America 1919-Chapter 962 - 328, Causing a Sensation_2
"Donnie, the Apollo Chain is connected to Venus Consortium’s sectors like publishing, horse racing, logistics, and retail. Isn’t it too risky to take Apollo Chain public?"
Robert reminded Donnie.
Café Jackson couldn’t help but say: "Boss, right now financial groups like Morgan, Old Rockefeller, and Mellon are pooling large amounts of funds to collaborate with you on other projects. If we take three companies public all at once, it would involve at least hundreds of millions of US Dollars. I’m worried that without the involvement of these major groups, others won’t be able to come up with such significant funding!"
Donnie didn’t share with Café Jackson that he was waiting for this exact moment to take his companies public. The arrival of the Great Depression, although bringing widespread misery across the United States, actually had little impact on the truly top-tier financial groups like Morgan, Rockefeller, and Mellon. In fact, during this period, they took advantage of the market slump to acquire a portion of well-qualified companies.
If Donnie were to join forces with them now, wouldn’t that equate to finding powerful adversaries for himself?
What Donnie wanted was for his competitors not to be too strong, but sufficiently dispersed!
"It’s decided!" Donnie ultimately finalized: "Café, call Charlie Chaplin, Douglas, and Griffith and invite them to New York to jointly discuss the listing of United Artists!"
Unlike Trident Shipyard and Apollo Chain, United Artists was different. After acquiring Pickford’s shares, Donnie became the largest shareholder of United Artists. However, Charlie Chaplin was still the president of United Artists, so for Donnie to push through the company’s IPO, he still needed the agreement of those three!
Café Jackson also understood that once Donnie made up his mind, anything others said would no longer make any difference, so he loyally carried out Donnie’s instructions immediately.
After Café Jackson left, Donnie smiled and said to Robert: "Once I’ve settled the matter of United Artists’ IPO with Charlie Chaplin and the others, I’ll need you to handle something!"
Robert asked, "What is it?"
Café Jackson had already voiced his objections regarding the IPO of United Artists, but what he didn’t realize was that, having witnessed the brilliance of the entertainment industry in modern times, Donnie knew very well how to operate a film production company’s IPO!
"According to United Artists’ plan, a movie starring Griffith and Jessica Dole will be released in a month. I need you to contact the "Atlantic City Post" and ABC to continuously promote the film during this period. It must become a household name across the nation. Additionally, arrange for people to monitor screening conditions in cinemas nationwide when the film is released. If the performance isn’t ideal, I’ll create a box-office phenomenon movie!"
At this time, the core interest of film production companies is box office revenue. As for secondary revenue streams like merchandise, videotapes, and licensing, those haven’t been developed yet.
Donnie didn’t intend to develop those aspects now for two reasons: first, the conditions weren’t ripe; second, Hollywood wasn’t yet the version of Hollywood that Donnie envisioned.
Therefore, as long as United Artists’ film became a box office sensation, it would serve as the best advertisement for its IPO!
Robert immediately grasped Donnie’s intentions and smiled: "I know what to do!"
The two continued to discuss this topic for a long time. Finally, Donnie instructed Robert to bring the presidents of Trident Shipyard, George Olympia, and Apollo, Dustbog, to meet him.
Although Donnie held absolute control over these two companies, as presidents, they still needed to prepare for the upcoming IPOs!
George Olympia and Dustbog arrived in New York earlier than Charlie Chaplin and the others to meet with Donnie.
They then heard Donnie announce his decision to take these two companies public.
Their feelings about this decision were mixed, but overall, they were happy.
Although they received annual profit distributions from these two companies, the reality was that they didn’t own any actual equity in them. This situation was unacceptable for professional managers in the United States.
To put it simply, in ancient history of the East, there were dynasties that shared power with aristocratic clans, and others that ruled alongside scholar-officials. In the United States’ business world, power should be shared between founders and professional managers.
This is why many companies in the United States saw their professional managers become the largest shareholders and actual controllers after the founders stepped down.
Donnie’s arrangement essentially blocked their path from ever reaching that outcome.
As long as Donnie didn’t take these companies public, they would have no way of acquiring equity from Donnie, leaving them as nothing more than salaried employees.
But now things were different. With Donnie deciding to take these companies public, they could seize the opportunity to purchase shares in the companies. Although, as long as Donnie didn’t dilute his shares, they still stood no chance of surpassing the Block Family to become the companies’ true controllers, it was at least the start!
There was hope now!
Still, despite their happiness, neither of them immediately expressed full support for Donnie’s decision. They understood Donnie’s temperament: as a boss with an exceptionally strong sense of control, they knew that if they appeared overly enthusiastic, it could arouse their boss’s suspicions!
Thus, both men pointed out some possible consequences that IPOs might bring.
