"Sir, this is the latest move we've discovered from Tianxing Mobile, Zhongmi, and vivo mobile phones!" Edward Zamp's secretary reported to him in his Motorola office.
"Let me see!" Edward Zamp's expression was ashen. His position in the company was already precarious. Ever since the damned Jiangnan Group appeared, he hadn't had a single good day. That's why he had his secretary constantly monitor intelligence on these competitors.
He wasn't thinking about preemptive strikes anymore, but he absolutely couldn't be tricked by his rivals again.
"What? These companies are collectively booking entire cinemas to let all city residents watch movies for free!" When Edward Zamp saw this news, he was stunned. He had been in the mobile phone industry for so many years, and this was the first time he had seen so many companies offering free movie viewings to audiences.
"What do you think they're trying to do?" Edward Zamp pondered for a long time without understanding the meaning behind it, so he asked his secretary. This secretary was a top student from a business school and should have a unique perspective!
"Sir, according to our intelligence, the movie 'Piaomiao Zhi Lu' is backed by investment from the Jiangnan Group. This means that the movie and Tianxing Mobile share the same owner. Furthermore, Tianxing Group has extremely close cooperative relationships with Zhongmi Mobile, vivo Mobile, and others. Their entry into the US market was also entirely supported by the Jiangnan Group!"
"Therefore, I believe this is simply a reciprocal gesture from these mobile phone companies to market and promote this movie. There shouldn't be any special meaning behind it!" This top business school graduate was quite capable and immediately analyzed the situation.
"Is that so?" Edward Zamp narrowed his eyes. Although his secretary's explanation was very reasonable, he still felt something was not quite right. He felt that if they wanted to reciprocate, there were many better ways to do it. There was no reason to use this method of booking entire cinemas for movie viewings.
Moreover, the company that initiated this collective cinema booking was Weibo, which was very interesting.
Although everyone in the United States knew that the US Priority Group and the Jiangnan Group had an ambiguous relationship and numerous collaborations, one would not expect Weibo to actively curry favor with the Jiangnan Group.
Could it be that President Zuckerberg genuinely booked the cinemas because he liked the movie?
There must be more calculations involved, but Edward Zamp couldn't figure it out!
"Continue observing! Gather more intelligence!" Edward Zamp told his secretary. By the afternoon, new intelligence was delivered, and this intelligence made Edward Zamp so angry that he almost kicked the table over.
It turned out that the black financial god from the Western Wild Horse Fund, the one who had caused Motorola's stock price to plummet and not yet recovered to $60, had also announced a cinema booking.
And not just for ten cinemas, but he had霸气ly announced that he would book all 136 cinemas in his city for a full week, offering them free to all ordinary citizens. They could go to any cinema at any time to watch movies, with an expenditure of $13.6 million.
And this money was not paid by the company, but by Junior Swift himself.
"No, there's a conspiracy! There's definitely a conspiracy!" Edward Zamp tapped on the table. If Junior Swift had used the fund's money for an event, it would have been understandable, but Junior Swift using his own money was different.
While other companies might have a possibility of using company funds for personal use, using fund money for personal use was almost impossible.
Due to the special nature of funds, the money they held was not the fund's own money but the investors' money. Therefore, this money was subject to the supervision of various regulatory bodies. Not to mention $13.6 million, even a deficit of $10,000 would immediately trigger an investigation by the regulatory authorities.
So, even if there were some unregulated transactions behind the scenes, since Junior Swift claimed to be using his own money, he had to pay from his own account.
But if that were the case, even if he wanted to curry favor with his boss, he wouldn't spend $13.6 million of his own money. The greatest saint wouldn't do such a thing. This Junior Swift was either crazy or had ulterior motives.
The more Edward Zamp thought about it, the more he felt that the situation was not right. He just couldn't understand why these changes made Edward Zamp feel particularly uneasy, and he couldn't sleep well all night.
When he woke up and went to work the next day, his secretary delivered new intelligence.
Today was the first day of the release of the third part of "Piaomiao Zhi Lu." This morning, the CEO of Google Group, Larry Page, announced that he would also book 10 cinemas for citizens to enjoy the movie for free.
"Google Group has also made a move!" Edward Zamp found it increasingly unbelievable. If the previous actions of other companies were understandable because they had some business dealings with the Jiangnan Group and wanted to curry favor with Boss Huang, then Larry Page's action was somewhat difficult to comprehend.
What business dealings could Google have with the Jiangnan Group? He had never heard of any!
However, what was even more exaggerated was yet to come. Two hours later, Edward Zamp received news again. This time, it was the Apple Group making a move.
Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Group, announced that he would personally fund $10 million to book 100 cinemas for all citizens to watch the movie for free.
"Apple? Jobs? What on earth are they doing?" With even Jobs making a move, Edward Zamp was completely bewildered and had no idea what was going on.
Moreover, Jobs wasn't funding $1 million, but he personally put out $10 million, only slightly less than the black financial god. This made things even more confusing.
Even if Jobs was just joining in the fun, why was the fun so expensive, even more so than his own people? What kind of ghost was this?
Fortunately, Motorola had a cooperative relationship with Apple at the time, so Edward Zamp could immediately call Jobs's private number to ask for the reason.
"No special reason, it's purely because I really like this movie!" Jobs replied like this when Edward Zamp asked him on the phone.
Did Edward Zamp believe him?
He believed in ghosts! Spending $10 million just because he liked a movie? Could it be that this movie was the position of the President of the United States?
Not only Edward Zamp but the entire wealthy circle was confused by Jobs's actions. No one could figure out why Jobs was doing this.
At this moment, Jobs had just hung up the phone and nervously asked the person sitting opposite him, "Mr. Daniel, has Bishop Song agreed to see me?"
Judging by Jobs's nervous demeanor, one would think it was a new son-in-law meeting his father-in-law for the first time.
"Amitabha, Mr. Jobs, your trip has great merit. Master will surely see you!" At this time, Daniel was no longer wearing his usual casual clothes but had changed into a standard Taoist robe with a large character "道" written on the back. Our Mr. Daniel was now a Taoist priest.
"Good, then I will prepare. I hope to meet Bishop Song this evening!" Jobs said with some excitement.
Ahem, everyone, don't be too quick to criticize this part as poison or me messing with the great God Jobs, because many people don't know that Jobs, as a technology titan, was also a devout follower of theology. And he wasn't a follower of traditional Western religions, but rather of Indian Zen Buddhism.
In the 1970s, a nineteen-year-old boy, using the $7,000 he earned from developing games at Atari, traveled from the United States to India and began a seven-month pilgrimage. This person was Jobs.
Around the age of fourteen, a friend of Jobs became a Hindu follower and learned meditation, self-cultivation, and yoga from a Hindu master.
Then Jobs discovered that this friend had undergone amazing changes. He transformed from an irritable, easily angered, and violent person into a composed, calm, peaceful, and wise individual who made a fortune in the stock market through his own wisdom.
Thus, in young Jobs's heart, a yearning for Indian Zen Buddhism was planted. When he had money, he directly went to India for pilgrimage and spent seven months there.
No one knows what happened to Jobs in India. It is said that one day he stayed in a small town at the foot of the Himalayas for three days, and during these three days, Jobs achieved great enlightenment and entered a state of awakening.
After returning to the country, he created Apple in his garage.
Although the truth of this story is unknown, hundreds of years ago, Wang Yangming's place of enlightenment, Longchang, was only separated from this small town by an insurmountable mountain range.
According to the Indian Zen master who had contact with Jobs at the time and helped him enlighten, Jobs was a person with great wisdom. With a little guidance, Jobs could enter a meditative state, which ignited his wisdom and made him a person full of spiritual light.
And his future success in creating Apple was due to him being full of spiritual light, which enriched his wisdom. Jobs never denied this statement during his lifetime; on the contrary, he implicitly admitted that Indian Zen Buddhism had indeed helped him greatly!