The Company That Refused to Die
A company losing its competitive edge, crumbling toward ruin. Ontel.
When they declared they would develop an optical semiconductor and announced sweeping reforms, people didn't believe a word of it. And by any reasonable measure, that was an entirely rational judgment.
Ontel had already been outclassed technologically by its rivals, it lacked the capital, and worse still, it didn't possess the caliber of talent needed to develop such a technology in the first place.
And so…….
It was a peaceful Saturday morning. Everyone should have been sleeping off the aftermath of a burning Friday, lounging lazily through their late mornings — and yet the news broke, spreading like wildfire in a flurry of urgent bulletins that no one could quite bring themselves to believe.
Ontel's CEO had come to Seoul in person, and there he unveiled a new optical semiconductor chip. Lucid.
The sheer detail of it — they had released the full specifications, down to the projected performance figures — sent the internet communities boiling over as if they might burst at any moment, plunging them into utter chaos.
It's real. It's fake. The two camps clashed head-on in fierce debate. But those insisting it was a lie were forced into silence by the words of one man — Boyle, the head of the campus research institute overseeing all of Ontel's R&D, an authority whose reputation in both the semiconductor industry and academia was considerable.
Extravagant praise.
No — it was praise so effusive it bordered on worship, pouring out of Boyle without pause. And he was stating, unmistakably, that this technology had been born because of one person. Me — the man being called the greatest fraudster in the history of South Korea, showered with every vulgar insult imaginable and beaten down by public opinion.
And with that, Korean public opinion about me flipped one hundred and eighty degrees — so completely it was almost laughable.
The greatest fraudster and social misfit had been reevaluated as a brilliant genius. Most people felt proud simply because a fellow Korean had achieved something remarkable — it wasn't their accomplishment, but it didn't matter. Yet in some corners, there were voices of regret.
People denounced the Korean government and the big corporations for letting such talent slip through their fingers. And amid all this chatter, there was one place where champagne corks were popping, where people were celebrating this news as if it were their own personal triumph — quite literally throwing a festival.
The America Gallery — a gathering place for those who wished, more than anyone, for American companies to succeed.
Several of the people here had bought in hard during Ontel's stock surge and had been holding on for dear life, surviving on prayer memes. To them, this news was nothing short of salvation.
People pickled in dopamine, losing their minds over a once-in-a-lifetime super-ultra-mega bull run. Even as they seriously debated how many multiples the stock might climb, there were others nearby wailing and weeping in anguish.
Those who couldn't buy, or who had cut their losses, or worse, who had shorted the stock — people wracked with regret, despair, rage, and frustration. But their suffering was, at best, a pale shadow compared to what the people on the far side of the planet, in Wall Street, were going through.
"What did you just say? The optical semiconductor technology……. it's real?"
Eleven o'clock on Friday night.
At an hour perfect for wrapping up the week and drifting off to sleep, his subordinate had called out of nowhere — and Nicholas couldn't get his head around what he was hearing.
> I just confirmed it! Ontel's CEO held a press conference in Seoul an hour ago. They've completed the initial semiconductor chip using optical semiconductor technology, and per plan, they'll be overhauling their factories on a massive scale for mass production within five years!
…….
Impossible.
He had verified this fact himself, consulting dozens of renowned researchers and scientists across the industry.
Optical semiconductor technology — a field that had barely established its basic concepts, that hadn't even taken its first steps. The very technology those experts had assessed would take at least another twenty to thirty years, no matter how much unlimited capital and manpower were thrown at it. And now his subordinate was reporting that it had materialized, in reality, after just a few months. He couldn't bring himself to speak.
"That……. that can't be. Optical semiconductor technology is clearly premature……."
Nicholas tried desperately to deny reality. But his subordinate, as if such denial were irrelevant, roared into the receiver.
> Boss! If Ontel held a fraudulent press conference, then we need to respond RIGHT NOW by exposing it as a lie. Even if they're bluffing, if this weekend passes and the market opens, WE ARE FINISHED!
Parque Capital, holding a massive short position.
Simply having built such an enormous short position through borrow-lend transactions was problem enough — but factoring in the additional options they had stashed in their portfolio, this might not end with mere bankruptcy.
"Wh…… what's the current state of our positions?"
Of their $20 billion in managed funds, $13 billion had been sunk into shorting Ontel. It was an insane allocation — no exaggeration to say they had bet nearly everything on this operation — and Ontel's press conference was, for all intents and purposes, a death sentence.
> If Ontel's stock rises even 50% on Monday, we get a margin call. If it goes beyond that, it's a cash call!
This is why shorting is dangerous.
It was precisely because of situations like this one.
No matter how far a stock you own falls, its floor is zero. You can lose every dollar you have, but you can never go into debt — that's the structure. Shorting was different.
The moment a shorted stock's price rise exceeds double, every additional point of gain becomes debt you must repay. And right now, Parque Capital stood on the edge of a nightmare — beyond mere bankruptcy, teetering over an insurmountable mountain of debt.
They had already shorted a full five percent of Ontel's market capitalization. In ordinary circumstances, they might somehow have unwound the position while swallowing enormous losses. But with a mega-catalyst of this magnitude landing, even that was impossible.
In a situation where even a stray stray dog could see the stock was bound to rise, there wouldn't be many fools willing to sell them Ontel shares at a low price.
And so, if the brokerage declared a cash call and executed forced buybacks, Ontel's stock price would very likely soar past the sky, climbing all the way into orbit.
Downside is finite; upside is infinite.
Nicholas turned pale before this self-evident truth, cold sweat beading down his face. Only now could he look back on his past actions and feel regret.
Why on earth had he stubbornly clung to this insane position, ignoring the warnings and pleas of everyone around him?
But regret always comes too late. No amount of second-guessing would dissolve the positions he had ordered built, and so his subordinate, receiving no response, shouted into the receiver at the silent man.
> Boss! You need to get to the office RIGHT NOW! The board has been emergency-convened. If we don't prepare a countermeasure immediately…….
Nicholas had gone completely hollow. Standing there in a daze for a long while, barely registering his subordinate's words, he spent the small hours of Saturday morning frantically working the phones — desperately trying to paint Ontel as perpetrating yet another fraud, to tear them down, to muddy public opinion and smooth the situation over.
But……
Despite their blood, sweat, and tears, the market was cruel — and crueler still.
And so…….
Another peaceful day on Wall Street came and went.