America's Road to Fame

Chapter 221 Boston Red Sox
Erica came here after Amber left Silicon Valley and returned to Los Angeles.

Erica now has a completely different temperament from when she was a university lecturer. She acts neatly and has the air of a strong woman, which is also normal. In Meta Investment Company, when William Chen is not around, she represents William Chen. Helping him manage the company gradually developed such a temperament.

"I should remind you that when you return to New York, you'd better go to New York University. You haven't shown up until now."

At night, Erica entered William Chen's bedroom and said to him.

"I haven't missed the course. I have been studying the notes and recordings you sent me by email."

William Chen walked up to Erica while talking, and smelled the faint fragrance of shower gel on her body. Seeing her delicate skin, it should be not long after taking a shower, so he deliberately leaned over to smell it, and he smiled and said :

"However, there are some knowledge that I still need Teacher Erica to explain to me personally, and some of them are not very proficient."

Erica raised her eyebrows, but boldly put her hand on William Chen's chin, stroked his slightly prickly beard, and said coldly:

"I'll check it out. If your knowledge is not good, you will be punished, student William."

……

The next day, William Chen took Erica to various companies of Meta Technology, and gave her a brief introduction. The next thing here will be temporarily carried out by her.

For example, the liaison and coordination of the subsidiaries, such as the arrangement for each company to move into the office building temporarily named Meta Technology Building, and the confirmation of the land with the local government of Silicon Valley, and finding a design company to invite bids for the overall design of the Meta Technology Park , and start building.

There are still a lot of things to do, but now Meta Technology has a general structure, and Erica will need to continue to recruit personnel in the future.

William Chen returned to New York after arranging these matters, and the Salzberg family responded to the acquisition of The New York Times.

Before the subprime mortgage crisis, the mergers and acquisitions of the newspaper groups were very fierce. At that time, the acquisition of newspapers was often higher than the original value, and the acquisition was made at a premium, and the premium was often more than doubled.

Most of these acquisitions are carried out through leveraged financing. For example, the bankrupt Tribune Group, whose former boss, the real estate tycoon Zell, once ambitiously entered the news industry, sold his entire set of real estate assets for 390 billion It was sold to the Blackstone Group at the price of US dollars, and then acquired the Tribune Newspaper Group, and acquired it at a huge premium, becoming the top three newspaper groups in the United States.

However, with the impact of the Internet and the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis, the Tribune Group finally ended up in bankruptcy.

The same is true for the New York Times. It once spent $11 billion to acquire the "Boston Globe", but in the end it only bought $7000 million. There are many similar acquisitions, which is why the overall newspaper industry is depressed. hidden dangers.

Now William Chen has expressed his intention to acquire the New York Times Group at a high premium of US$25 billion. To be honest, if it was three or four years ago, the Salzberg family might have scoffed at this offer, but at the moment, the "New York Times" When the market value of The New York Times dropped below 15 billion U.S. dollars immediately, and when it was in debt of 10 billion U.S. dollars, they couldn't help but be tempted.

After all, not only the New York Times Group, but other industries of their family are also greatly affected. According to the news from Goldman Sachs, the Salzberg family not only involves investment in real estate and subprime mortgage bonds, but most importantly What's more, at the beginning of this year, Madoff's Ponzi scheme exploded due to the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis, and many customers suffered losses and then cashed out their fund shares on a large scale. The assets involved in the world amounted to more than 700 billion U.S. dollars, among which the Salzberg family was one of the victims of this scam, and they are said to have lost at least $5 million, which at this point makes matters worse.

In 1989, Madoff's securities investment company controlled more than 5% of the trading volume of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1991, Madoff became the chairman of the Nasdaq board of directors.Under his leadership, Nasdaq has become a stock exchange capable of rivaling the New York Stock Exchange, making great contributions to the future listing of companies such as Apple, Cisco, and Google on Nasdaq.

Therefore, Madoff has strong contacts in the securities and financial industry in the United States, and it is precisely because of this that his so-called stable and high-yielding fund can deceive so many people.What is the most exaggerated?All his funds have thresholds. If your status is not up to the standard, you will not be able to see him even if you want to invest.

You even need to have a special club. Only if you have the qualifications to join this club, does it mean that you have a certain status and influence, and you are worthy of being cheated by him.

Countless people, in order to obtain the qualifications to be deceived by him, tried every possible means.Even when you tell your friends, being able to be cheated by Madoff is something worth showing off. In your circle, you may get envious eyes from others.

Therefore, as soon as Madoff's scam exploded, many people across the United States suffered heavy losses, and most of these people had certain identities and status.

It is said that the biggest losses among them are several investment funds and local tyrants in the rich countries in the Middle East. Their combined losses are conservatively estimated to exceed 300 billion US dollars.

The most amazing thing is that although Madoff's son participated in fund management, he managed to get away with it. Only Madoff himself was sentenced.It’s not difficult to understand the tricks. Those fund investors with the most energy have already got back their shares and even made profits before the explosion, so they will naturally save Madoff’s family after he takes the blame. .

How to say the line in "Let the Bullets Fly", "The money of the gentry will be returned in full, and the money of the common people will be divided."

Therefore, the ultimate loss in this kind of thing is just those ordinary rich people and the local tyrants in the Middle East who have been taken advantage of...

The Salzberg family has also become one of the unlucky losers, which also made their life under the economic crisis even more difficult.

According to Nielsen, the Salzberg family's request has two points. One is to increase the purchase price to at least US$30 billion; the second is that they will retain 17% of the Boston Red Sox held by the New York Times Group. team shares.

"Boston Red Sox? Worth it?"

William Chen knew that the Boston Red Sox were a long-standing baseball team that belonged to the Major League Baseball (MLB). Although the abbreviation was a bit of a curse, this league was second only to the American Football League (NFL).

Although in the eyes of the Chinese people, the most famous sports event in the United States is the NBA, but in fact, in the United States, the four major leagues - the American Football League (NFL), the American Major League Baseball (MLB), the American Men's Among the Basketball Professional League (NBA) and the American Ice Hockey League (NHL), the NBA can only rank third in terms of commercial value and popularity.

"The Boston Red Sox are considered a traditional strong team in the MLB Eastern Division, and they have performed well in recent years. From 2003 to now, they have won two league championships."

Chen William's soul comes from China, so for football, the NBA is okay, I watch it occasionally, and I prefer football, but the United States is a football desert, and the favorite sports of the people here are rugby, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. Therefore, there is not much concern for these projects at ordinary times.

Through Nelson's introduction, Chen William knew that in 2002, the New England Sports Investment Company led by John Henry acquired the Boston Red Sox, in which the "New York Times" Group participated, and held it at a price of 7500 million US dollars. About 17% of the company's shares have been up to now, because the baseball team has performed very well in recent years, so the current value of this part of the shares is around 2 million US dollars.

"Baseball has a good influence in China, so why don't we buy the Boston Red Sox directly through these shares. Wouldn't this be more conducive to the popularity of our media group?"

"Uh, if it's someone else, it's okay to do this, but you, the boss, can still hold some shares of this baseball team, but it's better not to become its boss."

"?"

Seeing the doubts on Chen William's face, Nelson knew that his boss really didn't know much about MLB. He said:

"There is only one reason, that is, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees are sworn enemies. If you become the owner of the Boston Red Sox, then in the eyes of almost all New Yorkers, you may become persona non grata."

(End of this chapter)