My 1999

Chapter 895 Lagardere

"Bang...!"

The middle-aged man in a dark blue suit slammed the table with anger on his face.

"Canal+ Group is Vivendi's most valuable asset. We must not sell it to the Chinese."

"Arnault, I have made it very clear just now. It is not the Chinese who acquired Canal+ Group, but Christina Investment Company, whose boss is the "New Era Joan of Arc" who is highly anticipated in France."

A middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses said.

"Damn Joan of Arc, that woman is a bitch, a prostitute who crawls under the Chinese and flatters them..."

"Enough."

Vincent Borore, who was sitting in the main seat, interrupted the man angrily.

"Arnault, this is the Vivendi board of directors, not a dirty bar on the street. As a gentleman who inherits French virtues and cultivation, you must always pay attention to your words and deeds."

Arnault sneered.

"Virtue and self-cultivation? Vivendi is about to be swallowed up by someone, what are you still talking about virtue and self-cultivation?

Now, what we need is to act quickly.

Drive away the ambitious Chinese and the dirty mistress beside him.

Instead of talking about virtue and self-cultivation here."

After saying that, he stood up suddenly.

Because of his speed, the chair behind him fell down with a "bang".

With both hands supporting his upper body, his angry eyes slowly swept over everyone.

"I know most of you have been bought by that Chinese with money, but I tell you, as long as I, Arnaud Lagardere, am still a shareholder of Vivendi.

No one can think of selling the company's assets!"

With a cold snort, he left everyone and walked out of the conference room.

Looking at his figure walking away, everyone in the conference room had different expressions.

Vincent Bollore said angrily: "This damn bastard, we should kick him out of Vivendi's board of directors."

"I think what the chairman said is very right. Since joining Vivendi's board of directors, Mr. Arnaud Lagardère has not fulfilled the responsibilities of a director, nor has he brought any help to Vivendi's development.

For the future of the company, we should let him go."

"I object.

Arnaud Lagardère provided a lot of support for Vivendi's mergers and acquisitions, especially the group's acquisition of Pathé Films, which was contacted by Arnaud for us.

We can't easily drive away a person who has made great contributions to Vivendi's development.

Otherwise, who will be willing to contribute wisdom and talent to the group in the future?"

Soon the board of directors was divided into two parts.

One part supported, the other opposed, and no one could convince anyone.

Vincent Bollore saw it in his eyes. Although his face remained calm, there was a hint of pleasure in his eyes.

After a while, he patted the table and signaled everyone to calm down.

Looking at Jean Foch sitting across the rectangular conference table.

"It's hard to hold today's board meeting. Why don't we stop here for now?"

"That's it."

Jean Foch didn't say much.

After leaving the meeting room, Borore quickly stopped Jean Foch.

"Jean, what do you think of today's meeting?"

Foch smiled and said, "We should talk to Arnault."

Borol gritted his teeth and said, "This bastard has repeatedly sabotaged our sale of Canal+ Group. It's so abominable. I think Carl is right. We should find a chance to kick him out of Vivendi's board of directors."

"I respect everyone's decision." Foch said.

Borol nodded and lowered his voice.

"Did Mr. Xu say anything?"

"No, did Mr. Xu come to you again?"

Looking directly at the man in front of him, Borore cursed in his heart without any emotion in his deep blue eyes.

"This old fox, he doesn't reveal any information."

"No, we haven't seen each other since we met in the hotel that day."

"Me too."

"But Mr. Xu's affairs cannot be delayed forever. If we miss the investment opportunity of Pacific Fund, we will suffer a great loss."

Jean Foch nodded and said, "But the board of directors has been unable to pass it, and I can't force the Canal+ Group to sell."

Borol smiled and said, "Jean, you can actually do it. After all, the board of directors cannot interfere with the management's decision-making on the company."

Looking at Vincent Borore who was staring at him, Foch smiled.

"I'll think about it again. If I can coordinate everyone to agree, it would be the best."

"Of course. But if I can't coordinate, I still advocate for forced passage."

Foch nodded, "I'll go back and think about it again."

"Okay."

"Then I'll leave first?"

"Yeah."

Watching Jean Foch go away, Borore's expression changed, and he left after a long time.

——

"Mr. Lagardere, what do you think about Christina's acquisition of Vivendi Canal+ Group?"

"Christina is just a cover. The Chinese man is the one who really wants to acquire Canal+ Group. The French Media Act stipulates that non-EU companies cannot hold controlling stakes in French media companies."

"Do you mean that Mr. Xu Liang is the boss behind Christina?"

"It's obvious.

Without the support of Xu Liang, how could an ordinary woman born in the Latin Quarter, an intern reporter for Time Magazine, without any Internet concept or computer knowledge be able to create Twitter?

By the way, we should admit that Miss Yerry is indeed a stunning beauty, with a beauty that is not inferior to Sophie Marceau and Isabelle Adjani.

The figure is even better.

No wonder he is fascinated by the famous Golden Caesar. "

The reporters were in an uproar.

"You mean to say that Ms. Christina Yeri is Xu Liang's mistress?"

“Isn’t it obvious?”…

Looking at the man talking on the TV, Xu Liang narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Boss, this is Arnaud Lagardère, the sole heir to the Lagardère family and a director of Vivendi’s board of directors.

The Lagardère Group currently holds a 7.3% stake in Vivendi. "Lu Huidao.

Xu Liang nodded slightly.

"This playboy acted too aggressively this time."

Lu Hui immediately said: "We don't have enough connections in France, and we haven't found out whether there is anyone behind him. However, the Lagardère family and the Arnault family are close friends.

Jean-Luc Lagardère and Bernard Arnault often played together, and the former named his only son after the latter's family name. "

"Do you think the Arnault family is behind this playboy?"

Lu Hui thought for a moment and then shook her head.

"Not quite."

"Why?"

"According to the information we have collected, the Arnault family has been plotting against the Hermès Group and should not be able to spare their energy to plot against Vivendi."

LV and Hermès are both world-class luxury goods giants.

But in the eyes of Hermès, LV that ‘prints its logo all over the bag’ is a symbol of low-level taste.

The noble Hermès is ashamed to be associated with him.

But Arnault himself has always been good at taking advantage of internal strife in other companies to carry out share acquisition raids.

After the death of Jean-Louis, the head of Hermès, this old guy came right after he smelled it.

In 1993, Hermès went public, with family members holding 74% of the shares.

Among them, according to the different surnames of their descendants, they are divided into three factions, namely Dumas, Pieche, and Gueran.

The three companies have different shareholdings, different levels of participation in corporate management, and even different life styles.

The Dumas lineage is one of the strong factions.

During his lifetime, Jean-Louis had been trying his best to squeeze the voice of the other two veins. Needless to say, there were frictions of all sizes.

Relying on Bernard Skulchini, the former head of intelligence in the Sarkozy government.

Arnault knew clearly who among the heirs of the Hermès Group had to pay huge alimony due to divorce?

Who just wants to be rich and idle?

Who longs to find a sense of presence in Succession?

Arnault knew all the details that insiders may not know, and therefore despised the family.

As a hard-working person who works on the front line, he is a super workaholic who flies around the world to visit every LV store every day even when his hair is gray in his 70s and 80s.

Arnault felt that the successors of Hermès were a bunch of losers and were unable to protect the family property.

So here he is.

Since 2002, Arnault used complex financial strategies as a cover to continue to buy Hermès shares in a low-key manner, but no one in the entire Hermès family noticed anything unusual.

In 2004, Arnault proudly called Patrick Thomas, the group's CEO.

Said that he already holds 17% of Hermès's shares.

The Hermès family soon became a bunch of headless flies, and a sense of uneasiness was everywhere.

Many heirs found themselves being followed and secretly filmed near their homes.

In order to prevent secrets from leaking, they installed an anti-eavesdropping system in the Hermès office building, and used code words and code names for office communication.

Now the two sides are still fighting for their wits.

Takeovers and counter-takeovers are in full swing.

"Mr. Xu, is it possible that the Lagardère family itself wants to control Vivendi? After all, the Lagardère family's main business is media and publishing, which fits well with Vivendi's business.

And based on the information we collected.

After Vivendi's financial crisis broke out, Lagardère Group wanted to acquire Vivendi's publishing business. Later, Vivendi terminated the negotiations after it successfully reduced its debt and survived through the acquisition of Vivendi Games and Universal Entertainment.

However, the Vivendi stake held by the Lagardère family has not been sold. "Lu Hui continued.

Xu Liang nodded slightly, "I don't rule out this possibility. But the Lagardère family probably doesn't have such a good appetite now."

The founder of the Lagardère family, Jean-Luc Lagardère, was undoubtedly a business genius.

Under his leadership, the Lagardère Group became one of France's largest defense and aerospace companies in the 1970s.

Making France Télévisions (TF1) one of the most popular television stations in France.

Lagardère is also the main sponsor of the French Open.

Through a series of successful business operations, the Lagardère Group has become the most successful giant enterprise in France, and the Lagardère family has also become one of the top 10 wealthy families in France.

But he is different from his old friend Bernard, who is a paranoid who checks his children's homework on time after getting off work at six o'clock, and strictly requires science scores.

Lagardère is surrounded by happy education and is completely pampering towards her son.

This business genius probably never considered the issue of family inheritance.

The result of letting things run wild is that they become useless.

Arnault Lagardère has become the biggest playboy and dandy in the French upper class.

It would be fine if he just loved to play.

The kingdom his father built for him is enough for him to lose for several lifetimes.

But this guy is both incompetent and loves to play.

He keeps making stupid moves in business.

Since 2000, he has gradually abandoned the aerospace sector, sold or shut down some media assets, and reduced the scale of the group's business. These decisions have not only led the Lagardère Group to a downward trend, but also accumulated a large amount of debt.

It surprised countless people.

Arnault soon told everyone with his actual actions.

There are incompetents among the incompetent, and there are even more stupid people among the stupid!

In 2004, he changed the Lagardère Group from a partnership to a joint-stock company, allowing Vincent Bollore, Bernard Arnault and other coveted external investors to intervene in the group's operations.

If you don't know much about the partnership system, you can look at Jack Ma's Alibaba.

Jack Ma, who holds a minority stake, has suppressed Yahoo and Softbank, which jointly hold nearly 60% of the shares, by relying on the partnership system.

The reason is very simple.

Under the framework of the partnership system, no matter how many shares you hold, you only have one vote in the board of directors.

The power of holding 5% and holding 40% is equal.

Jack Ma can easily control the huge Alibaba with his prestige.

The same is true for the Lagardère Group.

With the assistance of many old officials, Arnault can stably control the Lagardère Group.

But I don't listen!

I play with my heartbeat, and I lose my family!

So Arnault took the initiative to relax this restriction.

Let the wolf into the house.

This brain must have been kicked by a donkey.

Xu Liang is not very worried about being an opponent with such a person.