Chapter 1374: Shareholders‘ Rebellion

A consortium is a monopoly formed by the integration of huge banks and huge enterprises controlled by a very small number of financial oligarchs.

A rich person is not necessarily a consortium, but a consortium is definitely not poor, and how much money it has depends on the size of the consortium.

The reason why the person in charge of the consortium has a very high status is because he can control huge social resources.

The more social resources they have, the higher the social status of the controller of the consortium.

Therefore, the goal of every consortium is the same: to control more social resources, not just to make more money.

Money is just a golden egg; once it is used up, it is used up. However, if it is incubated into a hen, the hen will continue to lay golden eggs, which will form a virtuous cycle.

In modern capitalist society, most social resources are already embodied in the form of companies, and political resources have become an aid to capital.

This system makes every consortium want to control more companies in order to enhance their social influence and status.

For major consortia, the goal is not to fully own a company, but to gain control of it. There is a fundamental difference between equity and operational control of a company.

The operator or controller can exploit other shareholders, and unless they unite to oppose or seize power, there is no way to fight back, which facilitates the ultimate controller using this company to create greater profits.

There are unsightly ways, such as deliberately running a business into the ground to acquire equity at a low price, and there are ways such as capital injection dilution to increase the value of the equity in their hands in disguise.

A more subtle way is to use the company's resources to seek benefits for themselves.

For example, the simplest way is that the Rockefeller family does not need to acquire Gulf Oil, but only needs to control the board of directors and shareholders' meeting of this company, and control the management rights. Then when a company with tens of thousands of employees collectively purchases insurance, they can completely purchase Rockefeller's insurance instead of the insurance of the insurance company of the Mellon financial group.

If one person is one thousand dollars, then tens of thousands of people are hundreds of millions of dollars in premiums, and as long as they do not lose control of the company, then this income will be there every year, and over the course of several decades, it will be tens of billions of dollars.

This is the linkage effect of resources, and the biggest beneficiary will only be in the hands of the ultimate controller of the company, not the shareholders.

So this is the Rockefeller family's goal, and other world consortia also follow this model, including Xia Yu's consortium.

However, Xia Yu's consortium is a bit different, as it has risen too quickly. Compared to other consortia, it can be considered in the early stages of entrepreneurship in terms of time, so the equity of many companies is highly concentrated in his hands.

Now, Xia Yu's core foundation has long been established, and while continuing to expand its foundation, it has also begun to move towards the second stage, expanding its strength by not completely or absolutely controlling it, creating a more peripheral moat and a more superficial nutrient layer.

After careful deliberation, the brothers David Rockefeller and Laurence Rockefeller identified their hunting targets and formulated a plan.

These two old foxes knew that someone would definitely make the first move, and they also knew that the strength and financial resources of the Mellon financial group had not been damaged, so they planned to let other financial groups that could not help themselves take the lead.

When other financial groups had depleted or tied up the Mellon financial group's funds, their move would have twice the effect and would be more conducive to forcing the Mellon financial group to compromise.

While Rockefeller, Cleveland and other financial groups were secretly plotting against the Mellon financial group,

Xia Yu continued to stay by Cindy's side and stayed in the United States.

The news that old Mellon had fallen ill and was in a coma was no longer confined to a very small number of people, but spread throughout the American political and business circles, and even many family foundations outside the United States knew about it.

For a time, there was a surging undercurrent, and an unusual atmosphere gradually rose in the American business community.

Just as many people were speculating as to which consortium would be unable to resist testing the Mellon consortium first,

unexpectedly, an infamous financial bandit fired the first shot.

The founder of Mesa Petroleum, which ranks only 98th among the 'top 400' in the US oil industry, is a notorious financial bandit who runs an oil company but is always extorting and blackmailing.

He even obtained the financial support of the Desjarlais Bank in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and acquired 10.2% of the equity of Gulf Oil in one fell swoop, and publicly announced that he wanted to enter the board of directors of Gulf Oil.

As everyone knows, the Desjarlais Bank does not belong to the Mellon consortium, but is a competitor of Mellon Financial and the Bank of New York.

So after the news was announced, a large number of people focused on this battlefield.

And Boone Pickens knows the essence of a powerful first strike.

While the management of Gulf Oil was still in urgent consultation,

that afternoon, Mesa Petroleum put forward another proposal that was very attractive to shareholders.

Once Mesa Oil enters Gulf Oil, it will split the company in half, divide the oil and gas reserves, and establish a separate organisation called the 'Gulf Oil and Gas Trust'. The original shareholders will receive equal amounts of securities in this trust.

The most important thing is that the 'Gulf Oil and Gas Trust' is a trust company, not an oil company. The income from the operation of this part of the assets each year will be completely separated from the other assets of Gulf Oil Company, and will be directly and completely distributed to the shareholders of the 'Gulf Oil and Gas Trust' without going through Gulf Oil Company.

For the shareholders of Gulf Oil Company, because they hold the securities of the 'Gulf Oil and Gas Trust', they will get all the benefits generated by this part of the assets. This is a huge difference compared to the past, when they received from Gulf Oil Company a portion of the profits after deducting the cost of expansion and reproduction.

At the same time, this portion of the profits of Gulf Oil and Gas Trust is no longer included in the total income of Gulf Oil Company for payment of taxes, but is directly distributed to the shareholders, who pay their personal income tax themselves.

After this operation, the income that the shareholders can receive is several times higher than the previous stock dividends!

However, this harms the long-term interests of Gulf Oil and is not conducive to its future development.

But for shareholders who have no management or operating rights, they would rather choose short-sightedness.

After all, no one can predict the future, but as long as the money goes into their pockets, even if the share price of Gulf Oil falls in the future, the income of 'Gulf Oil and Gas Trust' can offset the losses of the stock investment, and even exceed it.

For shareholders, this is a less risky and significantly more profitable plan, so they are unlikely to be unmoved.

Mesa Petroleum must be supported and put on the board of directors, and wise decisions must be made!

Soon, the matter was being discussed within Gulf Oil, and many middle-level employees who held shares expressed their opinions and made their attitudes known to the top management.

The top management, which had management rights, was not so short-sighted, understood Mesa Petroleum's sinister intentions, and naturally rejected them flatly.

Chaos began to break out within Gulf Oil, and conflicts emerged between the top management and the middle and lower levels.

Buyn Pickens did not stop there, and continued to bribe the media, so that many newspapers reported the news.

Soon, the news spread like wildfire, and more and more investors expressed their support. The management of Gulf Oil panicked.

The shareholders are rebelling!

Unable to contain the situation, many directors called the Mellon family...