|
Well, I
appreciate the opportunity you're
giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the
single largest shareholder in Teldar
Paper, to speak. Well,
ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasy, but
in political and economic reality. America, America has become a
second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are
at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market,
when our country was a top industrial power, there was
accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons,
the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it
because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no
stake in the company!
All
together, these men sitting up here own less than 3 percent of
the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar
salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.
You own
the company. That's right -- you, the stockholder.
And you
are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats,
with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their
corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Cromwell:
This is an outrage! You're out of line, Gekko!
Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice
presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now,
I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys
do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that
our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll
bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back
and forth between all these vice presidents.
The new
law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of
the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you
get eliminated.
In the
last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5
million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion
dollars. Thank you.
I am not
a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!
The point
is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better
word -- is good.
Greed is
right.
Greed
works.
Greed
clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the
evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in
all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love,
knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed
-- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but
that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Thank you
very much.
|
