America: My Time

Chapter 350 The Pressure on the Old Man
Chapter 350 The Pressure on the Old Man
This meeting of the Japanese was not about majority rule; everyone had different positions and made different choices. Some companies, represented by Toshiba, still chose to believe their investigation report and were unwilling to sign an agreement with Legendary Entertainment immediately. Other companies, on the other hand, had more faith in John and Legendary Entertainment's capabilities and, after the meeting, jointly expressed their stance to Legendary Entertainment and agreed on a signing date.

John shook his head at the internal competition in Japan. He wasn't concerned about Toshiba's choices. Since these guys weren't willing to trust Legendary Entertainment's capabilities or his own, there was no need for future cooperation. He had only invited Toshiba and Pioneer to participate in the Olympic advertising project to express goodwill and reassure the Japanese. However, Pioneer performed better than Toshiba; at least Pioneer was willing to trust Legendary Entertainment's abilities and didn't make the wrong choice because of previous conflicts!

John didn't need to care about Toshiba. Once their affair came to light, John would show them the terrible consequences of opposing him. There was no need to fuss over such a trivial matter now, and he didn't have the time or energy to focus on it. He had many other things to deal with.

Pan Am is now doing very well. In order to complete his plans, John needs to accelerate Pan Am's expansion and increase its presence in the airline industry. However, he cannot afford to cover all the acquisition costs himself. Pan Am needs to increase its debt and seek a new round of loans from Japan.

Although the airlines were not very large, they needed some funds for expansion. So John chose to continue borrowing from the Bank of Japan and do his best to obtain more dollar loans before the Plaza Accord came into effect in order to complete his layout in the aviation industry.

Due to time constraints, John did not go to Japan to discuss the loan with Sanwa Bank. Upon learning that John intended to take out a new loan, Sanwa's representative flew directly to San Francisco, USA, to meet with John and discuss the loan. With the listing of Dream World and the frenzied expansion of Quantum Mining, all the bigwigs in Japan understood how strong John's repayment ability was. Those world-class mines were enough to repay their loans, not to mention how crazy the market value of Dream World and Game World had been.

This time, the loan amount from Gulfstream Aerospace shocked Sanwa Bank—a billion US dollars, and only an initial offer; more would be offered if needed. A few airlines alone wouldn't need such a massive amount of capital. Could Gulfstream Aerospace have other acquisition plans?
“Mr. John, the loan is not a problem, our bank can accept it. We just want to know if Gulfstream Aerospace’s acquisition really only involves those few airlines? Of course, if it involves company secrets, you don’t have to answer. This is just some information we have, and it will not affect the loan!”

"It's no secret that Pan Am is developing. You should be very clear about it. Both Pan Am itself and EasyJet, which was transformed from West Air, are quite profitable. Even Cathay Pacific is doing well. However, Pan Am will gradually move towards unification and will need to make many plans. Therefore, it may need to purchase more aircraft, which will require a new budget. Of course, we may also acquire an aircraft manufacturer, depending on the situation."

Is this a secret? No, it's no longer a secret. Gulfstream Aerospace has completed acquisition negotiations with de Havilland Aircraft Company in Canada. As long as the loan from Japan is in place, the acquisition can be completed. All of this was done in secret, without alerting anyone, not even Morgan.

It wasn't that Morgan lacked ability, but rather that a confidentiality agreement had been signed before the invitation was made. John had prepared in advance when he sensed the covert obstruction from the old Rockefellers. Just as Morgan had suspected, John had never given up his ambition in large aircraft manufacturing. Everyone only saw Gulfstream Aerospace's expansion in the aviation industry because it was all part of John's plan—to use the expansion in the aviation industry to attract attention while secretly acquiring the de Havilland Aircraft Company in Canada.

It wasn't that John didn't want to acquire the severely loss-making state-owned aircraft manufacturer in Canada, but rather that there were too many problems. That's why he set his sights on de Havilland Aircraft Company. Most importantly, John was very satisfied with the company's research and development capabilities.

Soon after the representatives of Sanhe Bank left, Gulfstream Aerospace held a press conference to announce the acquisition of de Havilland Aircraft Company. This acquisition shocked the old guys in Rockefeller's circle. They all thought that John would accelerate his overseas expansion, but they did not expect that the acquisition of aircraft manufacturing would be completed before the expansion of the airline could even begin.

"Damn it, why didn't we notice the Gulfstream acquisition? Such an acquisition couldn't have been completed in a short time. They must have been negotiating for a long time. And what did Morgan say? They couldn't possibly not know!"

"Morgan was also somewhat surprised. They didn't know about this acquisition either. They were only focused on the airline's expansion. No one expected that the airline's expansion was just bait to attract our attention and allow Gulfstream Aerospace to complete the acquisition of de Havilland Aircraft. We've all been fooled by this little fox." "It seems that John, this little fox, is determined to develop heavily in the aviation industry. Now that he has completed his layout, we are powerless to stop his expansion. With de Havilland Aircraft, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas can wake up from their dreams. It will be impossible for them to get more orders from this little guy! It seems we need to cause him some trouble and prevent him from continuing to expand like this, at least to prevent de Havilland Aircraft from entering a period of rapid development."

"No, Boeing has a chance, at least on mainline aircraft! If we intervene now, it will only provoke a more aggressive reaction from that little guy. Most importantly, if you can do it, the other side can do it too, which will cause unnecessary conflict and may even worsen the situation."

“Indeed. Citibank has already issued a warning that if we affect their interests again this time, the group may collapse completely, or even put us on the opposite side of Citibank. Think about it, if John, that little fox, really completes the acquisition of those airlines, he will definitely choose Boeing for mainline aircraft, at least he has had a deal with Citibank.”

“We can’t stop all of this now, nor can we continue to fight this little guy, at least not now. You only see John’s expansion in the aviation industry, but have you forgotten his plans in the mining industry? Also, a large portion of his funds have been transferred to England. You should understand what this means. He wants to get rid of Wall Street’s attention and enter the financial market in England. This is not good for us.”

"Doesn't that bastard Morgan have any explanation? How could they let this happen? Don't they know how much this will affect us?"

“Morgan doesn’t care. After all, Morgan and John are friends. Even if there is a threat, Morgan’s influence will be minimal. This time, at least $300 million has entered the British financial market, and this kid already has his own investment company there, an independent investment company separate from Hurricane Investment.”

“I told you long ago not to go too far, not to push this little fox too hard, but you wouldn’t listen. You insisted on plotting against this little fox in the dark, even interfering with something as trivial as the other party wanting to acquire the brewery. Now look what’s happened. Not only did we fail to stop this little fox’s expansion, but we also let the other party slip out of our control. We don’t even have a single excuse now.”

"What's the use of saying all this now? Everything has already happened. What we need now is solutions, not complaints. Let's discuss how we should deal with this dramatic turn of events."

"Even if we wanted to reconcile with this little guy now, it would be impossible. He won't fall twice in the same place. He won't believe our 'sincerity' anymore. You can see that from his current strategy. He could have asked for more benefits from the Freeport issue, but he only chose the Glasberg mine in Indonesia. This is to lay the groundwork in Asia in advance. You can see how much importance he attaches to his strategy. The resources he has are completely beyond our capabilities. Unless we are willing to give up our plans for Japan, we can only let this little fox expand at will. I don't think we have the ability to stop him in the mining industry, nor in the semiconductor industry, not to mention the media and entertainment industry."

"It's laughable, really. This is the first time we've been pushed to this point by a little guy. We've been outmaneuvered repeatedly in our plans, and now we have absolutely no way to stop his overseas expansion. Even if we wanted to guide him to develop in the US, it's impossible. He won't do that for a long time, and the White House has no reason to continue persuading him. Now I'm worried that this little fox has even more schemes and plans. He's no longer someone we can stop. Don't forget his security company; its power has expanded beyond your imagination!"

(End of this chapter)