Chapter 127: Agreement Reached
[Chapter 127: Agreement Reached]
The negotiations took about three hours.
In the end, both sides reached a preliminary cooperation direction -- James Perry accepted the wager agreement, but the details needed to be discussed further at the board meeting. With the major direction settled, both parties celebrated with drinks.
Just then, Lena rushed in excitedly and hugged Ian, exclaiming, "Ian, everyone is talking about you! The Wall Street Journal has named you one of this year's rising genius stars, even suggesting you should win a Pulitzer Prize!"
She waved a copy of the Wall Street Journal in excitement.
Ian laughed and replied, "Those guys always engage in baseless flattery; they create news when they have none. As for me, I'm a businessman at heart, not a journalist. Winning awards doesn't matter to me."
As a pragmatic person who valued action, Ian looked down on the mere fabrications of news.
"Well, I knew you'd say that," Lena laughed.
She then turned to Gaskill and cried, "Are you two done talking?"
"Almost, sweetheart," Gaskill replied gently.
"Then come with me," Lena urged, grabbing her husband. "The Coleman couple are here and they want to see you to check how you're feeling."
Gaskill resignedly got up, smiling at James Perry and Ian, "You two keep chatting. I'll step out for a bit."
He left with his wife's support.
...
James poured a drink for Ian himself. He looked at Ian, then at Lena while leaning on the bar, and suddenly said, "You slept with her, didn't you?"
Ian glanced at James, taken aback.
James laughed and said, "Don't underestimate the discerning eye of an old pro... It's hard to imagine you hooking up with Gaskill's wife, and he's lending you money. He knows, right?"
Ian chuckled lightly, not bothering to respond. It was best not to answer such questions.
"You're a charming young man with unlimited potential. Here's to our successful partnership," James raised his glass.
"To a successful partnership!" Ian smiled back.
---
Time flew by, and before they knew it, three weeks had passed, entering late August.
The collaboration with CBS was still in the negotiation phase. Both sides were satisfied with the wager but were tangled up in specifics regarding the base and improvement standards. Sometimes, it became evident that while major directions were easy to agree on, the details proved difficult. Every little detail represented profit! The more desperate one was, the less urgency the other party felt.
Watching the CBS board's group of old-timers leisurely negotiate, Ian felt the urge to scream -- there were too many people at the table, too much time wasted, and his left eye was no help; he'd exhaust his sight if he kept it up.
Time was running out!
...
At CBS headquarters, in the lavishly decorated main conference room, a group of people sat talking around a long table.
Sitting at the head was James Perry, with CBS board members below him, each a big shot in the industry. Ian sat at the table and directly remarked, "Using WND's traffic as the improvement standard is non-negotiable. For a 100% compound growth every year, I have to say that's no longer a demanding expectation; it's downright shameful. WND has over a million registered users and daily visits exceeding two million. If we use that standard, it means 120 million visits. There are only 300 million people in the U.S.! If I could obtain that many users and visits, I'd be valued at a 10 billion myself!"
James Perry chuckled, "Don't take it to heart, Ian. CBS will also drive traffic to WND; not to mention there are international users."
Ian scoffed, "How many users does CBS have? How many paying users do you have now, eight million? WND already has three million users."
A board member interjected, "But user value is different; WND's users are all free users."
Ian raised a finger, "Value is discovered gradually! First, we need users to pull money from their pockets. It's your job to figure out how to extract money from users; mine is to turn the public into our users!"
He paused and then said, "I've already signed a bunch of contracts in Hollywood, along with advertisements for Etna... I can share those business opportunities with CBS. In the future, we'll become one of the biggest promoters in Hollywood. Don't forget that before this, CBS couldn't even step into this arena."
Everyone nodded in agreement. It was true.
Hollywood advertising was a juicy target -- not just because of the money, but also because film advertising was what readers loved to watch. High-quality ads could retain audience engagement... Who wouldn't want to watch entertaining ads? Moreover, movies could incorporate soft advertising, leading to excellent collaboration.
Because of this, there had been discussions among the CBS board members to sell CBS to Viacom, especially considering Viacom owned Paramount!
But Ian was different this time; he had secured an agreement with Sony to eventually take a stake in Sony, meaning he could more deeply engage with Hollywood through his connections. All these were Ian's capital!
Ian stated, "I have already shown great sincerity. I can not only bring you news but also clients and a lot of business... My news is not just valuable in America, but has world-class significance."
The news of the Palos Bank and love murder case incidents had become explosive under Ian's handling, but comparatively, other news seemed weak. Unfortunately, his media presence was still limited internationally, so while these two pieces of news had given him a substantial boost, he felt he had uncovered far too little real value. To squeeze out these news values, he had to authorize external broadcasting.
For him, it felt like selling gold for garbage.
This was also the reason he was so eager to seize CBS -- CBS could maximize the news value for him.
With just half a month left, a big event soon approached. Missing this opportunity would make it difficult to find such a sensational story again -- even the U.S. military's deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 2008 financial crisis were merely long-lasting influences, not nearly as explosive as what would happen in September.
This was destined to be a monumental event shaping a century, impacting future international relations and national growth significantly... A small-scale war had not resulted in as many deaths as this event!
For the next twenty years, no other event could surpass 9/11 in its explosive impact!
However, the board members seemed unswayed, determined as rocks. They were indeed willing to make concessions but at too low a range.
One could understand, as they couldn't fathom the upcoming calamity.
Faced with this situation, Ian smirked and said to James Perry, "Mr. Perry, do you remember what I told you last time?"
Perry nodded, "Of course, but you can't prove it."
"No, I can prove it now," Ian said, pulling out a recorder and began to play a recording.
...
The distorted English in the recording said:
"Everything is ready; the goods will be delivered on time."
"Is anyone monitoring you? Didn't you say there was a reporter?"
"No worries; just a coincidence. I checked him out; he is indeed a reporter. His name is Butterfly, and he has serious grievances against America. I was thinking we might let him come with us. At the final moment, we can have him broadcast our great and glorious deeds. That would make it feel even more meaningful!"
"No, you can't do that; it's too risky."
"I don't need to explain the specific plan; we can just find excuses to get him on board. He's about to die, so he's not afraid. All he wants is a good news story; I'm certain of that, considering he's done this before."
"Fine, as long as he's airborne, we can manage that."
"Assalamu alaykum."
"Allah Hafiz."
...
Listening to the conversation, everyone was stunned.
One board member looked at Ian, "Are you saying..."
Ian nodded, "As you can see, someone is planning something. My people are already in contact with one of them."
A board member stood up, "We should alert the FBI immediately."
But everyone remained silent.
James Perry spoke up, "Brad, I know you're righteous, but don't act like a child."
Brad, the board member, took a long breath, "Fine, I can understand."
His dwindling sense of justice was quickly silenced by Perry's words, and he obediently sat back down.
Perry asked, "A hijacking?"
Ian nodded, "It's likely."
A board member commented, "Hijacking news isn't small, but it's not that explosive either."
Ian replied with a grin, "But live coverage would be different, and this could be even more explosive than the Palos Bank situation! Besides, I don't believe it's just a hijacking; they could be planning to blow up the planes... not just one!"
Everyone exchanged glances.
One asked, "Are you sure? They didn't mention that in the conversation."
Ian nodded, "I'm sure; oh, hasn't anyone told you that recordings can be edited too?"
The room fell silent.
The recording wasn't actually from Atta; to ensure the plan, Ian couldn't risk being overheard by Leyso or anyone else listening to Muhammad Atta, so he had created a fabricated version himself.
But what did it matter?
Precisely because it was fabricated would allow him to wipe his hands clean later on. Besides, no one had ever heard Atta's voice!
Furthermore, the current conversation was insufficient to become evidence against Ian in the future, but he still wanted to drag everyone else with him -- once the event happened, they would all be in the same boat, and with hypnosis, he could easily extract himself!
Perry asked, "What time? What location? What are their names?"
Ian shook his head, "These are all matters Butterfly is handling. All I know is what he told me. You know he's dying, and in his last moments, he wants to complete his most glorious news, so he won't accept anyone's interference. Even if you all notify the FBI right now, you won't be able to find him, I can't find him either. Sure, the FBI can put out alerts, but there are hundreds of terrorist alerts every year, that's meaningless. It won't prevent anything; it will only cause us to miss the best opportunity!"
Brad chuckled, "Then I feel much better about my conscience."
The board members became excited.
...
They began to discuss:
"This will be a super news story; we need all the internal information."
"Exclusive news; only we have it!"
"Let's collaborate, Ian Carr, you'll become one of us!"
"Wait a minute, if Butterfly dies, don't you lose your Butterfly?"
Ian smiled, "Butterfly is an organization; it's just one that dies; soon a new one will arise. The storm will always exist; butterflies never perish! We are the ones standing at the eye of the storm!"
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other, bursting into laughter.
"Then it's settled!"
"We must be prepared before this happens."
"Right, during this time, it's best not to board planes and remind our families too."
"But don't alert too many; if the news gets out, we'll run into trouble."
"What about the stock market?"
"Of course, we should short it!"
"We need to find specific targets; we can't short the whole market, or the FBI will be on our backs."
"That's for sure; airlines would be the best choice. Ian, do you need some funding?"
Ian shook his head, "I can't do that; that part of the profit is on you, and I need an agreement that satisfies me. Otherwise... you get nothing... If Butterfly warns them, things may change!"
As a full participant, Ian wasn't suitable for shorting, and he also lacked the capital to short -- the Italian lira was declining, and his funds were already piling up.
So he was willing to give up that part of the earnings, but in return, he required the other party to make concessions in the agreement.
The board members nodded in agreement:
"Of course!"
"Don't worry, buddy; no one wants to mess with money!"
As this explosive news broke, the board's attitude towards Ian shifted dramatically.
In that moment, they conspired together like vultures waiting to feast on disaster.
Even so, both sides continued to negotiate various details.
...
Ultimately, after several more days of effort, both parties reached an agreement.
Ian Carr would merge WND into CBS and directly obtain a 2% stake in CBS.
At the same time, Ian Carr would share all exclusive news with CBS and establish agreed-upon user base growth standards. For each milestone achieved, Ian would receive 2% of internal CBS shares, with a total of six milestones, obtaining up to an additional 12 points altogether, for a total of 14 points.
Although shareholders would need to part with some stocks, they would also acquire some from the market themselves -- if Ian could deliver on his promises, it would mean huge profits.
On September 9th, knowing he couldn't delay any longer, Ian activated his left eye hypnosis function once again, resulting in his left eye swelling up.
The parties finally reached an agreement.
...
The next day, September 10th, Ian Carr signed the agreement with the CBS board, securing a 2% stake and officially becoming one of CBS's shareholders.
To mark this, they held a dinner limited to those in the know.
At the dinner, everyone raised their glasses in celebration.
"To the news!"
"To the truth!"
"To the people who will die in the upcoming disaster, cheers!"
*****
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