Chapter 442 The final bid

At this time, a smile appeared on David Smith's face, because at the morning board meeting, Ivanta represented IC Capital and was on his side.

What many people don't know is that he had already met with the other party earlier and made an agreement.

It seems that being able to bring the Pilot Group to his side is indeed a move that can determine the outcome. Although he has paid some benefits for this, at least he has kept himself and his family's position in the Sinclair Group. No?

But many times, history is not exactly similar.

"Vote for John Smith via Ivanta TP."

After Debbie Hogan said these words, not only David Smith, but others, including John Smith, looked at the blonde beauty in surprise.

"No, it's impossible!"

David Smith even shouted out, his eyes fixed on Ivanta, hoping to tell from her mouth that the vote reported by Debbie Morgan was not the truth...

But at this time, Ivanta had no expression on his face, even when he was facing everyone's eyes with various emotions.

"Ms. Ivanta, and everyone here, do you all confirm the votes I just announced?"

"Yes."

Everyone, including Ivanta, confirmed that the votes read out came from their own choices...

This also means that in the morning board meeting, John Smith challenged his eldest brother, David Smith, and failed miserably...

A dramatic scene happened. In the chairman election in the afternoon, the same John Smith was elected as the chairman of Sinclair Group with a majority of 6:5!

Although he had imagined before that he would oust his eldest brother and take control of the Sinclair Group, after the failure in the morning, at this moment, John Smith still felt a bit like a dream.

"This time the election of the chairman has been completed, and today's meeting process will be recorded. Congratulations to Mr. John Smith who will serve as chairman of Sinclair Group, act with authority and be supervised by the board of directors."

John Smith accepts congratulations after Debbie Hogan announces the results.

At this moment, there was a "bang" sound...

"David!"

It turned out that when David Smith suddenly stood up, he fainted and fell to the ground!

Then everyone was in a panic and started calling doctors and ambulances...

…

After the board meeting, Barron got the news from Ivanta.

According to the announcement issued by the Sinclair Group, Mr. John Smith will serve as the chairman of the board, and the former CEO of the group, David Smith, will concurrently serve as the CEO due to physical reasons...

It can be said that from now on, the Sinclair Group has entered the era of John Smith.

This is what Barron is happy to see. After all, in terms of personality, John Smith is not as strong as the previous David Smith, and it is easier for Barron to "cooperate".

But before that, John Smith needs to be allowed to recognize the reality instead of remaining in the illusion of his "success".

In this "pull", Ivanta performed very well. Well, not only this time, Ivanta has grown very rapidly since the establishment of IC Capital.

This is worthy of her gains. Ivanta now holds 1% of IC Capital's shares, and in the next nine years, she will be able to receive a cumulative 9% of IC Capital share incentives, eventually increasing her shareholding in this company. The ratio is set at 10%.

Because when she first served as the CEO of IC Capital, she received an incentive plan for a total of 10% of the shares that would be cashed out every year for ten years.

At the current scale of IC Capital, these shares are worth more than $100 million, but both Barron and Ivanta understand that based on the future development of the companies they invest in, this number will reach an astonishing scale.

It is also worth mentioning that as an investment company, not all of IC Capital’s investments are their assets. A considerable part of them are funds from offshore companies controlled by Barron, such as most of the funds used to acquire DoubleClick. , comes from this.

Now, Barron's needs to focus on other more important things, such as the London Stock Exchange's acquisition of Sweden's OMX Group.

After Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq Group joined the bid for Sweden's OMX Group, Deutsche Börse raised the acquisition price to US$3.45 billion in response to the US$3.3 billion cash acquisition proposed by the London Stock Exchange...

However, their acquisition plan is carried out through cash and stocks. In comparison, OMX Group shareholders prefer pure cash acquisitions.

After all, although the trading scale of the German exchange is second only to the London Stock Exchange among the European exchange groups, their rates and listing fees are lower, which means that their revenue is much lower than that of the London Stock Exchange. If it is less, the corresponding stock price is not that attractive.

As for the Nasdaq Group, it also made an acquisition in the form of cash and stocks. The quoted price was US$3.5 billion, which was slightly higher than the German exchange.

Recent news is that the board of directors of Deutsche Börse vetoed their management's proposal to increase prices again - it seems familiar. In the previous acquisition of the London Stock Exchange, the board of directors of Deutsche Börse also controlled acquisition costs in this way.

So in this bidding, it has basically been announced that the German exchange has withdrawn from the competition.

From the London Stock Exchange, it can naturally be seen that the board of directors of OMX Group intends to sell the company and is taking advantage of competitors to raise prices for each other.

But in reality, a price increase is inevitable, but Barron will not let the other party continue like this endlessly.

Recently, the London Stock Exchange submitted its latest offer to OMX Group, preparing to acquire OMX Group for US$3.5 billion in pure cash.

And they said this would be the LSE's last bid.

In order to put pressure on the OMX Group, the London Stock Exchange also began to contact another exchange, the Italian Exchange.

Of course, this contact is not just a smoke bomb. If the acquisition of OMX Group fails, the Italian exchange will be an alternative target of the London Stock Exchange.

The Italian Stock Exchange (Borsa Italiana) is Italy's main stock exchange, located in Milan, with a history dating back to the 19th century.

Not only do they have a stock trading business covering Italy, but the Italian exchange has an MTS bond platform that can reach all of Europe.

In Italy alone, the MTS bond platform is responsible for processing transactions in Italian government bonds worth trillions of euros.

If the acquisition of the Italian exchange is completed, the London Stock Exchange can directly obtain a large amount of European business.

Therefore, even if the OMX Group cannot be acquired, the acquisition of the Italian Exchange can greatly expand the scale of the London Stock Exchange.

According to estimates, the acquisition of the Italian exchange will cost less than 1.5 billion euros, which is nearly half cheaper than OMX Group.