Brad thought for a while and said: "This matter is completely full of conspiracy. Even we haven't figured out the situation yet, but the media's speed is actually faster than our own. The Gulf Government's The reaction is also very strange. Our RCA is their largest export factory, which affects the employment of tens of thousands of people, and they actually close it at their will. It is so inconsistent with normal logic."
"Is someone targeting us?" the blond secretary said.
"Yes, otherwise it would be unjustifiable. The people who targeted us must have a lot of influence. Otherwise, they would not have been able to use such a large media power to hype this matter and convince the Gulf government." Brad frowned. said.
"Ding ding ding" the phone rang, and the blonde secretary quickly walked over and answered the phone, but her expression soon changed drastically. After a while, she hung up the phone, and Brad hurriedly asked: "What's wrong?"
The blond secretary replied: "I was just the director of the administrative department. He was notified by JPMorgan Chase Bank. Due to risk considerations, JPMorgan Chase Bank requested to recover the US$160 million loan we owed them. At the same time, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs It has just been announced that the rating of our stock has been lowered from hold to wait-and-see, and the stock price is expected to fall soon."
"It's true that everything you don't want is coming." Brad frowned and said, "I don't care about stock ratings for now. As long as this matter is resolved, the stock price will come back sooner or later, but JPMorgan Chase's debt collection is the most important thing." It’s troublesome, once something goes wrong, it can easily cause a chain reaction.”
US$160 million is not much for RCA, which owns NBC TV station. It is less than the TV station’s net profit for a year, but it is a hole in the dam. Once it is repaid, if other banks follow suit, then what to do? And if it is not repaid, if word gets out at this juncture, it will probably cause panic among all creditors, and the consequences will be disastrous. Although the probability is not high, you still can't bet. The development of any company must rely on banks. Indebtedness is normal behavior, but this This brings risks. Once forced into debt, even if the company is not finished, he, a professional manager, will be finished.
"What now?" the blond secretary asked.
"Make an appointment with Vice President John of JPMorgan Chase. I need to talk to him in person." Brad thought for a while and said.
"Okay." The blond secretary nodded.
Time flies by, and what happened in the United States, Chen Zhiwen just watched the show from the side. He did not participate in any actions. It was not until a month later that several companies under the Morgan consortium jointly acquired 25.6% of the shares in RCA, officially taking over RCA. .
"Henry, congratulations, you have become the leader of one of the three major television stations in the United States." In the Hong Kong Hilton Hotel, Chen Zhiwen smiled and met Henry Morgan, who had just arrived from the United States.
"Thank you Eric. If you hadn't come up with this idea, I wouldn't have imagined that I would have achieved what I have today. Did you know that before coming to Hong Kong, I had a meal with President Reagan at the White House? , the Secretary of State also invited me to play golf in Washington, which I had never dreamed of before." Henry Morgan said with a smile.
Although he had known President Reagan before, that was before the election. After he became president, his status was completely different. Although the president of the United States serves capitalists, he is not a top-level capitalist. He is qualified to join this circle, and now, with NBC, he seems to have become one of them.
"With this relationship and NBC, it will be much more convenient for you to start other businesses, and our cooperation will be smoother." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. There is an American TV personality in his alliance. , then many things are too convenient, such as the prime time advertisements you need, you can easily get them, whereas before, it was a special time for the Fortune 500 to compete.
The only pity is that I can't control it personally, but with my yellow appearance, I can't control the big TV stations in the United States. The strong ceiling of capital depends on the country behind it. At present, the United States is the world's leader, and only American capital can penetrate other countries at will. , and the reverse is almost impossible. Of course, except domestically in the future, it will be impossible for American capital to enter sensitive areas. This is also one of the fundamental reasons for future friction and decoupling. Countries that are not controlled by the United States are the enemies of the United States. The same may be true for France in Europe.
"I came to Hong Kong to cooperate with you, otherwise the loan pressure on me would go crazy." Henry Morgan said helplessly: "RCA's board of directors has agreed to sell the television business."
"Didn't your family help you a lot?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile. In fact, Chen Zhiwen did not provide much support for Henry's acquisition of RCA this time. He mainly provided some in the early stage, and the main funds for the acquisition came from loans.
"My family has helped me a lot, but the family's money was also loaned to me through formal bank channels. Due to the family's relationship, the procedures may be incomplete and the interest rate may be lower, but I still have to pay it back," Henry Morgan said. .
In this world, brothers have to settle accounts, let alone family members. Although the family supports their acquisition of RCA, it is not free sponsorship, and there is not even an interest-free loan. At most, it is strong financing support. , but this is normal. Henry Morgan also refused to hand over the RCA shares he originally acquired. If he handed it over, the Morgan family would definitely support it even more, but in this case, NBC TV station would belong to the family, and Henry Morgan would still have what is the relationship?
"Okay, there's no need for you to keep RCA's TV business. Organize the relevant information as soon as possible, and then we both evaluate a price and trade directly. This can reduce the financial pressure on you." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
The most fundamental purpose of the whole plan he put forward was RCA's TV business, which was already a sunset industry for American brands. For Chen Zhiwen, it was a hot commodity. Not to mention gaining such a large market in the United States, there were just so many If the technology is placed domestically, it will definitely gain a large share in the future. In the TV business, American technology cannot compare with Japan, and the U.S. Department of Commerce will not have any restrictions at all, as long as it does not excessively affect employment.
"Okay, that's not a problem, but RCA still has a lot of business, and I only learned the details recently. Are you interested?" Henry Morgan asked again.
"Forget it, I don't want it, you should sell it to someone else." Chen Zhiwen quickly shook his head and said.
Before the emergence of technology giants, in fact, all companies in the world like to diversify their operations. This is because when a large company develops to a certain scale in its own industry, it will be difficult to continue to expand. In this case, they will Go to other areas.
Some will take advantage of their own advantages in the industry and then enter businesses in similar industries, while others will expand inexplicably into unrelated fields. Of course, there are also mergers and acquisitions. There are many such companies in Hong Kong, as well as in the United States.
RCA belongs to the latter. It has many businesses. In addition to the most well-known NBC and color TV salesmen, it also has aviation business, carpet business, medical equipment business, construction-related business, etc. In the original history, after General Electric acquired RCA , only NBC was retained, and all others were subsequently sold.
When the business gets bigger and bigger, the company will inevitably move towards expansion. Although Chen Zhiwen has many businesses, most of them are clear-cut and only focus on electronics, food and beverage, infrastructure, real estate, retail, trade, automobiles and parts. Basically, he doesn't want other small industries if they are given to him. If there are promising ones, most of them will be invested directly and profit from the stocks in the future. A company that is too bloated will only lead to internal friction in the future.
"Okay, if you don't want it, then I will have to find a buyer in the United States." Henry Morgan was not surprised. In fact, he probably guessed the result. This was just a polite question. After all, what could he have today? All this is thanks to Chen Zhiwen.
"I have asked several people in charge of Midea and Red Bull in the United States. Their advertising contracts are currently within the deadline. It is estimated that they will not start to expire until June at the earliest. At that time, I will arrange for them to go to NBC Find your subordinates so that we can achieve long-term mutually beneficial cooperation." Chen Zhiwen said again.
"No problem, I will definitely give you a big discount." Henry Morgan said with a smile: "It's the same here, some prime time advertisements are also restricted by contracts, and some of them have to wait until a few months, but the time is almost the same. "
"That's good." Chen Zhiwen nodded. TV station advertisements are also booked in advance, especially for such a large TV station, which has reached a cooperation with Henry, so that its own products will have a strong promotion channel.
"The economic accounts are easy to calculate. Even here in Wanwan, in order to hype up the attack on RCA, we made it known to everyone. Now that RCA has been acquired, it is not easy to just let it go." Henry Morgan He frowned again and said.
"It's a problem. We can only try our best to compensate. You can't change the groundwater in Taoyuan City, and even gods can't do it." Chen Zhiwen slowly shook his head and said.
How the Morgan family helped Henry acquire RCA must involve a power struggle in the American business and political circles. Even Wanwan must have been offered very favorable terms, otherwise it would be impossible for Wanwan to cut off his biggest Factory, he didn't know the details and didn't want to know, he just wanted the result.
But here at Bay Bay, the pollution has been caused, and there will inevitably be victims in the future. Since Henry has acquired RCA, he will naturally have to bear this responsibility.
"I've talked to the people over at Wanwan, but actually they themselves don't quite know how to deal with it," Henry said.
"This is indeed the first case in the world." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. It is very common for large factories to secretly discharge pollution into rivers, but discharge into groundwater is very rare. It would not cause such a big fuss. Just this one thing, this is simply a matter of annihilating the descendants. Fortunately, the pollution of the TV manufacturing factory is not very big. If a large chemical factory does this, it may really destroy a radius of 100 kilometers.
"What do you think?" Henry asked.
"We can't tell you the compensation at the moment, but you can always monitor the local water quality and crops. You can entrust a local company to do this. For other things, you can only wait a few years to see what's abnormal in the area. "Chen Zhiwen said again.
The deal is already done, and the only thing that can be done is to monitor more, and now that the long-term sewage discharge has been interrupted, the losses for people in Taoyuan City will definitely be much smaller now than in the original history.
"That's all we can do. Set up another fund and activate it if abnormal conditions arise. I will negotiate with the Gulf government on this matter before we trade RCA's television business." Henry Morgan said again, this kind of He would not leave the matter to Chen Zhiwen. He also knew that as an American, he could handle this matter better.
"OK, that's enough. Our goal has been achieved." Chen Zhiwen nodded with satisfaction.
Although he was basically not involved in the whole thing, and most of it was accomplished thanks to the efforts of the Morgan family, but he also got what he wanted, plus an ally who owned NBC, which can be said to be a bloody profit.
Of course, Henry Morgan earned more, not in terms of money, but in terms of influence.
"In the future, I may not be so free. Our family's intention is for me to personally manage NBC. It doesn't matter. At least I need to know what the company is doing first," Henry said.
"That's actually right. You didn't acquire NBC for money, so it's inconvenient to find professional managers. But if you have someone you trust within NBC in the future, you can let go appropriately." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, NBC The biggest resource is its influence. If Henry does not frequently participate in the company's operations, it will be equivalent to giving up this biggest resource. In this case, the Morgan family will definitely not agree. They support Henry, but they hope that NBC can become a member of the Morgan consortium. part.
"That's all I can do. I need to learn this slowly." Henry Morgan said with a smile: "When I get familiar with NBC and RCA's business is sold, then we can acquire some newspapers and media according to our previous plan. company. Which ones do you think are more suitable?"
"In my own company, I only set the direction. As for how to do it, it is all done by my subordinates. The same is true for you. The more media companies you can acquire, the better. But how to expand is what you should do. It’s about that.” Chen Zhiwen said. He really didn't know this. If you want to become a media tycoon, you need to have a certain vision, similar to Rupert Murdoch. Otherwise, you can only guard one TV station.
A month later, after Henry Morgan reached an understanding agreement with the Bayan government on unknown terms, RCA sold the global business of RCA color televisions for US$630 million, including the world's three largest RCA factories. Factories, a network of sales terminals across the United States, two technology research centers, thousands of various patents on color TVs, etc.
(End of chapter)
