Chapter 244: The life and death of business, the pressure on Kate
Answer: Use the state machine to crush it.
When Roland found out that he seemed to be able to use "Black Hawk Down" to forcibly dismember Sony, a memory of his previous life also slowly came out.
He remembered a book he read back then, a book about how America disintegrated business giants in other countries through non-economic means, and the title of the book was "The American Trap".
French Alstom is a global leader in rail transit, power equipment, and power transmission infrastructure. It is famous for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Of course, its status as a giant is also acquired through mergers and acquisitions.
After acquiring the power transmission and distribution business of Germany\'s AEG in 1998, Alstom jumped to the second place in the world\'s power transmission and distribution industry; then, it merged with Setech Lak, a leader in electrical engineering contracting and industrial control systems , its strength has greatly increased; at that time, it had an annual turnover of more than 16 billion US dollars, had 110,000 employees, and its business spread across more than 60 countries and regions.
At that time, the most popular sentence in the world was:
‘One out of every four light bulbs in the world is powered by Alstom technology. \'
Even in that unspeakable country in the east, many energy and power transmission and transformation equipment are products of Alstom.
Among them, some industrial equipment in the Three Gorges Dam is also included.
However, being bigger means being targeted.
Due to Alstom\'s crazy global expansion, it has already threatened General Electric, so in 2010, America began to investigate Alstom, the purpose is to find out how Alstom used "unfair" \' way of securing multi-billion dollar business orders outside of America.
That\'s right, America didn\'t ask \'is it\' at all, but directly asked \'why\'.
If this kind of practice had been put on the beep, it might have been kicked off the Internet long ago.
Americans have always been “suspicious” that Alstom provided a total of at least 75 million U.S. dollars in “favor fees” in countries and regions such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, and finally won contracts worth a total of 4 billion U.S. dollars.
Part of the "favorite fee" used the American bank account and entered the account of an Indonesian official in the name of "consulting fee". In this way, the FBI followed the vine and found it all the way to France.
As for why it can be checked?
That\'s because America has long-arm jurisdiction.
In the newly revised Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1998, there is a clause, "No matter where in the world, no matter when, as long as a company has used US dollars to trade, signed contracts with US dollars, or only established in America The American government believes that the company has jurisdiction over the email server that sent, received, and stored emails. \'
It is precisely because of this law that Alstom \'should\' be the target of the investigation, but after two years of investigation, there was no result, so they took the initiative to attack, and in 2013, they will appear in New York Frédéric Pierucci, Alstom\'s vice president of international sales at JFK, was arrested.
However, they were not immediately interrogated.
Instead, he was locked in a high-security prison in Rhode Island for violent criminals.
After three months in prison, Frederick Pierucci, who knew nothing, was notified by the prosecution to attend a plea hearing. Before the plea hearing, the U.S. prosecutor told him that he had two options:
The first option is to insist on pleading not guilty and accept legal trial.
This path is dangerous because the prosecutors in this case are fighting for the court to sentence him to 15 to 19 years in prison. Moreover, he was also told that preparations for the trial would take at least three years and cost at least several million dollars.
Another option, is to plead guilty, cooperate with the authorities, and just stay a few more months to get out.
As an executive of a Fortune 500 multinational company, he was imprisoned with a death row prisoner for three months. From the beginning to the end, he only knew his charges and did not see any actual evidence. If this kind of thing is said, it is June Feixue ah!
The point is, in the absence of evidence, if you have to stay for 21 years for cooperation, you only need to stay for a few months for cooperation. Everyone knows how to choose!
So, he gave out the list of people the FBI wanted to know.
With his \'guilty plea\', several more were added to the list of arrests, three of Frederic Pierucci\'s former associates, Lawrence Hawkins, vice president for Asia, were all given to the FBI by the FBI. Arrested.
After they were arrested, the FBI repeated the same tricks, and those guys also "rebelled" one after another. Under such circumstances, the American prosecutors obtained 49 hours of "secrets" inside Alstom Conversation Recording\'.
After obtaining strong \'evidence\', and after repeated negotiations, Alstom finally reached a plea agreement with the American Department of Justice on December 22, 2014, admitting that he had committed bribery and was fined seven points $7.2 billion.
However, at that time Alstom could not pay the fine at all.
Due to the successive arrests of executives, Alstom’s operating income from the power business in FY14 to FY15 was 13.33 billion euros, its net profit was only 104 million euros, and its transportation business revenue was 61.1 points Thirty-nine euros, with a net loss of 823 million. In this case, the only way to pay a fine of 772 million is to sell assets.
The only one who bought assets was General Electric.
Why?
Because Alstom can only sell assets to General Electric.
Frédérico Pierucci pleaded guilty shortly after GE made a takeover offer, and after the possibility of a deal emerged, the American Justice Department unsolicited news that the legal pressure on Alstom seemed to ease.
After seeing the hope, Alstom did not immediately promote the negotiation, so the Alstom executives were immediately arrested.
On the day of being arrested, Alstom, who knew that the matter was irreversible, took the initiative to reach a deal with General Electric. After that, as the news was released, no one from Alstom was arrested by the American authorities again.
Officially signed, the same day the deal was concluded, the bail application of those executives was also approved by the American authorities.
Not only that, in order to ensure that General Electric can take over Alstom, the American Ministry of Justice also stipulated that the fine of 772 million must be paid by Alstom’s French assets that have not been acquired, and after the fine is issued, The payment must be made within ten days, which is simply a huge hole for other companies such as Sanleng who want to acquire Alstom.
However, after General Electric and Alstom officially signed the acquisition agreement, General Electric, which promised to help pay the fine, was lenient by the American Ministry of Justice. In September, it was paid.
And that day happened to be the day when the EU antitrust department officially approved the acquisition.
If the EU does not approve it, the American Ministry of Justice will not get the money, and if the American Ministry of Justice cannot get the money, the EU will have to approve it.
In 2010, Alstom was still a member of the world\'s top 500, ranking 290th, in 2012, 404th, in 2015, 482nd, after that , it\'s gone...
In 2015, the French Minister of Economy said in a questioning by the French Congress, "I sincerely believe that the American Ministry of Justice put pressure on Alstom\'s top management, which led to the sale of the company\'s assets to General Electric, but we have no evidence." \'
It was Emmanuel Macron who was speaking on stage.
What is the fastest way for a company to scale?
is an acquisition.
What should I do if the acquisition fails?
Put a gun at the opponent and make him choose \'SellorDie\'.
No matter who is in charge of America, whether he is an Elephant or a Donkey, Washington will defend the interests of a few industrial giants-Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Northrop -Grumman, General Dynamics, General Electric, Bechtel Engineering, United Technologies, etc., but they have different positions, and they seem to be tight and loose at times.
If you want to fight against this kind of crushing from the national level, you can only hope that the state machinery behind it can help you crush it back. Unfortunately, France cannot help Alstom, and Japan cannot help Sony.
United with Apple, Microsoft, and DreamWorks to destroy the cash flow of Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. When the state machine runs over it, Sony can only sell assets.
Potential buyers, also obvious.
It is true that industries such as Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment cannot be compared with the military industry giants at all, and Roland cannot use the state machine in a more crude and simple way like them.
But it doesn\'t matter, after "Black Hawk Down", the matter of accusation becomes extremely simple.
When the opportunity arises, the hand that pushes the state machine will naturally appear.
It doesn\'t matter if Roland is incapable, because this kind of thing can be done by capable allies...
Microsoft is obviously the capable guy, and at the same time, Sony\'s semiconductors will also attract people\'s attention.
Roland is not greedy, he only wants Sony Pictures Entertainment, which the giants look down on.
Ah no, it was to help Steven Spielberg, the Jewish backbone, win Sony Pictures Entertainment.
As for himself?
He doesn\'t know anything!
He just helped the right friend at the right time, found the right project, got the right people to invest, released it at the right time, so as to realize the value increase of everyone’s assets...
himself...
It’s just a weak, pitiful, helpless, and especially edible little meow!
"Pia!"
The crisp sound spread throughout the room.
"Don\'t eat~"
The voice suddenly rose.
Kate rested her chin on one hand, looked at the messy dining table in front of her, and the paws that wanted another one, her face was full of disgust, "Aren\'t you afraid of getting fat as an actor who eats so much?"
"Or, the secret of your eating too much and not gaining weight is because you vent your calories on me?"
Although he was hit on the arm, Roland was not angry.
Showing a naive smile at the other party, pretending to be incomprehensible, but then the speed of the hand suddenly increased, and with the momentum of jingle bells, he stuffed the last croissant on the dining table into his own pocket. mouth.
Because of the invasion of bread, his cheeks suddenly swelled, but he didn\'t gobble it up. Instead, while chewing at a constant speed, he picked up the milk and drank it slowly. With his eyes squinted, he really looked like he deserved a beating.
"you…"
The behavior of committing crimes against the wind won the death stare.
Seeing that Kate was really going to get angry, Roland swallowed the bread, but also showed weakness with a smile and said—
"Don\'t be angry... I just ate two more..."
Roland, who doesn\'t believe in love, believes in tangible benefits the most, and Roland, who was extremely excited after receiving tangible inspiration from Kate last night, had a great time playing.
Or in other words, the idea of "Black Hawk Down" allowed Roland to find double happiness in Kate.
As Kissinger said, \'Poweristheultimateaphrodisiac\'.
Roland, who was physically and mentally happy, was very happy.
And Kate suffered.
Last night, Roland, incarnate as the tauren chief, opened up his stamina aura first, increased his attack speed, and after Ping A lost half of Kate\'s blood, the shock wave took advantage of the situation, coupled with war trampling, to destroy him. A brutal harvest.
However, after finishing a set of combos, it was discovered that Kate chose the Juggernaut, and all the skills hit the phantom of the opponent, so Roland, who became angry, fought against him for several rounds.
The two sides come and go very fiercely. Roland activated the stamina aura, and Kate triggered a fatal blow. Roland threw out the shock wave, and Kate slashed and slashed back. In the end, seeing that she was about to lose, Kate decisively threw out Bladestorm wanted to die with Roland, but the problem was that after Roland fell to the ground after taking the ultimate move, he was reborn and resurrected with full blood...
Because of this, after waking up this morning, Kate, who was tired and lazy and just wanted to sleep, didn\'t give Roland any good looks.
And now, after being \'provoked\' by Roland face to face, she snorted softly and didn\'t bother to talk to him.
Rolled up, lay down on the sofa in the living room, picked up the remote control, and turned on the TV. The look of "I am in a bad mood, don\'t come to provoke me" was vividly presented in front of Roland.
Unfortunately, maybe it was Kate\'s bad luck, or maybe it was Roland\'s luck. As soon as the TV was turned on, the CNN logo appeared on the screen. Not only that, a \'disgusting\' news also reached the ears of the two of them. .
"Yesterday, the Paula Jones Sexualharassment case made significant progress. The witness in the case, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, was accused of having an affair with President Zipperton."
"According to sources, the written testimony submitted by Monica Lewinsky that \'I have no dealings with the Grand Commander\' may be false, her close friend Linda Tripp said, Monica Lewinsky The reason why Sky denied the relationship between himself and the commander-in-chief Zackton was all hinted by the commander-in-chief Zackton, and she herself has recording evidence."
"After learning of this, Attorney General Janet Reynolds decided to authorize the independent prosecutor, then-Whitewater Special Counsel Kenneth Starr, to investigate Ms. Monica Lewinsky\'s relationship with Grand Commander Zipperton. "
As soon as the news came out, Kate, who was lying on the sofa and wanted to watch TV, turned dark.
Ben looked at Roland, who was looking at her, and also moved his gaze to the TV.
Since the beginning of January, after "Titanic" set a daily box office record of over 100 million, Zipperton\'s zipper door also kicked off.
Different from the fairy love envied by everyone, Zipperton is now controversial.
Although Zipperton was already well-known when he was the governor of Arkansas, and his reputation as a **** became the target of opponents when he ran for the first time that year, but now, after all, he is the president of America. command.
It is already an extremely dereliction of duty to cause a **** scandal and transfer him to the Ministry of National Defense in order to seal it up. However, making false confessions hinders judicial justice and lowers moral issues to the bottom line of the law.
Of course, this matter has nothing to do with Roland.
For others, this is a big melon, but for him, it is a matter.
After glancing twice, he turned his gaze back to Kate.
But Kate doesn\'t think so.
The sudden sexual incident made her purse her lips. After the news jumped, she turned her head and looked at it. When she found that Roland was looking at her, she poured out a complicated expression without reservation.
It has been two years since we dated each other in early 1996.
In the past two years, the two of them have done everything they should and should not do. Not only that, both parties have also met their parents, and even Kate will help with the work of raising children that only one family can do. Dry.
Although Kate didn\'t calculate it, she knew in her heart that Roland spent a lot of money on herself.
Daily expenses were paid by Roland, holiday gifts were bought by Roland, and after she spent all the salary she earned over the years, what she is holding now is also Roland\'s secondary card. Next, Roland will also buy land and construction. She will also participate in housing and design.
But even if this is the case, Roland has no intention of giving a diamond ring.
Although she knew that the diamond ring was an IQ tax, the problem was that it was also a symbol!
No matter how nice Roland was to her, she would feel uneasy without the oath symbol, especially after she had decided to give up her career as an actress, this uneasiness increased geometrically...
Now, the whole world knows that I have gone to live in your house, but my hands are still bald?
this…
Isn\'t this a joke for people to see!
Isn\'t this an opportunity for others to take advantage of!
If before, Kate herself was avoiding this question, and she didn\'t want to put pressure on Roland, then now, after reading the pornographic news about Ziztonton, and finding that Roland was still staring at her heartlessly and laughing, the pressure in her heart was gone. It is an increase of geometric times.
She did think that Roland didn\'t want to give him a ring because he felt that he might break up at any time, but!
If Roland is really ready to break up with her all the time, then there is no need to bring her home!
This extremely contradictory behavior made her unable to guess what Roland was thinking.
If she can\'t figure it out, she will get annoyed.
Unfortunately, after staring for a while, she still didn\'t speak in the end.
But while she was looking away, she asked silently in her heart—
‘Is it difficult to give a ring? \'
If Roland were to know her thoughts, he would definitely apologize.
It is not difficult to give a ring.
The hard part is to deliver the ring at the right time.
Note: ① "The American Trap" is the most clear book on the market that describes the case of American giants promoting the state apparatus for capital expansion. If you think Sony cannot be dismantled, you can go to "Alstom Split" Case\', \'Paris National Bank 9 billion sky-high fine\', \'Alcatel dismemberment case\' and a bunch of realistic cases. Since 1998, the steps of U.S. capital dismantling foreign giants have not changed. I just followed their steps step by step. First, I will eliminate the cash flow of the target company, and then put a label on it to let the judiciary intervene, and then open a case for investigation. Open sky-high fines and force target companies to sell their properties and pay fines. The current "Huawei case" is the same. The outcome of this kind of case depends not on a single consortium, but on the country, and Japan is obviously no match for the United States. Leng Heavy Industries, Panasonic, who has not been slaughtered by the United States? The "U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Trade Agreement" was signed in 1986. In 1987, Japan immediately declared that Japan had not complied with it and imposed additional tariffs. After a combination of punches, Japan\'s semiconductor share plummeted. Regardless of the many steps in the routine, it boils down to one word. That is to grab. ② What happened to Frederick Pierucci was confirmed by the People’s Daily report. It doesn’t matter whether he committed a crime or not. Alstom\'s CEO received a clear signal from the U.S. side during the investigation that if he doesn\'t cooperate, he will be the next one to go to jail.
(end of this chapter)