Disney's financial normality, coupled with Eisner's ability and the early acquisition of Marvel, marks the entire Disney, and has entered the road of self-development, Chen Zhiwen's interference is no longer very useful, after all, he has no special golden finger, can remember the classic movies in history, this piece, whether it is an anime or a live-action movie, also needs Disney's own insiders, even if it is a Marvel series, Chen Zhiwen has indeed seen a lot of films, some of which are deeply memorable, There are still some plots that can be remembered, but those are just some of the most classic clips, and if you want to tell the entire plot of a movie, he doesn't have the ability.

However, because he invested in Jobs's new animation company one step earlier, Disney will at least own part of the shares of the strongest competitor in the future, even if it is hit by a certain blow, the impact will not be great, besides, this market is big enough, Disney can't really monopolize this industry, so that Jobs, a creative person, will develop more in the field of animation, and when he thinks about taking over Apple, Disney will probably still buy the other party's company even if he doesn't have his own interference. Strong cooperation, so as to control half of the entertainment industry, especially animation, the peripheral income is too strong.

As for the question of where Disneyland is built, Chen Zhiwen will not interfere too much, even if the original history of Disneyland Paris has been losing money, but in fact, this may only be on the books, the simplest logic, as long as the American company increases the licensing fee or through some indirect means, it is completely easy to transfer all the profits, not only Disney, but Starbucks, Gu Ge, Apple and other companies, are using various tax avoidance methods to make European profits 0 or even losses, In essence, in fact, no matter how good the law is, there are many loopholes, only workers who pay pure individual income tax have no way to avoid taxes, and complex company transactions are all ways to avoid taxes, so in terms of tax rate, workers pay the most.

After leaving Disney, Chen Zhiwen met with his family again, and after playing in Los Angeles for a few days, he came to Costco's headquarters, also in Los Angeles, and also has several buildings of his own, because it is not in the city center, the land is not expensive, and there is a lot of greenery inside the headquarters, and the scenery is also very beautiful.

"It's really beautiful here." Chen Zhiwen looked at the various designs like art, and couldn't help but exclaim that when the city built its headquarters, he was still in Hong Kong, this kind of thing, he didn't need to care too much, he directly approved and agreed, anyway, there will be a special financial department to dock in the future, but I didn't expect that it was built very beautifully, compared to Hong Kong, it is a cold steel forest, full of green headquarters, and it feels different.

"I invited a designer from Silicon Valley who specializes in architectural design for some of the biggest companies in the United States." Pierce said with a smile: "Don't look at our headquarters, it cost a total of 40 million US dollars, but these designs cost almost 5 million US dollars." ”

"It's worth the money." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, large-scale buildings, the design cost is very high, the larger the proportion, the higher the proportion, because this needs to consider the combination of cost, safety, energy saving, aesthetics and other aspects, the larger the building, the higher the requirements, but not those who simply build a house can be compared, any country, the top architect, the income is not worse than the top lawyers, accountants.

"Yes, I can't imagine that one day, I can spend tens of millions of dollars to build a headquarters like this, and this life is worth it." Pierce laughed and said: "It's a pity, I'm getting older, I can't keep up, Eric, after Costco goes public, I'm going to gradually distribute part of the company's business to a few candidates we selected, so that they can show themselves in practice, so that they can also be suitable for the most suitable person we pick." ”

"Yes, it just so happens that you are still here, and a few years is enough." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, among the rich people, many people are still struggling at work when they are seventy or eighty years old, such as Buffett, Shao Yifu, Li Jiacheng, etc., but in fact, such a proportion is not high, most of them retire at about the same age to enjoy the rest of their lives, only those who take the pursuit of career as their life goal will struggle like this.

Among the working people, there are almost no such people, basically retire when they are about 60 years old, such as HSBC's Shen Bi, Chrysler's Lee Iacocca and even Disney's Eisner, etc., this is a normal person's thinking, who is old and still works hard for others? It is not its own industry, of course, this may also be the requirement of the company's board of directors, the first is that a person is generally not allowed to control the company for too long, and the second is that when he is old, his business ability will definitely be reduced, similar to Buffett Li Jiacheng, after all, it is only a minority, and they are the boss, most people may give up after a few failures even if they try to persevere.

When Chen Zhiwen invited Pierce to start a new retail career for himself in the early 70s, he was already close to 55 years old, and now more than ten years have passed, he is almost 70 years old, and he is no longer suitable to continue to be the CEO, Costco must choose the right candidate, as early as two years ago, Pierce has informed Chen Zhiwen, and is already looking for a suitable successor.

Even if he is reluctant, he can't help it, what super-rich people can't fight for time, old is old, besides, if it weren't for Pierce's age, he wouldn't have been at ease to invest so many resources in Costco, it can be said that he can't have both, and not only Costco, any company, but also have to consider the issue of top-level replacement, that is, Hutchison, Land, Midea These companies, in fact, also have relevant internal mechanisms, one is for normal succession, The second is also to consider that if special circumstances occur, the operation of the company cannot be affected because of the departure of one person or several people, which is a management problem.

"Costco's IPO, currently scheduled for June 16, is led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and the roadshow has also begun, with an estimated market capitalization of more than $5 billion, which can definitely be said to be the largest IPO in the history of the United States." Pierce said again.

"yes, we worked a miracle." Chen Zhiwen also said that even in the era of electronic technology, many high-tech companies are optimistic, such as Microsoft, but their development can only be said to be high-speed, but it is still step by step, plus the current market is limited, even if it is listed, the IPO market value will not be very outrageous, such as the market value of Microsoft's listing is more than 700 million US dollars, although it is already very high in this era, but compared to the Internet ten years later, it is far worse.

In the Internet era, because the infrastructure such as computers has been perfected, the development of Internet companies is like a virus that grows exponentially and has full potential, so even if it loses money every year, the listing can explode, such as Google, Facebook, etc., and before the Internet companies, the IPO listing is very general, similar to Costco, which has developed smoothly for a long time, and has been listed to a very high degree, and the US market and even the global market are very rare.

"When that day comes, will you come? What the Dow Jones meant was that they wanted you to make a show up, so that it could also increase some attention and increase the value of the IPO on the first day. Pierce asked.

"Yes, I'll go." Chen Zhiwen promised that he still had to participate in the IPO of the core enterprise, and he was not so busy.

Today, his companies can basically gradually get rid of his golden finger support and enter self-development, but there are not many places that need him, which also makes him relaxed, not as busy as before, plus, to today's status, the most important thing is not how much money a company seizes what opportunities, more importantly, as the boss, the world's top richest man, is the need to build a good relationship with various governments, whether it is the West or the mainland, it is the same, these two places, It is the two largest markets in the future of all his companies, and the rest of the world combined, may not be able to compare with these two.

However, there is no need to worry too much in the past few years, because the relationship between the two is still very good.

"Okay." Pierce nodded.

After leaving Costco's headquarters, Chen Zhiwen and his family spent half a month in the United States, visiting major cities and several of his own farms, and then returned to Hong Kong.

In such a short period of time, Hong Kong has not changed much, and the only thing Chen Zhiwen has done is to let several of his companies start to raise funds in the stock market on a large scale, or borrow from banks to obtain more cash flow and prepare for the 87 stock market crash.

The time soon came in June, Costco was about to go public, and Chen Zhiwen came to the United States again, but this time his family did not come.

"Eric, congratulations." Henry Morgan said with a smile.

On the morning of the day of listing, Chen Zhiwen and others came to the headquarters of the exchange very early, as the person in charge of the company and the bell ringer who will be listed, they must prepare in advance, otherwise, it will be too late to encounter traffic jams, and it will become a joke in the history of the United States listing, and naturally there are Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs investment bankers, this time Costco listing, is one of the largest IPOs in the history of the United States, the two big investment banks also attach great importance to it, once the record-breaking success, It can not only earn high profits for the investment bank itself, but also serve as a model for its own investment bank to promote in the future and attract other companies that are ready to be listed.

Morgan Stanley, as a long-term partner of Chen Zhiwen, has also successfully become one of the two financial investment banks listed on Costco this time, and Henry Morgan naturally came in person, one of which is that he has the best relationship with Chen Zhiwen, and the second is that he also has a little Costco shares, although it is less than 1%.

"Thank you." Chen Zhiwen also said with a smile. Costco's home stadium is in the United States, and it is inevitable to be listed in the United States, otherwise there is no way to really develop here, and it is also a plan a long time ago to give up part of its shares in exchange for normal development in the future, and now it has finally come to this day.

"Haha, but I heard that the shares you are going to sell this time are not small? Wouldn't that reduce your equity to 50% all at once? Henry Morgan asked again.

In Europe and the United States, most people do not pursue absolute control of the company, not to say 50%, that is, 33%, many people do not care, they will through a variety of complex control methods, and even only 10% of the shares, can control the entire company, of course, this may also be the initial development of too much profit, or even their own company is not optimistic, so seek to cash out in the early stage.

But this kind of thing is too for Chen Zhiwen, who doesn't know the future potential of Costco? Coupled with Chen Zhiwen's years of operation and investment, there is almost no failure, how can he not have confidence in himself?

"After all, it's an American company, and I have too many shares, so it's still a little bit unsafe, and I just need to have control." Chen Zhiwen casually found a reason to explain. This is actually one of the reasons, and the other is naturally the imminent stock market crash.

In this year's listing, it is also early to prepare, 87 years of stock market crash, any company's stock price will fall seriously, and some people even think that it will repeat the events of 1929, panic psychology to the extreme, in this case, the US government will give up the restrictions on the major shareholders of listed companies, allow major shareholders to reverse the acquisition of stocks, pull up the stock price, this is Chen Zhiwen, but it is a good opportunity to sell high and buy low now, and it can also make many people speechless: I buy shares, but in response to the needs of the US government.

Of course, not only Costco, for many companies he invests in, such as General Electric, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Intel and other listed companies, this will be a good opportunity, not to say that the price is more cost-effective, but in the case of panic selling, Chen Zhiwen can let go of his hands to acquire, and it will not attract anyone's attention, this is the best time to increase the weight secretly, and he doesn't need to care when he gets it, anyway, he has no intention of acquiring these companies.

"That's right, it's really nice to think so. Anyway, it's important for you to control Costco's purchasing power. Chen Zhiwen's biggest resource for retail is to rely on the control of massive orders and supply chains, so as to minimize the cost of control, this advantage helps him stabilize a large number of existing supermarket chain orders, no one can do without whom, bound to each other, but Costco, is just one of the links.

Of course, it's easy to say, but it's basically impossible to replicate the success of Costco in the early days, and in the era of global trade, Chen Zhiwen seized the production advantages of Asia, which are all necessary factors for success, and it is impossible to replicate it now, even if it goes back to more than 10 years ago, few people can replicate it again.

"Let's go, meet the Dow Jones & Co." Chen Zhiwen didn't say anything more, anyway, he changed the topic and said.

"Okay, everyone has been waiting for you in there for a long time." Henry Morgan nodded and said.

Later, Chen met with several senior executives of Dow Jones, many of Costco's existing shareholders, and a large number of foundations that are ready to invest in Costco in the future.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the Dow Jones index opened, Costco was officially listed, the stock price was set at 16 Hong Kong dollars, a total of 300 million shares, the opening market value of 4.8 billion US dollars, under the witness of countless people, Chen Zhiwen struck the gong, Costco's shares officially entered the market circulation.

"Buy buy, 1 million shares, don't save me money." The on-site telephone clerk immediately received a large number of similar orders, a large number of calls from all over the United States, and even Europe and Asia, etc., the listing of Costco, obviously also made a lot of international capital notice, such a high-quality retail company, and after the listing is also ready to expand in Europe and Asia, who is not optimistic?

By the end of the afternoon, Costco's stock price had risen to $2.468 billion, with an overall market capitalization of $7.44 billion, and Chen Zhiwen held a 48.9% stake worth $3.66 billion after going public, while he also cashed out $920 million alone. (End of chapter)