Chapter 594： come

Looking at the opposite three old men who saw the data on the notebook, they frowned at the same time. Eric explained without hesitation: "Fireflies still insist on selling only 25% of the firefly shares, but because of abc and fireflies The registration is in Delaware. ▲∴▲∴, according to the Delaware General Law, as long as the parent company obtains more than 90% of the shares of the subsidiary, the parent company’s board of directors can unilaterally propose the remaining circulation The shares are privatized and the privatization form is determined by the parent company. It is not necessary to consult the board of directors and investors of the subsidiary. Therefore, if the abc can cooperate with the fireflies to acquire 90% of the shares in advance, we can trade the remaining 10%. In the case of a cash takeover, the remaining shareholders do not have to participate in the 25% equity swap, and the Berkshire Hathaway and Murphy’s companies are not entitled to a shareholding scheme proposed by Mr. Buffett."

US taxes are divided into federal and state taxes, but the state tax rates vary widely from state to state. Because of Delaware's special tax exemption policy, many companies in the United States choose to register in Delaware.

As a well-known lawyer, Charlie Munger saw some of these problems at a glance: "But, Eric, haven't you thought about it, this is still a plan that is likely to cause color c investigation."

Although the scheme given by Eric is not illegal, it still has some margins. As the most mature bond market in the world, in order to make the securities market develop healthily, the protection of the interests of small shareholders in the United States is much stronger than that of the major shareholders. Eric’s plan at this time has the suspicion that ordinary shareholders will lose their autonomy. Once such a plan causes dissatisfaction among minority shareholders and initiates a lawsuit, the fireflies will still be in dispute.

Eric did not hide from the eyes of Charlie Munger. "I have consulted the company's lawyers. This is not illegal. Similarly, the interests of ordinary shareholders will not be harmed. Fireflies will still be 50% higher than the stock price. The price of the shares in their hands."

Between the two dialogues, Buffett’s mind could not help but reveal the fading of Salomon Brothers four years ago. Whenever I think about this, Buffett will have a fear in her heart. The destruction of the Salomon brothers was not simply a false bid, but a long-term lawsuit and credit crisis brought about by the false bidding case, before the Solomon brothers incident. In the nearly sixty years of life, Buffett has had a handful of times in court, and the number of defendants has never been exceeded. Compared with other investors who are always in dispute, this is a record.

And now. Although Buffett is very clear, accepting the plan given by Eric will maximize the interests of Berkshire Hathaway, but it will bring unnecessary legal risks to both parties. This risk has already been broken. Buffett can bear the bottom line: "Eric, I don't agree with your plan."

Eric had some surprises, but Charlie Munger and Tom Murphy, who are very familiar with Buffett, had no strange look. They all knew that Buffett was actually a somewhat cautious person.

After Buffett’s voice fell, the conference room was silent.

but. Everyone else realized the meaning of Buffett’s last sentence. Buffett disagreed with the plan given by Eric, but it did not mean that he refused the transaction. Therefore, everyone waited for him to continue.

Although Buffett still remained calm on the surface, his heart was entangled, even if the Solomon brothers' dilemma a few years ago did not make him so dilemma.

If you have absolute control of abc, although your heart is very excited about working with fireflies, he is likely to have rejected the deal. Because he is not a person who is good at bargaining. When he feels that something is out of control, Buffett usually decisively stops the matter in order not to let himself continue to waste energy, as well as investing in the company. For companies that cannot be controlled, Buffett usually does not entangle, but sells the shares in his hands.

The situation of abc has now deviated from his control, and even his influence accumulated in the investment industry for decades has lost its effect, because the rise of fireflies is more legendary than his personal family history. In addition to his and his old friends are still insisting, abc many major shareholders have fallen to the side of the firefly.

Buffett is very clear. If it is not negotiated tonight, then with the support of fireflies, the batch of abc shareholders who turned to Firefly Pictures will facilitate the transaction by initiating an extraordinary shareholders meeting.

Once the deal is made in the hands of other shareholders, then just as Eric proposed the plan to abandon 10% of the small shareholders, they can also draw up other plunders of Berkshire Hathaway and Tom Murphy. In the end, even if the economic benefits are guaranteed, they will completely lose their influence on the abc and the company after the merger.

And once the transaction finally fails, the consequences are even more difficult to predict. The size of the audience in the United States is fixed. The reason why abc can get the first TV market share in North America in recent years, in addition to its stable operation, the most important thing is because the other two competitors are in both nbc and cbs. Downturned state. Regardless of whether Firefly will take over any of nbc and cbs in the future, it will pose a huge threat to the status of abc by virtue of Firefly's superior content production advantages. GE has an absolute controlling stake in nbc, but the management is still turbulent with the support of other shareholders. If abc performance begins to decline, those shareholders who are dissatisfied with them will definitely make bigger. The incident, which in turn affects the operation of the television network, creates a vicious circle.

The meeting room was silent for five minutes, and everyone was patiently waiting for Buffett to make a final decision.

Finally, after a sigh, Buffett whispered: "I will probably regret the decision today."

This sentence sounded in the conference room, and everyone realized that Buffett had made a decision.

Eric took a confident smile and said, "Warren, I promise you that you will never regret the decision today."

Buffett didn't react too much to Eric's words. However, since he had made a decision in his heart, Buffett did not continue to entangle some details. He simply and clearly promised to trade 25% of Firefly and $10 billion in cash. Program.

After simply drinking a glass of champagne to express the celebration, Buffett and his team rejected Eric’s invitation and left the Sunset Tower Hotel by car.

In the underground car park. Watching the car of Buffett leave, Eric turned and smiled at Kasenberg: "Jeffrey, the next press conference will be hosted by you."

Kasenberg knows that the acquisition of abc has been completed and his career will go up a big step. Therefore, the tone said excitedly: "Eric, is there a high-level meeting to prepare now?"

Eric knocked on the watch: "You always have to understand the feelings of others. It was a weekend, not to mention that it is already 8:30 in the evening."

"Okay, then tomorrow." Kasenberg seems to be completely unaware that tomorrow is Sunday, but Eric has not stopped it. Well, any executives will not blame themselves.

Kasenberg hurried away to deal with the long-awaited journalists, and Eric and Jeffrey returned to the party with a smile.

Eric’s event of sending champagne to the conference room has been spread throughout the party. The guests have already guessed the result of the incident. When Eric appeared, everyone gathered to congratulate.

Although the final negotiation time was not long, Eric’s mood throughout the process has been tight, and Buffett did not want the deal to fail. The same is true for Eric, otherwise the vast amount of work done by the fireflies in the early stages will be all gone, and everything will start again.

Suddenly relaxed at this time, the feeling of exhaustion followed, and simply made a lot of entertainment with everyone, Eric sat down on the sofa in the corner of the hall.

Looking at Penelope with Kate Beckinsale and Charlize Theron deliberately walked by their side, Eric smiled and patted the sofa next to him, Penelope did not hesitate He walked over and sat down at Eric, smiling and saw Eric sitting in the middle of the couch without moving his position. The remaining two women looked at each other and eventually Charlie took the initiative to sit on the left hand side of Eric, and Kate sat down next to Charlize.

Penelope did not pay attention to these small details. Slightly leaning on Eric, some excitement said: "Eric, today I went to try on the dress with Kate, very beautiful, do you want to see in advance?"

Eric is somewhat unclear, so he asks: "Oscar dress?"

Penelope nodded: "I took a "Beauty Times" before I came to the United States and won the best foreign film nomination. I got an Oscar invitation."

Eric understands this, and the propaganda of "Jianjiaowa" has already begun. This should be the work done by MGM in order to promote "Jianjiao", since Penelope will attend because of "Beauty Times". Oscar, that Kate must have relied on the Shakespeare comedy "Nothing to Die". Eric’s memory of this movie was nothing in the Oscars of the original time and space. It seems that MGM has done a lot of work for "Jiaojiao". However, at this time, MGM’s two helms were once Paramount executives who were once the filmmakers of Warner Pictures. With their years of accumulated contacts, they wanted to operate an insignificant job for Nothing. It’s not difficult to nominate and then justify Kate’s appearance at the Oscars.

Thinking of this, Eric turned to Cate a little curiously: "What nominations have you got in "Nothing to Do"?"

"Best clothing and the best soundtrack," Kate said with a little embarrassed, although she did not have a long time in Hollywood, but she also knows that attending the Oscar this time is completely awkward.

Eric remembered the situation when he participated in the Golden Globe in January. He laughed: "These two nominations are just right. If you don't have any heavyweight awards like the Golden Globe Award, but you just take one of the best film nominations, it's worthy of the name. It is."

Listening to three people talking about Oscar, Charlie's eyes flashed a touch of loss.

Although moving away from the apartment shared by the three people, Penelope still maintained a good relationship with the two women according to Eric's request, although Charlize quickly picked up a glass of red wine to conceal his expression, Pene. Luopu still noticed the change of Charlie's expression, so he said to Eric: "Eric, if you help Charlie also get an Oscar invitation, I think this is a breeze for you. ”

Eric looked at Charlie, who was obviously looking forward to it with a look of enthusiasm. "No need, wait until the next three of you can attend the awards ceremony, and maybe also be a guest at the same time."

When he heard Eric’s refusal, Penelope didn’t say anything more, but Charlitz was slightly disappointed and bowed his head slightly.

Kate's smart eyes turned around between Eric and Charlize, and the eyebrows were picked without a trace. She thinks, Eric is absolutely deliberate.

Eric just noticed the subtle changes in Kate's expression, but didn't mind what she saw, her face still laughing, and suddenly asked Kate: "Have you smoked recently?"

Kate squatted and shook his head immediately: "No, no."

"Well..." Eric dragged his voice: "It seems to be there."

Kate also realized that his guilty connotation was too obvious. He quickly said: "You have to deduct me to deduct me."

Eric smiled and said: "In fact, you can also pay for the two in private."

Kate stared at Eric's faint smile and realized that Eric didn't really mean it, so he followed Eric's words: "Okay, then you punish, I compensate them privately." ”

Eric shrugged slightly and leaned back on the back of the sofa, drank a small glass of red wine, and waved: "You go play, I take a break."

Perhaps it was the mood to relax. Kate heard Eric’s words and said, “The tone of your speech is like an old man.”

"Oh," Eric nodded and said, "Penny and Charlie, let's go play, Kate will accompany me this old man for a while."

"Charlie, let's go dancing," Penelope got up and took Charlie, and walked toward the dance floor with a smile.

Eric looked at Kate sitting in the ground, took a position just taken by Charlie, and said, "Come here."

Kate moved in the opposite direction and said: "I, I am only making a joke, but here is a public occasion, you can't mess around."

"In this case, what are you afraid of, come over!"

Kate’s attitude is quite determined: “I am not going!” (To be continued.)