Chapter 200: Never Give Up Until You Achieve Your Goal
On the evening of May 20, 1997.
Britney Spears, on tour for the final time in New York City.
Before the concert was over, it was already on the official websites of multiple American news media.
As of now in 1997, the Internet might not have been popular on the other side of the ocean.
But in the United States, it benefited from the full support of the Zimbabwean government and American capital.
At this time, there were only about 620,000 Internet users in China.
There are only about 1.1 million Internet users in Europe, whose economy is many times better.
Neon's population is much smaller than China's, but the number of Internet users is about the same as China's.
As for the United States, the number of Internet users in the United States at that time reached 60 million.
It accounts for a quarter of the total U.S. population and more than 80% of the world's Internet users.
This makes the speed of news and information dissemination in the United States far faster than anywhere else in the world at this time.
This is why Milo Blackburn, the new richest man in the world and the $100 billion man, actually appeared at Britney's concert.
It spread wildly in a very short time, attracting countless onlookers.
However, it is limited by the development of network technology and multimedia streaming technology.
For now, only photos and texts are circulating on the Internet.
There is no more convenient and intuitive video in the future.
Being the richest man in the world, going to see a teenage star’s concert.
Not to mention now, even in the more open future it will be big news.
So many people speculated whether Milo Blackburn was pursuing teenage star Britney.
Of course, at this time there are also some "wise" people who stand up to guide the direction of the Internet.
Said Milo Blackburn showed up at the concert.
The biggest reason is that Britney is the first star launched by the integrated new Universal Music.
They say Minogue is doing marketing to help Britney get more exposure and fame.
These people also specifically mentioned MJ, Madonna and others who appeared.
It must be said that the guidance of these people is still useful.
Because since Milo became famous, he has appeared in public with the female stars from his film company almost every one or two months.
He gave the paparazzi a clear opportunity to take photos and directed traffic to the female stars who had starred in his movies.
Like today's news, in the entertainment section of Yahoo Community.
I just made a hot post with clear photos taken by Universal Music officials.
It's a photo of Milo and a bunch of superstars supporting Britney.
So after this whole process, most people thought that Milo was up to his old tricks again.
This was the reaction from the media and the Internet after Minogue appeared at the concert.
As for the scene.
Half an hour after the concert ended, most people had left.
The elevator in the quiet and spacious VIP parking lot made a "ding" sound.
A petite woman wearing a coat, a baseball cap on her head and carrying a travel bag in her hands.
She walked quickly in her high heels towards the cars with their lights on, and the sound of "Gordon Gordon" echoed in the parking lot.
Kenny, who was sitting in the passenger seat, went out quickly and silently and opened the door. Britney handed the travel bag to Kenny first, then she bent down and got into the car, closed the door, took off her baseball cap, and showed her flaming red lips with one corner of her mouth slightly raised. The joy on her face was beyond words, and her beautiful eyes were flashing with watery light.
"Hold on."
Hugging Britney, she felt hot all over and looked like she was going to turn into a she-wolf and eat a banana.
Milo lowered the rear seat panel slightly and said to David, who was driving, through the gap: "We won't take the helicopter tonight. The team will go directly back to Great Neck."
“Okay boss!”
After hearing Kenny's answer, Milo raised the baffle.
A pretty face came over, with red lips and sweet tongue, which was indescribable.
Milo didn't let go of Britney, who was already panting, until she became a little short of breathing.
Britney took off her coat, wearing only a black sweater dress. Her legs were wrapped in black stockings. She straddled Milo's legs, put her arms around Milo's neck, and smiled charmingly, "Master, Master, I am so happy tonight!"
In any case, Britney never expected that Minogue would appear at her concert.
Everyone was still hiding it from her, and she didn't even know the situation.
She started singing, halfway through the first opening song.
She then realized that the person sitting in the best seat in the middle and waving at her was actually Milo.
Britney was so excited that she even forgot to sing the song.
If it weren't for the reminder from her dancers, and her strong professional ethics, the singing accident might have happened on the spot.
In short, Britney was in a state of confusion throughout the entire concert.
The spiritual happiness and joy made her forget the physical pain and fatigue.
Milo smiled and said, "You are my good student, my little darling. Come on, are you tired? Eat something first."
Britney licked her red lips seductively and said, "I'll eat it well!"
The customized stretched Cadillac Escalade is equipped with bulletproof armor.
The weight of the entire car body is close to five tons. The streets of New York are brightly lit at night and the car is running very smoothly.
David, who was sitting in the driving seat, just had a wry smile on his face. He looked at Kenny next to him and silently turned on the car stereo to cover up the loud screams and moans of excitement from the little woman in the back seat who had no idea what shame was.
As expected of a singer, her voice is so penetrating...
Kenny thought about it and later suggested to his boss to improve the sound insulation of all the cars in the fleet.
Britney transformed into a passionate and beautiful knight. On the back of a wild horse, even if the ride was bumpy, she bit her lips tightly as if she was ready to die. She insisted on tightening her grip on the horse's belly to prevent herself from being thrown off the horse's back, in an effort to subdue the strong and tall wild horse leader under her.
I don't know how many times she looked up at the panoramic sunroof of the car. In the dark night sky, Britney seemed to see countless fireworks rising and blooming in the night sky like gorgeous flowers. It was so beautiful and intoxicating. Her cherry lips kept opening and closing, and she let out a series of sad cheers.
At this time, they were passing through the streets of Great Neck. Two NYPD officers on patrol in a police car watched this convoy, which was being given special care, pass by.
One of the police officers asked his companion in confusion: "Did you hear any sound? I seemed to hear a woman screaming just now."
"I think I heard it, too." The companion shrugged, "But who cares? No one called the police."
"agree."
When the car convoy stopped at the parking garage of the Long Island estate.
Britney, with her hair disheveled, wore a baseball cap. Her fair face and neck were still blushing. She wore a coat. When she got out of the car, her legs trembled unconsciously and she couldn't stand steadily.
Milo, with an innocent expression on his face, hurried forward and grabbed her waist, supporting her shaking body.
"No matter what you do, you should do it within your ability. Besides, it was your first time last night."
In response to Milo's teasing, Britney just gave him a coquettish look and said in a hoarse voice: "I'm willing to die for this!"
Milo shook his head and smiled bitterly, without saying anything more. It would be useless to say anything, so he might as well get her in first.
Britney is not Superman after all, and she was injured for the first time in her life last night.
We also had rehearsals in the morning and afternoon, and a concert in the evening.
All of these activities require high physical exertion, and she was involved in them despite injuries.
At this point, she was already at her limit.
By the time Milo helped her to the bed, she was so tired that she fell into a deep sleep.
Milo didn't go too far, he knew if he continued.
Britney could be really hurt.
therefore……
"Why don't you continue to mess with your elementary school students?"
"Wuwu... I'm not uncooperative, so rude..."
"Today is my dangerous period, and you've told me not to take medicine for a week. Do you really want me to get pregnant?"
"ah……"
Britney couldn't fight anymore, so the one who was unlucky was Minogue's personal assistant, Ms. Monica Bellucci.
…
…
On May 21, several companies including Phillips Energy and Connor Petroleum officially resumed trading.
At nine o'clock that morning, Milo met old David for coffee as scheduled.
Milo's exchange of shares of Boston's First National Bank and two insurance companies under the Boston consortium for shares of Manhattan Chase Bank requires further negotiations between the two parties.
This is the internal cafe on the third floor of the Chase Bank Building on Wall Street in Manhattan.
This building has a long history and has always been the headquarters of Chase Bank in Manhattan.
In a parallel universe, Manhattan Chase and Morgan merged to become JPMorgan Chase.
The building was renamed the JPMorgan Chase Building.
Facing the bustling Wall Street, Milo was absent-minded while eating. He glanced through the window at the sign of Patek Philippe Watch Shop across the street, and was thinking about the possible changes in the stock prices of the companies involved in the acquisition when the market opened at nine o'clock in the morning.
"We didn't make much money from this Asian plunder."
Old David had a good appetite and kept eating the delicacies on the table. He said, "It's only less than 50% more than you. You have to know that we have been preparing for several years, and you only entered last year."
Milo retracted his gaze and shrugged at Old David, "Opportunities always favor those who are prepared. I was prepared, so I was able to eat the meat."
Old David smiled:
"Well, that's true. Your vision is always so accurate. Sometimes I even doubt whether you can really hear God's revelation."
"Don't doubt it."
After taking a sip of the fragrant Hawaiian coffee, Milo smiled and said to the old man:
“I just can hear God’s voice, otherwise I wouldn’t be here at all.”
"Then was it God who asked you to acquire Phillips Energy and Connor Petroleum at the same time?"
"No, I just want to diversify my industry," said Milo.
Old David was silent for a moment, and he also looked through the floor-to-ceiling window at the Patek Philippe Watch Shop on Wall Street below.
It was nine o'clock. As the door of Patek Philippe opened, several people dressed very elegantly came in one after another.
"These Swiss people really know how to do business. Worthless jewelry and some small mechanical parts that cost less than a few hundred dollars can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars."
Old David commented.
Milo rolled his eyes and put down his coffee. "Are you praising yourself? Dear David, as far as I know, you have a lot of shares in Patek Philippe, LV and other popular luxury goods. Every time they sell an expensive watch or a dress worth tens of thousands of dollars, you can get a share of the money."
"Hahaha..." Old David laughed triumphantly.
The facts are indeed as Milo said.
The size of the luxury goods market is currently around hundreds of billions of dollars, which is completely incomparable to commodities such as oil and food, whose market sizes are several trillion dollars.
But selling luxury goods has high profits.
Even if I sell tens of thousands of tons of grain, I don’t know if I can make millions.
The cost of making a Patek Philippe watch is no more than one thousand dollars. If you sell ten of them, you can earn a steady profit of more than one million dollars.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
The manufacturing cost of luxury goods with a market size of hundreds of billions of dollars is unlikely to exceed two billion dollars.
Of course, marketing costs and branding costs are still required.
These include manufacturers of Swiss watches, French perfumes and many European luxury goods.
Even Swiss banks are included.
They all have some Rockefeller shares, otherwise they wouldn't even be able to get out of Europe.
"Let's get back to the point."
Old David stopped talking nonsense and looked at Milo seriously. "I invited you to have coffee today because someone wants to know your bottom line. Do you really want to merge Phillips Energy and Connor Petroleum?"
Milo thought the main point of the show had finally arrived.
“If you can do it, then why not?”
He looked at old David and smiled. "Of course, I know it's difficult, and I'll adapt to circumstances. But California has energy, Texas has energy, so why can't Boston have energy, too?"
Among the top ten or eight largest financial groups in the United States.
There aren’t many people who don’t have influence in the energy industry.
Cleveland is one of them, so they are now declining and almost becoming a vassal of Mellon.
DuPont is one of them, so they are now almost becoming Morgan's vassal.
Boston is also a consortium with no energy influence.
So later they became common vassals of Rockefeller and Morgan.
Why did Milo's simultaneous acquisition of Phillips Energy and Connor Petroleum cause such a big response?
Because everyone knows he is from Boston.
Now that he's entering the energy industry, most people would think this is another struggle for the Boston conglomerate.
This is also why Rockefeller let the New York Times take the lead in testing Milo.
Relatives are relatives, and marriages are marriages.
When it comes to interests, you have to do what you have to do.
So was Rockefeller, and so was Milo.
"I understand." Old David's expression became serious and he said seriously, "I wish you success."
"Thank you." Milo smiled.
After the coffee party with old David, we were on our way back to the Rockefeller Center.
Milo became eagerly concerned about the stock market after it opened.
MCA's opening price plummeted by 16.6%, its market value evaporated by more than 3 billion US dollars, and it is still falling.
Other listed companies that also fell included TBS, State Street, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock and more than 20 other partner companies related to the acquisition.
Since the emergence of the Internet craze the year before last, the U.S. stock market has been thriving.
The Dow Jones Index rose all the way to a high of 7,800 points. The global financial community had already determined that the Dow Jones Index would break through the 9,000 point mark by the end of the year. However, it suddenly fell 127 points in one day.
The market reaction to this acquisition was negative.
Only Phillips Energy and Connor Petroleum's shares soared and their share prices continued to rise, which was entirely caused by speculation.
A lot of big things happened that day.
In the face of Milo's hostile takeover, Connor Oil's board of directors and management announced the first countermeasure, which was an announcement in the market.
"Given that Paladin Investments bypassed the board of directors and maliciously acquired Connor Petroleum, it has triggered the 'golden parachute' policy formulated by Connor Petroleum's board of directors. Assuming Connor Petroleum is eventually acquired, any of the 30 executives, including CEO Michael Reese, will leave collectively, whether voluntarily or fired, and will be entitled to a one-time compensation of US$500 million, which is the annual salary of the executives for the next three years."
'Golden parachute' is a common means of countering sniping.
The purpose is to increase the difficulty for acquirers, but the effect is not great.
Because compensation often accounts for a very small proportion of the funds in the acquisition and has little effect.
The biggest effect is probably to disgust the acquirer, but it can only have a disgusting effect.
But three days later, the second countermeasure planned by Connor Petroleum was extremely lethal.
"Given that Paladin Investment's shareholding in Connor Petroleum is about to exceed 20%, triggering the shareholder rights plan formulated by Connor Petroleum's board of directors, all shareholders except Paladin Investment can purchase Connor Petroleum's newly issued shares at half the current share price..."
This is the anti-sniper killer 'poison pill plan'.
The term is dilutive anti-takeover measure.
According to the regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange, the implementation of a poison pill does not require a vote by a general meeting of shareholders. As long as someone carries out a hostile takeover and the proportion reaches 20%, the board of directors can initiate it immediately.
Once the poison pill is activated, Connor Petroleum will temporarily issue new shares.
Even if Milo completes the 50% offer, the equity will be diluted.
He still failed to achieve absolute control and suffered losses, and eventually had to return to the meeting to negotiate with the original board of directors.
But the essence of the poison pill is to intimidate the barbarians, if intimidation cannot stop the barbarians.
Then rely on poison pills to maximize the interests of the board of directors and all shareholders.
These two measures are Connor Oil's warning to Milo.
There is no benefit in taking over Connor Oil, except paying a large amount of cash and stocks that far exceeds the stock price. Even if the acquisition is successful, even greater losses are waiting for Milo.
Generally at this time, faced with a poison pill, the "barbarians" will weigh the pros and cons of continuing the acquisition, and the normal solution is to withdraw the acquisition offer.
U.S. securities laws provide that if a competing offer emerges, the acquirer can withdraw its acquisition offer.
This is the purpose of Connor Oil throwing out the poison pill.
After the revocation, Milo can contact Connor Oil, carry out green blackmail, transfer the shares, and leave with arbitrage.
After all, Connor Oil's stock price has been pushed up by 31.78%, and he can make a profit of more than 2 billion US dollars if he leaves the market now.
But Phillips Energy is another model.
Connor Oil's actions are just to force Milo away from attacking their main body.
But Milo did not accept Connor Oil's intimidation, and the poison pill could not scare off his attack.
On the same day, Milo announced changes to the offer. He currently holds 17.92% of Connor Petroleum and the acquisition ratio is 32.08%, which has now been expanded to 67.08%.
He originally planned to prepare $25 billion in cash, but now he wants to increase it to $35 billion.
There is also about $10 billion in stocks.
If the offer is completed, his controlling stake will reach 85%, and even if the poison pill takes effect, he will still have absolute control.
Of course, 35 billion + 10 billion is a conservative estimate. His determination to acquire the entire business will cause Connor Petroleum’s share price to continue to rise, and the premium price will be very high.
For example, Connor Petroleum's original market value was about 45 billion US dollars, after he launched a full takeover offer.
Now the market value has soared to 55 billion US dollars, which is obviously not the bottom line.
When the document of the changed offer was announced, the whole Wall Street was in an uproar.
【Mr. Blackburn knew the threat of the poison pill, but instead of backing off, he went one step further. At least his courage is commendable.】
The head of Quantum Fund has already made a name for himself and has been pushed out as the target of the executioner of the Southeast Asian economic crisis.
Soros made these comments in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
[But the net asset value of Connor Oil is lower than his current offer price. Once the poison pill takes effect, he will lose 5 to 8 billion US dollars. Is it worth it? ]
[The key lies in whether the poison pill is effective or not! ]
Rogers, co-founder of Quantum Fund, Soros' former close comrade-in-arms and another financial giant, was also interviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
Rogers smiled and said, "Old friend, haven't you noticed? Connor Oil's 'poison pill' is a variant, it's a genius plan. They are more flexible than Martin Lipton, the founder of the poison pill. Throwing out the poison pill first can scare away 99% of the barbarians, but Mr. Blackburn's acquisition will is too firm, and the funds raised are too huge. They can't resist it anyway. This 'poison pill' will become their bargaining chip. When the offer is over, they can offer a good price for their shares!"
“You mean Connor Oil won’t compete with Blackburn on the offer?” Soros asked.
[It's hard to say! Because Connor Oil was dragged into the acquisition battle of Phillips Energy, if they used all their strength to fight back against Mr. Blackburn, then they would not be able to compete with Mr. Blackburn on Phillips Energy. ]
Rogers said: "The board of directors of Connor Oil can only choose one of two options. Either choose to keep Connor Oil and give up Phillips Energy. Or they can make a deal with Mr. Blackburn and give up all the shares of the two oil companies. They will leave with a profit, while Mr. Blackburn will get two over-acquired energy companies. 】
[This is a classic, exciting, and thrilling case that can be included in textbooks. In particular, Connor Oil's use of poison pills may be widely adopted by peers in the future.]
[Mr. Blackburn's abundant financial resources also let people know the value of being the world's richest man and the first $100 billion man! ]
Throughout late May.
Connor Petroleum's stock price has risen from US$25 to US$40, and its market value has been pushed to US$60 billion.
But Milo and Connor Petroleum's board of directors never raised the offer price.
As for Phillips Energy, both sides' energy in the decisive battle is focused on Connor Petroleum.
Its subsequent market value changes are not so outrageous.
But the market value has also been pushed to nearly $45 billion.
The combined market value of the two companies exceeds $100 billion.
If Milo wanted to have complete control over them.
Then he needs to prepare about 70-80 billion US dollars in stocks and cash.
No matter how you look at it, he doesn't have that much money now.
But he acted as if he would not give up until he achieved his goal.
I really don't know where his confidence comes from.
I'm a bit stuck, so there's only one chapter today.
(End of this chapter)