America's Road to Wealth

Two guys from Texas, one named Charles Bart and the other named Dan L. Duncan.

Charles Butt is the majority shareholder and controller of the current H-E-B grocery store chain, which has more than 2,500 stores in Texas and the neighboring Mexican state, with annual sales of $25 billion.

Dan L. Duncan is the founder and chairman of EPP, a natural gas and oil company.

What these two people have in common is that they are both super rich in the southwestern United States, and they are both major shareholders of Anadarko Petroleum Company.

And they made a special trip to find Abel, naturally because they were the shareholders who Alex told Abel that they were interested in selling the shares of Anadarko Petroleum Company.

Although both of them are super rich, they are both super rich with a net worth of more than tens of billions of dollars. Business is also mainly developed in Texas and the Southwest of the United States. But because of industry and later reasons, they are not members of the Texas consortium.

At noon this day, Malibu Beach.

He received the two tycoons in the living room of the six-leaf vein-shaped beach villa where Abel and Ikana were vacationing.

Both of them were old men, especially Dan L. Duncan, who looked about seventy or eighty years old. Charles Butt is a little younger, but at least over 60.

Such two old men who looked a little bit old, sitting with a young man like Abel who was in his youth, seemed to have a very strong contrast.

So much so that on the stairs on the second floor, Paris and Ikana, who were holding their children and preparing to leave for a lunch break, quietly made some comments.

"Hey, it's hard to imagine that he's so young. So many old people respect him!"

Paris was the first to sigh with emotion. She remembered how her grandfather respected Abel before she and Abel.

Although she is a little better now, her grandfather, who is almost 80 years old, still looks very short in front of Abel, and it is difficult for people not to feel emotional about this.

Paris naturally knew that it was the invisible height brought about by wealth and social status.

What she felt was only the huge disparity between Abel's actual age and his invisible height.

Ikana pursed her lips gracefully when she heard the words, "It's normal. Isn't it? In our world, status is not based on age. It's wealth or power!"

Paris was about to nod, but her beautiful nose wrinkled, and she lowered her head to sniff her son Barron's little butt wearing a diaper.

"Hey, little villain. Smelly again... Never mind, I'll take care of it first. Then take Barron's nap. Good afternoon, dear Ikana."

Ikana said goodbye to her, and took her two twin babies back to the house for a nap.

In the parlor at noon, only Abel with David and Allen, and two guests were left.

"...I already know the purpose of the two gentlemen's visit. Yes, I will not hide from you. I am indeed very interested in the shares of Anadarko Petroleum Company in the hands of the two of you. I think before coming here, you have already and My people have contacted. I believe you have already known my offer."

"so……"

He smiled and looked at the two old men: "I think you two should be satisfied with my offer, at least not against it. That's why you came here, right?"

Abel's offer to Anadarko Petroleum, Dan L Duncan and Charles Butt naturally won't have much doubt.

This is the foundation of everything, otherwise, how could two tycoons worth tens of billions of dollars rush over from Texas on purpose.

"Of course." Looking at the young man in front of him, who was a few years younger than his grandson, Dan L Duncan felt very emotional.

His grandson only knows to hang out in Austin, Houston and Mexico City all day long. Apart from wasting money, it does nothing for the family or society.

As for the young man in front of him, he was younger in age.

But he was already a person like himself, a great figure in the kingdom who would bow his head slightly and hold his respect in front of him.

At this moment, both Dan L Duncan and Charles Bart naturally had the psychological reaction that most old rich Americans would have when they first saw the real Abel.

"There is no problem with the price. We had a careful discussion with Mr. Alex Smith before we came."

Dan L. Duncan said the name of Abel's grandfather, and at the same time deliberately observed the expression on Abel's face.

Naturally, he gained nothing from his observations, and Dan L Duncan was a little disappointed.

Only then did the old man feel sure that although Abel was very young, he was definitely not a waste like his grandson.

"Dear Mr. Smith...I...or should I say the two of us." Dan L Duncan paused here, looked at Charles Bart, who nodded to him, and then he continued:

"Bart and I came here specially because apart from our stake in Anadarko Petroleum Company, we also have another matter. We want to get your permission."

"Oh? What kind of thing?" Abel smiled brightly.

In fact, what the two old men wanted to talk about, Alex had already talked with Abel. But isn't it negotiating now? Of course we have to pretend to be confused.

Perhaps Charles Bart's character is more direct. After Abel finished speaking, he said directly before Dan L Duncan spoke:

"Mr. Smith! Honestly, Duncan and I want to join you!"

Perhaps because he was worried that Abel would pretend to be confused again, Charles Bart emphasized immediately after the words fell:

"We mean, let HEB grocery store and EPP company become part of the Texas consortium! For this reason, we are willing to help you take control of Anadarko Petroleum Company as soon as possible!"

This is Charles Bart and Dan L Duncan, the two super rich in Texas who are worth more than tens of billions.

The reason why I made a special trip to Texas to meet him was to join the Texas Consortium!

As we all know, the Texas consortium was originally one of the top ten consortiums in the United States.

Each of these ten consortiums is a behemoth composed of many enterprises. They represent a plutocratic organization of many local and interest groups in the United States.

In the past, the Texas Consortium was a large number of enterprises controlled by the five major families including McKison, Richardson, Elkins, Hunter, and Brown.

Coupled with the other 20 small family-controlled companies, a community of interests formed through complex mutual shareholding or mutual penetration.

In the past, although the presence of the Texas consortium in the United States was particularly strong because it was an old military-industrial complex.

But in terms of strength, it ranks at the bottom of the American consortium.

It is also slightly better than the DuPont that has been penetrated to the point of weakness, the Cleveland consortium that also has no financial core, and the scattered Mellon consortium.

But let alone compare with protagonists like Morgan and Rockefeller.

The former Texas consortium, even the California consortium, which is very similar in nature, can't compare.

Not to mention several old chaebols such as First Citigroup, Boston Consortium, and Chicago Consortium.

This is mainly due to the original Texas consortium. In terms of industry, apart from military, industry and energy, the finance is still weak, and other industries are even more messed up.

Only Texas Instruments is not bad in semiconductors, and the others are almost nothing.

Its own strength is not strong, so naturally there is no way to compare with those powerful consortiums that are very strong in finance and have a very comprehensive field.

Fortunately, these are old almanacs, this is the former Texas consortium.

Today's Texas Consortium, in the internal information of many people in the United States, has been called the Smith \u0026 Texas Consortium, or the Texas United Consortium.

Different from the previous Texas consortium, the current Texas consortium is due to the integration of Smith Media, Smith Financial, and a series of other companies under Abel.

These completions and additions allowed this behemoth to make up for its original financial shortcomings and become a powerful financial consortium.

At the same time, Smith Media, as well as Abel's other powerful companies in different industries, make it more colorful in terms of diversified operations.

So the current Texas Consortium has been referred to as the Texas United Consortium.

Its actual influence and status have been at the bottom of existence from a few years ago. Now it is climbing rapidly, surpassing Boston, Chicago, First Citigroup, etc., and currently only under the combined Morgan and Rockefeller.

Such a powerful Texas consortium naturally attracted the wait-and-see of those "princes" in the southwestern United States who were unwilling to join in Texas and around Texas, but were actually very powerful.

Although joining a consortium, no matter what it is, will cause the company to lose a lot of autonomy, and it will also sharply reduce the control of the company and the family.

But there is no doubt that there are many benefits of being able to join a consortium and form a giant chaebol with a large number of companies.

Otherwise, even the powerful like Morgan and Rockefeller would not be able to gather so many people together to form four forms of monopoly plutocracy: Cartel, Syndicate, Trust and Concern.

Over the past few years, the Texas United Consortium has become stronger and stronger.

Finally someone was moved and action was taken.

The first to act were Dan L Duncan and Charles Butt.

Among them, Charles Bart is a very pure Texas tycoon, but Dan L. Duncan is not actually a Texas native. He and his business mainly operate and operate in Oklahoma and New Mexico.

However, the two poor states, Oklahoma and New Mexico, have been deeply influenced and radiated by Texas, and to some extent they can be regarded as the younger brothers of Texas. It is normal for the local "princes" to think of wanting to join the joint consortium.

Of course, Abel was very clear about the purpose of the two old men. Because he had a fight with Morgan and the others last year, not only did he not lose, but he also mixed with them, and even won more voting rights for the Federal Reserve for the Texas consortium.

There are many people in Texas and around Texas, and one after another, they have ideas similar to those of Dan L Duncan and Charles Butt.

But because Abel is not in Texas all the year round, but has more activities in New York or Los Angeles.

In addition, his age is indeed at the chronological level, and the older generation of Southwestern American bigwigs are not familiar with him.

Most of these people found Alex, Alexander, or the bush family with whom he was married.

Alex was the one most people were looking for. This time, through Abel's grandfather, the two old men hoped to use the shares of Anadarko Petroleum Company as a vote to join the new Texas United consortium.

"ha……"

Hearing the intention of Charles Bart's visit, Abel, who had already prepared for this, was also very straightforward.

"Why not? Why not?"

He even stood up directly and reached out to the two old men: "Welcome to join this big family! I hope that we stand together to make us stronger. It can make our voice more valued in the United States!"

The two old men were overjoyed. They thought that there would be some twists and turns, and it might not be that easy.

But he didn't expect Abel's statement to be so direct.

The two old men stood up excitedly, shaking Abel's hand with some scrambling.

As everyone knows, if it was the previous Abel, he would indeed let them wait for a while before thinking about it.

But a while ago, when Abel was trying to reorganize Smith Wisdom, his mentality changed again.

He jumped out of Texas, and even the region of the United States, and looked at the whole world.

He wanted more influence, he wanted a bigger syndicate.

I want to be the real emperor!

After figuring it out, Smith Wisdom got his latest job request.

That is to provide Abelie with a list of companies that are complementary to the current Texas consortium, and must also be those independent companies that have not joined the consortium.

The list covers many businesses around the world, not just within the United States.

Dan L. Duncan's EPP Oil \u0026 Gas is on the list, as is Charles Barth's HBE grocery chain.

EPP's full name is "Enterprise Partner Products" company, mainly engaged in natural gas and oil, with activities in Oklahoma and New Mexico. The scale is much smaller than that of Anadarko Petroleum Company, but if it can be merged with Pacific Energy and the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Company goes smoothly.

At that time, Pacific Energy, which has annexed these two oil companies, will soon have a volume similar to that of giants such as the Seven Sisters of Petroleum!

Of course, the same size does not mean the same strength. The rich heritage of the Seven Petroleum Sisters and their sympathy with each other are destined to be the most powerful energy giants on this planet.

Even if Pacific Energy can annex Anadarko Petroleum and EPP, at most it can only be compared with any of the Seven Sisters in terms of scale and volume.

If they are combined, no company in this world, or even any country, can compare in this respect.

The seven oil sisters, together with finance, are Rockefeller's main strengths.

From this, it can be seen that Rockefeller is powerful, especially now that they have merged with Morgan.

In terms of wealth and influence alone, no family or company can compare to them.

Only the government of some powerful countries can make them show respect.

And the HBE grocery chain, which is a retail grocery giant in the American Southwest and Mexico. In terms of volume and scale, let’s put it this way, it’s right to regard it as the Meiyijia here.

If Smith Supermarket and the Agricultural Group can annex it, Pacific Supermarket will directly have an extra peripheral super kid.

If Wal-Mart can be annexed again, Abel's supermarket \u0026 agricultural group can even rank among the top three in the world.

Of course, swallowing Wal-Mart is hard to do. It can even be said that no one can do it.

It's not that the Wal-Mart family is that powerful, but the strategy they choose is very powerful.

The reason why Wal-Mart is not limited to a few states or a certain region like other American supermarket groups is that it rarely receives the influence of local protectionism with American characteristics.

It is because every time they go to a place to develop, they are willing to put down their arrogance to accept investment and shareholding from the local "princes", and naturally become locals.

If someone really wants to acquire and take control of Wal-Mart, it is almost a confrontation with all the American princes in terms of retailing.

So at least in the United States, no one can really fully control Wal-Mart's domestic business.

After Abel knew this, he had long given up on Wal-Mart.

Now the joining of these two tycoons is very complementary to the Texas United consortium, and they can both strengthen their respective fields.

Abel naturally had no reason to refuse.

As for Elkins and Bo Lang, they will not refuse, and they even hope that as many people as possible can join.

To put it bluntly, a consortium is capital. The nature of capital is to proliferate and expand infinitely. Of course, it will not refuse members who can grow themselves to join.

It's just that the previous Texas consortium really didn't have the ability to attract others to join, and it was a standard regional consortium model.

That is, since the introduction of Abel, the leader, and under his leadership, he actually got more voting rights in the Federal Reserve, the appeal of the Texas consortium to those independent tycoons has become stronger and stronger.

Under the operation and management of Abel, the diversified Big Mac has been fully formed.

This is the current attractiveness, which can make people send thousands of miles to their door for annexation!

After seeing off the two joyful old men, Abel turned around and said to David and Allen with a smile:

"Go back and do your homework. And it's not just HBE and EPP."

Allen smiled and said, "Boss, I understand. I believe that after Dan L. Duncan and Charles Butt, there must be many other people who will be moved!"

The addition of Charles Bart and Dan L Duncan will definitely not be the result of the growth of the Texas United consortium, but just the beginning.

It is different from other "old" and "big" consortia that have been formed for a long time and whose internal interests have long been fixed, such as Boston and Morgan.

In the brand-new Texas United Consortium, the interests of its internal members have not yet stabilized. This gives other new entrants a chance to be well positioned internally.

Should I continue walking alone, or enjoy the shade under the big tree.

This will definitely become a major issue that many companies and their controllers will have to consider, at least in Texas and the surrounding states, and even in California and New York.

There are not many opportunities to join a large consortium peacefully and get a good internal position!

Now that the opportunity is right in front of our eyes, those who are tempted will naturally choose to act.

The two old men left, and Allen also worked overtime to get to work.

Looking at the beautiful beach and ocean not far outside the villa, Abel, who originally wanted to read the corporate briefing, decided to relax again.

Since you are on vacation, you should look like you are on vacation. He went to see Ikana and the children first, and they all slept soundly during the afternoon nap.

I went to see Paris's mother and child again, and found that the child was still resting, but Paris had already woken up.

He simply pulled the eldest lady of the Hilton family out of the room and went to Malibu Beach, which looked like a tropical beach.

Half an hour later, around 3:30 in the afternoon.

Clear and flexible, endless, seabirds fly freely above the sea under the blue sky and white clouds. The private beach facing the villa is loose and clean.

The sun is slightly dazzling, but it is not very hot, and the cool sea breeze blowing by makes people very comfortable.

Paris, who had already changed her clothes, was wearing a white Abi Agioni and a pair of big sunglasses, lying on a white inflatable bed on the almost crystal-clear blue sea, in the endless blue, Blowing the sea breeze leisurely, enjoying the purity of nature.

Beside him is another inflatable bed floating in the sea, but the top of this one is empty, and two ropes are connected to a beautiful yacht parked there not far away.

The yacht is Ikana. After confirming that she was permanently stationed on the west coast, she asked someone to bring the yacht over. The magnificent yacht came naturally this time, allowing the owner to enjoy the vacation.

Wow——

Abel suddenly emerged from the sea water, grabbed the edge of the inflatable bed where Paris was lying on with both hands, and spit out a mouthful of sea water from his mouth and landed on Paris' body.

Paris turned her head and frowned, and said coquettishly, "It's so cold..."

That's the bad thing about California's beaches. The sun and the sand are all very beautiful.

The sea water is generally very cold, even in the hottest months, so there are generally fewer people swimming here because the sea water temperature is lower

If you really want to play in the sea, a real tropical beach is more suitable.

People on the west coast usually go to Hawaii. People on the east coast can choose to go to the Caribbean Islands.

"Wow—"

"Ah—asshole! Pfft~ Abel, I won't let you go!"

Paris screamed and screamed. It turned out that Abel with a smirk on his face grabbed Paris's long skirt and pulled her, who had just applied sunscreen, from the inflatable bed into the sea.

Paris screamed and fell into the water, took a sip of the sea water, with the sunglasses slanted on her face, looked at Abel who was holding her in some embarrassment, grabbed Abel's ear in shock and began to twist it a few times in anger.

But he was not willing to use his strength. It seemed that it was more of a love affair than a punishment.

Instead of begging for mercy, Abel raised his hand high, raised the white thing in his hand, and raised his eyebrows at Paris with a smirk.

ah--

There was another scream, and Paris clasped her hands desperately, and said coquettishly, "How can you wait for little Barron to eat!!"

"Haha... It's okay, there wasn't much at all. What's more, with Ikana, she has a lot of food. She can feed 4 at a time!"

"She does have more... I can't compare. But with little Barron, there are only three children, how can she feed four?"

"Did you forget that there is me? Your food is not enough for me and the children, we can only feel a little bit wronged and go eat Ikana's mother."

"Fack you!"

Paris: ╭∩╮(￣︿￣)╭∩╮