My capital is quite large.

Chapter 258 Merger and Acquisition Fails

Time flies like sand through an hourglass, and before we know it, July is coming to an end.

In the height of summer, a bombshell announcement that shook the entire Asia-Pacific animation and cultural investment community has ignited a media frenzy in both countries!

[Toei Animation, a Japanese JASDAQ-listed company that owns numerous top-tier IPs, is about to be acquired by a mysterious foreign consortium called South African New Century Venture Capital!]

The news caused a stir in China's ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) community and the gaming industry.

"Holy crap?! Toei is changing hands?! These are the icons of Japanese anime! The rights to Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Slam Dunk are going to change hands?!"

"A South African consortium? When did these African guys become so interested in Japanese anime, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in cash like that?"

However, before netizens could even recover from this shocking revelation, just three days later, several radical Japanese financial media outlets and cyber detectives, as if they had gained supernatural insight, exposed the seemingly flawless underlying structure of this South African conglomerate to the entire internet!

[Chinese capital controls the company! The actual beneficiaries are: Dongda Jinling and Haofeng Group!]

What was originally just a normal business acquisition has taken on a completely different meaning in the eyes of Japanese netizens once the sensitive terms "Chinese capital" and "Haofeng" were revealed!

A large-scale protest march broke out in front of Toei Animation's headquarters building in Nerima Ward.

Countless young people dressed in otaku clothes and holding light sticks held up protest banners and shouted slogans such as "Protect our national treasures" and "Never give in to Tokyo University".

The most fatal obstacle came from Toei's core creators.

World-renowned animators, screenwriters, and directors wrote a joint letter, some even threatening to resign en masse!

"If you sell Toei to Hollywood or some European devils, we can tolerate it. But if you sell it to Tokyo University? That's absolutely unacceptable! It's a betrayal of our beloved anime art!"

Public opinion was in an uproar, and even the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began to prepare for administrative intervention in this transnational transaction due to public pressure.

What should have been a simple legal process for a business acquisition has been pushed to the brink of a diplomatic incident.

……

Jinling, Haofeng Group headquarters, president's office.

“Pah!”

A stack of Japanese news clippings and legal rejection letters were thrown by Li Feng at the feet of Zhao Zhe, the director of the investment department.

"What's going on?!"

Li Feng stood behind the mahogany desk, his eyes coldly fixed on his subordinate:

"A budget of billions of RMB, months of preparation. Zhao Zhe, is this the 'flawless' guarantee you swore to me?!"

Zhao Zhe's legs trembled like a leaf, and he defended himself with some indignation:

"Mr. Li! This is definitely not something that can be discovered through technical means!"

"To circumvent the foreign exchange and security scrutiny of small businesses, our team used an offshore trust fund structure in the Cayman Islands! The legal representative was a South African national hired at a high price! The funds flowed through multiple nested channels in Switzerland and Johannesburg!"

"According to normal procedures, even if the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Finance themselves were to investigate, let alone those paparazzi, they would absolutely not be able to find out the connection between this fund and Haofeng in such a short time!"

Zhao Zhe's voice was filled with grievance and fear:

"This is a targeted elimination! Someone is secretly targeting our acquisition!"

"No outsider could ever get their hands on this internal organizational chart! This means someone is deliberately sabotaging us!"

Cutting to the beat, disgusting?

Upon hearing this, the anger in Li Feng's eyes gradually subsided.

He slowly walked back to the boss's chair and sat down, softly murmuring that name:

"South Africa……"

Yes, within this domestic internet circle, there are those who can reach into the register of South African trust funds.

Who else could it be but that penguin?!

Penguin's largest shareholder is the South African Media Group!

That's one of the top multinational media and internet giants in South Africa and even the world, with unfathomable privileges and connections in Johannesburg's financial and political circles.

"Pony Ma, no wonder he started out making knock-offs." Li Feng made another note of Pony in his notebook.

"That blow was indeed accurate and ruthless."

The acquisition of Toei Animation was doomed to fail under pressure from both public opinion and diplomatic channels.

Forcing the issue forward will only cause Haofeng Group to encounter unnecessary backlash in public opinion.

Li Feng has truly suffered a huge loss today!

"Mr. Li... then about this acquisition..." Zhao Zhe looked at his boss tentatively.

"Stop."

Li Feng's voice was devoid of warmth: "Withdraw all funds in Tokyo back to your Hong Kong offshore account."

......

Despite the massive public outcry triggered by the Toei acquisition, Haofeng Group has remained remarkably quiet in terms of public relations.

No official statements were issued to clarify, deny, or protest, as if this transnational incident, which nearly escalated into a diplomatic incident, had nothing to do with them from the beginning.

Three days later, a storm erupted within the group.

Several document managers and middle-level managers in the investment department who handled the core data of this transnational case were detained and taken away on the spot by the Jinling City Economic Investigation Brigade and the Group's Supervision Department personnel who had been waiting for them as soon as they stepped into the company building in the early morning!

Haofeng Group has filed criminal charges against these traitors for "commercial espionage".

Faced with the network of connections behind these individuals and their pleas for leniency, Haofeng's legal team refused any form of private settlement or bail, filed the maximum lawsuit, and refused any form of mediation!

Compared to the bloody upheaval at the top, the ordinary employees at the bottom, especially the recent college graduates who just entered Haofeng Building through the autumn campus recruitment and were full of dreams, felt the sunshine and warmth of frequent good news.

Inside the onboarding training area of ​​Haofeng Building, Jinling Xianlin Science and Technology City.

"My God, my luck is incredible!"

Xiao Chen, a newcomer to the platform's R&D department, is currently posting on his Weibo account about a brand-new Xiaomi flagship phone that exudes the unique industrial scent of a new device.

[The benefits at this big company are amazing! I just finished my onboarding process today, and my supervisor actually provided everyone with a brand-new Xiaomi flagship phone as their work phone! My senior colleague told me that this is a company-wide benefit that was only implemented this month, even for interns! I love Haofeng so much! [crying][crying]]

This post quickly attracted a lot of envious and sarcastic comments from college students who were still worried about finding jobs.

Holding his phone, Xiao Chen took several more pictures of the building's modern, high-tech interior, and posted a second Weibo post:

Not only are the benefits great, but the company's security awareness is also amazing. These past few days, they've installed tons of the latest high-definition surveillance cameras inside and outside the building, even in the blind spots of the corridors and the break room. My supervisor even joked in a meeting that the company installed them specifically to care about employee safety. Although feeling constantly watched is a little nerve-wracking, it also shows that big companies are professional and provide a sense of security! [Haha]