your cousin, have you been invited to the platform now?" While hugging Dukakis, Ronald asked her quietly.
"Thanks to the sultry moonlight, I have a lot of film dates now, and I no longer have to stand up for Michael to make money." Olympia now cares more about her acting career than politics. She stood up for her cousins at the Oscars, which was nothing more than a sign of her time. A good mood move.
"How are you? Will you support my cousin?" Olympia Dukakis asked Ronald. The two of them are the closest and can chat about political leanings in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
"To be honest, I don't care much. At this stage, I support the Elephant Party and hope to get tax benefits. I am more concerned about next year's New York mayoral election. The security outside my apartment is not very good right now. I hope the new mayor can solve it. .”
"I'm preparing to buy a house now. My children's tuition fees have been taken care of, and I don't know where to find a cheap house in lower Manhattan."
"It's too cheap to buy now, and it's not cheap with good security, and it's increasingly difficult to rent apartments with rent control. My cousin can't even find a suitable one."
Two New Yorkers complained. Ronald bid farewell to the crew and prepared to go back.
"Mr. Li...", the marketing head of Coca-Cola is back again.
"Why are you back?" Ronald asked curiously.
"I have been entrusted by the company's board of directors to find out the situation from you. Last time you said that you purchased a lot of our company's stocks. If it is convenient, can you tell me the specific amount? I know this is private. I am completely because of what follows. The shareholders' meeting is coming, and it is very likely that we will have to reorganize the board of directors.
Of course, if you don’t want to say it for privacy reasons, that’s okay. As long as it doesn't exceed 1%, we fully understand the desire of some shareholders to keep a low profile. "
"Hey, how can I have so much? It's probably just over half of 1%, 0.6%." Ronald felt that such a company with a market value of more than 10 billion would probably not care about small shareholders like himself.
"Welcome, Mr. Shareholder. I will only convey this news to our board members, please rest assured." Sergio Seaman thought to himself that the people at Columbia Pictures had underestimated the income of the person in front of him.
When Sergio told the news that Warren Buffy was also buying, Ronald couldn't help but feel happy. It seemed that his choice was very good, and he was recognized by one of the most powerful investors today.
"I knew him, his son Peter, who worked on my film. How much did he buy?"
"All I can say is that he will be included in the company's annual report."
"Oh..." Ronald said happily. Buffy bought at least ten times his own stock, which was still a heavy position. It seems that this time I randomly bought the same stocks as the professional investment masters, and I will continue to buy them with my own money in the future.
Sergio Seaman also understood clearly that Ronald only bought stocks for investment and with the mentality of buying blue chip stocks. This kind of investors are easier to deal with than Buffy. They don't have requirements for business management like Warren. If his management ability deteriorates in the future, he will leave without hesitation.
Investors like Ronald don't know much about company management. This kind of shareholder puts little pressure on the operator. Most of them just enjoy the dividends anyway, and few of them really know what business is.
The parties concerned were all gentlemen, and Coke's stock price did not fluctuate. In this way, Buffy continued to buy, and Ronald only regretted that his next dividend had not yet arrived. When the news spread, he would definitely not be able to buy such cheap stocks.
Ronald next came to New York, where he would continue to discuss the romantic movie with Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron.
Negotiations with the Writers Guild are now in chaos. The union's board of directors began to lose faith in the negotiators. Many members are working together privately, hoping to initiate a vote to force the union to agree to conditions and end the strike.
The backbone of some other unions began to attack the seven major studios and the three major public television stations, and accepted interviews with the media, condemning these largest employers of screenwriters for showing no mercy to the miserable plight of screenwriters and only thinking about their own interests.
In this way, Nora Ephron cannot hire other screenwriters to revise the script together. She could only slowly follow Ronald's request alone and try to change the ending to a happy ending.
"If I want to change the ending, I don't even know how to direct it..." Rob Reiner pouted while holding the first draft revised by Nora at the quiet gathering of the three of them.
"What's so rare about this? The audience likes this ending, and why can't Harry and Sally be together? Isn't that how many people go around and end up with the original person again?"
"The change in this character is wrong, and it will cause damage to the rhythm of the previous story. I don't necessarily insist on not filming a happy ending, but such a twist will be strange to the audience, and it may not be a good thing for the box office." ·Lena insisted on his own opinion.
"Let's think of another way..." Ronald knew that what Laina said was not unreasonable from the perspective of drama theory. But a romantic drama doesn’t want to win an Oscar, right? There are some plot flaws, but they don't affect the audience's enjoyment.
These filmmakers here in New York have this problem. Although compared to people in Hollywood, my ego is not as big and it is easier to communicate. But at the same time, they also have their own ideas. Unless they find a reason that they agree with, they can't even think of changing their opinions.
This is a common problem among New York artists. Five people have six different views on a play. One person would say, "If Woody Allen had done it, it would have been like this. If it had been done with John Cassavetes, it would have been another way."
"What do you think?" Ronald had no choice but to ask Nora Ephron, who was silent next to him.
"I don't know. Sometimes I think Rob is right, and sometimes I think Ronald is right."
This is the first time Nora Ephron has encountered a director like Ronald, who considers the plot of the movie and tries to keep it as simple as possible. His theory is simple. Audiences all have regrets in their love lives. The purpose of coming to the theater is to let them make up for their regrets on the screen.
"I want to advance a production fee and I will interview real couples in real life. We all say that the princess and the prince will live happily together in the future. Why not see how many couples are happily together in the real world. This can also confirm whether a couple like Harry and Sally can't be together?"
"Your idea is very good. How much money do you want, I will pay you in advance." Ronald agreed upon hearing this. These artists don't understand statistics. If you look at a couple who are still married, what is the chance that they often quarrel in life and can't even get divorced?
It seems that my thoughts will definitely be confirmed.
"You might as well go for an interview, it will definitely confirm my idea." Rob Lainer insisted on his idea. He himself and Penny Marshall were attracted to each other because of their talents at first, but later they grew tired of each other and entered into a very sad divorce proceedings.
"Okay, we'll let the real interview decide," Ronald snickered.
