Taking advantage of the approval effort, he bought a very idyllic house in Woking for Lee Yun-hee to live here in the future.

It's not too far from Silverstone in north London, and it's easy to train and maintain the team on a daily basis.

The approval of the British Ministry of Commerce came down quickly, and it was not a wholly-owned acquisition, nor did it involve any technical secrecy policy, it was just a car company. And Britain's Rolls-Royce, Lotus, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Bentley, etc. have all been swept away by foreign buyers, who cares about a company that only makes supercars? He generously gave the green light and let him go.

Now that the UK government has agreed, the EU will basically not have nothing to do, unless it is a merger and acquisition between peers that causes more controversy, it will be easily vetoed.

Absolute monopolies like Microsoft and Intel not only won't approve your acquisition, but also treat you as an ATM, and you don't make sense anyway.

The news of Ant Search's acquisition of McLaren Group spread far and wide, and Chen Bo thought that this was a happy thing for everyone, and didn't Chinese people like to watch their own people acquire high-quality foreign assets? This is indeed a good thing for enhancing national self-confidence.

But outside the official press conference, there were protesters holding signs.

McLaren's loyalists are certainly reluctant to sell their hearts to an Internet company with no real assets, which is an insult to the manufacturing industry.

And the fans of Ant Search also think that this TMD is not doing its job, isn't it good for you to do it well? Messing with a traditional company for Mao?

But this is normal in the Western world, and no protests, no demonstrations, no strikes do not seem to be enough to prove their existence.

Chen Bo and Dennis didn't take it seriously, and still announced the unusual acquisition in front of media reporters in London.

At the same time, McLaren Racing also made a collective appearance, and although the new team will soon enter the F1 season, it does not prevent a change of owner, right? The official name has also been changed to McLaren-Ant-Mercedes Benz Racing, and the long list of title sponsors is enough to say.

In order to distinguish it from the Ferrari's red color, Ant Search will spray an orange logo on the body, which is understandable, as long as it can be reflected.

Later, Chen Bo secretly signed a loan agreement behind his back, lending $300 million from the Milhouse Foundation, and the interest was even the same as that of the bank. That's almost like giving away a hedge fund's 25% annual interest rate.

But he is not a good man, the interest rate is indeed low, the loan period is 5 years, and it is a convertible debt. This means that when the repayment period comes, the creditor can choose to exercise the option to exchange it for the company's shares and give up the debt. If the performance is good, then it must be appropriate to hold shares, and if it is still a mess, it must be a choice to recover the principal and interest.

The money was largely used to acquire Cosworth Technologies, an independent engine company that could be said to be ill-fated.

It has been sold back and forth, and was once sold to the Volkswagen Group as an addition to Rolls-Royce. Less than a month later, Rolls-Royce, the big brother of Kung Fu, was transferred to BMW, and he was sold again to Ford a few months later.

When Ford's Jaguar F1 team announced its dissolution, Cosworth was taken over by Volkswagen's younger brother, Audi......

Although the strength is unquestionable, there are also shortcomings that are insufficient. The Formula 1 engine is awesome, but it doesn't make money. As for the engines of civilian vehicles, they are mainly positioned in low-end and mid-range vehicles.

Large companies with supporting engine R&D departments don't need it, and small companies can't afford to raise it, so they have been repeatedly sold and have a poor background.

This company is really not expensive, Dennis has already made initial contact, and Audi is very happy. Throw 8,500 euros in cash and immediately knock out free shipping! Oh, and they don't need free shipping, Cosworth was originally a British company based in Northampton.

The island country with a big fart is not in the north of Scotland, where can it go?

"Chen Bo, are you confused?" As soon as the press conference ended, he received a call from China, and Xiao Ma shouted in a low voice with a little anger and puzzlement. "Why go and buy a car company? And a loss-making company? The investor couldn't find you, but they asked me about my intention to merge and acquisition? ”

"Who is so idle?" Chen Bo said indifferently, "The direct investors of Ant Search didn't speak, they were in a hurry?" Who would be willing to sell a business that doesn't lose money? And I don't need to be accountable to them, Ant Search is worthy of their investment regardless of market capitalization and profitability. ”

"You...... Forget it, let's talk about it when you come back, I'll help you for a while. Brother Xiao Ma is also quite helpless, but he knows his temper, and he can slap the table and shake his face at the board meeting, so it doesn't matter which investor you are.

What about the MIH Group, which has a large stake? At the beginning, David was not scolded for being bloody when Tencent's overseas expansion was unfavorable.

"Thanks, I'll be back when I get to France."

"France? You wouldn't be the one to hit another company, would you? ”

"We'll see." Chen Bo smiled mysteriously, and then hung up the phone.

If last.fm acquisition is not factored in, McLaren is the first deal to be completed in the UK, albeit with a 75% stake.

This cross-bank acquisition has indeed sparked a big debate, especially in Europe and the United States, and has attracted a lot of public criticism. A virtual business that deals with computers, but wants to step out of this circle to build cars? Or a supercar?

This is extreme conceit, a great joy, and a pride carried away by the pride of the past.

No one is optimistic about this deal, and there are even experts who assert that Chen Bo is self-destructing the Great Wall, which is completely an act of death, and McLaren is very likely to be crippled by him, and Ant Search will also be dragged down.

The old rivals gloated, but Ant Search took advantage of this popularity and consolidated its position.

Despite the controversy, the role of focus is obvious, and the traffic attracted is real money. At this time, Chen Bo was not afraid of being scolded, but afraid that he would not be scolded hard enough, otherwise how would he attract attention?

The EU's instrument of ratification came a few days later, and McLaren had agreed to the takeover, and McLaren was officially in his pocket.

In addition to providing funds, Chen Bo also helped Dennis reformulate his future development plan, and after his design, McLaren seemed to be running in the direction of a large automobile group, and it was a rapid run, which made Dennis's previous boldness a little pale.

"I heard that there are big fish, why didn't you call me?" Nicholas and Julio, who had spent some leisure time, both appeared in front of Chen Bo and blamed him for why he didn't take them to play together.

"How do you know?"

"JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup's European executives were all mobilized by you at the first order, and it was just Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers. Several of the giants of Wall Street have gathered, if you don't have a big spend, will you be so prodigal? "Nicholas, this is here when he smells.

"UBS, First Bank of Boston, Da Mo have all been eaten by you?" Chen Bo gave him a blank look and said.

"I'm not here to educate you about financial knowledge, so let's talk about it. I've been in a hurry lately! ”

"Yes, yes. I don't have any money, but I want to participate. Julio chimed in.

"Then you can take a look at this information." Chen Bo casually dragged a folder and threw it in front of them.

"France Telecom?" Nicholas opened it and exclaimed, "This is a highly indebted company." ”

"You also know that it is number one, then it must be profitable."

Before talking about France Telecom, it is necessary to talk about France's economic system, compared with the free market economic theory pursued by other countries in Europe and the United States. France really doesn't like this, everyone knows that the French ceded the whole country to Nazi Germany almost without firing a shot.

In World War II, many large companies played a dishonorable role, such as the famous Renault cars, and after the fall of the Nazis, who built planes, tanks and military vehicles, the proper "traitors" could not escape.

The founder, Louis Renault, surrendered to the courts during the French Liberation, and died suddenly not long after awaiting trial, and the following year Renault was officially nationalized. It is also the largest state-owned automobile company in the world.

The wave of nationalization has come one after another, and large companies such as Air France, Citroen Peugeot, La Poste, and France Gas are all wholly state-owned.

In this respect, there are similarities with China, but they are not exactly the same. They practice a contract system between the government and enterprises, and supervise and restrain each other. However, the inefficiencies of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were still unavoidable, and it was only in the late 80s that they began to gradually attempt privatization.

France Telecom was born out of the French Post and Communications Bureau, belongs to the world's fourth largest communications group, after two sales of national shares, the French government still holds 56% of the company's shares, 04 in the fourth quarter of the group's revenue has exceeded 100 billion euros.

Judging from the performance alone, it is quite bullish, and it has to earn about 40 billion euros in a year.

But France Telecom lost 28 billion euros for the year and incurred a staggering 70 billion euros in debt, and no other company in the world has such a bad debt problem that it is not far from filing for bankruptcy protection if it is insolvent.

The French government, of course, will not sit idly by, and has released a support package that injects 9 billion euros to ease debt pressure, and allows the telecom group to sell some assets to bail itself out.

"Are you interested in Orange Telecom, the largest mobile communications brand in Britain and France?" Nicholas was surprised, "The net worth of 5.4 billion euros is as high as 54 billion euros according to the usual 10 times the market value." What do you take? It's not necessarily enough to pay for ant searches! ”

Although orange was sold by Hutchison Whampoa at the time of serious losses, and the current debt situation is also in good condition, the construction of 3G network base stations has never stopped, and France Telecom has injected its mobile user assets into orange.

(End of chapter)