America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 541 He was also setting a trap.

At Citigroup headquarters, Sandy Weir and Jimmy Dimon sit in their office.

On the television screen, CNN's financial news was scrolling through the latest developments of China Telecom: "According to the latest news from this station, the Federal Communications Commission has officially launched a security review of China Telecom's equipment, involving Huawei-made regenerative repeaters and terminal multiplexers in the company's core network. The results of the review will directly affect the approval process for its telecommunications operating license..."

This marks the umpteenth time in the past two weeks that China Telecom has made the front page of major US financial media outlets.

Since the Federal Trade Commission initiated its price-fixing investigation, a flood of negative news about the emerging telecommunications company has hit the market.

Even as a result, Ernst's other businesses were manipulated by malicious individuals using negative news, and YueDong Games' stock price fell by more than 8% within half a month.

"Jimmy, I remember the lock-up period for institutional shareholders of Leap Games should have expired by now, right?" Sandy Weir's voice broke the silence in the office. He looked up from the television screen and turned to Jimmy Damon sitting across from him.

Upon hearing this, Jimmy Dimon frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and said, "That's right. According to the SEC's RLE 144, the institutional shares of YueDong Games that were subject to lock-up at the time of its IPO had a lock-up period of exactly six months, and they should have been officially released last week."

He paused, a hint of realization in his voice, "You suspect Goldman Sachs is about to make a move?"

As early as when YueDong Games was preparing for its Nasdaq listing, Wall Street forces, led by Goldman Sachs, wanted to teach Ernst a profound lesson through capital market operations, so that he would understand that the rules of Wall Street cannot be overridden.

Now that there is no lock-up period, a large number of shares are released into circulation instantly, creating room for manipulation.

"It's not a doubt, it's a certainty." Sandy Weir pointed to the multi-monitor setup on the table, one of which was displaying a real-time stock price chart for YueDong Games. "It's true that the Nasdaq has been correcting recently, but YueDong Games' stock price has fallen excessively; it's clearly abnormal."

The telecommunications incident in mainland China is considered a negative factor for the telecommunications sector.

Because the telecommunications sector and the internet industry are closely related, the entire Nasdaq is falling.

However, this decline has been interpreted by various experts as a correction in the internet sector, which is a normal phenomenon.

Many experts believe that with the end of this correction, the Nasdaq will inevitably usher in a new round of surge.

The reason is that the mainland telecommunications industry will be prompted to upgrade the network speed, which in the long run is a phenomenon that benefits the Internet sector.

"As a leading global game developer and operator, and the world's largest game brand, YueDong Games' recent operating data is truly impressive."

"This year's flagship product, NBA 1998, has sold over 110 million copies worldwide. Counter-Strike has set a new record for monthly revenue. Even the YueDong Games platform is seeing a rapid increase in the number of third-party game merchants joining, and the platform's cumulative registered users worldwide have exceeded 6000 million. These are all absolutely positive news."

"With such a dense stream of positive news, it's understandable that the stock price didn't rise, but instead continued to decline, even becoming one of the hardest-hit areas in the Nasdaq correction. This is very abnormal."

For a giant company whose market value once exceeded $400 billion, it's impossible for Wall Street not to pay attention to news about Leap Games. Jimmy Dimon recalled the information he had seen about Leap Games recently, and it seemed that was indeed the case.

"Someone is accumulating shares." He realized. Driving down the stock price and then buying at the low point is a typical Wall Street tactic.

"Goldman Sachs." Jamie Dimon said with certainty, it must be Goldman Sachs's doing.

That confirms one thing even more: Goldman Sachs, in conjunction with the entire Wall Street, was about to teach YueDong Games a lesson on Nasdaq, and that should be about to begin soon.

The current accumulation of shares is essentially stockpiling ammunition.

What followed was a surge in the stock price of YueDong Games, followed by a sharp sell-off.

Sandy Weill pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled and looked up at Jamie Damon. "Find someone to leak this information to Ernst."

Jamie Damon's eyes widened slightly. "At this point, do you still trust him so much?"

Just a few days ago, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission suddenly issued a notice announcing the formal launch of a price-fixing investigation into three emerging telecommunications companies, with China Telecom among them.

Today, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, citing the International Security Emergency Economic Powers Act, announced a delay in the approval of China Telecom's telecommunications operating license, citing that the company's core communication equipment uses non-U.S.-made products, which may pose national security risks and require a security review.

Once this matter is finalized, it means that mainland China Telecom will not be able to obtain an operating license within three months, because the review period is ninety days.

"Those guys can't even be bothered with the most basic disguise anymore," Jimmy Damon said with a hint of sarcasm.

The so-called price monopoly is pure nonsense, and the pretext of national security is even more untenable. Mainland China's telecommunications companies do use terminal multiplexers and regenerative repeaters manufactured by Huawei, but so what?

Nearly half of the telecommunications companies in the United States use Huawei products.

It's not just the United States, it's the same in Europe.

In particular, regenerative repeaters are indispensable devices in long-distance transmission scenarios.

Signals can attenuate and be distorted during transmission. This device can amplify, reshape, and regenerate these damaged signals to restore their original quality and thus extend the transmission distance.

This device is widely used in network transmission, and Huawei's regenerative repeater has even passed the FCC certification of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Not to mention mainland China Telecom, even the Telephone and Telegraph Corporation uses Huawei equipment instead of Lucent's.

Huawei's regenerative repeaters are technically on par with Lucent's, but cost only 60% of Lucent's.

The Communications Commission is now using this equipment as a pretext to launch an investigation into mainland China Telecom. Anyone with eyes to see can tell that this is blatant targeting, and they don't want mainland China Telecom to obtain a telecommunications license in the short term.

To everyone else, this seemed like a dead end.

Furthermore, with the discovery that Goldman Sachs is planning to attack Ernst again through YueDong Games, Jamie Dimon sees no hope for the survival of China Telecom.

As outsiders have said, Ernst's best course of action now is to sell Continental Telecom. Sandy Will, however, shook his head, showing no worry whatsoever, but rather a confident smile. "I spoke with him on the phone yesterday."

"Oh?" A hint of curiosity flashed in Jimmy Damon's eyes. "What did you talk about that made you so confident in him?"

"I told him that Citigroup was interested in purchasing 30 slots for cross-border dedicated lines from mainland China Telecom," Sandy Weill said slowly.

Jimmy Dimon instinctively interjected, "The market price is $30 per seat?"

Regardless of who ultimately wins the bid for mainland China Telecom, one outcome remains unchanged: the dedicated line for mainland China Telecom has essentially been completed and is ready to use immediately upon purchase.

Another thing that cannot be changed is that, regardless of who the new owner is, the contracts signed by mainland China Telecom must be fulfilled.

Therefore, many futures trading institutions want to take advantage of the situation and buy a few trading seats at a low price while China Telecom is mired in difficulties.

The price they quoted was the current market price: $300,000 a year.

However, China Telecom did not sell a single seat, and now they are not even accepting those who want to take advantage of the situation.

This is understandable. Even if China Telecom is eventually forced to sell itself, these seats will serve as bargaining chips in negotiations.

But to Jimmy Dimon's surprise, Sandy Weir shook his head. "My offer is $300 million per seat per year, the same as Lehman Brothers' price."

"What?" Jimmy Damon nearly dropped his coffee cup, staring at Sandy Weir in disbelief, as if confirming the other was joking. "Are you crazy?" Sandy Weir didn't answer directly, but instead changed the subject: "Guess how Ernst responded?"

What else can I say? Of course I agree.

Once this news is leaked, it will further prove the value of this dedicated line from mainland China Telecom. Even if it is forced to be sold, it can still fetch a good price.

Jamie Damon had barely opened his mouth when he realized what was happening.

If Ernst had agreed, Sandy Weir wouldn't have had this expression.

"Don't tell me he refused." Jimmy Damon looked on with a question mark, full of disbelief.

Sandy Weir laughed, because he had the same expression yesterday. "It's not a rejection, but he said that Citibank really wants the seat and needs to raise the price to $350 million a year, or a minimum five-year contract."

Jamie Dimon recalled the joke that had been circulating before: "Does he really treat Wall Street like his personal vault, where he can take whatever he wants?"

Sandy Weir paused for a moment, then straightened up and said seriously, "I think he's setting things up too."