The God of Coding, Becoming an IT Conglomerate

31. Dell’s Proposal (2)

Del’s expression as he looked at Hoyoung was confident.

Hoyoung had the illusion that he could hear Dell’s inner thoughts, ‘Are you going to refuse?’.

“To be honest, I am at a loss.”

“yes?”

Del said Hoyoung’s words were absurd.

100% of the invested principal was recovered, and a huge condition was put on it, but it was a loss.

“Is Dell perhaps underestimating their company?”

“Are you underestimating?”

“I can tell you. Dell Computer will be one of the world’s leading companies in the future. No matter how I look at it, I lose more than 10% of such a company for just $25 million.”

Del was even slightly moved by Ho-young, who said it was not a big deal.

“It seems that the situation has been reversed. Usually, we explain the company’s vision to investors, but investors rather say this.”

“I would never have invested in a Dell computer if I hadn’t had this confidence in the first place.”

A warm atmosphere flowed from Hoyoung’s words.

But Dell reconciled himself, thinking that he shouldn’t fall for the atmosphere.

“Then, do you have any conditions Hoyeong wants?”

“no. On the condition that Dell told me, I will hand over the 11.9% stake.”

“yes?”

Del couldn’t control Hoyoung’s mind.

To accept the condition even though you said it was a loss just a moment ago.

“Instead, could we amend one of the agreements we had earlier?”

“What are you talking about?”

“A while ago, when I was negotiating a repurchase after listing my stake, I decided to sell it at 1.3 times the price. But since I made a loss before listing, how about making it 1.8 times the market price at that time?”

“Hmm···”

After thinking for a while, Dell made a decision.

“All right. Let’s do that. Let’s do it 1.8 times. Still, it must have been a difficult decision to hand over the stake, but thank you for making the decision.”

“I think there must be a reason for trying to buy the stake even by offering me various conditions. And I believe it was a decision made for the betterment of Dell computers, not for Dell’s personal reasons.”

“Hoyoung…!”

“However, please do not forget that I suffered a loss in this transaction. Dell owes me a huge debt.”

“Thank you for your understanding.”

Seeing Dell bowing his head slightly like a Korean, Hoyeong smiled.

“Then why do you want to buy the stake?”

“To improve the governance of Dell Computer.”

“Governance? Doesn’t Dell own a 50.1% stake?”

“you’re right. However, there are stock options that I decided to give to my employees when I went public.”

“A stock option?”

“yes. Starting from scratch, the only way for me to catch talented people was stock options.”

Hoyoung nodded as he fully understood Del’s feelings.

“What is the amount of stock options to be given?”

“I think it will be around 13%.”

“Isn’t that a small sheep?”

“yes. Many of our employees are thinking of taking a share by putting their stocks on the stock market when they go public. Actually, that wasn’t a big deal, but I heard a rumor a while ago.”

“What are the rumors?”

“There are rumors that some private equity fund will aggressively buy our stocks on the market.”

Del took a sip of coffee as if his throat was burning and continued.

“Although this will never happen, management rights could be threatened if the employees acquired all 13% of the shares and wiped out all stocks during the capital increase period.”

“So you took my stake to solidify the amount of stake Dell has.”

“Exactly.”

I thought that Hoyoung was also Dell.

By repurchasing Ho-young’s stake even at a large amount of money, he prevented anything that could threaten his management rights in advance.

‘I flew all the way to Korea for this.’

Dell’s statement that he came to Korea for a vacation would be a lie.

In this period of explosive growth, there is no way to go on vacation out of the blue, and above all, Korea is not a vacation destination.

To get what you want, even if you throw away dozens of hours of flying time, moving directly is one of the secrets of Dell’s success.

“Then, would you please fill out the contract and contact the US?”

“I see.”

Hoyoung told Dell that it was a loss, but in fact, he thought it was a transaction that could not be called a loss.

With this incident, Hangeul 2.0 will make a spectacular debut in the United States, and Ho-young has cash to spend right away.

’25 million dollars, is it about 22 billion in Korean currency?’

22 billion.

It was a small amount compared to the money he would later make from Dell Computer, but Hoyoung thought it positive to be able to recover his investment a year earlier than the time of listing.

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After Hoyoung left after the deal was over, Del sat down with Francis.

“president. I’m glad it went smoothly.”

“It’s not 100% a lie, but isn’t it pleasant to cheat people who are kind to us?”

Del said with a smile.

There was a bit of self-reproach in that laugh.

“Still, Hoyeong seems to be satisfied to some extent. You can’t feel too bad about it.”

“Do you think Francis just let Ho-young go because he really didn’t know?”

At Del’s question, Francis widened his eyes.

“Are you saying Hoyeong might have noticed?”

Dell nodded slowly, not answering.

Most of what he said to Hoyoung was true.

It was true that stock options had to be distributed to employees, and it was also true that private equity funds were targeting Dell Computer.

But Dell was confident that he could overcome that on his own.

“Hoyeong sent me a message through this transaction.”

“A message?”

“I have no intention of betraying you. Trust me too… Huhu It seems that I was treating Hoyeong as a potential enemy without even knowing it. I guess I am still lacking.”

The biggest reason Dell bought Hoyoung’s stake was actually to keep Hoyoung in check.

“Del…”

Francis looked at Del with mixed feelings.

He had never seen Dell make that face before.

“ha ha ha. Sorry. Francis.

However, Dell’s expression, which had been serious, soon brightened again.

“You look embarrassed.”

“no.”

“There will never be anything like today again. From now on, I will think of Hoyoung as our reliable ally and my rival.”

Francis nodded.

“good. Because good rivals bring progress.

The reason why Dell accepted Hoyoung’s investment was because he thought Hoyoung was just an investor with a lot of money.

If he had judged that Ho-young’s growth rate could threaten Dell, he might not have received Ho-young’s investment so easily.

Whether Ho-young knew it or not, Dell recognized Ho-young as his lifelong rival.

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After Kim Joo-jung checked her clothes, she took the documents once again.

Finally, today was the first day of negotiations with Nintendo.

He entered the front door of Nintendo with a slight trembling heart.

“How can I help you? What did you come for?”

A female staff member sitting at the information desk on the first floor spoke kindly in Japanese.

Kim Joo-jung was not good at Japanese, but fortunately, Ho-yeong provided a good interpreter, so there was no worry.

“My name is Kim Joo-jung from H&H in Korea. We have a meeting today regarding the provision of game software.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The desk clerk flipped through the files, checked the schedule, and called somewhere.

The phone hung up and she took Kim Joo-jung to a meeting room on the third floor.

“Could you wait here for a moment?”

“All right.”

After the female employee left, Kim Joo-jung waited for a Nintendo official to come.

But after waiting for a long time, no one came.

“Is something going on?”

Even until 15 minutes had passed, Kim Joo-jung just thought something was going to happen.

But after waiting 30 minutes, he started to get annoyed.

‘Are you saying that this is a depressing thing that I’ve only heard about?’

I remembered hearing about it from seniors at other companies.

On the day I went to a meeting at a large Japanese company, the senior said that there were times when I waited for two hours.

‘Couldn’t I be waiting for two hours too?’

Jujeong thought to herself and read the prepared file once again.

It was a file that he had already read several times, but he prepared thoroughly so that he would not make a single mistake.

“Oh, I’m really sorry.”

About 10 more minutes passed, and someone opened the door to the meeting room where Jujeong was sitting and came in.

“I had to do something very urgent, so I had no choice but to be late. I’m really sorry.”

As soon as he entered, he constantly lowered his head and apologized to the drunkard.

“My name is Manzo Akisato, general manager of Nintendo’s game distribution department.”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Joo-Jung Kim.”

As soon as Manjo nodded to Kim Joo-jung, he sat down and opened the papers.

And then he spit it out.

“Your proposal was well received. First of all, it was really interesting to use an operating system called ‘Chronos’ to develop a new game console. I was well aware that Kronos is a good operating system. However, we have our own system that we have been using and developing since the Famicom. Do we really need to change the system?”

Kim Joo-jeong was displeased with Man-jo, who spoke in a slightly blunt tone, but spoke in a calm tone without expressing it.

“yes. Chronos maximizes hardware performance. I think the performance that can be realized on game consoles is the most important, and Chronos is specialized in that area.”

Kim Joo-jung spat out the words she had prepared.

“Do you think the performance is good enough with our system?”

“I know that the new game machine will be a 16-bit game machine. The Famicom is an 8-bit game console. The design of operating systems for 16-bit games and 8-bit games is fundamentally different. You will have to make it almost from scratch, but we will also make and deliver the operating system for the new game console. I think it can save a lot of manpower and time.

“However, there is a downside to having to prepare that much storage space, right? If hard disks are installed in every device, the cost will increase.”

Kim Joo-jung said with a slight smile as if she had expected this question a long time ago.

“As I said before, Chronos can use the performance of its hardware with extreme efficiency. In the case of a home game machine that sets an upper limit, it can have a cost reduction effect because good efficiency can be obtained even if a lower performance video card or CPU is used. And the price of hard disk is getting cheaper day by day. When new game consoles are released, the price will drop further, and the required capacity is less than 4MB.”

Manzo nodded and said.

The way he smiled slightly seemed satisfied with Jujeong’s answer.

“I am well aware of that. In return for giving us Kronos, what they want is that they want to distribute our games to PCs too, right?”

“yes. That’s right. In addition, there is no need to develop a separate PC version because all new game consoles and Chronos that go into PCs will be made on the same basis.”

Jujeong did not bother to mention the monopoly.

Anyway, unless Nintendo releases games for DOS or Macintosh, it’s because only Kronos can run Nintendo games on PC.

“Then, how much do you think the fee for game distribution is?”

“Only for games sold for Kronos, we will not receive commissions up to 50,000 copies. If you sell more than that, you want a commission of 0.2% up to 200,000 copies, 0.3% from 200,000 to 500,000 copies, 0.5% up to 1 million copies, and 0.7% beyond that.”

Kim Joo-jung said confidently.

This is because the fee-related issue was the most elaborate of all the details he prepared for the negotiations today.

He looked at Manzo’s face in anticipation of what Manzo would say.

However, contrary to his expectations, Manjo’s expression was not very good.

“Hmm. You don’t like that part?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You are so far from what we think.”

Unexpected words came out of his mouth.

Kim Joo-jung, who kept a slightly smiling expression on her face, made a surprised expression without even realizing it.