Chicago 1990

‘I know, I know that Vivendi Universal has had a difficult day. This is a great company, but I still don’t think their stock prices have returned to rationality...’

Vivendi Global evaporated more than 16 billion euros in a trading day, but Julian Robertson still showed a stance that he would not let go. After making a brief and restrained statement at the gate, he made a blank expression. The reporters waved their hands and refused to gossip and continued to ask questions before disappearing in front of the camera.

"Damn it! Vulture! Bastard!"

Obviously even pretending to be proud of the limelight. After seeing this scene on the TV at night, the little Bronfman felt his deep hatred for this guy almost filled all his sanity, "Rotten Wall Street scum!"

He found that the windows of the room were illuminated by lights from time to time, walked over and looked out, "SHXT..."

A number of luxury cars were slowly driving into the gate of the manor, and they stopped at the gate of the castle. The rigorous and decent people from the upper class in Europe got out of the car and handed the small envelope with the invitation letter in their hands to the tuxedo. The male servants lined up to welcome them, and then went inside to receive a grand reception from the host's family.

Little Bronfman just remembered that he had invited guests to arrange today’s top dinner, originally intended to celebrate the good day of Vivendi Universal, but he did not expect things to be like this...

The irritation today was a bit big, he completely forgot...

"Little Edgar, I know you are in a bad mood right now, but you have to go down to entertain the guests and don't lose the demeanor of the Bronfman family..."

The voice of the veteran of the family and the president of Seagram Wines rang outside the door, "At this time, we must not let outsiders find that we are in a panic."

"I'm not afraid to meet people yet."

The grand dinner to celebrate the victory now seems so ironic. The matter is over. The rich and the noble sons have to clean up and do their communication duties first, "Wait for me, it will be fine."

With the help of the housekeeper, he cleaned it up, practiced smiling in the mirror, and then gracefully surrounded by his subordinates downstairs.

Net worth has shrunk by 18.75% in one day with Vivendi Global, and the Tiger Fund vowed to short-selling because its own company cheated Vivendi by fraudulent accounts. The French people in the banquet hall paid attention to him after seeing him. Li, with different expressions.

He calmly patrolled the end of the field with his eyes. At this time, the people who came to the banquet were almost all wealthy children who like to have fun and have not taken over the family business, so-called descendants of nobles, senior managers, and party animals in the fashion circle. We...

"Hello, hello... welcome..."

He didn't worry that these second-rate figures in the upper-class European circles would prevent him from coming to Taiwan in public. He calmly shook hands and greeted them one by one from close to show his friendship as a landlord.

But when passing in front of the live band, the usual relaxing and soothing tune as the background of the banquet suddenly changed, the violin part was highlighted, and the fast and strong bow movement made the flowing music incompatible with the live atmosphere.

He understands music and loves music, otherwise he would not buy the two major record companies, Universal and Polygram from the wine business. He quickly learned that this is the work of Italian composer and violinist Vivaldi's "Four Seasons". To be precise, it is the first movement of the Four Seasons Mid-Winter Concerto.

People are in the biting cold wind

In the bone-to-bone ice and snow

Can't help shaking

Stop running to maintain body temperature

Teeth trembling

Vivaldi himself interprets this movement with a short poem. The live band playing this is definitely deliberately making trouble. He turned his head and looked at it. It turned out that the violinist was the one who had been yelled by himself before, and he did not expect to be invited again. I'm reemployed in my own family...

The temper of these artists...

This time he didn't have another episode, maybe it was the power of music, and even his mood was unknowingly infected by the melody, as if he was really brought from the warm summer of France to the cold winter with heavy snow.

Standing in place, he couldn't help but recall the scene before and after the stock market closed in the afternoon.

Fifteen points, sixteen points, seventeen points...

Watching the market alone, he stared at the computer screen, and the corners of his mouth trembled. He hoped for a miracle, but no, at 18 o’clock and then at 18.75, the Vivendi Global traded before the close of the Paris Stock Exchange. He was thrown straight to pieces.

He gritted his teeth, knowing that his face must be very ugly now, and his eyeballs seemed to be bloodshot, but he couldn't take care of it anymore. Messier did nothing like this! He jumped up, got up angrily, and went to ask Renxingshi for inquiries.

Messier's office, no one, the big conference room... also empty and no one.

But soon, before he left the big conference room, Messier led many people in, "Messier, you..."

Today not only Vivendi’s global limit, the French stock market and even the European stock market also fell across the board. Messier’s mood was not much stronger, and he roughly interrupted his words, "Little Edgar, we have decided to give you two choices."

He was no longer friendly. In front of the top of Vivendi Global and the representatives of the French government and various banks, he said directly: "If you give yourself a good vacation, we will not remove your position as CEO of Seagram Global. Unite to save the situation, leave nothing to do for the time being, we will take care of other things."

Still shaking the pot? He was angry and responded grimly: "Don't forget that I am still chairman of the board of Seagram Universal. Do you want to take away my power in a disguised form and then arbitrarily throw the responsibility to Universal Music? Then go to the program and open the board of directors! There won’t be any help for the current crisis, an idiot!"

"If you don't agree, just take the initiative to uncover the lid. I declare that I will enter the internal investigation process, admit some minor mistakes and then convene the Seagram Global Board of Directors to dismiss you, including the chairmanship. After a while, the market will return to rationality. Knowing that I can manage little Edgar...but I advise you not to make this choice." Messier replied coldly.

After the share swap and merger, Messier could indeed do it, but it was tantamount to tore up his previous commitment to continue to host Seagram Global Group. "Then what? This is equivalent to our own confirmation of the Tiger Fund’s short selling report in disguise, and even This makes the rumors of tens of billions of false accounts on Wall Street more credible, do you still want to see another drop limit?"

"Anyway, think about it for yourself, and give me an answer before wee hours."

Messier didn't bother to say anything to him, and shook his hand impatiently, "Now you can go out, this will make it inconvenient for you to be there."

"you!"

In the humiliation he has suffered throughout his life, Messier gave this time to the extreme. His face was flushed with anger, and the people attending the meeting passed by one by one. The various eyes that looked at him...he couldn't accept it at all, but he didn't expect it for a while. The means of counterattack, standing at the door in a dilemma, it feels like being stripped naked to show the public.

"Or do you need me to call the guard?" Messier threatened, sitting at the top of the long conference table.

"You!" The dignified top rich man, the chairman of Seagram Global Group was forcibly thrown out by the guards, it would be too ugly, "Let's take a look!"

In the French land, he could only hold back this tone for a while, "Let's go!" He greeted his subordinates sadly like a defeated dog, planning to go back to a meeting immediately to discuss countermeasures, "Huh?" He saw Ron Mai, president of Universal Pictures. Although Yeah smiled at himself, his body was still leaning against the wall, and he slipped into the meeting room.

"Uh... hehe... boss." Ron Meyer, who was discovered, nodded and bowed in embarrassment.

"Little man!"

He instantly realized that he had begun to encounter the betrayal of his relatives.

"APLUS? APLUS?" Hallie knocked on the door outside.

"Huh?" After the ecstasy, Song Ya in the room answered her painful knuckles.

"Did you forget something?"

"what?"

"At night, we are going to the cinema." Hallie replied.

Oh! I really forgot, the announcement of Blade Warrior 2 has to continue.

Spain’s nightlife is very rich. For the locals, night means the beginning of a day of entertainment. In the evening, the creators of Blade Warrior 2 such as Song Ya and Halle arrived at the cinema to participate in the premiere.

Hallie held his arms all the way, with a happy expression on her face, as if she had beaten Vivendi Global to a halt today.

"Damn it."

He saw the people approaching him clearly, and suddenly remembered that this is the place of the Latins, he muttered secretly before he smiled, "Mr. Estefan."

"APLUS..."

For Song Ya, although it feels as if the whole world knows that he has participated in short-selling Vivendi Global, in fact this news was only circulated in a small circle, except for being asked by someone from Nomura Securities in Tokyo. The Latin Gang, who was addicted to fighting in the American stock market, received no news at all, and Estefan and others who went to Spain to block themselves at the premiere were very purposeful.

Sure enough, there was not much to say, "APLUS, now the technology network stocks are rebounding, are you satisfied with the status quo of Littman listed companies?" Estefan began to scoop out the information explicitly, the speed of Littman's share price rebound They couldn't satisfy their Latin gang at all. They regained some blood, but they were still in a locked state.

"It's okay." Song Ya pretended to be dumbfounded.

"I noticed that the CrimeReads site has not been improved. The browsing experience criticized by Icahn Capital's short report before the stock market crash is still very bad. APLUS, as the chairman of Litman Media, do you want to intervene in person?" A member of the Latin Gang said.

"CrimeReads is a listed company with its own cost accounting system and management..." Song Ya replied.

"I heard that after the stock market crash, both the bandwidth and other infrastructure costs and programmer salaries have dropped significantly. Now it should be a good time to make up classes."

Estefan’s understanding of the industry has progressed rapidly, and indeed, with the stock market crash, the hot money invested in the Internet industry has plummeted, and companies have to lay off employees and tighten investment, leading to the immediate desperation of optical fiber, optical cable and other companies that had been expanding. , Programmers are also cheaper.

"I know."

Song Ya squeezed a smile at the Latin group, "But sorry, please forgive me for not being able to disclose more to the outside world."

"Give me a hint?" The other party still refused to give up the entanglement.

Song Ya would definitely start to be impatient before, but now his temper has been reduced a lot, and he continues to reply softly: "Any hint I make will be suspected of insider trading Mr. Estefan, we are friends, but... in short The stock market is risky, do the homework yourself."

He smiled and patted the other's arm, "We are going to be on stage, sorry."

"This kid, now he is completely in the same group as the Wall Street gangsters who play money-making games, and I don't want to think about how much money he made with our Cup of Life and his global reputation!" The Latin Gang watched with Halle and Zha Song Ya, who was sitting in front of the big screen with Kschneider and others, was indignant, "Obviously everyone is rebounding. As the bookmaker of a listed company in Litman Media, he can easily pull a lot of things from his fingers. , But he just didn't do anything, let it go!"

"There were so many people just now, we were in a hurry. When this event is over, we will go to the hotel and have a good chat with him." Estefan still has expectations. He knows the relationship between Song Ya and Shakira and believes in himself. There is still some face, "Don't complain, you don't know how much he lost, it's not easy for everyone..."

"Mr. APLUS, there are rumors that you participated in the short selling of French stocks, which caused the Vivendi Global Limit to fall? Can you talk about this?"

Like Tokyo, suddenly a reporter jumped in and asked about things that had nothing to do with the movie.

Vivendi Global’s limit fell on the first day of the resumption of the market. The market value has just evaporated more than 16 billion euros. The Latin Gang naturally knew that Estefan and others looked at Song Ya, who was indifferent on the stage, and then turned their heads and looked at each other, first they couldn’t believe it. , But think about it...

They know the grievances between Song Ya and the little Bronfman, and they also know that it is true that the two bet on who goes bankrupt first. They understand Song Ya's character better, and the deeper they think about it, the more likely they are.

"Uh, I know that Vivendi Universal has encountered great difficulties today. Many of the artists under Universal's are my personal good friends. I have paid some attention and understanding, but there are not many things that can answer your question. I I am a layman, praying for them just like you, and I hope they can tide over this difficulty and get better and better in the future..."

Can't deny and don't want to admit, Song Ya didn't reprimand the questioner like the one in Tokyo, nor questioned the other party's origin and motives, only a few words in a gentle tone.

"I'm asking if you participated?"

"Let's talk about movies, talk about movies, thank you." Song Ya smiled at the other party and handed the microphone to Zach Schneider.

The friends around him hadn't reacted yet, but Estefan was so shocked that he opened his mouth and silently made a ‘WTF’ mouth shape, then his brain went blank, and the whole person fell into a petrified state.

"Congratulations, Mr. Robertson, I saw what you said to the reporter... Yes, it's on the news."

At the end of the event, the Latin Gang did not come to the hotel. Song Ya saw the reporter interviewing Julian Robertson and called him on time, smiling and complimenting him.

"Haha! I don't hesitate to say that this time I was a big show, maybe someone on Wall Street will start to be jealous of me."

Julian Robertson was naturally in a very good mood. A short-selling report caused a major earthquake in the French capital market. Multinational giants responded by the limit of the limit and their market value shrank by nearly 20%. This is the best compliment and the best advertisement for fund managers. "It's a pity. This honor should have been Mr. Black Pharaoh that you and I shared."

"Black Pharaoh is too numb, haha, just call me APLUS."

The two touted each other a few words, and then began to discuss the next day's strategy, "Look, Messier has a new trend." Julian Robertson reminded Song Ya to watch the news midway.

At the Vivendi headquarters, a fleet of Renault and logo cars was stable at the door. Messier in the picture shook hands with the big guys on and off the car and generously accepted the reporter's photo.

"Vivendi Global CEO Messier held a closed-door meeting overnight with the French government, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, and Credit Lyon Bank executives to discuss countermeasures..." the voice-over of the news said.

Messier himself also deliberately fell to the end of the crowd and accepted an interview with a reporter, “Every acquisition of our Vivendi Global has been successful, but we have taken the right path but cannot reflect it in the stock price? I am personally very confused..."

He said: "Please rest assured that we can find the most suitable solution in the shortest time..."

This lineup... the French All-Star team? Both Song Ya and Julian Robertson calmed down from their joy, and their opponents began to react quickly, and market confidence would be restored to a large extent.

Tomorrow, tomorrow will no longer be a sneak attack but a battle of positions. It should be another **** day, right?

"Your father."

Young Bronfman also saw the news. He was gritting his teeth at the TV, and the president of Seagram came to remind him to answer the phone.

"Thank you." He thanked him moved, Ron Meyer saw the wind turn the wheel, and Doug Morris and Barry Diller hid on the other side of the Atlantic. He didn't expect to hear the announcement. He didn't expect the family veteran he hated the most to be with him loyally in the end. By his side, "Father." He answered the phone and greeted ashamed.

"I heard that Messier intends to take back the family's power in Seagram Universal?" Old Bronfman asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry, I..."

"It's okay, child, life will never go smoothly. We will overcome this difficulty." Old Bronfman comforted his son.

"But I have no license now, I don't know what to do... I have caused the family to suffer a heavy loss again... I am so naive, and everyone will laugh at me tomorrow." Listening to my father's voice, the little Bronfman also Choked and apologized.

"Book wealth is just that, it's always like this, following the ups and downs of the stock market."

The old Bronfman said: "Don't be in the opinion of the unexpected world. During the period after selling DuPont shares, there was a lot of ridicule from the outside world. Don't we also get through it? Do you have other things to stay in France now?"

"I have an appointment for a dinner tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, but it's meaningless now..."

"No, continue to appear in social situations in the best state. Don't let others see your weakness, don't stimulate Messier or make French people, especially the French government suspicious. In short, you should be patient and follow the original plan. After finishing the work that should be done, then come back... back to Canada, let’s have a good chat."

"I don't have the face to go back to see you..." Little Bronfman was very moved by his father's recklessness. At this moment when he was most vulnerable... this familiar voice was as warm as the winter sun.

"There is no time to sigh the child, come back, no matter what the big wind and waves, we come back to discuss together, there will always be a way."

"Ok!"

‘Vivendi Universal’s countermeasures meeting is still going on, UU reading www.uukahnshu.com we haven’t seen any attendees leave...’

At two o'clock in the morning on June 21st, French time, the local news made a short live broadcast. The camera slowly moved up, and finally stopped at the brightly lit top floor of the Vivendi headquarters.

At the same time, CNBC also issued a newsletter.

‘Just now, Lehman Brothers also released a short-selling report on Vivendi Global Group. The report is more focused on the French Vivendi Group than the previous Tiger Fund’s. Lehman Brothers believes that Vivendi’s combined goodwill calculation method after the acquisition of Seagram Global has major problems, and at the same time, Vivendi still has abuses. Falsifications such as reserves, concealing huge debts, and double counting the operating income of its medical companies totaling approximately $1.5 billion. Lehman Brothers jokingly concluded at the end of the short report: In order to swallow Seagram Universal, Vivendi has maxed out credit cards...’

'The Ministry of Commerce of the United States also confirmed to our reporter that a monopoly lawsuit by the six major record companies in the early years is still in the process of litigation, and Universal Music, formerly known as Universal Music and Polygram Records, will pay up to 5% of the total fines. About ten. Professionals’ forecasts of fines are likely to be record-breaking...’