Pei Qian called Assistant Xin over, saying that he wanted to make a trip to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. On the way, Pei Qian briefly explained Shang Yang Games’ situation.
“After the holiday, make some time to check Shang Yang Games out and then explain your findings to me in detail. You can leak some information to their boss; tell them that I am interested in acquiring them.”
Pei Qian was afraid that they would break the company up once he started looking into them. If that happens, he would have to find the employees back one by one. That would be so troublesome.
A broken mirror would still have cracks on it; if he wanted to acquire the business, he should acquire it entirely!
That was why he decided to leak some information to the boss of Shang Yang Games, that he was interested in acquiring the business. That would give him some hope of survival, so that he would not seek to dissolve the company so quickly.
Assistant Xin was driving. She nodded and said, “Alright, Boss Pei. However, according to my understanding, I think it’s a company that is doing quite badly.”
Assistant Xin was very tactful about it.
“I’m not concerned about its situation now but its future potential,” Pei Qian answered confidently.
“En, I believe in your foresight, Boss Pei,” Assistant Xin answered. “How long do you want me to look into them? The longer I have, the more I would understand. That would give us more advantage when conducting the negotiations.”
Assistant Xin paused for a moment and then added, “What’s more, it seems like they are currently incurring losses. We can delay our acquisition for a while. That would make it easier for us to push the price down.”
Push the price down?
Why should we push the price down? The more expensive it is, the better!
Pei Qian immediately shook his head. “We should not delay the matter on purpose. Finish it as soon as possible.”
“Competition in the games industry is always tight. Instead of delaying the matter just to push the price down, it would be better if we quickly acquire it and focus on investing in its operations. We should not lose sight of the big picture for the sake of these small matters.”
“Alright.” Assistant Xin asked again, “Then, are we acquiring the entire company this time or…?”
One could acquire companies in many ways. One option was to acquire an empty shell without any original employee, purely for the sake of the IP rights of games belonging to the company. Another option was to acquire the whole company, but make adjustments to its structure by getting rid of a leader, changing the human resource system, or the like.
As for how they were to conduct the acquisition this time depended on why Pei Qian was interested in Shang Yang Games. That would make it easier for Assistant Xin to negotiate the price.
Pei Qian was not interested in the people working in Shang Yang Games; neither was he interested in any particular game under the company. Instead, he was interested in the loss-incurring potential of Shang Yang Games!
Thus, Pei Qian had to acquire all of Shang Yang Games as it was. That was the only way he could maintain its ‘original flavor’. Pei Qian immediately answered, “Acquire the entire thing. Don’t make a single change to its original structure.”
“Alright, Boss Pei. I understand.” Once she understood her superior’s intentions, Assistant Xin did not ask any further questions.
This was not the most reasonable acquisition. This was because… nothing about Shang Yang Games was worth acquiring. If Pei Qian had been interested in hiring a particular talent, wouldn’t it have been much simpler to lure him over to Tengda?
If he had been interested in a particular game, wouldn’t it have been much simpler to purchase the rights to that game? Shang Yang Games would have been overjoyed to know that another company would be taking over its games.
Yet, Pei Qian was looking for a complete acquisition?
It seemed unreasonable.
However, Assistant Xin did not ask any questions. This was her job; she just had to do any task that her superior instructed her to do seriously. She should not ask questions if she did not need to know the answers.
What’s more, Boss Pei must have had his own reasons for making such arrangements. He must have seen something of value in Shang Yang Games.
Since it was the long Labor Day weekend, Jingzhou City was quite crowded. They took more time than usual to arrive at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Pei Qian alighted from the car and walked right into the cafe.
En, it’s as cold and empty as it used to be. What a relief!
Up until now, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had gained some familiar customers. These were whales who were not at all concerned about prices. They were happy to come here, surf the internet, and sip their coffee. Some of them even brought their guests here to entertain them.
Once in a while, a group of friends would come here and play games together as well. After all, the environment and service here were good, and there were very few people. To these whales, it was very worth it to spend more money in exchange for a good environment to play games in.
Even so, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe could not recover its capital. There were too few whales in the vicinity!
The cafe was situated one street down from a quiet commercial district. There were no huge signs directing people to the place; neither were there high-end residential areas. Given the cafe’s position and price, only a small group of whales could afford patronizing it. The amount of money they earned could not sustain the business.
Thus, Pei Qian was not afraid at all.
Seeing that Pei Qian was here, Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan immediately hosted him.
“Boss Pei, you are here. What would you like to drink?” Zhang Yuan asked.
Pei Qian scanned the menu and said, “A Margarita.”
He looked around the cafe. There were no customers in the internet area or the coffee area. The place looked exceptionally cold today.
“Are there no customers today?” Pei Qian asked casually.
Ma Yang rubbed his hands together, looking ashamed. “Yes, Brother Qian. I don’t know what the matter today is, either. I guess it’s because the holiday is coming…”
Before today, there would still be a few customers coming in to play games. However, not a single customer turned up today. It was quite ridiculous.
Yet, Pei Qian did not mind a single bit. In fact, he was quite happy.
“Alright, just close the door. We’ll just close the cafe early today. Zhang Yuan, make a cup for all our brothers here as well. Put it on the company’s account. Don’t work for nothing today. Everyone, come and take a seat.”
Pei Qian sat down in the coffee area and gestured to everyone to join him. The few waiters immediately got moving. Some people went to pack up, and others went to arrange the tables and chairs. Zhang Yuan began to make cocktails for all of them.
Very quickly, the waiters and three chefs (There was only one at first, but in order to provide meals to Tengda, they hired two more chefs.) all sat down at the coffee area. In front of each of them was a glass of cocktail.
Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang sat right in front, on either side of Pei Qian. They all waited for him to speak. Pei Qian cleared his throat subtly, trying to build up the mood. “From next month onwards, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe will open four more branches. However, we will do this in order. That’s because we cannot get enough funds all at one shot.
“Whoever is willing to manage a branch, please raise your hand.”
Four waiters in the front immediately raised their hands. A chef, who was seated at the back, hesitated for a couple of seconds before he gingerly raised his hand up.
Zhang Yuan raised his hand as well.
Pei Qian gestured for Zhang Yuan to put his hand down. “You will be promoted to be part of the management in the future. You’ll overlook the rest of the branch managers, so don’t raise your hand.”
Zhang Yuan put his hand down, looking pleased. What was going on? He was being promoted for no reason!
Pei Qian looked at the five people with their hands raised. “Alright, it’ll be five of you then. Zhang Yuan, make a note of their names. The five of them will be branch managers of the new internet cafes.”
The branch manager of this cafe was Ma Yang. However, after opening several more branches, Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan would naturally be promoted to be part of the management. That would leave the position of branch manager in this branch empty.
That was why Pei Qian chose five new branch managers.
Everyone felt stunned. Wasn’t that a little rash?
A few waiters who did not raise their hands were dazed. Holy sh*t, if they had known earlier, they would have raised their hands!
All of them were hesitant, afraid that they would not be good enough to fulfill the roles of a branch manager. If they found that they were incapable only after they were put through the test, that would be very shameful indeed.
In the end, there was no test at all!
The most confused of all was the chef who raised his hand. Logically, selecting branch managers for the new internet cafes had nothing to do with chefs. If there was to be a pool of candidates, they should be formed out of the waiters seated in front.
Yet, he got selected even though he raised his hand subconsciously?! At that moment, he could not accept the almost 180-degree change from being a chef to a branch manager.
Ma Yang tugged at Pei Qian’s sleeve and whispered, “Brother Qian, would that do? Why not hold open recruitment?”
Pei Qian shook his head. “These are all people you recruited. I don’t believe in anyone else but you.”
Ma Yang smiled shyly. “That’s true.”
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