"It's been almost a week. Hasn't a single company come to inquire?"

"There was one. A gaming company from Neon did ask, but since their scale isn't large, the price of 89.2 million is... probably a bit high for them..."

"And then? No follow-up calls?"

"There were follow-ups, but after two attempts, the other side stopped answering."

"Damn it! A studio that created tens of billions in just four years is now selling for only 89.2 million? Are they all blind?"

"Well..."

Friday.

Vice President's office at CloudPower Group.

Betang’s brow was furrowed into a knot, both anxious and furious.

Yet, only one unknown company from Neon had shown interest in acquiring it!

This situation tormented Betang, who was primarily responsible for this matter.

Keep in mind!

Due to the disastrous failure of Apex Prime, Vivendi was extremely dissatisfied with CloudPower!

Now, they needed to cut costs and find any way to cover the massive 660 million dollar hole!

Among many solutions, selling Ubsoft was a key one.

Otherwise, Konik wouldn’t have entrusted this task to a single vice president.

But the problem was, judging by current circumstances, the sale of Ubsoft was not going smoothly; the future looked bleak.

Ubsoft’s reputation was abysmal!

Moreover, the set price of 89.2 million dollars was awkward.

You might say it's expensive, but not really; for major companies, acquiring a nearly two-decade-old established game studio for under 100 million is definitely a good deal.

But the premise is that the studio must still have potential — at least not be terrible.

Clearly, Ubsoft didn’t meet this requirement, so big companies could afford it but showed no interest.

On the other hand, if you say it’s cheap, it was still a bit pricey for some small and medium-sized companies.

Nearly 100 million dollars can buy a studio with rich game development experience and over four years of experience working in big companies.

But that price was still quite high; small to mid-sized studios simply couldn’t afford it, especially when the product itself was subpar.

To put it bluntly, Ubsoft now was like the 3070 mining graphics cards back in Gu Sheng's previous life in the 40s.

The rich could afford it but were already using 4090s.

The common folk who couldn’t afford it preferred to stick with their old 1060s for another two years rather than waste money buying a mining card.

It was extremely awkward.

Betang was close to losing his mind.

After all, if no company came forward to acquire it soon, they would have to dismantle Ubsoft and sell the parts separately.

This would increase the selling price of the personnel individually,

but overall,

it still wouldn’t reach 89.2 million dollars.

Because the current 89.2 million was basically a combo pack of personnel plus copyrights.

If they sold the personnel separately, sure the price would rise, but how would they sell the copyrights?

And don’t think those copyrights Ubsoft had were valuable.

If they split out those junk copyrights that never appeared in the gaming market and were never proven by sales, it would only make sales even more difficult.

So now, Betang’s greatest hope was that someone would be willing to take this garbage off their hands as a whole for 89.2 million and never appear before him again.

But the question was...

Who would buy it?

"...Someone is here to discuss acquisition, Vice President Betang!"

Just as he was fretting,

a knock sounded on the door.

One of Betang’s intern secretaries opened it and brought good news.

"Really?!"

Upon hearing this,

Betang immediately stood up, eyes shining with burning anticipation!

"Really!"

The secretary nodded repeatedly, her face beaming with joy.

"Two honored guests are waiting right now in the VIP room downstairs. Shall I take you there?"

"Let’s go, let’s go... Hurry up!"

Betang didn’t waste a moment, grabbed his suit jacket, and briskly headed toward the elevator while asking:

"What kind of company? From which country? What’s the name?"

The sound of high heels clicked behind him.

"The front desk said these are two VIPs from Huaguo. They didn’t disclose their names or company but said you definitely know them."

"Huaguo?"

Hearing this, Betang was slightly stunned and clicked his tongue inside the elevator.

To be honest, he was a little surprised.

You have to know, the current Huaguo gaming circle was extremely hostile toward CloudPower.

Not only did they have comprehensive game companies like Yiyou and XunTeng taking advantage of CloudPower’s chaos to grab international market share,

but the worst was Golden Wind, a presumptuous mid-sized company secretly playing dirty tricks, deliberately setting traps, and tricking them out of over 600 million!

At such a tense moment between the two sides, it was truly baffling that a Huaguo company would be willing to break through the Huaguo game companies alliance’s 'blockade' to contact them and buy the headache that was Ubsoft.

Ding!

Lost in thought, the elevator arrived at the first floor.

Outside, the front desk assistant was already waiting.

"President Betang, the VIPs are in the lounge. Please follow me."

Betang nodded and followed the assistant to the VIP lounge entrance.

Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his furrowed brow, put on a friendly smile, knocked, and then pushed the door open.

"Welcome to CloudPower in the United States. I am your Huaguo friend who came from afar—"

Before he could finish,

his voice caught in his throat.

His accompanying secretary's face instantly changed drastically, her eyes wide as saucers.

Because on the spacious sofa sat a young couple, both around twenty-four or twenty-five years old.

The girl wore a creamy white coat with a high-neck cashmere sweater underneath. Her round face framed by big bright eyes and glossy shoulder-length black hair. She was chewing on a lollipop.

The young man was dressed in a black Chinese tunic suit, with short hair and sharp, handsome features. He was half-reclined on the sofa, legs crossed, holding a cigarette with smoke curling upwards, exuding an elegant yet rebellious aura.

In a way, these two were indeed Betang’s 'old friends.'

Because they were the chairman and chief executive officer of Golden Wind!

Shen Miaomiao! Gu Sheng!

Betang’s mind went blank with a buzzing noise!

His brow twitched, eyes filled with complicated emotions:

annoyance, fear, surprise, and disbelief!

The Huaguo company wanting to acquire Ubsoft...

Was actually Golden Wind?!

Huff—

Seeing Betang freeze on the spot, Gu Sheng slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke straight at Betang’s face without any attempt to dodge.

“Mr. Betang, didn’t you finish what you were saying earlier?”

Betang’s face turned green!

Get out!

Get out now!

The shame of being told to get lost with a finger pointed in his face by Golden Wind back then surged up in his heart, making him want to use the harshest tone to order the two out!

But!

‘Betang, the decision to list Ubsoft for sale wasn’t mine. It’s Vivendi’s arrangement. If this goes badly, both of us will be doomed!’

Konik’s voice echoed in his mind.

After a moment,

Betang forced down his frustration, gritted his teeth, and managed a smile more miserable than crying:

“Welcome... both of you... to CloudPower for talks... please... upstairs?”

“Mr. Betang, your face doesn’t look good,”

Upon hearing this, Shen Miaomiao stood up.

“No need to rush. We’re not here to talk about cooperation, but acquisition. Please show us around first.”

Pfft—

Betang nearly spat blood!

The arrogant words he once used in Golden Wind, like a giant slap, now turned around and slapped him in the face!

The crisp slap echoed loudly!

The most important thing was, facing such an in-your-face slap, he could only endure it and not act like Shen Miaomiao back then, who would just give a 'shameless' attitude and walk away!

Betang’s face turned ashen.

“Well... Chairman Shen... about Ubsoft, there’s no need to inspect the whole company, right?”

Hearing this,

Shen Miaomiao stopped, exchanged a glance with Old Gu beside her.

“That’s true.”

“Mm...”

Gu Sheng thought for a moment and nodded.

“Indeed, no need.”

“Then let’s go.”

With that, Shen Miaomiao waved her hand.

The two of them headed straight for the entrance of the CloudPower building.

“Hey! Hey! Wait, wait! You two!”

Seeing the situation going badly, Betang hurriedly scampered after the two like a frightened rabbit.

He dared not let them just walk away!

You have to know!

These two flew all the way from Huaguo to the United States!

No matter how free they were, they wouldn’t just come all this way to slap him in the face!

If Golden Wind came, it definitely meant acquisition intent!

If he let the VIPs leave just because of a few words, not only would Konik, his superior, be furious, but Vivendi’s sanctions would also follow!

At this moment,

veins bulging on his neck and face turning red, Betang could only bow his head and force a smile at the two.

“Y-yes... that’s right...”

“Because the company’s been busy lately, I was worried I couldn’t show you our best side, so...”

“But since you’re willing to visit, please follow me. I will give you a detailed... introduction.”

Betang bit his teeth until they nearly shattered.

Humiliation.

Absolute humiliation!

Watching Betang’s 'noble' and arrogant head bow under the radiant dominance of himself and Little Nezha, Gu Sheng raised an eyebrow.

It seemed even the 'foreign master’s' knees could be bent.

After a pause,

Shen Miaomiao slightly nodded her head, appearing to accept Betang’s invitation but not in a hurry to move.

She slowly said,

“Mr. Betang, I’m not one to drag things out. The fact that I can stand here already means something. I hope your company won’t waste both our time.”

“Uh—well—”

Upon hearing this,

Betang’s forehead veins bulged as if constipated, his face turning a deep purple. Clearly, he was furious but forced himself to swallow it!

Shen Miaomiao’s words were sharp!

Although still polite in tone, they were just barely so!

They couldn’t even be called courteous!

The overbearing tone was filled with supreme dignity and unquestionable authority—

I’m here to talk acquisition. I know your Ubsoft can’t be sold, so now, I am your god. You’d better take a good look and don’t take me for granted.

From this moment on,

her rules were the rules!!!

During the following acquisition negotiations, Shen Miaomiao thoroughly enforced this!

Throughout,

Gu Sheng hardly spoke, letting Little Nezha take full control of the battlefield!

“...89.2 million is too high and doesn’t meet our expectations...”

“You can, of course, refuse, but you also need to consider who else can solve this hot potato if we don’t acquire it...”

“Don’t tell me about Ubsoft’s profits in the first four years or how great the financial reports look. I only look at what it is now...”

“...A bunch of unproven series of novel copyrights and even failed projects that never formed planning documents?”

“Potential is what people say in the future, not now...”

“Unfortunately, Mr. Betang, that 'Neon company' you mentioned was also inquiring on our behalf; otherwise, how else would we know about Ubsoft’s copyright status...”

“...Yes, from beginning to end, in the global gaming market, only we have shown some interest in Ubsoft...”

“85 million? We can’t accept that... 75 million then...”

“78 million...”

“79 million...”

Verbal jousting and bargaining.

Though it looked like two sides at a farmers’ market haggling over prices,

in fact, such price negotiations were straightforward and plain.

Even negotiations based on ten-thousand-dollar units like theirs were considered quite high-level.

Shen Miaomiao had once attended a pharmaceutical bidding meeting with Lao Shen, which was like a farmers’ market in suits; bargaining was so precise it was down to cents!

That was true penny-pinching!

Now, sitting at the negotiation table, Shen Miaomiao inherited Lao Shen’s excellent genes, showing the bold spirit of a tycoon’s eldest daughter.

Taking advantage of being the buyer, she pressed Betang’s team so hard they couldn’t even lift their heads!

For a moment, Gu Sheng truly saw a shadow of Shen Wanlin in Little Nezha.

There was a strange feeling that Shen Miaomiao’s stand-in was her father.

In the end,

both sides agreed on a price of 81.29 million dollars.

This was already the lowest price CloudPower could accept.

With the price settled, everything else proceeded smoothly and naturally.

"...For the follow-up, our person in charge will take over. We hope your company will cooperate actively."

Standing at the entrance of the CloudPower building, Gu Sheng smiled and nodded in greeting to a face still purple from anger, Betang.

The first step of the reverse acquisition—taking down their old home!

Done!!!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com