Bab 255: Chapter 252: The Market Value of Link Music

"Hey, Eva, are you dating Link?"

Bob Lauren of the Lauren family asked.

"Why do you ask?"

Ivanka held her wine glass, looked at Link surrounded by women, and smiled slightly.

"I heard Link has a girlfriend, Taylor Swift, right? Is this a love triangle?"

Bob Lauren grinned, his toad-like mouth forming a wide smile.

Ivanka shrugged, neither confirming nor denying.

Seeing Ivanka's attitude, the surrounding wealthy young men all looked unhappy. Ivanka was the most outstanding girl in their circle, talented and capable, and always a popular candidate for marriage.

Originally, her family had encountered a financial crisis and needed a large amount of money to save the TP Group's industries, which was a good opportunity for everyone to strike.

However, a beach boy named Link suddenly appeared beside Ivanka, and the two partnered to create Link Music. Even more surprising, they made Link Music very successful.

According to the Wall Street Journal's year-end estimate, Link Music, with three best-selling singers, was currently valued at over $100 million, about $150 million.

As the president of Link Music, Ivanka had also become a star figure in New York's high society. The heads of various families asked the younger generation to learn from Ivanka, and many people hoped that their children and grandchildren could marry her.

Having such a smart, capable, and management-savvy female member would be more beneficial to the family's development.

Unfortunately, since Ivanka started working with Link, she rarely participated in their gatherings, no longer interacted with other men, and was very careful when accepting invitations from other men to avoid rumors.

It was as if she had married Link, giving her body and soul to him.

This change made everyone very jealous of Link. They had the chance to woo Ivanka before, but they weren't interested. Now they couldn't, and they felt Ivanka was becoming more and more beautiful, haunting their dreams.

The representative figure of this was young Kynas.

He had never pursued a girl for more than a month, but this time, to pursue Ivanka, he spent a year, and didn't even get to hold her hand.

The more it was like this, the more determined he was to have Ivanka.

"Hi Eva, there's an Andrea Bocelli concert at Carnegie Hall next week. Would you like to go together?"

Young Kynas, dressed in a suit and with meticulously combed hair, stepped forward and asked politely.

"Reid, the New Year is coming, and there's a lot of work at the company. I haven't had a day off in a month, and next week will be the same."

Ivanka declined politely.

"Alright!"

Young Kynas shrugged, squinted his eyes, and glanced at her chest, smiling, "Eva, I'm going to work at Atlantic Records as the vice president of the distribution company. Starting next year, we'll be in the same industry. I hope we'll have more opportunities for cooperation."

"Oh?"

Ivanka was a little surprised; she hadn't heard about this before.

"Haha, the music industry is very profitable now. My father has a small portion of Atlantic Records' stock and is a member of the board of directors. Now I'm taking over this position."

Young Kynas said, swirling his wine glass.

"Congratulations! Welcome to the music industry."

Ivanka held her wine glass and chuckled.

"Haha, Ivanka, look at Reid. He gave up the position of president of Kynas Real Estate Management for you. He's so devoted."

"Yes, Ivanka, we always thought you and Reid were a couple."

A few young men came over and said.

Ivanka smiled noncommittally, then suddenly saw Link approaching. She excused herself, stepped on her high heels, and swayed her ample hips towards Link.

"There are so many beautiful women, why not chat a little longer?"

Ivanka asked softly.

Link wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It's terrible. At a high-society party, someone would secretly touch my butt, and not just one."

"Really?"

Ivanka covered her mouth with her wine glass and laughed, almost losing her composure. She suppressed her laughter and said, "If something like this happened, why not look for the reason in yourself? Is it because your butt is too perky that they couldn't help but reach out?"

"You're right, it might be my fault."

Link glanced at her and saw the playful look on her face. He couldn't help but put his hand on her slender waist, his palm slowly sliding down, and the steeper the slope, the more his hand felt like it was sinking into a swamp.

"What are you doing?"

Ivanka's face changed, and she asked coldly.

"If something like this happened, why not look for the reason in yourself? Is it because your butt is too perky that he couldn't help but reach out?"

"Hmph! You're such a nasty bastard!"

Ivanka couldn't help but laugh and pinched his waist.

Then Link heard a gnashing of teeth behind him, which was creepy.

"Stop fooling around, I have something to tell you."

Ivanka took his arm and walked through the party, greeting the guests as they passed, and telling him about young Kynas joining Atlantic Records.

Ivanka said that young Kynas was narrow-minded and that after joining Atlantic Records, he might affect the cooperation between Link Music and Atlantic Records, such as the overseas distribution of Mars' album, which was handled by Atlantic Records.

Now that young Kynas was the vice president of Atlantic Records' distribution company, he would definitely make things difficult in this regard.

"Is there any way to solve this?"

"There's no big problem for now. Mars' album is selling well, and they won't deliberately cause trouble and prevent both sides from making money. The problem is that young Kynas might interfere with the album production."

Ivanka said thoughtfully.

As Link Music was a new company, it had too few musicians under its banner, and even fewer of various types.

For example, when producing rock, rap, and R&B songs, they often needed to borrow people from other record companies.

Atlantic Records was headquartered in Manhattan, New York, with more musicians and closer to Link Music, making it one of Link Music's frequent collaborators.

If young Kynas intervened, it would affect Link Music's work.

"We're not short of money now, we can recruit more talent."

Link said thoughtfully.

Ivanka nodded, greeted the approaching guests, and continued, "I forgot to tell you that last week Atlantic Records made an offer to acquire 30% of Link Music for $40 million. Now that I think about it, this might have been young Kynas' idea."

"$40 million?"

Link shook his head. In November, Universal Music offered $50 million to acquire 50% of Link Music, which he and Ivanka rejected.

Neither he nor Ivanka was short of money. $50 million was only equivalent to his income from one boxing match, a matter of minutes.

If they accepted Universal Music's investment, Universal would send people to Link Music's management, at least at the vice president level.

At that time, Ivanka's power would be greatly divided, and he would need to listen to their arrangements, increasing his workload.

This was not what he wanted.

He and Ivanka proposed $40 million for 30% of Universal Music's shares to facilitate in-depth cooperation with Universal Music.

Universal Music felt that the share was too small and did not agree for the time being.

Now Atlantic Records was proposing to invest, and Atlantic Records was a subsidiary of Warner Music WEA. Letting Atlantic Records invest was equivalent to being a younger brother to the elder brother's younger brother, which was not good enough. It was better to cooperate with Universal Music.

"Hi, Miss Eva! Mr. Baker!"

A middle-aged man in his forties came over to greet them. He was wearing a suit, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, looking gentle and refined.

Link was a little surprised. Many people had greeted him just now, mostly calling him 'Link,' but this person called him 'Mr. Baker' as soon as they met.

"Mr. Woolridge, didn't Lana come?"

Ivanka stepped forward to greet him.

"Haha, she's a little tired from her concert a few days ago and is resting at home these days."

The middle-aged man came over, shook hands with Ivanka, and then thanked Link, "Miss Eva, Mr. Baker, thank you for your help. Liz has been in a much better state recently, very cheerful every day, and no longer goes out to drink and fight. Her mother and I are very grateful to you."

Link was confused, completely unaware of what the man was thanking them for. He looked at Ivanka in confusion.

Ivanka winked at him and smiled, "Mr. Woolridge, we should thank you. Lana is more talented and has more potential than we imagined. She is now one of the pillars of Link Music."

"Haha, this is all thanks to you. You made Liz what she is today. Mr. Baker, I often hear Lana mention you at home. She says you are very talented and she admires you very much. Please come to our house as a guest sometime."

The middle-aged man said enthusiastically.

"Okay, definitely!"

Link heard that the other party seemed to be someone related to Lana, so he smiled and nodded. After the man left, Link pulled Ivanka, "Who is he? Lana's husband?"

"Nonsense, he's Lana's father."

Ivanka smiled slightly, pulling him along as she said, "Mr. Woolridge is also a billionaire, with more than a dozen decoration and furniture companies under his name. He's one of TP Real Estate's important clients. At a gathering in April or May, he heard that I was the president of Link Music and mentioned that he had a daughter who had been rebellious and disobedient since childhood, wanting to be a singer but never succeeding. He recommended Lana to me, and then I saw Lana's singing video on YouTube and felt that she was very good, so I invited you to listen, and it turned out to be a surprise."

Link remembered that day at the Rooftop bar, when Ivanka asked Lana if she had her family's permission to drop out of school and sing. Lana said no, saying that singing was her dream and had nothing to do with her family. Ivanka had a strange smile on her face.

At the time, Link thought Ivanka agreed with Lana and supported her in pursuing her dreams.

Now that he thought about it, he understood why she asked that question.

"So Lana is also a rich second generation?"

"Yes, if you want to woo Lana, I can tell you how to get her."

Ivanka smiled.

"Link Music prohibits office romance."

"I'm the president, I have the final say."

Ivanka raised her delicate chin and smiled slightly.

"Eva? You're here!"

As they were chatting, they heard a loud and distinctive voice behind them. It was Ivanka's father. Link shrugged, knowing that today's party was over.

(End of chapter)