Led by two ace bodyguards, Zucker drove to UPN's headquarters building.
All right. It was a tiny four-story building, the kind that would not stand out at all in America.
And that was indeed the case. UPN's ratings were simply too low, and it lost a huge sum of money every year. Compared with the many television networks under Viacom Group, it had virtually no presence at all. Otherwise, Paramount would never have sold it to Zucker.
"Boss, you finally made it. If you hadn't come soon, I would've had to go to your villa myself." Attorney Zhang Wei had been waiting at the entrance for quite some time.
Of course, he was not waiting alone.
Several others stood beside him. They were all UPN executives.
As for UPN's original CEO, he had been reassigned to Viacom Group as soon as Zucker acquired the company.
"Sorry, everyone. I kept you waiting, didn't I?" Zucker pressed his palms together in apology.
"Mr. Wald, you're too polite."
What else could they say, Zhang Wei included?
Could they point at Zucker's nose and curse, "You're twenty minutes late, damn it?!"
Employees from the operations department, production department, home entertainment department, finance department, news department, and other departments—except reporters out on assignment—all 130 staff members had gathered in the first-floor lobby, waiting for new owner Zucker's speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, relax. It's not like I'm an ogre!"
Zucker's deliberately exaggerated joke did have some effect.
At the very least, it allowed the uneasy crowd to relax a little.
After all, in most cases, the first thing a new boss did was lay off some employees.
Average salaries in America might not be low, but the cost-of-living pressure they faced was extremely high as well. Mortgages, car loans, insurance, alimony, and so on were all