Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

On the evening of Thursday, February 8, Lin Baicheng’s private plane landed at the Boston airport.

Isabella and Bill Harveys had already brought the team from Los Angeles to Boston, so they took people to the airport to pick them up.

Although the distance between Los Angeles and Boston is quite long, Lin Baicheng's Lincoln was driven over in advance. Therefore, after leaving the airport, Lin Baicheng greeted Isabella and Bill Harveys to sit on the Lincoln with him. Lincoln and his personal secretary Qin Lan naturally followed.

Many cars parked outside the airport drove away together, heading to Lin Baicheng's villa in Boston.

While the car was driving, Lin Baicheng said to his two assistants: "People from Goldman Sachs should be in Boston too, right?"

"Been here for the past two days."

It was Isabella who answered aloud: "The leader is Mr. Thomas. They should rest in the hotel now."

Nodding, Lin Baicheng said: "Show me the completed information."

The information was placed in Bill Harveys' briefcase, and he immediately took it out after hearing this.

On the way to the villa, Lin Baicheng looked at it carefully.

These are relevant information about General Electric’s TV department. The company has a variety of TV technologies and patents. Although TV technology is no longer the most advanced, it is not far behind. The company’s products are still very popular in the mid- to low-end range. market, and it is still one of the leaders, otherwise GE’s TV division would not have sold for a high price of more than 100 million US dollars.

The company not only has channels in North America, including the United States and Canada, but also cooperates with channel providers in Europe. Although not all countries are connected, and these channels are all in cooperation with channel providers, it is enough to illustrate the company's channel expansion efforts. Pretty good.

The company has a large factory in Boston. If the production line is at full capacity, it can produce more than one million TV sets every year. Unfortunately, after the factory was built, the production capacity exceeded one million sets every year in the first few years. The annual production capacity has reached one million units.

In 1978, the company's profits were just over $10 million. Although TV sales are large, the company is currently in the mid-to-low-end market. The profit of mid-range products will not exceed 15% at most, not to mention low-end TVs, so it is a typical model of high revenue and low profit.

In fact, if the company's annual profits are more than 10 million U.S. dollars, the price of 115 million U.S. dollars negotiated by Lin Baicheng and General Electric is not high. After all, the company still has a lot of assets.

However, without capital investment, the company's TV technology will become even more backward in two or three years at most. At that time, the company's products can only make a living in the low-end market. Profits will only be lower.

In a few years, the existing technology will probably fall behind. The TV sets produced at that time will no longer be competitive at the low end, and it will not be that easy to make money.

Therefore, if you want to maintain the company's annual profits, you must invest in development funds for the company, so the price offered by Lin Baicheng was not low, and he did not get a bargain.

Time passed and after the car arrived outside the villa, Lin Baicheng had almost finished reading and the group walked into the villa.

"Bella, please contact Mark and ask him to come over."

Lin Baicheng said to Isabella, then sat down on the sofa in the living room and continued to read the information.

"Yes, BOSS!"

Isabella responded and walked towards the landline phone.

The Mark Lin Baicheng refers to is of course Mark Raymond, the manager of General Electric's television department. He chose to work for Lin Baicheng after the company was acquired by Lin Baicheng. Lin Baicheng had promised that he would be qualified to be the manager of Venus TV Company by then, and he would also have the president. The title of vice president of the company Jinxing Electrical Appliances.

After a while, Lin Baicheng had read the information, but he did not immediately talk to Isabella and Bill Harveys about the TV company. Instead, he talked to them about other companies.

Lin Baicheng only left the United States last month, so the companies under his name have not changed much.

Among several companies, the one that has made more important changes should be Morningstar Pictures. One of the three movies invested and filmed by Shirley Lansing was released last Friday, the 2nd of this month. .

After all, it is just a low-budget film, and the release schedule is not good, and the premiere screen is only more than 100 yuan. The box office on the first weekend is not a hit, and there is no possibility of becoming a dark horse at the box office. Fortunately, the box office performance is not bad. Based on the investment cost for production and distribution, it is expected that the box office will be able to recover the money and make a small profit.

If the film's box office can recoup its costs and make a profit, then video tapes and other peripherals and overseas income will be pure profits. Although films with low box office performance will not be very good, after all, it is only a small-cost investment, and it is good to make money.

What’s more, Apple completed its financing on the last day of last month.

Apple's pre-financing valuation was finally set at US$95 million. Goldman Sachs, Elephant Capital and Logan Rockefeller jointly participated in the financing. Goldman Sachs led the investment, and Elephant Capital and Logan Rockefeller each obtained 5% of Apple's shares. .

This time Apple took out 20% of its shares for financing and received US$19 million. However, because Mike Markkula sold some shares, the cash received by Apple was only 17% of the financing amount, which is US$16.15 million.

Before the financing, Lin Baicheng held 30% of Apple's shares. After the financing, his shares were only 27%, and he had to put up US$2.85 million in cash. In other words, his total investment in Apple increased by $2.85 million, bringing the total investment to more than $5 million.

After the financing, Apple's valuation reached about US$110 million. At least Goldman Sachs, Elephant Capital and Logan Rockefeller recognized this valuation.

From a valuation perspective, Lin Baicheng's current 27% stake is valued at nearly US$30 million, which is more than five times the investment of more than US$5 million. After more than a year, this rate of return is not low.

Of course, Apple currently needs to speed up its own development and welcome the giant IBM that is about to enter the personal computer market. Only if it survives IBM's suppression of competition and continues to achieve high growth will Apple have a future, Lin Baicheng said. Only then will the shares become more valuable.

Because IBM may enter the personal computer market early, Lin Baicheng is no longer sure whether Apple, which was successful before its rebirth, will continue to be successful in the future. What he can do is to support Apple as much as possible and do his part to keep his shares It will not depreciate or even become worthless.

Time passed slowly as the three of them chatted, until Mark Raymond came to the villa.

After saying hello, Lin Baicheng said to Mark Raymond: "Mark, I want to move the TV company's factory to Xiangjiang. What do you think?"

After hearing this, Mark Raymond asked: "BOSS, why do you want to move the factory to Xiangjiang? The company's factory is ready and the employees are all skilled workers. The main market for the company's products is North America and China are the main markets. If the factory is in Boston, it will be relatively more convenient to ship to other places in the country. If it is not necessary, I personally do not agree with moving the factory to Xiangjiang."

"Of course I would consider moving the factory to Xiangjiang."

Lin Baicheng spoke up and said: "Moving the factory to Xiangjiang is nothing more than to save costs, improve product profits and market competitiveness."

"I have seen that the average salary of employees in the company's factory is about US$270, while the average salary of employees in the factory in Xiangjiang is less than US$150. The average salary of employees alone can save US$120."

"There are more than 7,000 employees in the factory. If each employee saves 120 US dollars in salary costs per month, it will be 8.9 million US dollars, which will be more than 10 million US dollars a year."

"Although after moving the factory to Xiangjiang, there will be an additional freight cost to ship the products to the United States. However, the freight cost is less than 10 million US dollars, and it can save at least 6 to 7 million US dollars. dollar cost.”

"Also, I've had people check it out. The raw materials in Xiangjiang will be cheaper. As a result, the cost of producing TV sets will naturally be lower, which will increase profits in disguise."

"You think, with these benefits, should I move the factory to Xiangjiang?"

"If this is the case, it is indeed necessary for the factory to move to Xiangjiang."

Mark Raymond nodded immediately after hearing this. As a qualified professional manager, saving costs for the company is what he has to do. As for what to do with the unemployment rate caused by moving the factory, these are not at all among his considerations.

"But BOSS, your contract with General Electric stipulates that you cannot fire a large number of employees without reason within half a year, so even if the acquisition is completed and the company is under your control, you cannot move the factory to Xiangjiang yet."

"I know this. I have not thought about moving the factory to Xiangjiang immediately."

Lin Baicheng nodded to express his understanding, and then said: "You can wait for three months. After three months, some of the production lines will be moved to Xiangjiang, and then half salary will be given to the employees who are not working. If they leave on their own, it will have nothing to do with the company. Half a year later, there is no need to move the entire factory, but part of the production line will be moved to Xiangjiang. It will take one year to move the factory to Xiangjiang. You have to do this job well."

Mark Raymond responded immediately: "Don't worry, Boss, one year is enough time to move the factory to Xiangjiang. Although the move will be slower, it will not cause accidents easily."

Lin Baicheng continued: "When both parties complete the signing tomorrow, the company will become Venus TV Company. The main markets for the company's products are the United States and European countries, yes, but Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and other places are also the direction of expansion. I will let my The assistant will set up the branch there, and the management is still under your control. I hope your ability will not disappoint me."

"BOSS, don't worry, I won't let you down!"

Mark Raymond immediately said that whether he could do a good job or not, he must say so now, otherwise he would definitely be kicked out of the company.

"Then I'll wait and see."

Lin Baicheng nodded. We will know how capable Mark Raymond is in 1979. If Mark Raymond can't develop the company to his satisfaction, it won't matter how good Mark Raymond says now. He will definitely change someone by then.

After talking for a while, Lin Baicheng asked Isabella, Bill Harveys and Mark Raymond to leave.

The next morning, Lin Baicheng and others took the team to General Electric's headquarters.

The people from Goldman Sachs arrived earlier than Lin Baicheng and the others. The team was led by Wade Thomas. This was his performance. Of course, it was impossible for Wade Thomas not to come.

The two parties had already negotiated the price before, so the two parties drew up a contract. After their respective teams determined that there were no problems with the contract, they signed the contract. The money has been placed in Goldman Sachs's account, and once both parties sign, Goldman Sachs will transfer the funds to GE.

US$115 million is the purchase price for Lin Baicheng's acquisition of GE's entire television division. However, including Goldman Sachs' commission fee, the total is US$5 million, which adds up to an expenditure of US$120 million.

The commission fee of US$5 million is actually not high. This is because GE took the initiative to contact Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs did not use many resources, so the commission fee was not high.

If Lin Baicheng had entrusted Goldman Sachs to acquire a company that needed PR for the White House or a certain department, the fee would have been high. If the market value of the acquired company was not low, the fee could be tens of millions of dollars higher.

After the two parties completed the transaction, the first thing Mark Raymond, as the manager of Venus TV Company, had to do was to move the company's office to the place rented by Isabella. It was impossible for it to still be at the headquarters of General Electric. office.

Fortunately, moving the office takes time. The two parties agreed in advance to give one week to move, so Mark Raymond had plenty of time to do it well.

Venus TV Company wanted to move its offices, and of course Lin Baicheng could not stay to do this. He left Bill Harveys to assist Mark Raymond.

At noon, Lin Baicheng invited Wade Thomas to have dinner with him at the villa, and asked him about the progress of other home appliance technologies and patent acquisitions.

Wade Thomas told Lin Baicheng that Goldman Sachs was currently negotiating with several companies and communicating with companies with advanced technologies and patents to see if they could acquire advanced technology for Lin Baicheng.

After hearing this, Lin Baicheng said that time should not be left too long. If there is better technology, it is best to acquire better technology. If the price can be given a certain premium, it should be regarded as buying time.

In the afternoon, Lin Baicheng went to meet with the future middle and senior management of Venus TV Company and said a few words of encouragement.

That night, Lin Baicheng took Isabella and others on a private plane to Los Angeles.

Lin Baicheng did not leave the United States and return to Hong Kong immediately. He still had some things to explain.

However, Lin Baicheng will not stay in the United States for too long this time. He will return to Xiangjiang before his birthday, and this time his birthday will be a big one. And since he was going back to Xiangjiang to celebrate his birthday, Lin Baicheng must go back a few days in advance to celebrate Zhong Chuhong's birthday. After all, Zhong Chuhong's birthday was only two days earlier than his.

It makes no sense for Lin Baicheng to have a big birthday party for himself, but to tell Zhong Chuhong that he doesn't have time to go back to Xiangjiang to celebrate her birthday. This is a bit outrageous.