The Wolf of Los Angeles

[Chapter 305: Android]

Just four days later, Brian had prepared a complete plan and personally delivered it to Hawke Osment. During his previous campaign for mayor of Covina, he had encountered extremely fierce competition, which had provided Brian's team with invaluable experience -- especially in their off‐the‐books recruiting efforts. 

In America, elections had long devolved into personal attacks, where candidates not only sought to elevate themselves but also aimed to undermine their opponents. The prevailing attitude was that it was acceptable for one candidate to be mediocre as long as the opponent was worse.

In the last governor recall election and Covina mayoral race, the Democrats' momentum had been undermined, allowing the Republicans to gain ground. This enabled Brian to secure the support of the California Republicans, and with the influence of the Ferguson family, he had smoothly become the sole candidate put forward by the Republicans. Brian also officially announced his candidacy for the next Los Angeles mayoral race, forming a campaign team to begin election preparations.

The campaign team's top priority was to raise funds; without money, there was no point in wasting time -- it was better to concede outright. Hawke Osment had written Brian a check, becoming his first financier. Twitter also agreed to fund Brian's campaign, and other entities, such as the Pacific Investment Group and Fox Television, were also set to contribute.

...

In the office, after Hawke had finished reviewing Brian's plan, he asked Edward, "If chaos erupted in Los Angeles, could you mobilize your people to join in and further escalate the disorder?" 

Edward laughed and replied, "You can't have chaos in Los Angeles without African Americans. Once the situation turned even slightly chaotic, folks from Compton would definitely come out to buy in bulk -- and it wouldn't even cost us a dime. We wouldn't even have to lift much of a finger." 

He described a common scenario on the streets of Los Angeles: "Whenever a neighborhood fell into chaos, by the next day when things had stabilized a bit, many African Americans would inevitably appear on the streets selling second-hand goods at low prices and excellent quality, outcompeting the local shops." 

Edward thought of his subordinate Michael and the notorious trio living in Hollywood, and said, "Those guys are perfect for the job -- they roamed the streets, were seasoned, and knew how to incite people." 

Hawke then made some modifications to the plan -- adding the part concerning African Americans -- and had Edward personally deliver it back to Brian. 

...

Meanwhile, while Brian was raising funds, he also began making preparations in advance.

Hawke's off‐the‐books recruitment strategy was part of a long‐term plan. 

For instance, in the realm of meteorology, with 2004 just around the corner, once the money was poured in, experts would naturally step forward to speak. 

Meteorologists from the University of Washington, the University of California, and the California Institute of Technology had each predicted that over the next three years the climate in Southern California would tend toward drought. 

Southern California was already an arid region, and since the turn of the century rainfall had noticeably decreased compared to the 1990s -- with large-scale wildfires erupting on average once a year. 

The media reported on this as well, but ordinary people didn't care and city hall was indifferent; only those with vested interests took notice.

...

The news quickly reached the office of the CEO of The Wonderful Company -- a private firm controlling most of Southern California's water resources -- which immediately took the matter seriously. 

Capital being inherently profit-seeking, The Wonderful Company and Los Angeles city hall entered a new round of negotiations, aiming to secure priority access to more water resources.  ṙ𝔞𝐍Ȏ𝖇Ěs̩

Once in possession of the resources, no one would let them go without multiple-fold profit. 

...

It wasn't just The Wonderful Company; Twitter was equally engaged. 

After prolonged negotiations, Twitter and Clarium Capital Management eventually reached a final agreement on financing. Twitter was eventually valued at $8.5 billion, and it secured $1.7 billion in financing from Clarium Capital. At the same time, Twitter's existing management also invested in shares, becoming minor shareholders.

Twitter adopted a dual-class share structure with Class A and Class B shares; Class A had normal dividend rights and voting power, while Class B, in addition to the normal rights, enjoyed extra voting rights. 

There were many restrictive clauses -- for instance, Class A could never be converted into Class B, whereas Class B could be freely converted into Class A at any moment. Also, if Class B shares were transferred to non-affiliated parties, they would automatically convert into Class A. @@novelbin@@

This structure granted Hawke Osment's shares super voting rights, solidifying his position so that he didn't have to worry about control being diluted during fundraising, and ensured he could control enough board seats to remain with the company as long as he wished. 

In addition, Hawke transferred a one-point stake to Clarium Capital Management. 

Thus, including various revenues from strategic planning operations, his investment company in the Cayman Islands and West Coast Studios controlled a cash flow exceeding $100 million. 

Hawke needed a large amount of cash to execute his plan against the Ackerman family -- dealing with these people would undoubtedly require spending money. To help with tax avoidance, he also donated a sum to the already established Osment Charitable Foundation, which was nominally affiliated with the NAACP founded by Saint Steve.

...

After the financing, Hawke still held 56% of the shares and possessed 78% of the voting rights. 

Twitter remained entirely under his control, while Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman of Clarium Capital Management, beyond providing funds, also offered platform resources for Twitter's promotion and development. 

Twitter's rapid growth made them impatient, especially as other investment companies had already set their sights on it. 

Following the completion of the financing, Twitter established its board -- structured with the two founders, plus one company executive, along with investors and independent directors. 

Hawke Osment, Mary Ferguson representing the Pacific Investment Group, Twitter management representative Caroline Jones, and Peter Thiel were confirmed as board members, while independent directors were elected by the shareholders -- a process that also left decision-making power in Hawke's hands. 

...

With ample funds, Twitter accelerated its development further, especially in overseas promotion, steadily expanding its scale, recruiting personnel, formulating plans, and cooperating with other companies. 

By the New Year of 2004, Twitter's global active user count had surged past 40 million, and as the number of users increased, the company's advertising business also began to thrive.

After the New Year, in North America alone, Twitter had added 12 new advertising partners, and markets in different countries signed corresponding advertising deals. 

Additionally, Hawke planned to establish a mobile application research division. 

Smartphones had already appeared on the market; in fact, as early as the early 1990s, IBM had launched the first smartphone. Since 2000, Motorola had introduced the A6188 and Ericsson had launched the R380sc, among others. 

Smartphones were developing rapidly, and it wouldn't be long before Apple introduced its first-generation smartphone -- handheld smart devices were the future of social media. At that time, Twitter's talent pool in this area was insufficient, so Hawke decided to poach people.

...

After spending the New Year holiday with Erica, as soon as he returned to work, Hawke contacted his neighbor on 20th Street in Santa Monica, Jett Brown. The headhunter from Glimmer International immediately rushed to Twitter to meet him. 

In the meeting room, facing the first big order of the New Year, Jett responded enthusiastically, "What kind of talent does Twitter need? Even if it's the chairman of the Joint Chiefs or the White House Chief of Staff, I can poach them for you!" 

Hawke waved his hand and said, "Not that exaggerated. I had heard that there was a company called Android, specializing in mobile operating systems and software development, with a team that is highly capable and creative." 

Jett asked, "Do you have any more detailed information?" 

Hawke replied, "I had only heard about them; I don't have any specific details." 

He had searched online and found no detailed information on Android, though he vaguely remembered that the company had been established before 2004. As for more specifics like personnel or the company's address, he wasn't very sure -- most people wouldn't bother remembering such details. 

Jett understood and said, "Companies that do this kind of business are most likely located in Silicon Valley. I'll head to San Francisco tomorrow and start my investigation from there." 

Hawke emphasized, "The most important thing is to poach the entire development team." 

"Understood," Jett replied, making a note of the name Android in his notebook. 

Hawke said, "You have one month." 

Jett nodded, "No problem." 

Hawke then left, and Sasha came over to discuss fee matters with Jett.

...

The next morning, Jett flew out of Los Angeles and arrived in San Francisco. 

While asking his contacts and commissioning an investigative firm to locate the mobile development company called Android, his contacts had no information -- but the firm provided a lead after three days. 

In Silicon Valley's Mountain View area, there was a company called Android, established in October 2003. However, the company was not engaged in mobile operating system or app development; it was developing an advanced operating system for cameras. 

Jett Brown immediately rushed to Mountain View and, in two connected garages, encountered a small company of only four people. 

The head of the company was named Andy Rubin, who had previously worked at Apple and Microsoft. 

Upon learning of Jett's purpose, Andy asked, "Are you referring to Twitter -- the world's largest social media network?" 

"That's right. I have been commissioned by Twitter. If you are interested in being recruited by Twitter, you can go to Los Angeles and have a meeting with Twitter's founder and chairman, Hawke Osment." 

Andy, well aware that for his company to grow support from a major company was indispensable, consulted with his three partners and they agreed to make a trip to Los Angeles. 

...

Subsequently, Jett led Andy's team to Los Angeles, where they met with Twitter and Hawke. 

The two sides talked for a long time; regarding the mobile operating system and software development that Hawke had mentioned, Andy was very interested and believed that this business held more promise than the camera system. 

After a brief discussion among the four founders of Android, they unanimously agreed to join Twitter to develop a smartphone operating system called Android.

*****

/Sayonara816.