Just as Barron expected...
On June 24, the first day after CNOOC made its offer, Joe Barton and Ralph Hull, chairmen of the U.S. Congressional Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote to President Bush, expressing their concerns about CNOOC's acquisition of Unocal...
It called it a "clear threat" to U.S. energy and security and demanded that the government ensure that U.S. energy assets were not sold to China.
On that day, a total of 41 members of Congress submitted an open letter to the President of the United States, asking the government to strictly review CNOOC's acquisition plan.
As time went on, the number of congressmen who wrote to the White House to "report problems" continued to increase. According to statistics, a total of 64 congressmen participated in the lobbying against CNOOC's acquisition of Unocal.
The fact that so many lawmakers have expressed "opposition" to CNOOC's acquisition in such a concentrated manner does not seem to be completely explained by "concerns about national security."
According to public information later collected by British media such as the Financial Times and the Independent, some American congressmen who opposed CNOOC's acquisition of Unocal have received more than $100,000 in political donations from Chevron, CNOOC's rival in this acquisition, since 2002.
The Financial Times and The Independent said this also sparked speculation that Chevron was suspected of manipulating political forces to obstruct CNOOC's acquisition.
Of course, as a direct competitor, Chevron also took the opportunity to join the chorus of voices questioning CNOOC's acquisition attempt.
On June 24, Chevron Vice Chairman Pete Robertson made a speech in the New York Times, saying that "Chevron's competition with CNOOC is not a commercial competition, but a competition with the Chinese government, which is unfair."
On June 27, 52 members of the House of Representatives jointly wrote a letter to President Bush and Treasury Secretary Snow, requesting the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to strictly review the role played by the Chinese government in this acquisition in accordance with the Exon-Florio Amendment.
At this time, Barron had met again with John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard Group, and Lloyd, the CEO of Goldman Sachs Group. After discussions, they finally reached an agreement on some plans for United Energy Group to acquire Unocal.
However, up to this point, he had not had any contact with anyone from Unocal, nor had he announced that United Energy Group had intervened in the acquisition of Unocal and made an offer for it.
All communications with Unocal will be conducted privately by Vanguard.
At this time, regarding CNOOC and Chevron's acquisition of Unocal, the CNOOC delegation began to negotiate with Unocal without stopping.
However, Unocal, which had taken the initiative to show goodwill to CNOOC, now seemed hesitant.
Unocal said that although CNOOC's offer was higher than Chevron's, there was great uncertainty.
The biggest uncertainty comes from the attitude of the Chinese government and the Exon-Florio Amendment in the United States.
The amendment measures foreign investment based on whether it endangers national security. If the answer is yes, regulators have the right to suspend all investment activities.
China's Lenovo Group once had a hard time crossing this threshold when it acquired IBM's PC business.
As a Chinese energy company, the situation faced by CNOOC is obviously more complicated than that of Lenovo.
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In order to distance himself from IC Capital, Barron rarely appeared with Ivanta in public, and would not show an overly intimate attitude towards them.
However, during his stay in New York, Ivanta would spend almost every night in his penthouse.
Ivanta also told Barron that DeVine had mentioned the acquisition of MySpace to her many times, and that News Corporation had had many contacts with the founding team of MySpace and had held many communications regarding the acquisition so far.
Ivanta did not relax on this issue. After discussing with MySpace on behalf of IC Capital, she set the price of MySpace at US$700 million. They would not consider any price lower than this.
In addition, in the case of Android, IC Capital once again invested US$30 million to acquire 100% of the company's shares in one fell swoop.
However, this money is not a one-time payment. Instead, the first installment is US$10 million, and the subsequent funds will be paid based on the company's research and development of smartphone operating systems.
Moreover, at Barron's reminder, all members of the Android team were asked by Ivanta to sign a non-compete agreement. If they leave the company within five years, they will be prohibited from working for any company that has a conflict of interest with Android or participating in the establishment of related projects within five years after their resignation.
In addition, their team will receive corresponding Android company shares as a reward after the successful launch of the Android system.
These measures are also intended to enable IC Capital to continue to incentivize its team to develop operating systems after it controls all of Android's shares.
Another piece of news during this period is that Bank of Communications was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 23.
In the end, the closing price of Bank of Communications' stock that day was HK$2.825, up 13% from their issue price of HK$2.5.
Correspondingly, the Bank of Communications shares previously held by Standard Chartered Bank are currently worth more than US$2.8 billion. It can be said that this investment not only enabled Standard Chartered Bank's business to successfully penetrate more areas in mainland China, but also reaped rich returns.
According to the anti-dilution clause signed by Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Communications when they invested, they continued to subscribe for corresponding shares during the IPO process of Bank of Communications to maintain their shareholding in Bank of Communications at 19.9%.
After that, Barron temporarily left New York and went to Los Angeles on the west coast. Rebecca and their daughter Jennifer have been living in the Beverly Hills estate here recently.
When he came here, in addition to visiting Rebecca and his daughter, Barron also registered a company called Blue Valley Capital in Delaware in the name of Rebecca.
As for why we chose to register in Delaware, it is simply because the tax and other policies here are very company-friendly. Delaware is also the preferred registration place for American companies.
Later, Blue Valley Capital acquired a small film company called Summit Entertainment in Hollywood for US$50 million.
Yes, Summit Entertainment was the company that acquired the film rights to "Twilight" in Barron's previous life. However, after launching this series, it was acquired by Lionsgate for more than 400 million US dollars in 2012.