Over the past few days, Zane Blackwood had been busy making his company, the Golden Sun Entertainment Group, even bigger. Even though that one stubborn old man had said no, Zane's work wasn't for nothing.
He had just bought two publishing houses: White Castle Press and Smile Publishing House.
White Castle was a new company, only six years old. But its founder, Mr. Jim Cortez, had worked at a giant, famous company (Random House) for over twenty years. This meant he knew a ton of important people.
In just six years, he had built his company from scratch. It was one of the best small publishing companies around!
It had its own way of selling books all along the West Coast—in California, Nevada, Washington, and other states.
But... life can be very unpredictable.
Mr. Jim Cortez, the founder, had sadly died from a heart attack last month. His wife, Mrs. Cortez, didn't know how to run the business, so she had to sell her husband's company.
Zane bought White Castle Press for $7.8 million.
This was a very, very good price, way below what it was actually worth.
Now, this doesn't mean Zane was being mean or trying to bully the sad widow. The truth was, right after the founder died, many of the company's best authors were hired by other, bigger companies. Because so many authors left, the company's price naturally dropped a lot.
Smile Press was different.
It was a big company in New York. It was the seventh-biggest publisher in the state and one of the top thirty in the whole country.
It was especially good at making books for kids and other fun, recreational books.
"This is perfect!" Zane said with a huge, happy smile. "For my Harry Potter books, this is exactly the kind of company I need the most!"
He paid $63 million for Smile Publishing House. The money came from the Golden Sun Entertainment Group's bank account, which was full of cash.
Zane's company was now truly rich!
The TV show "America's Got Talent" had brought in nearly $200 million in profit.
The movies Fatal Turn 1, The Human Purge Project, and The Sixth Sense had made over $250 million in profit.
And he was still making a ton of money from Titanic.
...
At the Golden Sun headquarters, Zane met with his CEO, Victor.
"Boss," Victor said, "Smile Publishing is super strong in kids' books. And White Castle is a great backup. This is a great plan."
Victor paused. "But now... we're still missing one thing. We don't have a professional, academic publishing house."
Zane frowned. He was confused. "Academic? You mean, like... boring school books? What does that have to do with entertainment?"
Victor smiled. "Boss, in America and Europe, it's a little different. If a publishing company only sells fun books, it will always be seen as 'second-rate.' To be truly respected—to be 'top-tier'—you also have to sell serious, scholarly books, like books about science, medicine, or history."
"If you don't," Victor explained, "you'll never have enough 'prestige' or respect."
Zane got it right away. "Okay, then. Let's go get one!"
This was how Zane always worked. Once he had an idea, he acted on it immediately.
First, he had his team find publishing companies that made these serious, scholarly books.
He knew he couldn't buy the best ones, like the ones owned by big universities like Harvard or Stanford. Those schools were super-rich and would never sell.
So, Zane looked for companies that were friends with the big universities, but not owned by them.
Three days later... they found the perfect target.
"Boss," his assistant Alexander said, "I found one. The Brown Bear Duke Press."
"It's a very old and respected company. It was founded in 1928 by a famous professor. It publishes books on all the serious topics: medicine, computers, law, history, science... everything."
"At its best," Alexander said, "it had 1,850 employees and was worth $700 million!"
Alexander was a great assistant. He had all the details.
"And... now?" Zane asked with a smile, knowing there had to be a catch.
Alexander shook his head. "The new owner, the founder's son, is a total mess. He wastes all his money on gambling and drugs. He got kicked out of school and even went to jail for three years."
"His father, who was a rich real estate boss, got so angry and sad about his son that he had a heart attack and died."
"In less than ten years," Alexander finished, "this son wasted almost $1 billion. Now, he's in huge debt and has no choice but to sell the company."
Zane looked at the report. The company had great connections with universities all over the world. It was perfect.
"In a word," Zane said, his eyes bright, "I want it!"
The price was $70 million.
It made way less money than Smile Publishing, but it was worth more. Why? Because it had that "prestige." It was old, famous, and respected. And Zane knew that respect was worth a lot.
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