Chapter 156: Message from Harvey Weinstein

[Chapter 156: Message from Harvey Weinstein]

On this day, Ian finally achieved his goal.

Through a series of acquisitions, Ian invested around $800 million to secure 26% of Lino Bank's shares, and with Gaskill's holdings combined, they controlled over 51% of the shares together.

With such a significant stake, the board of directors had no hope of ousting him. The corporate restructuring saw Gaskill reinstated as chairman of Lino Bank.

...

On his first day back in office, Gaskill led the board to pass a resolution: Lino Bank would increase its lending limit to Carr Group.

Starting in 2001, U.S. bank interest rates began to decrease gradually, but Gaskill would continue to offer favorable rates to Carr Group on top of that.

This certainly helped Ian, but it also fell within the rights of a major shareholder. Besides, Carr Group was performing well, so offering lower rates was entirely reasonable.

Ian's return favor to Gaskill was that all the dividends from his shares in Lino Bank would go to Gaskill -- the old man would eventually leave that money to Ian's son.

This also meant that the acquisition was a win-win for both Ian and Gaskill; the former gained substantial financial support, while the latter secured plenty of dividend profits.

Unfortunately for the other shareholders of Lino Bank, they would soon discover that the future lending power of Lino Bank would significantly favor Ian.

Ian would also help Lino Bank to grow, but while the bank would expand, the returns on investments would diminish, leading to fewer dividends. It was a classic case of using the chairman and major shareholder's positions to disadvantage minority shareholders, a common practice in many companies.

This was Ian and Gaskill's powerful retaliation against the shareholders of Lino Bank.

If shareholders couldn't stand it, they could sell at a low price, leading to Gaskill's acquisition and subsequent refinancing.

Through constant refinancing, repurchasing, and refinancing again, they could leave the shareholders at a loss, a typical cash extraction method.

Besides, didn't they have that good friend Madoff?

Invest more in him, and he would help make them money.

Now with Lino Bank acting as a cash cow, Ian no longer had to worry about funding problems, enabling him to expand freely and act on all the enterprises he had his eye on.

The only regret he had was that financial news had a small audience, failing to create a significant stir.

Most people still hadn't realized that Ian Carr had officially stepped into the financial realm.

...

"Cheers!" In the luxurious reception room at the Hilton Hotel, Ian and Gaskill, along with Lena, Howard Stringer from Sony, Bertram Leek from Touchstone Pictures, and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax, raised their glasses in celebration.

A battle in the financial world had drawn some big names in Hollywood into the mix, mostly to congratulate Ian on his victory.

In business, making friends was crucial, and banquets had become a regular part of Ian's life. Sometimes he felt like Batman, hosting dinners at dusk and changing into a black cape afterwards, wandering the glimmering shadows of the night, hunting the moments of dirtiness and darkness.

This gave Ian an inexplicable thrill!

At that moment, Harvey Weinstein smiled ingratiatingly, "Nobody doubts you're an exceptional businessman now, Mr. Carr."

Though Ian looked down on the corpulent, sleazy executive, he still found him useful as a tool.

In business, one should never have a moralistic squeamishness; most times, good people were less effective than those skilled at deception.

Ian's face lit up with a smile, "Next, I plan to make some investments in Hollywood, Harvey. I might need you to connect me with some people."

Harvey Weinstein nodded vigorously, "Of course!"

Over the past six months, Harvey had been adapting to his role.

He was pleased that Ian's requests were manageable -- he only needed to provide some anecdotes about Hollywood celebrities and help negotiate some promotional collaborations and investment issues.

The key was that Ian's media growth was rapid -- contracts priced on a base of one million in sales might soar to 1.2 million just two months later, which meant advertisers wouldn't be at a loss.

Hollywood's promotions were often mandated, but upon realizing they were profitable, everyone came around happily.

This also eased Harvey's inner resistance significantly.

He leaned in and whispered, "Julia Roberts is back in Hollywood, and she has some stories... she has a new boyfriend."

Ian raised an eyebrow.

...

Julia Roberts, the current queen of Hollywood, the first woman to break into the $20 million club for actresses.

This big-mouthed beauty was famous for her acting as well as her romantic escapades, rife with affairs.

Her most notorious incident was her runaway bride saga. In 1991, Julia was dating Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland (the star of 24), and after a brief courtship, they got engaged! But just one month before the wedding, Julia met singer Lyle Lovett on the set of The Player. Lyle played a great guitar, winning Julia over, and shortly after, Julia mysteriously disappeared three days before the wedding.

Musicians have it easy -- it seems even a poor guy can score with the beautiful ones.

So why are the poor still waiting? They ought to learn music.

During this period, Julia also dated actor Jason Patrick.

Of course, her fiance, Sutherland, was busy too, being implicated in an affair with a dancer named Amanda Rice.

Everyone played their game well.

Ironically, Julia's next movie role in Runaway Bride mirrored her real-life experiences perfectly.

Infidelity, love triangles, and multiple relationships; Julia had been through it all.

The famous Hollywood saying, "Who do I have to sleep with to get this role?" was supposedly her own words.

Such a woman with a reputation for affairs was not surprising, but being a star, the scoop still held value -- especially as the tales unfolded.

...

So, Ian asked with a smile, "With whom?"

Harvey shrugged, "A guy named Daniel Moder, a photographer."

Ian replied, "..."

Daniel Moder, the renowned photographer in Hollywood.

In the original timeline, he was set to become Julia Roberts' next husband. They met in 2000 while filming The Mexican, and married in 2002.

But there had been deviations in this timeline -- The Mexican's filming had been delayed until last year.

Moreover, Julia's part was replaced by Kate Beckinsale due to the latter's climb to fame from the Charlie Mills incident, and she was cheaper as well, leading to Kate starring alongside Brad Pitt.

That's right, the very film where Kate and Pitt discussed the script during Madonna's exposure last year.

As a result, Julia missed her chance to meet Daniel Moder, finding a new love in a stylist named Kimmel instead, and their relationship seemed to be going well.

Yet, it did not diminish her flirtatious nature; she continued her escapades.

Ironically, her next affair was with Moder, her future husband in the original timeline. It was intriguing how people's destinies intertwined!

Ian whispered, "What's the address?"

Harvey smiled and handed Ian a note.

*****

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