The Day the Titans Took Notice
Monday morning.
"I'm leaving."
"I'm leaving!"
As Seohee and I stepped out of the house and called out our farewells, Mother waved us off with a smile.
"All right, Dohyun, see you on the weekend! Seohee, you study hard at school, hear me? And don't cause any trouble!"
"I don't cause trouble!"
And just like that, Seohee and I left the house together.
I was headed to Hankuk University, while Seohee had school to get to. Usually, she took the bus and went by herself. But since I was also going to school from home today instead of my boarding room, I figured I'd take a taxi and drop her off in front of her school first.
Should I buy a car? It'd make taking Seohee to school a lot easier.
No, wait. If I had a car, wouldn't that just make things more of a hassle?
While I was thinking, a taxi pulled up in front of us on the roadside.
Creaaak.
I opened the door for her, and Seohee climbed into the back seat with another bright smile.
"Please take us to XX Girls' High School in Jamsil."
"Yes, sir."
After I told the driver where we were going, the cab pulled away.
"How's school? It's only been two weeks since the semester started... Have you made any friends?"
Seohee had a good personality, a pretty face, and plenty of social sense, so I was sure she'd make friends easily. Still, I asked carefully just in case.
At my question, Seohee took her eyes off the window and looked at me with a bright smile.
Fortunately, there wasn't even a shadow on her expression.
"Yep, it's good! First of all, I like the uniform way more than my old school's. It's prettier. And the other girls are all nice."
"No one's being mean just because you transferred in?"
"Huh? No, nothing like that."
That was a relief.
Then Seohee rubbed her chin and made an oddly thoughtful sound.
"There's a boys' high school across from our school."
"A boys' high school?"
"Yeah. There have been a few guys who asked for my number. We run into them a lot at the bus stop after evening study hall."
"...School's only been open for two weeks and guys are already asking for your number?"
"Yep."
Those boys... They should be studying, not running around doing that.
Maybe I should buy the school and tear it down.
Of course, I kept that thought to myself and asked instead,
"So, was there anyone you liked?"
"Nope? They're all just kids. Kids."
Seohee waved her hands back and forth.
I couldn't help laughing. They were her own age, and she was calling them kids?
"...If they were even half as mature as your brother, they'd be pretty tempting."
"Hm?"
"Nothing."
Then Seohee added one more thing.
"But the atmosphere at school really does seem totally different. Even during breaks, there are kids studying vocabulary, and almost nobody falls asleep in class. The teachers move through the material super fast too."
I nodded silently.
It couldn't be helped. This was Jamsil, one of the centers of South Korea's private education culture.
It was a place where academic fever burned as hot as the apartment prices around it.
The teachers are probably pretty attentive to the students' grades too.
"No delinquents or anything like that?"
"Delinquents?"
Snickering, Seohee laughed.
"There are a few kids who think they're delinquents and act like it, but they're nothing special. They're all just tame."
Well... I supposed that made sense.
I had felt it too, even at a glance—the kids around here really were gentler and more harmless than the ones back where I used to live.
If I had to put it in game terms, maybe the difficulty was set to Easy Mode.
"Still, if anyone ever bothers you, tell me."
"Don't worry, I can handle everything on my end."
"No, seriously."
One phone call from me and the legal team at Seongsam Group would turn the school upside down.
A little while later, the taxi stopped in front of the main gate of Seohee's school.
Seohee opened the door and got out.
"Oppa, I'm off then! Thanks for the ride!"
"Yeah, go study hard. If you do well on your tests, I'll buy you something delicious this weekend."
"Okay!"
I watched her trot through the school gate, where she quickly joined the friends waiting for her.
Looks like moving somewhere better was the right choice after all.
Was this what Mencius meant by the influence of one's surroundings?
Still, maybe because I was her big brother no matter what, that slightly short skirt of hers kept bothering me.
If she comes home again this weekend, I'm going to have to do a proper morality patrol.
With that thought in mind, I said to the taxi driver,
"Driver, please take me to Hankuk University."
When I said that, the driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror and looked a little surprised.
"Oh, you're a Hankuk University student? So that's why you were talking to your little sister about studying and all that earlier?"
"Haha...."
"Though now that I think about it, you look kind of familiar... no, maybe not? Anyway—how do you study so well? My son is a senior in high school this year, and he never studies. It's driving me crazy."
The driver's attitude changed completely.
Hankuk University really was good for something, huh.
Time passed quickly.
It was evening in Korea.
And daybreak in the United States.
At Apple's headquarters, in the boardroom.
The room, which was rarely used under normal circumstances, was thick with tension and silence.
Because Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, had called an emergency board meeting first thing Monday morning.
The faces of the board members gathered there were all grim.
"...Could it be because of Steve's health?"
One director asked carefully.
The outside director sitting across from him swallowed and nodded.
"That's likely. He's lost a lot of weight recently."
"When is he going to have the surgery...?"
"The longer it goes on, doesn't the chance of success drop?"
"Generally, yes."
"If Steve says he wants to step back from management... I'm worried about how we'll defend the stock price."
"The stock price is one problem, but honestly, without Steve, Apple's innovation itself..."
Concern and anxiety passed back and forth among the directors.
But beneath that, there was also a strange undercurrent of anticipation.
Some of the directors, weary of Jobs's near-dictatorial style, were quietly wondering whether it might be better for Tim Cook, Apple's COO, to take the reins instead of Jobs, the CEO.
Of course, that didn't mean Tim Cook was an easy man to handle.
But compared to Jobs, he was a much gentler flavor.
Creaaak.
Then the door to the boardroom opened.
Every pair of eyes turned toward it.
In his familiar black turtleneck and jeans, Steve Jobs walked in.
He was clearly gaunt.
But his eyes—those snake-like eyes flashing behind his glasses—were sharper and more alive than ever.
...Is that the look of a man who knows he's near death?
He looks vicious.
He must have been thinking about something very hard...
I heard he blew up over ApplePad development before. Is this because of that?
Jobs didn't even sit down. He stood at the head of the table and looked over the directors.
No greeting. None at all.
"You're all here."
His voice was dry, but oddly charged.
The contradiction between his expression, appearance, and tone was striking.
"Steve, how are you feeling? Everyone was worried when you called us together so suddenly."
When the oldest director asked, Jobs waved a hand irritably.
"I'll take care of my own body. You don't need to worry about it. I didn't call you here so you could fuss over my health."
"..."
Even after they had shown concern, he spoke to them like that.
The directors' expressions stiffened awkwardly, but Jobs didn't care.
He dropped a stack of documents onto the table as if throwing them down.
"It's an acquisition proposal."
The directors looked at one another. This wasn't a retirement announcement.
"An acquisition? Could it be Adobe?"
Adobe had become something of a hot topic in Silicon Valley recently.
"Or is it a semiconductor company?"
At the board's questions, Jobs shook his head.
"No. It's Another Technology."
At the unfamiliar name, the directors furrowed their brows.
─ I've never heard of that company. Is it based in Silicon Valley?
─ I know them as the company that made FreeChat and Clear Cam.
─ Ah, so that's the company behind those apps?
Some of the directors knew of Another Technology, while others didn't.
─ And it's the company behind the recently talked-about Ride Together.
─ What's that?
─ A carpooling application for college students.
─ Carpooling for college students?
─ Yes. Apparently, only students from elite universities can use it for now. My son told me about it.
That director casually took the opportunity to brag about his son.
Then the conversation returned to the main point.
─ Another Technology... Their technical capabilities do seem impressive. But Steve, is acquiring that company really something that requires the whole board?
─ Exactly. The executives could probably handle a deal at a reasonable price.
─ Right. It can't be that expensive anyway.
The directors were visibly relieved.
Calling them in over a simple startup acquisition was exactly the kind of theatrical excess they expected from Jobs.
But the next words out of Jobs's mouth froze the air in the room in an instant.
"The acquisition price I'm considering is $1 billion."
─ ...?
─ ...Excuse me?
─ Wha...?
─ O-one billion dollars?
But the even more shocking words came after that.
"Cash. In cash."
One director, unable to believe his ears, spoke up in disbelief.
He was too afraid of Jobs to shout, but the shock in his voice was plain enough.
─ S-Steve! Are you out of your mind? A billion dollars for a brand-new venture that's only released a few apps?!
─ You're saying you want to pour a billion dollars in cash into an unproven startup? Do you think the shareholders will just sit still?!
─ Do you even know what time we're in? Lehman Brothers went under less than a year ago!
─ Companies all over the world are scrambling to secure cash, and you want to burn a billion dollars on a one-hit startup?!
The board erupted. It was a perfectly natural reaction.
In 2009, cash was king.
With giant banks collapsing one after another and cash-cow conglomerates like GM and Ford wobbling, a billion dollars was by no means pocket change for Apple.
Besides, Apple had never been a company that favored large-scale M&A in the first place.
Jobs was the same way.
And yet he wanted to spend a billion dollars on an acquisition, of all things, and a startup at that?
It would have been stranger if the board hadn't blown up over it.
"..."
But Jobs didn't even blink.
Arms folded, he stared coldly at them until the directors had no choice but to settle down.
At last, when the uproar died down, Jobs spoke.
"Are you done talking?"
─ ...
A single icy sentence, almost insulting in its contempt.
Still, Jobs paid it no mind and brought up the materials he had prepared.
"You're all scrambling to pick up pennies in front of you while missing the truck coming at you. This company doesn't just make apps."
On the screen, growth charts for Ride Together and data on FreeChat's share in Japan appeared.
"They're taking over the mobile ecosystem platform. They gather people through messaging, collect data through cameras, and now they're even touching offline transportation networks. This is the completed form of the 'Apple ecosystem' I've always dreamed of."
─ ...The mobile ecosystem?
─ What's the big deal about bringing people together through a messenger?
─ It's not like they're running ads the way Facebook does.
─ Data through cameras...? You can't beat Google at data anyway.
─ That's why we rely on Google for data too, isn't it?
Again, Jobs ignored the board's comments.
He only said what he had prepared to say.
"In 2006, when Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion, everyone said they were crazy."
"..."
"But look at it now. Google owns 90 percent of internet video traffic. Every video in the world gets uploaded to YouTube."
"So what you're saying, Jobs, is that Another Technology is on the same level as YouTube?"
"The same level? Hah."
Jobs shook his head.
"You're idiots who don't understand Another Technology at all. It's not on the same level. It's above that."
"..."
"If we can invest a billion dollars now and buy Another Technology along with its developer and engineering team, that's a deal that could leave us many times over in profit."
The directors fell silent as well.
For Jobs to speak that confidently, it almost felt like the force of his conviction alone was enough to persuade them.
But the director in charge of finance finally spoke up with difficulty.
"Steve, as you know, I trust you completely."
"That sounds like a long preface."
"...But a billion dollars is too much. The shareholders won't accept it. You know how much cash Apple has right now—around twenty-five billion dollars. And you're talking about spending a billion on a startup acquisition... Could we at least negotiate it down to five hundred million?"
"Negotiate?"
Jobs let out a thin, cold smile.
"Why would I negotiate with shareholders?"
"What do you mean...? Of course, we're a public company, so with the shareholders..."
"I didn't call you here to persuade you or the shareholders. I called you here to inform you."
Jobs braced a hand on the table and leaned forward.
The huge, oppressive shadow cast by that gaunt body fell over the seated directors.
"I made Apple the greatest company in the world, and I will keep doing that. Has my instinct ever been wrong? Back when it was the ApplePod, and back when it was the ApplePhone, you all said I was wrong. But I was right."
─ ...
"So I'm right again this time. If we can acquire Another Technology for a billion dollars now, that's a deal that leaves us with several times the return."
His voice was firm, absolute.
"If you don't like my decision, then go out there right now and sell your stock. The door's open."
─ ...
"Or perhaps, since the board is gathered here, you can fire me too. Just like in 1985. But I trust none of you have forgotten what became of Apple after I left."
It was overwhelming charisma. An almost violent certainty.
There wasn't a single person in that room who could stop that tyrant.
That same night.
Omaha, Nebraska.
Unlike glittering Silicon Valley, Omaha was a quiet, calm city.
And yet within that city stood the headquarters of Berkshire Hathaway, led by a living legend, the heart of world finance itself—Warren Buffett.
It was late, but the lights in the conference room were still on.
A small group of key partners was quietly exchanging opinions.
"It looks like we've already passed the bottom of the economic crisis. The indicators are rebounding."
"I agree."
"Now is the time to restructure the portfolio. We should gradually reduce our allocation to safe assets and start adding growth stocks again."
A thaw was spreading through the frozen stock market.
Everyone agreed on that.
The question was what to buy.
"What about tech stocks? IBM or Intel."
"Not bad, but... I'm not sure about their explosive potential."
"Intel doesn't really fit our style."
"How about Dell instead? Or Microsoft."
"The chairman dislikes tech even among large-cap names, doesn't he? Hard to blame him, considering how he was burned during the dot-com bubble."
"Haha... that's true."
Then—
"But we can't ignore the trend. Apple's ApplePhone sales are looking extraordinary."
When one trader brought up Apple, every eye in the room turned toward him.
"Apple... yes, the momentum there is definitely good. Didn't ApplePhone sales in Japan recently jump by 500 percent?"
"But there is a CEO health risk."
"Apple is the kind of company that could collapse without Jobs."
"If it weren't for Jobs's health risk, it'd be a very aggressive buy."
As the discussion continued—
Someone spoke up.
"Actually, a funny rumor started circulating this morning."
Marcus, the executive in charge of information who was standing by the window, opened his mouth.
"A rumor?"
"Yes. Apple's board was reportedly called into an emergency meeting today. Something about an M&A deal."
"M&A? Apple? Aren't they the type to buy tech, not companies?"
"Exactly. And the amount is even more ridiculous."
Marcus gave a wry smile and held up one finger.
"A billion dollars, apparently."
Silence fell over the room. The traders looked at one another in disbelief.
─ Crazy...
─ They're spending a billion dollars?
─ Did Apple really have that much cash?
─ ...A billion dollars? What company are they buying?
"A small startup. Not even a year old yet."
Hah.
Someone let out a dry laugh.
─ Jobs has finally lost it. A billion dollars on a startup?
─ A billion dollars in today's market could buy several GM factories. He's out of his mind.
─ Let's leave Apple out of the portfolio. The CEO risk is too high.
The mood in the room tilted decisively toward the idea that Jobs had made a blunder.
To investors famed for their wisdom, it was a clear case of overshooting.
"Hmm..."
But then the man seated at the head of the table, who had been turning pages in silence all this time, lifted his head.
He was Charlie, Berkshire Hathaway's vice chairman in charge of investments.
"So."
His heavy voice cut through the chatter at once.
"Did the deal go through? Did Another Technology agree to sell?"
Marcus shook his head.
"We don't know yet. They say the proposal was sent, but we haven't confirmed the other side's response."
"No response, huh... So they didn't swallow a billion-dollar offer whole."
"Uh... yes, that's right."
Charlie took off his glasses and wiped them as he muttered,
"Jobs is a lunatic, but he's not stupid. When it comes to reading technology and the market, his instincts are among the best in the world. If he was willing to bet a billion dollars on this..."
Charlie's eyes flashed sharply.
"That means this startup isn't just some ordinary company. It means there's something special about it."
"So you're saying it has a moat."
"Exactly."
One of the most important investment philosophies held by Buffett and his partners was this:
Invest in companies with an unassailable position—an economic moat, a technological moat, something competitors can't easily cross.
"Have you looked into this company called Another Technology?"
"There's not much known about it. The representative is a lawyer named Vincent Lightman, but... his college and law school background aren't exactly impressive."
"So the pedigree isn't much. What about his abilities?"
"Regardless of pedigree, his abilities seem considerable. Surprisingly, none of the public defense cases he handled in the past ended the way the prosecutor wanted them to."
"Hmm... Public defense cases are effectively guilty cases a lot of the time, so they're not easy to win against the prosecution."
"Exactly. And Another Technology has a U.S. headquarters and an Asian branch in Singapore, and for some reason they have a marketing-related office facility in Korea."
"In Korea, not Japan?"
Asia's center of gravity lay in Singapore and Japan.
And yet they had set up an office in Korea?
"Yes. And this is the strangest part—nobody knows who Another Technology's developer actually is."
"A tech startup with a lawyer as the representative, and the developer is hidden away...? Interesting."
Charlie rested his chin on his hand, clearly intrigued.
Then Marcus added, as if something had just occurred to him,
"Ah, and while it's not confirmed, according to one of my sources... there's talk that Another Technology has some sort of contract with Korea's Seongsam Electronics as well."
"Seongsam Electronics?"
Charlie's eyebrows twitched.
"A startup connected to both Apple and Seongsam at the same time?"
This time, the mood in the room changed completely.
A startup linked to Jobs, Apple's lover of innovation, and to Samsung, the Korean giant famous for its conservatism?
...There's definitely something here. The scale of this could be bigger than we thought.
Charlie tapped a finger on the table.
"Investigate it. Thoroughly."
"Pardon? But Chairman Buffett isn't interested in tech companies, is he?"
"No. This isn't about whether it's a tech company or not. If Jobs wants to acquire it, and it's tied to Seongsam, then there's something we don't know."
Charlie stood.
"I want a report ready by tomorrow morning so I can brief Buffett tomorrow afternoon. Put it on my desk by then."
"Understood."
"Marcus, you'll be in charge of the Apple report."
"Yes, sir."
After the two manufacturing giants of East and West began showing interest in Another Technology for the sake of survival and domination...
For the first time, enormous financial capital had begun to take an interest in Another Technology too.
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