Just as Xia Yu was reviewing the new year's plans of various companies, an incident happened in London, thousands of miles away.

London, Headquarters of Bright Fund Company.

Lewis Barry, president of the Mirror Group, got out of the car and walked briskly into the elevator to George Berkeley's office.

"Tuk Tuk!"

"Good afternoon, President Berkeley!"

"Lewis, why are you here, please come in!"

George Berkeley, who was in the process of issuing the papers, heard the knock on the door and followed the sound, and after recognizing the person, he said with some surprise.

Lewis Barry walked in, sat down in front of George Berkeley, and said with a solemn expression: "President Berkeley, I have come to disturb you this time because I have obtained a secret message, and it has reached a very urgent point. ”

Lewis Barry's attitude infected George Berkeley, who retracted his smile, put down his pen, looked directly at Lewis Barry, and asked, "What is so urgent?"

Lewis Barry replied: "The Times, a subsidiary of the Thomson Group, is losing a lot of money, and now News Corp. is secretly negotiating with the Thomson Group to buy The Times Holdings Limited, the company that owns The Times!"

The Times is a national daily newspaper in the United Kingdom, and its readers are generally high-end people in society, such as politicians and social elites, so the influence of this newspaper is extremely amazing.

It has always been regarded as the number one mainstream newspaper in the United Kingdom, and is known as the "faithful recorder of British society", and has influence in the world!

Suddenly hearing that the Thomson Group was going to be sold, Rao is George Berkeley was also shocked.

He frowned, pondered for a moment and asked, "Is it the News Corp. that owns The Sun?"

Lewis Barry nodded blatantly and said, "Yes, and Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, personally negotiated." ”

"Negotiations have been going on for some time, and News Corp. has tried to keep it secret, and as far as I know, it is News Corp. that News Corp. found that after Thomson Sr.'s death, due to financial pressures, Thomson Jr. had lost patience with Times Press Holdings Ltd., so it took the initiative to seek a takeover, and this was the main reason why the news was able to be hidden. ”

Rupert Murdoch was a well-versed elite in the media, and had the ultimate pursuit of profit, even at the expense of the means, the Sun was originally poorly managed, but after being bought by him, it is now several times larger in scale and amazingly influential. ”

"Although the Times is now losing a lot of money, I am worried that after the Times is in his hands, it will be revitalized, and it will pose a huge threat to our Mirror Group at that time!"

George Berkeley nodded approvingly, thought for a moment and asked again, "So what do you have in mind when you come this time?"

Lewis Barry immediately said: "I certainly hope that the Mirror Group will buy Times Press Holdings Limited. “

As soon as he finished speaking, George Berkeley shook his head and dismissed his thoughts: "This is impossible, the report you showed me last time shows that the national daily newspapers under the Mirror Group now occupy 30 percent of the market, and the local newspapers have 8 percent of the market. ”

"If it's a local newspaper, it's okay. ”

"But in the national daily newspaper market, the Mirror Group is about to hit the 40 percent invisible policy line, and if you buy The Times, it is easy to overtake the line, and other newspaper companies will definitely not let you have a good time. ”

Lewis Barry shrugged his shoulders and said with regret on his face, "I know, so I just thought about it." ”

"I think the president can find a way to buy the Times Press Holdings Ltd., and if it doesn't work, at least sabotage the News Corp. takeover. ”

George Berkeley bowed slightly, then frowned in thought.

On the bright side, Bright Fund must not come forward to buy it again, because Bright Fund is the wholly-owned parent company of Mirror Group and Financial Times Group, and it has a higher degree of control over the media.

And it is not possible to let the Financial Times Group come forward, because in the end, it will still be counted on the Bright Fund.

After thinking for a moment, he thought of his boss Xia Yu and a newspaper company, and his brows suddenly stretched.

Lewis Barry had been observing George Berkeley's expression, and after noticing that his brows were stretched, he immediately asked, "President Berkeley, do you have an idea?"

George Berkeley bowed slightly, but only revealed some thoughts to him, and said, "I will let a friendly company come forward to buy it, Lewis, and you have to work hard to gather relevant intelligence and information." ”

Lewis Barry nodded without hesitation and said, "No problem, I've already arranged for someone to dig into the inside story, and I think the Thomson Group will definitely be happy to see new competitors emerge." ”

......

The next morning, after reading the first batch of information, George Berkeley calculated the time difference and dialed the international distance to Xiangjiang.

It happened that Xia Yu was in the chairman's office, and when he heard the phone ringing, he immediately connected it.

"Hey, who's that?"

"Boss, I'm George ......"

After hearing the voice in the microphone, Xia Yu paid more attention and said with a smile: "George, long time no see, is there anything important?"

“......”

As George Berkeley on the other end of the microphone continued to speak, Xia Yu's eyes became deep.

"Okay, I understand, you fax the documents over, you continue to follow up on the situation, and I'll let Manager Yan Wenhan of Jiuding Newspaper Company contact you later." ”

Not long after speaking, Xia Yu began to receive fax signals, and then the documents kept being printed out of the fax machine.

Because of the small font, the file is not long, only four pages, and it is quickly finished.

Before reading it, Xia Yu made a phone call to Jiuding Newspaper Company and asked Yan Wenhan to come to his office immediately.

Because he was in Jiuding Building, and Yan Wenhan didn't go out, after receiving the call, it took less than two minutes for Yan Wenhan to come to the door of Xia Yu's office.

"Wen Han, come in, you find a place to sit first, and I'll finish reading the documents." ”

After speaking, Xia Yu buried his head in reading the documents again.

After a few minutes, Xia Yu finally read all the information and had a specific understanding of the matter.

He took the document, got up from the desk, walked to the sofa and sat down, handed the document to Yan Wenhan and said, "Wenhan, you take a look at the document first, this is a good thing." ”

Hearing that it was a good thing, Yan Wenhan felt a sense of anticipation in his heart, and hurriedly browsed the documents.

After reading it, he smiled and asked Xia Yu: "Chairman, do you want Jiuding Newspaper Company to acquire Times Press Holdings Co., Ltd.?"

Xia Yu smiled: "Well, Jiuding Newspaper has a huge influence in Asia and the United States, but there is still a big lack in the British media market, and now this is a rare opportunity." ”

"You have also read the information, in addition to the "Times", a national comprehensive daily newspaper, the Times Holding Company also has the influential "Sunday Times", as well as the "Times Literary Supplement", "Times Education Supplement", "Times Scottish Education Supplement", "Times Higher Education Supplement", and owns the Times Book Company, as long as it wins this company, Jiuding Newspaper Company can instantly occupy a first-class position in the United Kingdom. ”

"The only thing worth worrying about is that the Times Holding Company is now in big trouble, with serious losses, do you have the confidence to get it back to health?"

Yan Wenhan said without hesitation: "I still have confidence, I have such an opportunity, I am unwilling not to try." ”

Xia Yu smiled and said: "Okay, since that's the case, you can try it, fly to London as soon as possible, and if you have funds, it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Yan Wenhan smiled, shook his head and said: "It's not a problem, now the company's liquidity is more than 150 million Hong Kong dollars, I think it is enough to acquire Times Press Holdings." ”

It's just that after finishing speaking, Yan Wenhan said with a look of worry: "Chairman, I'm worried that our acquisition will attract other obstacles. ”

Xia Yu knew what Yan Wenhan was worried about, and he smiled and comforted: "Don't worry, the political position of the Times is neutral and right, and it is slightly leaning towards the Conservative Party, and I will solve the possible obstacles on the part of the government, and your task is to snatch the prey from the mouth of the News Corporation." ”

"After being in the United States for so long, Rupert Murdoch should be no stranger to you, and the Times Newspaper Holding Company will be in great trouble for us when it comes to him. ”

Yan Wenhan nodded, and said with a solemn face: "Yes, chairman, I have never underestimated him, I competed with him when I was in the United States, I know that he is a media wizard, with the ability to turn decay into magic, many newspapers that are about to close down are quickly revitalized after being acquired by him, and grow rapidly, he is a strong opponent." ”

Mr. Yan had a gut feeling that Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. would be his biggest rivals in the future.

Although the chairman already has the Mirror Group and the Financial Times Group in the UK, and is the predator behind the British media industry, this has nothing to do with him, and the Jiuding newspaper company he manages has no foundation in the UK.

News Corp. has long been established in the UK, and News Corp.'s flagship newspaper, The Sun, has developed into a mainstream newspaper, and not only that, News Corp. also has a number of newspapers in the UK.

Jiuding Newspaper Company is already far behind News Corporation, and he must catch up to have a chance to catch up!

Taking food from News Corp now can have a double effect, and he will definitely not let go of this great opportunity!

At this time, he had already made up his mind in his heart that this time he would fight to the end, and no matter how high the price was, he would buy the Times Holding Company, even if it was rotten in his own hands, it would be better than being bought by News Corporation.

Seeing that Yan Wenhan was mentally prepared, Xia Yu was relieved: "You just have a plan in your heart, hurry up and act, after going to the UK, first go to meet with George Berkeley, the president of the Bright Fund, you can find him for anything." ”

"Okay!"

"Chairman, if there is nothing else, I'll leave first. ”

"Go ahead!"

Watching Yan Wenhan disappear from sight, Xia Yu's eyes were a little distracted, thinking of Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation.

After a long time, Xia Yu shook his head and smiled, took his thoughts back, and continued to deal with official business.

PS: It's overtime, it's late, it's late, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm redoing the outline now, and I've changed to a more intuitive table format, which was too messy with the text version before, but now there are some results, as long as the outline and the outline are done, the code word efficiency can be doubled.