"Western Mustang Fund shorted all mobile phone companies in one fell swoop!"
"Little Swift predicts the mobile phone industry is about to collapse!"
Soon, a series of such alarming headlines appeared in major financial media magazines, causing considerable market chaos.
After all, Little Swift was at least on par with Soros, if not a financial god, and his every move carried significant weight.
The news that Little Swift was steering the third phase of the Western Mustang Fund, injecting $40 billion in cash and going all-in on mobile phone companies by shorting the stocks of twelve companies, clearly signaled a bearish outlook on the entire mobile phone industry.
"I'm familiar with this script, it's the same as Yahoo's last year!" many veteran investors exclaimed, finding the current situation all too familiar.
Because around this time last year, in August, the Western Mustang Fund had launched its second phase. The first step after receiving the funds was to directly short Yahoo, which was then considered a behemoth.
At the time, many found it laughable and absurd. How could the mighty Yahoo decline?
Yet, as it turned out, anything was possible. After Yahoo drove away Google, it lost Google Search and began a steep decline. Its traffic dwindled, and its advertising revenue, its lifeblood, plummeted by over 70% in just one year.
This led to a continuous plunge in Yahoo's stock price. To date, it had fallen by over 400%, with its market capitalization now only slightly over $20 billion. It was evident to anyone that this tiger of a company was likely on its last legs.
Conversely, the Google stock invested in by the Western Mustang Fund had surged continuously. Its total market capitalization had reached $21 billion, and the Western Mustang Fund had profited by over 50% on its Google investment.
Google's total market capitalization now surpassed Yahoo's $20 billion valuation, effectively defeating its rival.
Such a dramatic shift in just one year was terrifying. Some speculated that the Western Mustang Fund was behind some malicious scheme, or that Little Swift was using his reputation to suppress Yahoo.
However, a year later, looking at the global market environment, countless experts had to admit that Yahoo's downfall had little to do with competitive pressure. Its true downfall stemmed from market changes.
Previously, portal websites were the mainstream traffic gateways, allowing Yahoo to dominate. But now, portal websites no longer met the needs of netizens. Users demanded faster search engines as their gateway to the internet. Consequently, search engine companies would ascend to the pinnacle, and businesses needed to adapt to these shifts, moving from one trend to another.
Yahoo, which possessed Google, could have easily made this transition. However, Yahoo stubbornly drove Google away and instead developed its own Yahoo Search, which was still highly unreliable and plagued with bugs.
This wasn't a transition from one trend to another; it was a direct plunge into the abyss.
The great Black financial god, Mr. Little Swift, had seen through this market trend and Yahoo's foolish actions, thus shorting Yahoo Group to achieve astonishing profits.
Now, history seemed to be repeating itself. The new phase of the Western Mustang Fund began by directly shorting the entire mobile phone industry. Did this mean that Little Swift, the stock market guru, had completely lost faith in the mobile phone industry's development, believing it was headed for decline?
Many recalled the statement made by the Jiangnan Group at a previous conference, asserting that the mobile phone industry was doomed to failure within fifteen years, and that the future belonged to PT... However, they still had no idea what this "PT" actually was.
But undoubtedly, the mobile phone industry's future was uncertain.
For a time, the entire mobile phone industry felt a sense of dread. On the very day the news was announced, the stocks of all twelve mobile phone companies plummeted.
It was important to note that the combined market capitalization of these twelve mobile phone companies exceeded $500 billion, a truly formidable market. Even with the Western Mustang Fund's entire $40 billion invested, it would be difficult to shake the entire market.
Yet, the market had indeed been shaken. Although the price drop wasn't significant, only around 5%, it indicated that Little Swift had already exerted considerable deterrence on the entire market.
Faced with this situation, the shorted mobile phone companies naturally could not remain complacent. Consequently, an article soon appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
In this article, the author, posing as an insider, provided readers with a detailed account of the secrets behind the Western Mustang Fund's shorting of mobile phone companies.
According to this insider, Atari Mobile Communications and the 00 Game Platform were engaged in fierce competition with American mobile phone companies, both desperately trying to capture the burgeoning mobile gaming market.
Both Atari Mobile Communications and the 00 Game Platform were backed by a Chinese enterprise named Jiangnan Group. And Jiangnan Group was, in fact, the controlling entity behind the Western Mustang Fund, meaning these three companies were intrinsically linked.
Therefore, the Western Mustang Fund's announcement of shorting these twelve mobile phone companies was not due to Little Swift's pessimism about the entire mobile phone industry. On the contrary, Little Swift was extremely optimistic about the industry.
He had deliberately shown a bearish stance on these mobile phone companies to help his benefactor gain an advantage in the entire mobile phone market and capture more market share, aiming to cripple these companies and profit from his capital.
The article also provided evidence: all twelve companies targeted were those that had not joined the 00 Game Platform, making them competitors of Jiangnan Group. None of the companies being shorted had joined the 00 Game Platform.
Thus, this was merely a despicable tactic employed by Jiangnan Group for market competition. The mobile phone market, far from declining, would only continue to expand in the future.
The article cited data: in 2000, global mobile phone ownership was 220 million units. By 2004, this figure had exceeded 600 million units, nearly tripling the market in four years.
While a threefold increase in another four years might be unlikely, a twofold increase was still highly probable, reaching 1.2 billion mobile phones globally. With such massive market growth, how could mobile phone company stocks fall? These stocks should only continue to rise.
Therefore, this was undeniably a financial maneuver by Jiangnan Group. The article concluded by urging all observers not to be deceived, to trust the market's direction, to hold onto their shares steadfastly, and that the value of these stocks would undoubtedly multiply in the future.
Upon publication, the article was immediately reposted by numerous media outlets, creating a widespread buzz and ensuring that most investors saw it promptly.
Moreover, the article presented a wealth of detailed data and evidence, including many first-time disclosures of internal company confidential data. No one knew how the author obtained such precise figures, but the official company seals on the documents were undeniable.
Consequently, after a brief decline, the stock prices of these mobile phone companies quickly rebounded and even saw a slight increase.
Compared to the ebb and flow of the financial markets, these mobile phone companies remained remarkably calm internally. While some employees expressed concern, senior management quickly issued statements in meetings, asserting that their companies' performance continued to rise, the market was expanding, and monthly mobile phone sales were higher than the same period last year.
These facts supported the notion that the mobile phone industry was not only surviving but thriving. Employees were encouraged to work with peace of mind and not to worry unnecessarily.
These were indeed truthful statements. The senior executives of these mobile phone companies genuinely believed this, as the concrete industry data was undeniable. There was no reason to believe their companies were doomed simply because of the pronouncements of a few Black individuals.
To attribute these pronouncements to rival forces behind the scenes was clearly an accusation of slander.
Indeed, such slander perfectly demonstrated the competitors' insecurity and incompetence, as they had no other means of defeating them besides resorting to such tactics. Once the jointly developed mobile game platforms were successfully developed and launched into the market, they would decisively crush those pesky competitors.
In fact, it wasn't just the executives of companies that had not cooperated with the 00 Game Platform who felt this way. Even those companies that had partnered with the 00 Game Platform were beginning to feel regret!
"Mr. Bannon, you don't look well!" Grant said to his friend, Bannon, the chairman of Bell Mobile, in a high-end coffee shop in Manhattan.
Bell Mobile was a very old American telecommunications equipment enterprise, with its predecessor being the renowned Bell Labs, the very originator of the telephone, the ancestor of the global telecommunications industry.
Of course, the U.S. government later ruled that Bell was not the sole inventor of the telephone, but had instead stolen the research results of Antonio Meucci, a fellow researcher.
Meucci, unable to afford the $300 patent application fee, had consistently failed to secure a patent. In contrast, Bell had paid the patent application fee first and thus became the owner of the telephone patent.
Subsequently, Bell founded the Bell Telephone Company, becoming the world's first enterprise solely dedicated to telephone services.
Through continuous commercial competition and development, the Bell Telephone Company underwent various divisions and mergers, with its main force eventually evolving into the second generation of American telecommunications providers: AT&T.
The entity that was originally responsible for manufacturing telephones inherited the Bell name and became Bell Telephone Company, holding both fixed-line and mobile phone businesses.