Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Chapter 302 The Devil’s Temptation

In fact, Betty's promise was not necessary for Lin Yuan.

Because of the talent effect of "Life is a Play", Betty's inner thoughts cannot escape Lin Yuan's eyes.

She said she wouldn't leak the secret, and she meant it.

Lin Yuan knew that she would do what she said.

So he said, "I have a grudge against MGM. I want to attack their stock in October and try to bring down the company, but I'm worried that Morgan Stanley will interfere."

"Just such a small matter?"

Little things?

Is the life and death of Hollywood's eight major film studios just a trivial matter in the eyes of you Wall Street tycoons?

"This matter falls within my authority, and I can, on behalf of Morgan Stanley, promise that we will not interfere," Betty said.

"What if you lose money on your investment?" Lin Yuan asked.

"This is too easy. We still have nearly five months left, which is enough time for us to make the cut. If you agree to one of my conditions, not only will we not interfere, we can also help you short the stock price." Betty replied.

"Huh? You're just going to backstab your former ally?"

Lin Yuan didn't ask any conditions, he just felt a biting chill.

Morgan Stanley was an ally of MGM one moment, and the next moment it was ready to sell out its ally in a transaction?
This is indeed very capitalist.

"Members of the board have long been dissatisfied with MGM's performance in recent years."

"Holding their stock for a long time without any returns has gradually made us lose patience. There have always been calls for a quick separation from MGM, but they have been suppressed."

"No matter what, it's not very cost-effective for us to kick our former allies when they're down and make a small profit from short selling. After all, it will cause some damage to our reputation."

"But if we add your conditions, then we will feel that this deal is worth it."

"Will you consider my suggestion?"

Lin Yuan was really surprised by Betty's reply.

Is capital always so callous when it abandons worthless allies?

Not only do they not lend a hand, but they even sell it out to the enemy and then step on it a few times?
But if you think about it carefully, this is perfectly normal. The only goal of capital is to increase value.

Capital is like a monster. From the first day of its birth, it has been pursuing the maximization of profits by all means, and continuous expansion is its only pursuit.

Having no value is original sin.

MGM has not brought any returns to its investors for many years.

In this case, it was ruthlessly abandoned by capital, which is completely in line with the basic logic of capital operation.

"Can I ask what your conditions are?" Lin Yuan replied.

In fact, Lin Yuan could roughly guess what the conditions were without asking.

You are negotiating terms with Morgan Stanley, the embodiment of capital. It's not like you're talking about love, right?
The only thing that capital values ​​about him is his future profitability.

"We want to invest in your future." As expected, Betty replied calmly.

"Do you want to invest in my film company? While you are not optimistic about MGM, do you consider my film company as a better alternative investment target?" Lin Yuan asked.

He had deliberately changed the subject; Betty had made it clear that the target was him, not his company. But Lin Yuan still wanted to give it a try, trying to steer the other party toward using his film company as a replacement for MGM's exit. He wondered if this would be a shortcut.

"Mr. Lin, I believe that with your intelligence, you will understand my request." Sure enough, Betty exposed his trick.

"What we want to invest in is you, Mr. Lin, and of course your entire business," said Betty.

"Okay, can I ask what method you would like?" Lin Yuan could only face Betty's request directly.

Betty took out a document that had been prepared long ago from the drawer and handed it to Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan took it, opened it and started reading.

After reading a few pages, he was in a dilemma and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

These devils who play with money are really good at calculating people's hearts.

On behalf of Morgan Stanley, Betty made an offer that was hard for him to refuse: lend money to Lin Yuan to acquire an investment bank.

For Lin Yuan, this was like removing the biggest shackles he had faced since his rebirth.

Lin Yuan has always understood that it is impossible to become a wealthy man by relying solely on speculation.

He had read many rebirth novels before, in which the protagonists invested a sum of money in Shuangma early on to become original shareholders, and then they could sit back and relax as the boss, thus getting a big piece of the pie of the Internet era's dividends.

But the reality is, if you are just an individual investor with no background, don’t even think about investing money and wanting to take such a big piece of the pie.

Even if you are a core member of the founding team, you may be squeezed out by others.

In the face of huge interests, if you don’t have enough confidence to prevent others from touching your cake, then you are destined to become a victim.

If you don’t believe it, just look at how Zuckerberg squeezed out Eduardo by diluting his equity during the creation of Facebook.

Eduardo is the Chief Financial Officer with a 34.4% stake. Even someone in such a position and with such a high equity ratio can be kicked out. This shows that in the face of huge interests, human nature will turn partners who fought side by side just a moment ago into enemies, and they will try their best to calculate the chips in your hands.

In fact, such cases are not uncommon, but can be seen everywhere.

It is said that early-stage equity investment carries huge risks. This risk does not only come from project failure, but also from the fierce bargaining hidden under the table during the incubation process of the enterprise.

Lin Yuan doesn't think that he can reap the growth dividends of those Internet giants just by simply investing some money.

The reason why Masayoshi Son can reap all the benefits of Alibaba is because that money was invested by SoftBank.

If you want to kick SoftBank off the table, first ask the countless stakeholders behind it whether they agree!

Now, if Lin Yuan had an investment bank in his hands.

Then all his investment activities will have a stable foundation.

He can consolidate his position by binding a large number of investors, so that the investors dare not have any bad thoughts.

After acquiring this investment bank, Lin Yuan never thought of using it to speculate and get rich quick. After all, having reached his current level of wealth, if he wants to climb higher, being unworthy of his position will only bring him unnecessary disasters.

The so-called virtue must match one's position, which means that he must tie up the interests of more people and represent the interests of more people, so that his foundation will be solid enough and he can climb to a higher position.

Although it is not speculative, this investment bank still means a lot to Lin Yuan.

He can use this as a platform to make more exchanges of interests and bind more allies.

Therefore, it was really difficult for him to refuse the olive branch thrown by Betty.

But what's the cost?
(End of this chapter)