pjbooks Chapter 257 Adults Only Value Interests
Chapter 257 Adults Only Value Interests
Chapter 257 Adults Only Value Interests
Just as Ernst had predicted, when the first rays of morning sunlight pierced through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Leap Games company's conference room, illuminating the long conference table, the original team that had participated in the shareholding negotiations had all arrived.
However, there was a new face in the meeting room today: next to Michael Moritz of Silicon Valley investment fund, sat Stephen Knox, CEO of Carlyle Capital.
Ernst and Stephen Knox had never met before, but their warm greetings before they sat down made anyone think they were longtime friends, with no trace of any previous conflict.
Stephen Knox's praise of Ernst was particularly exaggerated, to the point that even Michael Moritz couldn't help but think to himself: This flattery has no bottom line. We usually just lick people like little dogs, but he went straight to drooling like an old cow, every sip was full of fawning, it gave me goosebumps.
After everyone was seated, Ernst crossed his arms in front of the table, a meaningful smile on his face. "Gentlemen, what's your decision? I'm sure you've all thought it through regarding the issue of cashing out my shares in YueDong Games?"
At that moment, the words "a petty person who has achieved success" simultaneously popped into the minds of several representatives from Wall Street investment institutions.
In their eyes, Ernst's smile was not a friendly gesture at all, but a victor's boast, a smug look after a successful conspiracy.
As the saying goes, for every clever plan you have, there's a way to get around it.
Several Wall Street firms had already planned that since Ernst wanted to raise the share price by creating a competitive atmosphere, they would simply join forces to buy all of Ernst's shares that he was waiting to cash out for a total price of $5.5 million, and then split them equally, thus completely thwarting his scheme.
But who would have thought that as soon as the idea was voiced, it was discovered that the ladder was broken and unusable.
The three Wall Street representatives almost simultaneously turned their gaze to Stephen Knox, who was sitting calmly beside Michael Moritz. But in their eyes, he was the culprit who had ruined everything.
If Stephen Knox hadn't intervened and injected a lot of money into the Silicon Valley investment fund, how could their joint plan have failed so soon?
Stephen Knox immediately rejected the proposal from several Wall Street institutions to split the shares equally among the four shareholders, and instead proposed to acquire 5% of the shares on his own.
Will Wall Street give in? It used to be negotiable, but not anymore.
First, the capital in Silicon Valley is too arrogant; we must let them know who the boss is.
Furthermore, just before the negotiations, YueDong Games released a major piece of good news, which undoubtedly gave Ernst more leverage in the negotiations and made him stand even straighter.
It was Goldman Sachs' representative who broke the deadlock first, his tone revealing barely concealed helplessness: "Regarding the acquisition of your 10% stake..."
Regarding the matter of YueDong Games' shares, our institutions have reached a consensus.
"But the current issue is how to allocate these 10% of the shares; we still have disagreements about that."
Ernst nodded slowly upon hearing this, his tone as relaxed as if he were having a casual chat. "Oh? Is it because you all feel that you've taken on too many shares and are worried about the risks? That's alright, take as many as you can, and I'll find other buyers for the rest. I can't put everyone in a difficult position."
Upon hearing this, not only did the representatives of several Wall Street investment institutions change their expressions, but even Ryan Ruiz, who was sitting next to Ernst, couldn't help but roll his eyes.
This is clearly gloating!
The problem now isn't that there are too many shares to take over; it's clearly that there are too few shares to distribute.
It was intentional!
Everyone present knew that Ernst was saying that on purpose, but they were helpless to stop him.
In the end, they could only reluctantly say, "It's not that we can't take enough, but that the shares you cashed out aren't enough for all of us to share."
Then how about cashing out more?
Ernst would never say such a thing.
YueDong Games is still in its growth stage, and cashing out so much now will only make outsiders question the company's development prospects.
Moreover, he had already sent a certain credit signal by partially cashing out, and now his insistence on cashing out only 10% can further enhance these investment institutions' confidence in YueDong Games.
Ernst blinked, feigning surprise, and said with a hint of innocence, "Oh, is that so? That's a real problem. What should we do?"
"That's despicable!" Ryan Ruiz thought to himself. "If you weren't my boss, I would have stood up and kicked you right now."
""
Just as everyone was blushing with frustration, Ernst slowly offered his solution: "Since everyone wants it, let's stick to the old rules. We'll divide this 10% share into ten parts and hold a sealed-bid auction, with the highest bidder winning."
Not only is he cheap, but he's also cunning and wicked.
After the shares were divided into ten parts, those institutions that failed to secure shares in the earlier rounds would only drive up the price during the bidding process in order to get shares in YueDong Games.
But what can they do? If they object now, who can guarantee that Ernst won't come up with even more outrageous ideas?
Forget it, I'll just have to swallow my anger.
As a result, in the next twenty minutes or so, bids from various institutions poured into Ernst's hands like snowflakes.
The final transaction price for each share reached $58.2 million, which also meant that the valuation of Leap Games instantly soared to $5820 billion, an increase of $3.2 million.
Ernst, with just a little trickery, easily earned an extra $3200 million, successfully cashing out a massive sum of $5.82 million.
No wonder Ernst couldn't help but hum a little tune on his way back to his office, and his steps were much lighter than usual.
In this bidding process, Silicon Valley Capital, leveraging its partnership with Carlyle Group, secured a 4% stake, becoming the biggest winner.
The worst off was Morgan Stanley, which managed to acquire only 1% of the shares despite its best efforts, and still had to pay the highest transaction price of $5905 million.
Back in his office, Ryan Ruiz finally couldn't help but ask the question that had been bothering him: "Are you really that confident they won't band together and split the shares, ruining your plan?"
Upon hearing this, Ernst feigned confusion and asked, "What scheme? I was just following the normal procedure to cash out my shares."
Ryan Ruiz curled his lip, giving me a "don't play dumb" look. "At a time like this, you're still pretending to be stupid with me?"
Seeing this, Ernst couldn't help but laugh, his tone tinged with smugness. "They really won't unite, because this so-called alliance simply doesn't have a stable structure to maintain it. And the thing I asked you to push for yesterday is the very thing that's set them off fighting each other today."
The trigger Ernst mentioned was the major positive announcement from YueDong Games: their application to join the ESRB.
The ESRB stands for Entertainment Software Rating Board. To put it simply, it's like the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) for the gaming industry.
Their main responsibility is to classify games into rating categories to ensure that games containing violent, pornographic, or other extreme content are not accessed by unsuitable individuals.
In 1993, violent video games such as Midnight Trap and Mortal Kombat sparked huge social controversy, with countless parents spontaneously organizing protests and demanding that the government strictly regulate the video game market.
Under pressure from public opinion, the U.S. Congress held two hearings in December 1993 and March 1994, explicitly threatening the gaming industry that if it did not take the initiative to establish a regulatory mechanism, Congress would take action to legislate regulation.
Against this backdrop, the US gaming industry urgently established the Interactive Digital Software Association, and two months later, the ESRB was established based on it.
This association is responsible for rating games to ensure that games containing extreme content are only for suitable players.
Just like with movies, the introduction of a rating system will likely lead to a decrease in the potential user base for many games.
However, rules are made by people, and some classifications can be ambiguous.
Currently, only Jakarta and EA are listed on the ESRB.
In other words, these two companies are both players and referees, and other game companies have no say in the rating process.
The reason YueDong Games submitted this application is to compete for a referee position at the ESRB.
Once successfully joined, it will break the monopoly of Atari and EA and gain a place in the setting of industry rules.
The involvement of Carlyle Capital further convinced everyone that YueDong Games could secure the referee spot.
After all, everyone knows who's behind Carlyle Capital.
Furthermore, Carlyle Capital is headquartered in California, and there have been recent reports that California is planning to introduce a new bill that would include the gaming industry in the same low-tax category as the film industry.
With Carlyle Capital pushing for its implementation, the likelihood of this bill being passed is extremely high, and Leap Games, as a rising game company based in California, will undoubtedly be the biggest beneficiary.
In the adult world, there is no such thing as a sudden, unconditional connection; there is only mutual appreciation driven by self-interest.
Ernst and Stephen Knox acted like old friends the moment they met, simply because they both knew how much benefit their collaboration could bring.
Stephen Knox can help improve Carlyle Capital's investment returns through the development of Jump Games, while Ernst can rely on Carlyle Capital's resources to pave the way for Jump Games.