Merrill Lynch's sales and trading division continued to lose money after Bank of America acquired and is expected to post a net loss of $17 billion in the fourth quarter.

In the face of such exaggerated losses, the shareholders of Bank of America were stunned, and it turned out that the acquisition of Merrill Lynch was not over, but had just jumped into a deep pit.

Under internal pressure from Bank of America shareholders, Bank of America Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Kenneth Lewis (Kenneth_Leis) made an emergency flight to Washington and decided to take advantage

The "material adverse change clause" reversed the merger. Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sternly rejected Lewis's application, threatening Bank of America, saying: "If Bank of America dares to reverse its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, don't think about the government providing bailout funds to Bank of America." ”

The 222nd economic crisis is not terrible

The four trillion yuan plan that the cabinet is brewing has its advantages and disadvantages.

The financial turmoil has swept the world, and Huaguo, which prides itself on being the world's factory, cannot be left alone. In September 2007, the manufacturing PMI index was 56.1, in October 2007, the manufacturing PMI index was 53.2, and in November 2007, the manufacturing PMI index was 55.4. In 2008, in September 2008, the manufacturing PMI index was 51.2, in October 2008, the manufacturing PMI index was 44.6, and in November 2008, the manufacturing PMI index was 38.8.

The PMI index of 50 is the score line of prosperity and decline, when the PMI index is greater than 50, it means that the economy is developing; When the PMI index is less than 50, it indicates that the economy is in recession. In the future, the PMI index hovers in the range of 49 to 50, and the manufacturing industry is already in mourning, crying that China's manufacturing industry has no future, not to mention the more terrifying 38.8?

The impact of the 2008 financial crisis was far greater than that of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007. If you don't eat a heart-saving pill, Huaguo's manufacturing industry will be finished immediately. At this critical juncture, all countries have successively taken out Taiwan to ease fiscal policies, and maintaining stability is the unanimous choice of all countries.

Compared with the Federal Reserve, which often stuffs hundreds of billions of dollars into financial institutions, Wei Dongsheng is more inclined to accept investment infrastructure.

At least, this is the least bad option.

Therefore, although the 30-year memory proves that the quick-acting heart-saving pill of the 4 trillion plan can only save emergencies and cannot cure the root cause, Wei Dongsheng still resolutely supports the 4 trillion plan. It would be even better if we could catch the four trillion express train and speed up the infrastructure construction progress of Panyang City and the research and development of quantum fluctuation circle pre-technology.

Aoyuqiao walked north to Aoyuqiao south, Aoyuqiao south walked to Aoyuqiao north, Wei Dongsheng witnessed the perfection of the four trillion plan up close.

On October 30, 2008, Forbes released the 2008 China Rich List, and Wei Dongsheng became the richest man in China for the fourth time with a net worth of 11.25 billion US dollars.

In November 2007, Wei Dongsheng topped the list of China's richest people with a net worth of $17.25 billion, and in March 2008, Wei Dongsheng's net worth slipped to $13.59 billion, and now, Wei Dongsheng's net worth continues to shrink to $11.25 billion, and his net worth is getting smaller and smaller.

This is not Wei Dongsheng's special situation, but the general environment. Yang Huiyan, the runner-up in the 2007 China Rich List, has seen her wealth shrink even more exaggeratedly, with Forbes valuing her at 121.15 billion yuan last year and 15.1 billion yuan by Forbes this year, ranking fifth in China.

Looking at the 2008 Huaguo Rich List, Wei Dongsheng continued to top the list; Gong Qiuqiu rose to the top of the ranks, ranking second with $5.69 billion, while Liu Yonghao of the Oriental Hope Group ranked third with $2.98 billion. Except for Gong Qiuqiu, who took advantage of the rose fund to become famous, the wealth of the wealthy people in China has shrunk to varying degrees.

However, this is not the bottom.

The economy is still on a downturn.

The financial crisis is still fermenting.

Take Merrill Lynch, for example.

Merrill Lynch's sales and trading division continued to lose money after Bank of America acquired and is expected to post a net loss of $17 billion in the fourth quarter. In the face of such exaggerated losses, the shareholders of Bank of America were stunned, and it turned out that the acquisition of Merrill Lynch was not over, but had just jumped into a deep pit. Under pressure from Bank of America shareholders, Bank of America Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Kenneth Lewis (Kenneth_Leis) flew urgently to Washington and decided to use a "material adverse change clause" to reverse the merger. Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sternly rejected Lewis's application, threatening Bank of America, saying: "If Bank of America dares to reverse its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, don't think about the government providing bailout funds to Bank of America." ”

Lewis realized that Bank of America could not get out of Merrill Lynch's pit and turned to other compensation. The federal administration, represented by Paulson and Bernanke, agreed in good faith to provide an additional $20 billion in bailouts to Bank of America and to guarantee losses caused by Bank of America's $118 billion in nonperforming assets.

Lehman Brothers is no better off than Merrill Lynch.

If we exclude the considerable profits from shorting contracts in the Rose Fund, Lehman Brothers' net loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 would be as high as $19 billion. That is to say, if the joint acquisition of Rose Fund, CIC and CITIC is purely financing $20 billion, it will be wiped out by the bottomless pit of Lehman Brothers in just two months. Acquisitions are just a pit, and how to fill the deep hole caused by the financial crisis is the real trouble. It is precisely because of this that Bank of America and Barclays Bank of the United Kingdom did not dare to acquire Lehman Brothers without a government guarantee; Without Wei Dongsheng's guarantee of Zhiyu and Zhixing, Jin Zongxian did not dare to allow CIC to invest heavily in Lehman Brothers.

With the short-selling contract rescue of the Rose Fund, coupled with Lehman Brothers' strong book-making ability, Lehman Brothers' performance suddenly appeared more mediocre. Lehman Brothers' performance did not suffer huge losses like Merrill Lynch's, nor did it stand out as an outstanding outstanding, but struggled through the financial crisis with other financial institutions.

One is the drag of Lehman Brothers, the other is that the overall U.S. stock market is lower, and the market value of Spring and Autumn Search has also fallen again and again. By mid-November, the market value of Spring and Autumn Search had plummeted from $25.66 billion at the end of September to $11 billion. Spring and Autumn Network, an affiliate of Spring and Autumn Search, is even worse, with its market value plummeting from $11.4 billion before the financial crisis to $3.4 billion.

However, this is not a bad thing.

Previously, Wei Dongsheng used the U.S. stock market as an ATM, taking advantage of the stock price rise between 2007 and 2008 to cash out a large amount. Taking Spring and Autumn Search as an example, Zhuwei Group cashed out a 20% stake in Ant Moving in the range of $28 billion to $30 billion, getting about $5.8 billion in cash.

The market value of Chunqiu Network is not as high as that of Chunqiu, but because it is Wei Dongsheng's first ATM, the proportion of equity cash-out is even more exaggerated. To date, Wei Dongsheng only controls about 30% of the shares, relying on the AB share dual share system to continue to control the Spring and Autumn Network.

Wei Dongsheng believes in the future of Spring and Autumn Network and Spring Search. In this case, the decline in the overall market and the sluggish stock price have become the best time for Wei Dongsheng to repurchase shares. Considering that the self-repurchase procedures of Spring and Autumn Search and Spring and Autumn Network are cumbersome, Wei Dongsheng offered out the vests of Shuoguang Group and Pacific Win-Win Group to methodically absorb the equity of Spring and Autumn Search and Spring and Autumn Network. Taking Spring and Autumn Search as an example, Zhuwei Group cashed out 20% of its equity at a high level of $5.8 billion, while Pacific Win-Win Group repurchased 10% of its equity for $1.2 billion.

Sell high, buy low.

The equity was simply transferred from Zhuwei Group to Shuoguang Group and Pacific Win-Win Group, which brought Wei Dongsheng more than 300 million US dollars in pre-tax profits.

Wei Dongsheng bought low and sold high indirectly led to the rise in the stock prices of Spring Search and Spring Network, especially Spring and Autumn Search, whose market value climbed back to $18 billion at the end of January 2009. Unfortunately, the economic situation has not improved, and Wei Dongsheng's net worth continues to shrink. In March 2009, Forbes launched the 2009 list of the world's richest people, and Wei Dongsheng was valued at $10.67 billion.

However, shrinking wealth is a global phenomenon. In the Greater China region, Wei Dongsheng's Sun Hung Kai-kuo family, which has a net worth of slightly higher than US$10.5 billion, and Li Ka-shing, which has a net worth of US$16.2 billion, ranks second; Globally, Wei Dongsheng's net worth is slightly higher than that of the tied Guo family and Paul_Allen, and slightly lower than the tied Steven_Ballmer, George_Soros, and the Grosvenor family of the Duke of Westminster in the United Kingdom, ranking 32nd.

Wei Dongsheng's net worth fell by $10.67 billion from $13.59 billion in 2008, but his global ranking improved from 55th in 2008 to 32nd.

Everyone's wealth is shrinking, and the impact of the financial turmoil is visible.

However, the economic crisis is not terrible.

Just like Wei Dongsheng's ranking on the global rich list has risen, just like Wei Dongsheng's repurchase of the equity of Spring and Autumn Search and Spring and Autumn Network, the economic crisis is just the best opportunity for the powerful faction to expand their power.

For example, Zhiyu's fatal shortcoming, the chip manufacturing fab, has been trapped by the lack of relevant talent reserves and has been hesitant for many years. Coinciding with the financial turmoil, SMIC was trapped in the dispute between offshore companies and TSMC, and urgently needed state-owned background capital to alleviate the pressure on all aspects. In order to ensure his influence on SMIC, Datang Telecom heard the news that Wei Dongsheng wantonly wandered south of Aoyuqiao, and immediately invited Zhiyu Telecom to buy 25% of SMIC's shares.

Looking back on 2008, Zhiyu shipped 21.32 million Sapientia series smartphones, and Zhixing shipped 8.5 million stars series low-end smartphones. Due to the hesitation of ZTE, Huawei, Meizu and other manufacturers on the hOS mobile phone operating system, and because Lenovo, Coolpad and other manufacturers tried to develop their own mobile phone operating systems, Zhiyu and Zhixing once again monopolized the Huaguo smart phone market. Looking at the broader smartphone market in the world, Zhiyu and Zhixing also dominated 20.6% of the global smartphone market with a total of 29.85 million units shipped.

At the same time, Nokia's market share in the smartphone segment fell sharply from 39.8% in 2007 to 31%. Zhiyu's zOS system and Zhixing's hOS system are collectively known as smart systems, and have in fact become the second largest manufacturer in the global smartphone field after Nokia.

Not only do Zhiyu and Zhixing have excellent prospects, but the current annual chip orders of 30 million units are also actively pursued by foundries such as SMIC and TSMC. Datang Telecom and Zhiyu Telecom will join forces to contain SMIC's internal opposition through terminal market regulation. If SMIC can be controlled through equity, Zhiyu IC Design will be able to design the Leader series chips more conveniently.

Wei Dongsheng will not pin his hopes on SMIC alone.

In addition to Datang Telecom, Zhiyu Telecom also cooperated with Huahong, which was disappointed with SMIC, and negotiated to register a joint venture company in Panyang City to build a 12-inch production line.

In all this, through capital operation and strong alliances, Zhiyu Group has quickly realized the progress of the wafer factory from scratch. After several years of operation with mobile phone chips as a breakthrough, the "superhumans" cultivated by thinking control will catch up later, and the shortcomings of the wafer factory may be slowly made up.

The expansion of Chunqiu, Zhiyu, Zhixing, and Zhuwei is not limited to wafer fabs. The Rose Huaguo Fund was long the income of the Chinese stock market last year, the Rose Fund shorted the income of the United States, and the cash reserves of the Spring and Autumn Search equity in order to cash out, and the cash flow of Zhiyu and Zhixing's mobile phone business were all used by Wei Dongsheng to acquire and re-acquire.

The seemingly terrible economic crisis has instead become the propeller for Wei Dongsheng to expand his territory.