Chapter 97

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nAfter drinking with Jung Jinsup, Woosung called Jang Gwangchul.

n“What percentage of stocks were you able to buy so far?”

n“Hey! It’s 2 am in the morning!”

n“But this is important. Tell me.”

n“I didn’t have a lot of time, so only 10%.”

n“Fine. Keep going.”

nAfter the call, Woosung leaned back in his new car. He gave the car Jang Gwangchul gave him to his parents. Then, he got a new company car for himself.

nMercedes Maybach line.

nIt was worth 800,000 dollars.

nIt was more than a car. It felt so comfortable Woosung didn’t feel like he was riding one. It felt like he was sitting at home in a sofa.

n‘Jung Jinsup’s shares as collateral would get me 15%. I already have 10%. I will buy another 20%, which will make it to 45%. Then I will get my US company to buy 6%, which will make it a total of 51%.”

n51%.

nIt still didn’t feel enough. To terminate a CEO, the board of directors needed to be called for a meeting, but only the CEO had the power to call such a meeting.

nNo CEO would ever call for it, which meant he had to call for a shareholder’s meeting.

nThe meeting required the attendance of at least 1

/3 of the shareholders and 2

/3 of the attendees needed to agree on the decision.

nIf 100% of the shareholders attended, having 51% may not be enough. Woosung wanted to be sure of the outcome, which meant he needed to have 67%. He needed 16% more.

n16%.

nIf he made enough money during the Dubai Shock, it was possible.

n“We have arrived.”

nThe driver announced.

nIt was very late.

nThe moon shined brightly. Soon, Woosung knew he could steal MOX from Jung Jinsup. However, there was one more thing.

n“He probably has a lot of personal assets.”

nWoosung wanted to take everything from him. He wanted Jung Jinsup to have nothing.

n“What to do…”

nHe went inside his home and continued to think. The first thing he needed to do was to further decrease MOX’s sales. Suddenly, Woosung thought of something.

n“League of Ancient”

nIt was a game created by a relatively new game company RightNow. By 2018 in Woosung’s previous life, the game was a world-wide sensation. An eSport event was even held for the game with a prize of 5 million dollars.

nWoosung opened his computer quickly and searched for League of Ancient. At this point, it was only in the closed beta test stage, which meant it was currently being developed in America.

nIf he purchased the company and released the game in Korea, it could be the end of MOX once and for all. He could also make a lot of money from this game as well.

nThe next day, Woosung flew to America.

nRightNow game company.

nIts office wasn’t very far from KND’s headquarter in Silicon Valley. Based on Woosung’s research, it was a 3-year-old company with a big investment from a Chinese company Tencent.

nBy 2018, Tencent was one of the top internet service companies in the world.

nWhen they arrived at RightNow, Jang Gwangchul asked Woosung.

n“Can you just tell me in advance how much you are planning to spend?”

n“I’m willing to pay up to 300 million dollars.”

n“On a game that is only in closed beta test stage?”

n“How many Coconut users do we have so far?”

n“One million in Korea, five million in the world.”

n“If we link the game to Coconut, it will take care of the Korean market.”

n“Link?”

n“We can make it so that any Coconut users can login to the game with their Coconut ID. It would be convenient for them since they won’t have to make a separate account for the game.” Woosung continued quickly. “It is a good game. It will be a success world-wide. It is a guaranteed investment.”

n“So you’re going to offer them 300 million dollars?”

n“At least. I am not coming out of this building without buying this company.”

nThe CEOs of RightNow were shocked at Woosung’s generous offer.

n300 million dollars.

nMark Brown and Brandon Reynolds had their mouths gaped at Woosung’s proposal.

n“I have checked the game and people’s reviews. It’s good. It’s a fast-paced game compared to the existing MMORPG platform. It also has great hero characters.”

nMark Brown stopped Woosung.

n“W…wait. Let’s take a moment first.”

nWoosung leaned back and replied. “Haha, ok.”

n“Are you really offering us 300 million dollars, and we won’t lose any control over the company?”

n“I won’t interfere with your game development, but I may want to cooperate with the operation side of the business. For example, I want to be able to decide when to release the game in Korea, and I want to allow the Coconut Talk users to be able to play the game without additional account setup.”

nMark Brown knew the Coconut very well. He himself was using it.

n“Are you referring to the Coconut messenger?”

nCoconut Talk was now a popular app in US. Mark Brown took out his own phone Blue S and pointed at it.

n“You mean this?”

nWoosung nodded. “Yes. I am the CEO of that phone’s company. I think we could become good partners.”

n“W…we were actually going to suggest the same thing…”

nBecoming a part of a popular existing services such as Facebook or Coconut was the best way to attract users for new games.

n“That’s perfect then. If you have no objections, I would like to sign the contract today. We need to move fast to get things going…”

nWoosung was dying to destroy MOX.

nThe two CEOs of RightNow tried their best not to look too excited as they waited for the paperwork.

nTencent headquarter.

n“I can’t believe they sold more shares to another company other than us.” Tencent’s CEO Ma Huateng swore.

nAt the young age of 36, he became successful with the messenger HH.

n“It has been reported that it was a Korean investor. His name is Kang Woosung. The funny thing is he took over the company under his personal name, not his company.”

n“What the hell? Who is he?”

n“He is currently operating a company called KND. It created the smartphone Blue S.”

n“You mean the phone with the Coconut Talk?”

n“That’s right. He is also the CEO of Coconut Talk company. He is involved in many different businesses.”

n“Explain.”

nMa Huateng took the report from his assistant and read it quickly.

nThe assistant continued, “He took over a small Korean PDA company after the financial crisis. He finished the development of Blue S in a Silicone Valley office. The strange thing is that KND and Coconut are two separate corporations and he owns the majority shares of both companies.”

n“So both are Kang Woosung’s personal companies?”

n“That’s right. KND is listed, while the other isn’t.”

n“That’s strange.”

n“He also owns a hedge fund in the US.”

n“Hedge fund? Worth how much?”

n“Almost 900 million dollars. He purchased RightNow with the money from this fund.”

nMa Huateng ate a piece of chocolate. He was trying to quit smoking.

n“900 million dollars is only our guess. It appears he made more recently, but we don’t know how much.”

n“I can’t believe he spent that much money on a game that hasn’t even been released yet.”

n“He does seem like an eccentric man.”

n“…And he recently opened an office in Zhongguancun?”

n“Yes, and he is looking to hire a CEO to run this office onsite. He appears to be planning to release Coconut talk in China, but with a different name in Chinese so it looks like a Chinese service.”

n“Why don’t we report him to get tax audit?”

n“We suggested it to the authorities, but because of the financial crisis, the government doesn’t want to discourage any new businesses.”

n“Then I guess we should wait and see. I don’t like it at all though.”

n“Yes, sir.”

nMa Huateng took another piece of chocolate.

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