I am a literary giant in Europe

Chapter 715 Exchange
Arthur D. Levinson, also translated as Arthur Levinson or Arthur Levinson.

A name that most people don't know.

A PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University.

He once brought Genentech back from the brink of bankruptcy, growing its market value from 130 billion to a giant with a market value of hundreds of billions.

He also has another identity: Chairman of the Board of Directors of Apple.

I've read your autobiography!

When people think of Apple, the first person that comes to mind is Steve Jobs.

Yes, this will be true during this period and even ten years from now; however, ten years from now, Steve Jobs will be mentioned less and less, and people will talk more about his successor, Tim Cook.

There's not much to write about Tim Cook.

Boss Qiao...

In fact, that's it.

He popularized the iPhone, but in reality, he was just an executor.

The true leader of Apple has always been Arthur Levinson, a middle-aged man who appears tall and strong, slightly overweight, with a round face, glasses, and brown hair.

He will write an autobiography in the future, documenting his daily life at Apple.

There are definitely exaggerations, just like in the biography of Mr. Qiao, which contains a lot of the imagination and fictional content of writers.

He is currently the CEO of Genentech, but he will resign from the position next year.

Arthur Levinson has served on Apple's board of directors since 2000, primarily serving on three committees within the board.

Audit, Finance and Management Committee.

He was a staunch supporter of Steve Jobs.

In 02, after Steve Jobs returned, Apple's performance did not meet expectations, and its market value once fell.

The board of directors also had many doubts about Steve Jobs, but Arthur Levinson stood firmly by Jobs' side and provided him with various forms of assistance, which enabled Jobs to have enough energy to complete his plan to take down Apple.

However, everyone's attention was focused on Boss Qiao.

Levinson, who served as an assistant, is relatively unknown.

He will be running for the position of chairman of the board next year...

So he came here?
Liu Jin had some vague guesses.

……

He led Little Ma and Levinson into the study on the second floor.

Looking at the huge study, which resembled a small library, little Mark was filled with envy.

This study is a full two hundred square meters in size, formed by combining two rooms... There are two rooms, an inner and an outer one. The larger room contains bookshelves and a four-meter-long desk, on which there is a printer, a computer, and various tools.

The small room is where Liu Jin writes, and it connects to the balcony.

The three sat down in the small room, and Liu Jin brought out cigars and whiskey.

Once Levinson sat down, he acted swiftly and decisively, just as he wrote in his autobiography.

He didn't mince words, but said to Liu Jin, "Dr. Amos, I know you acquired a lot of Apple stock in 03 and 04. I'd like to know how much you currently hold? If possible, I'd like to acquire it at a premium."

"Dr. Levinson, how did you know I had acquired Apple stock?"

Liu Jin used a blowtorch to heat a Cohiba cigar, then lit it with a cedarwood match and handed it to Levinson.

He was pleased with how Levinson addressed him.

Dr. Amos!
No one has ever called him that before.

Yes, two lifetimes!
So, in return, he addressed Levinson with the same title.

In his autobiography, he wrote: "The proudest moment of my life was not when Genentech came back from the brink of death, nor when I became the chairman of Apple's board of directors, but when I received my doctorate at Princeton University."

Besides that, I was filled with pride the moment Herceptin was successfully developed.

This is a successful scholar.

When Liu Jin addressed him as Dr. Levinson, the corners of his mouth were noticeably turned up.

Now, it's a conversation between two PhDs.

Little Ma can shut up now!

"You know, I have many titles: director of Roche, director of Apple, director of Google, and CEO of Genentech."

I have many friends, and it's not difficult for me to ask them for information.

I know Dr. Amos, you're very interested in Apple. Between 2003 and 2004, you acquired a lot of Apple stock through HSBC. I estimate it to be around 0.8%, which would currently give you a market capitalization of $1.3 billion.

Liu Jin lit another cigar and handed it to Little Ma.

His heart skipped a beat.

Levinson's prediction was pretty close to the truth.

After buying Apple stock at the bottom in 01/02, Apple's stock grew slowly in 03/04, but fluctuated. This was mainly because Jobs was adjusting Apple's direction at the time and could only stabilize the situation, so there was no rapid development.

At that time, Liu Jin did not contact Matteo again, but continued the acquisition with the agent introduced by Joan P.

Because he estimated at the time that he had acquired $30 million worth of stock in 2001/2002, which already represented 2% of Apple's stock. This was a very large number, and if he continued to acquire more stock from Matteo, it would likely alarm Apple's top management.

So he ended his partnership with Matteo and instead, through an agent introduced by his brother, acquired $50 million worth of stock through HSBC. However, by then, the stock's value had already increased, and it wasn't as much as he had imagined.

In 07, Apple released the iPhone and underwent an asset restructuring.

The 2% stake that Liu Jin acquired from Matteo has dropped to 1.15%, while the stake acquired through HSBC has dropped to 0.76%... but its value has increased more than 30 times.

The total value of the stocks he holds exceeds three billion.

Of course, nobody knows about this amount of money, and even Forbes isn't entirely clear on it.

Unexpectedly, while Matteo kept quiet, HSBC ran into trouble.

As expected of you, you traitor!
“Through HSBC, I acquired a total of 0.76 percent of the shares, which is less than 1.3 billion.”

"Dr. Amos, we are all decent people."

Let me get straight to the point: I plan to run for the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Apple next year.

I need your stock; I can pay a premium—1.5 billion to acquire it!

The old man once bet $350 million on Apple's stock market value of over $36 billion.

It seems that this happened after he joined the board of directors.

It's estimated that in this timeline, Liu Jin's appearance prevented him from acquiring enough shares.

Don't underestimate a fraction of a percent of the shares. In the original timeline, Levinson, who became Apple's largest individual shareholder, only held a fraction of a percent of the shares. Tim Cook, on the other hand, seems to have only around 0.2 percent. If the acquisition had been made a few years earlier, Levinson might have only needed to spend a few hundred million dollars to resolve the issue.

But now...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is declining, but the Nasdaq is not significantly affected.

Levinson probably wanted to withdraw from Genentech, since Genentech's development had reached a bottleneck.

He needs a new track.

Liu Jin did not rush to answer, but closed his eyes and thought silently.

He tried hard to recall the details from Levinson's autobiography, but it had been a long time, and even with his photographic memory and amazing ability, some of them were still blurry.

This old guy holds board positions in four major companies and also owns shares in other companies.

Liu Jin vaguely remembered that he had Amazon stock and General Electric stock...

Slow!

General Electric?

Liu Jin opened his eyes. "Excuse me."

He left the small study, turned on the computer in the outer room, and looked up some information.

He then turned around, went back inside, sat down, placed his hands on his knees, leaned forward slightly, and asked with a smile, "Dr. Levinson should have shares in Amazon and General Electric, am I right?"

"What, Dr. Amos, are you interested?"

"I'm a writer, and I value Amazon's data very much."

"But General Electric... as far as I know, the current situation is very bad."

As the author of *The Big Short*, you should be aware that the risks of the economic crisis are far from over. Although the American government and the three major European central banks are working hard to rescue the market, the outlook for the Dow Jones Industrial Average is not rosy.

"But I have faith in America."

You guys will definitely run out and harvest the leeks!
Levinson closed his eyes and fell into deep thought.

Liu Jin wasn't in a hurry, because according to his autobiography, Levinson was more optimistic about technology stocks at the time and was trying to withdraw from industrial stocks.

General Electric's stock price has fallen to the ten-dollar mark.

It gives the impression of being on its last legs, barely clinging to life.

Levinson is going to be the helmsman of Apple, so he must concentrate his energy on this.

He wrote in his book: "An era of intelligence is coming, and whoever masters technology will be invincible."

So at that time, my focus was on Google and Apple.

Fortunately, I succeeded!

……

But he also wrote: My biggest mistake was underestimating General Electric’s boldness at the time.

I didn't realize that General Electric was also planning a transformation at the time... so I swapped my GE stock with Jeff's. It turned out that my swap wasn't too bad, just...

He just didn't expect that General Electric would be resurrected and become worth two hundred billion dollars twenty years later.

Amazon is just a front!
What Liu Jin really wanted was General Electric.

"Yes, we can have our staff discuss the specific plan."

My requirements are simple: confidentiality and speed.

"make a deal!"

No wonder he came here in Marc Jacobs' Peugeot 607 today; I guess he came to France in secret this time.

He has quite a few competitors on the Apple board of directors.

……

At this time, Ma Ying-jeou was not yet the Ma Ying-jeou who would later dominate European politics.

He was called a banker, but he was really just a financial broker affiliated with Rothschild Bank.

To put it more politely, project manager.

Most importantly, he had just taken office.

Regarding matters like receiving Levinson, Liu Jin felt that if it weren't for the Atali Committee acting as a go-between, it would never have been Ma's turn.

Is Marc Jacobs the illegitimate son of Jacques Attali?

Otherwise, why would Attali help him so much?
He sat on the sofa, cautious and careful, not daring to say a word.

In the blink of an eye, a deal worth 15 billion was finalized. The specific details of the subsequent operations are very specific matters and may require further negotiation, but in general, the deal is done...

Amos!

Little Ma was so envious he was practically in a rage.

Next, Liu Jin invited Levinson to have a Chinese meal at the manor.

His private plane was scheduled to take off in the afternoon, so he left early.

However, Liu Jin left Xiao Ma behind and had Turner arrange a car to take Levinson to Toulouse Airport in a simple manner.

It's like you're a secret agent!
Afterwards, Liu Jin called Joannup, Mela, and Chloe.

A three-person negotiation team was formed, headed by Joan P., with Mela and Chloe as assistants.

Next week, they will hold detailed discussions with Levinson's team in London, and then sign a contract to complete the swap.

Neither Liu Jin nor Levinson would discuss the matter further.

……

After completing this swap, Liu Jin still holds 1.15% of Apple's shares.

Based on Apple's development, Apple will undergo a restructuring in the future, and its shareholding will continue to decrease. By 2024, it is estimated to drop to about 0.2% to 0.3%, with an estimated value of between 20 billion and 30 billion.

Hmm, that's about right!

He doesn't want to manage things; he just wants a share of the profits.

Moreover, Apple would not allow a Chinese person to become a member of its board of directors.

This isn't just true for Apple; it's the same for major companies in Europe and America.

No matter how much Chinese companies invest or how many shares they hold, they can forget about gaining management control. Even if they did, they could simply abolish it at any time… like Italy's Gold Standard! They can't even control matters at the governmental level!
……

(End of this chapter)