How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 165 Fortune and Misfortune Hidden Within [10,000-word Update, Please Subscribe]

Business and ethics have always been conflicting issues.

But the proper appearance still needs to be maintained.

"Mr. Wu, isn't this a bit inappropriate?" Wang Yao composed himself.

"Mr. Wang, the business world is like a battlefield. To be honest, if Meishe has the right of first refusal in the next round of financing, and once the shares exceed 50%, they can use the board of directors' power to remove you as CEO. We are all people who are in business, and you should understand that power is more important than money."

Wu Kebo said earnestly, "But if I become the chairman of Meishe, it will be different. You know me, I am only focused on the operation of cinemas. You will still be the CEO of the new company. You will be responsible for business development, and I will be responsible for capital operation. When the two swords are combined, we will be invincible."

The board of directors has the direct right to appoint and dismiss the CEO and participate in the company's management. Unless the major shareholder achieves an absolute controlling stake of 67%, the shareholders' meeting can only have a certain deterrent effect on the board of directors.

To some extent, the chairman of the board has more authority than the CEO, and Wu Kebo has certainly made a clever plan.

“It’s not that I don’t trust Mr. Wu, but words are not enough. If you and Meishe hold another 20% stake, that’s equivalent to 28% of the shares. What if you become the chairman of the new company and then join forces with other shareholders to remove me as CEO? Wouldn’t I be following in Xu Chen’s footsteps?” Wang Yao said in a deep voice.

“President Wang, Xu Chen is a good-for-nothing. How can he be compared to your worth? Besides, you should trust my character,” Wu Kebo said in a deep voice.

"Excuse my bluntness, Mr. Wu is indeed skilled in business and capital operations, but as for his character, I've heard Sister Hua talk about him," Wang Yao said with a light laugh.

"President Wang, don't compare yourself to Wang Jinhua, a mere woman. What qualifications does she have to be my partner? Only strong people like us can appreciate each other." Wu Kebo's tone was completely calm.

"How about this, if Mr. Wu is truly sincere, I will help you assume the chairmanship of Meishe, but you will have to use Chengtian's name to purchase another 20% of my shares, valued at 6 million. Moreover, before the merger of the new company, I will hold these shares on your behalf to protect my interests. As for who the CEO will be after the merger, that depends entirely on Mr. Wu's mood." Wang Yao said casually.

“Mr. Wang, that’s a bit unreasonable. I understand you’re eager to cash out, but honestly, is Tianhuo really worth 30 billion?” Wu Kebo’s tone was also somewhat displeased.

He never expected Wang Yao to be so greedy. He had already come up with such a flawless and ingenious plan, yet Wang Yao was still not satisfied.

Not only do they want to cash out, they also want to maintain absolute control of Tianhuo.

"Mr. Wu, you're using 6 million to acquire more than 20% of the shares in a company worth over 50 billion in the future. I don't need to explain this to you, do I?"

Moreover, if I can persuade either Bernard or Zhang Chaoyang not to support you, the cost of continuing your plan will definitely be more than this amount. Besides, with Chengtian holding shares, what is President Wu afraid of?" Wang Yao chuckled, seemingly having the other party under his control.

Wu Kebo fell silent.

Of course he would settle this score, and he had already been doing so with Xu Chen and Yang Zi for several days.

Moreover, using Chengtian's shares is a direct investment, which will not affect the risk of his current control. However, 6 million is not a small amount. It will almost drain all of Chengtian's cash flow and also require borrowing from Meishe and Yangzi.

But then I thought, well, I'll be in charge of everything at Meishe Company from now on anyway, so the money will come back sooner or later.

The most urgent task is to join forces with Wang Yao and secure the chairmanship of Meishe.

“If Mr. Wang doesn’t help me get a seat, this cooperation won’t count,” Wu Kebo said coldly.

"A gentleman's word is his bond," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"A swift horse, a whip!" Wu Kebo's voice was hoarse with excitement.

After ending the call with Wu Kebo, Wang Yao immediately called Xu Chen and explained the new situation.

"That bastard Wu Kebo is a beast! He's been watching too much Infernal Affairs!" Xu Chen shouted angrily upon hearing this.

Although he had often thought of joining forces with Wu Kebo to undermine Wang Yao.

But faced with this guy's backstabbing, I still couldn't suppress my anger.

Do people who play the capital game have no principles at all? Just the night before last, they were discussing how to get 1% of the shares from Wang Yao, and then they betrayed him!

How could a person be so despicable?

“Since he’s come up with an even better script, then let’s play along. Mr. Xu, it’s time to test your acting skills.” Wang Yao couldn’t help but laugh when he thought about the scene.

"Don't worry, Mr. Wang, I'm absolutely serious. There's no acting involved. If things get physical, you don't need to stop me," Xu Chen said angrily.

"I was originally thinking about how to make him make a major decision-making mistake, but I didn't expect him to be so greedy and try to take on an elephant. It saves me the trouble later." Wang Yao was genuinely pleasantly surprised.

The original plan targeting Chengtian Entertainment was actually one step short. Wang Yao currently only holds less than 60% of the shares, making it impossible to completely break through the CEO protection mechanism that Wu Kebo had set up for himself.

The original plan was to work with Liu Haifeng to drive the stock price down to the bottom, reaching the delisting threshold, so that the other shareholders he held on his behalf would jump out and remove him, or force him to continue releasing his shares to alleviate the delisting pressure, until they reached 67%.

But now it's no longer necessary. Once Meishe's valuation drops to zero after it completely collapses, the Meishe shares he originally pledged will become worthless. The lenders will inevitably withdraw their loans, but the company's accounts will likely be empty, and it may not even be able to pay the interest. Such a mistake that causes significant losses to the company is enough to get him dismissed.

Wang Yao originally intended to lure him into a trap, but he didn't expect that in his hurry, he would find a rope and prepare to hang himself.

To be honest, let's assume Wang Yao doesn't have any thunderbolts.

Wu Kebo could have really been the big winner, but unfortunately...

In the game of capital, there are no assumptions, only results.

Wu Kebo was really in a hurry. Last time, the private placement went through the formal process and took nearly half a month. But this time, he seemed to want to get things done quickly and directly used the "lightning placement". Because the number of shares issued was ≤20% and the discount was ≤20%, the approval was skipped and the private placement and cross-shareholding of Meishe were completed in less than three days.

Following the completion of the transaction, Chengtian Entertainment became the largest shareholder of Meishe, holding 28.64% of the shares.

Although two separate share issuances totaled 30%, the stock price was locked up in the secondary market, so even the theoretical dilution effect was not triggered.

On the day the board meeting was held, Wang Yao attended the meeting as Zhang Chaoyang's representative.

"Why are you here?" Dongfang Xin, as Berna's representative, was quite surprised to see Wang Yao.

I haven't heard of any mutual support between Skyfire and Meishe.

"Mr. Zhang went to climb Mount Everest, and I just happened to be free, so I came to check it out for him," Wang Yao said with a light laugh.

“Actually, it would be quite suitable for you to be an independent director of Meishe, after all, we’re family,” Dongfang Xin said with a smile.

Joint-stock companies are required to have a board of directors consisting of 5 to 19 members, one-third of whom must be external directors as neutral parties. These are usually third-party professionals such as legal, financial, and strategic investment personnel who cannot hold company shares and are therefore called independent directors, but they have the right to participate in voting and make proposals.

“Yes, we’re family.” Wang Yao looked at Xu Chen not far away, who was pretending not to know Wu Kebo’s wolfish ambitions, and laughed as the two chatted happily.

"Alibaba's representative has arrived," Dongfang Xin said with a smile upon seeing the newcomer.

Wang Yao looked in the direction of the sound.

A young man in a sharp suit entered and paused for a moment when he saw Wang Yao. He then walked straight over and greeted him, "Hello, Mr. Wang. I didn't expect to see you here. I'm Cheng Wei from Alibaba."

"Hello, Mr. Cheng. I've heard so much about you. You're Alibaba's youngest regional manager." Wang Yao stood up and shook hands.

This person is the main person in charge of Alipay's B2C business and the future founder of Didi Chuxing.

"Undeserving of such praise. Who can be considered young next to you? Mr. Wang is even more handsome than the pictures online suggest," Cheng Wei said with a smile. "And who are you today?"

"I'm here on behalf of Mr. Zhang from Sohu." Wang Yao waved the bronze seal in his hand that represented Zhang Chaoyang's status as a director.

“That’s quite a coincidence. I’m just here on behalf of a colleague. Let’s exchange contact information, and I’ll visit you sometime,” Cheng Wei suggested.

Wang Yao exchanged contact information with him, and then chatted for a while until the last director, Wang Shuo, walked in.

The man had thin cheeks, and even his sunglasses couldn't hide the fierce aura emanating from him. Upon seeing Wang Yao, he walked straight over. Cheng Wei seemed unwilling to interact with him and quietly walked around to the side.

"Young Master Wang actually has time to attend this kind of meeting today? Did you not sleep or did you get up early?" Dongfang Xin said with a smile, standing up to block Wang Yao.

"I got up early because there was a show to watch. You must be Wang Yao?" Wang Shuo replied to Dongfang Xin first, his tone neither humble nor arrogant but with a hint of distance. He was not very polite to Wang Yao, though: "I've heard the group name mention you before. You can come and visit me when you come to Beijing."

After saying that, he tossed down a gold-plated business card and left without waiting for Wang Yao's reply.

He and Cheng Zuming have a very good relationship; they can get along well.

"Ignore him, he's too irritated by drugs," Dongfang Xin said with a smile, turning her head. "He seems like a straightforward person," Wang Yao said with a smile, putting away his business card.

"He's straightforward, but he's prone to going crazy. It's best to stay away from him." Dongfang Xin shook her head.

Once everyone had arrived, Xu Chen began the formal meeting.

Board meetings all require formal procedures and record-keeping, with the participation of a dedicated third-party clerk. Therefore, preparations normally need to be made 10 days in advance, unless it is a particularly urgent or unimportant matter, in which case it can be compressed to within three days.

Today's main meeting was to convene a board meeting simultaneously with the completion of the mutual shareholding agreement, as previously agreed by Wu Kebo and Xu Chen. Under the guise of investment, they agreed to borrow 2 million yuan from Chengtian Entertainment, to be repaid within 3 months, with interest rates stipulated.

Because the amount is too large, it needs to go through the board of directors process; otherwise, a small amount could have been handled by CEO Xu Chen alone.

This is the downside of large companies: there's often not enough time to react to things, and if there are differing opinions on an issue, the discussion can go on for a long time, even leading to office politics.

Therefore, for many CEOs who demand high-level execution, having more than 67% absolute control is very important. Liu Qiangdong was framed precisely because he clung to this point.

After Alibaba representative Cheng Wei asked a few symbolic questions, all were approved and the deal officially took effect. The payment process was then carried out on-site with the finance representative.

After the proceedings concluded and the meeting was about to adjourn, Wu Kebo suddenly spoke up, "By the way, since everyone's here today, I have something to announce. Wang Shuo and I, acting in concert, have acquired a combined 36.64% stake..."

I have formally submitted an emergency general meeting of shareholders proposal to the board of directors of Meishe, to be held in five days. The agenda includes amending the company's articles of association, removing former chairman Lei Man and director Xu Chen from their positions, and electing Mr. Wang Yao as a new director. I humbly nominate myself as a candidate for chairman.

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire audience erupted in uproar.

The three issues raised by Wu Kebo essentially led to a complete reshuffle of the top management at Meishe.

The board of directors of Meishe originally had 10 people. Today, almost all of them were present except for the chairman. It was originally thought to be just a routine procedure, but unexpectedly, we witnessed a coup.
The four independent directors, in particular, were completely bewildered. Shouldn't such a coup d'état be discussed with them first?

Unless, of course, the major shareholder who initiated the proposal has already obtained an absolute controlling stake of 67%?!
That's definitely the biggest hot topic of the year.

The new shareholders, including Dongfang Xin and Cheng Wei, were also stunned, wondering what had gotten into Wu Kebo. Wasn't the company running perfectly well?

"Why is this related to me?" Wang Yao was also somewhat surprised.

Since the topic of making him a director wasn't discussed at the time, it's likely that Wu Kebo deliberately brought it up to get him on board first, and then influence Bernard and Zhang Chaoyang.

"Wu Kebo? What do you mean? You said you wouldn't be tempted by the US when we were holding each other's shares." Xu Chen was furious and slammed his fist on the table.

His flushed face and the bulging veins at his temples showed that he was truly angry, and he no longer cared about his usual refined demeanor.

“Mr. Xu, I’m not targeting you personally, but I feel that your and Lehman’s operating methods are no longer suitable for the future development of Meishe. I have already discussed it with Mr. Wang and we are preparing to reorganize Meishe Tianhuo into a new company, aiming for a direct listing by the end of the year.” Wu Kebo had a smug smile on his face, seemingly very satisfied with the reactions of those present.

Wang Yao frowned upon hearing this.

Why don't you speak louder and announce all the plans?

What happened to the promise of a conspiracy?
Dude, are you some kind of timely rain, Song Jiang? All you do is kidnap people, and you have absolutely no trust in anyone?
"Chairman Cheng, I hope you can pass this message on to President Cai," Wu Kebo said with a smile to the Alibaba representative.

"Uh, okay, I'll definitely bring it." Cheng Wei's astonishment hadn't faded yet. He had thought it was just a bystander, but he hadn't expected it to involve his own interests.

He then turned to look at Wang Yao.

Was Tianhuo's rejection of Alibaba's acquisition offer for this very reason?

Those two, Wang Yao and Wu Kebo, are really too insidious.

They were using a feint to cover their tracks while secretly advancing their own.

"President Wang? Is what he said true?" Xu Chen's face turned from red to pale, and he looked at Wang Yao with pain in his eyes.

"Yes, Mr. Wu mentioned it to me, but it's still under discussion," Wang Yao sighed.

“Xu Chen, you only own 4% of the shares, and Lehman Brothers isn’t here either. Nobody’s going to watch your performance as the chief steward. Get the meeting done as soon as possible so we can start our new journey sooner,” Wang Shuo said with a sinister smile.

Xu Chen glanced at Wang Shuo, not daring to refute, but then glared fiercely at Wu Kebo, who was beaming with smugness. "President Wu, don't forget, Meishe also owns 30.824% of Chengtian's shares. Until the chairman and I remove them..."

On behalf of the major shareholders, I also intend to convene an extraordinary shareholders' meeting at Chengtian Entertainment, proposing the removal of you, Wu Kebo, from your position as chairman and consequently your CEO duties, and to elect a new director and CEO!

Xu Chen gritted his teeth, making a final stand as if each cry of blood was a desperate plea.

“That’s the shareholder right that Mr. Xu should have. Since that’s the case, why not just open it together and save trouble?” Wu Kebo said calmly, completely unconcerned about Xu Chen’s threat.

Because no matter what, he still owns 36% of the shares.

Moreover, the board meetings were always his personal fiefdom, and apart from Ren Quan from Kanpian.com and Xu Chen from Meishe who joined later, everyone else was his own people.

Whether it's the shareholders' meeting or the board meeting, he has absolute confidence in rejecting all of Xu Chen's proposals.

But the situation is different in the United States. With so many forces at stake, division can happen in no time if there are enough interests involved.

This was a coup that was a foregone conclusion.

"We'll still be in this conference room in five days. I hope Mr. Xu and Lehman won't resort to delaying tactics, because everyone's time is precious. Let's get this over with quickly." Wang Shuo stood up and threatened with a hint of ferocity, then left the conference room with Wu Kebo, who was chatting and laughing.

Xu Chen, his fists clenched and his face contorted with humiliation, was left behind, along with a group of directors who looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Uh, Mr. Wang, could you please explain the situation?" Cheng Wei was genuinely curious and wanted to know more.

"Let me state first that I was unaware of Mr. Wu's intention to become chairman, and he did not invite me to be a director at the time. However, we did discuss the merger and reorganization, and I think it might be a good option. What do you think, Mr. Cheng?" Wang Yao said after pondering for a moment.

“If Tianhuo can restructure with Meishe, then we at Alibaba would certainly be happy to see it. However, the specific decision still needs to be approved by President Cai. President Xu, I’ll go back and report first. If there is any news, I will let you know.” After receiving Wang Yao’s hint, Cheng Wei quickly got up to take his leave.

He had to report this big news immediately.

"Then, Mr. Xu, I'll take my leave as well," Wang Yao said with a smile as he stood up.

"Mr. Xu, there's no need to worry. Just focus on figuring out how to handle this," Dongfang Xin said reassuringly before leaving with Wang Yao.

After leaving the Meishe Hotel, he went straight into Wang Yao's RV.

"What's going on? I don't quite understand. Did you team up with Wu Kebo to counter Meishe? Rejecting Alibaba was actually a bait?" Dongfang Xin asked with a face full of curiosity.

If we follow this line of thinking, Wang Yao is essentially using Alibaba to manipulate Meishe completely. That guy is too cunning!

If the restructuring does happen, the new company will inevitably double in both size and valuation, and will also become part of the Alibaba family in a roundabout way. Wang Yao's actions not only turned bad luck into good, but also greatly increased his net worth.

"Do you think I'm that capable? That Ali would cooperate with me in this charade?" Wang Yao glanced at her, his face showing absurdity.

"It's not cooperation, it's inducement. Otherwise, why would you provoke them again and again?" Dongfang Xin corrected.

"That's a bit much. I'm just trying to manage my platform well. It seems like Alibaba saw the value of Taobao Girls and started targeting me first, right?" Wang Yao raised an eyebrow slightly.

“What you said makes sense.” Dongfang Xin was taken aback.

She seemed to have gotten used to the jungle law of the business world, where big fish eat small fish, and for a moment she didn't realize that Wang Yao had always been the victim.

“I just finished talking with President Wu yesterday, and I didn’t expect him to stage a coup today. He’s really ruthless.” Wang Yao chuckled. “But with a chairman like that, it might be easier to succeed in the game of the capital market.”

"Don't worry, as long as Alibaba is willing to support you, Berna will naturally not spoil the fun. I didn't expect that this small investment would double in the blink of an eye. President Wang is indeed a lucky star." Dongfang Xin said with a smile.

When Cheng Tianmei was holding a mutual support agreement, Dongfang Xin consulted Wang Yao about the situation. Although Wang Yao did not recommend it, it was because of Wang Yao's presence that Berna decided to condescend to hold the mutual support agreement.

Originally, I was just thinking that if Meishe were to target Wang Yao in the future, Berna, as a director, could symbolically do her a favor, and I could also indirectly hold shares as a safeguard, so I invested.

Unexpectedly, it has even appreciated in value, which should be great news for Bernard.

"Good fortune may be a harbinger of misfortune, and misfortune may be a harbinger of good fortune, Mr. Dongfang." Wang Yao smiled meaningfully.

(End of this chapter)