Chapter 525 The King Meets the King

"Are you up, baby?"

"Just woke up..."

Beatrice stretched and looked at Barron softly, that look could melt steel immediately.

After kissing the girl on the forehead, Barron said gently:

"Get up and have breakfast together, baby."

"I want you to hold me up..."

So, Barron grabbed his arm and easily held the girl horizontally. She hugged the man's neck and giggled.

Now the two of them have come to Milan. Bocconi University, where Beatrice is studying, is located in Milan. Although she is very reluctant, she will soon go to school to start her courses.

Speaking of Bocconi University, it is also very famous in Europe. It is a private university and one of the most famous business schools in the world. It has been rated as "Europe's No. 1 Business School" many times.

But before returning to school, Beatrice also participated in this year's Milan Fashion Week as a model.

Every February and March is the time for Milan's spring fashion week. As one of the four major fashion weeks in the world (New York, London, Paris and Milan), Milan Fashion Week naturally attracts the attention of fashion lovers around the world.

Fashion brands under the Gucci-Hermès Group all participated in this fashion week, after all, the headquarters of the group itself is in Italy.

And among the four major fashion weeks, although Milan Fashion Week rose the latest, it has now taken the lead and gathered top figures in the fashion industry.

Milan Fashion Week often gathers thousands of professional buyers, as well as professional media and style trends from all over the world. The global spread brought by these essence elements is far beyond the reach of other business models - Milan Fashion Week has always been regarded as the "barometer" of world fashion design and consumption.

Although Beatrice is very enthusiastic about Milan Fashion Week, Barron is not too interested in it. After spending some time with the girl, it is time for him to return to London.

"I'll miss you, dear..."

It seems that Beatrice is really reluctant to leave, which is normal. A girl who has just fallen in love is in the heat of the moment and wants to be with her lover all the time. This is normal.

Therefore, Barron can only patiently comfort her:

"Don't worry, baby, you can see me anytime you want. As long as you call, I will send a plane to pick you up."

"Really? It's a deal?"

"Yes, it's a deal."

...

One of the reasons why Barron decided to return to London at this time is that Murdoch also arrived in London.

And he contacted Barron, hoping to meet him.

Barron knew that Murdoch could no longer sit still.

As the British police arrested more and more employees of News International's newspapers, the government's attitude towards News Corporation became more and more severe, which also affected Sky TV - they were also affected in the competition for the Premier League broadcasting rights.

What is even more troublesome is that it seems that Murdoch's son James Murdoch's response to the situation is not satisfactory. His behavior of wanting to pay a low-key settlement has been called "arrogantly trampling on justice with money" by many other media...

In addition, with the British investigation of News Corporation's "wiretapping gate", there are more and more revelations and evidence, and its influence radiates around the world, so that the FBI in the United States has also begun to intervene in the investigation of News Corporation.

Since the outbreak of the "wiretapping gate", News Corporation's stock price has been negatively affected and has fallen by nearly 40%. How can this not make Murdoch feel a sense of crisis?

Therefore, he finally decided to come to London in person to try to solve the matter.

In fact, Murdoch is not without help in Britain. For example, former British Prime Minister Blair has known Murdoch for many years and can even be called an old friend...

Born in 1953, Blair is 22 years younger than Murdoch, which is almost the age difference between son and father-when Blair entered politics, Murdoch had already dominated the media industry.

At first, the two actually had little intersection until a bilateral meeting in 1995, when Blair went to Australia as one of the representatives of the British Labour Party, where he met Murdoch.

As we all know, Murdoch was originally an Australian and started his business in Australia. Later, after he expanded his business to the United States, he finally changed his nationality to American in order to circumvent the relevant laws and regulations of the United States on owning media companies.

When he first met Blair, Murdoch had established his own media kingdom and was trying his best to further expand his territory.

Having seen countless people, he soon found Blair among the representatives...

After a conversation at the cocktail party, Murdoch saw that Blair was also a pragmatist, that is, he made utilitarian choices based on facts.

At that time, he believed that if such a person could take power in the British government in the future, it would undoubtedly push his career to a higher peak.

So, Murdoch began to get acquainted with Blair, and the other party naturally wanted to get on the boat of the "media king", and the two soon became close friends who talked about everything.

The "emotional investment" of both parties soon paid off. In 1997, when Blair ran for the prime ministerial election, neither the British people nor the party elders were optimistic about the politician who had just turned 40 - his initial polls were very unfavorable. Ideal, but now the good brother takes action...

The Sun newspaper under Murdoch continued to build momentum for Blair, gradually controlling public opinion, causing his approval rating to rise at an alarming rate, and eventually won the Prime Minister's throne in the general election.

The deal was a bargain, and Blair reciprocated the favor, helping Murdoch reap a lot of benefits after becoming prime minister.

In the next few years, with the help of the other party, Murdoch won six of the largest circulation newspapers and controlled the public opinion of nearly half of the British electorate.

In fact, this is why Barron took advantage of a rare opportunity last year to force Blair to resign early. Otherwise, if he was still in office, would he have been able to detonate the "wiretapping scandal" earlier at this time and have a negative impact on Barron? It's naturally a problem.

However, although Blair is no longer the prime minister, he still has connections and influence in the UK. In this "wiretapping scandal", he also tried to help Murdoch deal with it - Brown had previously told Barron He mentioned that Blair had made some relevant remarks to him, and hoped that this matter could be handled... "without causing too much turmoil."

Originally, Barron could have ignored Murdoch's desire to see him, and he was originally prepared to do so.

The reason why he finally decided to meet Murdoch was that Murdoch asked his wife Deng Wendi to contact Ivanta directly and make an appointment with him through Ivanta, not through other channels.