"Yeah, Isa.
"Take-Two accepted every one of your acquisition terms.
"And they accepted the original terms you proposed unconditionally, without raising a single objection."
Isabella's question prompted a cheerful response.
The news brought a smile to her face, and she became slightly more serious. "Tell me the details."
"Okay, here's what happened."
Valentine O'Connor immediately reported, "The negotiations previously reached a deadlock mainly because Take-Two's executives wanted to squeeze more benefits out of us. But now, they're terrified."
Although only half a month had passed between Isabella formally setting her sights on Take-Two and the company fully accepting the acquisition agreement, the process had not gone particularly smoothly.
From the very beginning, both Take-Two's shareholders and executives had been willing to accept Isabella's acquisition.
However, the executives did not want Isabella to take Take-Two completely private.
They wanted Take-Two to remain independently listed even after Isabella acquired it.
That way, when negotiating their compensation with the company, they could reasonably demand stock-based rewards. As long as the company continued producing excellent games, they would earn returns beyond what was promised in their employment contracts.
And even if the company failed to produce a steady stream of excellent games, they could still profit from the appreciation of its shares.
After all, Take-Two's stock was currently severely undervalued.
Its headquarters had burned down, and every branch outside North America had been dismantled because of fraudulent financial reporting.
As long as Isabella restored everything, Take-Two's stock could practically launch itself into the sky, doubling or tripling in value. To put it more plainly, that appreciation would come from eating Isabella's flesh and drinking Isabella's blood.
But—
Isabella refused to indulge their greed.
That was why the negotiations had stalled.
Take-Two employees collectively owned roughly fifteen percent of the company.
Admittedly, that stake was not enough for them to control everything.
But if they genuinely wanted to sabotage the deal, the acquisition could not be completed.
The reason they had suddenly changed their attitude was entirely because Isabella had crushed Facebook with overwhelming force.
After Isabella took only twelve hours to kill Facebook, a social-networking unicorn valued at more than ten billion dollars, backed by powerful interests, and seemingly destined for greatness, Take-Two's executives were stunned by her refusal to communicate, negotiate, or compromise. She wanted nothing except Facebook's death. At that moment, they suddenly understood that Isabella's willingness to sit down and negotiate an acquisition was already an enormous show of respect. If they refused to appreciate it,
Isabella merely had to shake her head, and countless people would crush them like garbage.
After all, Take-Two, much like Facebook, was hardly a clean company.
As early as the previous century, it had already committed accounting fraud, manipulated its share price, and harvested money from investors.
And those accusations were supported by hard evidence. The SEC alone had issued the company fines totaling more than ten million dollars.
The only reason the SEC had not publicized the matter extensively was that Take-Two had powerful people behind it.
But now—
Isabella controlled the largest loudspeaker in the universe?
The moment she opened her mouth, every one of them could end up behind bars.
So—
a wise man knew when to submit.
"Oh, so that's why they accepted the acquisition? From the way you're describing it, why do I feel like they see me as some vicious, terrifying, utterly depraved devil guilty of every crime imaginable?"
Valentine O'Connor's explanation made the corner of Isabella's mouth twitch.
She was clearly a good, law-abiding citizen!
But in other people's eyes, she had somehow become a Barbarossa whose name could stop children from crying at night?
This was—
slander!
"Oh, Isa, I don't think you need to worry about that.
"Your methods are actually very consistent with Hermione Granger's personality.
"Hermione Granger only follows rules verbally. Whenever she discovers that the existing rules conflict with her interests, the choice she makes most often, and her only real choice, is to ignore those rules, isn't it?
"So I think, uh, you may have played Hermione Granger for too long!"
Hearing Isabella's complaint, Valentine O'Connor laughingly joined in.
When he explained every contradiction in her behavior as the result of Isabella being too dedicated to her role, she immediately burst out laughing. "Oh, Valentine, you really know what to say!
"Thank you for the compliment! So, do I get a reward?"
"Mm. I'm going to reward you with three years of advanced study in Azkaban. Hopefully, by the time you graduate, your verbal techniques will have improved even further!"
"Oh, Isa, you're repaying kindness with cruelty!"
"Hahahaha!"
Since Take-Two had accepted every acquisition term Isabella proposed, everything that followed would be extremely simple: signing the contracts, applying to delist the company, and transferring the money. Valentine O'Connor's team would handle all of it.
Isabella did not need to concern herself with any of it.
However, just as she was preparing to end the call and return to her work, she suddenly remembered that there was something else she had not instructed Valentine O'Connor to do. She spoke again. "I have one more thing to tell you."
"Oh, go ahead, Isa."
"Come over here. I have something I need you to take to Take-Two."
"..."
"All right."
At this point, Isabella could essentially be considered Valentine O'Connor's employer.
Therefore, he did not hesitate at all when faced with her instruction and practically teleported to her side.
However, when he saw the concept for Overcooked that Isabella handed him,
a trace of surprise crossed his face. "You want Take-Two to turn your idea into a game?"
"Yes."
"When do you need it?"
"Hmm, it's the middle of August now, and the game I designed is quite small in scope, so have them produce a playable demo before the end of the year. Are there any gaming conventions near the end of the year? If there are, have them take the game there. Of course, they need to show it to me for approval before attending. Okay?"
"Okay, Isa. I've written down all your requirements, and I'll pass them along, but—"
"But what?"
"I told you before that Take-Two suffered disasters in the most literal physical sense and laid off a large number of employees. At present, only the GTA development team is operating normally, so—"
"Oh, they don't have enough money, right? And they're short on staff?"
"Yes."
"Then once the acquisition is complete, have Robin transfer two hundred million into Take-Two's account. That should be enough whether they need to construct a new building or repair the old one, right? If it isn't enough, send three hundred fifty million. Add your commission and round the total up to three billion."
"Oh, then I can already assure you on their behalf that there won't be any problems."
You could not expect a horse to run faster while refusing to feed it.
So Take-Two's current staffing and financial situation could not support additional development?
Then simply send them money!
Isabella was not short of it!
As for how the 2.5 billion used to acquire Take-Two and the 350 million Isabella injected into the company somehow became three billion?
The explanation was simple.
Isabella had been willing to spend three billion on the Take-Two acquisition.
She had already told Valentine O'Connor that if the acquisition price came in below three billion, she would reward him with thirty million for every hundred million saved.
Saving five hundred million therefore entitled him to a bonus of one hundred fifty million.
So in Isabella's mind, the three billion consisted of 2.5 billion, plus Valentine's 150-million bonus, plus the 350 million injected into Take-Two.
After Valentine O'Connor left, Isabella, who had used her break from filming to deal with a few external matters, felt that her rest period had lasted long enough. She prepared to return to the set and continue working.
Uh,
that was simply how she worked now.
Do not ask whether her behavior was a little too undisciplined.
The answer was that no one dared control her.
Besides, the money everyone was burning belonged to Warner!
Moreover, to deal with any unexpected problems that might arise during production, Warner had already decided that beginning with Order of the Phoenix, it would seek outside financing. In other words, it would package every investment related to Harry Potter's production into a single portfolio and allow outside investors to buy into it.
To put it more directly, Warner was packaging Harry Potter as a financial product and selling it on Wall Street.
As long as the project was profitable, investors would receive generous returns.
But if it failed to make money,
then they could only blame their bad luck.
It was like Google issuing hundred-year bonds.
AI might be the future, but the infrastructure required for AI was absolutely beyond the means of private corporations. Anyone who could not understand that needed only to look at how infrastructure expenses had dragged AOL to its death during the internet era. Therefore, if the US government refused to finance the infrastructure and insisted that private companies shoulder the burden themselves, then it could not blame them for dragging the whole of society underwater.
There was nothing new under the sun.
Hehe.
While Isabella waited for her next scene, Catherine suddenly nudged her younger sister with an elbow.
"Isa, let me ask you something."
"What is it? Just ask whatever you want."
"Did you forget something?"
"What?"
"Marvel, isn't it still waiting for your response?"
Catherine's cryptic words made Isabella frown slightly.
Only after staring at her older sister for two seconds did she understand what Catherine meant.
"Catherine, are you saying Isaac Perlmutter should still be waiting for my answer? My answer about whether I'm cooperating with Xbox?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, there's no rush."
"What? Why? Haven't you already acquired Take-Two? And you've already told them to start developing a game. Doesn't that mean we can finally reveal our position to Marvel? And if we don't do it now, couldn't they turn around and accuse us instead?"
"Oh, I understand what you mean, but there's still no hurry. We only just crushed Facebook, so Isaac Perlmutter's nerves must be stretched tight right now. Let him spend some time living in fear. Once he begins to think I may have forgotten the matter, we'll strike him. That way, we'll face as little resistance as possible while driving him as insane as possible. As for your concern that he might accuse us first? Don't worry. He doesn't dare do that right now."
"..."
"..."
Isabella's words made Catherine purse her lips.
Honestly!
At that moment, she felt as though two small horns had appeared on her younger sister's head.
A genuine devil!
Isabella did not hear her sister's criticism.
And everything she had just said about toying with Isaac Perlmutter was actually complete nonsense!
The only reason she was not attacking Isaac Perlmutter right now was that the timing was wrong.
After she had killed Facebook with overwhelming force, if she immediately continued by beating Isaac Perlmutter into the ground, Lehman would most likely abandon him to his fate. There was a high probability that Lehman would refuse to save him.
The logic behind that should have been extremely simple, right?
At present, no normal person would willingly oppose someone like Isabella, who struck to kill and refused all negotiations.
And if Isabella crushed Isaac Perlmutter and Lehman chose not to save him, how could Isabella then justifiably attack Lehman? If she could not strike Lehman, how could she openly and honorably devour Wall Street?
Right?
So—
she would wait for the wind.
Once the right moment arrived, striking Isaac Perlmutter would allow her to reap the greatest reward.
Still, Catherine's sudden question had been useful to Isabella.
It reminded her that there was something else she had not yet done.
And that was—
"Catherine."
"Mm?"
"What's Apple's share price now?"
"Around 120 or 130. Why?"
"Only 120 or 130? Why hasn't it reached 200 yet?"
"What? That's already a lot! How much did you pay when you bought it? Sixty? It has already doubled!"
"This has nothing to do with how much I paid. The main problem is that increase hasn't met my expectations! Has Steve not been working hard enough?"
"..."
"..."
Catherine was left speechless.
Isabella was not joking about Apple's share price.
In her eyes, after the iPhone's launch, Apple's stock should have surged to two hundred dollars as quickly as possible. If it failed to do so, then Steve Jobs was the problem. He had not worked hard enough and needed to reflect on himself.
As for that—
firing Steve Jobs was obviously unrealistic.
So—
"Catherine."
"Mm?"
"Keep a close eye on Apple over the next few months. If its share price breaks through 180 before November, sell it as soon as that happens. If it doesn't break through 180 before November, start selling our shares in November."
"Uh, all right. And then?"
"Then go long on crude oil."
"What? Crude oil?"
"Mm. Crude oil."
Since the harvesting wave created by financial capital was already approaching, it was only natural to ride the storm and make some money from it.
Why not trade stocks?
The answer was simple.
Isabella did not possess hyperthymesia.
Therefore, without relying on future knowledge, she did not know how high the American stock market would rise or where its decline would begin.
Under those circumstances, commodities were the best choice.
After all, once a crisis appeared, the best way to smooth it over was to flood the market with liquidity.
However, crises under capitalism were artificially created.
So before the greedy hand of the Harvesters had finished stripping Esau clean, that liquidity was unlikely to flow toward the places ordinary people wanted it to reach. In that situation, it would inevitably be directed elsewhere first.
And commodities were one place the money would certainly go.
The reasons were simple:
First, commodities could also serve as a reservoir for liquidity.
Second, commodities could not store that liquidity indefinitely.
Therefore, after directing the money there, the Harvesters could naturally conduct repeated, multilateral rounds of extraction.
And among all commodities, barring some earth-shattering accident, crude oil had the most stable price movements.
Oil was essential to modern society. Its price could neither be too high nor too low.
If it became too expensive, modern society could not function.
If it became too cheap, oil-producing countries would be unable to endure it and would find ways to push international prices back up.
Anyone who could not understand that needed only to look at Saudi Arabia's actions.
Why had Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 stalled halfway through?
Wasn't it because international oil prices had remained low for too long, causing its revenues to collapse?
Because Saudi Arabia's own extraction costs were extremely low, it manipulated OPEC into increasing production aggressively. As long as it could force oil prices down and destroy countries whose extraction and refining costs were higher, Saudi Arabia could regain control over the market.
When Saudi Arabia poured all its available cash into defending its position in the oil market, Vision 2030 could only be put on hold.
At the same time, this was also why Trump had to seize oil.
American oil extraction costs were extremely high. If oil prices fell too low, domestic producers would collapse.
The problem was that Trump's political base consisted of rednecks, and rednecks were the people who needed cheap fuel the most.
Therefore, if Trump directly tried to restrain OPEC, his own supporters would send him straight to heaven.
But if he did not restrain OPEC?
Then he would need to turn back time.
Return to 2016.
Walk up to the golden-haired man onstage and slap him across the face.
Tell him not to promote shale oil.
That was right. The bullet he had fired with his own hands ten years earlier had struck him directly between the eyes ten years later!
Once Trump found himself trapped between two mutually exclusive problems, his only option was to seize third-party oil and use it to protect the interests of American oil companies! Otherwise, his financial backers would explode as well!
Therefore, because crude-oil prices followed a balancing logic, profiting from them was far, far, far easier than profiting from stocks.
Of course, Isabella admitted that her financial knowledge was shallow. Blindly making trades was therefore out of the question. Having her older sister, who currently had no plans to attend university, keep an eye on the market was only natural.
What?
Someone was asking where her assistant Margot Robbie had gone?
Why wasn't Margot monitoring the market?
She had gone to work on Transformers 2 and 3.
Because the Writers Guild of America renegotiated its members' employment contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers every three years, and the next round of negotiations was scheduled for November, preparations for Transformers 2 and 3 were being rushed forward like mad to prevent a writers' strike from disrupting production.
Michael Bay had directly abandoned the previous model of having a script written first and reviewed afterward.
Now, he had gathered all the principal creators together and made them participate in developing the screenplay.
Of course, strictly speaking, this approach violated industry rules.
The Writers Guild of America did not allow people who were not screenwriters to participate in writing a project's script.
But—
Whoever had the bigger fist was right.
When Isabella's name appeared among the producers of Transformers, if the Writers Guild of America dared interfere with her project, she could slap it across the face twice.
The first slap:
She could imitate what George Lucas had done decades earlier and move Transformers to Britain.
The second slap:
She could send the troublemakers to prison. If the next guild president also wanted to cause trouble, she could send that person away too, continuing until no irritating voices remained in her ears.
She hated trouble.
At present, anyone who annoyed her would, at best, lose everything and, at worst, end up behind bars.
Uh,
that way of thinking really did not make her a devil.
It was merely treating others the way they treated her.
Hollywood was already a gathering place for terrible people.
In 2026, Seedance 2.0 had barely been released before Hollywood began loudly demanding regulation!
Yet when Hollywood had developed physics engines and life engines in the past, the first thing it did was exploit the entire world as aggressively as possible. Therefore, when dealing with hypocritical idiots who applied double standards, one only needed to follow Queen Victoria's governing principle!
Kill everyone who refuses to submit, and the world will be filled entirely with loyal subjects!
After handing the investment work to her older sister, Isabella returned to her rhythmic daily life. She filmed during the day and handled business at night, using her diligent hands to achieve her dreams.
Ahem.
Fuck!
Even she felt embarrassed saying that!
Although Margot had gone off to work, Isabella could still hear the news every day because Catherine could act as her personal repeater. Hehe.
As the days passed, one major event after another appeared before Isabella:
First, on August 15, 2007, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Peru, killing hundreds and injuring thousands.
After hearing the news, Isabella immediately donated five million dollars to the disaster area.
Although she did not personally release a video,
was there any media organization in the world that would refuse to report her charitable act?
Then, on August 18, Tropical Storm Erin brought widespread flooding and storm damage to Oklahoma.
After hearing the news, Isabella once again donated five million dollars to the affected region immediately.
The Oklahoma state government thanked her as soon as it received the donation.
Then, when August 21 arrived, the Facebook controversy finally came to an end.
Facebook publicly admitted its crimes and apologized to the public.
At the same time, it announced that, to correct its mistakes, Facebook would be permanently shut down.
However, the website's data and users were innocent.
Therefore, Microsoft decided to acquire all of Facebook's assets for two hundred fifty million dollars.
It would reopen the service under a new identity, Microbook, on September 1, 2007.
As for this—
Isabella was not surprised.
As always, kindness alone could never create capital.
At the same time, Microsoft's actions made Isabella understand that establishing her own social-networking website had to become a priority.
And regarding that—
on August 26, 2007, she suddenly received a phone call.
It was from George Lucas.
At first, Isabella was surprised. She did not understand why George Lucas would suddenly contact her.
But after she took the phone Catherine handed her,
she felt that the world had become even more absurd.
Because George Lucas told her that a social-networking website was seeking her investment.