Money is a wonderful thing.
It's like a super amplifier—amplifying desires, amplifying the joy of indulgence, amplifying everything.
Most importantly, it can also amplify the speed of making money, turning the process of earning into immense pleasure.
That's why the richer people are, the more they value time and the more they focus on time management.
It's not because they're disciplined—it's because they're enjoying themselves!
Robert Grove was clearly one of those people who cherished time deeply.
After carefully weighing his strength against Leo's,
he quickly concluded that those tactics to maximize profits would be useless against Leo.
The Earl's candor made Leo fall into thought. At the same time, he understood that Robert's last sentence was not a threat—he simply wanted to push the deal through.
Leo quickly calculated the value of the International Newspaper Group in his mind.
The Newspaper sold 3 million copies daily. That sounds like a lot, but based on the average 6% net profit margin in the newspaper industry, it only made around 10 million dollars a year.
Don't think Leo was being pretentious here.
For an ordinary company, earning that much in a year would indeed be satisfying.
But for Leo, that was just the profit from developing one large residential community.
Moreover, since the founding of The Newspaper, the resources Leo had invested amounted to over 30 million dollars when converted.
Fortunately, though, newspaper companies don't actually make money from newspaper sales—the real bulk comes from advertising fees.
Take The Newspaper's biggest advertiser at the time, Coca-Cola, for example. At the start of this year, Coca-Cola spent a whopping 10 million dollars to buy the full-year front-page ad space of The Newspaper.
The total advertising revenue from other miscellaneous sections added up to 30 million dollars.
Including the newspaper's sales revenue, the total earnings came to 40 million dollars. The World made a bit less—10 million dollars.
In the UK, The Sun's total advertising revenue across several Commonwealth countries this year was around 20 million dollars.
As for the newspaper companies in other countries, they had only seen investments so far with no returns yet. Furthermore, their final revenue would likely barely exceed 10 million dollars—there was no helping it; their scale was limited.
Of course, Leo wouldn't let such a large user base go to waste on just newspaper sales.
The World's monthly current affairs magazine was already in preparation, and the real "blockbuster"—Playboy magazine, being developed by The Newspaper—was about to be launched.
Together, these two projects would easily bring in 30 million dollars.
Adding it all up, the International Newspaper Group would probably earn around 110 million dollars a year, give or take.
That was quite substantial—and when you added the intangible value that media itself brings,
Leo believed its market value after going public could reach half of American Real Estate's.
In other words, in Leo's mind, the International Newspaper Group had the potential to become a 3 billion-dollar giant enterprise in the future.
The problem was: if he quoted a market value of 3 billion dollars, Robert Grove would definitely think he was being insincere. But if he quoted 1 billion dollars, Leo would feel he was losing out.
In the end, Leo decided to compromise and quote a market value of 1.5 billion dollars.
"225 million dollars for 15% of the shares," Leo said.
After hearing this, Robert Grove frowned. The funds raised by the nobles (including himself) for this joint investment were barely 50 million dollars—far from enough.
Feeling offended, Robert Grove said displeasedly:
"You're not being sincere, Leo. No matter how well you talk it up, this International Newspaper Group—an unestablished new enterprise—can never be worth 1.5 billion dollars."
George, who was following behind, silently applauded Earl Robert Grove.
Although his close-up observation of Leo's media empire had made him truly admire Leo,
even with his high opinion of Leo, George still thought this quotation was far too arrogant.
In his own estimation, the International Newspaper Group was only worth 300 million dollars.
"No, Robert. Trust me—this is already my most sincere offer.
I also know it will be hard for you to convince other nobles to invest with you at this price.
So here's a proposal: wait six months.
In six months, the International Newspaper Group will probably just be starting its IPO roadshow. By then, you can decide whether to invest or not.
In the meantime, I can guarantee—even sign a contract—that we will not report on scandals involving the British royal family or nobles," Leo said with genuine sincerity.
He wasn't worried that Earl Robert Grove would try to sabotage his newspaper group later.
Although the relationship between the UK and the US at this time was far from the one-sided dynamic seen in later years,
the British had basically already recognized their position by now.
Facing Leo—someone who could influence the US presidential election—Robert Grove and the forces behind him dared not take any action.
And as Leo had expected, Robert Grove, who had been somewhat angry, forcibly abandoned his plan for retaliation. Calming down, he studied Leo carefully.
Memories of Leo's background flooded his mind, and the most vivid one was Marshall's repeated comment: "Leo is someone who excels at creating miracles!"
A rush of impulse surged through Robert—he wanted to cover the remaining funds himself to seal the deal.
His intuition told him that Leo's offer was actually a great deal. If he waited another six months, the price would most likely be much higher.
Robert usually trusted rational judgments, but the three most important investments of his life had all come from intuition and luck.
Taking a deep breath, Robert decided to go through with the investment.
However, despite his nickname "Half of London" and his family's wealth being comparable to a nation's,
most of that wealth was tied up in real estate. Liquid cash—such a precious thing—was usually used to buy more land as soon as he got it.
So when faced with a sum of over 100 million dollars, he was somewhat strapped for cash.
Although selling seven or eight plots of land would solve the problem, selling land was an absolute humiliation for a wealthy landowner like him!
Taking out a mortgage was the best way to complete the investment.
But at the time, British banks needed to borrow cash from American banks to issue loans.
Instead of going through all that trouble, it would be simpler to handle the transactions in the US directly through Leo's connections—saving a lot of handling fees.
Most importantly, this way, he could also owe Leo a favor.
"I'll invest, Leo.
But I also want to ask you a favor. How extensive are your connections in the American financial industry?
I don't want to sell land, so I'll have to take out a mortgage. Do any of your friends own banks that would be willing to take on this deal?"
Leo gave Robert a thumbs-up for his decisiveness.
If Phoenix's investment in American Real Estate earlier had been just a wealthy person's blind luck,
then Robert in front of him was definitely someone bold, careful, and sharp-eyed.
This wasn't Leo boasting about himself—it was his absolute confidence in whether the International Newspaper Group would be profitable!
Behind them, George was stunned. What's happening in the world?
Is money no longer considered money?
225 million dollars invested just like that?
But then, as the descendant of a qualified banker, George knew all too well that the Earl's mortgage for investing in the International Newspaper Group was the kind of risk-free mortgage business all bankers loved.
He subconsciously opened his mouth, wanting to say that his family's bank could handle this business.
But the next second, George realized: how many bankers did the Earl know besides the Bush family?
The reason he wasn't approaching them was nothing more than wanting to owe Mr. Valentino a favor.
At that moment, a sudden sense of relief washed over George. He gave up on the idea of catching up to Leo and made peace with reality.
Catch up? Catch up to what? We've never been on the same level.
The man in front of him was already someone whom a British quasi-duke would take the initiative to approach for investment—even offering a favor on top of it.
As for George himself, he was nearly 30 and still playing the Skull and Bones resource-sharing game with David Mortimer, who was already in his thirties.
Leo couldn't see George's contemplation behind him.
Faced with the favor and money being offered, Leo didn't want to refuse—and couldn't refuse.
"Of course. Have you heard of Bank of America, Robert?"
Bank of America had emerged in the early 20th century, with most of its business focused on the American West.
Fortunately, its scale was large enough that Robert had indeed heard of it—though he only knew it was a bank founded by Italians. Upon hearing Leo's suggestion, Robert suddenly realized something,
but he also worried: could this little-known bank, which only attracted business through ethnic connections, be reliable?
Leo saw Robert's concern. He turned to George, who was behind him, and said:
"George, you come from a financial background. Why don't you explain Bank of America to the Earl?"
Leo's question immediately put George in an awkward spot.
In the Eastern financial circle, Bank of America—having risen to prominence in the West—was seen as a disgrace. Almost everyone tacitly joined forces to suppress this "outsider" bank, which had emerged from the poor masses rather than Wall Street.
Although Bank of America had once claimed the top spot among American banks, through everyone's joint efforts, this news had only spread within a small circle.
At the same time, all bankers from Wall Street were using various methods to infiltrate Bank of America, and many had already achieved results.
Everyone was waiting for Giannini to pass away. As for his daughter—how could a woman hold onto such a huge fortune?
Recently, however, people had been troubled. According to informants, Giannini seemed to be preparing to bring Leo into Bank of America.
Now, looking at the situation, George thought this rumor might be true—Leo had already started helping Bank of America secure business.
George was now in a dilemma. The unspoken rules of the banking industry made him reluctant to promote Bank of America, but his father and Uncle Harriman seemed to have regarded investing in Leo as a crucial direction for the family's future development.
Caught between two choices, George looked up subconsciously—and met Leo's amused gaze.
In an instant, George came to his senses: Leo was doing this on purpose. This was a test before the investment.
George realized that Leo was forcing him to choose between investing in the International Newspaper Group and abiding by Wall Street's unspoken rules.
Was this choice difficult? Actually, no. His family wasn't even in a position to compete for Bank of America—other people's interests were nothing compared to his own family's.
Having figured this out, George smiled and gave Robert a detailed explanation of Bank of America's development history—revealing some inside information that even Leo didn't know.
"Oh, I really want to meet Mr. Giannini, Leo. Like you, he's a great banker who has created miracles.
I'll handle my mortgage through Bank of America. I'll have to trouble you to inform them later," Robert said.
Looking at this shrewd man with impeccable manners, Leo decided to learn from the Earl's attitude toward making money.
He gave Robert a slight bow and said:
"My pleasure, Robert."
When it came to making money, bowing one's head was nothing to be ashamed of.
With the deal sealed, the atmosphere at the scene became even more harmonious thanks to the efforts of these two shrewd men.
However, this harmony only made Prescott and William—who had finally caught up—look even grimmer.
And George's expression confirmed their worst fears: the thing they had most dreaded had happened.
The Earl of Westminster had beaten them to investing in the International Newspaper Group.
When they pulled George aside and heard the details of Leo and Robert's investment discussion, they had the same thought George had just had: Is Robert so rich that he no longer values money?
But soon, as people who knew Robert well, they understood that the Earl was not that kind of person.
On the contrary, the fact that this shrewd Earl was willing to invest such a huge sum of money was precisely proof of the International Newspaper Group's enormous value—and it only strengthened their resolve to invest in Leo.
As seasoned veterans of the business world, Prescott and William quickly adjusted their moods. They walked up to Leo and said:
"Mr. Valentino, we also want to invest in the International Newspaper Group."
Robert smiled at Leo, and Leo could tell what he meant—essentially, that Leo owed him a favor.
When the two had discussed the business details earlier, theoretically, they should have sent George away. But Leo hadn't done that; he had essentially used the Earl's reputation to boost the newspaper group's credibility.
Now that this "boosting" had worked, it naturally counted as a favor Leo owed.
Leo acknowledged the favor. He first nodded gratefully at Robert, then turned to Prescott and William and said:
"As I told Robert, the Newspaper Group welcomes all investors.
However, the shares are limited and the price is high. For the sake of the shareholders' interests, I need to ask you two: how much money do you plan to invest?"
Leo's high-sounding words gave George a new understanding of how thick-skinned Leo was.
Shareholders? Who doesn't know that you, Leo, own 98% of the shares in this so-called International Newspaper Group?
He grumbled inwardly, but his father Prescott and Uncle William Harriman were not in the mood for complaints. They had originally planned to invest 100 million dollars, hoping to take 45% of the International Newspaper Group's shares directly.
But no one had expected a "spoiler" to appear halfway—an Earl who was driving up the price.
They quickly calculated all the money the two families could pool together: at most an additional 50 million dollars.
William grit his teeth and said to Leo:
"150 million dollars. We want 10% of the International Newspaper Group's shares."
As soon as he finished speaking, Leo quickly shook hands with both men and said:
"Done."
With the deal closed, they continued playing golf. Leo and Robert had a great time, but William and Prescott played poorly.
After leaving the golf course, in the car heading to the Langham Hotel,
Prescott said to William with a dark expression:
"I'm never playing golf again. It's a shitty sport!
I hope this huge investment will bring us the results we want."
"Father, I don't understand. Our international business is doing so well—why do we have to pursue this 'return to America' strategy?
We could have avoided being taken advantage of like this," George said.
Prescott glared at him and snapped irritably:
"What do you know!"
Prescott was in such a bad mood that he didn't want to respond to his son.
William Harriman took the initiative to explain:
"After two world wars, 70% of the world's money is in America! Our return to America is realistic—because in other places, there's simply no money left!"