Chapter 1795: Acquisition Doubts

Miss Fang was something of a legend.

Once a celebrated songstress who captivated Hong Kong and swept through Southeast Asia, she later caught the fancy of Sir Run Run Shaw, became his concubine, and eventually took the helm of TVB.

The vicissitudes of that story need no elaboration.

The Baidu Baike entry is utter nonsense.

Their acquaintance began simply: a man who loved beauty and a beauty who loved wealth, willingly throwing herself into his arms.

That was all.

Claims that she was not only beautiful and a fine singer but also well-versed in management—all rubbish.

A seventeen-year-old songstress knowing anything about management? Bullshit!

Beyond her good looks, what insight could she have offered to captivate a tycoon like Shaw?

It was only later, after Sir Shaw's first wife passed away and the mistress ascended, that later generations, eager to whitewash the past, heaped on such praise.

The true history has long been lost in the rolling river of time.

Fang Yihua's reputation at TVB was actually not high. To be precise, TVB's decline from its peak began precisely after she took power.

Not only because she was a mistress who usurped the top position without proper justification, but her way of doing things also drew criticism from insiders at TVB.

For example, she was too ruthless in her actions; anyone she didn't like was summarily 'cut off.'

If Mona Fong took a dislike to a news anchor, she would fire them immediately, to the point that TVB's news became quite uninteresting in Hong Kong.

Moreover, she was too subjective in her dealings, never evaluating people and things objectively. The incident where she laid off a large number of technical staff in one go caused quite a stir in Hong Kong.

And now, she never expected that she would face a major crisis.

In recent years, Sir Run Run Shaw, advanced in age, had gradually stopped handling affairs and handed over the reins of TVB to Mona Fong.

But she never expected that, out of the blue, someone would want to acquire TVB!

"What's going on?"

Mona Fong sat back down and looked at Stephen Chan: "Have you investigated clearly? Which company is it?"

After a pause, she said in a deep voice: "Could it be the Chiu family? No, could it be Lin Jianle?"

The Chiu Tak-ken family, former owners of ATV.

Lin Jianle, the owner of Media Asia.

Both of these people had once had designs on TVB.

“Neither.”

Chen Zhiyun shook his head: “I had people investigate; the funds came from the United States.”

“The United States?”

Fang Yihua was stunned.

In that instant just now, she had considered many possibilities, but never imagined that an American consortium would want to acquire TVB.

“What exactly is going on?”

Fang Yihua looked at Chen Zhiyun and asked.

Chen Zhiyun shook his head with a wry smile: “I’m not sure. For now, this is all we can find. The stock price has already risen by two percent; no matter how many sell orders come in, they’re all being snapped up.”

“Who on earth…”

Fang Yihua sat there, silent for a long time.

Chen Zhiyun was also anxious and said to Fang Yihua, “Miss Fang, should we tell Uncle Six about this?”

“Not for now.”

Fang Yihua thought for a moment and shook her head: “No need. Uncle Six hasn’t been well lately. Since things aren’t clear yet, telling him would only worry him.”

Sir Shaw was getting old after all, and his energy was already failing. Fang Yihua didn’t want to add to his troubles.

Just then, Chen Zhiyun’s phone rang again.

“What?”

Chen Zhiyun exclaimed into the phone.

“What’s wrong?”

Fang Yihua asked, puzzled.

“Our stock price has already risen by four percent. There are rumors in the market that a well-known American hedge fund on Wall Street is very interested in our TVB…”

Chen Zhiyun said helplessly to Fang Yihua, “What should we do, Miss Fang?”

“Wait!”

Fang Yihua gritted her teeth and said in a low voice.

She felt that this matter was not as simple as it seemed on the surface.

“Gather the team. Call a meeting.”

After a long while, Fang Yihua looked up at Chen Zhiyun.

Chen Zhiyun nodded, got up, and went out to convene a high-level meeting at TVB.

Soon, all of TVB's top executives gathered in the conference room.

"This is the situation. A hedge fund from the U.S. is sweeping up shares. What should we do?" Chen Zhiyun quickly explained the matter and finally said to everyone, "If things continue like this, it's very possible that in the end, they will make a public announcement and demand to enter the board of directors."

"This..."

"What's going on?"

"A U.S. hedge fund? What the hell are they up to?"

"The stock price has gone up?"

For a moment, everyone in the conference room was buzzing with discussion, all talking about what was happening.

The executives looked at each other in bewilderment, completely unable to understand the reason behind it.

Zeng Lizhen and Yue Yiling were also present, but no one thought that this matter had anything to do with Zhao Fusheng and the others.

Even Yue Yiling was the same. Although Zhao Fusheng and Tan Kaixuan had been on the phone at the time, her mind wasn't on it, and she hadn't clearly heard what they said.

Moreover, a rich man from the mainland and a U.S. hedge fund were two completely unrelated things, so Yue Yiling never considered that Zhao Fusheng might be behind this.

"Let's all speak up. Has anyone caught wind of anything?"

Fang Yihua sat in the center, her gaze sweeping over the faces of the executives, only to find them all looking bewildered. Clearly, this news was also surprising to them.

"Miss Fang, was there any warning about this?"

Zeng Lizhen hesitated for a moment before asking Fang Yihua.

"No."

Fang Yihua didn't speak. Chen Zhiyun, as TVB's general manager, explained, "Our people on the stock market side informed me as soon as they received the news. At that time, it had risen by 1.5 percent. Now it's already up to 4 percent. I expect that by market close, the increase will be at least over 6 percent."

"That much!"

Everyone gasped.

A 6 percent increase meant the company's market value would rise by several hundred million.

The key issue was that this was only in one day.

Once retail investors realized this positive news and started to follow suit, the company's stock price would rise even faster.

At that point, TVB would have only two choices.

Either let things take their course and allow the other party to acquire the company, or spend a large amount of money to engage in a takeover battle with them.

To be honest, neither option was good news for them.

Being led by the nose by an opponent was definitely not a pleasant feeling.

Thinking of this, Fang Yihua gritted her teeth and said in a low voice, "How much working capital do we have right now?"

Since things had come to this, she could not allow the company to fall into the hands of the opponent.

"Aunt Six..."

"Miss Fang..."

Hearing Fang Yihua's words, many of TVB's top executives panicked and began trying to dissuade her from acting impulsively.

The problem was that Fang Yihua's character had never been one to listen to others' advice.

"It's decided!"

Fang Yihua said firmly to everyone.

She had always been like this, accustomed to making decisions on her own. Although her subordinates occasionally offered suggestions, unfortunately, it was useless.

Just then, the office door was pushed open, and Fang Yihua's secretary walked in, looking anxious and moving quickly.

"Miss Fang..."

The secretary whispered in Fang Yihua's ear, her face turning grim again.

"What's wrong, Aunt Six?"

Someone asked Fang Yihua in a low voice.

Fang Yihua sighed and said slowly, "As of market close, our TVB stock price has risen by 6.7 percent."

Oh my god!

Everyone was stunned, completely taken aback that things had turned out this way.

TVB's stock price had been lukewarm in recent years, yet today it had risen so much.

Could it be that TVB's spring was coming?

Fang Yihua's gaze swept over everyone's faces, and she said word by word, "Listen carefully, spread the word: this time, we will definitely hold on to our equity and resolutely prevent them from entering the board of directors. Understood?"

"Yes."

"Rest assured, Aunt Six."

Everyone expressed their determination.

In fact, everyone knew that since the other party hadn't directly acquired the 5 percent stake that would trigger a public announcement, but instead bought through retail investors, it was clear they had other intentions.

Under these circumstances, TVB's resistance was really just a drop in the bucket.

But since Fang Yihua had said so, everyone had to show loyalty; no one wanted to become unemployed before the new boss arrived.