Rebirth of England

It’s just that besides making dumplings, there seems to be something missing...

That is the "Spring Festival Gala" that most families in China will watch on New Year's Eve. Barron also thought about this. It seems that SDTV can contact China's CCTV. If the copyright fee required by the other party is not high, then it can also be broadcast every year. During the Spring Festival, their Spring Festival Gala will be broadcast.

There are currently about 400,000 Chinese in the UK as a whole, and 150,000 in London alone.

This group is not too small.

"It's quite late. You can stay here tonight, Laura."

After finishing the meal, it was almost half past eight, Barron said to Wang Wanting.

"ah?!"

"Well, I mean I have a lot of guest rooms here, and we have to go to work tomorrow morning, so you don't have to go home."

After hearing what Barron seemed to explain, the blush on Wang Wanting's face still did not dissipate, but her eyes flashed with unknown emotions.

…

On February 1, 2003, the American space shuttle Columbia exploded over Texas while returning, killing all seven astronauts.

On February 5, the U.S. military deployed in areas surrounding Iraq entered attack positions. At this time, the number of U.S. troops stationed on the border between Kuwait and Iraq reached 35,000. The United States already had three aircraft carrier battle groups in position to attack Iraq. The fourth An aircraft carrier battle group will also arrive in designated waters.

On February 10, France, Belgium and Germany formally vetoed NATO's military deployment to increase Turkey's defense before the Iraq war at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, thus once again deepening NATO's differences on the Iraq issue.

It can be said that in the current NATO, although the United States is the "leading brother", the EU has not yet followed suit. Especially on the issue of Iraq, Germany and France are opposed to the use of force against it - also because of the relationship between Iraq and the EU. Yes, many of their weapons are imported from France. France has always been a more "rebellious" member of NATO.

It is also because in the past, the European Union announced the launch of the euro when it was at its peak, and Iraq was cut off from its US dollar settlement channels because of sanctions by the United States. Therefore, Saddam bet his money on the euro and couldn't wait to announce Iraq's Oil trades will be settled in euros.

As a result, a series of demonstration effects were produced. Iran, Russia, Venezuela and other countries have announced that their countries' oil settlements will also be settled in euros. Such behavior is naturally intolerable to the United States.

Therefore, in the final analysis, the main reason why the United States chose to use force against Iraq is probably to "kill the chicken to scare the monkeys." Destroying an Iraq will also let other countries that follow suit see the consequences, and it will also hit the EU's Euro plan. Iraq's oil is just Their "incidental" earnings.

On February 14, when the Chairman of the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency made a report on the second phase of the inspection of Iraq at the case meeting, they claimed that so far, the weapons inspection team has not found that Iraq possesses prohibited weapons and has only found a small amount of weapons that "should be made public" and destroyed chemicals," he said. "There is no evidence that Iraq is developing nuclear weapons."

On February 15, the largest anti-war demonstrations since the Vietnam War broke out around the world. Nearly 10 million peace-loving people held anti-war demonstrations in about 600 cities around the world to oppose the United States' attempt to launch a war against Iraq.

In London, more than 500,000 people took to the streets to protest against the US and UK's preparations for a military attack on Iraq.

The anti-war march was broadcast live and reported by Barron's SDTV, and independent newspapers also carried special reports and comments in The Independent and the London Evening Standard.

After this, a rather confidential conversation took place in a house next to Barron's residence. The two parties involved in the conversation were Tim Allan, the liaison adviser from the Prime Minister's Office at No. 10 Downing Street, and the Cavendish Office. Public relations consultant Annabella Nolan.

Barron is also a member of the Cavendish Family Office, a recently established family office. This family office includes talents in public relations as well as finance, law, investment and intelligence, and will be an institution specifically responsible for Barron personally.

For example, Nigel Inkster, the head of the previously formed intelligence team, became the intelligence adviser to the Cavendish Family Office.

Annabella Nolan is a professional public relations expert and has a deep connection with the Devonshire family. She was hired by Barron as a public relations consultant for the Cavendish Family Office.

In late February, a team commissioned by DS Capital and involving personnel from Goldman Sachs and Barclays officially began to contact O2 to negotiate for the acquisition of the company.

Their first bid for O2 was £4.5 billion, to acquire all of its businesses including mobile communications and personal broadband.

This news immediately became the most high-profile merger and acquisition event in the UK. After all, DS Capital did not have a good reputation before, and O2 is one of the top telecommunications companies in the UK. Many reports have doubted whether DS Capital has the ability to acquire O2's strength has led some to directly ridicule its "wishful thinking".

However, when the media revealed that the owner of DS Capital was the youngest Duke in England, the Duke of Devonshire, Barron Cavendish's name once again made the headlines of many newspapers.

This young man who just inherited the dukedom and family business last year is now planning to buy O2, one of the largest communications companies in the UK. No matter what, it is very easy to attract attention.

"The board of directors of O2 is quite interested in the all-cash acquisition we proposed, but the price is quite different. They are willing to sell O2, but the proposed price is as high as 6.5 billion pounds. "

Amber Sheehan is the general manager of DS Industrial Investment Company, responsible for connecting with the acquisition team and conducting the acquisition of O2 Company.

It can be said that he is very excited about this large-scale acquisition by DS Capital. There is a high probability that the final acquisition price will exceed 5 billion pounds. There are not many opportunities to be directly responsible for such an acquisition. Going back to a year ago , he would never have thought that he would be able to handle an acquisition of this scale.

"And our acquisition is not without resistance. After the news of our acquisition came out, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange all announced that they were ready to join the acquisition of O2, which may increase our acquisition price. .”

After hearing Amber's words, Barron thought for a while and said:

"Vodafone doesn't have to think about it. If they want to acquire O2, it's impossible for them to pass the antitrust investigation. As for T-Mobile and Orange, they won't have a chance, but O2's board of directors will definitely not give up relying on this news. The idea of ​​raising prices.”

"Indeed, although their asking price of 6.5 billion pounds can definitely be lowered, the final transaction price will probably not be less than 5.5 billion pounds!"

Barron had already anticipated Amber's concerns.

However, it is still very cost-effective to acquire O2 Company now.

At present, O2's main business is still in England, but it also has plans to expand into the French and German markets, but many people are not optimistic about it.

But in Barron's previous life, in 2005, when Telefonica acquired O2, they already had subnetworks and a large number of users in England, France and Germany, and their development was very smooth. At that time, Telefonica gave its market value At a premium of 22%, it cost 17.7 billion euros to buy this company.