"Wait! Let me make a call first!" Just as Allen Adhan was pressuring Huang He to quote a price quickly, Huang He slowly took out his mobile phone and dialed a number, making Allen Adhan roll his eyes uncontrollably.
Fortunately, the call was connected quickly. Huang He held the phone and asked, "Hello, it's me, Huang He. Have you finished your business?"
"Oh, really? You signed the contract yesterday? What, you're asking why I'm calling again to ask? Of course, it's to show off!" Huang He said with a chuckle, speaking entirely in Chinese. Allen Adhan understood part of it, but couldn't grasp the last part, especially the word "zhuangbi."
However, Shi Yuzhu, who was beside him, understood. Of course, no Chinese person wouldn't understand the meaning of this sentence. Shi Yuzhu instinctively felt something was wrong.
There was a rumor in the room that Huang He, the chairman of Jiangnan Group, was not very wealthy and had a very bad habit of showing off.
The first time it was heard was when Masayoshi Son organized a dinner in Hangzhou to discuss investment matters, inviting the two Mas.
Who was Masayoshi Son? He was the boss of SoftBank Capital and a billionaire with tens of billions of dollars. If placed in China, he would undoubtedly be among the top three richest people.
But who could have imagined that Masayoshi Son's carefully arranged gathering would be infiltrated by Huang He, who ate a free grand meal and, in the end, benefited Huang He, who "showed off" and came up with something like "5 small goals."
It was said that these 5 small goals were so exaggerated that Masayoshi Son couldn't help but marvel at this story even more than a year later.
However, no one knew what these 5 small goals were. Only those present at the time knew. But whether it was Huang He, the two Mas, or Masayoshi Son, they all laughed and talked about the 5 small goals as if it were a very amusing joke.
In addition to this, there was the classic "showing off" at Zhelin Lake in Jiangxi, which directly drove the big shots from the Beijing circle out of the country. If they waited another ten years, they probably wouldn't have the face to return to China in this lifetime.
Of course, they might not want to return to China in this lifetime either.
But this was not the biggest "show off." The most recognized "show off" was the Huang He Award, naming an award after oneself, surpassing the Nobel Prize to become the world's highest-paying award.
Therefore, in terms of credibility and recognition, it was far from being comparable to the Nobel Prize. But this "show off" was undeniably done, and it was very impressive. No one in China dared to do it a second time.
In fact, many big figures in domestic enterprises liked to "show off." But the problem was that some "shows off" didn't cost money, but the Huang He Award was a real expenditure of a large sum of money. It cost tens of millions of yuan every year. Wouldn't it be better to use this money to buy luxury cars, support mistresses, or play with celebrities? xxs壹贰
However, it was rumored that Brother Biao actually had ideas. After all, he had spent several hundred million yuan on charity, so spending tens of millions to create a Brother Biao Award seemed like nothing.
But Brother Biao considered it for a long time and felt it was better not to. He felt that even if he followed suit, he would be the tail of a phoenix, which was meaningless. So he gave up. Only Huang He dared to "show off" such a grand "show off" in the entire country.
Therefore, when Shi Yuzhu heard Huang He say that he was going to "show off," he felt it was bad. Huang He would probably use him to "show off."
But then Shi Yuzhu thought again that something was wrong. He had already withdrawn. He had clearly stated that he had given up the competition. There was no reason for Huang He to "show off" with him, and he couldn't be "shown off" to anyway, as he had already conceded.
Then the object of the "show off" should be... Shi Yuzhu cast a doubtful glance at Allen Adhan. After all, besides the three presidents in the conference room, there were only their respective secretaries and aides.
But there was no reason for Huang He to "show off" with his subordinates, so the object of the "show off" could only be Allen Adhan.
Shi Yuzhu found it difficult not to mourn for Allen Adhan.
"Huang, stop dawdling and don't pad the word count. The readers are about to send me razor blades. Hurry up and give your quote! (Dog head)" Allen Adhan said helplessly.
Allen Adhan was determined to force Huang He to quote a price on the spot today, otherwise, if Shi Yuzhu left, where would he find a second tool to use?
"Okay, then I'll give you the quote!" Huang He nodded and then said, "The agency fee for Warcraft III is 5 million US dollars, and the agency fee for World of Warcraft is 5 million US dollars per year."
"..."
"..."
Shi Yuzhu turned his head and asked his secretary, "Hey, my English isn't very good. Did I hear the unit wrong? Did Huang He quote in tens of millions, not millions?"
"This... I'm not sure..." Shi Yuzhu's secretary, who graduated from an international foreign language school and had studied in the United States for three years, speaking with a distinctive Californian accent, was now unsure if the numbers she heard were correct.
On the other side, Allen Adhan clearly felt that he might have misheard the number.
"Huang, you said tens of millions, right?" Allen Adhan asked tentatively.
"Ah, forget it, I won't play along anymore. Actually, I'm your boss now. I'm revealing myself!" Huang He would never admit that he himself was unsure if he had spoken the English number unit correctly, as Huang He had only mastered some simple English during his stay in the United States and was not sure if he had really made a mistake.
Anyway, this "show off" was completed. So Huang He happily stood up, patted Allen Adhan on the shoulder, and said with a smile.
"Huang, what do you mean? I don't understand at all!" Allen Adhan knew some Chinese. He understood every word Huang He said, but when these words were put together, Allen Adhan found that he couldn't understand the meaning at all. Chinese was too profound.
"Simply put, actually, since last night, I, Huang He, have become your boss, Allen Adhan!" Huang He said with a sincere expression. "Don't rush off later. I'll be holding a board meeting to elect the new chairman. We'll have a good chat then!"
"Elect a new chairman?" Allen Adhan opened his mouth, and then Hu Jing, who was behind Huang He, crisply took out a document from her bag and said, "This is a document sent from Paris this morning. Our Jiangnan Group has acquired all 87% of Blizzard's shares from Vivendi. Therefore, our Jiangnan Group now has complete control over Blizzard. We just need to hold a board meeting to determine the new chairman!" Hu Jing said.
"Mr. Allen Adhan, I hope you can contact the other two shareholders to attend this shareholders' meeting."
"..." Allen Adhan was still stunned.
"You really bought all of Blizzard's shares from Vivendi!" It took Allen Adhan several minutes to react. He looked at Huang He in shock and murmured.
"Yes!" Huang He nodded. "Although it was much more expensive than I expected, and I feel like I overpaid, I still managed to buy back these shares!"
"That's great!" It was hard to believe that after Huang He announced that he had bought the shares, Allen Adhan, who had been "shown off" to, did not show any signs of pain on his face. Instead, he let out a sigh of relief, appearing very happy.
This seemed incredible, but it was true. Ever since Vivendi took over Blizzard and made it its subsidiary, Blizzard had been plunged into darkness.
In fact, although Allen Adhan was so assertive, it meant that Allen Adhan had absolute control over Blizzard. But in fact, it was the opposite. Allen Adhan's life was also very difficult.
When the first Warcraft was being developed, due to a lack of funds, a local toy merchant bought the entire Blizzard company for only 1.2 million US dollars.
Later, this toy merchant sold Blizzard to a hotel management company, and then this company merged with other companies to form a listed company.
But as a result, this listed company was soon exposed for financial fraud, its stock plummeted, and it was acquired at a very low price by a Parisian company.
Then, this Parisian company was annexed and acquired by the French giant Vivendi.
It is worth mentioning that, according to later statistics, Vivendi actually spent no money in acquiring Blizzard; on the contrary, it made a considerable profit.
This is because Vivendi's strategy is known as a devilish strategy. Vivendi's main business is water services, that is, companies that provide social basic services. It is a French giant enterprise, and it also holds a large number of shares in Universal Pictures, making it a large film and television entertainment group.
But Vivendi also has another side, which is its keen interest in investing in and acquiring companies with low stock prices but high actual assets.
It's not wrong to do so, as it's investment.
However, after Vivendi bought shares in these companies and gained control, instead of continuing to support the development of the companies, they chose to spin them off.
They would break down all the businesses of a company into several small parts and then sell these small parts separately. As mentioned earlier, because Vivendi acquired companies whose stock prices had plummeted during the stock market crash but whose actual assets were highly valuable, these companies, bought for hundreds of millions or even tens of millions, were often sold after being broken down into small parts, yielding profits several times over.
The Parisian company that originally acquired Blizzard was also played this way. All of its subsidiaries were spun off and sold. Vivendi bought the company for less than 100 million British pounds and then made a net profit of 260 million British pounds, even without selling Blizzard.