My Life as an Awoken

Anyway, with a week having passed, the time for our appointment with the owner of Apollo Roll was today.

Their headquarters is located in Beijing. It takes about 3 hours to fly to Beijing from Hong Kong.

I decided that since it wasn’t that far away I wanted to go in person. For a deal where billions will be traded I wanted to be there in person.

The money had become nothing more than a number to be at this point. But, I was still fascinated with a deal involving such large sums. These are the minor deals that change and shape the world.

With the plane landing in Beijing it was a short drive to their headquarters.

Their headquarters was a custom built building that was made of steel and glass. The building was a mix of both sharp and soft angles. It was clear that the architect put some passion into designing the building.

We made our way into the lobby and the receptionist led us to a conference room to wait for the owner.

The owner is a man in his 50s with a short neat hair cut. His name is Mr. Li. The company Apollo Roll is owned wholly by its parent company. Mr. Li is a co-founder and CEO of the parent company. He has 18% ownership and over 50% voting and decision making power, which makes him the sole de facto decision maker in the parent company.

That is in our favor because we only have to talk to and convince him, instead of a whole board.

When Mr. Li entered he looked much younger than I expected, he looked like he was in his early 40s not in his late 50s.

He introduced himself and we got right into the heart of the matter.

I started, "Hello Mr. Li, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time with pleasantries so I will just be forthright. We would like to acquire Apollo Roll in its entirety. With our comprehensive evaluation pricing the company at around $40 billion we are prepared to offer that and an additional 10 years of expected revenue at $1 billion per fiscal year.

That brings the total to $50 billion. To ensure a swift and clean transition we have already prepared that much liquid cash to be transferred immediately. How does that deal sound to you?"

Mr. Li thought about it for a solid minute or two. Then he spoke, "That is a surprisingly fair and generous offer. I have received many offers that don’t come anywhere close to that. However, actually selling the company isn’t something I’m really looking to do right at this moment."

I felt a bit annoyed because while the company was big and still expanding it was still limited. The company had no way to massively expand in the short term without a massive investment. It was a company doomed for a long drawn out battle in a fierce market.

While it was currently leading the market in autonomous driving it wasn’t the sole company. With many competitors fighting for the lead it was better for the company to be bought out by us.

That way we could slam a large investment and propel the company farther ahead. Not to mention the amount of money he and his shareholders would make.

Mr. Li’s current net worth is around $5.5 billion. If he sells the subsidiary Apollo Roll he will make around $9 billion. He would receive almost double his current net worth.

I can only guess why he won’t sell, but regardless of why, it is a problem if he won’t.

I said, "I understand. You are a man that has built everything you have. You want to be the one to bring your company to greater heights.

But, let’s be realistic for a moment. We are a company that is ready to dump a few $100 billion into this market.

While you say your company won’t sell, can you be sure that the others won’t?

Even if they don’t we can still make our own company. We have the strongest computer in the world. It wouldn’t take too much effort or time to make new patents for autonomous driving.

The thing that would take the longest would be setting up the factories to manufacture our cars.

But, we already have improved engines and systems for the automotive part. The only thing we really lack is the patents on autonomous driving and physical assets.

Your company already has both of those. While we will still need to update your factories we can update the interface in your current taxis as a preliminary test.

But, realistically the only reason we want to buy your company is to save on time. We can do everything else, it will just take more time.

Where would that leave you? In a mire, like all of the others as we bankrupt them all. We will corner the market. With our government connections it will be easy to get the legislation in place to support our business.

That is all assuming that things happen above board. What happens if someone hacks into your network and bricks all of your taxis? How long could they be down before the business goes under?

With someone hacking the cars your stock would take an immediate hit, every subsequent hour and day would only push it lower.

But what if it stays down for a month, or two, maybe 6, or even a whole year? Could you survive?

You see it was never an option, not really, if you would sell. But, how much you would have to suffer before you relented.

I know you will feel indignant, but this is reality."

I could see Mr. Li’s jaw clenched tight, he muttered through clenched teeth, "I understand. But, I will need sometime to think it over. Can I have until the day after tomorrow to talk it over with my shareholders?"

I smiled and said, "Of course Mr. Li, we aren’t barbarians."

As we stood to leave the room. I said a few words on my way out, "Mr. Li, don’t disappoint us."

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