Chapter 211: Emergency - Miami
The sun is shining brightly in the summer morning.
The colors of New York in summer are the most brilliant and pure.
The vast golf course blends perfectly with the beautiful nature, which is one of the important reasons why so many people love golf. In the picturesque scenery, what is completed is not only a game but also a journey of body and soul.
"Bang!"
Gimp looked at the golf ball he had hit with his club, slowly retracted the club, and smiled at Milo and Murdoch beside him:
"This is the first time in six months that the three of us have played golf together here.
News Corporation Chairman Murdoch, who was also dressed in golf attire, was silent for a moment, then smiled on his face, which was already beginning to show age spots. "We are playing now, aren't we? Don, your golf skills seem to have improved."
"Of course."
Gimp held the club in his hand and swung it happily. "I am the owner of several golf courses. No one is better at playing golf than me, and no one knows more about golf than me."
"Tiger Woods isn't okay either?" Milo laughed and watched the caddy put the golf balls away.
Edric Tiger Woods just turned 22 this year.
But he has earned the nickname Tiger in professional golf because of his outrageous talent.
By the way, the sports company he signed with is a subsidiary of Paladin Sports under Paladin Media.
"Of course not."
Gimp smiled happily and said, "At least here, he can't play better than me. If he dares to play better than me, I will let Dolan deduct his salary, hahahaha..."
Gimp laughed.
Because of Milo, the golden-haired old man has a good relationship with many executives of Paladin Media.
For example, Charles Dolan, who uses his own group as capital, jointly operates Paladin Sports with Paladin Media.
He originally had a good relationship with Jinpu.
After learning that Milo considered Gimp as a friend, he became more attentive to Gimp.
Even in the eyes of some outsiders, Don Trump Gimple is Milo Blackburn's man.
Think this guy is a peripheral member of the Boston consortium.
Jin Pu expressed great satisfaction with this identity.
It has been almost a hundred years since his grandfather immigrated to the United States.
His grandfather's generation became rich.
Although he made his fortune by opening brothels in gold diggers' towns.
It sounds a bit unpleasant to say.
But including Rockefeller, whose first pot of gold was clean?
Roosevelt was an expert in slave trading back then!
By the time of Father Gimple's generation, his family had become one of the nouveau riche in New York.
By his generation, Jinpu felt that his historical mission was to enable his family to achieve class advancement.
Then there is nothing better than becoming a member of a consortium to advance the family's status.
So all this time, Gimp was holding Milo's thighs very hard.
And Milo did look at him differently because of his achievements in his previous life.
As a result, in just two years, Jinpu, who had gone bankrupt three times, made a qualitative leap in his social status in New York.
At least the halo of "Blackburn man" is very helpful to him.
"Two hundred million dollars."
After Milo chatted with the golden-haired old man for a while, he looked at Murdoch, who was smiling and silent.
"Rupert, give us $200 million. American Idol will be all yours."
In fact, Murdoch invited him to play golf today.
When Jinpu heard the news, he ran over happily.
This is his golf course after all.
What Murdoch was going to discuss with Milo was the copyright issue of "American Idol".
Not long ago, the third season of "American Idol" was launched.
With the groundwork laid by the first two seasons, plus the joint promotion by Paladin Media and News Corporation.
This season of American Idol has been an even bigger success.
However, it was not long after "American Idol" was taken off the air.
TBS Entertainment Television, a subsidiary of Paladin Media, announced that it has begun producing a variety show called "America's Got Talent."
The variety show is conceived and scripted by Milo Blackburn, the creator of three shows including Super Blackburn, How to Be a Millionaire, American Idol and Gimple's Apprentice.
As soon as the news came out, many American viewers who were still unsatisfied after watching "American Idol" flocked to the TBS TV station's news website to leave messages.
In just a short period of time, more than 800,000 people expressed their anticipation for the arrival of this new program.
For this reason, other TV variety shows that will compete with "America's Got Talent" are not the only ones who are worried.
Among the remaining worried people, of course, is News Corporation, the biggest beneficiary of "American Idol".
When Milo heard Murdoch's purpose, he didn't say anything more.
The price he offered was $200 million. After that, everything in American Idol would belong to Murdoch.
Including overseas copyrights.
When Murdoch heard the price, he quickly went over it in his mind.
This is the price you earn.
Judging from the current situation, "American Idol" can at least continue to film for five more seasons.
It's no problem to make $100 million per quarter.
As for copyright, overseas copyright licensing should be able to recover two to three hundred million US dollars.
In other words, Milo was given a buyout of $200 million.
American Idol will earn News Corp. at least another $400 million to $600 million.
The key is...
Murdoch looked at Milo. The key point was whether Milo's new "America's Got Talent" would affect "American Idol".
"Can."
Murdoch agreed anyway.
Because whether he buys it or not, TBS, owned by Paladin Media, has already released the program list.
Whether or not "America's Got Talent" will affect "American Idol" will not affect the emergence of "America's Got Talent".
No matter how much it is affected, "American Idol" still has the advantages of first-mover advantage and word of mouth.
But if Milo interferes and deliberately obstructs it.
I don’t know if there will be a new season of “American Idol” next year.
Instead of that, it’s better to spend a little more money to buy it out.
In this way, even if you earn a little less money, you can ensure that it will continue next year.
"It's a pleasure working with you." Milo also smiled. "Rupert, I really like your generosity. I really don't like that squid guy Lei Shidong, and that's why I'm working with you."
Later, many people on the Internet said that Murdoch was the Squidman.
The reason was that one of his ancestors married an oil woman.
Follow the same one drop of blood principle as the Oilers and Blacks.
So Murdoch should also be the Squidward.
Anyway, that's what the media of the squid people reported later.
However, in reality, Murdoch has no trace of Squidward in him.
His ancestor who married a squid man never had any children. She was Murdoch's grandfather's stepmother.
And all this time, Murdoch has never admitted that he is the Squidward.
Of course, he did not tell the outside world that he was not the Squidman.
After all, he still wants to integrate into American society.
Not to mention Jinpu.
He is a pure German, with strong Anglo-Saxon blood ties.
In the original time and space, he would attach so much importance to Squidman.
It was because as he was integrating into the American upper class, the three upper class members of Anglo-American society were reluctant to recognize him.
He could only settle for the next best thing and try to integrate into the Youyu Banner among the Eight Banners.
In this time and space, his daughter is not yet an adult.
He wanted Milo's help to initially join the circle of the upper three flags.
Of course, he couldn't take his opinion of the Squidman as seriously as he did in his previous life.
Because there was hope of integrating into the Upper Three Banners, he even discriminated against the Squid People even more than before.
Hey, you stinky squid flag guy, you still want to come to our Shangsan flag to beg for food! This is probably his mentality.
So even when Milo spoke ill of the Squidman in front of them, they remained indifferent.
Who says Milo is from the upper three flags? Anyone from the upper three flags can be mocked and discriminated against.
At most it’s not public.
"Haha, congratulations to both of you on reaching a consensus. Shouldn't we find a place to have a drink?" Jin Pu suggested with a smile.
Part of the $200 million also belonged to him.
But now Jinpu looks down on this little money.
Fangdd.com's successful launch and soaring market value have allowed it to rank among the top 100 companies in the United States on the Forbes list this year.
Compared to his 60% stake in Fangdd, valued at US$3 billion.
Two hundred million dollars is nothing! "That's a good idea." Milo smiled.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Gimp looked at Milo and Murdoch, handed the club to the caddy, and said happily.
In the golf club bar, Milo clinked champagne with Murdoch and said, "Once again, it's a pleasure working with you."
Murdoch chuckled and shook his head, raised his glass and drank, and then the three of them began a more relaxed chat.
It was not until around 4 p.m., when Milo was about to end the party and leave, that he received a call.
Wendy told Milo on the phone.
It is said that just now, Florida Mutual Bank declared bankruptcy and was seized and taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The wonderful evening arrived as expected. The golden sunlight shone through the tops of the densely packed skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan, instantly dyeing everything in sight golden.
In the black Cadillac SUV that had just crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, Milo frowned and called the American butler with his mobile phone. He told the other party directly that he wanted to acquire the deposit business of Florida Mutual Bank.
After a noticeable silence and hesitation, the other party told him that there were two other companies also preparing to do the same.
Milo asked who he was.
Zipperton said, "Who else could it be? Mellon, Morgan, they're already fighting. Do you want to join them?"
Join or not? Manhattan night slowly falls. Standing under the Brooklyn Bridge, by the East River, on the other side is Lower Manhattan, the place with the most concentrated skyscrapers in the world.
As the sun set, the fiery clouds dyed the sky red, the lights gradually brightened, and slowly, the red turned into rose red, blending with the blue sky.
In fact, every year in the United States, banks collapse, go bankrupt, are taken over, and are acquired.
Florida Mutual Bank is definitely a piece of the pie.
Why do you say that?
This is a bank founded in 1898 and headquartered in Miami. It is the largest savings bank in the southern United States, with $157 billion in assets and $108 billion in deposits...
But since the 1980s, the bank has been performing poorly.
It survived until recent years and finally showed signs of bankruptcy.
If anyone can take it over, it means that they will be able to take over about 40% of Florida's deposit market and about 5%-19% of the voting rights of companies including Jabil Circuit, Mass Mart, Global Fuel Services, and Ryder Systems.
They are all large companies in Florida, and Florida Mutual Bank is the largest bank in Florida.
To use the words of the Blackburn Foundation's consultants who summed up Milo: "Even if a beggar takes control of Florida Mutual Bank, this beggar can immediately become one of the uncrowned kings of Florida."
So this year, like many other big crocodiles.
They are all watching Florida Mutual's rescue and struggles.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
Oh, of course.
In addition to attention.
Milo felt that those people must have done the same dirty work as he did to push Florida Mutual Bank deeper into trouble.
Try to drown it quickly so that you can see its fat corpse earlier.
“Of course I will!”
Walking back to the car, the bodyguard opened the door and Milo got in, becoming even calmer.
"We're not going home. Notify the airport and we're going directly to Miami!"
Although Zipperton said that it was Morgan and Mellon who wanted to take over Florida Mutual Bank.
But Milo felt that it was definitely not just Morgan and Mellon who were interested in the fat piece of meat of Florida Mutual Bank.
Could it be that First Citigroup, Californians, and Texans are not interested? This is impossible.
As the most talented and beautiful place in the United States, Florida itself is quite special in the economic landscape of the United States.
No one in the United States, including the local tyrants in Florida, can control and influence the entire state of Florida.
In this respect, Florida is very different from other states in the United States.
Simply put, there are basically several powerful local tyrant families in other states of the United States.
They worked together and formed an alliance to essentially control the state's economy and people's livelihood, as well as the National Guard and local politics.
For example, the California Consortium and the California Gang in California, the Boston Consortium in New England, the Rockefeller in New York, and so on.
But Florida is different.
Because of historical reasons and the outrageous operations that happened back then.
A large number of Latin American immigrants have poured in, resulting in a very complex population ratio.
It was a big mess, and in the end we got the characteristics of Florida, with its outstanding people and beautiful scenery.
This is reflected in the fact that local consortiums are unable to control the entire state, and it is difficult for them to get together.
This certainly means that there is no local boss in Florida who really keeps his word.
But it also makes it difficult for outside consortiums to actually invade and control this place.
And now, Florida Mutual Bank is that opportunity.
It's definitely not just him, Mellon and Morgan who are interested.
Zipperton only mentioned these two, probably because he thought these two companies had the greatest power and were most likely to take over Florida Mutual Bank.
[…Founded in 1898, Florida Mutual Bank, unable to bear the burden of accumulated debts, finally became the protagonist of the largest bank failure in American history on the eve of its 100th anniversary.]
Florida Mutual Bank, headquartered in Miami, is the largest savings bank in the southern United States.
[Analysts believe that the collapse of Florida Mutual Bank is not unexpected. The bank has been operating poorly for a long time and its credit rating was downgraded by the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's as early as five years ago.]
[The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the United States, which is responsible for taking over Florida Mutual Bank, said it will work out a perfect solution for the bankruptcy of Florida Mutual Bank. It must minimize the losses suffered by depositors and related business people.]
[The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said they would not cause any impact on Florida Mutual Bank's depositors and other customers, and would not need to use the company's deposit insurance fund...]
[CNN News Channel reports live from Miami.]
When the financial news TV station officially announced this breaking news.
Milo was already in the sky on his way from New York to Miami.
The straight-line distance between New York and Miami is about 1,700 kilometers.
The flight time generally takes three and a half hours.
Milo took off at seven o'clock, and the plane arrived over the Miami city group around half past ten.
This place has a nickname in the United States, called "God's Waiting Room".
Because of its warm climate, this place is one of the most popular cities for retirees to live in in the United States, so it is jokingly called the waiting room for God's call.
A moment later, Milo's Boeing 747-400b slowly landed at Miami International Airport, about 12 miles west of downtown Miami.
Wait until the plane engine sound turns off for several minutes.
The hatch of the ladder truck was opened, and the first people to come out were a few giant men in suits who looked like iron towers.
They quickly got off the plane and took over a convoy of more than a dozen black Maybachs and black Rolls-Royce Phantoms in front of the airport's private apron.
After a while, many more people came down and started scanning the vehicles with machines.
I was busy for about half an hour.
After everything is ready.
Milo's figure appeared at the door of the plane and walked down slowly.
As they walked, he said to Kenny, "I must place an order for another plane. It would be best if it were a cargo plane, so that I wouldn't have to go through so much trouble when I go to a new city in the future."
Kenny smiled at his boss and said, "Maybe we can buy it from the Air Force? Some of their retired cargo planes still have decades of service life left. If they are only used to transport cargo, the cost-effectiveness is very high. But they are very fuel-consuming."
"It's a good suggestion, worth considering."
The motorcade drove out of Miami International Airport, with a black Rolls-Royce Phantom in the middle.
Milo looked out at the night view of Miami city.
Neon lights flicker, tall buildings stand in rows, cars flow endlessly on the seaside avenue, and lights and starlight complement each other.
He opened the car window slightly, and the sea breeze blew gently, bringing a hint of coolness. The yachts in the distance swayed in the waves, and the whole city seemed like a dazzling gem, emitting charming light.
Milo knew very well that beneath this glamorous appearance, this place was actually a paradise for some people.
Since the 1970s, due to its convenient geographical location and the joint efforts of the United States and Guba.
Miami gradually became the largest transit point for laundry detergent entering the United States.
By the early 1980s, the Miami area accounted for 70% of the nation's laundry detergent, 70% of hemp, and 90% of the Quaalude trade.
Those people "laundered" the dirty money they earned from selling laundry detergent and then reinvested it, thus boosting the local economic prosperity.
The Miami real estate industry has become a channel for "money laundering", building a large number of five-star hotels, high-end apartments, bustling nightclubs and skyscrapers.
The duality of heaven and hell in this place is even more outrageous than that in New York.
The rich live in heaven, while the poor at the bottom live a life similar to that in South America.
So stop making fun of the great people and beautiful scenery of Florida.
Because there are really no idle people here, only rich and ruthless people.
Idle people can't survive here.
The convoy's destination was the 70-story Four Seasons Hotel, which stands on the Miami skyline and is the tallest building south of Atlanta in the United States.
It took over an hour to drive from the airport.
The convoy finally arrived at the hotel entrance.
Wendy, who arrived before Milo, came out of the hotel and opened the door for Milo personally.
"Good evening, Wendy."
"Good evening, boss."
Ten minutes later, the group walked towards the hotel lobby.
Milo was already on the phone with his grandfather, Old Blackburn, in the executive suite on the seventieth floor of the hotel.
"Miami, a chaotic place. Chaotic from top to bottom."
Old Blackburn's voice rang through the phone, "Florida Mutual Bank? There are so many people who want to eat."
"One more of me won't make any difference."
"Yes. But if you go there in person, many people will think you want to give it a try."
"Why not give it a try?"
"Well said. Be careful of your own safety. Also, you'd better give your grandfather a call. At least one of your uncles has been doing business there for more than ten years. The Bush family has much more influence over there than we do."
Florida is one of the major Catholic strongholds in the United States, and Protestantism has little influence here.
This also means that the Blackburn family has little influence here.
This is also one of the reasons why WASPs don’t like Florida very much.
There are too many heresies! After hanging up the phone with Old Blackburn, Milo thought about it and called his grandfather.
Just like old Blackburn said.
The shrub family colonized Florida early.
Jeb Bush came to Florida to develop his business more than 20 years ago.
For this reason, he even married the daughter of a Hispanic gangster despite the ridicule of the entire circle.
It turns out that this move is very effective in appeasing the local Hispanics who have great influence.
Half an hour later.
The team leader ended the call with his grandfather.
"call……"
He put down the satellite phone, walked to the bright floor-to-ceiling windows of the Four Seasons Hotel, and gazed at the Miami city skyline ahead.
The lights are flashing, it's cyberpunk, and the darkness is charming and dangerous.
After thinking about it, he still felt uneasy.
He picked up the satellite phone again and issued a few new orders.
For example, the number of people sent by United Global Security Company was increased from 200 to 400.
For example, let Kenny increase the list of former colleagues from the Florida branch of the ClA to be invited to the banquet by 50%.
There is also the head of the DEA in Florida, who also informed Hector's brother Martin.
Don't say that he is making a fuss about nothing by doing this.
In terms of personal safety.
Milo was always so cautious.
Although if the National Guard and federal troops don't intervene...
These people from his bodyguard company actually have the firepower to take down Miami.
(End of this chapter)