The next day, in the morning.

Cheng Jianjun, Mr. Shi and others knew last night that Ji Cheng was going to buy Columbia Pictures, although they didn't know how much money was involved, they were very interested in it, and they followed the company again.

Ji Cheng knew that he would be very busy today and didn't have time to entertain a few friends, so he asked Li Kai, who had just returned to the beautiful country, to take everyone around.

Nine a.m.

He took Steve with him. White, Sophia. Green and other company executives greeted CBS Chairman and CEO Victor Victor Greene downstairs in the company. Kaufman, President and COO Lou. Koman and Columbia Pictures' top management and negotiating team.

Well, Ji Cheng's old acquaintance Rhys. Brown is among them.

And, of course, Coca-Cola Chairman Robert Brown. Goyinsueta and the legal team.

Ji Cheng thought that Robert. Goyinzueta was a very old man, and it was only when he saw him that he found out that Robert. Goyinsueta turned out to be a white man of fifty-five or sixteen, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, and his gray hair was meticulously combed.

Is this the legendary savior of Coca-Cola?

Ji Cheng looked at it for a moment, and immediately stepped forward to greet him, "Hello Mr. Goyin Sueta." ”

Robert. Goyin Sueta shook hands with him, "Hello, Mr. Ji." ”

Ji Cheng greeted the chairman and president of Columbia Pictures again.

"Hello Mr. Kaufman."

"Mr. Ji, hello."

"Hello Mr. Coman."

"Hello, Mr. Ji."

Ji Cheng and the two parties got to know each other roughly, and then took a group of people upstairs.

Victor. Kaufman and Lou. Koeman saw Robert. When Goyin Sueta was borne, both of them couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

"Mr. Goyinsueta, why are you here?" Victor. Kaufman was stunned.

Robert. Goyin Sueta smiled, "I was invited by Mr. Ji to come and persuade you. ”

Lou. Coman knew what it meant as soon as he heard it, and he said with a wry smile: "You shouldn't convince us, Victor and I are both strongly in favor of selling the company as soon as possible, and what you want to convince is William's stubborn old man." ”

Robert. Goyin Sueta said calmly: "When you negotiate with Ji, I will go and persuade William. Paley's. ”

Ji Cheng, who had just approached the elevator, was moved when he heard it.

William. Paley?

CBS founder?

The media mogul's status in the 80s was comparable to that of Rupert in the modern world. Mercado.

Although Mercado has spent $1.5 billion to acquire the fourth largest television group in the United States, "Metropolis Media Company", in terms of influence, it is not as good as William. Paley.

Ji Cheng remembered William. Paley retired into the background in 1945, but returned to the post of CBS chairman in 1986.

CBS is the parent company of Columbia Pictures.

Come upstairs, the conference room.

Everyone sat down, and the assistant served tea and water.

Victor. Kaufman said bluntly: "Mr. Ji, I heard Brown say that you are willing to sell the company for us, can you tell us the specific plan?" ”

Rhys. Brown sat there and gave Ji Cheng a look, meaning to convince his chairman as much as possible, after all, last night in order to convince Victor. Kaufman came to see Ji Cheng, but he had to say a lot.

Ji Cheng smiled and nodded, then looked at Victor. Kaufman, "Originally, I wanted to get a proxy for your company to sell, but now I've changed my mind. ”

Rhys. Brown smiled and said in his heart, "Are you Falk playing with us?"

Victor. Kaufman and Lou. Koeman couldn't help frowning.

"You're not going to ask for a mandate?" Victor. Kaufman was slightly upset.

"The power of delegation is not ready to be asked." After Ji Cheng finished saying this, he saw that more than a dozen people in the negotiation team of Columbia Pictures were about to have a seizure, and he hurriedly added, "I am ready to buy your company personally!" ”

"What?"

"You're going to buy Columbia Films personally?"

The people on Columbia's negotiating team were all taken aback.

Especially Rhys. Brown was even more stunned, he didn't expect Ji Cheng to want to be his boss!

Vitok. Kaufman and Lou. Coman glanced at each other, and immediately a smile appeared on his face, who is the company selling to or not? They just want to get the money quickly to end this farce.

So, Victor. Kaufman said: "Okay, then let's talk about the terms of the acquisition." ”

The normal way to acquire a beautiful country is to issue a tender offer.

There are several pre-process procedures for a tender offer for a listed company, such as first selecting the target company, then making M&A decisions within the company, drawing up M&A plans, hiring lawyers, accountants, appraisers, financial advisors, M&A consultants, and raising funds.

Subsequently, in the acquisition of a part of the shares of the listed company, Huaxia is generally 5% of the ordinary shares issued, but the proportion in Europe and the United States is relatively high, at most in the early thirties, for example, when Porsche acquired Volkswagen, it secretly held 30.9% of the shares, and finally had no choice before announcing to the public.

At this time, it can make further acquisitions, and when the direct or indirect ownership of the outstanding ordinary shares of the target company reaches a certain percentage, a written report and announcement will be made to the target company, the stock exchange and the government department in charge of this area within a certain period of time after the date of the occurrence of such fact.

That is, to make an offer.

At this time, the internal shareholders of the other company bid and disagreed.

If the parties agree on the intentions, then congratulations, there is basically no problem with the acquisition, you only need to sign the contract at the offer price and complete a series of rights transfers, which may include the delisting of the company, etc.

It's a huge process.

Normally, this is true.

However, generally the real tender offer is after the two companies have friendly communication and negotiate the price, and then start the real operation, otherwise you rashly acquire a certain percentage of the outstanding shares of the other company, and the other company does not agree to sell, it may become a hostile takeover, and you have to start an offensive and defensive war.

Ji Chengcheng remembers an example of a hostile takeover, that is, the Porsche just mentioned wanted to buy Volkswagen in 05, and it almost happened, but because of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the subprime mortgage crisis caused by Porsche's failure, and it was finally acquired by Volkswagen.

Ji Cheng and Columbia Pictures are friendly acquisitions, so they have to sit down and negotiate first.

However, he doesn't need to have too much evaluation of Columbia Pictures, there must be an evaluation, but it doesn't need to be so complicated, after all, he knows that Columbia Pictures has been trying to find buyers, and he has already asked himself to evaluate by an appraiser, and when the time comes, he just needs to let the company's appraiser verify whether it is true.

The nature of this acquisition of Columbia Pictures is completely different from the last acquisition of Rockefeller Center, one is the acquisition of listed companies, and the other is to be precise, it is a sale, so the last time Ji Cheng acquired Rockefeller Center, he only needed to sign an acquisition contract and the funds arrived, but this time it will be very complicated.

Ji Cheng thought about it and spoke, "What are the conditions of your company?" ”

Victor. Kaufman told Ji Cheng about the offer to Sony, "$20 per share, $1.6 billion in debt, and if there is a lawsuit...... Well, if we agree to sell the company to you, Warner will inevitably sue in advance, and you will have to bear these costs at that time. ”

This is actually a very excessive request.

Victor. Kaufman and Lou. Koeman thought that Ji Cheng would conduct various negotiations like Sony's side and keep the price down to a certain point.

But what they didn't expect was that Ji Cheng agreed: "Okay, I'll agree to all of this." ”

Steve. White: "......"

Victor. Kaufman: "......"

Lou. Koeman and others: "......"

Steve. White couldn't help wiping a cold sweat, he was going to show his eloquence and reduce the price as much as possible, who knew that his boss was so straightforward, and he agreed to the request, which made him very speechless.

It's not just Steve who is speechless. White, as well as the executives of Columbia Pictures, in order to sell the company, they have negotiated with many companies, among which the closest to reaching an intention is Sony, but no matter what, Sony still has all kinds of negotiations and price reductions, you are good, you don't want to agree to such an excessive request?

This makes Victor. Kaufman and Lou. Coman and the others even had a feeling that there was no fraud in it.

But it's not right to think about it carefully, their demands are so excessive, Ji Cheng has to pay billions of dollars no matter how much fraud he has.

Rhys. Brown couldn't help but remind: "Mr. Ji, if you agree to this request, not counting the huge expenses that may cause a lawsuit with Warner in the future, you will have to come up with four billion US dollars, and you really agreed?" ”

Victor. Kaufman also thought that Ji Cheng had misheard, and said his request again: "My request is twenty dollars per share, a debt of $1.6 billion, and a huge amount of legal costs may be incurred in the future, are you sure you listened carefully?" ”

Ji Cheng smiled and said: "Listen carefully, twenty dollars per share, according to the share capital structure of Columbia Pictures, it is about two billion five thousand dollars, and the other six billion dollars of debt plus that, that is four billion dollars, as for Warner to file a lawsuit, I expect to pay about one billion dollars, a total of five billion dollars, as long as you are sure, we can sign the contract, and then I will remit the funds to your designated account within the agreed time." ”

Seen acquisitions simple.

I've never seen you so simple!

Victor. Kaufman and Lou. Koeman's worldview has collapsed!

Even the dozen or so members of the negotiation team of Columbia Pictures feel that they are a bit redundant, and when is it not the negotiation team that fights for a large-scale acquisition involving billions of dollars? It's good that they sit here and don't say a word about their intentions!

Victor. Kaufman didn't know what to say, and his eyes involuntarily glanced to the side and saw Robert. Goyin Sueta was smiling on his face, and he suddenly came to his senses. Goyin Sueta did not come to persuade them, but had already privately made an agreement with Ji Cheng to acquire shares, even if they did not agree, Ji Cheng could get a large number of shares from Coca-Cola, and then make a tender offer.

You must know that Coca-Cola has 49% of the shares of Columbia Pictures, and once Huajin Capital controls the shares in Coca-Cola's hands, it will not allow the members of the board of directors of Columbia Pictures to agree or not, and if they do not agree, Ji Cheng can be completely hostile to the takeover!

For example, in a bear-hugging takeover, the acquirer promises to acquire the shares of the target company at a high price, and the board of directors must announce the offer to all shareholders out of obligation, while some shareholders are often attracted by interests and put pressure on the board of directors to accept the offer.

That's pretty mild.

Once Ji Cheng controls 49% of the shares, he can also use a worse sniper-type public takeover.

A sniper-type public offer generally refers to an acquisition that is carried out directly in the market without prior communication or warning between the acquirer and the target company when the target company has problems due to poor management or stock market decline. Sniper open purchases include auction purchases, stock purchases, and proxy purchases. The so-called tender offer means that the acquisition does not directly issue a tender offer to the board of directors of the target company, but directly bids to the shareholders of the target company at a price higher than the market price of the stock.

Columbia Pictures has been weak in recent years, and the company is really not doing well, otherwise it would not have thought about selling the company.

It can be said that once Ji Cheng uses a sniper-style public takeover, as long as Coca-Cola is on his side, Columbia Films will not be able to resist.

Victor. Kaufman and Lou. Koeman and the executives of Columbia Pictures all understood, Ji Cheng called them over not to discuss, but to give a notice!

Victor. Kaufman smiled bitterly, "Mr. Ji, thank you for your respect, since the conditions have been negotiated, then you let Huajin Capital draw up an acquisition report for us to bring back, and then I will persuade the other shareholders of the company, and then make an appointment to formally sign the contract." ”

Ji Cheng snorted, "Okay." ”

The anti-dumping negotiations were short, but they were surprisingly efficient.

After reaching an agreed intention, the two sides discussed the details, such as Victor. How long will it take Kaufman to convince the shareholders that he has promised Coca-Cola's help in about a week.

At that time, the two sides will officially sign the contract, and then Ji Cheng needs to provide a certain percentage of funds to delist Columbia Pictures at one time, and then within one to two months, the remaining funds will be in the account.

Of course, as long as the contract is signed and Huajin Capital provides a certain amount of funds, even if the paid-in capital is not in place, the equity can still be transferred. Always give yourself enough time to take control.

In other words, Ji Cheng will have the ownership of Columbia Pictures after the official signing of the contract seven days later, and he is not worried about the funds after the official signing, he still has more than a billion in his hands, and he can also use these few days to complete the bridge loan.

It's still time-consuming to talk about the details.

The two sides talked all the way to the afternoon.

At the end of the day, after the talk, Columbia Pictures and Coca-Cola left.

Ji Cheng was excited to let Steve. White started to get busy.

Just out of the conference room.

Ji Chengcheng saw Cheng Jianjun, Wu Deliang and others running back from outside.

Cheng Jianjun looked at him with some puzzlement, "Mr. Ji, why does your company suddenly seem to be a lot busier?" ”

Zheng Chun, Zhou Cheng and Teacher Shi were also very curious.

Ji Cheng looked at them with a smile and said, "I have negotiated with Columbia Pictures, and I expect to sign a contract in a week, but don't tell the outside world about this matter, before the official announcement, this matter cannot be known to the outside world, otherwise Sony will intervene sideways, and Columbia Pictures will regret it, and I will be very troublesome." ”

"Yes, yes."

"Brother Ji, aren't you worried about us?"

Everyone agreed.

Zheng Chun asked curiously: "Ji Sheng, can I ask, how much capital is involved in your acquisition?" ”

Xiao Zhang and others are also very interested, except for Zheng Chun and Zhou Cheng, the others have seen such a major merger and acquisition for the first time in real life, and of course they want to know how much capital is involved.

Ji Cheng didn't hide it from them, stretched out four fingers and said: "At present, it is four billion US dollars, plus the later litigation costs, etc., I expect it to be five billion US dollars." ”

"it!"

"Oh my God!"

"Multi-...... How much? ”

"Five billion dollars?"

"Oh my god, how much will it cost if I exchange this for soft girl banknotes?"

"It's almost 20 billion!"

Astound!

Astound!

Teacher Shi, Cheng Jianjun, Zheng Chun and others were all stupefied by Ji Cheng's huge handwriting!

They knew that Ji Cheng's business was very big, and they also knew that he was worth two billion dollars, but they didn't expect that after they really came into contact with Ji Cheng's business, they knew that people do business in billions of dollars!

Nearly 20 billion soft girl banknotes!

This number is deeply impressive!

Cheng Jianjun, Wu Deliang, Zhou Cheng and others were shocked for a long time and couldn't say half a sentence!

Just when they were shocked, Ji Cheng's eyes couldn't help but drift away, he was different from the shocked emotions of everyone, but was thinking about how to raise money.

He has more than a billion dollars in his hands, and it is better not to move if he can not move.

Well, there is only a bridge loan.

Ji Cheng took a deep breath and decided to discuss with Citibank, State Street Bank and Vanguard Group to see if he could get so much money from the three of them.

If he couldn't get that much money, he would be in trouble next.

First of all, he can't get back his liquidity, once he can't get his liquidity back, the final harvest of soybean futures can't be carried out, and he can't get the money in the future, and he will face huge liquidated damages, so he must get a bridge loan from these three companies.

However, Ji Cheng doesn't think there is a possibility that he can't get money, not to mention that he is currently a strategic partner with these three companies, and the bridge loan is only borrowed for a short period of time with high interest, after all, no one can't get along with money.

Just saying that he has a mortgage on Columbia Pictures, the target company to be acquired, is enough to get a bridge loan from any bank.

Well, leveraged buyouts often use the target company as collateral.