Game Theory (4)
I thought it over for a moment, then nodded.
“Let’s do it. Since we’re the ones taking over the company, there’s no reason to drag its value down by bringing that up. It’ll look much better to leave it as a program developed by Silicon Valley genius Rolf Buchi rather than some anonymous developer.”
“What if Jason Kim’s wife raises an issue?”
“Nothing to worry about. There’s nothing money can’t solve. If we give her enough, won’t she be satisfied too?”
“But—”
I soothed the man, who still looked uneasy.
“His wife doesn’t even know what Cooloud is. She might raise suspicions, but she can’t produce evidence. All the evidence is already in my hands. And I’ll tell Julia Witherspoon this: Minerva only borrowed an idea from Mimir, and it’s a completely different program. Then she won’t even be able to raise suspicions. In other words, as long as I keep my mouth shut, nobody will ever know.”
At my words, David gave a small start, but he didn’t say anything else.
“Of course, that’s only if Mr. Buchi sells his stake. The contract is ready, right?”
Without a word, David took out the contract he’d already prepared and held it out in front of Rolf.
Rolf stared at it for a long moment. It looked like all sorts of thoughts were churning in his head.
All he had to do now was sign, and it would be over.
And yet, once the contract was actually in front of him, his mind seemed to change; he set the pen down.
“I-I’ll go back first and talk it over with my lawyer before deciding.”
This was a contract worth a staggering one billion dollars. Having a lawyer review it was perfectly sensible.
But if he went back like this, there was a high chance Alex would find out. Then he’d use any means necessary to stop the sale, and everything would start to unravel.
“The law firm advising Cooloud does business with the Preston Group, doesn’t it? Isn’t there a chance Alex Preston might hear about it during that consultation?”
“And so what if he does?”
A lawyer had a duty to protect a client’s confidentiality, but that didn’t mean there was any guarantee the matter wouldn’t leak.
So I had to make him decide right here and now.
“Want to hear something interesting?”
“What?”
“By now, Mr. Preston is probably thinking about kicking you out of the company.”
He looked flustered at that.
“What are you talking about?”
“All the blame is already on you, after all. If you look at it coldly, this isn’t Cooloud’s problem—it’s your problem. Alex Preston is just another victim of your lies. If the company is going to be saved, wouldn’t the best move be to throw you out?”
“Th-that can’t be.”
“Think about it carefully. Haven’t you heard anything similar before?”
“No way…”
Judging by his expression, he had heard something along those lines.
In truth, I didn’t know exactly what Alex was thinking, or what he had said to him. But when someone was backed into a corner and already suspicious, everything looked that way.
“If he learns you’re trying to sell your stake, do you really think Mr. Preston will sit still? He’ll try to sell his own stake first. And by then, the value of your shares will fall even further.”
Of course, he wouldn’t sell cheap, and we didn’t actually have the money to buy him out anyway—but there was no need to say that.
Rolf’s expression kept twisting with conflict.
“You really can keep this secret?”
“Of course. It’s written in the contract, isn’t it?”
“It only says you won’t sue or file charges.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“But in the contract—”
I lightly kicked David’s foot under the table. He let out an exasperated bark.
“Quit acting like a spoiled brat!”
“W-what?”
Not only I, but Rolf too, looked completely thrown by the sudden outburst.
David’s face was filled with annoyance as he said, “It’d be better to spend the time talking to someone like you negotiating with Alex Preston.”
Rolf shot to his feet and shouted, “What? You’ve got some nerve! You think I’ll sign a contract after being spoken to like that?”
But unlike before, his voice shook violently. It was the cry of someone thrashing to avoid being crushed by the other man’s authority.
In a voice so cold it contained not even a shred of humanity, David said, “You still don’t seem to understand your position. If we acquire Alex Preston’s stake, we’ll have a majority. Once that happens, we’ll throw you out of the company immediately and pursue charges and lawsuits. The whole world will find out what kind of trash you really are, and your reputation as a Silicon Valley genius will crash to the ground. The press, the public—everyone will point at you, curse you, and spit on you. By then, all your shares will be good for is extracting compensation and settlement money through the courts. We won’t have to hand over a single dime.”
“Th-that’s ridiculous.”
It was, in fact, ridiculous.
There was no way the damages would come out that high.
But Rolf’s face had gone white with fear. To be fair, when had this so-called Silicon Valley genius ever faced a situation like this?
Maybe that was why he couldn’t make a proper judgment.
David kept driving him harder.
“If you don’t want to sign, then stop saying useless things and get the hell out!”
“……”
Wasn’t that a little too harsh?
Even though the words weren’t aimed at me, my knees went weak for a second. So how much worse would it be for the man hearing them directly?
It must have landed, because Rolf’s voice turned pleading.
“I-I…”
Once the glittering mask of genius was stripped away, was there anything left but a pathetic fraud? I thought I understood now why Syd had treated him like an idiot.
I pretended to restrain David.
“Now, now, don’t be like that. I’m sure Mr. Buchi didn’t mean anything bad by it. Right?”
At my words, Rolf nodded reflexively.
I gently placed the pen back in his hand.
“This is your last chance. Sign it now. Otherwise, we’ll have no choice but to walk away from the negotiations, release the report to WST, and file the lawsuit. You don’t want that to happen either, do you?”
In negotiations, the one who has more to lose is the one who loses.
The moment he came looking for me of his own free will, the outcome was already nearly decided.
With trembling fingers, Rolf signed the papers to sell his stake. When he was done, he looked completely drained, as if every last ounce of strength had been wrung out of him.
I smiled to myself.
Just like that, we had secured 31.16 percent of Cooloud.
So, one half had been solved for now.
***
I met Syd at a nearby franchise restaurant.
He was already there, eating a hamburger. I sat across from him.
“You like hamburgers?”
He said around a mouthful of burger, “Is there anyone who doesn’t?”
“I know a place that makes the really good stuff.”
“A burger is a burger, isn’t it?”
“I thought so too, but after I tried theirs, I changed my mind. I’m telling you, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it the best hamburger in New York.”
“That good?”
“Maybe even the best in America.”
Syd paused with the food halfway to his mouth and stared blankly, as though trying to imagine what it tasted like.
“Now I kind of want to go to New York right this second.”
“No need to worry. One of these days, they’ll open a branch in Silicon Valley too.”
“How do you know?”
“I invested a little in that burger place.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
More accurately, I’d invested for a different reason entirely.
At my answer, Syd smiled like a kid.
“I hope it opens soon.”
“It won’t take long.”
“So, what happened?”
“I succeeded in acquiring Rolf’s stake.”
His eyes widened.
“How did you do that?”
“I cajoled him a bit.”
In the end, it had just been a matter of money.
As long as I held his weakness in my hands, he had no choice but to sell.
I told Syd about the situation at the meeting and how the negotiation had gone.
He looked genuinely surprised. “You asked him not to reveal anything about Mimir? Are you really planning to do that?”
I snorted. “As if. According to him, a promise made with words doesn’t count as something you have to keep.”
That made Syd burst out laughing.
“Pffft, well, I guess that’s true. The truth should come out.”
If we were going to take the company over cleanly, it wouldn’t do to stir up pointless controversy. That would only drag the company’s value down.
But I intended to make it public no matter what.
First, because I had promised Julia. Second, because Syd wanted me to.
In fact, Syd had been the first to start erasing Rolf Buchi’s traces.
“Have you thought about what you’ll do when you become CEO?”
“First, I need to cut the people we don’t need and bring in the ones we do.”
“Who are you cutting?”
“I already sorted it out.”
He wiped the sauce from his fingers on his pants, then took a memo pad from his pocket and handed it to me.
The handwriting was a mess, but not unreadable.
Cooloud had 93 employees in total, excluding the two CEOs. Of those, 52 were in development. Among them, Syd had picked only four people.
“That’s not many.”
“Cooloud isn’t the kind of place where useless people can hang on forever. And Rolf did manage to hire one decent employee.”
Rolf had an almost uncanny talent for recognizing other people’s abilities.
That was why he’d hired Syd, who was both young and had no real résumé, and why he’d recognized the value of the program Jason Kim had created at a glance.
If he had stayed a plain businessman, he might have gone on to become wildly successful. But what was it with that damn reputation as a genius?
“Thinking about everything that still needs to be done, we’re going to need a lot of money.”
The takeover was only the beginning.
For all its immense valuation, Cooloud was still a company in the red. The deficit was shrinking, but it was still losing around two hundred million dollars every quarter.
Its retained earnings amounted to only five hundred seventy million dollars. Barely enough to keep it afloat for three quarters.
Worse, its debt stood at a staggering sixteen billion dollars. The losses up to this point had been covered not by investment, but by borrowing.
Fortunately, the revenue model was already in place, and the losses had only been incurred as a result of continuous new investment.
If we tightened our belts, we could reduce the deficit—but the tradeoff would be slower growth.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make as much as we need.”
Syd scratched his head and said, “Aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”
“You don’t need to worry about that at all.”
After all, I was doing it for my own selfish ends.
Since I had no intention of going public or taking outside investment, every bit of capital we’d need from here on out would have to be earned by me.
For now, I just had to finish the acquisition, and think about the next step slowly after that.
After finishing his hamburger, Syd casually wiped his sauce-stained hands clean.
“Rolf may be an idiot, but Alex won’t be so easy.”
“Probably not.”
Unlike Rolf, he wouldn’t have any personal weaknesses to exploit.
But...
I muttered, almost to myself, “By now, he’ll have realized he has no choice but to sell his stake.”