In a living room downstairs of the villa, Janet and Sofia Fessi discussed the business adjustments of Latu Winery during this period, and talked casually about other topics. Janet inadvertently raised his wrist and looked at his watch. The meeting between Simon and Raymond Smith had lasted for an hour and forty minutes, far exceeding the initial hour's agreement.

Sofia also looked at her watch and stood up and said, "It's already noon, it's time for me to go back."

Janet sent Sophia to the door of the villa, noticed her inadvertently looking towards the stairs, and said with a smile: "There are a lot of things recently. Simon will fly back to Los Angeles in the afternoon, and you may not see him this time."

Sophia gave Janet a blank look as if nothing had happened: "Who said I want to see him?"

"Yes, who said it?" Janet grabbed the bug in Sophia's sentence and joked: "I didn't say you want to see him."

Sofia suddenly blushed.

Although Simon warned her not to think about what she shouldn't have thought that day, since she had a skin-friendly relationship, her attitude towards the little man had changed unknowingly.

At least, the joy of fish and water that afternoon really made her feel unforgettable.

After putting the children here, I had already made up my mind to come to see them as long as I wasn't too busy on the weekend. However, I just arrived this morning and heard that Simon happened to be here. After a little resettlement, I couldn't help but run over with the excuse of discussing the operation of Latu Winery with Janet.

Before coming, I couldn't help but change the OL suit that the little man liked very much, and put on makeup carefully.

Then, Simon didn't see him, but Janet saw the flaw.

Almost fled in the panic under Janet's joking gaze, Sophia drove away from the manor, raised her hand and gently stroked her hot cheeks, and inexplicably lingered in her mind that day when he left many red marks on her.

Oh my God, I'm really helpless.

Janet waited for Sophia to leave, and did not go upstairs, calling out the four ABCD girls to start preparing lunch, and Raymond Smith was obviously going to stay at noon today.

In the villa study room.

Raymond Smith has notified his assistant to temporarily cancel the European itinerary and did not avoid Simon when making the phone call.

When he first heard Simon telling that Westeros already had 4.9% of Bell Atlantic shares and hoped to acquire the company in full, Raymond Smith even thought the young man was joking.

The news that Daenerys Entertainment will soon bid for MCA with Panasonic is almost well known.

After confirming that Simon was not a joke, Raymond Smith subconsciously asked if he planned to give up the MCA.

The answer surprised Smith even more.

Simon Westeros plans to launch two acquisitions with a total value of more than $10 billion at the same time.

Raymond Smith subconsciously regarded Simon's offer as a traditional leveraged acquisition and almost refused it at once. He did not want Bell Atlantic to fall into a situation like Reynoldsnabesque or Time Warner after being acquired.

After Simon roughly explained his acquisition intention, Raymond Smith gave up his immediate refusal and began to ask for some more specific acquisitions.

Because of the very sufficient preparation in advance, driven by Simon's topic, the discussion between the two became more and more in-depth without realizing it. The topic involved the transformation of Bell Atlantic's business strategy after the completion of the acquisition, the debt repayment model, the company's next expansion, the federal government's policy direction for the telecommunications industry, etc.

When the noon sun shone on the coffee table with all kinds of documents between the two, Raymond Smith realized that it was almost 12 o'clock.

Simon did not notice the time issue and said: "Many times listed companies have to give up many long-term plans in order to cope with the short-term returns that shareholders value. These constraints will disappear. We can calmly put more bets in the mobile communications and Internet business fields with great development potential in the future. As long as sufficient advantages are accumulated in advance, once the federal government re-releases the merger and acquisition controls of the telecommunications industry, Bell Atlantic can immediately expand on a larger scale."

Raymond Smith was brought back to the topic by Simon's words and said: "Simon, the prospects for mobile communications are quite clear, but how can you confirm that you have not put down the wrong bet on the Internet? You should know that according to your idea, the funds we invest only in basic line upgrades will need to reach the level of $1 billion. Once the development of the Internet industry does not meet expectations, the company needs to face not only financial losses, but may even be a life-and-death issue."

"Lei, I have compiled a memorandum on various ideas about the Internet industry before. If you are interested, you can take it back and take a look. I think an industry has never existed, and it requires us to personally explore and create. Electronic information networks around the world have been sprouting since the 1960s and have been brewing for more than 20 years. They have been widely used in the military, commercial, scientific research and government office levels, which is enough to prove the development potential of the Internet industry. Since the Internet can be applied in so many professional fields, there is no reason why it cannot be promoted in the mass field with a wider market potential."

Simon said this, paused for a moment, and quickly said: "Imagine, if one day, in addition to the news, forums, personal homepages and emails already provided by the Igret Portal, people can also obtain movies, music, games, friends, shopping, etc. through the Internet, and so on countless online services that you can or cannot think of now, how great is the development potential of this industry?"

Raymond Smith also browsed and tried the online service provided by the Igret Portal. After thinking for a while, he pointed to a pile of information on the coffee table and asked, "Simon, if you tell me these ideas, aren't you afraid that I will leave you alone? My control over the Bell Atlantic is not as bad as you think."

Simon shook his head and smiled, "That's because you haven't done enough behavior that goes against the will of shareholders. Even if you have a lot of power, you can't do whatever you want. I believe that there must be many executives within Bell Atlantic who want to replace your position. As a listed company, as long as you encounter setbacks when promoting these strategies, even if it's just a temporary momentum, your so-called "control" of Bell Atlantic will quickly fade. In comparison, as long as we can reach an agreement on the fundamental development direction of the company, I can tolerate management's long-term losses in a certain business even if it's more than five years."

Raymond Smith fell silent for a moment.

The two had been discussing for more than an hour. Raymond Smith knew that if he was not moved, he would not have discussed with Simon for so long, and even canceled his original itinerary.

However, accepting Westeros’ acquisition offer has both pros and cons.

On the favorable side, as this young man said, without the strict supervision of listed companies, he can adopt some radical business strategies more boldly, and the company does not need to rack his brains on financial reports every quarter.

However, on the downside, as the chairman and CEO of Bell Atlantic, he does have great power now. As long as he does not make too risky reforms to the company, he can stay in this high-paying position very safely until he retires.

On the contrary, once the company is acquired, he is originally in power and he has found a boss for himself. It is okay to say that the future development of the company meets the expectations of this young man. If it is not met, he may be kicked out at any time. Even if he can get a huge termination fee through the prior golden parachute contract, his career will basically be ruined.

After weighing the trade-offs for two or three minutes, Raymond Smith looked up again and said, "Simon, I need you to give more promises and guarantees."

"Ray, you must know that Amy Pascal, as CEO of Daenerys Entertainment, will receive more than $100 million in salary this year, and I believe this should be the highest salary for female executives ever. Many people in the Westeros system will receive very generous rewards this year, so you don't need to worry that your efforts will not be rewarded."

Simon said this and changed the subject and then said, "However, Lei, I understand your other meaning. You need to still gain enough power after I completed the acquisition of Bell Atlantic. To be honest, I can't promise you anything. I have read your resume and I am very sure that you have the ability to run this company well, but I will never let it go completely. If you follow Hollywood, you will know how ridiculous the two executives Sony hired after the acquisition of Columbia are now. They are completely squandering this big studio. Before being hired, both of them were actually very good producers. The reason for this situation is largely because of the lack of constraints in their power. I will never make the same mistake if such cases are in front of me."

Raymond Smith's expression was still a little hesitant.

Simon waited for a moment and said, "Ray, I remember an interesting story about Apple circulating in Silicon Valley. When Steve Jobs invited the current CEO of Apple, John Scully, who was still working at Coca-Cola, to join Apple, to ask him, do you want to sell sugar water for a lifetime, or seize the opportunity to change the world? Actually, I also want to say, Ray, do you want to stay at the helm of the Bell Atlantic until retirement, and then be quickly forgotten after a lively retirement party, or do you want to create a business miracle that can be remembered by the world with Simon Westeros?"

When Raymond Smith heard Simon's words, he remembered the light shining of the young man in front of him for a few years. A long-lost blood gradually emerged from his heart. After a brief last hesitation, he finally reached out and said, "Simon, I promise you."

Simon and Raymond Smith held their hands tightly, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After getting Raymond Smith, there are no big obstacles on the Bell Atlantic board of directors.

After lunch together, Raymond Smith hurried back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is only more than 100 kilometers away from New York, where the headquarters of Bell Atlantic Ocean was located. Smith also took away a draft intention for Westeros to acquire Bell Atlantic Ocean, mainly including some informal acquisition quotations and exit fees.

Simon initially gave an informal offer totaling $6.3 billion, which is 10% premium compared to the average share price of Bell Atlantic in the previous three months.

In terms of exit fees, Simon promised the price this time is 2% of the final transaction price.

Although he agreed to Simon's acquisition offer, Raymond Smith quickly returned to his role during lunch and said bluntly that Bell Atlantic's recent stock price has been seriously undervalued due to market conditions. Therefore, Simon must offer a sufficiently sincere offer to impress many shareholders of Bell Atlantic.

However, thanks to Raymond Smith's cooperation, the acquisition has been determined to be a good-will acquisition, and the possibility of competitors is very low. Coupled with the continued sluggish share price of Bell Atlantic in recent months, the original $8 billion budget is definitely more than enough.

You should know that the stock premium for ordinary well-intentioned acquisitions will basically be within 20%.

Even considering the factors that led to the undervalued Bell Atlantic stock, Westeros will not have a purchase price of more than $7.5 billion based on Simon's initially expected 30% premium. In fact, it is more likely to be around $7 billion.

However, Simon still promised in that intentional plan that not only would not withdraw cash from Bell Atlantic to repay debts in the future, he would continue to inject at least $1 billion in funds for corporate development.

Therefore, the overall funding budget for Bell Atlantic is still US$8 billion.

Sending Raymond Smith away, Simon hurried back to Los Angeles.

After final preparations on Sunday and Monday or two days, on Tuesday, Daenerys Entertainment officially submitted a public offer to the MCA.

$7 billion.

In place in one step.

Panasonic has already given a acquisition offer of $6.6 billion. If Daenerys Entertainment increases by $100 million or 200 million, it will only seem very insincere, so Simon simply gave his own quotation ceiling directly.

Countless people waited for a long time, and finally found out the goal.

When North American media reported on Daenerys Entertainment's move, MCA's stock price also rose sharply again. As of the closing of Tuesday afternoon, MCA's market value was close to the overall quotation of $7 billion given by Daenerys Entertainment.

Panasonic has accumulated more than US$12 billion in cash reserves overseas in recent years, and Simon Westeros' personal cash assets have also reached US$8 billion, both of which are strong.

Therefore, many people have begun to look forward to the arrival of a bidding war.

On the other hand, after several intensive consultations on the board of directors, Bell Atlantic responded to Simon's acquisition offer on November 1, agreeing to start formal acquisition negotiations with Westeros.

James Rebel personally led the team to start consultations with the Bell Atlantic management.

Because there have been sufficient preparations in the early stage, all Westeros' acquisition team needs to do is to reconfirm the operations and assets and liabilities of Bell Atlantic that they already have some understanding, and then quickly focus the negotiations on specific acquisition details.

At the same time, the acquisition team also began to secretly contact shareholders lobbying Bell Atlantic.

As a listed company with a long history before the split, after the split in 1984, Bell Atlantic's equity was still very dispersed, most of the shares were in the hands of many retirement funds and insurance funds across North America, and few shareholders held more than 5%, which greatly increased the difficulty of Westeros to acquire Bell Atlantic.
Chapter completed!