America's Road to Wealth

Chapter 280 Angels' Paradise Island

Time waits for no one.

The 2001 calendar was quickly flipped to the seventh month.

The sunshine in New York in July is in a sense the most beautiful time of the year.

On the first Tuesday in July.

The New York Post, owned by News Corporation, published a story about Abel Smith.

The headline of the news was "America's No. [-] Real Estate Buyer."

In this news, the "New York Post" reported on Abel's purchase of real estate and land across the United States.

According to reports, Abel bought a third of the 300 Malibu mansions in one sweep.

Of course, this does not mean that there are only these three hundred houses in Malibu.

Malibu Beach has a large area. If you count the urban area, there are at least tens of thousands of houses worth millions.

This is a deliberate rhetorical device of the New York Post.

It's just that Abel just bought one hundred sets, and they only used the quantifier three hundred sets.

If Abe had bought 50 sets, it is estimated that the New York Post would have used 150 sets.

This is the reporting style of the "New York Post", which likes to use a variety of words that are not surprising and endless, which greatly stimulates readers' reading pleasure.

The report also claimed that Abe not only quietly bought 100 million-dollar mansions.

Twelve of them are located in Paradise Bay, known as "Billionaire's Beach", with a total value of 12 million US dollars.

The reason why it is surprising is that these 12 mansions are located next to each other on a beach.

In other words, he not only bought a mansion, but also an entire beach.

Let half of the entire Malibu Paradise Bay become his private beach.

In the words of one Malibu real estate manager in the report, “There are only so many front row seats. If you take the best quality property in the best location, it’s inherently a good investment. The opportunity that Bo Smith saw. Does anyone not believe in the investment vision of Financial Moses? So rich people in the United States, take out your credit cards and checks, Malibu Beach is the next Beverly Hills.”

This does not include Abel's shopping in major cities in the United States, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Miami and other cities.

A frenzied sweep as if the dollars in his hands were waste paper.

In addition, he also invested heavily in office buildings, buying the Woolworth Building in New York and a fifty-story building in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

This is not counting the Smith Building currently in use by Smith Capital.

In addition to these, the "New York Post" also claimed that Abel was frantically buying downtown commercial real estate in major cities across the United States.

The "New York Post" didn't know that this was Abel preparing for the future Pacific Mall.

The newspaper claims that Abel is a sole proprietorship of "New Start Real Estate Company".

In just half a year, Abel has already become one of the top ten real estate companies in the United States under the large investment of Abel regardless of the cost.

In terms of the value of pure real estate, New Start Real Estate is more likely to rank among the top three in the US real estate industry.

At the end of the article, a reporter from the New York Post claimed that Abe Smith was definitely "the most avid luxury home buyer in America."

This report increased the sales of the "New York Post" by more than ten percentage points that day.

Fortunately, Americans have seen too much of this kind of news.

Similar news has appeared countless times after the new lamp beads of Abel Smith's lighthouse appeared.

This kind of news is actually the same as the news about Abel's acquisition of well-known companies such as MGM and DreamWorks.

It is to be shocked by the wealth of Abel Smith, and then what to do or what to do.

Outside of these shocking fortune news.

There are two other kinds of news that often appear on Abe Smith.

One is scarlet news.

That is, Abel Smith was rumored to be having an affair with so-and-so again, and was photographed.

And these photos seem to be intimate and ambiguous, but there is no actual intimate photo.

There are no photos of kissing, at most they are hugging together.

In fact, these photos have already been reviewed.

After the paparazzi storm earlier this year.

The only ones who were able to take intimate photos of Abel and women again were the privileged reporters with his permission.

The photos taken by these reporters have to be reviewed by Abel's team.

Of course, the content of the reviewed photos can be seen by ordinary Americans.

This kind of content, in addition to allowing Americans to talk about Abel Smith's romance and love affairs.

It doesn't do any harm to Abel's personality.

In addition to scarlet news and wealth news.

There was another kind of news that appeared on Abel.

After seeing the news in this regard, ordinary Americans.

It will make them immune to the first two kinds of news that happened to Abel.

Let them read the Scarlet News and Fortune News.

But the reason why he has always been able to maintain a very good popularity and sense of light for Abel Smith.

A third type of news related to Abel Smith
It's news related to his charity.

Almost every week or half a month, you can see reports on the news.

Report what charitable foundation Abel has donated and how much money he has donated.

Or report how much tax Abe Smith paid to the IRS this month.

Or Abel Smith, which American region government, school, or related administrative department should he ask?

Or simply the people in a certain area donated some buildings or facilities.

Almost every week.

This kind of behavior that has never appeared in the European and American world, is more like Brother Su than Brother Su.

It has already made ordinary Americans a little numb.

This kind of news occasionally appears several times, and ordinary people see it and think it may be true.

It has appeared many times, and ordinary people will become suspicious and suspect that it is fake.

It has appeared countless times, and no one has ever come out to crack down on fakes. , no one came out and said it was fake.

Then everyone will guess that this should be true.

There is an enormous amount of such press support.

The scarlet news and wealth news that appeared on Abel were not so glaring.

At the same time, from time to time, many beneficiaries who have benefited from Abel's favor stand up to speak in person, and are even interviewed on TV.

These are often reported.

Let Americans know that these are true, at least most of them are true.

Such a combination of punches down.

The average American would think so.The more super rich people like Abel in the United States, the better.

So this New York Post story, like any other news about Abel's fortune.

Many Americans like to watch it, but after watching it, it will not arouse the hatred or other bad emotions of ordinary people like other news about rich people showing off their wealth.

This is the benefit of human design brought about by the charity invested with real money.

Of course, the public opinion support and promotion of the new lamp beads by the relevant departments also contributed a lot.

Especially the one who lives in the white house is the uncle of little Laura.

The promotion and momentum in this area is simply sparing no effort.

I don't know how many times stronger than Buffett before.

This is probably the American version of "there are people in the DPRK who are easy to handle".

Soon the first Saturday in July came.

Inside Merrill Lynch headquarters.

David Komanski has bad news.

That is Smith Capital's $500 billion private placement subscription, which is officially full!

500 billion funds have been remitted to the account designated by Smith Capital.

The subscription contract has been formally signed.

Smith Capital has also announced to the public at the same time.

The private placement was a perfect success.

It took a total of seven days to recruit 125 investors.On average, each investor contributes US$[-] million.

The total subscription intention, the subscription amount of the signed subscription letter of intent, even exceeded 1000 billion US dollars.

"How is this going?"

In the office, David Komansky confronted Charlie Schaff with a dark face.

"What about our $15 billion quota?" David Komansky shouted loudly.

Charlie Schaff felt a little aggrieved, he said tactfully:
"Sir, it's obvious that someone got there first. Someone signed a contract with Smith Capital in advance and established the contractual relationship in advance."

Of course David Komansky knew this.

It's just that he didn't expect Smith Capital to raise funds so fast this time.

Come to Merrill Lynch who wants to wait and see.Before he could react, all the shares had been taken away.

Charlie Schaff actually wanted to say that as early as five days ago, he had reminded Mr. CEO many times.

It was David Komansky who kept saying take it easy, watch it again.

Observing and observing, the share that originally belonged to Merrill Lynch was observed and disappeared.

Investors of private equity funds have signed a letter of intent for subscription, and before signing a formal contract, they can go back on their word.

When you go back on your word, you can at most compensate the fine specified in the letter of intent.

Generally not a lot, depending on the amount of funds, it is generally about 0.1% of the subscription amount.

Well now, Merrill Lynch does not need to pay the 0.1%.

But it has missed the seventh private placement of Smith Capital.

David Komansky forced himself to calm down.

He asked Charlie Schaff, "Can you identify a specific investor?"

"Of course." Charlie Schaff said, "Smith Capital has a public list. Among the 125 funders, except 35 are institutional users. The rest are all individual funds."

In other words, except for the successful subscription of 35 Wall Street financial companies.

The rest are purchased by companies outside the industry, or by wealthy individuals.

"90 subscribers? With such a large amount of funds, one person must be at least [-] million US dollars?"

Charlie Shaf shook his head: "That's unknown."

David Komansky could only sigh, "Let's stop this matter. I will explain to the board of directors."

Charlie Shaf also sighed, wondering if he would be used as a scapegoat this time.

In fact, not only Merrill Lynch failed to subscribe because of cautious "observation".

There are many institutions on Wall Street, which are actually the same as Merrill Lynch.

These Wall Street giants did not expect so many rich people to recognize Smith Capital.

In other words, he recognized Abel Smith's investment ability and dared to invest so much money in him.

This time, many institutions on Wall Street who failed to subscribe successfully have already made a mistake.

But because of this incident, Wall Street realized another thing.

That is the name of Abel Smith, which has been recognized by a large number of wealthy Americans outside of Wall Street!

With this level of recognition, Smith Capital's private placement in the future will also go smoothly this time.

Many institutions that could not grab a share this time are already gearing up.

As long as the seventh private placement of Smith Capital can also make a lot of profits.

Then the next private placement of Smith Capital will grab a share no matter what.

Time moves on.

Mid-July, exactly July 7th.

This day is the shareholders meeting of News Corporation of America.

The headquarters of News Corporation is actually in Adelaide, Australia.

Haven't quite moved to America, which is where Rupert Murdoch made his fortune.

But News Corporation's operating center is no longer Australia, but the United States.

Even the Murdoch family is stationed in the United States all year round.

News Corporation's shareholders' meeting this year will naturally not let the distinguished shareholders go to Adelaide.

The shareholder meeting, Rupert Murdoch announced that it will be held in New York.

The venue is at the headquarters of Fox Television, a subsidiary of News Corporation.

is a skyscraper in lower Manhattan in which News Corporation occupies five floors.

Abel originally owned 5% of News Corp.

2% is obtained from the desert stock god, and 3% is obtained from Wall Street.

Later, in order to acquire Pixar Animation, he traded 3% of it to Jobs.

He himself now has only 2% of News Corp shares left.

However, 2% of the shares are enough for him to attend today's shareholders meeting.

That is, if you want to mix a directorship, this share may not be enough.

At least about 5%.

Of course, with his fame and status, if he insists, News Corp will most likely give it to him.

For this News Corporation shareholders meeting.

Originally, Abel didn't want to go, so what can he do with 2% of the shares?
Can't do anything except compare the value.

It was only later that he saw a piece of news on TV.

The beautiful scenery in the news made his heart move immediately.

In terms of time, it happened to coincide with this shareholder meeting.

He came here himself.

At the entrance of the building where the News Corporation is located, Abel met an acquaintance at the door.

It is this acquaintance, and he is not very easy to deal with.

It's Jobs.

It is normal for Jobs to appear here. All the shares in his hands were bought from Abel.

3% of the shares, plus Jobs' fame.

Enough for him to get a board seat at News Corp.

"Hey, Steven." Although he was not happy with this barbarian, the other party was very straightforward in the Pixar deal after all.

Abel still waved at him: "I didn't lie to you, did I? News Corp's stock is more valuable than MGM!"

When Abel was doing the deal with Jobs, Jobs initially wanted a stake in MGM.

Abel refused, or the asking price was too high.

Jobs was upset, and Abel threw back the News Corporation stock.

At that time, News Corp.'s market capitalization was around $450 billion.

In the past few months, it has now risen to a market value of about 500 billion US dollars.

Jobs, who got a 3% stake in News Corp., from this point of view, undoubtedly made a profit.

It may be for this reason that Jobs actually smiled at Abel today, and walked over to News Corp. with Abel.

"Steven, do you want to be a director of News Corporation? If you want to, I will definitely vote for you later." Abel smiled and said to Gang Jing.

Unexpectedly, Jobs nodded, "Are you sure? If you are really willing to help me, then I will be very grateful to you."

"Do you really want to be a director of News Corporation?" Abel was curious.

He was just talking casually.

In Abel's impression, shouldn't Jobs put all his energy into saving Apple during this period?

"No mistake. I mean it." Jobs said:
"I am different from you. You are the boss of the media group. If I can become the director of News Corporation, it will help Apple to some extent."

When he said this, Abel felt that there was some truth to it.

Apple is miserable right now, but a new product is coming soon.

It seems to be the iPod that made Apple turn around successfully.

At this time, if you can get the help of the media group, let the iPod get a certain amount of media resources.

It must have a good promotion effect on the launch of new products.

Becoming a director of News Corporation at this time has a certain possibility of obtaining these resources.

Even if it costs money, as one of the major shareholders, it will cost a little less than outsiders.

After that negotiation with Jobs.

In fact, it has begun to gradually absorb Apple's stock, that is, Abel, who has made little movement.

He simply decided to help Jobs.

"Let's put it this way. You owe me a favor. I'll support you as one of the new board members later." Abel patted Jobs on the shoulder and said.

The latter nodded directly.

At the ensuing shareholder meeting, Abe said little, but his presence was conspicuous.

As Jobs said, Abel was the chairman of Smith Media.

There is no doubt that Smith Media has become one of News Corporation's biggest competitors.

The chairman of today's biggest competitor sits at News Corp's shareholder meeting
It's not appropriate to say anything.

But everyone has no way to expel him, his identity and wealth are here.

And Abel has been very quiet, very gentle.

During the entire shareholder meeting, they just supported Jobs as the new director.

At other times, Abel can be said to be harmless throughout.

But even so, Rupert Murdoch, who owns 30% of News Corporation's shares, can't stand him a bit.

Because of Abel's existence, the shareholder meeting just now did not dare to involve any secrets inside News Corporation.

This also made this shareholder meeting end very quickly.

Except for electing new board members, basically nothing can be done.

After it was over, Rupert Murdoch approached Abel.

This is exactly what Abel wanted.

Abel came here this time because he wanted to find Murdoch.

In Rupert Murdoch's private office, the Aussie received Abel with the utmost sincerity and courtesy.

"Mr. Smith, with all due respect. With Smith Media already established. You are no longer fit to be a shareholder of News Corporation."

When there were only two people left and some entourages, Rupert Murdoch was not too tactful, and the Aussie directly raised his point.

"Ah, what a coincidence." Abel's response was like this, "I think so too."

Rupert Murdoch was startled, the Aussie didn't expect Abel to be so talkative.

"Rupert." Abel cut to the chase and called Murdoch by name directly, "How about letting you take over the shares of News Corporation I own?"

2%, $10 billion.

Rupert Murdoch was thinking quickly, wondering if he should take the stake.

"But there is a premise." Abel continued to smile and said, "I want to use these shares to exchange something with you."

When Abel said this, Rupert Murdoch was relieved.

If Abel didn't mention any conditions and chose to sell the shares directly.

Murdoch might be a bit more paranoid.

Now that conditions are attached, Murdoch feels that the credibility will be much higher.

"What conditions?" Rupert Murdoch asked calmly.

"Lanai, Hawaii."

Abel said directly: "Sell it to me. According to the current market price. The excess stock will be exchanged for cash and given to me. Well, other stocks of equivalent value are also fine, but they must be approved by me."

"You want Lanai Island?" Murdoch asked, "Apart from pineapples, there are only seabirds on that island. Are you sure? It's not cheap."

"I'm sure." Abel smiled and said, "Even I came here today because of this island. Because I want to find a good place for vacation for the models in my modeling agency!"

Lanai, Hawaii.

It is the new back garden prepared by Abel for his Elizabeth angels, a paradise island exclusively for him and them!

(End of this chapter)