Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

By late December, the snow in New York hadn't fallen yet, but Clavis felt a weight lifted from his heart.

After making contact with Johnny and obtaining a much larger amount of operational data than expected, Kravis was completely unfazed. He even deliberately released a smokescreen—taking his wife and two daughters skiing in Colorado.

Because the RJR acquisition had a profound impact on Wall Street, it made headlines in the Wall Street Journal the very next day.

In the photo, Clavis is wearing a dark blue ski suit and standing at the entrance of the cable car, bending down to fasten the buckles on his little daughter's ski boots, as if he has completely put the RJR thing behind him.

It is said that when Jason received the newspaper, he was in Sherison Lehman's office meeting with the financing team. He placed the newspaper on the table, ran his fingertip over the photograph, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Skiing," he folded the newspaper and tossed it on the corner of the table, "is good. Hopefully he can enjoy life."

Lehman's team also tended to believe that Kravis was already out of options. After all, KKR couldn't get internal data, and their bids lacked a reference point. The initial bid of $90 was already the limit of their testing, and they would never continue to increase their bids in a black box situation without any intelligence support.

Everyone thought so, until December 23, the day before Christmas Eve, when RJR's special committee opened the sealed envelopes of the second round of bids one by one in the meeting room.

First Boston submitted a complex structured proposal, worth approximately $99 per share. Goldman Sachs withdrew, while several smaller private equity firms offered even lower bids, essentially becoming casual participants.

As for the offer submitted by Lehman Brothers on behalf of management, it was $101. After all, in Jason's view, KKR had already given up, and the other institutions could not obtain the core operating data at all, so they naturally dared not follow up with a price increase. He was sure to win, so he only symbolically increased the price by one dollar.

Davis, the chairman of the special committee, glanced at the quotation and then at the other committee members present. He was quite helpless about Jason's shamelessness, but there was nothing he could do.

Until the sixth envelope was opened.

Davis pulled out the letter, his gaze sweeping over it casually at first before he froze. He looked down again in disbelief, making sure he hadn't misread the numbers, before slowly raising his head, his voice tinged with barely concealed surprise: "KKR's offer: $106 per share!"

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

Several committee members simultaneously looked up at Davis; some instinctively sat up straight, while others put down their pens. The previous hushed discussions about First Boston and Lehman Brothers all ceased, leaving only the faint hum of the air conditioner vents in the room.

One hundred and six dollars! That's a full five dollars higher than the offer from the Jensen management!

Clavis, the man with the relaxed smile on his face at the Aspen ski resort, never intended to withdraw from the hunt from the start. Not only did he return to the battlefield in the second round, but he also offered a shockingly high price.

Of course, after the initial surprise, the committee members were also puzzled – how dare KKR provide this data?

Jensen's side dared to offer $101 because, as management, they were fully aware of the situation, while KKR's offer of $106 was significantly higher than that upper limit. Unless…

Davis didn't dwell on it. He simply put the bid list back on the table and looked at the recorder beside him: "Compile and archive the results of this round of bidding. Not a single word of them shall be disclosed to anyone before we reach a conclusion."

The recorder nodded repeatedly, put the meeting minutes into a file bag labeled "top secret," and carefully placed the draft into the shredder.

However, no one noticed that after the meeting, a hidden envelope was secretly taken out of the twenty-third floor.

……

In the CEO's office, Jason leaned back leisurely in a luxurious leather chair, unable to hide the smile on his face.

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than the wooden door to his office was violently flung open! His assistant rushed in, his face pale, clutching a freshly opened envelope in his hand.

"Sir... what about KKR...?"

"What happened to KKR?" Jason's smug smile faltered slightly.

"Information has come in that KKR hasn't withdrawn; their offer is $106 per share!"

The air in the office seemed to freeze for a moment. Jason's coffee cup froze in mid-air, and his face turned sinister and terrifying.

"Isn't that old guy skiing in Aspen?!" His voice turned somber.

"Yes... but it's said that the legal team submitted it via remote email."

"Fxxk!" Jason instantly realized he'd been tricked by Clavis, muttered angrily, and slammed his coffee cup down. "Contact Lehman Brothers immediately! Recalculate the financial model; we need a new offer!"

……

The following day, December 24th, was Christmas Eve.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Davis's phone rang at Clavis's holiday home.

"Merry Christmas Eve, Mr. Davis. I hope you've come to bring me good news on this wonderful day."

"Um... Merry Christmas, Mr. Clavis. We do have some news for you—Jensen readjusted their offer this morning to $108 per share," Davis said bluntly, feigning helplessness. "Currently, it seems the management's proposal has regained its price advantage. The committee is inclined to—"

"Wait a minute," Clavis interrupted him abruptly, his voice cold, "Mr. Davis, I want to remind you: this is a bidding process, not a public auction. Why did Jason submit a new bid after I did? Who leaked the information?!"

Davis fell into an awkward silence for a few seconds.

"...Mr. Clavis, this process is indeed a bit rushed, but management has the legal right to adjust their bids, and the committee can only make an assessment based on the highest bid received so far."

"So," Clavis chuckled, a cold laugh, "if they change the price again, will you still notify me and let me negotiate again?"

Davis opened his mouth, as if to explain something, but Kravis didn't give him a chance to speak: "Fine, I can raise the price—to $109. But I have two conditions."

"Please speak."

"First, once Jensen makes another offer, the bidding must be closed immediately, and no further changes are allowed! If the committee issues another 'temporary adjustment' notice, KKR will withdraw, and you can talk to Jensen yourselves."

"I can guarantee that."

"Second," Kravis said, "how long does it take from when you informed Jensen that I had raised my offer, to when Jensen recalculated and resubmitted his offer?"

Davis paused for a moment: "About an hour."

"Very good," Kravis's voice suddenly became lighter. "Then this counts as a consulting service, with the consultation fee calculated by the hour at $45 million per hour. If KKR ultimately wins the bid, this fee will be deducted from the total acquisition price. If KKR does not win the bid, this fee will be paid separately by RJR."

There was complete silence on the other end of the phone.

Several seconds passed before Davis spoke again, his voice tinged with uncertainty: "Mr. Clavis, are you joking?"

“I never joke about money,” Kravis said. “You relay this to the committee; they can accept it or reject it. If they don’t, the $109 offer is void, and I’m withdrawing. You can go talk to that idiot Jason yourselves, or you can wait until next spring to re-bid—but I can guarantee that KKR won’t be here then.”

There was another silence on the other end of the phone. Davis seemed to be covering the microphone and discussing something with the person next to him. A few words of conversation could be vaguely heard in hushed tones.

About two minutes later, his voice came back, filled with helplessness: "...The committee accepts your conditions."

"Very good, it's 9:10 now, start the timer."

Kravis hung up the phone, leaned back comfortably on the leather sofa in the ski chalet, watched the snowflakes swirling outside the window, and took a sip of a cup of hot cocoa.

The record for the highest hourly wage in human history has thus been set.

……

When the news reached Jason, he was in his New York office finalizing things with the funding team.

When he heard Kravis quote $109 and also mention $45 million in "consulting fees," he slammed his pen down on the table.

"Forty-five million US dollars!" His voice was so low it sounded like it was being squeezed out between clenched teeth. "That son of a bitch really dares to ask for that much!"

Despite the criticism, he was already in a difficult position, so Jason had no choice but to bite the bullet and raise the price to $112 per share again.

When the news reached the committee, Davis and his colleagues were caught in a bittersweet dilemma.

On the surface, Jensen's offer was indeed three dollars higher than KKR's. However, if you factor in Kravis's $45 million "advisory fee" and deduct various securities payments and transaction depreciation, the actual prices on both sides are almost the same.

However, what displeased the board was that Jensen's $112 acquisition proposal was packed with self-serving clauses and "golden parachutes"—including a huge compensation payment to him after the change of control of the company, retention bonuses for the management team, and a clause that he planned to repurchase the company headquarters building at an extremely favorable price after privatization...

Every single one of these actions was designed to enrich Ross Jensen himself. This wasn't some kind of privatization acquisition to save the company; it was clearly using public funds as a blood bank to pay for his own personal gain.

At this sensitive juncture when people's hearts were turning to change, all the media outlets under Golden Harvest Media received instructions and began to take action.

Fox News aired a 12-minute feature during prime time titled "The Game of Greed," which directly exposed how Jason planned to gain more than $100 million for himself in this epic acquisition battle.

In the footage reported, Jason, wearing his signature dark blue suit, stood with his hands on his hips on the steps of the RJR headquarters, looking like a triumphant monarch.

However, the voice-over, in a detached tone, asks: "When the captain of this ship plans to strap himself with a golden lifebuoy before running aground, how should the crew cope?"

Following closely behind, the New York Post and the New York Daily News, which had just been acquired by Golden Harvest Media, also followed suit on the same day. Public opinion turned completely one-sided, and the management buyout, which was originally seen as "fighting for the interests of shareholders" in the public eye, became a farce of "a greedy CEO trying to use the company's money to buy himself a golden parachute".

Committee members began receiving calls and letters from shareholders, with several large institutional investors publicly stating that they had lost confidence in Jensen's proposal.

Jensen also tried to contact several committee members for a final lobbying effort, but it was already too late.

Finally, it's the first day after the Christmas holidays.

In the headquarters conference room, the Independent Special Committee held its final vote, and all eleven members voted for KKR.

Kravis finally got his wish and swallowed RJR whole.

As for the greedy Jensen? It has to be said that this old fox was really cunning. Even after being completely ousted, he still managed to siphon off more than 30 million US dollars in severance pay from the company's account using the pre-arranged unfair terms, and then left Wall Street with a nonchalant expression.

……

In the afternoon, at the study of the Luk family manor on Hong Kong Island.

The afternoon sun streamed in through the window, casting a warm, distinct band of light and shadow on the dark wooden floor. Lu Chen leaned back in his leather chair in the study, holding the phone and listening to voices coming from across the ocean.

Martin's voice came through the receiver, filled with undisguised elation: "Lu, it's done. KKR has won big, Jason is out, and RJR goes to Clavis."

Lu Chen switched the microphone to his other hand, picked up his teacup, and took a sip: "What about our profits?"

"One billion!" Martin laughed as he announced a shocking figure, "Over one billion US dollars!"

Lu Chen's lips curled up slightly, even more plump than he had expected.

Of course, the bridge loan and underwriting fees alone could not have created such an astronomical figure. The real source of the profits was the RJR stock they sold.

That's right. In fact, as early as last year when the stock market crash broke out and Wall Street was in a state of despair, Lu Chen ordered the purchase of RJR's stock at the bottom (see Chapter 625 for details).

Through cross-shareholdings via several secret offshore shell companies, Qianning Capital has quietly risen to become RJR's second-largest shareholder.

This is also why Martin Channing worked so hard to help Clavis acquire the company; after all, when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits.

Lu Chen slowly took a sip of tea, his tone calm and composed: "Not much."

"Not much?" Martin's voice rose slightly. "Lu, this is a billion—"

"More than these unrealized profits, I'm more concerned about next year's acquisitions," Lu Chen interrupted him. "RJR has a lot of good stuff under its umbrella, understand?"

Martin paused, his voice regaining its composure: "Understood. Camel cigarettes, Oreo cookies, and the European food business... Lu, don't worry, once the transaction is complete, we can buy these assets from KKR at a discount."

"Yes," Lu Chen said, "You've worked hard."

"This is nothing. Nobody on Wall Street complains about how hard it is to make money!" Martin chuckled, exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then hung up the phone.

Lu Chen put the receiver back on the landline, looked away from the RJR asset list spread out on the desk, and looked out the window.

On the lawn, Lu Qian and Ou Yongen were playing frisbee together. Ou Yongen stood a few steps away, holding the edge of the frisbee in her hand, imitating the posture Lu Qian had just taught her, tilting her head to aim.

"Yongen, throw it over there! Towards the cola!" Xiao Luqian shouted at her.

Ou Yongen puffed out her cheeks, gave it a hard flick, and the frisbee flew crookedly half a circle, spun in mid-air, and then crashed headfirst onto the grass.

Cola immediately rushed over, grabbed the frisbee, and ran back, its tail wagging like a fan, shoving the frisbee into Ou Yongen's hand. Sprite squatted not far away, its big tail slowly sweeping the grass, letting out a howl to indicate that it was her turn.

Ou Yongen caught the frisbee, tilted her head back and giggled. Her laughter was much clearer than it had been a month ago, like a smooth pebble thrown into a calm pond, creating ripples in the afternoon air.

Ruan Mei sat on a wicker chair under the eaves, a cup of tea in her hand, watching the two children on the lawn with a slight smile on her lips. Since that day at the Lu family's house, Ou Yongen had been visiting the Lu family manor on average every three days for the past month, and even the manor's doctor said that her condition had improved significantly.

Just then, the sound of a car engine came from the direction of the manor gate. Xiao Luqian and Ou Yongen stopped at the same time and turned to look at the driveway.

A black Toyota sedan slowly came to a stop in the open space in front of the main building. Then, the rear door opened, and a small figure jumped out eagerly.

"Brother Qian! I've come to play with you!"