Chapter 479 Private Meeting

In early August, the new British Prime Minister Brown arrived at the Camp David resort camp in Maryland, USA, to hold talks with Bush.

This is Brown's first visit to the United States since he became prime minister. There have been many speculations about the future direction of relations between the two countries, so this summit meeting between the two countries is particularly interesting.

According to American media reports, before Brown's visit, the United States expressed concern and dissatisfaction with Britain's possible early withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

In his meeting with Bush, Brown reiterated that Britain's policy in Iraq would not change and that it would not announce a troop withdrawal plan.

Afterwards, Brown left Camp David and went to New York to deliver a speech on global development issues at the United Nations.

At this time, Barron also came to New York, but Brown did not come with him. This time when he came to the United States, Brown showed his frugal style. He took a civil aviation flight from England, not a government chartered flight, and did not take any Barron's private jet arrived in the United States.

Then he also arrived in New York by train. After giving a speech at the UN, Brown and Barron met with New York Mayor Bloomberg.

Brown, Barron and Bloomberg ate hot dogs together on the streets of New York...

A British Prime Minister, a Duke and the fourth richest man in the world, and a New York mayor and billionaire, just like ordinary people, have no scruples, standing on the street eating cheap fast food like hot dogs like ordinary people. , this kind of people-friendly behavior was also photographed by reporters, and it immediately made the front pages of many newspapers.

According to reporters, New York street hot dog vendor Abdus Salam told them that Brown and Duke Devonshire ate plain hot dogs without any condiments, while Bloomberg added some mustard.

Although there were many reporters around them while they were eating hot dogs, they did not answer questions.

When asked how the hot dogs tasted, Brown gave a thumbs up.

This hot dog "meal" was served by Bloomberg for only three dollars. Of course, a tip was given, but this was simply negligible for Bloomberg, who has a net worth of hundreds of millions.

At this point, Barron could only say sorry to Cameron silently in his heart - when he visits the United States after taking office, he can only use another way of "showing off"...

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Bloomberg is the famous boss of Bloomberg. In 2001, he successfully ran for the mayor of New York City and took office in 2002.

In Barron's previous life, until the end of 2013, after three terms in office, Bloomberg resigned and served as the mayor of New York for a full 12 years.

And his annual salary as the mayor of New York is only a symbolic $1 - which means that the hamburger that Bloomberg treated to today cost him three years of salary...if consumption is included, it would be even more. .

Interestingly, according to Forbes, Bloomberg’s net worth was US$4.5 billion in 2001. In 2014, his assets had soared to US$33 billion.

As for whether the surge in his assets during his tenure as mayor of New York is related to his position... This is a matter of opinion and wisdom.

After all, if you compare it with other rich people, such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, his net worth was US$2 billion in 2001, and by 2014, it became US$32 billion. In more than ten years, The growth of assets is even more exaggerated than Bloomberg.

Of course, if we don’t investigate the fact that Amazon founded by Jeff Bezos is an e-commerce website, it just caught up with the trend; and Bloomberg mainly relies on selling financial information-Bloomberg is his company.

As for why no one can compete with him in this aspect, then... maybe their service is particularly good.

Anyway, it is possible that people are not doing it for money, but just serving the people of New York for free...

In addition to treating Brown and Barron to hot dogs on the street, Bloomberg also specially invited them to a banquet hosted by him that night, and singers were also invited to perform.

Guests who came that day also included media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and former US House Speaker Gingrich, as well as Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford and others.

It was obvious that Bill Ford was specially invited to the scene to show his goodwill to Barron. This time, Brown visited the United States and specifically talked to Bush about the Caesars Fund's acquisition of three British car brands held by Ford. According to previous media reports, it is no secret that the Duke of England hopes to get their car brand back through the Caesars Fund.

In this way, Bloomberg can be regarded as a "middleman", providing the "heads" of the two companies with an opportunity to meet privately.

"You should know, Mr. Ford, I'm afraid no one will be willing to bear your asking price, and continuing to keep these brands in their hands will only cause Ford to continue to lose blood..."

From Bill Ford's surname, we can see his relationship with Ford. Barron clinked glasses with him and said:

"With all due respect, of all the people claiming to be interested in these brands right now, our bid is the most sincere."

"Everything needs to be discussed slowly, doesn't it? Your Highness the Duke, in addition, although we do have the idea of ​​selling one or several brands, the final decision still needs to wait until the new CEO takes office next month. I hope Let him make those decisions based on his plans for Ford rather than me deciding them in advance..."

It seemed that Mr. Ford was not moved by Barron's words. He said calmly:

"And I'm curious, why do you want to buy these brands? If like you said, they will only continue to lose money...is it just to bring these brands back to England?"

"Whether you believe it or not, it's true. It's time for those British brands to return to England."

Barron shrugged and said:

"Of course, it doesn't have to be these brands from Ford, it can also be other brands, such as Rolls-Royce or Bentley, depending on the final price - and I am patient enough to wait."

…

"Mr. Murdoch, it's nice to meet you. By the way, I need to congratulate you. MySpace has been developing well recently."

The conversation with Bill Ford made no real progress in the acquisition of the three British car brands - of course, Barron would not simply think that through such a conversation, he could convince the other party that this was a business. Negotiating a price always requires one of the parties to make concessions. He can make concessions, but not too much.

Next, Barron saw Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., walking toward him, and started chatting with him.

Indeed, as he said, after News Corporation bought MySpace for US$700 million, which was higher than Barron's previous purchase price, MySpace has been developing very well until now. Not only has it remained the second largest social network, it It ranks second in Woaw.com, and its key indicators such as the number of users and the number of active users have grown tremendously, and its advertising revenue has also achieved breakthroughs - this year, Google also reached an agreement with MySpace. As long as MySpace's click volume increases significantly for three consecutive years, it will become MySpace's exclusive search engine provider on the condition that it pays US$300 million per year for three consecutive years.

In addition, MySpace also successfully entered the Chinese market in the name of Juyou.com - behind this, there is the help of Murdoch's wife Wendy Deng.

In Barron's previous life, in the field of social networking, MySpace was the forerunner and Facebook was the chaser, and Facebook ultimately won. Now, Woaw is the forerunner and MySpace is the chaser, but I'm afraid MySpace still can't win.

"Thank you for your compliment, Your Highness the Duke, but in the Internet field, I still need to learn more from you young people. This is not an area I am good at. For example, Woaw is indeed a powerful opponent."

As expected of an old fox, Murdoch didn’t seem to want to talk too much on MySpace, but turned the topic to another aspect:

"By the way, you have also invested in Sinclair Group, but it seems that they have encountered some trouble recently..."

"I don't pay too much attention to these. After all, when I invested in Sinclair Group, it was purely for our mutual cooperation. But I believe that Mr. John Smith is fully capable of dealing with these minor troubles."

Fox Television Network, a subsidiary of News Corporation, is also one of the few television broadcasting companies in the United States. Their current scale is not too different from that of the Sinclair Group - in a previous life, the Sinclair Group later spent huge sums of money to acquire part of Fox. As a local TV station under the TV network, News Corporation is still very powerful in the media field.