American Scandal King

Chapter 127 Agreement reached
The negotiations lasted about three hours.

In the end, the two parties reached a preliminary cooperation direction - they can accept the bet agreement, but the details of the bet still need to be discussed at the board level.

At this moment, the general direction was agreed upon and both sides drank and talked happily.

At this moment, Lena rushed in, hugged Ian excitedly and said, "Ian, everyone is talking about you! The Wall Street Journal has listed you as this year's most famous new talent, and even said you should win the Pulitzer Prize!"

She spoke excitedly, holding a copy of the Wall Street Journal.

Ian laughed and said, "Those guys are always boasting without principles. They create news when there isn't any. As for me, I'm a businessman at heart, not a journalist. It doesn't matter to me whether I win an award or not."

As a man of action and a doer, Ian despises the purely verbal way of producing news.

"Okay, I knew you would say that." Lena smiled.

Then she threw herself into Gaskell's arms: "Are you done?"

"Almost there, darling," Gaskell replied gently.

"Then come with me." Lena pulled her husband and said, "The Coleman couple is here. They want to see you and see how you are doing."

Gaskell stood up helplessly and said to James Pelley and Ian with a smile, "You guys chat, I'll be leaving for a while."

The old man left with the help of his wife.

James Pelley poured Ian a glass of wine himself.

He looked at Ian, then at Lena, leaning against the bar, and suddenly said, "You slept with her, didn't you?"

Ian looked at James Perry in surprise.

James Pelley laughed. "Don't underestimate the discernment of a seasoned womanizer... It's unbelievable that you slept with Gaskell's wife and he lent you money. He knew that, didn't he?"

Ian chuckled and didn't respond.

It's best not to respond to this kind of thing.

"You are a charming young man with unlimited potential. I wish us a successful cooperation." James Pelley raised his glass.

"I wish our cooperation a success!" Ian also replied with a smile.

------

Time flies, and three weeks have passed in the blink of an eye, and it is already late August.

The cooperation with CBS is still in the negotiation stage. Both parties are satisfied with the bet, but are also entangled in the specific base and improvement standards.

Sometimes, the general direction is easy to discuss, but the details are difficult.

Countless details, every point is profit!

The more anxious you are, the less anxious the other party will be.

Seeing the slow and steady negotiations by a group of old guys on the CBS board, Ian felt unbearable - there were too many people to deal with, the time was too long, and his left eye was useless unless he was willing to strain himself to blindness.

time is limited!
CBS headquarters building.

In the magnificent conference hall, a group of people were sitting at a long table and talking.

In the center is James Pelley, and below him are members of the CBS board of directors, each of whom is a well-known boss.

Ian, also sitting at the table, said bluntly, "Using WND's traffic as the standard for growth, this won't change. Regarding 100% compound annual growth, I must say that this is no longer an excessive demand, but a shameful one. WND now has over a million registered users, with an average daily visit volume of over two million. If we use this standard, that would mean million visits. The entire United States has only million people! If I could have that many users and visits, my own valuation would be billion!"

Jampelli laughed. "Don't worry, Ian. You know, CBS will also divert traffic to WND, and there are international users."

Ian said disdainfully, "How many subscribers does CBS have? Do you have eight million paying subscribers now? WND already has three million."

A director said: "But the user value is different. WND users are all free users."

Ian raised his finger: "Value is discovered slowly! We must first have users, and then we can take money out of their pockets. It's your job to get users to spend money, and my job is to make the public become our users!"

He paused and continued, "I've already signed a bunch of contracts in Hollywood, including Ankang advertising... I can share all of this business with CBS. In the future, we'll become one of the largest distributors in Hollywood. Don't forget, before this, CBS couldn't even get involved in this area."

Everyone nodded at the same time.

This is true.

Hollywood's publicity and promotion is a piece of fat meat - not just because of the money, but because although they are all advertisements, film and television advertisements are the ones that readers like to watch the most.

High-quality advertisements can retain readers...it’s all advertisements anyway, so who doesn’t want to see interesting and fun ones?
Not to mention that film and television itself can also bring in soft advertising, and the cooperation effect is excellent.

Therefore, there are indeed people on the CBS board of directors who have always wanted to sell CBS to Viacom. After all, Viacom owns Paramount!

But Ian is different this time. He has made an agreement with Sony and will be able to take over Sony in the future. This means that through Ian he can get deeper into Hollywood.

These are all Ian’s capital!

Ian said: "I have shown great sincerity. I can not only bring you news, but also clients and a lot of business... and my news is not only valuable in the United States, but also world-class."

Thanks to Ian's manipulation, the news of the Palos Bank and Dandy Building cases has become world-class explosive news, but in comparison, other news is slightly weaker.

Unfortunately, Ian's media still has limited international development, so although these two news stories brought him a huge boost, Ian felt that he had discovered very little value. In order to maximize the value of these news stories, he had to authorize them for broadcast.

To him, it was gold selling for the price of trash.

This is also why Ian can't wait to take over CBS.

CBS can maximize his news value.

In half a month, a big event will come. If you miss this opportunity, it will be difficult to have such explosive news in the future - even the news about the United States sending troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, and the financial crisis in 08, only have a long-lasting impact, but in terms of the explosiveness and sensation of a single event, they cannot compare to the September incident.

This is a major event that is destined to have an impact for a century and will have a long-term impact on future international relations and national growth... Not even a small-scale war has resulted in as many deaths as in this incident!
In the next twenty years, no event can surpass 911 in terms of the degree of single explosive sensation!

However, the board members were determined and willing to make concessions, but the extent of the concessions was too low.

It's understandable, after all, they can't imagine the big events that will happen next.

Faced with this situation, Ian sneered at James Perry and said, "Mr. Perry, do you remember what I told you last time?"

Perry nodded. "Of course, the problem is you can't prove it."

"No, I can prove it now." Ian said, took out the recorder and started playing the recording.

The recording contains some distorted English:
"Everything is ready. The goods will be delivered on time."

"Is anyone paying attention to you over there? You said there was a reporter last time?"

"It's nothing, it was just a chance encounter. I looked him up, and he's indeed a journalist. His name is Butterfly, and he has serious grievances against the United States. I was thinking maybe we should let him come with us. In the final moments, let him broadcast our greatness and glorious deeds. This will make the whole thing more meaningful!"

"No, you can't do that, it's too risky."

"I don't need to tell him the specific plan, I can just find an excuse to get him on the plane. He's dying, he's not afraid of dying, he just wants good news. I'm sure of that, after all, that's what he did before."

"Yes, it will be easy once we can fly."

“May Allah bless us.” “God is above.”

Everyone was stunned after hearing this conversation.

A director looked at Ian: "You mean..."

Ian nodded. "As you know, someone is trying to stir up trouble. My people have already contacted one of them."

A director stood up and said: "The FBI should be notified immediately."

But everyone was silent.

James Perry said in a deep voice: "Brad, I know you have a sense of justice, but don't act like a child."

The director named Brad took a long breath and said, "Okay, I understand."

The last bit of justice he had left was defeated by James Perry's words, and he sat back obediently.

James Pelley asked, "Hijacking?"

Ian nodded: "Probably."

A director said, "The hijacking news wasn't a small story, but it wasn't that explosive either."

Ian laughed and said, "But the live interview is different, and this time it will be even more explosive than the Palos Bank incident! Also, I don't think it's a hijacking. They might be planning to blow up more than one plane!"

Everyone looked at each other.

Someone said, "Are you sure? They didn't mention that in their conversation."

Ian nodded. "I'm sure. Oh, has anyone ever told you that recordings can be edited?"

So everyone was speechless.

This recording was actually not of Atta. In order to ensure the plan, Ian could not let Leso eavesdrop on Mohammed Atta, so he made it up himself.

But what does it matter?
Precisely because it is fabricated, I can deny it completely in the future.

Anyway, you haven't heard Ata's voice!

In addition, the current conversation is not enough to serve as evidence to accuse Ian in the future, but he still wants to drag these people into the water - as long as the incident happens, everyone is in the same boat, and with hypnosis, he can easily remove himself!
James Pelley asked, "What time? Where? What's the other person's name?"

Ian shook his head. "Butterfly did all this, and what I know is what he told me. You know he's dying, and he wants to create his most brilliant piece of news in the final moments of his life, so he won't accept anyone's obstruction. Even if you notify the FBI now, you won't be able to find him, and neither can I. Of course, the FBI can issue an alert, but there are hundreds of terrorist alerts every year. It's pointless and can't be prevented. It will only make us miss the best opportunity!"

Brad smiled and said, "Then my conscience will feel much better."

The board of directors became excited.

They talked a lot:

"This is going to be huge news, and we need all the inside information."

"Exclusive news, we're the only ones who have it!"

"Cooperate, Ian Carr, and you will become an excellent member of our team."

"Wait, if the butterfly dies, does that mean you won't have any butterflies anymore, Ian?"

Ian smiled: "Butterflies are an organization. Only one butterfly died, but new ones will appear soon. Storms will always exist, but butterflies will never die! And we are the ones standing in the eye of the storm!"

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other and laughed.

"Then it's settled!"

"We have to be prepared before that happens."

"By the way, it's best not to fly during this period, and remind your family as well."

"But don't remind us any more. If the news gets out, we'll be in trouble."

"What about the stock market?"

"Of course we should go short!"

"We have to find a few specific targets and can't short the market, otherwise the FBI will come after us."

"Of course, the airline is the best choice. Ian, do you need it?"

Ian shook his head. "I can't do that. I'll give you this part of the profit, and I need an agreement that satisfies me. Otherwise... you'll get nothing... If Butterfly warns them, things might change!"

As a participant in the entire process, Ian is not suitable for short selling, and he does not have more funds to short sell - the Italian lira is falling, and Ian's money in his account has begun to increase.

So he would rather give up this part of the profit, but in return the other party must make concessions in the agreement.

The board members nodded:

"Of course!"

"Don't worry, man, no one wants to go against money!"

With the release of this explosive news, the board of directors' attitude towards Ian changed drastically.

At this moment, they are in cahoots, watching the disaster happen, like vultures eating carrion.

Even so, the two sides are still engaged in various negotiations on more details.

Finally, after several days of efforts, the two sides reached an agreement.

Ian Carr will merge WND into the CBS Television Network and directly acquire a 2% stake in CBS.

At the same time, Ian Carr will share all the exclusive news with CBS and set up agreed standards for improving the user base. For each step reached, Ian can obtain 2 points of CBS internal shares, with a total of six milestones, and a maximum additional acquisition of 12 points of shares, for a total of 14 points.

Although shareholders will sell some of their shares, they will also buy some from the market themselves - if Ian can do what he promised, it will mean huge profits.

On September 9, knowing that he could not delay any longer, Ian activated the hypnosis function of his left eye again, and his left eye was so tired that it swelled up.

The two sides finally reached a comprehensive agreement.

The next day, September 9th.

Ian Carr signed an agreement with the CBS board of directors to acquire 2 shares in advance and officially become one of CBS's shareholders.

To this end, they held a dinner party limited to insiders.

At the dinner, everyone raised their glasses to celebrate.

"For the news!"

"For the truth!"

"Cheers to those who will die in this disaster!"

(End of this chapter)