INT. HOTEL BALLROOM - DAYHere's the last part of the scene:
The annual Teldar Paper stockholders' meeting is in session:
400 stockholders are there -- many middle aged and older,
one bag lady. Cromwell sits on an elevated platform at the
front of the room surrounded by an army of bulky EXECUTIVES,
none of them weighing less than 200 pounds, ACCOUNTANTS and
LAWYERS. Gekko in contrast seems like Robin Hood seated with
Alex, Harold, Bud and the other stockholders. Cromwell is
delivering his prepared attack on Gekko in a highly
sarcastic, gruff manner.
CROMWELL
...Your company, ladies and
gentlemen, is under siege from
Gordon Gekko.
Teldar Paper is now leveraged to
the hilt, like some poor South
American country...instead of using
our cash to build plants, build our
business, all this man really wants
is to get paid to withdraw his
tender offer and that will cost us
approximately another $200 million
in greenmail which will be passed
on to the consumer...
Gekko seething, jumps up.
GEKKO
Where do you get off speaking about
me like that, making remarks to the
press, I resent these remarks, I
demand the right to speak.
CROMWELL
Sit down, sir, you're out of order,
haven't you done enough damage to
Teldar as it is?...have you no
sense of decency?
(to shareholders)
How can your management...
Gekko is urged to sit down by his people but we hear various
catcalls, "Let the man speak!" "Sit down, Gekko!"
CROMWELL (CONT'D)
...concentrate on long term growth
when we're busy fighting the get-
rich-quick, short term profit, slot
machine mentality of Wall Street
when we should be fighting Japan!
The original fundamental reason for
Wall Street was to capitalize
American business, underwrite new
business, build companies, build
America. The "deal" has now
succeeded goods and services as
America's gross national product
and in the process, we are
undermining our foundation. This
cancer is called "greed". Greed and
speculation have replaced long-term
investment. Corporations are being
taken apart like erector sets,
without any consideration of the
public good. I strongly recommend
you to see through Mr. Gekko's
shameless intention here to
strip this company and severely
penalize the stockholders. I
strongly recommend you to reject
his tender by voting for
management's restructuring of the
stock.
CUT TO:
Gekko is now at floor level with a microphone. He's calmer,
makes his pitch to the stockholders, looking up at the
management.
GEKKO
...I appreciate the chance you're
giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the
single largest stockholder in
Teldar, to speak.
(gets some laughter
and applause, loosens)
On the way here today I saw a
bumper sticker. It said, "Life is a
[hassle]... then you die".
(gets another laugh)
...well ladies and gentlemen, we're
not here to indulge in fantasies,
but in political and economic
reality. America has become a
second rate power. Our trade
deficit and fiscal deficit are at
nightmare proportions. In the days
of the 'free market' when our
country was a top industrial power,
there was accountability to the
shareholders. The Carnegies, the
Mellons, the man who built this
industrial empire, made sure of it
because it was their money at stake.
Today management has no stake in
the company. Altogether these guys
sitting up there own a total of
less than 3% and where does Mr.
Cromwell put his million dollar
salary? Certainly not in Teldar
stock, he owns less than 1%.
You own Teldar Paper, the
stockholders, and you are being
royally screwed over by these
bureaucrats with their steak
lunches, golf and hunting trips,
corporate jets, and golden
parachutes! Teldar Paper has 33
different vice presidents each
earning over $200,000 a year. I
spent two months analyzing what
these guys did and I still can't
figure it out.
(a big laugh)
Cromwell is upset.
CROMWELL
This is an outrage Gekko! You're
full of [crap]!
GEKKO
One thing I do know is this paper
company lost $110 million last
year, and I'd bet half of that is
in the paperwork going back and
forth between all the vice
presidents...
(increased laughter,
he's getting them)
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. Teldar Paper
is doomed to fail. Its
diversification into casualty
insurance has not worked. Its crown
jewels are its trees, the rest is
dross. Through wars, depressions,
inflations and deterioration of
paper money, trees have always kept
their value, but Teldar is chopping
them all down. Forests are
perishable, forest rights are as
important as human rights to this
planet, and all the illusory
Maginot lines, scorched earth
tactics, proxy fights, poison
pills, etc. that Mr.
Cromwell is going to come up with
to prevent people like me from
buying Teldar Paper are doomed to
fail because the bottom line,
ladies and gentlemen, as you very
well know, is the only way to stay
strong is to create value, that's
why you buy stock, to have it go up.
If there's any other reason, I've
never hear it.
(laughter)
That's all I'm saying...it's you
people who own this company, not
them, they work for you and they've
done a lousy job of it. Get rid of
them fast, before you all get sick
and die. I may be an opportunist,
but if these clowns did a better
job, I'd be out of work. In the
last seven deals I've been in,
there were 2.3 million stockholders
that actually made a pretax profit
of $12 billion. When I bought the
Ixtlan Corporation it was in the
exact same position Teldar is
today -- I turned three of its
companies private and I sold four
others -- and each of these
companies, liberated from the
suffering conglomerate has
prospered. I am not a destroyer of
companies, I am a liberator of them.
The point is, ladies and gentlemen,
greed is good. Greed works, greed
is right. Greed clarifies, cuts
through, and captures the essence
of the evolutionary spirit. Greed
in all its forms, greed for life,
money, love, knowledge, has marked
the upward surge of mankind -- and
greed, mark my words -- will save
not only Teldar Paper but that
other malfunctioning corporation
called the USA...Thank you.
Much applause as he sits. Now a standing ovation; shouts of
approval. Cromwell knows he has lost the day, tries to
continue the meeting by calling for "order".
Bud watches, impressed.
Now that's a monologue! Let's see if "too big to fail" becomes the 21st century business mantra that "greed is good" was to the swinging 90s.
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