Super Spender

Chapter 332: 326 Madman – Part 1

“Yes,” Finn nodded.

“Oh no, this is a problem. You shouldn’t have approached him, Mr. Lewis. After you got fifty percent of the shares, he would’ve been unable to oppose your decision regardless. But now things will get complicated. Bryan has quite a few good friends in the North Federation,” Kennedy said after giving it some thought.

“Hehe, Mr. Kennedy, don’t worry. I know what to do.” Lewis smiled slightly. He had approached Bryan just to give it a shot. In reality, whether Lewis tried or not, all the available shares basically were already accounted for. There were barely any floating shares left in the stock market.

The remainder of the shares were all in these people’s hands. Therefore, Lewis wasn’t worried. Regardless of whether he approached Bryan, the remaining individuals couldn’t be influenced by Bryan. Of course, it wouldn’t be accurate to say Bryan couldn’t influence them at all, but at least he was no longer the decisive factor.

Hearing Lewis’s words, Kennedy was naturally indifferent. After all, he was just informing Lewis. After hanging up, Lewis shook his head, looking at Jim Lewis, who was driving, and said, “Let’s go back to the hotel now and wait for the latest news from Company T.”

“Yes, young master,” Jim respectfully replied.

After ending his call with Kodiak, Damian Bryan quickly began to mobilize his resources. However, just over an hour later, Bryan’s face turned sour. He received several pieces of bad news. The first was that Red Flower Bank was taking action. The Floral Wealth Group, one of the top ten wealth groups in the North Federation, was undoubtedly powerful.

While the market value of Red Flower Bank was about half of what it used to be, and even though during the economic crisis its value had plummeted to 5-5 billion federal coins, causing a loss of more than 270 billion federal coins in market value, that was mainly because the people behind the Floral Wealth Group were withdrawing their assets.

Only small shareholders were really in trouble. Though major shareholders suffered losses, their assets didn’t decrease that drastically. Moreover, after the economic crisis passed, Red Flower Bank’s market value had begun to rise and was currently around 160 billion federal coins. After all, it was a well-established wealth group, and it was impossible for it to collapse outright.

The ones taking action now were from Red Flower Bank, and Bryan had news that nearly all floating shares on the stock market had been purchased. Twenty percent of the shares were held by a mysterious hedge or private equity fund. Who this fund belonged to was hard to determine.

An additional seven percent was already in the hands of Finn Lewis. Red Floral Group was the one taking action, and the owners of the stocks had already sold their shares. The only ones left were the shares in his and Kodiak’s hands. They didn’t have to worry about their shares for the time being. The only ones they couldn’t let Lewis get a hold of were the two major shareholders: Vivandi and Company T.

But neither of these companies were within Bryan’s sphere of influence. He didn’t even have someone to talk to. After pacing back and forth in his room for a long time, Bryan clenched his teeth and belligerently said, “Regardless of whether I can stop you or not, I won’t let you get away with it easily.”

With that thought, Bryan immediately took out his phone and scrolled through his official contacts. “Get me in touch with North Federation’s major newspapers and media outlets, including… I’m going to leak some news to them.”

“Yes.”

Finn Lewis had no idea what Bryan was planning. He was still waiting for a call from Mr. M. There was no rushing this matter, but action could be taken on the Southern Federation front. Jay Sommer and his team, along with two temporarily assigned T2500 model intelligent robots, had headed for the

Southern Federation to start acquiring small gaming studios sorted out by Olivia Thatcher. These were all studios with great prospects.

By the afternoon, Luca Hall rushed in, looking miserable. “What’s the matter?” Finn asked, seeing Luca’s expression.

“Boss, that bastard Bryan leaked to the media that you, a Flame Nation business mogul, are planning to acquire Activision Blizzard and have already initiated action. Furthermore, many shares were purchased at a premium of over 50%. As a result, Activision Blizzard share prices started to rise, but so far the trading volumes are still pathetic,” Luca explained dejectedly.

“Oh?” Lewis furrowed his brows. This kind of news, before fully acquiring the company, wasn’t a good sign. It meant the acquisition would be exposed to the media. More importantly, when you show a determination to buy at any cost, some people may start clutching their shares, planning to sell them at a high price.

Fortunately, Lewis had essentially fulfilled his objective by now. Therefore, this news came a bit too late. Had this news broken when Olivia was secretly absorbing shares of Blizzard, Lewis would have had to lose a lot more money.

“It’s alright. Our basic acquisition moves have already been completed. Even though this exposure isn’t good news for us, it’s also not that hard to accept. It would barely affect the situation anyway,” Lewis said, shaking his head.

“Alright,” Luca nodded, not saying anything more.

What Lewis didn’t know yet was that this event had caused a huge storm in North Federation. Although Activision Blizzard didn’t qualify as a large company, its market valuation, after today’s increase, had reached around 18 billion federal coins! North Federation’s stock market didn’t have a limit to daily price increases. Under adverse news, it was quite normal for a company’s market value to lose hundreds of billions of federal coins in a day.

“According to the news revealed by Activision Blizzard’s largest shareholder,

Damian Bryan, the chairman of WY-also listed on the Federation Stock-A Mr. Lewis from Flame Nation, has set his sights on Activision Blizzard. It is said that he has already acquired 7% of Activision Blizzard’s shares, and has even signed a related agreement with the second-largest shareholder, Kodiak. If Lewis acquires more than 30% of Blizzard board shares, then Kodiak would sell his own 23% of Activision Blizzard shares to Lewis as well. By then, Lewis would own 53% of Activision Blizzard, achieving absolute control of the company.”

“In other words, Activision Blizzard, which had just recently become independent, would once again become a subsidiary under the control of another company. The only difference this time is that the parent company of Activision Blizzard will be a Flame Nation company! More importantly, the new owner of Activision Blizzard is also a gaming industry giant.. But then, what will be the future of Artis Electronics?”