Chapter 229 African Interests and Retail Empire

Milo didn't care enough about the business in Africa.

He was concerned because all of his most capable PMCs, United Global, were there at the moment.

These private armed forces cost him nearly 10 billion US dollars after all, and were an attempt by him to build up his own armed forces.

So of course he cares.

What's more, in black Africa, to be honest, if the trial operation is successful, it will take root in the local area and provide benefits.

That's not only good for him, but also for the entire United States.

Contrary to what most people imagine, as the current world policeman, America's interests in black Africa are not that strong.

Although here, the United States has thirty military bases.

But the military has always served politics. Due to the local political situation, not many of the 30 military bases the United States has placed here have actually had a significant effect.

To put it bluntly, the influence of Americans in black Africa may not be as strong as China's influence there in ten years.

Not to mention Britain, France and those old European powers.

To put it more simply, Americans don't have much say in black Africa.

Here, due to tradition and political influence.

Most of the time in the United States, the only thing it can rely on is CLA and three of the four major food groups to force the locals to use food.

It is not as easy as it is for France, the uncrowned king of Africa, and Britain, the former colonial overlord.

This is also the reason why those generals in the Pentagon are happy to participate in Milo's work here.

Because if we can carve out a solid foothold here, we can then expand to other African regions and increase U.S. influence.

Even Washington would be tempted.

So on the surface, United Global went to Sierra Leone this time to continue their mercenary work.

But in fact, this is one of the manifestations of the United States' will to expand overseas.

In this case, Milo certainly wouldn't be so anxious and worried about it all day long.

The ones who should be concerned are the U.S. Africa Headquarters Staff, the CIA's Africa chief, and those generals who got involved from the Pentagon.

This is why he is not so concerned - United Global is just a brand, a cover for Americans to try to strengthen their voice in Africa.

This is also the reason why the French reaction was so fast and so big.

If it were just that little diamond mine, they wouldn't have come to Milo or the United States.

They could choose to directly use mercenaries to fight Milo's PMC.

But it is precisely because of this special vest.

When the French wanted to take action, they had to consider Washington's attitude.

They want to drive United Global out and continue to maintain their interests in black Africa.

But they don’t want to really force the Americans into a corner and have the American soldiers take action themselves.

The war in 1991 frightened more than just the country on the east coast of the Pacific.

At that time, all the major military powers in the world were terrified by the Americans.

It was a crazy, unequal war in which all the military forces of the entire country were destroyed before even the tanks saw the light of day.

It really scared the people with lofty ideals around the world.

After all, now that the Red Bear has fallen.

There is no country that is capable of competing with the United States and that can make Americans feel uneasy.

At least there weren't any in 1997.

And so Milo stayed with Monica in Santa Barbara for over a week.

After comforting Monica, who hadn't seen him for a long time and was pregnant, for some time.

He left Santa Barbara on September 20, using the excuse of having business in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles.

Charlize, wearing a purple hollow tight sleeveless dress with her black bra faintly visible inside, combed her short golden hair with her hands, looking out the car window at the night view of Hollywood under the mountain. The lights were flickering, and the lights of thousands of homes in Los Angeles were like the twinkling Milky Way galaxy, which was intoxicating.

At the noisy party, everyone was treating her like a star and the moon. Those who looked at her and wanted to swallow her up were afraid to act because they were worried about the man behind her. They even had to smile and try to please her in front of her.

The qualification to be the leading lady of a new film, the good atmosphere in Hollywood, and the material enjoyment beyond the standard.

Ever since signing the insurance agreement and becoming Milo's contracted lover.

Charlize felt that life was truly wonderful.

The only pity is that she is just this lover.

And it’s not the only one.

The car soon drove into a branch road of the winding mountain road. The big iron gate of the villa slowly opened. After the car stopped, Charlize said thank you to the female bodyguard who opened the door for her, and got out of the car in her seven-quarter high heels.

"Um?"

Looking at the bright lights in the villa, Charlize couldn't help but frown. She was about to ask what was going on, but she immediately thought of something.

An unusual blush appeared on her beautiful face, which was already slightly drunk, and her almond-shaped eyes emitted a light of unexpected surprise. She threw off her high heels without hesitation and ran into the villa barefoot.

Sure enough, as soon as she entered the room, she saw the bastard Milo, wearing only a pair of shorts, standing in front of the living room door, smiling at her, patting his hands in front of him twice, and then opening his arms.

Charlize was overjoyed at the moment. She lifted the hem of her tight lace dress, stepped forward with her long white legs, jumped up quickly, wrapped her arms around Milo's neck, hung on Milo like a koala, and offered her bright red lips.

This time with Monica, she was more than three months pregnant, although she had already passed her stable period.

You can try pregnant woman play.

But no matter what, the baby in her belly was Milo's own child.

As the saying goes, if you stand up and pedal hard on someone else's bike, you won't feel anything. But for his own bike, especially a pregnant one, he really couldn't be ruthless.

The exercises for pregnant women every night are very nerve-wracking.

Too long and too big.

They are all afraid of hurting the child.

After a week, he finally couldn't stand it anymore.

Considering Monica's mood as a pregnant woman, it was not easy to cast the summoning spell.

Only then did he rush to Los Angeles, and began to teach Charlize a lesson without mercy while Charlize frowned and had a confused expression.

The next morning, Charlize, who was aching all over, slowly opened her sleepy eyes and looked at the white gauze curtains fluttering in the wind. The warm sunlight filled the entire bedroom. She frowned slightly in pain, scratched her tangled hair, and cursed softly with tiredness, helplessness and satisfaction, "Just like a bull!"

With an unusual blush on her pretty face, Charlize took a while to adjust herself before she lifted the silk blanket, got down carefully, held the edge of the Simmons mattress and walked to the closet, found a suspender dress, walked into the bathroom, and started to run the water for a bath.

Milo, wearing only a pair of beach shorts, was barefoot and using Bluetooth to hold a conference call with his subordinates while waiting for the coffee in the coffee machine to be brewed.

Bluetooth headsets appeared after the Bluetooth concept was proposed by Ericsson in 1995.

Bluetooth technology was originally developed to replace traditional serial data cables.

In 1997, this technology was named Bluetooth and gradually developed into a short-range wireless connection technology protocol alliance.

After that, any device or company that wants to use Bluetooth technology must pay money to the Bluetooth Alliance.

The money collected by the Bluetooth Alliance each year is deducted from a portion of operating expenses and development costs.

The rest will be divided among the members.

In fact, this is the common practice of most patent pool alliances in the West.

What matters is a technological monopoly, which is equivalent to setting up checkpoints and charging tolls on highways and roads.

So many years later, the sanctioned Chrysanthemum developed a Green Tooth, which was later renamed the Star Flash Alliance, in an attempt to break up the Bluetooth Alliance composed of more than 20 Western companies such as Agere, Ericsson, IBM, etc.

However, in 1997, the Bluetooth Alliance had just been established.

Yahoo, owned by Milo, also has a place in the industry thanks to its position as the Internet overlord.

For example, the pair of in-ear Bluetooth headphones he is wearing now was made by the electronic equipment company that developed the USB-interface USB flash drive under his guidance.

However, it is still a laboratory product, just like when the USB flash drive was first developed two years ago.

The product has not yet been launched on the market, but this big boss has already used it privately.

"Since Yahoo has decided to go public after Christmas, the corresponding pre-IPO activities should be launched immediately, such as IPO roadshows and TV commercials. Didn't you boast that you would break through 100 million daily active users within this year? How can you let all investors around the world know that Yahoo is the industry leader in the Internet industry!"

"Don't worry, boss. We have signed strategic cooperation agreements with Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle and other companies. In the future, we will increase the promotion of Yahoo's website. Our event planning is ready and will be synchronized with Yahoo's listing plan."

"Also, Boss, Microsoft is interested in investing in us and hopes to deepen our partnership. They want to buy 5% of our shares for $5 billion. How should we respond?"

Milo was slightly stunned when he heard the report.

He was just about to take some action against Microsoft for plagiarism.

Support Steve Jobs' Apple, support the development companies of several other operating systems.

But Microsoft gave this response...

I have to say that people with followers are different. William Henry Gates III is indeed a capable person.

Okay, let’s stick to the facts.

Anyway, I already have some Microsoft stock.

If Microsoft can succeed, I will also be a capable person.

After a brief pause, Milo smiled and said:

"A valuation of 100 billion is quite sincere, and it's about time. We can't keep burning our own money. We can negotiate, but I won't give them 5% of the shares. Spread the word that Yahoo will conduct the last round of financing before listing with a valuation of 150 billion US dollars. This time I will take out 15% of the shares as a bargaining chip, and 2% as internal equity incentives of the company!"

"Phew - thank you for your generosity, boss. Thank you. I believe everyone will be delighted by this..."

Milo listened to the flattery with a smile, and happily picked up the coffee pot to fill two white porcelain coffee cups. Then he added milk and sugar cubes and said with a smile: "I said that I have never been a stingy boss. Your efforts and diligence deserve my reward. Yahoo will become even stronger in the future. I hope all of us can witness it become the greatest company in the world together!"

Elon Musk's voice was trembling slightly due to his excitement.

Milo couldn't help but smile. Almost all interested forces and the American people were eyeing Yahoo, the company that was praised by major media outlets.

But since the round of consortium financing last year.

Yahoo has never expressed its intention to raise funds again.

This has actually caused some obstacles to Yahoo's development.

Because the United States has more than just four financial groups: Boston, California, Morgan, and Rockefeller.

The number of vested interests is huge. Don’t Citigroup and Mellon want to come in and get a piece of the pie?

Don't the investment companies owned by congressmen, the Pentagon, and other middle and high-level members of Wall Street think about it?

But with these four financial conglomerates in front of them, they couldn't use many shady tricks.

But that doesn't mean they can't drag down Yahoo.

Everyone was waiting for him to start loosening the financing threshold so as to push Yahoo, the Internet giant, to go public and share the fruits of success together.

Surround three sides and leave one side open, there must be a gap.

Let others share some of the benefits, so that when Yahoo goes public, everyone can work together to push Yahoo's stock price higher.

This brought the Internet boom that the United States spent nearly a decade building to its climax.

And now, there are still three months until the launch.

Now is a good time to conduct the final round of financing.

First, as Yahoo has grown to the point where it is facing the rise of many Internet competitors, it is somewhat unable to grow relying solely on its own ability to generate revenue and the funds raised by several original consortiums.

After all, so many people can see that the Internet is profitable.

Hot money is pouring in like crazy. Although Yahoo has first-mover advantage and technological advantages, it is still no match for the wolves.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Therefore, more money needs to come in and use other people's money to continue to burn this Internet event.

The second is to unite more forces to suppress competitors.

The third point is to retain and attract more talents to work for him. If subordinates are deprived of hope of equity incentive plans for a long time, it will be impossible to retain talents in any industry in the United States.

Of course, this is Yahoo.

He also owns many Internet companies.

Some companies won't start raising funds now.

For example, ITK and eBay.

He won't let go until the valuation rises to a certain level.

After Milo finished his conference call, he walked up to the second floor with two cups of coffee, thinking.

If eBay continues to grow, it will definitely become a money-burning monster.

To be honest, Milo originally took over to make money.

Therefore, eBay is willing to spend money on various promotions. Only by creating a reputation can it better fool investors.

For online shopping companies like eBay, the technical barriers are actually not that high.

The key is still first-mover advantage and customer reputation.

And on eBay, Milo wanted to give it another try.

He wants to turn eBay into a model that combines both online and offline operations.

It’s a bit like JD.com in the future in a parallel universe, or Amazon in the United States, but its offline attributes are stronger.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to doing this.

The advantage is that large offline supermarkets can directly become logistics transit points and regional shipping points for online shopping malls.

At the same time, because of the huge business volume and the fact that large retail companies themselves are major employers.

This will allow eBay to provide a large number of jobs in the future, which in turn will indirectly influence and control the election situation in the region where the company is located.

To put it bluntly, in addition to making money, Milo also wants to gain influence and do vote business.

All of the above are benefits.

Of course there are disadvantages, and there are many of them.

Why didn’t Amazon and JD.com do what Milo thought? The biggest reason is that it is too difficult.

The difficulty of running a large retail enterprise is extremely high.

Milo also wanted to achieve huge scale both online and offline. The management difficulty alone might be higher than many other management difficulties.

Under normal circumstances, a Walmart supermarket has eighty to ninety employees, about twenty part-time employees, about ten department heads, three deputy managers and one general manager.

All these add up to about 100-150 people.

If we add the workload of online websites, based on the work efficiency of Americans, the estimate would be multiplied by 2.5 instead of 2.

It would take about two to three hundred people to staff one store, and the management difficulty and salary pressure would be extremely great.

Of course, if it succeeds, it will be amazing.

Just think of the merger of Amazon and Walmart to see how huge that would be.

This is why Milo wanted to give it a try even though he knew it was extremely difficult.

The worst that can happen is if it fails, we can just split it up and do our own business online and offline.

Thinking this, he had already reached the bedroom door.

Pushing open the bedroom door, Milo saw Charlize, wearing only a black halter dress, sitting in front of the dressing table and doing her makeup.

He couldn't help but smile as he walked over and put the coffee cup on the table. He reached out and gently stroked her shoulders and neck. He looked at her rosy face smiling at him in the mirror and said, "What a beautiful and dazzling South African diamond."

"Thank you!" Charlize accepted Milo's compliment calmly.

She did not stop Milo from using the Lushan Claw that had already been achieved. As Milo's bedmate, she naturally knew the preferences of this bastard Milo.

She had an event in the afternoon and didn't want to really piss off this guy in stud skin and have him continue to torment her without any care.

As Minogue increased her strength, Charlize began to panic.

In order to divert his attention, South African Diamond had to speak up, "Honey, does this mean you can stay in California longer? Or will you stay until the beginning of next year as usual?"

"Maybe not this year." Milo went downstairs to the restaurant with her who had taken good care of herself. "I'm going to Asia in a week."

"Going to Asia? Neon and sticks?" Charlize was curious.

But she knew that Milo seemed to have a lover in Neon.

She was a local and had given birth to a child for him.

"No, I'm not going to Neon this time. Even if I go, I'll probably just pass by."

Milo shook his head. "This trip to Asia is to attend China's national celebration. I went there with my grandfather."

"Oh, oh!" Charlize nodded and walked down the stairs towards the restaurant.

Only then did she notice that Milo had tied her up with an insurance contract.

In addition to being a super-rich man, he is also a true top-notch figure in the United States, a guy whose family has a very loud voice in Washington.

"After my trip to China is over, I will go to Europe. I may stay there for a longer time."

After sitting at the table in the restaurant, Milo smiled and said, "I don't know if I can come back before Halloween, but I will definitely come back to California before Christmas."

Charlize was a little disappointed because Minogue's schedule meant she wouldn't be able to spend much time with him.

But this seems normal.

She thought to herself.

After all, I was just one of his many lovers.

Just a contract lover.

afternoon.

Milo Blackburn was finally found by the media again after disappearing for two days.

He showed up at Paladin Media’s West Coast headquarters.

As a giant media group, Paladin Media divides itself into two parts in its architectural design and sets up two headquarters.

One is in Los Angeles, mainly responsible for business in the western and central United States and Asia.

The East Coast headquarters in New York is responsible for the eastern, southern and part of the northern United States, as well as European business.

The two sides are independent to a certain extent, but at the same time they are subordinate to each other. This can be regarded as a double insurance that Milo designed for himself.

It’s still that building, the small office building directly opposite the Hollywood sign.

Milo sat in his boss chair, drinking coffee and looking at some image files that had just been faxed over.

These are the design renderings of Paladin Media's West Coast headquarters that were finally retained after three rounds of screening.

Because the land in New York is too expensive.

Considering economic efficiency and cost issues, many of Paladin Media's businesses will be placed at the West Coast headquarters.

For example, large indoor studios, props, special effects companies and other departments that require a lot of space are more suitable to be located in California, a large rural area in the United States.

So Milo planned to stay near Los Angeles, a little away from Beverly Hills and Hollywood, but not too far away.

Build a large-scale comprehensive headquarters, not just for administrative offices.

Looking at the four design renderings in his hand, Milo directly took out two of them.

One is the design of green terraces, which is very consistent with the environmental protection concept that is currently popular in Europe and the United States. At the same time, it can be built on a hillside, which helps to reduce construction costs.

The other one is simple and clear. You can tell at a glance that it is an imitation of the Five Star Building in Arlington County, Virginia, southwest of Washington. The designer or design studio must be an oil man or invested by an oil man.

Because the tmd thing on this picture is not the five stars of a five-star building, but a six-pointed star...

"Fuck, the Oilers' influence in the media field is truly omnipresent!"

Looking at these two design renderings, Milo couldn't help but complain inwardly.

He would not choose the hexagram.

Too political.

It’s okay now, but Zion’s mess will drag down Paladin Media in the future.

Not to mention that he has always claimed to be neutral.

But they built a headquarters building with such a graphic.

Who would believe in political neutrality?

Although in terms of functional zoning design, the hexagram shape may be more convenient.

Otherwise there would be no five-star buildings.

If you don’t like the other two, then you can only choose the green terraces.

You can't just cosplay the Pentagon in Hollywood, California, right?

It would be funny if we were hit by an accidental bomb on September 11, 2001.

(End of this chapter)