"Mr. Oak, why are you here? This is truly a rare visitor!" Bezos looked at the man in front of him with some surprise. This was the intermediary who had helped Amazon with its financing back then.
When Amazon was first founded, it faced financial problems. However, because Amazon could not achieve stable revenue, many investment institutions refused to finance Amazon. It wasn't until he found Mr. Oak that, with his help, Amazon finally secured $30 million in financing and weathered the difficult period.
However, after that, Bezos had no contact with Mr. Oak until today when he suddenly appeared before him again.
Bezos was very grateful to Mr. Oak, and even though he was reeking of alcohol, he still greeted his old friend enthusiastically.
"What, you've been drinking so much? Don't you often say that alcohol dulls your wisdom and makes you make wrong decisions, so you don't drink?" Oak asked curiously, smelling the strong scent of alcohol.
"Not drinking doesn't mean I can't drink!" Bezos said with a wry smile, "As you can see, you already know the predicament my company is in. Someone wants to snatch away the child I raised with my own hands, and I am helpless, so I can only drown my sorrows in alcohol."
"So I am also curious, I wonder if Mr. Oak is here to advise me or to help me?"
"Uh... you guessed my purpose?" Mr. Oak asked somewhat awkwardly.
"Does this need guessing? My company is in crisis, and you, whom I haven't seen in years, appear before me. If there's no coincidence, then my decades of life have been lived in vain!" Bezos said calmly, instantly taking control of the situation with these words.
"Hahaha, I never intended to hide it from you. And let me tell you, I am here to help you, to help you through the acquisition crisis of Jiangnan Group, to help you and your company out of difficulties, and to defend your control over the company!" Since the other party already knew his intentions, Oak immediately clarified his stance.
"That's wonderful, please help me!" Bezos said excitedly, tightly clasping Oak's hands. Oak nodded and, after organizing his thoughts, said, "Mr. Bezos, we are old friends, so let's communicate in the most direct way."
"You also know that I am an intermediary and know many friends in finance. I already knew about Jiangnan Group's attempt to acquire Amazon more than ten days ago. In the past ten days, I have been continuously analyzing the situation and communicating with some of my friends, and finally determined something that would benefit both of us!"
"What is it?" Bezos asked.
"It's to help you fend off this acquisition by Jiangnan Group!" Oak said with a smile.
"How will you help me?" Bezos asked again.
"Luring the tiger into its lair, then slaughtering the chicken and the sheep!" Oak said profoundly, narrowing his eyes.
"You plan to let Jiangnan Group in, then continuously raise the acquisition price, and then trap Jiangnan Group in our company, ultimately causing them to run out of funds and fail?" Bezos saw through Oak's plan in one sentence.
"That's pretty much the idea!" Oak nodded, feeling a bit awkward as he wanted to act cool for a while longer.
"No, this plan is too dangerous!" Bezos shook his head. "It's easy for you to lure the tiger into its lair, but Jiangnan Group already holds 35% of the shares. They only need to acquire another 16% to gain controlling interest. As long as Jiangnan Group abandons the idea of full control and uses their funds to acquire only 16% of the shares, then Amazon will essentially change hands."
"The jar will likely be completely shattered before the chicken and sheep are even slaughtered!"
"So, we need your help and cooperation! As long as you are willing to cooperate with us, these problems will not be problems!" Oak said with a confident expression. "You know, the entire Wall Street consortiums and institutions will cooperate with our actions. We actually already control 51% of the shares. Jiangnan Group will have at most 49%, and they will absolutely not be able to control this company!" Oak said confidently.
"Heh, Mr. Oak, it's not that I don't believe your friends, but I've never trusted those wolves on Wall Street. They only care about profit, or rather, their own interests, and everything else can be discarded!"
"If Jiangnan Group is only willing to pay $5 billion for 16% of the shares, then I believe you can all unite to resist this temptation and remain unmoved."
"But if Jiangnan Group raises the price to $10 billion or even $15 billion, just to acquire 16% of the shares? Then I believe your friends will immediately abandon you and me, run to Jiangnan Group's feet, stick out their tongues and wag their tails. That wolf will turn into a husky, and your guarantee is meaningless!" Bezos said unceremoniously.
"Heh heh!" Oak chuckled awkwardly but readily admitted, "It seems, old friend, that you truly understand the nature of those Wall Street wolves. That's right, I admit, if Jiangnan Group does that, then these guys will definitely abandon us!"
"So, to prevent such a situation from happening, I came to you. You are the last piece of the puzzle in our entire plan. As long as you agree and cooperate with our collective action, everything can be executed smoothly without any loopholes?"
"What do you need me to do?" Bezos asked without hesitation. "I can cooperate with anything I can accept!"
"It's very simple, you just need to maintain a firm stance in rejecting Jiangnan Group!" Oak licked his lips and said, "I recall that when Amazon was financing and listing, the company had a dual-class share structure. The 10% of shares you hold are Class A shares, and the shares used for financing are Class B shares. The voting rights of Class A shares are 10 times that of Class B shares."
"That's right!" Bezos nodded. The A-B share system is a special system adopted by some companies in the United States during financing, established by the company's founders to prevent their control over the company from being usurped.
These Class A and Class B shares are identical in dividend rights, with no difference.
However, in the company's internal shareholder meetings, Class A and Class B shares are different. The Class A shares held by Bezos have 10 times the voting rights of Class B shares.
Simply put, when the company holds a shareholder meeting and there is a divergence of opinion on a major operational decision, it is only through voting that the company's final operational strategy is determined.
And for every 1% of Class B shares, one vote is held. So, even if 90% of the Class B shares agree on the same outcome, they will only have 90 affirmative votes.
Although Bezos holds only 10% of the shares, because these are Class A shares, each 1% of shares has 10 votes, so Bezos ultimately holds 100 affirmative votes.
100 is always greater than 90. Therefore, through this system, Bezos can always maintain control of the company, as long as the shares he holds do not fall below 10%.
This A-B share system appears similar to the systems of Netflix and Android before, all aimed at ensuring the founder's absolute control over the company.
However, the control of the A-B share system is far inferior to another type, as the latter can maintain absolute control of the company even with just 1% of shares remaining. But with the former, as soon as the shares fall below 10%, it's game over.
The A-B share system was not invented by Bezos personally, but rather it is a system that the entire world's financial system, through long-term evolution and development, has recognized as the most suitable.
Firstly, every founder does not want to lose control of their company due to financing. But conversely, institutions are unwilling to invest only to find that the founder is a beautiful monster who, after a brief success, will lead the company to ruin.
Or perhaps the founder is a complete scammer who plays with investors' money. They also need ways to restrain founders.
Therefore, the A-B share system has become the best solution. If a founder has absolute confidence in their company, they must maintain their shares above 10%.
And if they want to sell all their shares to cash out in advance, they will lose control of the company. This effectively ties the founder firmly to the company, preventing them from leaving.
It can be seen that Mr. Huang and those Wall Street institutions are still too young. At that time, they didn't know about the balanced system like the A-B share system, otherwise, they wouldn't have signed such a direct agreement that gives the founder absolute control of the company, only to end up opposing themselves.
Returning to the topic, when Oak mentioned the A-B share system, Bezos understood a lot of things. He immediately realized, "You want me to absolutely not sell the 10% of my shares, thus firmly holding the company's management rights, so that Jiangnan Group, even with 51% of the shares, cannot control the company as they wish!"
"Conversely, you also need me to constantly oppose Jiangnan Group after they acquire 51% of the shares, to reject all of Jiangnan Group's decisions and not approve the cooperation between Amazon and Western Mustang Wallet."
"This way, Jiangnan Group will be forced to acquire over 90% of the shares, to completely drive me out of the company, and only then will they be satisfied with controlling the company!" Bezos said.
"You are too smart, you are 95% correct, but there is one point you got wrong." Oak said with a smile.
"Which point?"
"You cannot completely refuse Jiangnan Group's acquisition of your 10% of shares. You must keep them hanging, showing an attitude of wanting to sell but disliking the low price and wanting more money. Keep them hanging bit by bit, and absolutely do not let Jiangnan Group completely lose hope of acquiring Amazon, until Jiangnan Group's acquisition price gradually increases to the point where they are unable to afford it and cannot struggle out!" Oak revealed the final plan.
Although this only accounts for 5% of the entire plan, it is the most crucial link in the entire plan.