Chapter 234: Year-End Dividends

Words : 1319 Updated : Oct 12th, 2025

With the release of annual reports, Wall Street experienced the darkest year yet. Steel, military, automotive, construction -- basically every manufacturing industry you can think of was nearly entirely in the negative. It was truly a time of "who did worse." What? You lost 200 million? I did okay, just lost under 100 million. Well, even though the ones losing 100 million didn't show a rise, they did at least stop falling. "What? Distributing dividends of 300 million dollars? Are you sure you read that right?" "Sir, the comic company also distributed over 200 million." "Tsk, this guy is really going for high dividends?" "That's exactly the case. Both companies suspended trading today; otherwise, they would've skyrocketed." Yeah, you don't even need to understand stocks to realize that someone who can give out 300 million in dividends must be turning a hefty profit. To put it bluntly, distributing dividends is a must. It's either that or choose to increase capital via shares. Otherwise, it's hard to justify having billions of dollars just lying around. If you're not going to invest, you might as well delist. So here come the dividends. People often talk about how profitable he is, but many don't give it much thought. Their first reaction is to think of the Dutch tulip mania. To many, William White seemed like a beautiful bubble, and they were waiting for it to burst so they could have a good laugh. Unfortunately for them, they didn't get to see his bubble burst; instead, they witnessed a massive payout. Most people could only watch. William White's enterprises announced that the reason for the massive dividend was that the company's fundamentals were strong, and there wouldn't be a significant capital need in the short term. The company also promised that next year's dividend would not be less than 50% of the net profit. What? 50%? Where's their annual report? It hasn't been released; they only disclosed it early to avoid causing extreme stock fluctuations. Along with this disclosure came news of their sizable dividends. To say the least, it certainly drew some envious eyes. Huge dividends aside, there was even equity incentive. So, it's still unsure whether it's considered a major enterprise. Among high-paying companies in America, this one definitely ranks up there. "Heh, no wonder their people can't be poached, with such a generous offer; even I want to work there." A bunch of envious and bitter financial groups looked at the early annual reports they received. They knew William White was making money, but not that it was to this ridiculous extent. Now they knew, and probably the whole world did too. High dividends sometimes don't mean much. If you're paying out high dividends, it naturally means you're lacking in expansion motivation. But the problem is, they're really making a lot of money! In actuality, the dividends weren't limited to two public companies. In fact, all of his enterprises were giving out bonuses. Such extravagant year-end bonuses seemed unsustainable, but regardless of others' opinions, he was very happy. Everyone else was struggling, but suddenly there's someone doing exceptionally well, and it's just annoying for others. Well, there was at least one happy entity. Whether you give out bonuses or not, as long as you pay taxes on time, all is good. In truth, many Wall Street fund managers were complaining. If William White produced all of his own products, it wouldn't just be 300 million; it could even be 500 million. But William White couldn't care less about those who always liked saying "if only." If it were really that simple, why didn't they do it themselves? Well, just one comment shut up a bunch of fools. Doesn't setting up a factory cost money? Doesn't buying equipment cost money? Also, where exactly would you find those workers? Hold on, isn't the unemployment rate in America at 20%, with millions out of work? Haha, are you planning to have steelworkers assemble gaming consoles? This unemployment wave in America was due to a deadly shock therapy that required weeding out all outdated production capacities. Check out Silicon Valley now; they still need workers. If setting up a factory were that easy, IBM's products would have become cheaper. Don't even talk about electronic factories. Haven't CPU and memory factories relocated? Sometimes, William White just couldn't understand these people. Weren't these high-tech factories supposed to be protected? Why benefit those "shorties"? Could it be fattening them up for slaughter? Haha, probably. One Plaza Accord, and America took away two decades from Japan. Who knows how much wealth was involved? It must be measured in the trillions; otherwise, it wouldn't have been so disastrous. William White definitely had reason to distribute bonuses. His investments in Japan were beginning to pay off. From that moment, he decided to really take a chunk out of this "fat pig." ... Rumble in the Bronx was completed, but post-production would have to wait until the next year. If possible, he hoped to delay it a bit. This year's movie box office was impressive and, from a certain angle, it's likely borrowing against next year's box office success. Steven Spielberg was overjoyed as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial had grossed over 700 million globally. At this rate, cracking 800 million dollars seemed certain. As for William White's Speed, though it surpassed 600 million dollars, it probably wasn't going to catch up to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. A failure? Haha, if you call that a failure, other directors might as well jump into the ocean. While others worried about surpassing one hundred million dollars, you managed three hundred million in North America and six hundred million globally, yet it's still considered a failure? Even that so-called flop movie still made 80 million dollars in North America and had nearly 200 million global box office sales. Goodness, that was an art film. How much did its so-called competitor make? Practically nothing! Worldwide gross of less than 20 million; they might not even break even. Winning an Oscar would be nice, but next year's Oscars seemed tough. The prestige and value of the award certainly needed to be scrutinized. Don't become the target of public criticism; William White's fans are no bunch of goody-two-shoes. Actually, William White didn't care much for the Oscars right now. He had no dissatisfaction with the box office of Speed either. Are you kidding? Six hundred million dollars globally -- that's almost a miracle. And E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial? Haha, that's a legendary tale. In fact, it should be the highest-grossing film ever. Titanic's release didn't have the same financial worth of the dollar. Investors in the film were thrilled -- they hadn't expected such a fantastic outcome. While their box office was great, it's Speed's crew who were about to receive a big payday. The bonus amounts were more or less decided. Better to hand it out early so everyone could celebrate a prosperous year. ... "Silk, your skills have improved." "Hmph, I have no idea where you learned all those tricks and frills." William White didn't want to delve into that topic, so he changed the subject directly. "Nastassja, what are your plans next? Are you going for commercial films or art films?" "Won't be doing those anymore. Art films don't make money, and I need cash." "Don't take any job just because. If you take on too many flop movies, you'll become box office poison. It's best to recharge yourself. Looks alone won't cut it." "Tsk, I have this too." ***** https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.

Chapter 234: Year-End Dividends

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