America: My Time

Chapter 74 Expansion
Chapter Seventy-Four Expansion

Judging from the current situation, Legendary Entertainment has not started to acquire domestic newspapers in the United States, but instead focuses its energy on entertainment. Perhaps Legendary Entertainment does not care about the influence of newspapers!

With little time left until next year, fulfilling its promises in such a short period puts immense pressure on Morgan, who also needs to compromise with other giants. Morgan has already come up with a solution: bring John into the picture and sell Bell Labs' laboratories to him.

For these conglomerates that have always wanted to take over Bell Labs, their biggest problem is how to deal with Bell Labs. No one wants to take it on, since Bell Labs consumes a huge amount of money every year, and no one wants to take on this burden. However, everyone wants Bell Labs' patents.

After the sharing, how to deal with Bell Labs became a major problem. If this problem could not be solved, their idea of ​​dividing Bell Labs would be hindered. Now, John's appearance has given Morgan a solution, a way that can benefit Morgan from both sides. Not only can he befriend John, but he can also curry favor with other conglomerates!

John had no idea how Morgan was scheming against him, how he was trying to lure him into a trap. Even if he did know, he would only feel pleased, not angry. Bell Labs was also in his acquisition plans, but the time wasn't right yet. He didn't intend to spend a huge sum of money on the acquisition; even if it ended up as an empty shell, it wouldn't matter!
After Bell Labs was broken up, it went on a downward spiral and eventually disappeared completely in the waves of capital, which shows that those capitalists didn't care about the lab's situation at all!

Although Morgan's appearance disrupted his plans and brought forward his acquisition of Universal and NBC networks, John did not want to change his previous plans because of this change. He could not give up his subsequent acquisitions and developments just because of the acquisition commitments from Universal and NBC networks.

Apparel is also a top priority in my plans. With two major platforms, film and television, it would be foolish to waste such great publicity. Now that we are getting closer to the bubble economy, it is the perfect time to acquire luxury brands, even if it means using leveraged acquisitions.

To complete the acquisition of the apparel and cosmetics brands, a new group company needs to be established. This requires recruiting management talent capable of managing a group, which is the most important thing.

John's biggest desire is to acquire Maybelline, which would allow him to establish a firm foothold in the cosmetics industry. However, the required investment is too large, beyond his current means. If he were to use leverage for the acquisition, the pressure on him would be too great, which is not something a new company can afford, unless he is willing to give up the acquisition of the luxury brand, which is simply impossible.

While keeping an eye on gold futures, John was also considering acquiring a new company and was looking for a small garment factory that could meet his needs! John wanted to start a clothing company, a fast-fashion brand clothing company, and he had already thought of a name: 'Forever 21'!
The newly established company did not completely copy the development of Forever 21, but rather combined the strengths of Forever 21 and Spain's ZARA, avoiding their shortcomings! Forever 21's biggest flaw was its quality; its quality was too poor, which was unacceptable. Even after 2010, Forever 21's sales shrank dramatically due to quality issues. ZARA, on the other hand, did not have this problem. Quality is very important for clothing, especially now in the 80s. If the quality of clothing is too poor, it cannot develop.

To reduce costs while ensuring quality, the natural choice is to select a production location with low costs. In John's mind, China is the obvious choice. If he can secure Universal and NBC television networks early next year, he must personally return to China to initiate investment in the country.

Now is the beginning of the investment in clothing and cosmetics. Uniqlo in Japan is part of the group and the main body for building the group company. Forever 21 will soon complete the acquisition and transformation. For a small clothing company, this is not a difficult task. What really makes John feel a little difficult is that the other two companies he wants to acquire have a little problem. These are Victoria's Secret and Max Factor.

Victoria's Secret is a famous lingerie brand, but unfortunately it collapsed due to its own scandals. Max Factor is a top-tier cosmetics and makeup brand, and is very famous in Hollywood.

After some investigation, John realized that if he wanted to complete the acquisition, it would likely require a huge amount of time and energy, which he simply didn't have. He now needed to monitor the development of the game world and the fluctuations in gold futures to prevent any unforeseen events. "Sigh! I need to find Morgan again. Only Morgan has the ability to complete the acquisition I need in the shortest amount of time. If I can complete the acquisition of these two companies, the entire entertainment industry chain will be almost perfectly built!"

After several collaborations, John still trusted Morgan rather than other Wall Street giants. In these acquisitions, Morgan's ability and attitude were recognized by John. Since he had to hire someone anyway, why not hire the one he knew best?
Just as Morgan was figuring out how to further deepen his cooperation with John, he received a new order from John. Although it was just two insignificant small companies, Morgan did not take it lightly because the owner of the companies to be acquired was John, one of Morgan's most valued partners!

"Boss, this kid has really gone mad. It seems he won't stop until he's spent all the loans he got from the Japanese banks. Even though he accepted our recommendation and agreed to the acquisition of Universal and NBC television networks, he still wants to expand like crazy. Now he wants to get involved in cosmetics and women's underwear brands. I really don't understand what he's thinking. What's the point of such crazy expansion?"

"If you don't understand, it's because your vision is lacking, not his problem. Whatever his needs, we will satisfy them. You think this is crazy because you only see the surface and haven't thought deeply about the secrets behind it. Who are the target customers of the cosmetics brand? What kind of help will controlling Universal and NBC television networks bring to it? This kid is building an industry chain, an industry chain centered on media and entertainment. The Japanese clothing company is now acquiring cosmetics and women's underwear brands in the United States. It's completely to further build an industry chain around media and entertainment, from production to publicity, and then sales! Amazing! He's only eighteen years old and he's already thinking so deeply about media and entertainment. He's already seen a market that even the Hollywood giants haven't seen. Impressive!"

As expected of a big shot, he saw through John's plan immediately. However, the premise of this plan is that the media and entertainment industry will become a hit. If the media and entertainment industry encounters problems, the subsequent plans will be greatly affected!

"Boss, judging from the current situation, this kid is really determined to develop in the media and entertainment industry, with everything centered around it. Won't this affect the development of Dream World and Nvidia? Do we still need to pay attention to them? A person's energy is limited. No matter how talented or extraordinary he is, he can't do all of this. Such a crazy expansion will only harm other investments!"

"Foolish! You only see this kid's frantic expansion, but you don't see that he's also frantically poaching talent and building his own talent pool. His expansion isn't reckless; it has its own goals. It may seem crazy, but everything revolves around one theme: building a complete industry chain. He's just going a step deeper into media and entertainment, seeing a side that other media giants haven't seen. With professional management talent, do you think he needs to invest more energy in the company's development? The pressure he faces isn't as severe as you think. Don't you understand how profitable a complete industry chain can be? If media is so profitable, do you think he won't have ideas for the high-tech aspects of the game world and the dream world? Think about his other ventures: Hong Kong's telecommunications, Taiwan's semiconductors, Nvidia's chips, and the software for the dream world. This is also an industry chain, although it's not perfect yet, it's already taking shape and just needs time to polish it."

"Keep an eye on him. You must keep a close eye on this kid. He will never give up on investing in technology. Compared to the entertainment industry, I have more faith in technology companies. Think about Apple back then, and you should understand the value of these high-tech companies. Right now, Dreamworld and Nvidia are nothing, but in a few years they will be different, and may even become the next Apple. Dreamworld has that potential now. I even suspect that this kid's crazy investment and expansion in media and entertainment is a cover-up for his semiconductor investments."

"Impossible! No matter how extraordinary he is, he couldn't possibly be so cunning. Dreamworld and Nvidia can't hide it now; they're already famous throughout Silicon Valley!"

“I’m not referring to Silicon Valley, but Wall Street. This guy is wary of us on Wall Street. Otherwise, Dreamworld and Nvidia wouldn’t be so unknown. And have you forgotten his conflict with HSBC? The reasons behind that are worth pondering! If this is all part of his plan, what do you think of the potential of these two companies? No matter what happens, keep a close eye on everything about these two companies. I need to know about every little thing they do.”

Although he thought his boss was a bit crazy, as a subordinate, he had no right to refuse his boss's requests, even if he found them unbelievable. He had to obey his boss's orders. Because of John, there were dissenting voices within Morgan. If the boss hadn't forcefully suppressed them, perhaps Morgan's relationship with the other party wouldn't be so good. And the conflict in Hong Kong had made some people restless!

Not everyone can calmly face temptation. Under the enormous temptation of the game world, there will always be some irrational people who will be influenced by greed and do things they shouldn't. There is such a group of ignorant people within Morgan who think that they are the most important person in the world and that there is no need to please John. They believe that Morgan can be crushed directly.

(End of this chapter)