Gu Biao smiled and watched Peterson and Akio Morita play for half a night, and their friendship couldn't be pulled anymore, and in the end, only settling accounts remained.

The dinner had long since run out and the drinks had been removed, and Akio Morita was followed by some relaxing Asian massages and treatments, so the guests were able to move freely in groups of threes and threes.

And Kissinger, Secretary of State Schultz and Clark advisers, three politicians, have formed their own faction, going to the side to enjoy a pedicure while chatting about national affairs.

And Gu Biao, together with Akio Morita, Peterson, and Schwartzman, became a different faction and enjoyed the highest-end Thai essential oil Masa Chicken.

Musicians and dancers perform in the distance, the volume is well controlled, and the performers do not hear the guests chatting. The masseuse also wore earmuffs with very good sound insulation, so as not to disturb the guests.

Peterson repeatedly failed to sell his "connections in the circle and acquisition execution ability", but was rejected by Akio Morita as "inappropriate timing and lack of budget". He was anxious, so he had to come up with the last killer idea:

"President Morita, to tell you the truth, after all, I have been the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for many years. No one on the planet is more familiar with the U.S. foreign trade situation and regulatory policies than I am. ”

Akio Morita enjoyed it and closed his eyes relaxedly: "I didn't doubt that. ”

Peterson carefully organized the wording: "At the current exchange rate, it is indeed a loss for yen assets to buy dollar assets." However, since five years ago, Ben's trade surplus with the United States has become larger and larger, and it has exceeded $100 billion this year and may exceed $150 billion next year.

I've heard from more than one insider, including the current Secretary of Commerce Baldridge and the current Secretary of the Treasury Regen, that they are working together to mediate an international monetary scheme to reconcile the overvalued dollar to balance trade – and I think that day will come when the presidency will not be delayed. At that time, the acquisition of dollar assets by yen capital will inevitably enter a very cost-effective stage. ”

(Note: President Reagan's full name is "Ronald Reagan", while his Cabinet Treasury Minister's full name is "Donald Reagan", the former is spelled Reagan in English, and the latter is Regan, with one less e.) So in the original English text, it is not a surname, and the two are not related by any blood, but the pronunciation is exactly the same.

In addition, Donald Reagan is only the Treasury Minister at this point in the book, during Regan's first term. In his second presidential term in '85, the Treasury Secretary was replaced by James Baker. The Plaza Accord was only officially completed in the hands of James Baker. ）

Peterson's remarks are already a bit of a brag, and there are also violations of leaking inside information. But it can also be seen from this that he is very hard at persuading Akio Morita.

Akio Morita's reply was unhurried: "Is the yen appreciating...... I don't know when it happened, but it really appreciated, and it was a harm to most traditional enterprises. But we at Sony don't care. If there were such winds, I would have entrusted Mr. Peterson. ”

Later generations of Chinese have described the Plaza Accord as an economic disaster for Yueben, and often compare the collapse of Yueben to the risk of China's housing bubble.

However, we have to admit that, to the point, the "Plaza Accord" is not harmful to most of the economic entities in China, and the Chinese media has exaggerated the harm, mainly because the Chinese economy cannot replicate the part of its own income in the past. In later generations, the high-tech content of China's economy was lower than that of the Chinese economy, and its irreplaceability was even lower.

A real review of the impact of the "Plaza Accord" is as follows: first, after the yen skyrockets, it will definitely be a big profit for those who use the yen to acquire overseas assets.

Second, the damage is mainly due to the extensive manufacturing industry, which was originally said to have relied on its comparative price advantage to obtain exports. This part is over after the price advantage is gone.

And the sales are not damaged, mainly those industries that say that they have mastered unique high-tech and no one can replace them. For example, in the semiconductor industry, no matter how expensive the yen rises, the whole world has to ask about it, and people don't care.

Sony is also a relatively high-tech company, so Akio Morita is actually not afraid of the appreciation of the yen.

The other party said so, and seeing that the persuasion was about to break down, Peterson could only come up with the last words: "President Morita, you haven't bought a record company or a film distribution company, such negotiations are very protracted."

If you are too anxious, you will only give the other party room to raise the price. It's better to find more spare tires, get in touch with them in advance, put on a posture of whether you can buy or not, and even make a gesture of 'you only need to expand from the hardware of entertainment electronics to the content, but it doesn't matter which part of the expansion is first'.

As far as I know, since last year, Sony has been pushing the music CD player standard, Walkman and traditional cassette tapes are definitely going to be eliminated. If you don't master a record company, there will be a big obstacle for your CD music technology standard to be promoted to the United States and become an international peer standard. ”

This is already Peterson's last hole card.

Akio Morita finally got a little moved.

He thought about it, and actually casually asked Gu Biao beside him: "Gu, what do you think, with your understanding of the American media content industry, how much time in advance is more appropriate, don't you have a small publisher, Miramax." ”

Gu Biao didn't expect this question to be on his head, and he wanted to offend both sides, so he politely refused: "If President Morita wants to do it, it will be at least the target of the eight major publishers." My Miramax is just a child's plaything, not worth mentioning.

I can't give you a lesson from my experience, maybe buy a giant like Colombia that is not doing well...... It will take a year or two, or even longer. ”

These words are very tactful, and they don't help Peterson deceive Morita, and they don't offend Peterson.

But it still played a subtle role.

Akio Morita thought for a while: "In this case, I can entrust you to help me act as an agent and mediate related acquisitions at an appropriate time." I've always been more bullish on acquiring Columbia-based content companies. The music part, in particular, is already imminent. But since I don't know when it will be completed, I can only pay some consulting fees at the beginning, and the commission will be based on the final result, is it acceptable?"

"Of course. Peterson breathed a sigh of relief.

He actually didn't want to stay longer in Lehman Brothers for a day, and the last calmness before was all pretended.

Now I have reached an intention with Akio Morita, although I can't make a lot of money in a short time, at least the big guaranteed order has been accepted.

In this way, if you jump out and go it alone, you will have the confidence in your heart.

Akio Morita thought for a moment: "Do you want to leave Lehman Brothers and go it alone, do you have a company?" Of course, I know it's not a problem, I'm just asking. ”

Peterson immediately replied earnestly: "Actually, there is, I have found someone else to hold it on my behalf, and we can take it over as soon as we leave Lehman." The new company, called 'Blackstone Investment Fund', has only injected $400,000 in start-up capital for the time being – but it is only for people to act as investment intermediaries, and we can increase our capital at any time if there is a real need. ”

When Peterson said this, he was also afraid that the other party would underestimate his strength. He and Schwartzman have been executives at Lehman Brothers for so many years, and even his personal savings are far more than $400,000, but it doesn't take much money to sue an agent, and it is useless to invest more.

As for directly using personal savings to engage in investment and acquisition, that is absolutely not done. Investment banks are all investing with customers' money and earning commissions, which is the industry rule.

Because no matter how awesome fund managers and investment bank executives are, they also know that what they do still has a considerable probability of losing. If the cost is too small, a fluctuation will be gone.

Peterson's first contact with Akio Morita was a smooth agreement.

History has taken a slight turn here, perhaps because of Gu Biao's ambiguous words, which still added a little bit of credibility to Peterson.

However, this also contributed to Peterson's official break with Lehman Brothers about half a year earlier than in history, and jumped out to create the original Blackstone. Therefore, in addition to Sony's guaranteed big deal, Peterson will be more aggressive than the same period in history, looking for potential customers who can entrust him with investment.

"Gu, thank you very much for clarifying President Morita just now. Peterson turned his head and gestured to Gu Biao.

"Yes, I'm just standing in the shoes of people in the industry and saying some pertinent opinions. "Gu Biao didn't take credit.

After all, Peterson himself is Gu Wei's elder, and he is a little embarrassed to talk in depth, so he keeps giving Schwartzman a look to the Schwartzman who was helping him just now.

Schwartzman immediately took over the topic with understanding: "Gu, I heard that you have recently made some big investments, if you have spare money and can't find a project, or you have a project but it is as inconvenient as President Morita, you can also find us, we will definitely help you with the most professional service in the industry." ”

In the eyes of Peterson and Schwartzman, Gu's financial strength is obviously far inferior to Akio Morita. Because Gu Biao's biggest disadvantage is that Tiankun is not listed, it cannot rely on valuation to raise funds, and its cash flow is insufficient. As for how much money he made in Vancouver's property market, these American business people are not clear.

Another concern is that Peterson was a colleague of Mr. Gu Biao back then, and he had always regarded himself as an "uncle", so he naturally couldn't pull down his face to peddle business at first, at least not at Kissinger's retirement banquet, which would be too undignified.

And now, it was Akio Morita's big order that forced Peterson to have no way out, so he asked his subordinates to do it for him.

Of course, Gu Biao has some investment ideas, and he really needs white gloves.

Since November, more than half of the funds in the Vancouver property market have been recovered, and Gu Biao has been looking for something to do.

It is impossible to spend so much money just on a game console industry that can make its own blood. I can't spend it even more. Gu Biao still wants to go further upstream of the electronics industry chain.

It's just that he wasn't in a hurry, even if it was delayed until the end of the New Year and the balance of the Vancouver side was all paid, he could look for it again.

Peterson came to the door with such a grand fist, but it gave Gu Biao another idea.

"I do have some ideas – the investment logic that I learned from the collapse of Atari. But, Secretary Peterson, can you keep your client's business ideas confidential? ”

"Of course! Just say, don't think of me as a former secretary of commerce! I'm the founder of the Blackstone Fund now! American interests have nothing to do with me now!"