Chapter 535: Acquisitions

Charles had met with Jerry Brown and Ken Lewis in San Francisco to support Jerry Brown's campaign for California Governor; however, acquiring shares of Lockheed Martin proved to be far more difficult. Gavin Newsom and Dianne Feinstein took Charles to meet with the Getty and Kennedy families.

It was decided that Bank of America would buy at least 5% of Lockheed Martin's shares, while Charles spent $1.2 billion in cash to acquire 1.4% of Bank of America's preferred shares. This way, Capet Capital owned nearly 4.4% share of Bank of America, but out of the $1.7 billion gained from selling shares of four banks, only $500 million was left after injecting $90 million into Twitter.

Due to Charles's identity, he couldn't become a board member of Lockheed Martin, but his position in Bank of America was strengthened. Bank of America already had more than 18% of Lockheed Martin's shares; if they acquired another 5%, they would surpass the largest shareholder, Asset Management Group. The stronger Bank of America's control, the greater its influence in the Federal Reserve.

Charles understood the alliances within California's political families better now - the Kennedy family, as renowned as the Bush family; and the Getty family, who built an oil empire during Paul Getty's era, rapidly rising in the stock market in the 1950s and becoming the world's richest in the '60s!

The Getty Museum and Getty Villa in Los Angeles were donations from this guy. Paul Getty's stinginess was legendary - he refused to pay ransom when his grandson was kidnapped, a story often adapted by Hollywood for movies, yet he was very generous with art acquisitions.

"They're all playing their own games," Charles thought. But this game of politics and capital was indeed interesting.

...

The Capet Group announced a consecutive acquisition spree - the expenditure of $1 billion from Blackstone to acquire 50% of Universal Studios Orlando; $700 million from Goldman Sachs to acquire 50% of Universal Studios Osaka.

They also established the Universal Studios Hotels Group, with the first self-operated hotel in Orlando. They will also license the brand and collaborate with other hotel groups.

In Los Angeles, Century City, at the News Corporation headquarters in Rupert Murdoch's office, COO Peter Chernin was reporting.

"Peter, do you think Capet will make a move on NBC next?" Rupert Murdoch was most concerned about television stations.

"NBC's various business directions aren't very strong," Peter Chernin frowned.

"In entertainment, Syfy and USA Network could become major profit points with Capet TV's support; in news, with Time Warner's CNN and our FNC, NBC's ratings aren't high; in sports, Disney's ESPN and Time Warner's TNT are serious competitors, and NBC Sports is on par with our Fox Sports; the only standout is CNBC."

Rupert Murdoch nodded, "They don't seem strong, but they cover everything. NBC News has been falling behind us these past few years. Now, Capet seems focused on theme parks, getting back Universal Studios shares. Could MSNBC be next? You understand the importance of a national news network!"

MSNBC (Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) was founded the same year as FNC (Fox News Channel) in 1996. MSNBC was a cable news channel jointly established by Microsoft and NBC, with each holding half the shares and operated by NBC.

For a time, CNN, FNC, and MSNBC were the three major cable news networks in the US, but MSNBC's fall was swift.

"Microsoft is focused on internet news. If Capet buys shares from Microsoft, they probably wouldn't mind," Rupert Murdoch valued Capet highly. 20th Century Fox didn't hope to surpass Universal, but if Fox TV was outdone by NBC again, that would be unacceptable.

"Charles's strength is in content!"

With the internet's development, the belief that content is king became even stronger. Rupert Murdoch thought of Sumner Redstone, who nearly had a stroke.

"I heard from Roger that Charles Capet has been getting closer to California's political circles, and we have another strong competitor in next year's California Governor election!"

Peter Chernin was helpless; California Republicans seemed hopeless. No wonder FNC's chairman Roger Ailes complained.

"It will happen naturally," Rupert Murdoch couldn't see the Republicans turning the tide, and it was destined so.

*****

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