Chapter 156 Eric

Eric was stunned. He never expected President Pei to say something like this.

What virtue or ability did he possess?

Eric knew very well that although his failure had many objective factors, sometimes he was held back by the higher-ups, and sometimes it was because *ioi* was indeed not as good as *gog*... but no matter what, losing was losing!

He was completely defeated by President Pei, in every possible way.

Moreover, Tenda was full of talented people. Such an awesome game like *gog*, with version updates, numerical balance, operating events, e-sports events, and so on, President Pei certainly couldn't do everything himself. These tasks were all handled by Tenda's internal employees.

Even excluding the huge role of President Pei, these employees should not be underestimated!

That's why people said that Tenda's game department was the core department of the entire Tenda Group. Anyone pulled out could start a new industry and expand President Pei's business empire.

As a result, President Pei was not very satisfied with the person in charge of *gog*? And even said he had wanted to replace him for a long time?

And now he was offering this position to him?

Eric felt that this was quite unreal, but looking closely at President Pei's expression, he seemed particularly serious, not joking at all.

So, he really started to think about this possibility.

Seeing Eric fall silent, Pei Qian suddenly realized a problem: "Oh dear, I overlooked something."

"You're also considered a high-level executive at the Dayak Corporation, wouldn't you have signed a non-compete agreement?"

"How much would you have to pay in damages if you jumped ship?"

Small companies were one thing, but large companies basically signed non-compete agreements and confidentiality agreements with their executives to prevent malicious poaching by rival companies.

The confidentiality agreement was easy to understand, which meant that even if an employee left the company, they could not disclose or take away company secrets, otherwise they would bear the corresponding responsibility.

Otherwise, if an executive jumped ship and directly took the company's secrets to a rival company, wouldn't that be a complete mess?

As for the non-compete agreement, it restricted similar things, but the specific content of the restriction was different.

Generally speaking, non-compete agreements mainly targeted key, indispensable high-level personnel, restricting them from engaging in similar businesses during their employment and from joining rival companies in the same field for a certain period after leaving.

The specific length of this "certain period" varied from company to company, but it was generally two years, as anything shorter would be meaningless.

Of course, the content of the agreement could not be written too broadly.

For example, if a company wrote in its non-compete agreement that employees could not join any domestic or foreign internet companies within two years of leaving the company, that would be too much, because the concept of internet companies was too broad. Wouldn't that prevent employees from going to any company with coders?

Therefore, it was generally specified to a specific field, such as social networking software or shopping websites.

Game companies often stated that they could not join other game companies, nor could they start their own game companies.

Alternatively, they would specify that they could not join certain companies, clearly writing out the names of the companies. These companies were often large companies in the industry, and although their main businesses were not entirely the same, they had competitive relationships, which was normal.

After signing a non-compete agreement, the employee was restricted, so the company had to give a certain amount of compensation: the employee had to continue to be paid monthly after leaving the company, generally more than 30% of the original fixed income, which could be regarded as the "hush money" and "compensation fee" for complying with the non-compete agreement.

If the company did not pay for several months, then the restrictions of the non-compete agreement on the employee would also become invalid.

But Dayak Corporation was a proper large company, and these aspects were definitely extremely formal.

If Eric had really signed a non-compete agreement, it would be a bit troublesome.

To poach someone, you had to pay damages for breach of contract. Every company's situation was different, but it would cost at least several million.

The key was that the system might not allow Pei Qian to spend this money to poach someone.

Eric nodded: "There is a non-compete agreement."

Pei Qian felt a bit of a headache.

What to do?

Ask Eric to talk to the higher-ups of the Dayak Corporation and cancel the non-compete agreement?

Wouldn't that be the same as telling others that he was going to jump ship to a rival company?

The higher-ups of the Dayak Corporation weren't stupid, how could they possibly agree?

It was a bit difficult.

Eric pondered for a moment and said, "But if I really want to jump ship to Tenda, this non-compete agreement may not be able to restrict me."

Pei Qian: "?"

For a moment, he couldn't think of what kind of background someone would have to say something like this.

What, could it be that the European High Judge is a relative of yours?

Seeing President Pei's slightly surprised expression, Eric knew that he must have misunderstood and quickly explained: "I certainly can't violate the content of the non-compete agreement itself, but if I want to jump ship to Tenda, I won't be restricted by this non-compete agreement."

"Because Tenda does not meet the conditions stipulated in the non-compete agreement."

Pei Qian still didn't understand.

Tenda's *gog* and Finger Company's *ioi* had a dog-eat-dog competitive relationship, that was an ironclad fact, right?

Then Eric, as the person in charge of *ioi*, jumping ship to *gog* should trigger the non-compete agreement, right?

Eric explained: "My situation is a bit special."

"In fact, whether it's at Dayak Corporation or Finger Company, there are non-compete agreements."

"The non-compete agreement on Finger Company's side clearly states that senior management personnel and core designers cannot join any other game company within two years of leaving the company, naturally including Tenda."

"But I'm not an employee of Finger Company, so I didn't sign this non-compete agreement with Finger Company."

"As for the non-compete agreement on Dayak Corporation's side, the situation is different from that of Finger Company."

"Dayak Corporation's main business is in water, transportation, energy, media, and other fields. Although it has bought some game companies, it is not considered its main business at all."

"Moreover, the department I was originally in was the media department, so my non-compete agreement mainly restricts me from joining other European and American media companies, as well as water, transportation, energy, and other companies that directly compete with Dayak Corporation."

"In addition, it also restricts me from joining some internationally renowned internet companies, such as several large companies in Silicon Valley."

"Although this range is very wide, Tenda is indeed not among them..."

Pei Qian was shocked.

It could be like this?

He thought about it carefully, and it seemed like he really wasn't affected!

In fact, there were also some senior executives in China who jumped between major companies, but as long as they signed a non-compete agreement, they basically couldn't escape it.

After all, whether the two companies had a competitive relationship could be seen at a glance.

But Eric's situation was obviously very special.

He wasn't originally in the game industry, but was responsible for some affairs in the media company on Dayak Corporation's side.

After Dayak Corporation acquired Finger Company, on the one hand, it hoped to strengthen its control over Finger Company, and on the other hand, it was to better expand *ioi*'s business in the national server, so it sent Eric to parachute over as the person in charge.

Although Eric was now in charge of the game business, his non-compete agreement didn't mention it.

It was like a company that developed mobile phones would not write in the non-compete agreement that they could not go to a game company to be a designer, let alone write that they could not go to a restaurant to wash dishes or be a waiter.

Because even if the executives jumped ship, they had to jump to their main business.

The so-called non-compete agreement was to hope that employees would not jump to the same industry to form a competitive relationship with them, and also to prevent large companies from maliciously poaching each other and disrupting the employment environment.

If people had changed industries, and they still weren't allowed to work, wouldn't that be rogue behavior? The law would not support it at all.

But Eric just happened to cross the industry because of business expansion, which led to the original content restricted in the non-compete agreement becoming ineffective...

Of course, this agreement also named many large companies in various fields, but Tenda was not on the list.

Because Tenda was a Chinese company, and its real rise was only in the past two or three years. Originally, Dayak Corporation had never even heard of it, so how could it have foreseen the future and written Tenda's name into the non-compete agreement?

Pei Qian never expected that it could be like this.

Moreover, he suddenly realized that he and Eric were already seriously discussing the possibility of jumping ship...

This made Eric also fall silent, feeling that this topic was a bit wrong.

Perhaps President Pei's eagerness for talents was so obvious that Eric was unconsciously infected by it.

Pei Qian's voice suddenly became louder: "Then it's easy to handle!"

"Brother Eric, when can you join the company? It shouldn't take you a few days to go back and complete the resignation formalities, right?"

Eric was a little shocked. Was it necessary to be so anxious?

President Pei was really unreserved and didn't have the airs of a leader at all.

But wasn't this precisely the charm of President Pei's personality?

After pondering for a moment, Eric said: "President Pei, this matter is too sudden. I'm not mentally prepared yet. Let me think about it carefully."

"And... if I really want to join Tenda, I have a small request."

"Can you also poach General Manager Zhao of Longyu Group?"

"I work well with him and I hope to continue working together."

"Of course, if President Pei thinks that he is not capable enough, then forget it. Moreover, General Manager Zhao is probably really carrying a non-compete agreement, so this matter may not be easy to handle."

Pei Qian nodded immediately: "Okay! No problem!"

Pei Qian had an impression of Zhao Xuming, and a very deep impression.

He didn't seem to have much ability. The only outstanding ability was not to take the blame.

If such a person could continue to partner with Eric, wouldn't the possibility of losing money greatly increase?

At that time, let Eric be responsible for the overseas market, and let Zhao Xuming be responsible for the domestic market, one for foreign affairs and one for domestic affairs, perfect!

Of course, if Zhao Xuming really had a non-compete agreement, Pei Qian really didn't know how to solve it.

He could only think of a way to see if he could reach some kind of cooperative agreement with Longyu Group to exchange Zhao Xuming over.

If that really didn't work, then so be it. It could only be said that they weren't destined.

Having only Eric, although not particularly perfect, should be enough.