My absurd experiences in North America over the years

Starting in the second week of October, Li Fu disappeared from public view.

He rarely appeared in public at the CP Building anymore, did not accept any media interviews, and even handed over the daily affairs of the fund to Lina to handle, instructing her to only manage the holdings for the time being.

He rarely shows up for collaborative projects with CP Group unless his signature is required.

He spends most of his time in the hotel, a third of which is in the hotel gym and a third at the shooting range, recovering his physical fitness and professional skills.

I only occasionally sit by the window and look at the Manhattan street scene.

The plane tree leaves on Fifth Avenue are turning yellow one by one. First, a pale golden outline appears at the edges, then it slowly spreads towards the center of the veins until the entire leaf is stained with that color. After trembling slightly in the wind, it detaches from the branch and falls to the ground in a slow arc.

He didn't have the patience to watch a leaf slowly fall to the ground before, but changes in the external situation and his own circumstances forced him to calm down.

After getting used to that rhythm, Li Fu began to use this quiet time to study law.

This took up a third of his remaining time.

However, his research is not on commercial law or financial regulations, but on deeper issues, including foreign investment review procedures, the evolution of national security-related legislation, and cases of companies that have been strangled by capital.

These are the things that are most useful to him.

He soon discovered the most typical case – Wang Laboratories.

This company was once one of the biggest success stories of Chinese entrepreneurs in the American technology industry. Founded in 1951, it once had a market value of over $30 billion.

That's $3 billion in the 1980s.

It can be said that Wang Laboratories was one of the biggest giants of that era.

As a specialist, Wang An invented magnetic core memory in 1955. This patent was a groundbreaking invention in the computer industry and is worth billions of dollars.

However, magnetic core memory soon caught the eye of industry giant IBM.

At the time, Wang An's startup was heavily reliant on supplying magnetic cores to IBM as a source of revenue. IBM recognized this and directly informed Wang An, "If you don't sell us the patents for magnetic core memory, we will immediately stop placing orders with you."

This threat was extremely dangerous, effectively cutting off Wang An's most important cash flow.

That's not the worst part. IBM also threatened that if Wang An didn't sell, IBM would use its vast legal team and resources to independently develop technology to bypass the patent and bankrupt the newly established company in court.

In those days, faced with the desperate situation of "either starving to death or being worn down by lawsuits," Wang An had no choice.

He eventually agreed to sell the patent.

However, IBM used its industry dominance to forcefully reduce the initial amount of 250 million to 50.

IBM made billions of dollars using this patent.

This foreshadowed Wang An's later irreconcilable conflict with IBM, and also caused him to miss out on the trends of the times due to personal grudges.

In 1986, Wang Laboratories reached its peak, and Wall Street investment banks proactively approached it to help issue a large number of convertible bonds and long-term debt.

At the time, Wang An and his son were very proud of this, believing it to be a low-cost financing.

However, they lacked sufficient financial knowledge, and Wall Street's real intention was to bleed them dry, earning enough underwriting fees and interest, and these bonds came with stringent financial terms.

In 1989, Wang An refused to comply with the industry standards set by IBM, which led to a financial disaster. After the company suffered losses, it triggered the "death spiral" on Wall Street, which is the "cross-default" clause in those bond terms.

Banks and bondholders not only refused to issue new bridge loans, but also demanded that the company immediately provide additional cash collateral.

Although Wang Laboratories had cash on hand at the time, most of it was locked up by this requirement and used to pay interest due, causing its R&D and sales channels to immediately suffer losses.

Subsequently, Wall Street began to "take over" the company's board of directors.

As part of the debt restructuring, the Wall Street consortium forced Wang An to resign as chairman, compelling him to hand over the reins to professional manager Miller, a former Goldman Sachs executive.

After Miller took office, Wall Street did inject funds temporarily to "rescue" the economy, but on the condition that R&D expenses be drastically cut and core assets be sold.

Wang Laboratories has completely lost its technological competitiveness.

That wasn't the end of it. After Wang An's death in 1990, market confidence collapsed, and Wall Street hedge funds heavily shorted Wang An Real Estate's stock. At the same time, rating agencies such as S&P and Moody's downgraded the company's bonds to junk status.

Wang Laboratories was unable to issue any new bonds, its inventory piled up and could not be sold, and its cash flow finally dried up completely in 1992. It had no choice but to file for bankruptcy protection, and institutions holding creditor claims flocked to it.

A once-magnificent empire worth billions collapsed and was completely devoured just a few years ago.

After reviewing the document, Li Fu felt a sense of shared sorrow, and truly understood what it meant to be "strangled by a united force of capital."

The attack was not a sudden one, but a series of legal and procedurally flawless actions. Even if it was illegal, it could be packaged as legal and promoted as legal, as long as it was labeled as endangering national security.

Their methods were covert; before the target even realized they were being surrounded, the encirclement had already tightened.

Besides Wang An, Li Fu also knew Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, which was the case that was presented to him at this moment in 2009.

In February 2008, Microsoft offered to acquire Yahoo for $31 per share, totaling $446 billion. Jerry Yang believed that Yahoo's market value was undervalued and demanded at least $37 per share, which led to the breakdown of negotiations.

Then the economic crisis broke out, and all US stocks were halved.

Even more devastating was Yahoo's partnership with Google's Google, which was opposed by the Department of Justice on the grounds of suspected monopoly, causing Yahoo to miss the opportunity to increase revenue during the financial crisis.

This made Yahoo's situation even worse.

Carl Icahn, a holder of the Wall Street hedge fund Starboard Value, believes that Jerry Yang's failure to sell Yahoo has caused him huge losses on his Yahoo shares, and he subsequently launched a strong pressure campaign against him.

He continued to buy Yahoo stock on a large scale, and as the major shareholder, he used "poor performance" as a reason to force the board to oust Jerry Yang. He then forced the sale of Alibaba shares, which would be Yahoo's most valuable asset in the future, and other core businesses.

Jerry Yang watched as the company he founded was dismantled, leaving behind only ruins.

His successor, Carol Bartz, immediately compromised with Microsoft, turning this internet giant into a mediocre company that was eventually sold to Microsoft, and ten years later, the public had even forgotten its former glory.

Originally, as long as Yahoo retained its 40% stake in Alibaba, it would have at least $2000 billion in assets in the future.

The financial crisis was not enough to bring Yahoo down.

The Department of Justice terminated the partnership between Yahoo and Google on the grounds of monopoly, and Wall Street capital, which was focused on short-term gains, colluded with external forces to ultimately cause its collapse.

……

Li Fu was deeply saddened after reading their cases, and his own situation was even more complicated than that of Wang An and Yang Zhiyuan.

Because his identity is more sensitive, his shareholding is more conspicuous.

Forrest Capital’s extensive and precise investments have multiplied across all industries and projects, and its future value is immeasurable in the United States, where there are already signs of economic recovery.

Anyone with expertise would estimate that the company is worth at least hundreds of billions, and it also has billions of dollars in readily convertible financial assets.

Given the political risks, it's not hard to understand why he became a prime target.

The cases of Wang An and Yang Zhiyuan reminded him that he had to complete the equity adjustment as soon as possible to re-establish his relationship with the Forrest family.

Political asylum is his most reliable protective shield.