Before Christmas, on December 20, when the Golden Globe nomination was announced, Pfizer's acquisition of Warner Lambert was officially finalized after secret negotiation for more than a month.
The two sides reached an agreement that Pfizer would buy the pharmaceutical giant at a price of $97 billion and bear all the debts of Warner Lambert.
Taking into account the market value of Pfizer at the closing of US $165.5 billion on the day of the agreement, the total value of the transaction reached US $262.5 billion, just exceeding the US $257 billion of Exxon's acquisition of Mobil last year. If the acquisition can be completed, it will undoubtedly become the largest acquisition in history.
Meanwhile, the new Pfizer will also become the world's largest pharmaceutical giant.
Both sides have deliberately chosen the time node before Christmas to announce the news, as well as the upcoming millennium, both of which are intentional. However, the announcement of the news has aroused widespread heated debate in the media. The attitude is clearly divided into two factions, for and against.
In fact, everything seems to be both for and against.
However, this time, it is mainly due to the deliberate guidance of Westeros system that we can get such an effect. Otherwise, for such a super M & A, there must be a majority of opponents, which may even lead to the abortion of M & A.
Moreover, after the same prudent operation of public opinion, Westeros system basically took itself out of it. Even Apollo management company under cersei capital, which is responsible for threading the needle, does not have a high sense of existence in this M & A, mainly due to the presence of the management of Pfizer and Warner Lambert.
It is not without twists and turns.
The Mellon family, once the largest shareholder of Warner Lambert, tried to tell the story in the U.S. Congress, and successfully lobbied a member of the house of representatives who had always been good friends with the Mellon family. The proposals had been prepared. The news came here, followed by the sharp decline in the share price of Alcoa, which was still controlled by the Mellon family, With the financial scandal of the Mellon family in a spokesperson for Alcoa, IRS is also involved in investigating the possible tax evasion problem in Alcoa.
IRS, in this case, how can you not play?
In addition, because the insider information was obtained in advance, the insider trading evidence of a Mellon family member who quietly absorbed Warner Lambert some time ago was also directly sent to the Mellon family, together with an executive who tipped off Warner Lambert.
As long as the matter is true and the party is in prison, the Mellon family will be discredited because of the illegal transaction of that member.
Simon got the handle very early and was waiting for this day.
In addition, Congress put pressure on the congressman and some interest exchanges, trying to stop Pfizer's antitrust proposal against Warner Lambert finally ended.
Simon didn't plan to chase and fight. It's not good for the dog to jump over the wall.
In general, the whole thing is the result of the westrow system becoming more and more familiar with the operating rules of the American political and economic system.
In business, if you want to make trouble for me, I can catch you. If you don't compromise, you'll lose both.
Politically, there is nothing more than compromise and exchange, except for a very small number of minorities who completely ignore their personal interests and really want to serve the voters. Of course, they are rare. Moreover, as soon as they enter the Jianghu, most of them will gradually assimilate into the circle of politicians. Even if they are not kicked out of the circle, they will certainly end up marginalized. Others, in the final analysis, must first safeguard their own political interests. If you can give enough conditions to help politicians ensure something, you are God.
Of course, God's priority is above the voters.
Of course, the premise is to have enough strength to play with the rules. If the strength is not enough, it will become a joke.
New York.
Westeros headquarters in midtown Manhattan.
After the lively Christmas, it is a new week in the twinkling of an eye. It is Tuesday, December 28.
Simon and his wife came here today to attend a year-end meeting of Westeros. In addition to James Leibold, who is in charge of Westeros, there are also the three giants of cersei capital.
The main content of this meeting is also related to a series of investments next year.
First, there are several merger projects under way.
Pfizer's M & A of Warner Lambert will basically not have too big accidents. Moreover, although it is a complete stock exchange acquisition, Apollo management company will still win a batch of shares through cash purchase in the process of the transaction, coupled with the continuous absorption of BlackRock, until the transaction is completed, Westeros Apollo Management Co., Ltd. and BlackRock Asset Management Co., Ltd. will hold about 15% of the shares of the new company in total, including 8% held by Westeros, about 2% by Apollo and 5% by BlackRock Asset Management Co., Ltd.
For a decentralized Volkswagen holding company, 15% of the shares, coupled with control over the management, is basically equivalent to turning Pfizer into its own.
In addition, there is scooter's acquisition of Qualcomm, and negotiations quietly opened in the middle of this month.
Things won't be too unexpected.
As for next year, it is mainly the large amount of assets obtained from this year's stock exchange plan.
December is about to pass, and the final replacement projects have been finalized recently. Throughout 1999, Westeros system realized a total replacement scale of US $237 billion, including about US $172 billion in non cash assets such as stocks, minerals and real estate, and US $65 billion in cash and gold equivalents.
Among the total assets of US $237 billion, the largest amount came from Asia, and finally reached US $53 billion, of which nearly 30 billion came from the same country in Asia, Indonesia. Moreover, this part of Asia has the highest proportion of cash, reaching US $21 billion, and the rest of its assets are the most diverse.
Among them, only the real estate and land that Simon is interested in. In Asia, there are only 21 buildings with more than 30 floors in Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Manila, including office apartments. In addition, there are up to 7 plantations, mainly in South Asia, with a total area of 27000 hectares. The planting types include rice, sugarcane, rubber Coffee, etc.
In short, it's enough for Simon to easily open a copy of South Asian big landlords and so on.
Moreover, these assets are largely on sale, with an average discount of about 60% or 70%, and many are cut back directly. Therefore, US $53 billion is only the book. If the full value is calculated, even if it includes US $21 billion cash with little fluctuation, the total value can be US $70 billion.
A big reason why some people abandon these assets is the complete loss of security, but these are not problems for Simon.
Successfully become the owner of these assets, if anyone dares to move his mind, unlike the original owner who can only let Mermaid meat, Simon can not only easily operate the sanctions given by the U.S. government, but also pull an aircraft carrier battle group to put pressure in the past. If you play black, it's better. Your own gangs and private forces, and even a deeper intelligence network, are enough to play some people to death.
The content discussed at this meeting is to set up a special asset management team specifically for the classification of this asset.
What can be completely controlled, of course, should be completely controlled in their own hands.
Those that cannot be fully controlled are mainly a small number of stock exchange enterprises, which also need to send a special management team, and the next main operation goal is penetration. In the original agreement, Westeros system did not show much intention to control some enterprises with a small number of stock exchange, provided that the other party can't give directions to the enterprises that get shares here.
However, since the stocks are in hand, what to do is another matter.
Simon certainly won't let the following people meddle in the specific management of the company. If he can join the board of directors or install the management, it's fair. If you can't be honest, use some less honest means. First, make friends and infiltrate some board members or enterprise executives step by step.
Or that sentence, what can be controlled in their own hands is their own, and it is the assets that can be transformed into social power.
If not, it's just a sum of money.
Simon is now pursuing more than simple asset appreciation. After all, there are hundreds of billions more on the book. If power does not follow the increase, it will be meaningless and may even become a fat sheep.
However, it is planned to suspend next year anyway, and Simon has always believed that human nature is forgetful.
Humans never remember lessons.
The second place is the United States, with $39 billion.
After all, the United States has the deepest background. However, relatively speaking, the $39 billion assets ranked second in total are also the most scattered. There are only six replacement projects with a scale of more than $1 billion, most of which are transactions of hundreds of millions, tens of millions or even millions. Moreover, obviously for tax avoidance, this part has the lowest cash proportion, less than $6 billion, Most of them are stock exchange operations that can be exempted from tax.
There is nothing to say about this asset. It is basically just an asset, mainly from many public funds. It is obvious that the position change operation was carried out when the technology stocks took off again.
Of course, there must be room for operation.
The goal here is to conduct in-depth research and review and select some companies for further operation. The first goal is not to consider from the value-added level, but from the political level.
For example, which company is an important financier of which congressman in a certain constituency, or which company is a labor-intensive enterprise and controls many workers with voting rights, it is more valuable if the company is still in the swing city of swing County in some swing states.
In short, when the Westeros system needs, such as Washington, to shut up a congressman who wants to make a fuss, or to step down a congressman who is unwilling to shut up, it needs to have enough chips.
If you don't shut up, you may lose the biggest financier in your constituency.
If you don't step down, hundreds of thousands of workers in your constituency may lose their jobs. Even if you know that you are fighting for their interests, they can only let you step down.
That's how it works.
Outside the United States, the third part, from the Middle East, is $32 billion.
After all, it's too rich.
Moreover, if some people think that the kings of the Middle East only know how to stay up and walk the birds, they also underestimate each other. The oil producing countries over there still attach great importance to diversified investment in the future. However, it is often difficult for investors in the Middle East to gain too much voice in their investment objects, so they seem to have no sense of existence
Of course, the Westeros system will not give any voice. Even if you give up shares with a total value of more than $32 billion, if someone thinks they can talk here, it's no problem. You can sell them at will.
So it's just a deal.
The Westeros system has no demands on the Middle East, and there is no need to get anything extra from here.
In fact, it can be seen from the transaction content.
In addition to the cash of about $8 billion, most of the other assets in this exchange are the shares of many large companies outside the Middle East. As for the oil fields in the Middle East, some people want to sell them. They are not interested here. After all, it is impossible to get too large and high-quality oil fields. It is not troublesome enough.
As for others, there is no other in the Middle East.
Simon is not interested in sand. It's not river sand.
The fourth part comes from Europe, to be exact, Western Europe, which is close to the Middle East, about US $31 billion.
Western Europe is certainly rich, so $13 billion is cash.
Another important reason is that Simon is not very interested in most companies in Western Europe. After all, the trend of industrial migration in Europe is no less than that in North America, which means the gradual decline of most real industries. If these companies can not further obtain control, they can only decline together.
Therefore, Europe is similar to the United States or the Middle East.
Because Simon has no strong political appeal to Western European countries for the time being, he will not pursue operations similar to those of the United States. Of course, it's not without. It's just not urgent. It's still step by step.
For the future of Western Europe, Simon also has a certain Cisco.
The best result is that in the next 50 years, Western Europe will be reduced to the same situation as Latin America, and will completely lose its vitality together with the current difficulties in Eastern Europe.
According to some information in memory, this possibility is actually great.
In other words, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the whole of Eastern Europe was actually equivalent to China's reform and opening up. China's opening up later proved that the United States benefited the most except itself.
Eastern Europe should have been an opportunity for Western Europe. If Western European countries can make smooth use of it, activate the economy of Eastern Europe through large-scale investment, and even boldly admit Russia into the European system, then the whole Europe will not only have a further development momentum for at least three decades, but also directly have a strong military system that can compete with the United States.
However, the reality is that the further absorption of Russia, not to mention that the Western European countries have not even achieved a second-class goal.
This lack of success, it can even be said, is doomed to the future of Europe.
As for why Europe was able to keep pace with the United States and China, it did not fall rapidly in the two decades after the millennium. After all, it benefited from Eastern Europe.
A large number of cheap labor from Eastern Europe do not consume the high social welfare of Western Europe, which makes up for the shortage of low-end industrial labor in Western European countries. Not only that, like China, Eastern Europe is not only the dumping market of high value-added products in Western Europe, but also contributes a large number of cheap goods to Western Europe.
This delayed the decline of Western Europe for another 20 years.
Then, as Eastern Europe began to develop, the cheap dividends of population and goods in Eastern Europe gradually passed, and China no longer allowed the western world to take whatever it wanted. The whole social level is western Europe, which likes leisure and hates work. It wants to continue... It has tried to attract the same cheap Middle East refugees, but the subsequent results are undoubtedly disastrous. Therefore, Then there won't be anything else
In fact, twenty years later, the whole world is basically facing a problem.
In fact, the solution is also very simple. Human beings can work together to make another fundamental scientific and technological revolution, realize controllable nuclear fusion, and realize the large-scale application of solar energy to meet the whole social level. In short, it is a fundamental improvement in productivity.
As long as this is achieved, human society will no longer have to worry about the shortage of energy and materials, can maximize the automation of production, and mankind will enter a new era.
The 3G plan of Westeros system is precisely this goal.
As for the original timeline, Simon thinks that mankind will probably experience another unforgettable catastrophe. If we are lucky that we have not destroyed ourselves because of the nuclear war, we will probably decide to go further.
However, this is not what humans are good at.
Just like the history of countless reincarnations, human beings are still better at self destruction. No matter which continent or person, there will be a vigorous war. Enough people will die, and the remaining resources will naturally be enough for the remaining people to use.