Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

Although Chen Yiran was very interested in the Stratolaunch Systems Company, he did not accept Paul Allen's invitation to visit.

He knew that Allen was not short of money. His Microsoft shares and the returns from his early venture capital investments kept his personal assets above $20 billion. The money burned by the Stratolaunch Systems company was nothing to him.

He felt that Paul Allen was probably looking for Chen Yiran mainly to inquire about the application of AI technology in design, and also to ask if there was still a chance for a turnaround in the cooperation with SpaceX.

However, Chen Yiran is aiming for a stake, or even a full acquisition. If the negotiations break down, it would be a bit embarrassing if he directly intervenes. It would be better to have a team to keep things separate in the meantime.

So instead of going himself, he handed the matter over to the Aurora Group's M&A team and had Chase Bank act as a go-between, first trying to make contact through the normal investment process.

If Allen is willing to accept, that would be best. If he doesn't even agree to this, Chen Yiran can wait.

Based on the memories he had collected, this company had certainly failed at least in rocket launches. Chen Yi then watched many videos on Bilibili about various private space companies, but this company was not among them.

Furthermore, since Paul Allen is the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, and also a minor character who appears frequently in Yang Shizi's NBA novels, Chen Yiran has some understanding of him. She had previously researched his background and knew he was extremely fragile. When Microsoft was founded, he was only thirty years old, yet he was forced to step down from management due to a serious illness.

Now that I think about it, he probably doesn't have many years left to live, and the Trail Blazers changed hands later.

So at worst, he can just wait, or seduce the technical staff in that company and slowly drain them dry.

A week later, on January 15, Chen Yiran flew to Los Angeles and attended the shareholders' meeting at Disney's headquarters.

At 9:30 a.m., Disney's annual shareholders meeting was held in the largest auditorium in the main building. Eleven people sat on the stage: Disney's ten board members plus CEO Bob Iger.

There were about 300 shareholder representatives seated below the stage. The first few rows were occupied by major shareholders, with representatives from the largest asset management firms such as Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, and Capital Group. Chen Yiran was representing Ellison and Laurene, the widow of Jobs. He presented authorization letters from both parties, and the staff helped set up the machine in front of him.

There were also quite a few smaller shareholders, some holding Disney's annual reports, others wearing Mickey Mouse badges. Most of these people were either Disney employees from different periods or their descendants, who had gradually acquired shares through various incentive programs.

The core issue to be voted on at this shareholders' meeting is singular: approving Apple's acquisition of Disney through a stock-for-cash deal. The total consideration is $1120 billion, with Apple offering a 30% premium per share.

Igor first stood on the podium and presented a review of the previous fiscal year's performance, highlighting record-breaking visitor numbers at Disneyland, $1.5 billion in global box office revenue for Marvel's "The Avengers," and the recent completion of the acquisition of Lucasfilm.

He then turned the conversation to the merger case and gave a brief overview of the situation.

The main terms were displayed on the big screen: Disney's brand would operate independently, while the logos of Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars would all be retained.

"The board of directors has unanimously approved this proposal, and now we invite all shareholders to vote."

The voting method involves each person having an electronic voting machine in front of them, with green indicating "agree," red "disagree," and yellow "abstain."

There was a brief silence in the audience for about thirty seconds, as everyone looked down and pressed buttons. Then, the large screen projected the real-time results. First, the institutional votes: Vanguard's 1.2 million shares were all in the red, BlackRock's 9800 million shares were all in the red, and State Street's 7600 million shares were all in the red. These three firms together account for nearly 20% of Disney's total share capital, and all of them voted in favor.

Then there are the 1.38 million shares held by the Steve Jobs Estate Trust, which Chen Yiran invested on behalf of Jobs. These were the shares given to Jobs when Disney acquired Pixar for $74 billion in 2006, making him Disney's largest individual shareholder. There are also a small number of shares that Ellison later acquired, bringing the total to over 1.4 million.

The 1.4 million shares on the screen were naturally all in the red.

Next came the votes from various hedge funds and mutual funds, which were mostly in favor of the green camp.

The only exception was that a hedge fund called Greenlight Capital abstained from voting on 2300 million shares. This fund is also a major shareholder of Apple, and its manager, David Einhorn, has been urging Apple to issue preferred stock to increase shareholder returns.

Although Chen Yiran's voice has become less prominent since joining Apple, he clearly still hopes that Apple can increase shareholder returns. He knows he still made a profit from this acquisition, having received a premium for Disney stock. After confirming he had enough votes, he decisively chose to rebel and make his stance clear.

The 2300 million abstentions were negligible compared to the total share capital, and the final voting results were displayed on the big screen: 71.3% of the issued shares voted in favor, only 4.2% voted against, and 24.5% abstained. With more than half the votes cast, the merger was officially approved at the Disney shareholder level.

After the conference, Chen Yiran and Igor met in the conference room.

Holding up a document, Igor said, "Then comes the antitrust review, which is also very troublesome, especially for the European Commission."

Following the shareholders' meeting is the antitrust review, which theoretically needs to be completed in all economic entities worldwide.

However, most of them are actually just filling in the numbers. The important ones are the three major economies of China, the United States, and Europe, as well as second-tier economies such as the Brazilian Economic Defense Administrative Council, the Japan Fair Trade Commission, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission.

The most annoying one is the European Union.

Chen Yiran nodded: "I know, Google will definitely give us some trouble. But don't worry, I already have a plan, and I'm sure I can handle Europe."