Super Spender

Chapter 326: 320: Forced Acquisition

Chapter 326: 320: Forced Acquisition

Finn Lewis casually posted on micro research and chose to selectively overlook the comments below. After all, they were all sorts of people out there – critics and fans alike, and he didn’t want to upset himself. What surprised him though was that in this age where news could be hard to find, or rather, anything could be turned into news, numerous online media outlets were keeping an eye on guys like him.

Not long after Finn’s micro research post, several portal websites, particularly those under T Corporation, simply screenshotted his post and turned it into news.

“The nationally acclaimed Prodigal has purchased his first private jet, presumably the first super-large private plane in the country. The A380 has been transformed into a private plane for the first time, and its size will surpass the North Federation’s Presidential Air Force One, an improved model of Wolfhawk 747

Well, the media’s mantra seems to be ‘no publicity is bad publicity’. They directly compared Lewis’s private jet to Air Force One. Although, in fairness, Lewis’s private jet really is much more extravagant than Air Force One — but only after being spruced up using accumulated points!

Just as Finn Lewis had returned home, he received a call from Sarah Wood, “Hello, what’s up?!” said Finn rather speechlessly.

“Hello hello hello, I mean, don’t you have something where you’ll need my help? Why buy such a big plane? Can you eat it? The money would be better off donated. Why don’t I see you doing any philanthropy?!” Sarah chucked out words at lightning speed.

“You can start by moving out of Kay Lee’s house.” returned Finn, somewhat annoyed.

“Huh? What?” Sarah clearly didn’t catch on.

“Nevermind, I’m acquiring Spring and Autumn Airlines, handle it on your end! No need to worry about the rest, there might be some issues with the acquisition application and I need your help.” Finn quickly changed the subject. Though Matthew Chan said there wouldn’t be much of a problem, it wouldn’t hurt to have Sarah’s help!

“Oh, I got it, I’ll get on it right away. As for fees, we’ll discuss it later.” A bewildered Sarah Wood responded happily before hanging up.

Only after hanging up did Sarah realise what Finn had said, “Damn! What does that mean?! Is he trying to tarnish my Kay’s reputation?!”

Finn was somewnat annoyed atter nangmg up. He couldn’t, atter all, openly tell Kay Lee to move in with him! After much thought, Finn decided to reserve it in the back of his mind for now and divert Sarah with other tasks when the time comes. After all, Sarah volunteered to help, so Finn would find her something to do.

Forget it, better attend to his own business first. The priority now was to complete that task, which first involved dealing with Blizzard. Finn could dismiss EA as their main focus was on standalone games and they had no immediate interest in online gaming.

However, Finn’s focus was on online games, so taking care of that first was his strategy. After all, dominating one aspect was still dominance, right?

Finn waited for four days in Celeston City and finally received his first private jet. While the acquisition of Spring and Autumn Airlines was still underway, all matters were handled by the bank. The bank was merely assembling stocks in the market.

The main negotiation hadn’t yet started and Finn was touring his first private plane. The entire plane had been reinvented by Zero and its efficiency was impressive. The renovation of a plane was nothing short of rebuilding one, and it was accomplished in just three days.

Though nothing seemed amiss from the outside of the plane, everything inside had been completely overhauled. Although the plane still used a fuel system, its maximum range with full fuel loaded exceeded 60,000 km, way more than enough to circle the earth.

When the plane landed at the Celeston City International Airport, Oscar Blair had already applied for a direct route from Celeston City to North Federation’s California. Finn directly boarded his private jet and flew to California. However, this time Finn didn’t take anyone with him, and the cabin crew were temporarily replaced by T800s.

When Finn landed, Luca Hall had prepared a fleet of vehicles to pick him up and had already been in touch with Kodiak Kennedy’s private holding company.

“Mr. Lewis, welcome to California.” To Finn’s surprise, Mr. Kodiak Kennedy personally came to the airport to greet him.

“Mr. Kodiak Kennedy, I didn’t expect you to come.” Finn said, genuinely surprised. Kodiak Kennedy’s private holding company owns a stake in Activision Blizzard which equates to Kodiak Kennedy personally owning approximately 23% of Blizzard’s shares. Another shareholder, Kelly Damian Bryan, owns almost 24% of the shares, while other shareholders of the investment company own about 8%, amongst which T Corporation owns around 6%. Various other large and small shareholders own the rest, most of which are float shares.

When Finn arrived at Activision Blizzard, he already held a considerable amount of shares that Olivia Thatcher had acquired from the market. The remaining 10% of Activision Blizzard was held by Vivandi. The freely-traded shares in the stock market accounted for about 32%, and Finn had already purchased about 19.6% of these shares through the stock market.

This was virtually the absorption limit, nearly sucking up all the freely-traded shares on the market.

“Haha, sure thing, Mr. Lewis’s IVY Corporation’s game “Under The Heavens” has a huge fan base in the Federation as well as globally. Many companies are looking to cash in on licensing the name “Under The Heavens” games, particularly after we learned that you operate “Under The Heavens” as part of a larger whole in Flame Nation.” Kodiak Kennedy smiled and spoke.

In fact, Kodiak Kennedy didn’t know exactly why Finn was there because Finn’s visit was arranged by Luca Hall. When Luca Hall made contact, Kodiak

Kennedy assumed Finn was there to discuss the licensing of “Under The Heavens” as Activision Blizzard had indeed contacted WY about licensing “Under The Heavens”.

A game that hosts approximately 5-5 million concurrent gamers just in the Flame Nation, the most important part is these gamers are all active users and the user base is steadily increasing. This is not even the limit, and Kodiak Kennedy couldn’t ignore such a game. It’s a fact that Monster World is gradually declining.

Finn, along with Kodiak Kennedy, first toured the Activision and Blizzard

headquarters, particularly Blizzard. It could be said that Blizzard is seen as no.l in game development by numerous players. Although Activision and Artis Electronics, or EA, have a higher market value in the North Federation, Blizzard resembles more of a private studio.

But the image Blizzard has created in the minds of many gamers is hard to change. Even though Finn had different mental state now, he was still very excited upon entering Blizzard.

In the evening, Kodiak Kennedy hosted a banquet to welcome Finn. “Mr. Kodiak Kennedy, I actually came here mainly for two reasons.” Finn said after some thought.

“All ears!” Kodiak Kennedy said with a smile..