America's Road to Wealth

Annie met Jinna's niece, Lulana Korshunova.

Abel went to another place.

He went to San Diego, California.

San Diego is a Pacific Rim city located in the extreme southwest corner of the continental United States.

It is the capital of San Diego County, California, and the second largest city and third largest economic city in California.

San Diego has a well-developed communication industry and biopharmaceutical industry.

The founder of CDMA, Qualcomm is headquartered here.

Pfizer, Novartis, Amgen and other international biopharmaceutical groups have also set up their headquarters or branches here.

But when Abel came from Los Angeles this time, he didn't go to Qualcomm first, nor did he go to those pharmaceutical giants.

He came here to find a company of his own.

Inside the headquarters of Sempra Energy.

April 13.

This day is Friday.

As requested by company founder Qixiu Martin.

Every Friday, company executives near San Diego return to the company for a high-level meeting.

Usually, every Friday, the large conference hall of Sempra Energy headquarters will be crowded with people.

In today's spacious, bright and luxurious conference room.

Among the executives present, there were only two or three kittens.

They are also the kind of executives who have close contacts with the Martin family and are so close that they cannot be separated.

The current CEO and chairman of Sempra Energy, Qixiu Martin, walked into the meeting room with his secretary.

Looking at the few meeting rooms.

Qi Xiu Martin frowned involuntarily, and asked in a low voice to the people around him:

"Why are there so few people here today??"

"Everything has been notified, but those are the only ones left."

The secretary muttered softly.

Qixiu Martin has a sense of the end of the world.

He could only say, "The meeting is on time."

After speaking, Qixiu Martin walked to the chief position at the top of the conference table and sat down.

Just when he was about to talk about the meeting.

There was a bit of chaos in the reception hall, corridor, and hall on the floor where the conference room was located.

"Sir, sir, I will inform you first, sir."

In the corridor outside, several Sempra Energy employees tried to prevent outsiders from entering.

"Get out of the way." At this moment, a middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes with an elite appearance stepped forward.

Alan Baker picked up a shareholding document and unfolded it in front of these people.

When these people were dumbfounded, Lincoln and Johnson, two big black men, pushed away the staff in front of them.

In the corridor of the headquarters of Sempra Energy Company, many people looked here curiously.

A group of extremely powerful people continued to move forward.

This time, although many people looked out curiously, no one stepped forward to stop it.

Because they were already in the crowd and saw Abel Smith.

Click——

The two doors of the conference room were pushed open at the same time.

Abel, with a slight smile on his face, walked into the conference room first.

"You are..."

Everyone in the conference room was a little confused.

Qixiu Martin was even more annoyed, and looked sullenly at the familiar young man in the lead.

After recognizing Abel, Qixiu Martin was taken aback for a moment, knowing that the situation was really over.

Several executives who were close to the Martin family stood up and wanted to say something.

Alan Baker, who was behind Abel, filed in, took out the shareholding certificate and waved it in front of everyone, then said in a deep voice:

"My client, Mr. Abel Smith, has completed the acquisition of 68.69% of the shares of Sempra Energy."

"The shares have exceeded half, Mr. Qixiu Martin, you are no longer qualified to sit on the throne of the chairman of the board of directors."

Qi Xiu Martin stood up abruptly with a pale face, resting his hands on the conference table.

Abel came out with a smile and waved his hand to stop Alan from continuing.

"With 68.69% of the voting rights, I demand re-election of the chairman. Who agrees and who opposes me as the chairman?"

Abel had a gentle smile on his face, but his eyes were extremely sharp.

Abel looked at no one but Qi Xiu Martin.

Because now there are only two shareholders left in the entire Sampra Energy Company.

And it's all in this conference room.

The meeting between the two is the real shareholders meeting.

The corner of the current chairman's mouth twitched, the veins on his forehead popped up, his hands were clenched into fists, and he looked at the tall and handsome Abel Smith. Bo said:

"Congratulations, you have become the chairman of Sempra Energy, Mr. Smith."

While talking, Qixiu Martin sadly left his seat, giving up the most important seat.

Abel walked over without hesitation, and shook hands with Qixiu Martin: "Thank you! Please support me more in the future, I think we will have a very pleasant cooperation."

Qi Xiu Martin wanted to say that I would never cooperate with you.

It's just that the situation is stronger than people, and the old guy knows that it's useless to say such cruel words.

It just pissed off this horrible young man.

Qixiu Martin's choice is silence.

After Abel took the main seat, he looked around.

Then Abel smiled and said to Alan Baker who walked next to him:

"You can let the gentlemen come in. Sempra Energy is not just my company and Mr. Qixiu Martin, Sempra Energy is everyone's company."

Alan Baker nodded respectfully with a smile, took out his cell phone from his arms and called.

"Let the gentlemen come in," Alan Baker said after the phone call.

Abel smiled at Qixiu Martin and the others who sat below with livid faces:

"Just wait a moment, they'll be in right away."

See Abel doing this with Alan Baker.

Qixiu Martin's heart moved, and a thought that made Martin feel very bad rose up.

This idea, soon proved to be not an idea.

It really happened.

I saw the door of the spacious and bright conference room, five or six minutes after Alan Baker made the call.

A large number of executives from the original Sampra Energy, led by the general manager Delevingne, walked into the meeting room one after another.

When Qixiu Martin saw the general manager Delevingne, he couldn't help hissing and roaring:

"Delevingne York! No wonder the phone can't get through, so you betrayed me!"

The general manager Delevingne turned his head and gave Qixiu Martin a smile, and said confidently:

"Sorry, Mr. Martin. I have never been loyal to you. I am only loyal to Sempra Energy, which pays me a salary. Now that you are no longer the chairman, I will naturally obey the orders of the new chairman!"

"Draven!" Qixiu Martin gritted his teeth.

Mr. General Manager has ignored Qixiu Martin, he came to the third position in front of Abel, and greeted Abel respectfully.

"Mr. Smith, hello. No, Chairman Smith, hello."

Abel smiled and waved his hands, "Sit down. Delevingne, Sampra can't do without you."

Delevingne's face brightened immediately, and he sat down happily.

The other executives of Sampra Energy who came in later also said hello to Abel one by one.

After receiving Abel's response, they sat down on both sides of the conference table.

Originally, when Qixiu Martin held the meeting, there were only two or three company executives with kittens.

At this time, everyone has come, and all the seats in the entire conference room are full.

So much so that the advisory group and bodyguards brought by Abel could only stand.

"Okay."

Abel smiled and said:

"It seems that everyone is here. Then I announce that the first management meeting of the new board of directors has officially started."

"First, I announce that Delevingne York will continue as General Manager with the same duties and responsibilities."

"Secondly..."

Abel clapped his hands, and behind him stood a woman in her forties, dressed in office OL suits.

"I am announcing the appointment of this Ms. Mary Choxie as the company's chief financial officer, responsible for financial affairs."

After Abel finished speaking, Mary Choxi nodded slightly to everyone with a smile on her face.

The former CFO of Sempra Energy was sitting next to Qixiu Martin with a pale face.

The former CFO is also surnamed Martin, a nephew of Qixiu Martin.

The chairman of the board has been replaced, and it is impossible for someone from Martin to hold this important position.

Abel successively announced the appointment of other executives.

It can be said that all the rest of Qixiu Martin in the company were wiped out.

At the end, Abel smiled and said:

"Finally, in view of Mr. Qixiu Martin's strong working ability and project development ability. I plan to add a Greater China area on the Huaxia side."

"I want to appoint Qixiu Martin as the president of the Greater China Region of Sempra Energy. Mr. Qixiu Martin, are you willing to take on the burden of helping the company expand its territory!"

All of a sudden, all eyes in the meeting room were on Qixiu Martin.

Under the gathering of many eyes, Qixiu Martin gave a wry smile.

Qixiu Martin stood up and began to be expressionless: "I resign. I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. I resign."

"Oh." Abel smiled: "I approve. But Mr. Qixiu Martin, you are the second largest shareholder and you own 31.31% of the company's shares. I think it's better for you to listen to the next content."

Qixiu Martin's complexion became even worse, and he stood in the distance staring at Abel.

"In the name of the shareholders of Sempra Energy, I initiate the general meeting of shareholders here."

Abel smiled, and he looked at Qixiu Martin.

"This shareholder meeting will vote on the company's profit distribution for the next ten years."

"My proposal is to make the company develop better. In the next ten years, the company will no longer distribute profits. After all, we have all successfully delisted and are not listed companies anymore."

"Okay, let's start voting. With my 68.69% voting rights, I support the decision of this shareholders' meeting!"

"Mr. Qixiu Martin, as another shareholder, it's your turn to vote."

All the people in the conference room turned their attention to Qixiu Martin again.

Qixiu Martin looked trembling all over, looking at Abel with a livid face.

A few seconds later, Qixiu Martin raised his hand, "Mr. Smith, I am willing to sell all 31.31% of the shares to you for $58 per share."

Abel thought to himself, wouldn't it be nice if you cooperated like this earlier?

It's a waste of me coming here to make such a show, and being a bad guy in front of so many company executives.

"I accept." Abel smiled.

In this regard, 100% of the shares of Sempra Energy Company fell into the hands of Abel Smith.

Abel spent a total of 17.1 billion U.S. dollars to fully control Sempra Energy.

In addition, it cost 14.5 billion US dollars to control 51% of the shares of California Pacific Electronics.

His investment in these two energy companies reached 31.6 billion US dollars.

But in fact, the money he paid himself was not so much.

Because the 51% stake in California Pacific Electric was invested by Pacific Commercial Bank of the United States.

The American Pacific Bank of Commerce is a shareholder of this company with the escrow funds of the bank's customers.

In other words, the American Pacific Commercial Bank is using the money of customers to invest in Pacific Electric.

The same is true for Sempra Energy.

Of the $17.1 billion investment, Abe himself only contributed $7.1 billion.

The remaining ten billion US dollars all came from loans from the Pacific Bank of Commerce.

A total of 31.6 billion U.S. dollars in investment, Abel only took out 17.1 billion U.S. dollars in cash.

That's the benefit of having your own bank.

As long as those customers have confidence in Pacific Bank of Commerce and Abel, the chairman.

In this mode, he can continue to play.

On the side of Sempra Energy, the merger with Ales Energy will begin immediately.

At the same time, reorganize and make internal adjustments.

Sempra Energy also officially changed its name to American Pacific Energy.

It is very similar to the name of California Pacific Electric.

But "Pacific" is a generic trademark, anyone can use it.

What's more, Abel himself is the chairman of California Pacific Electric.

Of course, Pacific Electric will not express dissatisfaction with the change of Sempra Energy's name.

Pacific Electric didn't say anything, so the other companies called Pacific would naturally have no reaction.

Thus, Pacific Energy was formally established.

The follow-up is internal integration and business adjustment.

This will last about a month or so.

One month later, after removing the influence of the two founder families, the Martin family and the Taylor family.

Pacific Energy will officially become a company that Abel has the final say on.

One of the three carriages envisioned by Abel also officially set sail.

In addition, after Abel got the Sampra Energy Company, he did not leave San Diego immediately.

He just left the city center of San Diego and came to a suburb of San Diego.

To be precise, what Abel arrived at was a complex of buildings on the outskirts of San Diego.

The buildings in this suburban complex are generally not high.

The tallest main building only has 10 floors.

The shape of the building is also very strange.

Entering the first and second floors of the lobby of the building, "Qualcomm Patent Wall" (Qualcomm Patent Wall) is written in blue letters on the wall.

There are 1395 CDMA patents on this wall.

But this is only 1/10 of Qualcomm's "patent pool".

The place in Abra was the headquarters of Qualcomm, a communications company that was still very weak at this time.

Qualcomm in 2001 can be said to be the worst year since it went public in 1991.

But in fact, since 1999, the situation has become difficult.

In 1999, when Qualcomm's stock price peaked, it once reached $77 a share, and the company's market value once exceeded $35 billion.

Then start diving.

Now, two years later, Qualcomm's current stock price is only $5.34 per share.

There are many reasons for all this.

One is that Qualcomm's own financial report is not profitable, the other is related to the bursting of the Internet bubble last year, and the other is that Qualcomm's CDMA is not currently mainstream.

In this era when the functional phones are still incomplete, Qualcomm's mobile patents are too advanced.

Qualcomm's total share capital is about 550 million, and today's total market value does not exceed 2.6 billion US dollars.

in this case.

The entire Qualcomm, including the founder, chairman, and CEO Irwin Jacobs.

For Abel's arrival, of course, they are all in a state of infinite welcome.

When Abel arrived at Qualcomm's main building, all the high-level executives of the entire Qualcomm company ran to the door to greet him.

"...This is the famous Qualcomm patent wall."

Entering the hall on the first floor, Abel looked up at the blue wall, smiled and said to the respectful Owen Jacob next to him:

"It's really an admirable scientific research company."

Don't look at the later Qualcomm incarnation of patent hooligans.

By guarding the patent, it can collect patent taxes all over the world.

But that's because it has 90-10 years, nearly 20 years of patent accumulation, so it can be this patent hooligan.

Before becoming a patent hooligan, Qualcomm almost went bankrupt many times because of excessive investment in scientific research.

In the past few years, Qualcomm's annual investment in scientific research has exceeded 15% of its total revenue.

It is not 15% of the profit, but 15% of the revenue. It can be said that more than 60% or even more of the profit is invested in scientific research.

At its peak, Qualcomm's investment in scientific research once reached 21.5% of its total revenue.

Such investment in scientific research led to the emergence of later generations of patent trolls.

It can be said that this year and next year will be the most difficult two years for Qualcomm.

Especially next year, Abel remembers that its stock price even fell to more than -$3 at one point.

That is to say, its stock price was negative at that time.

Of course, the stock price can't really be negative.

This situation occurs because the U.S. stock market has a tradition of "poor company performance, high stock dividends".

That is, when the company is not doing well, the dividends are increased to withstand the stock price. The company's revenue is decreasing, and the dividends are still so high.

After the complex recovery and ex-rights are carried out, it is reflected on the panel that the stock price is negative.

This usually only lasts for a month or two, and as long as the company is profitable, it will gradually return to normal.

Of course, if there is no profit in the follow-up.

Then this company may go bankrupt.

This kind of situation will only happen to those companies who are in a bad situation.

Otherwise, which company will become negative because of dividends..

In the past two years, Qualcomm has been such a hot chicken company.

After all, how could people in 2001 and 2002 know that only ten years later, the booming Internet will be replaced by the more powerful mobile Internet so quickly?

Except for Abel, the time traveler, no one can know.

Then the company Qualcomm.

It will naturally be regarded as a cesspit now.

Little do they know that behind this cesspit, there is actually more and more gold that is dug, and the more it is dug, the more valuable gold.