Chapter 1481 Acquisition Plan Commences!

Meanwhile, the quartet of Erik, Xin Hailu, He Desheng, and Meng Chang were discussing the acquisition of Finger Company in the conference room.

The four had already shared the information they had each gathered, formulated a complete plan, and mapped out their itinerary.

Meng Chang's situation was somewhat special.

He first shared what Fan Xiaodong had seen in the US capital market, and then, after the four of them jointly formulated the plan, he stayed up all night with Fan Xiaodong to refine the original proposal.

In short, it was to mitigate the risks.

Although insider trading is a serious violation of the law in the capital markets of various countries, and is subject to heavy sanctions, there is a limit to what specific behaviors constitute insider trading.

It's not as simple as saying that you have a little bit of inside information and then invest in the capital market; that doesn't automatically count as insider trading.

Otherwise, how would you explain the fact that some professional short-selling institutions investigate a listed company, find evidence of false accounting or illegal behavior, then short the company, and then disclose the negative news, causing the stock price to plummet and profiting from it?

Or, how would you explain the fact that some people simply see that a company's internal management is chaotic and its decision-making is flawed, and thus are bearish on the company's stock price, short it, and profit?

To take it a step further, suppose a senior executive of a company says to a friend over dinner that the company's performance has been particularly good recently, and the situation is very optimistic, and the friend buys the company's stock as a result. Would this be considered insider trading?

If all of these are considered insider trading, many short-selling institutions would have been fined out of existence long ago.

Therefore, the key is to look at the specific degree to which it has gone, and whether there is solid evidence.

Meng Chang and Fan Xiaodong believed that Finger Company's stock price would fall because Fan Xiaodong noticed that Finger Company's current CEO had set up an investment company, and heard rumors that the Dayaike Group wanted to sell Finger Company, thus making a deduction.

This news was not inside information; many people knew about it, but they were not as convinced as Fan Xiaodong and Meng Chang.

Since it was information that many people could obtain, Fan Xiaodong and Meng Chang's short selling of Finger Company's stock was nothing more than a personal judgment and did not involve insider trading.

At most, Meng Chang could roughly estimate when Finger Company's decline would bottom out, which was somewhat related to his work at Tengda.

As for whether the stock would skyrocket again if Tengda really succeeded in acquiring Finger Company?

That was possible.

Therefore, after much deliberation, Meng Chang decided to only earn money from shorting the stock, and stop when Finger Company's stock price was close to its lowest point, so as not to earn the money from the subsequent rise.

After all, the first half of the sharp decline was entirely Charles's doing, and had nothing to do with Tengda, so naturally it had nothing to do with Meng Chang and Fan Xiaodong. The subsequent surge was related, and there was some risk, so he wouldn't do it.

This wasn't because Meng Chang was timid, but mainly because, after thinking about it, he was worried that this kind of behavior would make President Pei unhappy, because it seemed too greedy.

President Pei likes subordinates who are enterprising, but he doesn't like greedy subordinates. The boundary between the two is very blurred, but President Pei can tell the difference.

It was better to restrain himself a little.

As for the other three people in the group, after receiving Meng Chang's message, they also verified the message from other channels and found that it was highly authentic.

Therefore, the four quickly reached a consensus and formulated an acquisition plan.

In short, the plan was to talk to the Dayaike Group first, but in the process, they would adopt a completely indifferent attitude and not rush to push it forward.

In fact, according to President Pei's intention, they should try their best to buy Finger Company, but if they showed it too obviously from the beginning, it would likely cause the Dayaike Group to ask for an exorbitant price, which would be very detrimental to reaching a deal.

They wanted the Dayaike Group to know that Tengda Group had a little bit of interest in acquiring Finger Company, but the acquisition of Finger Company was only to consolidate GOG's market position, and it didn't matter if they couldn't buy it.

Moreover, the negotiations had to be strictly confidential and not be known to the outside world, especially not to Charles and others.

At the same time, they would watch Charles begin his performance.

In order to be able to buy Finger Company's shares from the Dayaike Group at the lowest price, Charles would definitely try to depress Finger Company's stock price. As for what specific methods he would use, everyone couldn't guess, but they didn't need to guess.

They just needed to wait patiently for him to play against the Dayaike Group.

As Charles gradually tested the Dayaike Group's bottom line, Tengda also maintained a tenuous relationship with the Dayaike Group.

Without the intervention of Tengda Group, the Dayaike Group would have seen Finger Company's valuation declining day by day, and they wouldn't have been able to find a more suitable buyer, so they would have had to cut their losses and sell their shares to the investment company behind Charles.

But now, with the intervention of Tengda Group, the situation was completely different.

At the crucial moment when Charles thought everything was going smoothly and was just one step away, the Dayaike Group suddenly announced that it would sell all its shares to Tengda Group!

His expression and reaction at that time would definitely be very interesting.

Of course, the price that Tengda finally got would definitely be higher than the lowest price that Charles had squeezed out, but that didn't matter at all. After all, Charles had been working so hard for so long, so it was only fair.

In the process of discussing this plan, Erik also offered many opinions and improved many details.

Because he knew the Dayaike Group and Finger Company too well.

Erik knew very well that Charles's plan really had a high probability of success. But precisely because of this, after Tengda intervened, he would have a greater chance of failure.

Meng Chang swiped his phone. "Huh? There seems to be some activity on Finger Company's side. I'll share the news in the group."

The others also took out their phones to check.

In an interview with a foreign media outlet, Charles publicly stated that he was considering merging the Asian servers!

Of course, he used some high-sounding and beautiful words, such as to further promote the exchange of Asian players, improve the level of the entire Asian server, unify operations and activities, and so on.

But obviously, any player who knows a little bit about IOI knows the real reason: the IOI national server is too miserable. The loss of players after the World Championship has made the national server even worse. The queuing time for high-end ranked matches is getting longer and longer, and the fish ponds have also experienced serious depletion. If they don't merge the servers, the players will really not be able to play!

In fact, a long time ago, there were various speculations that IOI would merge servers, but there had been no solid evidence. Now that Charles, the current CEO of Finger Company, has said it himself, the credibility is very high.

In addition, someone also revealed the April Fool's Day event that Finger Company is planning.

On the surface, this does not seem to be an internal leak, but a random event, but in the eyes of Meng Chang and others, this behavior is very suspicious.

In fact, there is nothing particularly wrong with simply looking at this April Fool's Day event. The key is that it is similar to previous events, and basically still involves creating new skins in various ways.

In addition, there is even a new paid-content event.

For players, this is of course unacceptable!

Because as early as the Spring Festival event, players had already made a lot of noise and cursed Finger Company and Dayaike Group.

When the game mechanics, gameplay, and balance have not been done well, but they have been constantly releasing new skins, isn't the intention obvious?

Moreover, this time they simply didn't even pretend to hide it, and even launched a paid-content event, which was simply outrageous!

Players, of course, reacted strongly and cursed, especially those who cursed Dayaike Group the most.

Because everyone has already defaulted that as long as there are any paid-content events or money-making events, they are definitely arranged by Dayaike Group!

But Meng Chang and others all knew that this time, it might not really be Dayaike Group's idea.

Although Dayaike Group had ample motivation to make a quick buck and run, Charles had even more motivation to further create public opinion unfavorable to Finger Company through this method, thereby lowering the stock price.

Moreover, Charles was doing this, and Dayaike Group would neither stop it nor clarify it, but could only obediently take the blame for him.

It can only be said that Charles really understood Dayaike Group very well.

If this guess is correct, then this is likely not the end, but the beginning.

Charles was probably just testing the waters and taking the first step in his plan. Next, he must have many other ways to further lower Finger Company's stock price, so as to achieve his goal more smoothly.

The four looked at each other and stood up.

"The plan has been finalized, and Charles has already started to act. Let's go!"

...

In the afternoon, Wu Bin checked the online reviews of Tengda's special recruitment exam again.

As expected, the direction of public opinion had changed somewhat!

Under those popular comments that cheered and praised Tengda's conscience, some different voices appeared.

"Although this seems like a good thing on the surface, I'm a little worried that Tengda will be dragged down by its own welfare policy one day. The previous high welfare was at least given to young people who entered the company through formal examinations, which could motivate them to work hard, but now the people who are specially recruited either have lost their fighting spirit subjectively, or their physical or family reasons lead to insufficient energy. This will slow down the efficiency of the entire company!"

"Indeed, the so-called 'social responsibility,' to put it bluntly, is also a kind of 'social burden' for enterprises. I think it's already very good to treat everyone equally and have them enter the company through exams. There's no need to give these people special treatment, right?"

"I'm very afraid that Tengda will be dragged down by a group of employees who slack off... From the perspective of a working person, I certainly hope to work less and get more salary, but from the perspective of a consumer, if Tengda's employees slack off, how can they provide us with better products and services?"

"I think Tengda's current situation is very dangerous. It's a bit like building a persona. Generally speaking, there's no good end for those who build a persona, whether it's a celebrity or a company. As long as they build a persona, there will always be a day when the persona collapses..."

"I'm also worried. The key is, does President Pei really not care about making money? Who can resist the temptation of capital? Even if he can now, what about in the future? Even if he himself can, what about the other senior executives? The higher you praise Tengda, the more miserably it will fall at that time... Anyway, you're the ones who are blowing it up, and you're the ones who are stepping on it. I think Tengda's current state is pretty good. Don't continue to raise it any higher. It's really dangerous."

"Regarding this matter, I think there is an even greater hidden danger: Tengda must not become a 'Zi Gong Redeems Slaves,' morally kidnapping all other companies, and causing the entire entrepreneurial environment to deteriorate! If that's the case, it would really be doing a good thing with bad intentions!"