Chapter 240: San Antonio

......It has been a month since he got a loan of 14 billion US dollars, but Huang Xuan only spent less than 500 million US dollars, and there will naturally be some rumors within Hexin Industrial

If it's Huang Xuan — he's in Texas now.

San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the United States, and sometimes the 8th largest by statistics. Huang Xuan's deepest impression of it is: San Antonio Spurs, Shifo Duncan.

So much for.

But now there's one more, the headquarters of Southwest Bell.

Southwest Bell's market value is 78 billion US dollars, which is 624 billion yuan in exchange for 624 billion yuan, which is equivalent to twice the market value of China Telecom at the same time. However, Southwest Bell is such a valuable company, but its customers are concentrated in the Midwest and South of the United States, with "only" about 50 million local phone customers — long-distance calls and enterprise business are AT&T's traditional strengths. This not only illustrates the "division of labor" of Bell Jr., but also illustrates the strength of the U.S. telecommunications industry.

Although China Mobile was once the world's largest telecommunications company by market capitalization, with 132.58 billion US dollars and 1.7 times that of Southwest Bell, this was generated under the condition of basic monopoly and weak competition, and the world's telecom service spending alone reached 1.2 trillion US dollars per year. British Telecom, France Telecom, Telefónica, Sonera in Europe; In the Asia-Pacific region, Telstra and Optus are each a strong enterprise with a proven core competitiveness.

As for Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies), salivating people can drown 100,000 cubic meters with saliva.

Before Mr. Huang had time to drool, he met Whitaker, the current president and chairman of Southwest Bell, who, if nothing else, would become president of the combined AT&T company, which had inherited AT&T's golden sign.

Whitaker was over 60 years old and a tall Mediterranean man with dark hair, dark eyes, olive-skinned skin, and some wrinkles on his brow and at the corners of his eyes. He started with Southern Bell, worked his way up to where he is today, and became the chairman of the second-largest telecommunications company in the United States.

Huang Xuan currently owns a 4.8% stake in Southwest Bell and has a market capitalization of $3.744 billion (the purchase price is about $3.5 billion), ranking around fourth in Southwest Bell's shareholder list.

In other words, whether to acquire AT&T, Huang Xuan has 5% of the right to speak.

Whitaker shook hands with Huang Xuan and said, "Welcome to San Antonio, I hope you like the Mexican style here." "San Antonio is a very stylish and interesting city, which was settled by the Spanish in the early 18th century and by white people. At the beginning of the 19th century, Mexico declared its independence from Spanish rule, and the small town of San Antonio became a Mexican possessions. In the thirties of the nineteenth century, in order to resist the rule of the Mexicans, the Texans set up a headquarters in the building called the "Alamo Evangelist Church", and fought bloody battles against the oppressors, and the last 187 defenders all died heroically. Some Chinese call him the 72 martyrs of Huanghuagang in the United States, which is also appropriate.

However, like many American cities, San Antonio did not carry out a revolution after the successful rebellion, but continued their Mexican life, which is why Whitaker spoke Mexican style.

Huang Xuan shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'm internationalist. ”

God knows, he is a future 'communist' party member with strong roots, if according to Huang Jindi's arrangement.

Whitaker kept smiling and did not let go of Huang Xuan's hand and said, "Before I met you, Joseph said that you were a young man, and I didn't understand until I saw you. ”

This is about the praise of the "young and promising" of the Mexican style, Huang Xuan'an greeted him with a casual greeting, and Dian Wei stared at the black bodyguards in black suits, black ties, and black glasses nearby. Speaking of which, in order to get him a visa, it was indeed a lot of effort, if it weren't for Lorraine's fake kung fu and Huang Xuan's uncle Zhang Shuduan's help, it would not be easy for Comrade Dian Wei to meet these four black youths.

Isaac has completely become Huang Xuan's family bodyguard, not only responsible for Xiao Mink's commuting to and from school, but also following Cai Wenji to Beijing to turn around, but Huang Xuan travels, usually only with Dian Wei and two bodyguards with guns, the former is used for intimidation, and the latter is used for guarding.

Whitaker's subordinates did not look at Huang Xuan with a friendly gaze, because of his Chinese status, the US antitrust agency did not rate the acquisition highly, which consumed a lot of energy from some gentlemen, unlike the direct purchase of AT&T shares, after the takeover offer was issued, the antitrust agency could only give two answers: yes or no.

SBC, of course, was reluctant to waste its long-awaited efforts, but after Huang Xuan rejected the early acquisition, Southwest Bell had only one way to go, to forcibly pass the review and avoid Huang Xuan's nationality issue. In other words, it is to explain Huang Xuan.

Sitting in the Lincoln car heading to the city, Whitaker made a final effort and said solemnly: "Mr. Huang, what do you think of my proposal a few days ago?" A few days ago, he proposed that he buy Huang Xuan's SBC shares, so as to cross the last threshold before the acquisition and avoid the trouble of political lobbying.

"I trust Mr. Whitaker in the stewardship of the assets." This is naturally a tactful refusal.

Whitaker sighed, leaned back in his chair, and said, "So, we're going to face it together?" ”

He didn't say what he was facing, but everyone knew it in their hearts.

"The benefits and risks are shared, and as they should be." Having said that, for Huang Xuan, the actual risk is reduced countless times over, and as the buffer zone grows stronger, it can actually be seen as an increase in luck before a certain target is determined - of course, it is just understood that way.

Businessmen are afraid of risks, and eager for profits, if there is no solid news, Huang Xuan, who has already earned 200 million US dollars, is a wise move to sell stocks, Whitaker sat up, frowned slightly, thought of something, and said: "Mr. Huang thinks, which company will we buy?" ”

With less than a week left before the acquisition, as a shareholder, it is not surprising to know that SBC has an acquisition plan, but it is not necessarily known that the target company of the acquisition is not necessarily known, and Huang Xuan is naturally among those who do not know.

"AT&T." Huang Xuan smiled softly and turned the Bordeaux red wine in his hand. Whitaker is a guy who likes fine wine, and the car refrigerator has not only the precious red wine of the 60s, but also the new red wine produced in the last two years, which is a normal wine taster. Most of the gentlemen who talk about 86-year-old red wine are more like vassal elegance.

Whitaker didn't let his surprise come out, smirked twice, and said, "It's hard for the gentlemen in Washington to convince us that we can't let this acquisition fail." ”

"Can I afford more attorney fees, say, 80%?" Huang Xuan said tentatively.

In the United States, the lobby, that is, the collection of interests composed of lawyers, former "government" officials and well-informed people, is an absolutely borderless organization, counting from back to front, Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, Carter, Nixon, ......, in fact, needless to say, except for Nixon's successor after his resignation, poor Gerald Ford, all presidents have been Washington's lobby stars, they are the best lobbyists for the new president, and their influence in the party is far greater than that of an ordinary senator. In the 80s, we can see that the so-called former senior trade representatives (equivalent to Chinese ministers), secretaries of state, and countless former governors and senators can speak for Japan in front of their interests, regardless of the position of the US "government". The main reason why China cannot borrow the same approach is that most officials are still cautious about engaging with red-colored China, and McCarthy has disappeared, but he cannot afford to be unguarded.

But for a Chinese, or a Chinese shareholder, there is no similar problem.

Theoretically, with enough stakes, plus a little lobbying fee, any trade bill could be passed in the United States. Whitaker understood this, which is why he continued to talk to Huang Xuan.

Compared with a loan of $14 billion, Huang Xuan certainly will not be stingy with tens of millions of dollars in "consulting fees".

Such a cheerful attitude immediately changed Whitaker's attitude, and he "revealed" a "sincere" smile and said, "Don't worry, I will convince those bureaucrats." He said and touched his glass with Huang Xuan and said, "Happy cooperation." ”

"It's a pleasure to work with." After Huang Xuan toasted, he asked again tentatively: "I heard that the Cleveland consortium has also invested in SBC. ”

"Oh, you're all well-informed." It's a joke for Washington.

Huang Xuan showed a smile and said without shying away: "8% equity? That's $6 billion, how could the Cleveland consortium hand it over to a young man in his 20s, his name is Aiken, right? ”

"Aiken. Mather. Whitaker confirmed, "You know the Mather family, right?" ”

"A member of the Cleveland Consortium."

"That's right, about a month ago, Aiken was only a significant member of the Mather family, and he was the 8th in line to the throne."

Huang Xuan opened his mouth unceremoniously and smiled: "How can it be like a royal family." ”

Whitaker blinked and continued, "Now something has changed. ”

"What kind of change?" Huang Xuan also lit up on the energy screen as he spoke.

"His father became the new head of the Mather family, so Aiken is the first in line to the throne."

The same content was displayed on the energy screen, but it was not reported by the media, and the consortium was always secretive about their internal problems, and Lorraine showed mainly the Mather family's lawyers' documents, which were 500 pages long, with 300 pages of additional clauses and twice as many addendums.

Huang Xuan decided to ask Whitaker: "He doesn't have a brother?" ”

"You mean Aiken? He has two brothers, but the eldest is still in high school, so ......" Huang Xuan understood now, and hesitated slightly: "He has full authority to represent the Mather family?" ”

"It seems so."

Huang Xuan's feeling was penetrated.