America’s Road To Wealth

  Chapter 561 Half light and half dark

   "Here comes, here comes Abe Smith's convoy..."

  Florida, downtown Miami, in front of Cardinal Health Building.

Reporters from various media who were chatting together, after hearing this shout, clattered and surrounded the main entrance of the Cardina Health headquarters building, waiting for the arrival of Abel Smith who had already rushed here. arrival.

   Cardinal Health Group was established in 1971 as Cardinal Foods, a small company with business activities mainly in Columbus and Ohio.

  After decades of development, under the leadership of founder and CEO Robert D. Walter.

  This medical and health company has developed into a giant, and its business has spread all over the United States earlier.

  Its headquarters also moved from Columbus at the earliest time to Miami, Florida.

  The reason why the headquarters is built here is that Robert D. Walter is a Florida native and was born in Miami.

  In fact, it is actually because in the early days, Cardinal Health’s profit source mainly relied on its business in Latin America, so the headquarters naturally chose to be located in Miami, which is known as the "Capital of Latin America".

   Of course, the reality is that these two reasons are actually the reasons why Cardinal Health put its headquarters here.

  After more than ten years of development in Miami, Cardinal Health has become one of the local giants and local snakes.

  In this case, facing the invasion from outside barbarians, of course the locals will not be caught without a fight.

   With this emotion brewing, the attack on Abel happened.

  Because of that attack, today's Cardinal Health shareholder meeting has long been dubbed by the media as the first hostile takeover case in history.

   It’s been acquired to do such a thing as a bomb attack, isn’t it malicious enough?

  Even if it is officially defined as KBXJ, after so many days, everyone still knows what the inside story is like.

  So today's confrontation between Abel Smith and other Cardinal Health shareholders and directors naturally attracted a lot of attention, attracting a large number of media and reporters.

  Actually, everyone now knows that Cardinal Health is no longer able to resist Abel's taking over.

  First, there are different interest groups within Cardinal Health.

  Although part of the executive team and most of the shareholders are still strongly opposed to Abel's acquisition, the outside world generally believes that after Abel takes over, these people will be seized power.

  However, Robert D. Walter, who has a great influence on the company, and his supporters, have long since turned into the shape of Abel.

   It is even more regrettable that Cardinal Health has lost the lawsuit, and Abel already holds about 38% of Cardinal Health's stock.

  Because of the previous attack, among the top 20 major shareholders of Cardinal Health Group except Abel, 12 supported Abel Smith.

  So some other swaying shareholders of Cardinal Health are likely to choose to support or acquiesce to Abel Smith's complete control today under the general trend and from the perspective of financial benefits!

  Reshuffle Cardinal Health Board for Hostile Takeover!

  A board of 13 people, allies of Abe Smith and Robert D. Walter would have occupied 5.

  Now, seven candidates for new directors have been submitted in one go, and all seven of them are from Abel Smith.

  Once approved, it is not necessary to pass all of them, only need more than three, then Cardina Health can change its name to Smith Health instead of Cardina Health.

"Mr Smith…"

   "Mr. Smith, I'm a reporter for The New York Times..."

   "Mr. Smith, can I have an interview?"

  As soon as Abel's convoy arrived, it was surrounded by reporters swarming up.

The convoy was forced to stop directly in front of the main entrance. Some reporters after the security check even slapped the windows of the car. There was constant shouting. Abel in the car frowned slightly and said to Edward: "Dispel them, don't let them Take my time."

  He just wants to get Cardina's health right away, and everything else is secondary.

   "Okay, boss." Edward nodded and began to arrange the headset.

   Soon, more than a dozen bodyguards stepped out of the front and rear cars, and the reporters who blocked the car's path with expressionless faces pushed away, and the convoy moved forward bit by bit.

  As one of the giants in the pharmaceutical and health industry, Cardinal Health has been in constant trouble recently.

  The decline in financial reports, layoffs and other incidents, coupled with the hostile takeover contest with Abel Smith, made Cardinal Health the target of bad news from the media and industry insiders.

  The ruthlessness of capital has been fully reflected after the release of Cardinal Health's financial report.

   Leaving aside the unforeseen future prospects, just analyzing the current situation, other shareholders of Cardinal Health are walking on the road of being abandoned.

   No, perhaps it should be said that after that attack, they have been abandoned!

   Was collectively abandoned by other upper-class Americans, including local Florida bosses.

  They were used as abandoned sons to appease the furious "Muhai" weapons.

   "Hi, Mr. Smith..."

   "Good morning, Mr. Smith."

   "Hi, Mr. Smith, this is..."

   "..."

When Abel Smith, who was wearing a very slim and straight blue dark striped suit, and Lydia, who was tall and capable with a curvaceous figure, walked into the already arrived, surrounded by subordinates dressed as senior management elites. It is almost the scene of the general meeting of shareholders, in a super large conference room.

   Originally sitting in various seats, everyone who was chatting stood up one after another. Robert D. Walter, the founder and CEO, was the first to stand up and shake hands with Abel with an almost flattering smile.

  Others left their seats one by one, shaking hands with the young consortium leader, seeking familiarity.

  The matter has come to this point, and the shareholders who made troubles have all had troubles.

  Those who are watching from the sidelines can only accept their fate now.

  Shareholders still know how to watch the wind and steer the rudder. Since they can no longer resist, they should simply collect the money and leave to avoid ugly scenes.

  Shareholders can take the money and leave, but the original board members sitting at the long table in the conference room do not have such a chic mentality.

  Most of them were arranged by those troublesome shareholders, and most of them were used to control Robert D. Walter, the CEO.

Now that the big boss behind them has an accident, these people can only stand there with ugly faces and even a little panic, looking at the smiling faces of the major shareholders and shareholder representatives, looking at each other, and seeing through each other's eyes. To fear and helplessness.

  The chariot of Texas rolled forward with an irresistible momentum. These little pawns who stand in the front, now that they have lost their backstage, what else can they do except admit that they are unlucky?

   Actually, if they could, many of them wouldn't even want to come today.

   But no, there are other cardinal healthy shareholders who want to surrender, and their absence is not allowed.

   That would make someone's win look less than perfect, and make it less conciliatory, and they wouldn't allow that to happen.

   So they have to come even if they don't want to.

   And Robert D. Walter, who was the first to shake hands with Abel, took into account the performance of everyone present.

  At this moment, Robert D. Walter was in a strange mood.

  He is a little happy, but at the same time, there is a lot of sadness.

  Happy because those people were finally defeated for causing trouble.

  Their downfall means that Robert D. Walter can successfully realize all of his shares in Cardinal Health, including that part of the controversial dry shares.

   At the same time, he also vented his anger on his behalf. In the past, Robert D. Walter was very hard suppressed by this group of people, and he could only be a cash cow and a money-making tool.

   Sadly because Robert D. Walter knew that Cardinal's health was over.

   This company, which has concentrated all his painstaking efforts and efforts, will be completely controlled by Abel Smith today.

  Robert D. Walter also knows that if Abel Smith wants, he can even complete the privatization and completely turn Cardinal Health into Smith's private property!

Robert D. Walter looked with a gentle smile on his face, calm and calm, without arrogance, but still let people clearly feel the difference of the consortium leader. For a moment, Walter felt like Seeing Abe Smith was like a king receiving his ministers.

   After the final handshake, Abel came to Robert D. Walter next to the main seat again.

  The two shook hands again, "Hello, Mr. Walter, once again, I am very happy to meet you today."

   "Hello, Mr. Smith, me too. At the same time, you are welcome to Cardina Health, which will be your health kingdom in the future."

  Robert D. Walter let go of the thousands of emotions in his heart, shook hands with Abel with a smile, and said neither humble nor humble.

  Robert has already seen it, his shares have been liquidated, and now his net worth is almost tens of billions of dollars, and his wealth is more free than before.

   What's more, he felt that Abel might win over him, because if he was healthy in Cardina, it would reduce too much resistance for Abel to integrate this health group.

   Having received so much money, he has also seen the terrifying energy of the consortium owner. Robert D. Walter is now willing to provide this kind of help to Abel.

   "Hehe, thank you for your welcome, I believe this too." Abel looked at him brightly, smiled slightly, and didn't say anything more.

He came to the main seat, saw his name on the nameplate, and sat down with a slight smile. As for Lydia and other subordinates, they sat in the back row behind Abel, observing the people in the super large conference room Changes in facial expression.

  When everyone is seated, an independent director will routinely report on behalf of the board of directors to all shareholders present at Cardinal Health Group's work results and financial reports for the past year.

"...the board will continue to uphold the principles of active corporate governance, we will be committed to maximizing shareholder value, we will consider all options to achieve that goal, and Cardinal Health is better positioned than any other business. We believe that we Can create more additional value for shareholders.”

  啪—啪—

  When the independent director finished his report, there was an embarrassing applause in the entire conference room, and every shareholder looked at the director with sarcasm.

  Is it useful to say so much? It still can't change the reality that Cardina's health has changed hands.

   Papa—

When the original members of the board of directors were silent in embarrassment, another clear applause sounded, and everyone looked towards the direction of the applause. They saw Abel Smith applauding with a smile on his face. They all clapped along.

  For a while, the meeting room burst into applause, but the original board members were not happy about it...how could this kind of thing make them happy?

   The applause died down.

  A major shareholder suddenly said: "The company's plan for next year, let's put it aside for now. I propose to directly nominate new board members!"

"I agree!"

"I have no opinion!"

"Can…"

   "..."

  All the shareholders except Abel expressed their opinions one after another, as if they were afraid that if they expressed their opinions late, they would have the same accident as those shareholders who made troubles.

  The members of the original board of directors were suddenly ashamed.

  They know that the tide is over, even the last possibility is gone.

This is indeed the case. All 7 new directors nominated by Abel were approved. Since then, there are 13 members of the board of directors, and more than 7 of them are all brought by Abel. 5 of the remaining 6 are Robert D. Walter's people.

  There is only one independent director, that is, the director who made the routine report just now, who is neither from Abel’s side nor Robert D. Walter’s.

  However, to the surprise of the shareholders present, Abel, who fully controlled the board of directors of Cardinal Health, did not assume the position of chairman of the group.

   Instead, it was assigned to CEO Robert D. Walter, allowing the founder to serve as CEO and chairman at the same time, achieving real power.

  While Robert D. Walter was surprised and grateful, he was also puzzled.

  Walter has always thought that even if he is not fired, there is a high probability that he will become a real mascot.

   Unexpectedly, now he has changed from a mascot to the core of power. The power is greater than before, which makes it difficult for him not to be surprised.

   Afterwards, in his office, Robert D. Walter guessed some of the reasons why Abel Smith appointed him so.

   "Mr. Walter, forget it, I'll call you Robert. You have the same name as another Robert, and I have always liked the name Robert." Abel smiled.

   "Of course, I like that title."

   "Are you familiar with Purdue Pharmaceuticals? Dear Robert."

   "Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the one in New York? If so, I think I'm familiar with them." Robert D. Walter said cautiously.

   "Then do you know that from 1995 to the present, this pharmaceutical factory has earned an astonishing profit of more than 5.2 billion U.S. dollars from just one drug?"

  Robert D. Walter was startled, more cautious.

   "You mean... OxyContin?"

   Now in 2003, outsiders still don't know the quality of Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family.

   But as an industry leader, how could Robert D. Walter not know.

   "In the past two years, Cardinal Health's financial reports have been very unhealthy. I think that Cardinal Health may adopt more diversified operations in the future. What do you think? Robert."

  Robert D. Walter took a deep breath, he seemed to know the reason why Abel would let him stay in Cardina for health.

  Robert is hesitating, hesitating whether he, who is already rich and free, has the need to stay in Cardina for health.

  That is likely to bring a lot of discordant colors to your name in the future.

  Do you want to refuse?

   After all, they have already received more than 10 billion US dollars. No matter what they do, even if they start a new business and become an industry leader, it is enough.

   Feeling that he had thought clearly, Robert D. Walter looked up at Abel and wanted to express his intention to leave him.

  Robert saw that at this moment, half of the morning sunlight hit Abel through the refraction of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Because Abel's back was facing the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sunlight only illuminated Abel's back.

  Make Abel look half light and half dark at the moment.

  Combined with Abel's handsome face as if in a fairy tale, Robert couldn't help shivering.

  The founder of Cardina Health couldn't help but swallowed his saliva. What he originally wanted to say, turned into another party's words.

   "I understand, of course I understand. Mr. Smith, I know what to do..."

  Compared with making a terrifying consortium leader hold grudges, a mere reputation and the possibility of being blamed seem less important.

   What's more, Robert D. Walter felt that the Sackler family made so much money that it was impossible for others to bear it.

  Cardina Health joined it, which is just following the trend.

it's not a big deal.

  (end of this chapter)