"Have you heard the latest rumors?" Hardy asked with a smile as he asked John Stone to sit down.

"I heard that. I have been waiting for the shareholders to convene a shareholders' meeting, but no one has contacted me from beginning to end. I originally wanted to contact the shareholders in the next two days and take the initiative to convene a shareholders' meeting, but I didn't expect you to contact me today." President John said.

Hardy smiled and said, "Actually, you don't have to contact them. Many shareholders have already signed sales agreements with Bank of America. They are no longer shareholders. Now I own 46% of Wells Fargo shares and am already the largest shareholder."

John looked at Hardy in surprise.

Although he had guessed it, he didn't expect Hardy to acquire so many shares so quickly.

"Then I should call you boss. I don't know why you called me here today, or whether you are going to fire me." John said.

Hardy smiled and shook his head. "I won't fire you. We have always had a good relationship before, right? Your philosophy of 'providing the best service to customers' is in line with my idea. John, I came to you today just to talk about your business."

"John, I hope you will stay as CEO and make Wells Fargo the best bank in the United States. What is your current annual salary?"

"$26,000."

"I'll increase your salary to $30,000 and increase it by 5% every year. In addition, you can get a commission of 0.05% of the bank's profit," said Hardy.

John's heart trembled slightly.

No one is not tempted by money. He works to make money. His salary has increased a lot now, and it will increase every year. Especially the commission, which makes John very tempted. If he can make the bank's profit reach 100 million, he will get a commission of 50,000 US dollars, which is higher than the annual salary. This goal is actually not difficult to achieve.

After Wells Fargo is acquired by the Hardy Group, it will definitely become the core bank of the Hardy Group. All accounts will go through this bank. He knows the Hardy Group's ability to make money better than anyone else.

In the past, Wells Fargo could only work hard in silence, but now that it has a backer, I believe it will enter a period of rapid development.

"What do you want me to do, Mr. Hardy?" John asked.

"It's simple. Before I complete the acquisition, I need to stabilize the internal structure of the bank. What I want to take over is a complete and healthy bank," said Hardy.

John nodded and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Hardy, I can do this."

......

The acquisition of Wells Fargo was not as intense as Hardy had imagined. It has to be said that the consortium is very powerful. A single company, or even a bank with hundreds of millions of assets, would be powerless against a consortium.

You can be stubborn.

But the result is a shrinkage of assets, and even the inability to continue business in the future.

Even the founding Fargo family chose to sell their shares, not to mention other small shareholders. It took Bank of America a month to complete the acquisition of shares held by shareholders.

A few days later,

The market released a piece of blockbuster news.

Wells Fargo is preparing to delist.

Stocks are often delisted due to reasons such as too low par value, insufficient share capital, insufficient number of shareholders, too low stock price, fraud, etc. This time, Wells Fargo Bank took the initiative to apply for delisting, and will settle at that day's stock price and return all shareholders' funds. From now on, Wells Fargo Bank will no longer be a listed company.

Why did Hardy take the initiative to delist Wells Fargo?

The reason is simple. He directly obtained the circulating shares and controlled 100% of Wells Fargo's equity. The purpose of going public is to raise money. Hardy thinks that he can use other companies to raise money without using banks.

At least not for now.

There are other advantages to delisting. After delisting, there is no need to publish financial statements, which makes it easier to do things secretly in the future.

Another half month.

Christmas is coming soon, and news came out again that Bank of America officially handed over the entire Wells Fargo Bank to ABC TV owner Jon Hardy. From then on, Wells Fargo Bank became Jon Hardy's personal property.

However, Hardy also took out a loan of 160 million from Bank of America for this purpose.

This loan was borrowed by Hardy from Bank of America in his personal name, so Wells Fargo is now Hardy's purely personal asset company and has nothing to do with his other businesses and companies.

......

Wells Fargo Bank Headquarters Building in San Francisco.

Hardy took Andy to meet with a group of Wells Fargo executives, and John Stone introduced Hardy to the vice president and heads of various departments.

General banking department, investment management department, capital management department, human resources department, corporate legal department, corporate affairs department... and so on.

There are also branch presidents.

Hardy made a brief speech, telling the management that there would be no personnel changes, and asked everyone to continue working with peace of mind, saying that they were very satisfied with their previous work.

However, they were also told that Hardy Company would form a group and Wells Fargo would become the financial core of the Hardy Group in the future, with all funds and investments coming from Wells Fargo.

Now that we have a bank, the capital flow of the Hardy Group will be smoother in the future.

Wells Fargo is a full-service bank, including community banking, professional financial services, investments, insurance, various loan businesses, etc.

Hardy felt that their previous development was too conservative. After all, it was a bank with decades of history, but it was still a small regional bank in California and had not expanded beyond the market.

But there is also an advantage, which is that the inner strength training is very solid.

"Wells Fargo will enter the fast lane of development in the future. I hope that within three years, there will be at least one Wells Fargo branch in every city in the United States. We must also be prepared to expand overseas business and conduct mergers and acquisitions in order to develop rapidly."

"Customers are resources. We need to find ways to increase the number of customers. For example, we can contact water, electricity and gas companies and have banks collect the water, electricity and gas bills on our behalf."

"The Hardy Hotel's investment agency business has deposited more than 50 million in Wells Fargo Bank, involving 200,000 to 300,000 customers. When Hardy Group opens two more casinos in the future, it will open more investment agencies, and the number of customers will increase exponentially."

Hardy has made up his mind. Once every city has a Wells Fargo branch and casinos are built, he will expand the televised lottery business. Previously, the lottery was held every two hours, but in the future there will be three casinos, with staggered times, every half an hour, using different lottery modes. There are so many lottery playing methods in the future, and they can all be used.

Many people need to make special arrangements to gamble in Las Vegas, but this is not necessary for televised lottery draws; one can participate by just lying down and making a phone call. This is completely customer-friendly.

Hardy's is the only one in the United States to run a televised lottery draw. More and more people will surely join in the fun, bringing in countless dollars for the casino.

......

There is a grand cocktail party at the Janini Manor tonight, which is specially held for Hardy.

Everyone who joins the California Foundation will be welcomed in this way, and all the heads of member companies will come to participate, meet the new members, and build relationships so that they can work together to make money in the future.

Hardy took Andy and John to the cocktail party.

There were only men at the party. When Hardy walked into the hall, there were already more than 40 people standing in the hall, all dressed in suits. Giannini saw Hardy coming in, walked up to Hardy, held one of his hands and raised it, and passionately introduced him loudly:

"Everyone, this is our new member, Mr. Jon Hardy of the Hardy Group. I think everyone has heard of HD Security, ABC TV, and Hardy Hotel. These are all Hardy's industries."

"I'm sure a lot of people here have read Playboy magazine, which is also a Hardy business."

The men had smiles on their faces, a smile that everyone understands.

"From today on, Jon Hardy will become our partner. We have gained a powerful partner. Let's applaud and welcome Hardy to join us!"

Wow wow wow,

Wuuuuuuuu~~!

A group of men applauded enthusiastically, welcoming Hardy to join.

From this moment on,

Hardy officially joins the California Corporation.

Become part of the capital conglomerate.

Then, Giannini personally took Hardy and introduced him to the people here one by one, including the owner of Security Pacific, the owner of Case Group, the owner of Kroc Agricultural Group, the owner of Prudential Real Estate Development, the owner of California Life Insurance Company, the owner of Lockheed Corporation...

It took a full half hour to complete the introduction. Everyone greeted Hardy, shook hands with him, and welcomed him to join. There were dozens of people in total. If Hardy did not have a good memory, it would be impossible for him to remember so many people at once.

Finally, Hardy also introduced Andy and John to everyone. One is the president of Hardy Group and the other is the president of Wells Fargo Bank. They will be Hardy's right-hand men in the future.

The long banquet table resembled a dining scene in an ancient European court, and all those who could sit at the table were so-called big capitalists. Those with assets of less than tens of millions were not qualified to sit here.

There were no women, no music, and no dancing at this party. Everyone only talked about one topic, which was business and making money.

After lunch, we entered the free communication time. Someone came over to greet Hardy. It was the owner of Meitong Real Estate Company.

"Mr. Hardy."

"Hello Mr. Stone."

William Stone smiled and said, "Mr. Hardy, I heard from Chairman Giannini that you are planning to build two more casinos, each of which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. This is really a big deal. We at MTCC are a professional construction and real estate development company that has developed many large projects. We hope to cooperate with you."

With an investment of 200 million, if PR Newswire can get even one of these two projects, it will make a fortune.

Hardy naturally knew the name of Midland Properties, which was the largest real estate development company in California and also the largest construction company.

"Of course I am willing to cooperate with PRIME. I am looking for someone to do the planning for the two casinos. I have also contacted other construction companies. I welcome PRIME to join. If the conditions are the same, I will give priority to PRIME," said Hardy.

William Stone immediately smiled happily, "Then I want to thank Mr. Hardy. I will have my men contact your company later."

As he said this, he raised his glass and toasted Hardy.

After the boss of Meitong left, another middle-aged man came over and said, "Hello, Mr. Hardy. I am Walter Mack, Chairman and President of PepsiCo. I heard that you got the PepsiCo shares from Bank of America?"

"Yes, I am optimistic about the future of PepsiCo, so I bought their shares," said Hardy.

Walter Mack was a little puzzled. Do you think Pepsi will win? Now most people are more optimistic about Coca-Cola. Pepsi has been squeezed to only 5% of the market share, and it is all in the low-end market. Many people say that the final fate of Pepsi is either to be acquired by Coca-Cola or to be eliminated by Coca-Cola.

In fact, in history, Pepsi-Cola has asked Coca-Cola to acquire it three times, but Coca-Cola did not agree because they felt that the taste of Pepsi-Cola was similar to their own and there was no need to acquire it because Pepsi-Cola would eventually die out.

In the end, Coca-Cola misjudged Pepsi, which became stronger and stronger and eventually surpassed it.

"Can I ask why you're bullish on Pepsi?" Weiner asked.

"I have some ideas about the development of Pepsi-Cola. It may take some time to express them clearly. Why don't we make another appointment to discuss them in detail?" Hardy said.

"Okay." Weiner replied happily.

He knew that Mr. Hardy was a business genius, and many of his ideas are still talked about today, such as television shopping, which opened the history of telephone shopping and attracted countless women to stay in front of the TV every afternoon.

For example, the casino lottery and the betting agency company are simply a wonderful idea. The United States now prohibits lottery business, but in Las Vegas, gambling is legal. Hardy used the model of legal casino + live TV + betting agency company to perfectly avoid the ban on lottery.

Moreover, given Hadi's current status as the owner of the Hadi Group and Wells Fargo Bank, with assets of hundreds of millions, he is already several levels higher than him. Of course he would be willing to talk to him in detail.

Hardy also took the initiative to chat with other people. He never had social phobia and was never afraid to communicate with others. It didn't take long for him to become friends with many people.

He saw David Mercy, the boss of Mercy Pharmaceuticals, in the crowd and suddenly remembered something. Victor had arrived in Hong Kong a month ago, and started working after settling down. He rented a building in Central and put up a sign for the auction company.

Victor was a shrewd man. He knew that this trip to Hong Kong was his opportunity. He looked around and observed the situation here. He knew that the Chinese civil war was very fierce and many people fled to Hong Kong, causing a large influx of population.

The boss said that the land would appreciate in value, and he now firmly believed it. He admired the boss even more in his heart, as he was able to guess this from miles away.

He also learned a lot of other things and sent telegrams to the headquarters every week to report what he had discovered. Victor's telegrams would always be delivered to Hardy. One of the telegrams said that he found that the price of penicillin in Hong Kong Island was extremely high, and some people even paid US$30 for a bottle of penicillin.

You have to know that at that time, the US dollar and gold were pegged, 30 US dollars were equivalent to 24 grams of gold, so there was a saying that a small yellow croaker could be exchanged for a bottle of penicillin.

If we could get a batch of penicillin over there, we would definitely make a lot of money. As for why others didn't sell it to Hong Kong, the reason is very simple: there was an information gap. The information at that time was far less developed than in later generations, and few people in the United States paid attention to news from the East.

Even if a few people know about it, they will keep it secret because if everyone knows about it, they will not be able to continue to earn high prices.

Mercy Pharmaceuticals was one of the several pharmaceutical companies designated by the U.S. government to produce penicillin during World War II, including Pfizer. Hardy saw that Mercy's boss remembered this matter and thought that he might be able to buy a batch of penicillin from him.

There is no patent for penicillin. If we build a penicillin production line and a factory directly in Hong Kong, this business can be done for decades and can save many people.

"Hello, Mr. David Mercy." Hardy raised his glass and walked over with a smile.

"Hello Mr. Hardy, I just wanted to come over to chat with you, but unfortunately there are too many people around you. When do you think it would be a good time for us to talk about the MGM Casino?" Mercy said.

This guy is also one of the investors in the new casino, and there are definitely many problems with the purchase of penicillin.