American Fortune Life

When the whole world was caught up in the uproar by the successive crazy terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the meeting room of the Starbucks headquarters in Seattle fell into silence after some discussions and quarrels.

The timing chosen by Andy Smith really made it difficult for Starbucks to fight back. Members of the board of directors and independent directors of the three committees all focused their gloomy eyes on Howard Schultz, the spiritual figure of Starbucks who returned to power this year. This Starbucks Jobs face.

His series of reform measures have indeed allowed Starbucks to reduce losses, reduce the impact of the financial turmoil, and allow Starbucks to regain its brand value.

At the same time, large-scale store closures and layoffs also made investors lose confidence in Starbucks, causing the stock price to reach the current price, giving Andy Smith a chance to fully acquire Starbucks.

"Maybe we can convert that 1.2 billion convertible bond into common stock..."

Someone finally broke the silence, and the chief financial officer, Michael Casey, sighed softly in his heart, and said something that was not a solution.

"That's self-defeating. Let's not talk about whether this common stock will affect Andy Smith's acquisition plan. The key is that this will completely lose the trust of investors.

Under the financial turmoil, do you want Starbucks' stock price to fall into a junk stock? Don't forget, this will not only dilute the other party's shares, but also dilute our own, I disagree! "

"I also disagree. Andy Smith has tens of billions of cash in his hand. Since he decided to acquire Starbucks and absorbed so many shares, he must have started planning a long time ago. He has definitely thought of various ways to deal with our counterattack. plan.

To put it bluntly, we have lost the initiative, and there is no way to prevent the other party from entering Starbucks' board of directors. Now that the other party's person has not appeared, it can only show that the other party's ambition and appetite are too great, so big that they want to completely control Starbucks. . . "

The one who spoke this time was the main member of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee. When he spoke, he looked at Howard Schultz and several company executives who had been frowning tightly, but sneered in his heart.

The three major committees and independent directors are optimistic about Andy Smith's entry, because no one will threaten their position, only the group of executives who have controlled the company for a long time Will repel and worry.

Howard Schultz looked around at the expressions of the people in the conference room, and his heart was full of gloom, because the evenly distributed shares he formulated could prevent major shareholders from intervening in the company's operations and allow the management to better control the company.

But the same also has disadvantages, just like now facing the rich and powerful Andy Smith, they simply can't take extra shares to introduce the white knight to stop Andy, a barbarian.

The only way to fight back is the poison pill plan, but facing the directors who refused to cause huge losses in assets, the possibility of implementing the poison pill plan did not exist from the beginning.

Howard Schultz even thought that the group of directors present wanted Andy Smith, a super-rich man, to join, so that the stock price of Starbucks ushered in a rebound against the trend, and the value of their assets skyrocketed.

"I need to talk to Andy Smith personally. I believe he will recognize our corporate culture and behavior. After all, this is the cornerstone of Starbucks. As long as Starbucks does not waver at all, we should be optimistic and welcome new directors. .

As for Andy Smith's post. . . "

"Boom——"

When Howard Schultz was quite helpless to make a compromise, there was a knock on the door of the meeting room, and soon a staff member pushed the door in, rushing towards Howard Schultz, who was on the first seat in the distance opposite, with a flustered expression. Ertz said: "Boss, a group of people came outside to see you, and the leader claimed to be Andy Smith's representative."

Howard Schultz's pupils shrank slightly, and everyone in the conference room had different expressions, and the other party finally made a move.

"Please come over here.

"

After the staff left, Howard Schultz smiled helplessly: "Let's listen to each other's thoughts."

Everyone in the conference room also looked dignified and nodded silently. They had no choice but to be powerless to stop Andy Smith, whose shareholding ratio was comparable to that of all the people present combined.

Not long after, led by Starbucks staff, a group of sharp-eyed business elites in suits and shoes entered the meeting room.

The leader, a tall white man in his thirties, reached out with a smile on his face and shook hands with Howard Schultz, the leader of Starbucks.

"Hi, Mr. Schultz, nice to meet you, I am Mr. Andy Smith's plenipotentiary, Olin Smith."

Howard Schultz, who shook hands with Olin Smith, stared slightly, with a smile on his face, and said in welcome: "Nice to meet you, please sit down."

Both parties had no ink marks, and quickly sat down on both sides. Immediately afterwards, Olin Smith took out some documents and handed them to Howard Schultz on the opposite side, smiling: "This is Mr. Andy Smith's share certificate and authorization Book."

After Howard Schultz took it, he smiled at Olin, and then looked through it indifferently. There were 2%, 3% and even 0.5% share certificates, which made Howard sigh helplessly in his heart.

After flipping through it, Howard smiled again. While handing the documents to David Pace, the executive vice president beside him, he asked Olin, "I don't know what Mr. Andy Smith thinks?"

"The acquisition of Starbucks by Mr. Andy Smith is just a normal commercial acquisition. Starbucks is a very good coffee chain retail company. Mr. Andy Smith is very optimistic about its development potential.

Of course, Mr. Andy Smith is also a loyal customer of Starbucks. Starbucks has ended its overly aggressive and blind expansion strategy. Although its sales growth has slowed down significantly, its performance is facing severe challenges.

However, with the return of Mr. Schultz, a series of rectification measures have made Mr. Smith feel that Starbucks will enter a new stage of growth.

Therefore, Mr. Smith is very interested in joining the big family of Starbucks. "

Hearing Olin Smith's words, everyone at Starbucks looked at each other in dismay. For these words, they did not believe that Andy Smith would implement the acquisition plan with such a big fanfare just to join the Starbucks board of directors.

"Thanks to Mr. Smith for being so optimistic about the development of Starbucks, and we also welcome Mr. Smith to join.

However, Starbucks has initially realized the separation of equity and control rights a long time ago. This time, Mr. Smith joined Starbucks with a 25% stake, which is undoubtedly a subversion of Starbucks.

I would like to ask, do you want to transfer the control of the company to the board of directors? "

Hearing Howard Schultz's straightforward words and questions, the smile on Olin Smith's face slowly converged, his face was serious, his bright eyes looked at each other and he said: "Let me tell you a good news first, through the acquisition, Andy Smith Mr. now owns 30.1% of Starbucks shares."

"Wow..."

"how is this possible..."

"this..."

Listening to the whispering voices of everyone in Starbucks opposite each other whose complexions changed drastically, Olin Smith only paused briefly before continuing.

"To be fair, as a commercial company, Starbucks is commendable in fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities, which stems from the persistence and excellent corporate culture established by the management.

But Starbucks ultimately seeks to benefit its shareholders, and this is the true meaning of its global shareholders meeting. Business is so cruel.

In terms of business, Starbucks needs coffee quality on the one hand and opens stores quickly on the other, but the contradiction between the speed and quality behind this is always irreconcilable. And as time goes by, we see more and more irreconcilable contradictions.

Mr. Smith believes that Starbucks needs a clear future development plan and strategy, instead of closing stores and laying off employees after repeated expansions. Therefore, Mr. Andy Smith hopes to be the chairman and chief strategy officer of Starbucks! "