Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Corporate Evaluation
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1997.
'Is this the Savior headquarters?'
David, a director in Morgan Stanley's ECM (Equity Capital Markets) division, gazed up at the massive building before him and thought to himself.
Morgan Stanley.
One of America's Big Three investment banks, and widely regarded as the world leader in tech company IPOs.
- Keep this in mind. Savior's IPO is the last big score of the 20th century. We can't let anyone else snag it!
Stanley, the head of that very Morgan Stanley, had grabbed David—who was assigned to the preliminary inspection of Savior—and repeatedly drilled this into him.
'Can't blame him.'
Savior.
Officially known as Savior Soft.
It was still just a mid-sized company, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of scale.
But the moment word got out that Savior was preparing for an IPO, Wall Street's investment banks had swarmed like starving dogs pouncing on meat. That story was already legendary.
And for good reason—Savior was simply too juicy a target from the banks' perspective.
This had led to America's top investment banks teaming up for a public presentation pitch targeted at Savior, with Morgan Stanley emerging victorious with the highest valuation and securing the exclusive negotiation rights.
But it was just "exclusive negotiation" for now—no contract signed yet.
David's key mission today was to conduct this inspection and nail down the precise offering price.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Scarlett, Savior's CAO."
"Pleasure's mine. I'm David, director at Morgan Stanley."
David smiled at the woman welcoming him.
Scarlett.
The rumored hidden power behind Savior.
'Yeah, she doesn't look like a pushover.'
Wall Street was rife with tales of companies that had eyed Savior only to bounce off Scarlett—the impenetrable wall—and slink away.
Big names like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, and other IT giants had thrown massive offers at the table for an acquisition.
Yet Savior hadn't blinked at any of them.
"The first floor is a space for visitors and fans of Savior's games."
"Does Savior have plans to expand its IP business?"
"Of course. We haven't scaled it up into a full business yet since our IP library is still small, but we're running popup stores for now to build toward the future. We plan to dive into full character-based IP ventures eventually."
David followed Scarlett's lead, slowly touring the first floor.
'Very on-brand for an IT company— this free-spirited vibe is striking.'
Most corporate lobbies were gaudily decked out to intimidate visitors.
Savior was different. No lobby at all—instead, there was a cafe for employees and a spacious lounge for guests.
Off to one side, proving its game dev roots, was a popup store hawking character plushies and merch.
The eclectic, non-uniform layout felt like Savior's unique personality shining through.
'But that's not the point. What comes next is what matters.'
David was far more curious about the floors above than this open, breezy ground level.
"Floors 2 through 5 are software development. Shall we start there?"
"Yes, sounds good."
As if reading his mind, Scarlett suggested heading upstairs.
David nodded without protest and rode the elevator to the second floor with her.
"This area houses the First Software Team, handling maintenance and expansion for the Byte series."
"More people than I expected."
"As laid out in our Byte series roadmap, the office programs will keep gaining features... and more than that."
"More than that?"
"This is confidential, but since we have an NDA, I'll let you in on it."
Scarlett beckoned him to follow, leading to the fifth floor.
"We're developing our chat program 'Byte Line' not as an intranet tool, but as an online instant messenger."
"Instant messenger?! You mean... a chat program for exchanging messages over the regular internet?"
"Exactly."
David's heart pounded at Scarlett's confirmation.
'Insane!'
If you asked what drove Savior's biggest revenue right now, it'd hands-down be the Byte series.
Centered on Byte Office, with its suite of integrated productivity tools, it was ubiquitous in nearly every U.S. business.
And not just the U.S.—it was spreading across Europe, Japan, and the world.
Honestly, the Byte series alone had analysts predicting Savior would be a megacorp in about a decade.
But if Byte Line evolved from an internal messenger to an instant messenger...
In other words, a consumer online chat app...
David couldn't even fathom the ripple effects.
'People stick with what they know. Why would Byte Line users at work switch to something else at home?'
Barring some major performance flop—which was unlikely given Savior's tech—they'd stick with the familiar.
Not to mention the jokes about Savior torturing aliens for their tech; their unbelievable capabilities made a subpar product improbable.
"Here's documentation on the Byte series. Detailed breakdown of adoption rates, production, revenue—promise you won't leak it?"
"Ah... of course."
Scarlett handed the shocked David the materials like it was no big deal and continued the tour.
"Next, floors 6 through 15 are all Savior Engine project teams."
"The entire 10 floors for the engine team?"
"Engine devs, engineers for usage and maintenance of the externally licensed engine, and the implementation team applying it to games and other fields. Can't run an engine team without this headcount."
David, still reeling from the Byte bombshell, was stunned again.
'Savior Engine... this is the real deal.'
A year ago, Savior had shocked the industry with its physics engine reveal.
Then they dropped another bombshell.
- Introducing Savior's new product: the graphics engine.
At the recent COMDEX expo, packed with IT insiders, Savior had ambushed everyone with a no-warning graphics engine demo.
The global reaction? Pure shock and awe.
'Real-time 3D rendering with lighting effects?'
'Polygon throughput is nuts, perfect texture mapping... no issues with surface detail.'
'Freely rotating camera? ...So 360-degree viewpoint switching?'
A top Hollywood graphics studio had half-jokingly lamented they were out of a job after seeing it.
Touring the engine floors with Scarlett now, David was convinced.
'No company will catch Savior Engine for at least the next decade.'
It wasn't as revenue-heavy as Byte yet—still in adoption phase—but David bet it'd overtake soon.
And with physics + graphics in Savior Engine layered on top of the Byte series—already megacorp material...
'This alone gives them a shot at the top 100 U.S. companies... hell, top 20.'
David was stunned at his own assessment.
Savior's CEO, Seon Woo-hyuk, was just a 26-year-old kid, as far as he knew.
Yet at this growth rate, a successful IPO could rocket him into America's top 100 richest overnight. Hard to believe.
"Should I send the engine docs to your office?"
"That'd be great. Honestly... it's such a massive volume I can't even wrap my head around it."
"If anything's missing and Savior gets undervalued, it hurts us too—not just you guys at Morgan."
Fair point.
David had played it cool, but he was geared up to dissect every page.
"Floors 15 to 30 house NexGen and 3Dfx, which Savior acquired last year."
"No need to tour those. Docs will suffice."
"On to the next, then?"
NexGen and 3Dfx were Savior's acquisitions from last year.
Market buzz had it Savior was bulking up pre-IPO.
David partly agreed, but...
'Even so, no issue. Both are high-potential tech firms, bought at a low—smart move.'
Beyond floor 30 was the HQ admin tower: management, support, marketing, finance, etc.
David took in the systematically divided corporate support HQ as Scarlett explained.
And he couldn't help but be impressed.
Pre-IPO companies often had chaotic org charts mismatched to their size.
Not Savior.
Clear departmental structures, defined roles, highly systematic operations—it jumped out.
Plus, a full-fledged legal team rivaling big corps had him blurting admiration.
"Assembling a legal team like this... planning to sue us at Morgan if the offering price is off?"
Scarlett chuckled lightly at his joke.
"Plenty of companies still pirating our Byte series. Fine for individuals, but we won't tolerate businesses."
She explained they even had a dedicated unit hunting Savior Engine unauthorized users.
David instantly got why legal was such a priority.
"Whew... toured up to 40, and 10 floors left. What's up there?"
"Hmm... Savior does software dev, but our core business is something else, right?"
After exhausting floor 40, David figured that was it—but curiosity about the top 10 gnawed at him.
'Right. Savior started as a game developer...'
Only then did he recall their origins.
David had pegged other software as Savior's main value over games, so he followed Scarlett without much hype.
"Th-this is what Savior calls a 'game'?"
"Still a ways from release, but we plan to unveil it pre-IPO."
That day, back at Morgan Stanley, David scrapped his entire preliminary report draft based on prior Savior intel.
'Damn... everyone’s been looking at Savior wrong.'
— Savior's projected value: Software developer led by physics/graphics engines and office programs.
He stared at his monitor, quietly striking through the line he'd written.
Then he moused over and typed a new one.
— Games must be included as a core business pillar.