The Dallas heat wave in July was overwhelming, and this feeling of heat and stuffiness was the most uncomfortable of all the summers Zhang Ran had experienced. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info Although he went out early, he was still sweating when he arrived at the Blockbuster conference room.

The conference room was large and could accommodate hundreds of people, and there were already forty or fifty people sitting in it at the moment. The management led by Antioco sat on the podium, the other shareholders sat offstage, and the Netflix family, led by Hastings, sat on the left.

Antioco was in a heavy mood, but when he saw Zhang Ran walking in in a cowboy dress, he still smiled and said, "Mr. Zhang, you are really good dressed here." ”

Dallas has the title of "America's cowboy city", a city with a high degree of integration of horseback ranches and fashionable and noisy cities.

Zhang Ran took off his hat, fanned the cool breeze in his hand, and said, "The first time I came to Dallas, it was relatively fresh, and I wanted to have a cowboy addiction." ”

Hastings glanced at Zhang Ran and showed a mocking smile, what a pompous young man!

Voting at a general meeting of shareholders is different from an election, and shareholders who vote at a general meeting of shareholders are required to indicate the number of shares they hold in addition to filling in whether they are in favor or against. In the election of the general meeting of shareholders, the winner is not determined by the number of votes, but by the shares.

For the election of members of the board of directors and other general matters, more than half of the voting rights of the shareholders present at the meeting must be obtained to pass, while resolutions involving the articles of association, the increase or decrease of the registered capital of the company, merger, dissolution or change of the form of the company must be passed by more than two-thirds of the voting rights.

Netflix itself holds 19.9% of the shares, and has won 1,500 proxy statements, which together have nearly 40% of the voting rights, plus the support of several major shareholders, Hastings is in control, so it seems very easy.

At nine o'clock, the general meeting of shareholders officially began, first by the company's management to summarize the work of the past year, followed by the general meeting of shareholders to vote on the annual work report of directors and supervisors, financial settlement report, profit distribution and other proposals. However, shareholders were dissatisfied with the management, and all three reports were rejected.

In the following shareholder question session, the management was besieged by shareholders, especially Antioco's double pay became the focus of shareholders' criticism.

After some fire, the general meeting of shareholders began to vote on the proposal on the shark repellent clause, and the board of directors of Blockbuster approved the shark repellent clause, but the shark repellent clause is for the election of the board of directors, which involves the amendment of the company's articles of association, and must be submitted to the general meeting of shareholders for consideration, and can only be passed with the support of more than two-thirds of the shareholders present at the meeting.

The shark repellent clause was proposed to defend Netflix from controlling the board, and Netflix was naturally strongly opposed, and they violently condemned Blockbuster's management for restricting the legitimate right of shareholders to re-elect the company's directors, overasserting the directorship status of existing directors, and making the company a minority-controlled company.

However, Netflix has 40% of the voting rights, and as soon as they objected, the proposal for the shark repellent clause was immediately rejected.

Throughout the morning, Zhang Ran neither spoke nor asked questions, just stared coldly at everything that happened in front of him, and he knew that the afternoon was the key.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the general meeting of shareholders resumed.

Antioco was the first to speak: "Good afternoon, shareholders, and I would like to say a few words before voting on the proposal to remove management. I have been the CEO of Blockbuster for ten years, and Blockbuster had a good prospect, but when it was spun off from Paramount in 04, the company was saddled with a billion yuan of debt, and the company's development lacked financial support, and the development has not been smooth in recent years. However, the development of any company will not be smooth sailing, and Blockbuster's business has improved recently, especially the online business, which has grown by leaps and bounds. Although the online business is not profitable for the time being, I believe that this situation will change completely in less than a year. I hope to be able to take the company out of this predicament, and I hope you will give me a little time!"

Zhang Ran nodded slightly, playing the emotional card is a good choice, and some small shareholders who are not strong enough may be able to change their minds!

After Antioco finished speaking, the presiding officer of the shareholders' meeting stood up and said: "Shareholders, let's start voting on the proposal to remove the company's management, please fill out the votes and put them in the ballot box." ”

Here we go.

A smile that could not be hidden appeared on the corner of Hastings' mouth, he came here to seize power, and it was finally about to start, as long as the board of directors of Blockbuster was reorganized, the poison pill plan could be cracked and the acquisition paved the way. He glanced at Zhang Ran, and when he saw that Zhang Ran still had a relaxed appearance, he felt funny in his heart, no wonder what tricks can you play?

Antioco's expression is solemn, among several major shareholders, except for Zhang Ran, who clearly stands on the side of the management, everyone else is very dissatisfied with the management, in his telephone communication, he can clearly feel the unfriendliness behind the other party's tone, and dissatisfaction, this shareholders' meeting, I am afraid that he and the entire management are more than lucky!

Zhang Ran ignored the others, filled in the information, filled in the word "against", walked to the ballot box, put the ballot in the box, and the other shareholders also got up to vote.

After all shareholders cast their votes, under the supervision of notaries and lawyers, the staff immediately counted the ballots in the ballot box, eliminated abstentions and invalid votes, and began to count and count the votes.

Fifteen minutes later, the results of the vote were in. The moderator began to announce the results: "The motion to remove the board of directors of the company, 44.35% agreed, 54.33% opposed, and the motion was not passed. ”

Antioco couldn't believe that the motion was rejected and won when Netflix got 40% of the voting rights and was facing salary questions?

Hastings looked at the host in amazement as if he had been struck by lightning, with an expression of disbelief written on his face, completely unsure of what was going on.

Didn't they all say it beforehand? Why did the shareholders of Puxin Fund and GMO Asset Management Company suddenly change their minds when they had agreed to reshuffle the board of directors?

Hastings glanced up at Zhang Ran, who looked at him with a smile on his face, realizing that Zhang Ran had used some means to make the other shareholders change their minds, gritted his teeth and asked, "How did you convince them?"

Zhang Ran smiled lightly: "I just provide a data to them, Blockbuster relies on more than 3,000 stores in the United States, fully implements grid connection, and now has 20,000 new users every day, 600,000 new users a month, and this rate is still increasing." It is only a matter of time before Netflix's online numbers grow slowly, surpassing Blockbuster, and once Netflix's online numbers are surpassed by Blockbuster, then Netflix will inevitably collapse. If this war continues, Netflix will definitely die first, and as soon as Netflix dies, Blockbuster will be able to resurrect strongly. There are only two ways for Netflix to survive, either to wash the board of directors of Blockbuster, replace your people, and then withdraw the grid connection plan, and second, to buy Blockbuster at a high price and eliminate competitors while rapidly growing itself. As long as we prevent Netflix from taking control of the board, then Netflix has only one way to go. When the time comes, don't say 12 dollars, 13 dollars, even 15 dollars, it is completely possible, and it can even reach 18 dollars, because if you don't buy Blockbuster, Netflix will definitely die!"

In the past month, Zhang Ran's acquisition team has made an evaluation report on Netflix, and has come to this conclusion after an in-depth analysis of Netflix's funds and performance, as well as its future development. Of course, Zhang Ran's announcement of this belief is not really to prevent Netflix from acquiring Blockbuster, and it can't be stopped at all. He did this in the hope of consuming Netflix's funds as much as possible, and when he started the anti-takeover, Netflix would have no funds to fight back.

Hastings almost scolded, but reason stopped him from doing so, his eyes glared at Zhang Ran, and he said coldly: "You are deliberately retaliating, you don't have enough funds in your hands, and you know that you can't keep Besvision, so I hope Netflix wastes more money!"

Zhang Ran nodded affirmatively: "That's right, BesTV is part of my future plan, but due to funds, I didn't make a comprehensive acquisition in time, but you took the lead, I naturally won't let you have a good time!"

Hastings suddenly laughed, stared into Zhang Ran's eyes and said, "I'm sorry to crush your plan, in the streaming area, I'm afraid you don't have a chance, let's run your Fly well!"

Zhang Ran's eyes were almost bursting with fire, and he snorted heavily and twisted his head to the side.

Although the plan to reshuffle the entire board of directors went bankrupt, Netflix was the largest shareholder and held a 20% proxy statement, and in the ensuing battle for board seats, they won two directors, one independent director, and nine seats for three.

On July 12, Netflix made a $12 offer to Blockbuster and demanded that Blockbuster's board of directors immediately withdraw the poison pill program.

However, Netflix's takeover offer was not accepted, and Blockbuster's board of directors rejected it. The fund sent a message to Netflix that $12 was not enough, and if it could reach $15, they would support the deal and get the board to support it.

After hearing the words of the Puxin Foundation, Hastings was so angry that he scolded thirty-seven FUCKs in a row, and thirty of them were given to Zhang Ran. Under normal circumstances, the acquisition that could be won for $9.5 was stirred up by Zhang Ran, and now it can't be won for $12. He really wanted to say loudly, fuck off, I won't buy it! But this can only be thought about, Netflix has no other choice now, if it doesn't buy Blockbuster, Netflix will definitely die.

On July 16, Netflix raised the offer to $14 and held talks with several major shareholders such as Puxin Fund and GMO Asset Management. Later, the board of directors revoked the poison pill plan, prompted by several other major shareholders of Netflix and Blockbuster, paving the way for the acquisition of Netflix.

On July 20, BesTV announced that it had accepted a $14 general tender offer from Netflix, which was valid from July 21, 2007 to August 20, 2007.

Zhang Ran silently calculated the time, the tender offer ended on August 20, and after that, it will be subject to antitrust investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, which will take almost a month, that is, Netflix will not wait until the end of September to completely complete the acquisition of Blockbuster.

The peak of the century's raid on Netflix will also really unfold at this time!

Zhang Ran picked up his mobile phone and dialed the agent's number: "Accept Netflix's offer, and sell all the shares of Blockbuster in my hand!"

The acquisition battle between Netflix and Blockbuster, because Zhang Ran was involved, the domestic media has been paying close attention. After Zhang Ran sold all his shares to Netflix, many reporters immediately calculated the accounts for him, and he spent $230 million to buy Blockbuster's shares, and now he sells them for $14, which is $273 million, making a profit of $43 million.

The reporters were speechless, the industry was in an uproar, and they earned 43 million in less than half a year, which is really profitable!