[Chapter 379: African Tree Planting Initiative]
New York, Park Avenue, BlackRock Headquarters.
Co-President Robert Kapito had read through an investnt report from Los Angeles and took it out of his office to et with the chairman and CEO, Larry Fink. "This just ca in from the film investnt fund company," Kapito placed the report on Fink's desk.
Fink put on his glasses and quickly looked it over, "At the last board expansion eting, Ralph and Charles indicated they wanted to dissolve the film investnt fund due to the failure of Brokeback Mountain during the Hollywood award season."
Kapito leaned back in his chair and replied, "Anderson and Haas initiated a surveillance operation and successfully installed listening devices within Twitter's upper managent. Our tensions with Twitter have sharpened. Given Hawke Osnt's approach, do you think our two companies will coexist peacefully?"
"Peacefully? I couldn't disagree more. I need to give Douglas's family an explanation," Fink said after reading the investnt report and setting it aside. "Our positions have made it impossible for us to coexist peacefully. I suspect that the series of events during the Hollywood award season is linked to Hawke Osnt and Twitter."
Kapito shook his head, "We don't have any evidence to support that claim."
Fink let out a derisive laugh, "Robert, so things only require us to consider the positions and interests involved, not necessarily evidence."
Kapito nodded lightly, "Since our IPO in 1999, the first two years went smoothly, but we faced challenges starting in 2001. I hoped for improvent this year, invested heavily in John Kerry, only for those two fools to ruin it in California, making our anticipated rapid growth over the next four years difficult to achieve."
"Not to ntion the growing adversaries we're facing, which complicates matters," Fink reminded him. "From our past dealings with Twitter, Hawke Osnt is decisive and unsparing. He may not be exceptionally powerful yet, but once he is..."
Kapito sighed, "Unfortunately, our hacking attempts were ineffective. Twitter's defenses are stronger than expected. According to our tech experts, Twitter's core algorithms are quite advanced, and they have nurous cybersecurity experts internally, making their firewalls hard to breach."
Fink thought of the late Douglas, feeling that Hawke Osnt would treat him similarly, he said, "Since Hawke Osnt allied with the Ferguson family, things have beco particularly chaotic in Los Angeles. The Democrats lost the city because of it. I believe so of these issues are related to Hawke Osnt."
Kapito asked, "What do you intend to do about it?"
"On one hand, we'll send people to investigate and see if we can uncover anything useful," Fink said quickly. "On the other hand, we need to increase our hacking efforts to expose Twitter's secrets."
He paused for a mont and continued, "Additionally, we need to take action both comrcially and politically. The forr involves directly targeting Twitter and Hawke Osnt's business investnts. The social dia market is vast, and Twitter holds the largest share. We can work through the Democrats to see if the Federal Trade Commission might initiate an antitrust investigation."
Kapito added, "Silicon Valley has social dia companies as well, although they are smaller in scale. We could invest in supporting them."
Fink agreed, "Let's convene a eting about this as soon as possible."
Kapito gestured at the investnt report, "And this?"
"It's a sha it's not LGBTQ-thed," Fink lanted about the marginal community initiative. "Since it's akin to the Lord of the Rings the, we can invest, but let them know our focus remains on marginal community films."
BlackRock pushed the investnt plan for The Golden Compass into the review process.
---
In Los Angeles, Hawke, representing the newly founded West Coast Investnt Fund, called New Line Cinema, specifically sending Edward to pick up so materials regarding The Golden Compass investnt.
These tasks ca easy to him, and after finishing, Hawke set it aside.
After all, fishing for opportunities relied heavily on luck.
As the new week began, Twitter started moving offices, with each departnt gradually relocating to Coast Tower. The chairman's office was among the first to be moved.
...
Hawke took the ti to et with Jett Brown, his neighbor from the rental villa in Santa Monica and a senior recruiting manager at Glimr International Talent Consulting.
Jett arrived at Coast Tower and took the private elevator to the 16th floor. Before entering the office, he tightened his tie, buttoned his suit jacket, and tidied his hair a little.
In the past year, Jett had frequently collaborated with Twitter, making them his top client.
Once inside, Jett quickly approached Hawke for a handshake, complinting, "Twitter's new office building is fantastic; it's so big! Without a guide, it's easy to get lost."
Hawke motioned for him to sit and got straight to the point: "I brought you in today for recruitnt matters."
Having worked together on multiple occasions, Jett had successfully recruited reliable personnel, especially technical talents specializing in firewalls, who rited Twitter's high salaries.
Twitter had faced several hacking attempts, all successfully mitigated by these recruits.
Jett imdiately focused and replied, "As long as you need , I can travel worldwide to find suitable talent for you."
Hawke elaborated, "After the New Year, I established the West Coast Investnt Company via the Cayman Islands, and there will be a series of investnt financing efforts ahead. I need a manager with a strong executive ability to assist with investnt matters."
Jett asked, "Is this an independent investnt company separate from Twitter?"
"It's my personal investnt company," Hawke clarified, giving an example: "Similar to how Blackstone Group and Vanguard International operated in their initial stages, I will inject a portion of personal funds and also raise funds through the market."
He emphasized, "When recruiting, make sure to conduct thorough background checks; no ties to BlackRock."
Jett took out a notepad and ticulously recorded Hawke's requirents: "I will find suitable candidates as soon as possible."
Hawke added, "Ideally, within two months, I'd like it wrapped up."
"I'll get you so candidates as soon as possible," Jett quickly excused himself.
---
The newly appointed assistant to the chairman, Lucat, entered the office then and said, "The chairman of the charity foundation, Pierce Madden, is in the conference room."
Hawke left his office to et him.
Since taking over, Pierce, chairman of the Osnt Charitable Foundation, had been reorganizing the four charity aid stations inherited from the FBI.
Pierce opened his briefcase and handed over two files: "These are the properties and staff lists of the four aid stations. All personnel that originally belonged to the Ackerman Charitable Foundation have left since their closure. I didn't rehire them and instead conducted a complete recruitnt, also accepting volunteers. This strategy effectively lowers costs."
Hawke read through the list carefully, responding, "The foundation mandates that five percent of our funds must be used for charitable purposes."
Pierce smiled, "As your inco increases, the five percent of donations will more than suffice to maintain the aid stations. We'll soon need new charitable initiatives."
Hawke then inquired, "Do you have any suggestions?"
Pierce pointed to the second file: "This is a tree planting initiative for Africa, aid at improving the ecological environnt for its people. It will require substantial investnt and aligns with mainstream North Arican charitable values."
Hawke reviewed the list of properties and then focused on the proposal.
Pierce continued, "Boss, your inco is set to soar. Even if investnts provide tax relief, you will still face high tax paynts each year. Donating a portion of those funds to the charitable foundation is in compliance with federal law. However, allocating five percent of this money to street holess would be a waste, especially when our charity aid stations would also receive support from Los Angeles authorities and the state governnt, incurring minimal expenses."
He further explained, "The African tree planting initiative can be genuinely executed by employing a number of cheap local workers to plant trees. Not too many are needed, as drought conditions in Africa may cause newly planted trees to die off. It is also common for locals to uproot trees for firewood due to lacking food and fuel. Any surplus funds can be redirected to other endeavors."
Hawke perceived this as only a preliminary plan, saying, "You need to prepare a detailed plan for this."
Pierce affird, "Sure thing."
Hawke discussed a few more details about the aid stations. The two aid stations in the downtown and Hollywood districts needed to comnce operations promptly, which was a municipal requirent.
The two locations in Long Beach and Orange County also needed to be back on track by the beginning of next month at the latest.
---
In the afternoon, Campos approached him, stating, "The Hurricane rcenary Company is preparing to expand and upgrade their equipnt. Bosque has seriously considered our investnt proposal and is willing to accept our sponsorship and investnt."
Hawke had several hundred million dollars in funds left by Buddy Ackerman at his disposal. This money could be moved freely.
After considering, he instructed, "You go handle this personally, talk to Bosque. Accepting our sponsorship ans prioritizing the tasks we assign."
Campos nodded, "I will head to Costa Rica tomorrow."
Hawke asked, "How are Fiona, Rosa, and Solana doing?"
Campos responded, "In the previous series of conflicts, all three played significant roles and managed to secure funding sponsorships. They are now mid-level managent, but they still need ti to reach senior levels, requiring notable performances in so specific incidents."
Hawke cautioned, "Make sure they stay alert regarding their organization's dealings with BlackRock, especially the Mattachine Society."
"Understood," Campos suggested, "I'm planning to initiate a few small-scale operations to elevate their statuses in the organization and maximize their influence."
Hawke agreed, "Sounds good."
With those matters settled, Campos quickly departed to return to the new headquarters of Butterfly Security Company and called Betty.
He arranged for Betty to connect with Fiona and the other two, and also booked tickets for a trip to Latin Arica.
*****
/Sayonara816.
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