"That's it. It's almost time for me to go. I have an appointment later." After the directors left, the two people in the conference room sat in silence for a long time before Adriaan stood up.
"Oh? With that … Brooklyn Decker? "Claude asked after thinking for a while.
"No, it's someone else. Christina Hendricks. She has a hot figure like Brooklyn Decker. No, she's even more voluptuous. She's a real meatball," Adriaan said with a smile.
"Two women a day?" Claude raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You're really interested. Although this is a normal time for you, I still … can't help but want to shake my head."
"It's not the same. I got Brooklyn two days ago. I only called her today because I wanted to come to the conference room later." Adriaan blinked with a smirk. "I did it for you, Krau."
Claude gave him the middle finger without hesitation. Then he thought of something and asked, "Wait, I remember Christina Hendricks is not …"
"Yes, one of the main characters in Mad Men." Adriaan waved his hand. "Although Fox bought her at a high price, I recommended her. Besides, I'm a super director. Besides, even without these, is it difficult for me to get her into bed? "
"No wonder she can only have a daughter," Claude muttered.
Adriaan, who heard it clearly, narrowed his eyes. "Do you think I didn't beat you up enough?"
"Hey, I didn't say anything." Claude raised his hand.
"Okay!" Adriaan smacked his lips. "I heard that Helen is pregnant. I believe it will be a girl."
"It doesn't matter, as long as it's never a girl." Claude smiled and waved his hand. Then he quickly changed the topic. "Speaking of which, although you successfully drove Fleming out, you also gave me trouble, Eide. I bet that before you nominate another executive director, Kahn will definitely keep a close eye on me. "
"How is that possible!" Adriaan laughed. "If he still doesn't wake up after this, then he doesn't deserve to stay on the board. Frankly speaking, Kahn is very capable, but he's a little too ambitious. Fleming saw this and used him. With this lesson, at least we don't have to worry about him having any ulterior motives for a long time. "
"Well, anyway, we have basically achieved our goal, although …" Claude let out a long sigh.
Although everything seemed to be under control, and they had indeed planned a lot, in reality, there were still many unexpected situations. The most typical example was the video of the cleaner. After investigation, it was found that the guy had taken the video by sheer luck. Therefore, it was indeed an accident, and it directly messed up Adrian and Claude's plan to lure the snake out of its hole.
The most typical example was the cleaner's video. After investigation, the guy had indeed been lucky enough to take the video, so it was indeed an accident, and it directly disrupted Adriaan and Claude's plan to lure the snake out of its hole. These were things they were determined to get, but they were all snatched away by the News Corporation. They had taken advantage of their quarrels, cracks, and lack of response.
The timing was perfect. It was absolutely impossible that the insiders hadn't tipped them off, so the first task was to catch this guy. However, before they could start, they were ruined by the cleaner's video and gave their opponents an excellent opportunity to discredit them. Fortunately, at least Adriaan and Claude had taken the right step, and that was to continue to maintain this mutual indifference, as if they hadn't reconciled yet, and secretly collect evidence, waiting for someone to jump out.
Although the price to pay was a little high, at the same time, they could also clean up some restless guys, so it wasn't too much of a loss.
Fortunately, the final result was basically under control. Although Adriaan and Claude were quite surprised when it was determined that Fleming had a connection with the News Corporation, Murdoch was really generous. But it was fine as long as they dug it out. After this incident, even if it was impossible for AC Media to make it clear for various reasons, it was not a problem for them to release the news in private. Fleming could no longer work for other companies because no one would hire such a person.
At the same time, they also hammered the AC Media board of directors, which was also a gain. Then … The two people in the conference room exchanged glances. Everything was silent.
With the small-scale adjustment of the AC Media board of directors, although rumors of a huge rift between the two founders were still circulating, and the shadow of the financing failure had not subsided, everything began to move in a direction that was favorable to them. This disappointed many people who wanted to see a good show. It had been so powerful before, but in the end, it was so understated. It was a pity — except for Rupert Murdoch.
As the person who had personally directed this storm, Murdoch didn't have too many regrets. He knew very well that doing it and not doing it were two different things. Nothing would be 100% successful. Besides, he had achieved most of his goals. At least for the next few years, AC Media would be unable to expand.
If he could, Murdoch didn't want to plot against AC Media like this. It was very unwise, but the current situation forced him to do so. If he had to choose the biggest enemy of the News Corporation, it wouldn't be Viacom, Time Warner, or Disneyland. The biggest enemy of the News Corporation was only AC Media.
In less than 20 years, those two young people had achieved the results that he had spent 30 years or even longer to achieve, and this did not include the time he spent accumulating experience when he was young. They were always able to accurately grasp the context of the times and made almost no mistakes. They also firmly grasped the opportunity of the Internet. Several popular social networking sites were all Adrian's ideas. Even in the mainland market, which was recognized as the most difficult to enter and which even they had failed to do, they continued to expand and encroach on channels such as the Internet and movies after giving up the television channel.
Many people in the industry were very jealous, and Murdoch was among them, but this was not the reason why he made a move. As an old fox who had single-handedly developed the News Corporation to this day, he would not be emotional on such a big matter. The reason why he made a move was that AC Media was expanding too fast. Even if it had slowed down in recent years, there was still a lot of room for development. If he didn't want to be constantly encroached and squeezed, containing them was an inevitable choice.
It was just that Adriaan and Claude cooperated with each other so well that it was almost impossible to find a loophole. Although Murdoch had already made his move, he still couldn't find too many opportunities. This time, if the two hadn't quarreled over the listing, Murdoch was afraid that he would have to continue waiting. Because of this, what he wanted to do most was to push Claude out of AC Media.
Everyone knew that although Adriaan was far-sighted and imaginative, only Claude could turn it all into reality. If he could be pushed out of AC Media, it would be equivalent to cutting off one of AC Media's arms. Even if Adriaan came to his senses and invited him back, it was basically impossible for them to work together as before.
Unfortunately, he didn't expect them to reconcile so quickly, deceive everyone, and dig out Fleming — this was too much of a pity. Murdoch had given him enough benefits to win him over. Without enough benefits, who would do such a thing? In addition, AC Media wasn't listed, and it had a complete industrial chain. It was in a semi-closed state, so the blow it suffered was not particularly big.
In fact, if possible, Murdoch really wanted to wait for AC Media to go public before launching an attack.
But this was enough for now. Although AC Media was still young compared to other media groups and still had problems in terms of foundation, it was already a behemoth. Such a behemoth could only be suppressed, not annexed or dismembered. Now, although it seemed that AC Media had only failed in financing, and the mole had been dug out in time and the board members had been adjusted, it didn't hurt much. It would take a lot of effort to smooth out the ensuing series of effects.
And this time, many people also saw the aftereffects of AC Media's rapid expansion. There would definitely be people who wanted to attack them internally — it must be known that many people in charge of media groups before Murdoch actually had such an idea. The pressure brought about by the rapid expansion of AC Media was not only borne by the News Corporation. Unfortunately, only Murdoch took action. Based on this alone, the News Corporation was inevitable to be ranked among the top three media groups.
Of course, when the News Corporation took action, many people also joined in. They didn't greet each other but cooperated tacitly. The overwhelming reports about the discord between the two couldn't be settled by the News Corporation alone. Similarly, there were people on Wall Street. Otherwise, AC Media's financing operation wouldn't have been so difficult, facing a lot of harsh conditions.
If Adriaan and Claude were smart enough, what they had to do now was to retreat and further consolidate their foundation. Before that, even if they wanted to expand, they had to do it slowly.
They should thank me. Murdoch, who was walking at the reception, was more or less proud. At least I told them the importance of foundation.
Being able to set off such a wave within AC Media in one fell swoop and win time and opportunities for the News Corporation, he indeed had the right to be proud.
"Hey, Rupert." A greeting voice came, and Lei Shidong's face, which was a little stiff because of the skin grafting, immediately appeared in front of Murdoch. "Why are you here alone? Didn't your beautiful wife come?"
"Wendy doesn't like this kind of occasion." Murdoch smiled and pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "I just had a chat with Senator Field, and I promised to support his environmental protection bill."
"It's surprising that you would support the environmental protection bill." Lei Shidong raised an eyebrow.
"I always do the right thing." Murdoch spread his hands.
The two old rivals chatted like this, and then a few more people joined in. Some were in the media industry, but they were all respectable people.
"Speaking of which, it seems that only one of the two from AC Media came today." As they chatted, someone suddenly mentioned this. "Didn't they already say that there was nothing between them before?"
"Maybe one of them can't come, or maybe one of them just thinks this fundraising reception is boring and doesn't want to come. In fact, I think it's a little boring," someone joked. "Don't gloat, Bob."
"That's right. They're not fools. Will they keep arguing?" Lei Shidong also echoed, and at the same time glanced at Murdoch. It was no secret among several large media groups that News Corporation was behind this.
"Young people always grow up when they encounter setbacks," Murdoch replied with a smile.
Then, a voice cut in. "I did learn a lot. For example, no matter how detailed a plan is, it can be accidentally interrupted, or it can't be avoided being bribed."
Then, a well-dressed Adriaan appeared in front of them with a glass of wine. Murdoch's face changed slightly, and Lei Shidong raised an eyebrow. The others didn't look too good. After all, they were just talking about him.
"Hello, Eide. Have you gotten rid of your busy affairs?" The person who had spoken up for him was the first to greet him.
"Yes, it took me more than half a month to finally get everything done. It's really not easy." Adriaan's tone was emotional. "And because of this, I can finally free up my hands to do what I should do."
"Oh? What things? "someone asked curiously.
"You know, compared to you, I'm still a young man." Adriaan smiled and glanced at Murdoch. "So it's impossible to always consider the consequences of doing things."
Then, without waiting for people to react, he turned to Murdoch and patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "If you want war, I'll give you war, Rupert!"
After that, he left without looking back. Watching him put the glass in his hand on the tray of a passing waiter and disappear, Murdoch turned his head back, tried to control his surprised mood, and squeezed out a smile. "Young people nowadays are really rude."
Then, ignoring the others, including Lei Shidong, he left with a thoughtful expression.
Those words were not so much a threat as a declaration of war. Yes, Adriaan had declared war on News Corporation on behalf of AC Media. Murdoch couldn't help but be shocked. It had only been about three weeks since the previous board meeting. At most, Adriaan and Claude had straightened out the internal and external affairs. Even if they wanted to retaliate, it shouldn't be now.
But judging from Adrian's tone, this was definitely not a joke. If that was the case, either they couldn't bear to lose face and wanted to take revenge at all costs in order to re-establish their prestige, or they had found a weakness that no one knew about and were ready to deal a fatal blow.
With Adriaan and Claude's style, it was obviously not the former. As long as one analyzed it carefully, one would find that although they seemed to be very lucky, they always planned before taking action. So …
Then, Murdoch wanted to go back to his mansion. Even if he cracked his head, he couldn't figure out where they would attack from. Even after making a few phone calls to his assistant and the people below, and asking vaguely, he still couldn't figure out what was going on.
Maybe they were really just bluffing? Murdoch, who tossed and turned in bed several times before falling asleep, thought so.
But soon he was woken up by the midnight phone. "Boss, it's bad. The Guardian printed an extra edition today, claiming that they have evidence of wiretapping at the News of the World!"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
