Chapter 1374

When the whole world was attracted by the night's rampant terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the meeting room of Starbucks headquarters in Seattle, after a discussion and quarrel, fell into silence.

The timing chosen by Andy Smith really makes it hard for Starbucks to fight back. The board members and Du directors of the three committees have focused on Howard Schultz, the Starbucks spiritual figure who came back to power this year, the face of jobs.

His series of reform measures really reduced Starbucks' losses, reduced the impact of the financial storm, and made Starbucks regain its brand value.

At the same time, large-scale store closures and layoffs also made investors lose confidence in Starbucks, resulting in the current price of the stock price, giving Andy Smith the opportunity to buy Starbucks in an all-round way.

"Maybe we can turn that 1.2 billion convertible bond into common stock..."

Finally someone broke the silence, and Michael Casey, the chief financial officer, sighed in his heart and said a wrong way.

"That's self defeating. Let's not say whether this common stock will affect Andy Smith's acquisition plan. The key is that it will completely lose the trust of investors.

In the financial storm, do you want to turn Starbucks' stock price into junk stock? Don't forget, it will not only dilute the shares of the other party, but also our own. I disagree! "

"I don't agree. Andy Smith has tens of billions of cash in his hand. Since he decided to buy Starbucks and absorbed so many shares, he has definitely started layout for a long time. He has definitely worked out various plans to deal with our counterattack.

Let's be frank. We have lost the initiative and can't prevent the other party from entering the board of directors of Starbucks at all. Now the other party's people haven't appeared, which only shows that the other party's ambition and appetite are too big to fully control Starbucks

When he spoke, he looked intensely at Howard Schulz, who had been frowning all the time, and several senior executives, but his heart was full of sneers.

The three committees and Du standing directors are optimistic and welcome to Andy Smith's accession from the heart, because no one will threaten their position, only the executives who have long controlled the company will reject and worry.

Howard Schultz looked around the faces of the people in the conference room, and his heart was full of gloom, because the decentralized and even shares he formulated can prevent the major shareholders from interfering in the company's operation in ordinary times, so that the management can better control the company.

But there are also disadvantages. Just like in the face of the rich Andy Smith, they can't take extra shares to introduce the white knight to stop Andy, the barbarian.

The only active way to fight back is poison pill, but in the face of directors who refuse assets and cause huge losses, the possibility of implementing poison pill has not existed from the beginning.

Howard Schultz even thought of the directors in the room who were eager to join Andy Smith, a super rich man, so that Starbucks' stock price rebounded against the trend and their asset value soared.

"I need to speak with Andy Smith personally, and I believe he will recognize our corporate culture and behavior. After all, this is the foundation of Starbucks. As long as Starbucks is not shaken at all, we should be optimistic and welcome new directors.

As for Andy Smith's position... "

" Dong Dong -- "

when Howard Schultz was helpless to make a compromise, the door of the conference room was knocked, and soon a staff member pushed the door and entered, his expression was a little flustered and rushed to Howard Schultz on the first seat in the distance." boss, there are a group of people outside to see you. The leader claimed to be Andy Smith's representative. ”

Howard Schultz's pupil slightly shrank, and everyone in the meeting room also had different expressions, and the other party finally made a move.

"Please come here."

When the staff left, Howard Schultz said with a smile: "let's listen to each other's ideas."

The people in the meeting room also looked dignified and nodded in silence. There was no way to stop Andy Smith, who had a share ratio equal to that of all the people in the room.

Before long, under the guidance of Starbucks staff, a group of business elites in suits and sharp eyes walked into the conference room.

A big white man in his thirties, headed by Starbucks, reached out with a smile and shook hands with Howard Schultz.

"Hello, Mr. Schulz. Nice to meet you. I'm Mr. Andy Smith's plenipotentiary, Ollin Smith."

Howard Schultz, who shook hands with olinsmith, looked a little, smiled, and said, "nice to meet you. Have a seat."

There was no ink on either side, so they sat down on both sides. Then Ollin Smith took out some documents and handed them to Howard Schulz on the opposite side. He smiled and said, "this is Mr. Andy Smith's share certificate and power of attorney."After Howard Schultz took over, he smiled at Olin, and then looked at him calmly. 2%, 3% and even 0.5% of the share certificates made Howard sighed helplessly.

Looking through it, Howard smiled again, handed the papers to David pace, the executive vice president, and asked Olin, "I don't know what Mr. Andy Smith thinks."

"The acquisition of Starbucks by Mr. andismith is just a normal business acquisition. Starbucks is a very excellent coffee chain retail company. Mr. andismith is very optimistic about its development potential.

Of course, Mr. Andy Smith is also a loyal customer of Starbucks. Starbucks has ended its aggressive and blind expansion strategy. Although the sales growth has slowed down obviously now, its performance is facing severe challenges.

However, with Mr. Schulz's return, a series of rectification measures made Mr. Smith feel that Starbucks will enter a new stage of growth.

So Mr. Smith is very interested in joining the Starbucks family. "

When they heard Olin Smith's words, all Starbucks at the scene looked at each other. They didn't believe that Andy Smith would carry out the acquisition plan just to join the Starbucks board of directors.

"Thank you, Mr. Smith, for being so optimistic about the development of Starbucks. We also welcome Mr. Smith to join us.

However, Starbucks initially realized the separation of ownership and control right a long time ago. This time Mr. Smith joined Starbucks with 25% shares, which is undoubtedly a subversion to Starbucks.

I wonder if you want to take control of the company back to the board of directors? "

Hearing Howard Schultz's open-minded words and questions, Olin Smith's smile slowly converged, his face was serious, his eyes were bright and he looked at each other and said: "first, I want to tell you a good news. Through the acquisition, Mr. Andy Smith now holds 30.1% of Starbucks shares."

"Wow..."

"How could..."

"This"

Listening to the voices of all the Starbucks who are changing face to face, Ollin Smith just pauses for a while and continues.

"To be fair, as a commercial company, Starbucks has something to praise in fulfilling its corporate social responsibility, which is derived from the persistence and excellent corporate culture of all management.

But Starbucks is ultimately for the benefit of its shareholders, which is the real significance of its global shareholders' meeting. Business is so cruel.

In business, Starbucks wants coffee quality on the one hand and stores fast on the other, but the speed and quality contradiction behind this is always irreconcilable. As time goes on, we see more and more irreconcilable contradictions.

Mr. Smith believes that Starbucks needs a clear future development plan and strategy, rather than closing stores and layoffs after expansion. So, Andy Smith wants to be chairman and chief strategy officer of Starbucks