Chapter 3212 White Gloves

"Not old enough?"

Lang Hongjun had little contact with Ye Chen and lacked understanding of Ye Chen's style of doing things and glorious deeds, so he was a little confused for a while and couldn't help asking him: "Mr. Ye, does doing business with Musk have anything to do with his age?"

"Yes, a lot." Ye Chen smiled and said, "I like doing business with the elderly the most now, and basically every deal is a success."

Lang Hongjun was confused and couldn't help asking, "What are the advantages of doing business with the elderly?"

"Of course." Ye Chen smiled and said, "Old people are generous with their money. As long as their core needs are met, they are willing to pay any amount of money. Young people are different. They have too many core needs."

Musk himself is an openly wealthy man, and his net worth was once ranked first in the world. Such people are not short of money. If you want to buy things from him, you will definitely not be able to do so by simply throwing money at him.

Of course, offering a super high premium would definitely make the other party give up, but that is not Ye Chen’s style at all.

In general, Ye Chen’s style is to like bartering, or exchanging goods for cash. If something can be solved with one or two pills, he will never use cash.

However, for an entrepreneur in his prime like Musk, simply using elixirs should not be enough to impress him. After all, rich people of this age are in their prime, and as long as they don't have any serious illness, they are more energetic than people in their thirties. Social animals in their thirties may already have the energy and desire to have a married life, while a middle-aged rich man like Musk, who is in his prime, not only has a lovely wife at home, but also has all kinds of gossip when he goes out. What's more, the children born to him by various women can fill a school bus.

If Ye Chen were to go to Musk to do business now, he would definitely not get any advantage.

However, Lang Hongjun's idea of ​​photographic reconnaissance satellites did make Ye Chen feel very practical, so he asked, "Brother, how do the photographic reconnaissance satellites you mentioned usually work?"

Lang Hongjun said: "Photographic reconnaissance satellites work in low-Earth orbit and can orbit the Earth in about 80 minutes. During this process, they can continuously take pictures of the areas they pass through. As I said just now, the higher the accuracy required, the heavier the task of shooting. If you really want to achieve the accuracy of Google and other high-precision satellite maps, it will take a long time to collect images, and even more time to process them. This is why most satellite images have a long update cycle. This year, we can see last year's satellite images on the Internet, which is considered fast in terms of timeliness. It is estimated that only Google can achieve this timeliness, and most of them use materials from several years ago."

Ye Chen asked him: "Since the satellite is always orbiting the earth, theoretically, can it take pictures anywhere you want?"

"Yes." Lang Hongjun nodded. "That's true in theory, but because the earth is round, the best angle for satellite photography is vertical. So each satellite can only cover a limited area. If you want to take global photos, you must have enough satellites to wrap up the entire earth like a ball of yarn. This way, no matter where you want to take photos, a satellite will pass over it within tens of minutes. If there are few satellites, the cycle will be prolonged."

Ye Chen asked him: "How many satellites do we need to be able to take photos of any place in one day?"

“If the technology is mature, maybe four or five.” Lang Hongjun said, “Most mature private enterprises in the United States now have this capability. Some of the more advanced ones can even revisit the target eight times a day. That is, if necessary, they can control the satellite to pass by the target point eight times a day, and take a picture every three hours.”

Ye Chen asked him: "How much is a company like this worth? Can it be bought?"

Lang Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "If I remember correctly, it's about 30 to 40 billion US dollars."

Lang Hongjun added, "But it's really troublesome to buy such companies. Most American companies are built up by founders who raise funds bit by bit starting with angel investment. When they reach a market value of billions of dollars, there are at least dozens of shareholders, big and small. It's not easy to buy them, and it also involves the issue of delisting and privatization. Although these companies are private enterprises, they have some core technologies, so the US government will not allow them to be bought and sold casually. If they really want to sell, both the buyer and the seller must undergo strict review before it's possible."

Ye Chen asked him: "That is to say, if I give Musk enough money to buy his SpaceX, he will not sell it to me?"

Lang Hongjun nodded and said, "It's impossible to sell it all to you, because his words don't count. SpaceX hasn't gone public yet, but its estimated market value is over 100 billion US dollars. Although Musk is a major shareholder, there are still many complicated capital connections behind him. There are so many shareholders that it's hard to count them. So he can only sell you a certain percentage of the shares at most. And you will probably only be a shareholder after buying the shares. You have no decision-making power over the company's business and secrets. Moreover, for the US government, aerospace technology is definitely more important. It's possible for you to find a way to buy an inconspicuous remote sensing satellite company, but it should be hellish to buy SpaceX."

Ye Chen said: "Compared to that, buying SpaceX doesn't mean much to me. It's most cost-effective to buy a remote sensing satellite company like you mentioned. After buying it, I will invest some money in it to increase the number of satellites. It would be best if I could achieve a revisit every hour."

Lang Hongjun said: "If you can find a suitable white glove from the United States, this can still be achieved. This white glove must be 100% reliable first. Secondly, he must be American, and he must be white, not a minority, let alone an immigrant. Thirdly, he must have a certain social status in the United States, and the Department of Homeland Security must be 100% confident in him. In this way, there will be no background check when acquiring the company. As long as the government does not intervene, the shareholders behind the scenes can solve it with money. If the normal valuation of this company is 4 billion US dollars, giving 6 billion or even 8 billion should be enough to make the shareholders compromise. After the company is acquired by the white glove, the data will be synchronized directly to you. If you have any specific needs, let the white glove tell the team, and the team only needs to do it."

"White gloves..." Ye Chen thought about it. The people he knew who had a certain social status in the United States were the An family, the Fei family, and the Rothschild family.

The An family and the Fei family are both Chinese families, especially the An family. They have now begun to invest heavily in China and are definitely not suitable for doing such things. The Fei family will also be more or less suspected because of their Chinese identity, but the Rothschild family will definitely not be suspected. Their social status in the United States and their influence on the US government are unmatched by any person or any family.

Thinking of this, he suddenly became enlightened and said with a smile: "As for the right white gloves, I actually have a good candidate. Let the second-in-command of the Rothschild family do this. It should be easy!"