People are always greedy, and after discovering that a great fire had disrupted everything and unexpectedly transferred all crises, the Wall Street financiers, while happy, began to ponder how to continue to exploit the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company.
Originally, at this point, the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company should have had no residual value of exploitation, as it had been thoroughly reduced to ashes by a great fire.
But in the eyes of these financiers, the situation was not so dire; this United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company was still very valuable.
First, there was the market capitalization of $80 billion. Although the stock price would still fall after the market opened, it was worth $80 billion at that moment.
Second, the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company still possessed the complete set of vacuum maglev train technology, and this technology was already quite mature.
In fact, the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company was not entirely idle; at the very least, its research and development department had been working diligently to implement the entire set of technologies.
From how to build new pipelines on the ground, to how to create a vacuum, and how to design and construct the internal magnetic levitation tracks, all these technologies were in place.
In fact, if not for this sudden exposé, the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company had indeed intended to begin construction by the end of this year. They would build about 100 kilometers and then take the opportunity to conduct another large-scale financing and issuance, allowing shareholders to continue to leech off this capital, making their lives incredibly pleasant.
But now, with all this chaos, it seemed none of that was possible.
Besides the technology, the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company also held a vast amount of land, which was for the construction of the pipelines.
Therefore, even though the land was acquired at prices dozens of times higher than the market value, the actual combined value of this land was around three to four hundred billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, a significant portion of it was land in the core commercial districts of major American cities.
After all, magnetic levitation pipeline trains would certainly aim to connect directly to city centers to maximize the commercial value of the pipelines. At the same time, it would allow for substantial profits when selling land.
After all, for land originally worth $50,000, even if the price increased 60 times, it would only yield a profit of $3 million.
But for land originally worth $500 million, a mere doubling of the price would result in a net profit of $500 million. Thus, initially, the entire pipeline railway plan was to bypass the most central parts of cities, passing only through the peripheral areas, to maximize land capital savings.
As a result, all shareholders protested, stating that if the pipelines did not pass through the core areas of cities, they would not meet the travel needs of residents.
The American people building a pipeline high-speed rail would still need to transfer to a taxi to reach the city center, which was unacceptable! It had to connect directly to the city core.
Thus, the entire route was modified again and again, eventually becoming one that almost passed through the core areas of all cities along the way.
The result was that the originally planned $6 trillion for land acquisition was not enough. Only about one-third of the land was purchased, with two-thirds remaining.
This was also why shareholders wanted to begin construction, as only by building a portion could they continue to raise funds and make money.
Finally, the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company did not need to pay any compensation. The United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company had not experienced any serious accidents and had not harmed anyone. Therefore, despite the significant funds being siphoned off, the investigation team had quietly disappeared, making any compensation unnecessary.
What, you ask about the thousands of unfortunate souls who were burned alive?
Don't be ridiculous; they were not proactively invited into the company by the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company, but had barged in themselves and subsequently set fire to the company headquarters. It was already divine mercy that the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company did not demand compensation from these deceased individuals.
Overall, the actual value of the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company was still in the hundreds of billions of dollars. As long as the public attention subsided, everyone could find ways to divide these hundreds of billions of dollars in assets of the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company, and life would be sweet!
Therefore, numerous shareholders gathered again for a meeting to discuss how to divide the company's remaining assets.
The main focus was on dividing the remaining land the company held and its complete technology.
The entire meeting then descended into madness. For these hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, these elites were almost tearing each other apart.
Originally, it should have been a straightforward distribution of remaining assets according to company shareholdings, but the problem was that a large number of stocks were held by retail investors in the market.
And as everyone knows, retail investors are not considered people. Therefore, based solely on their holdings, it was impossible to properly divide the remaining assets, and the meeting ended without resolution.
Over the next month, these individuals engaged in various overt and covert struggles and schemes, fighting fiercely. Some institutions even began to expose each other's secrets, causing not only embarrassment but also damage to their reputations. Some even escalated to the point of physical altercations.
To prevent the situation from spiraling out of control, Goldman Sachs had to step in once again to organize a board meeting to re-discuss the company's equity distribution.
"Everyone tally up the shares you hold, divide by the total number, and distribute them proportionally!" Professor Parkinson said expressionlessly. Faced with this suggestion, the shareholders had to admit that it was indeed the only feasible suggestion at the moment.
Thus, all institutions began to calculate their shareholdings.
At this time, the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company had already issued 100 billion shares of stock to the public. The major institutions combined held 26.8 billion shares. In other words, the major institutions only held a 26.8% controlling stake in the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company, not even the absolute controlling stake of 51%.
However, the major institutions clearly did not care about such matters, nor did they consider whether this 26.8% stake could substitute for the investments of the remaining 73.2% of investors. They directly began to distribute all of the company's assets.
Of course, these assets would eventually find their way into the hands of these major shareholders through various means, with no relation to the other 73.2% of investors and retail investors.
The entire process of profit sharing was very complicated and took another month. After all, too many interests needed to be balanced, and there were issues with valuing intangible assets.
By the time all these issues were resolved, it was already the end of November 2013. The board of directors of the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company publicly announced that it would convene another board meeting to decide the company's subsequent operations and property disposal.
By this time, the market had lost interest in the subsequent developments of this once world-leading stock. Retail investors no longer held enough shares to enter the company's board of directors.
In reality, the content of this meeting had already been agreed upon privately. First, the company would announce the payment of a large sum of debt.
The total amount of these debts was approximately $40 billion, which was the money the company had borrowed from various Wall Street institutions.
To repay this loan, the company would package and sell its technology and land to others to obtain $40 billion for debt repayment. This process was very reasonable.
And once all the land and technology were sold off and the $40 billion debt was fully repaid, the company could directly declare bankruptcy.
With a 26.8% stake, the remaining 73.2% of the property would be directly divided.
All of this was going very smoothly. After all, everyone had reached an agreement, and the details of all capital flows had been perfectly resolved. All that was needed was the company's board seal to conclude this final feast.
However, as the directors happily arrived at the temporary headquarters of the United States Union Super Vacuum Pipeline Railway Company, preparing to quickly conclude the formalities, they suddenly noticed a dark figure waiting for them with a smile at the entrance of the conference room.
"Yo, everyone's here!" Little Swift walked up enthusiastically and hugged each director, leaving them all dumbfounded.
"Mr. Little Swift, why are you here?" a representative asked with a frown. "Although it may seem inappropriate, a company board meeting is about to be held here. Unrelated personnel should please leave first, as this is company confidential!"
"I know. It's rare for everyone to gather for a meeting, so of course, I have to come!" Little Swift laughed heartily. "It's not easy for me to get everyone together like this. And you didn't include me when you discussed things privately, so I could only lie in wait here for everyone to appear."
Upon hearing Little Swift's words, everyone's expressions changed in unison. It seemed the matter had been leaked. Someone then said, "Little Swift, what we discuss has nothing to do with you. Do you also want to take a piece of the pie?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm thinking!" What was originally just an angry retort, Little Swift then said with a very sincere expression, "Several hundred billion dollars in benefits! If we Western Mustangs can't get a piece of the pie, wouldn't that be too much of a loss?"
"What qualifications do you have to stir up trouble here?" someone sneered. "Do you have any shares?"
"I do!" Little Swift nodded.
"Heh, I know you do, but you're smart and cashed out all your shares two years ago. How many do you have left? I'm telling you, if your total shares don't exceed 0.5%, you don't have the qualification to attend the board meeting!"
"Oh, the minimum standard is 0.5%?" Little Swift nodded. "Then I currently hold 45.5% of the shares. Is that enough for me to attend the board meeting?"