In the early morning, the morning breeze blew gently on the lawn of Prince Dong's Palm Beach estate. The huge open-air parking lot was full of luxury cars, and guests walked into the auditorium in twos and threes.
Lu Fei was wearing a suit and leather shoes, and his arm was held by Ivanka.
She wore a white skirt with sloping shoulders and hip covering, which fully showed off her curvy figure, refreshing and elegant.
"I'll go to the front first."
The two parted ways at the door. The seats of relatives and children were completely different from those of VIPs. Lu Fei easily found Bill Gates and said hello familiarly.
"Hey, buddy."
Bill Gates winked and said: "If I read it correctly just now, the one accompanying you is the daughter who understands the king, right?"
Lu Fei sat down and said, "That's right."
"Wow! Are you serious?"
Bill Gates had a bad smile on his face: "You don't really plan to date his eldest daughter, although she is indeed sexy."
"She is my secretary and I am her boss."
Lu Fei shrugged and was perfunctory.
Bill Gates said: "That's good, don't get too involved with them, especially be careful of King Dong asking you to borrow money."
Lu Fei raised his eyebrows: "His credibility is very poor?"
Bill Gates said: "Not really, but Warren reminded me to be wary of him. He is a good borrower, but his assets, and the money he borrowed to buy assets, have no net worth at all. He
He was so obsessed with the money he could borrow that he didn't think carefully about how much he could repay."
"Thank you, I'll keep an eye on my pocket."
Lu Fei patted his trouser pocket and smiled slightly.
Bill Gates said softly: "Indeed, you have to watch your pocket carefully. I heard that you invested in a fund that shorted CDOs and wanted to short subprime mortgages. Is there such a thing?"
"Even you know?"
Lu Fei was very surprised. It had only been a week since the celebration and the news of investing in John Paulson was already known to everyone. No wonder all kinds of people looked at him strangely along the way.
Bill Gates said: "Of course, you are as famous as Michael Berry now, no, you are more famous than him."
"How famous is it?"
Lu Fei grinned nonchalantly. Michael Berry was the prototype of "The Big Short", that is, he found a bank to customize credit default swaps (CDS). In today's Wall Street, it is a complete joke.
"Warren said that you gave Wall Street investment banks like Lehman and Bear Stearns a few minutes to pause and rethink whether the subprime crisis was really coming."
"The results of it?"
"The result is that Bear Stearns has launched two new hedge funds, all invested in P2P and CDO. They feel that it is impossible for subprime mortgages to collapse now."
"That's right, so the fund did not execute the operation immediately, but waited until next year to do it. What about, there is still a share of 50 million US dollars, do you want to give it a try?"
Lu Fei poked his elbow playfully.
"No, no, no! I would rather invest all $50 million in farmland, which is a good long-term investment suggestion recommended by Warren."
Bill Gates smiled and said: "Would you like to buy a few pieces too? Even if you are not an American, you can buy it, and then we can still be neighbors."
"I will consider."
Lu Fei's current holdings do not include stocks. Counting the gold contracts due for delivery next year, the maximum amount of cash he can move is more than three billion US dollars. This wealth is a bargaining chip for Stud's subprime mortgages.
Don’t dare to spend a penny randomly! Chinese people are afraid of poverty!
"Agriculture is the industry with the highest tax exemptions and financial subsidies in the United States." Bill Gates blinked his right eye and stopped.
"Is this what Warren recommended too?"
Lu Fei can get through with just one click, nnd, tax avoidance and subsidy fraud, right?
Damn it, I didn’t expect that besides charitable foundations, there is such a thing. No wonder every rich man in the previous life was keen on buying land, but I have to say that Chinese people also love land. There is no way, racial talent.
Once the subprime mortgage is over, you can buy land.
"No, this is Munger's opinion."
Bill Gates was talking about Buffett's partner and partner at Berkshire Hathaway, the investment bank run by Buffett.
Lu Fei's eyes lit up and he raised his lips: "Gates, do we want to make a bet? Let's bet on this short-selling fund. Will I lose or make a profit?"
Bill Gates asked: "What's the stakes?"
"If I win, you can sell me some shares of Berkshire Hathaway at the market price."
"Lu, do you want to join Berkshire Hathaway?"
"Hmm, but we are friends, and I want to respect you." Lu Fei nodded without concealment.
In name, it is just a bet between two people, but in fact it involves Buffett. Without his consent, even if you buy Berkshire Hathaway's common shares, you will not get a ticket to enter the inner circle.
"Well, if you are really pressured, even without me, Warren will definitely invite you to join as an investment consultant or even an independent director. I know him very well."
Bill Gates squinted his eyes and showed a cunning smile: "But the premise is that you must succeed."
………
"Short CDO, Honey, did you hear that right?"
In the wedding lounge, King Dong stood in front of the long mirror, smoothing the bright red scarf on his chest and putting on various smiles on his lips.
"No!"
Ivanka said firmly, "He seems to be very confident that there will be problems with subprime mortgages next year."
"What's the situation? Can the housing market collapse?"
King Dong curled his lips, "I'm in the real estate business, how can he know better than me? Haha, Huaxia Continent doesn't understand the American real estate market at all!"
"Dad, why don't you try?"
Ivanka pursed her lips: "Just like long gold, we just followed his operation and made more than 10 million,"
King Dong spread his hands, "What's your relationship with him? Many gossip tabloids took photos of you hanging out together."
"Sir, I am his secretary."
Ivanka looks at her nose with her eyes, and her nose looks at her heart.
King Dong actually showed a little disappointment, "Honey, if you really like her, don't worry about my feelings, just like I have made no secret that I like beautiful women."
"Dad, don't you hate being kicked?"
Ivanka couldn't help but be surprised, didn't this change of temperament happen too quickly?
"How could it be? I love kicking! I like Chinese people."
As King Dong walked away, he said: "Okay, Honey, let's take another risk, believe in Huaxia Lu's vision, and spend 1 million US dollars to invest in the fund called 'John Paulson'."
Ivanka looked stunned, standing alone and messy indoors, staring blankly at her golden retriever father striding towards the wedding venue.
On the red carpet that extended inward from the door, Melania, as the bride, was smiling brightly, while he, who had been married for the second time, was very familiar with it. There was no excitement on his face and he kept waving his hands.
Mr. Lu's face appeared inadvertently in his sight, and his eyes were full of sour lemons. He was full of envy and jealousy. He hadn't seen him for just a few days, but his net worth had soared by more than 7 billion U.S. dollars.
Humph, that’s all!
At the same time, not far away, David Solomon and Wells Fargo CEO Richard, who was also Jewish, looked through the crowd at Lu Fei's profile without squinting.
David Solomon said: "The news from my informant is that China AMC has plans to short CDO. Do you think the current subprime mortgage is safe?"
"Of course it's safe."
Richard said seriously: "Bear Stearns charges a handling fee of 1% to 1.5% for each CDO. Do you know how much commission he collected in three quarters? 500 million! Not counting the profits from P2P, Goldman Sachs
Not tempted?"
David Solomon shook his head and laughed: "Of course we are doing it, but Goldman Sachs is an independent investment bank, not a universal bank, and its scale is definitely not as large as Bear Stearns, UBS and Citigroup..."
"We started slow!"
Richard said: "Look at Lehman. It was the first to eat crabs, and it was full of greed. If Goldman Sachs wants to regain the third position on Wall Street from it, it should look to Merrill Lynch."
"Merrill?"
David Solomon frowned, "On the mortgage bond market ranking list, Merrill Lynch is not even in the top 15."
Richard said: "That's why we have to catch up even more desperately. The current CEO is O'Neill, and he has issued two fatal orders. Merrill Lynch not only wants to seize the subprime market, but also wants to be the boss!"
David Solomon was surprised and said: "Huh? Since Merrill Lynch has devoted all its efforts to CDO, does it still have the energy to short a hundred degrees?"
"Of course, but we don't need to do anything."
Richard said with a smile: "Baidu's MP3 search engine has infringed the copyright of seven record companies, Warner, Sony, and EMI. Now Edgar Bronfman Jr. is collaborating with other companies and plans to initiate a class action lawsuit against Baidu. Baidu
The stock price has dropped!"
David Solomon was excited and said excitedly: "Where's Penguin! I remember that it has a music player and a search engine. As expected, there must be infringement and piracy."
"Well, I heard that record companies only target Baidu."
"Why?"
"Perhaps because of Lu, logic has finally saved the decadent traditional record industry. The lMusic+Spotify model makes Warner and others willing to follow the lead of logic, and they don't dare to offend China Lu too much."
"Fuxk! He clearly claims to be the patron saint of genuine music, but he allows piracy to run rampant in China..."
David Solomon was secretly unhappy. Compared to shorting Baidu, Goldman Sachs valued Penguin more. Revenge against Lu Fei was great, but the key was hundreds of millions of Chinese user information and data.
"Don't worry, I heard that Carl Icahn's big short sellers have already set their sights on Penguin, and they are just waiting for games like "Plants vs. Zombies" to be launched. If the results are not good..."
Richard's eyes flashed with a sinister light, "It doesn't matter whether Buffett or Bill Gates is on his side, humph, unless it's God on his side!"
………………
King Dong's magnificent wedding became the talk of New York's upper class for a while, but only for a while. On Wall Street and even in New York, the most widely spread story was that Mr. Lu was short on CDOs.
Originally, only Michael Berry, a stupid and stupid lunatic, was betting on the decline of houses, and everyone just regarded it as a fun. But when the Chinese stock god entered the market, the meaning was completely different.
No one dares to despise Mr. Lu’s vision, especially his long gold position, which has made him famous.
Institutions large and small, and investment banks have to treat subprime mortgages cautiously and re-examine risks. However, as investors around the world are scrambling for CDOs, the United States has completed almost all the subprime mortgages it can and cannot satisfy them.
Unprecedented demand.
Soon, Lu Fei’s short selling of CDOs became a joke.
The entire Wall Street fell into a subprime mortgage craze. Bear Stearns established a home loan company with high profile. HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and other capitals took action one after another, either buying the loan company, setting up a P2P website, or doing both.
When housing loans were not enough, P2P loans were packaged into CDOs and used as cover, one, two, three, four, five or six times. Like a snowball, the scale of subprime mortgages in the United States has grown to US$800 billion.
"Sister Xin, don't sell Merrill Lynch first, and then stretch it out."
Lu Fei hung up the phone, put the phone aside, looked up at Lu Huateng and Zeng Liqing in front of him, and asked with a smile:
"Okay, how's the conversation going on the oil pipeline?"
Lu Huateng said: "It's not as easy to negotiate as V. After all, in Steam, we only bought 15.6% of the shares, but YouTube is a wholly-owned acquisition. Chen Shijun is still wavering. It can be seen that he has the idea of ​​​​being fully acquired, but he wants to cooperate with
You talk to me face to face."
Lu Fei shrugged: "I don't have any problems here. We can meet as soon as "Plants vs. Zombies" is released, and we can use YouTube as a platform to promote the game."
Zeng Liqing asked: "Mr. Lu, should the release date be moved forward? September is the peak period for new games. There will be more than 40 games online such as "The Sims 2: Nightlife", "NBA Live 06", and "FIFA 06".
A small-scale puzzle tower defense game like "Plants vs. Zombies" is quite stressful."
"Come as planned, September 25th!"
Lu Fei was not worried, "It will be released on Windows, Mac and Amazon, and it will also be available on Steam and Facebook on the same day. Not only will we provide a free trial version, but we will also have a high-definition trailer. Is this okay?"
"No!"
Lu Huateng and Zeng Liqing looked at each other.
Lu Fei said in a serious tone that "Plants vs. Zombies" is of great significance. All departments must work closely together to never let any problems occur in the game. It is not only Penguin's first self-developed stand-alone game, but also its first original IP.
.
Just like "Crazy Bird", as long as it is properly operated, it can break the shackles of the game, launch books, toys and other co-branded peripherals, and create derivative series such as animation and comics.
As soon as these words came out, although Zeng Liqing and Lu Huateng were convinced by Mr. Lu from the bottom of their hearts, they still couldn't believe it. A stand-alone machine priced at only 19.9 US dollars, you tell me it is popular all over the world?
Also build a whole industry chain around super game IP?
There are mixed feelings within Penguin, with Wall Street short forces eyeing it, and promotion activities are in full swing. In addition to regular operations such as TV ads and posters at game distribution points, Penguin Games also registered an official account on YouTube, and the first video uploaded was surprisingly "Plants"
The trailer PV of "War against Zombies"——
"A virus laboratory in the United States accidentally leaked the virus. Overnight, North America turned into an unprecedented large-scale disaster area. A deadly plague caused the dead to evolve into zombies that eat the living.
One step, two steps, one step at a time is the pace of the devil.
They swarmed into your uninfected manor and wanted to eat your head. Fortunately, the virus also mutated the plants!"
At this time, the number of subscriptions and clicks increased rapidly.
Dozens, hundreds...
But at the end of the trailer, Lu Fei, surrounded by sunflowers, nuts and other dolls, appeared on the screen, and everything changed.
In particular, he personally recommended "Plants vs. Zombies"!
The first YouTube game up master was born at this moment!
Chapter completed!