Chapter 895 Lagardère
“Bang…!”
The middle-aged man in a dark blue suit slammed the table with an angry face.
“Canal+ Group is Vivendi’s most valuable asset, and we must not sell it to the Chinese.”
“Arnault, what I just said is very clear, the acquisition of Canal+ Group Not from China, but from Christina Investment Company, whose boss is the much-anticipated 'New Era Joan of Arc' in France."
A middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses said.
“Bullshit Joan of Arc, that woman is a bitch, a prostitute crawling under the Chinese people and trying to please them...”
“That’s enough.”
< br>Vincent Bolore, who was sitting in the main seat, interrupted the man's words angrily.
"Arnault, this is the Vivendi board of directors, not a dirty bar on the streets. As a gentleman who inherits French virtues and recuperation, you must always pay attention to your words and deeds."
Arnault chuckled.
"Virtue and recuperation? Vivendi is about to be swallowed up. What are you talking about about virtue and recuperation?
Now, what we need is to act quickly.
Drive away the ambitious Chinese people and the dirty mistress beside him
Instead of talking about virtue and recuperation here. ”
As soon as he finished speaking, he stood up suddenly.
Because the speed was too fast, the chair behind him fell down with a bang.
Holding his upper body with both hands, his angry eyes slowly swept across the crowd.
“I know that most of you have been bought by that Chinese person with money, but I tell you, as long as I, Arnault Lagardère, am still a shareholder of Vivendi.
No one can Don’t even think about selling your company’s assets!”
With a cold snort, he left everyone behind and walked out of the conference room.
Looking at his figure walking away, everyone in the conference room had different expressions.
Vincent Bolore said angrily: "This damn bastard, we should drive him out of Vivendi's board of directors."
"I think what the chairman said is very right, Since Mr. Arnault Lagardère joined Vivendi's board of directors, he has not fulfilled the responsibilities of a director at all, nor has he brought any help to the development of Vivendi.
For the future of the company. , we should let him go.”
"I object.
Arnault Lagardère has provided a lot of support for Vivendi's mergers and acquisitions, especially the group's acquisition of EMI Films. It was Arnault who contacted us.
We cannot put A person who has made great contributions to the development of Vivendi was driven away so easily.
Otherwise, who would be willing to contribute their wisdom and talent to the group in the future? "
The board of directors was soon divided. Two parts.
Some support and some oppose, but no one can convince anyone.
Vincent Bolore 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 to signal everyone to calm down.
Looking at Jean Foch sitting across the rectangular conference table.
“It’s difficult to continue the board meeting today, why not just stay here for today?”
"So be it."
Jean Foch didn't say much.
Exiting the conference room, Bolore quickly called out to Jean Foch.
"Jean, what do you think of today's meeting?"
Foch smiled and said: "We should talk to Arnault."
Borore gritted his teeth and said: "This bastard has repeatedly undermined our sale of the Canal+ Group. It is simply too abominable. I think Karl is right. We should find an opportunity to expel him from Vivendi's board of directors."
< br>"I respect everyone's decision." Foch said.
Bolo Lei lowered his voice after nodding.
"Did Mr. Xu say anything there?"
"No, did Mr. Xu come to see you again?"
Looking directly at the man in front of him, there was no emotion in his deep blue eyes, and Bolore cursed inwardly.
“This old fox doesn’t reveal anything at all.”
“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 huge losses.”
Jean Foch nodded and said: "But the board of directors has been difficult to pass, and I can't force the sale of the Canal+ Group."
Bolore smiled and said: "Jean, actually you can. After all, the board of directors cannot interfere. Management’s decision on the company.”
Looking at Vincent Bolore, who was staring closely at him, Foch smiled.
"Let me think about it again. If we can coordinate and agree, that would be the best."
"Of course. But if coordination is not possible, I still advocate forcing it to pass."
Foch nodded, "I'll think about it when I go back."
"Okay."
"Then I'll leave first?"
"Yes."
Watching Jean Foch go away, Bolore's expression changed and he left after a long time.
——
“Mr. Lagardère, what do you think about Cristina’s acquisition of Vivendi Canal+ Group?”
“Christina’s company is just a cover, it really wants to acquire The Canal+ Group is from China. The French Media Act stipulates that non-EU companies are not allowed to hold controlling shares in French media companies. "
"You mean that Mr. Xu Liang is the boss behind Christina?"< br>
“Obvious thing.
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 found 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: Ms. Christina Yeri is Xu Liang's mistress?"
"Isn't this an obvious thing?"...
Looking at the TV and talking The man, Xu Liang narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Boss, this is Arnaud Lagardère, the sole heir of the Lagardère family and a director of Vivendi’s board of directors.
The Lagardère Group currently holds Vivendi 7.3% equity," 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 benefiting from him. However, the Lagardère family and the Arnault family are close friends
Jean-Luc Lagardère and Bernard Arnault often play together, and the former even uses the latter's family name as the name of his only son. Name."
"Do you think the Arnault family is behind this playboy?"
Lu Hui thought for a moment and then shook her head.
“It doesn’t look like it.”
“Why?”
“According to the information we collected, the Arnault family has been plotting against the Hermès Group and should not be able to spare their energy to do anything else. Plot 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 it.
But Arnault himself has always been good at taking advantage of internal strife in other families to carry out surprise battles for share acquisitions.
After the death of Jean-Louis, the head of Hermès, this old guy came after the smell.
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 the strongest among them.
During his lifetime, Jean-Louis had been trying his best to squeeze the right to speak of the other two groups. Needless to say, there were all kinds of frictions in between.
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 is eager to find a sense of presence in the War of Succession
Arnault knows all the details that insiders may not know, and therefore despises this family.
As a hard-working person who works on the front line, he is a super workaholic who insists on flying around the world to visit every LV store every day when his hair is gray in his seventies or eighties.
Arnault felt that the successors of Hermès were a bunch of losers and were unable to protect the family property.
So here he comes.
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 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.
The fight between takeovers and counter-takeovers is 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 according to the information we collected,
After Vivendi’s financial crisis broke out, Lagardère Group wanted to acquire Vivendi’s publishing business. Later, Vivendi sold Vivendi Games and Universal Entertainment. After successfully reducing the debt and surviving, the negotiations were terminated
But the Vivendi shares held by the Lagardère family have 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 Television (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 freeing up is that it will become useless.
Arnaud Lagardère became the biggest playboy and dandy in French upper class society.
If you just love to play, that's it.
The empire that his father built for him is enough to defeat him for several lifetimes.
It just so happens that this guy is both good and fun-loving.
There are constant missteps at the business level.
Since 2000, decisions such as gradually abandoning the aerospace sector, selling or shutting down some media assets, and reducing the scale of the group's business have not only caused the Lagardère Group to go downhill, but also accumulated a large amount of debt.
It surprised countless people.
Arnault soon told everyone with his actual actions.
There are dishes among dishes, and there are even stupider among stupidities!
In 2004, he changed the Lagardère Group from a partnership to a joint-stock company, allowing eager external investors such as Vincent Bolore and Bernard Arnault to intervene in the group's operations. .
If you don’t know much about the partnership system, you can take a look at Jack Ma’s Ali.
Jack Ma, who holds a minority stake, relied on the partnership system to suppress Yahoo and SoftBank, which jointly held nearly 60% of the shares.
The reason is also very simple.
Under the framework of the partnership system, no matter how many shares you hold, you only have one vote on the board of directors.
The power of holding 5% of the shares and holding 40% of the shares are equal.
Jack Ma can easily rely on his own prestige to firmly control the huge Ali.
The same principle applies to the Lagardère Group.
With the assistance of many old ministers, Arnault can stably control the Lagabell Group.
But, I don’t listen!
What I play is my heartbeat, and what I lose is my family!
So Arnault took the initiative to let go of this restriction.
Luring the wolf into the house.
This guy’s brain has definitely been kicked by a donkey.
Xu Liang is not too worried about playing against such a person.
What he is afraid of is that there are other people behind this playboy.
(End of this chapter)