The Conglomerate Family Became A Villain [EN]: Chapter 98

98. Spring and Summer of 1984 (4)

June 1984.

Commodore launched its new computer, the Plus 4, as planned, and Victoria Corporation followed suit by launching a low-spec version of JP Service.

Victoria Corporation Executive Meeting.

The headquarter staff had increased to 70, but the executives remained Hyun-woo, Sarah, and Robert.

“How’s the market response?”

Sarah answered Hyun-woo’s question.

“As expected.”

“Cold?”

“Very.”

The PC market was better than the console game market, but the Plus 4’s specifications made it difficult to receive favorable reviews.

IT media outlets poured out negative reviews after testing the Plus 4, and economic journals criticized Commodore’s lax management.

And finally, customers who purchased the Plus 4 were disappointed with its gaming capabilities, which were inferior to its predecessors.

“How about our side?”

“Similarly sluggish.”

“Are you saying the number of subscribers isn’t increasing significantly?”

Sarah nodded in response to Hyun-woo’s question.

“That’s right.”

Hyun-woo sighed briefly, clasping his hands together.

“I predicted the failure of the Plus 4, but the low number of subscribers is a problem.”

He thought that tens of millions of existing Commodore computer users would be interested in JP Service. However, new subscriptions from 8-bit computer users were lower than expected.

‘Does this mean that people who buy 8-bit computers instead of 16-bit computers aren’t wealthy enough to invest in the stock market?’

Robert, who had been listening to the two, raised his right hand.

“Charlie, Sarah. Isn’t that because the advertising isn’t being done properly?”

Hyun-woo turned his gaze to him and asked back.

“The advertising isn’t being done properly?”

Robert gestured as if he were looking at a magazine with both hands and said.

“Our new version was released as a package with the Plus 4. People mostly saw this through magazines or newspapers.”

Commodore had advertised the Plus 4 package product with Victoria Corporation in magazines.

“So?”

“People probably think this: the new version of JP Service only works on the Plus 4.”

Hyun-woo listened to him and realized what he was saying.

“You’re saying we need to emphasize that it works on all Commodore computers, not just the Plus 4.”

“Bingo.”

Sarah wrote something on a memo pad with a pen and said.

“To do that, we need to run separate ads.”

“It’s not like we don’t have the money.”

“It’s not the money, it’s the time.”

Hyun-woo tilted his head.

“Time?”

“Even if we produce an ad right now, we won’t have enough time, and we don’t even have an advertising agency connected to us.”

Sarah expected that it would take months just to choose an advertising agency and negotiate with them.

‘Most reliable companies have full schedules.’

Advertising was not a consumable item that was used up on the spot, so it was normal for schedules to be full.

Hyun-woo raised his right hand and said.

“Let’s use JPMorgan.”

“JPMorgan?”

“We’re in the same boat now. If we don’t use their power when we need it, when will we ever use it?”

Robert also agreed with Hyun-woo’s opinion.

“An advertising agency connected to JPMorgan would be reliable.”

Sarah summarized the two’s opinions.

“So, you’re saying we should contact JPMorgan to find an advertising agency and advertise JP Service with our own money?”

Hyun-woo shook his right hand and replied.

“Since it’s a JP Service ad, we should share the advertising costs with them.”

JP Service was originally a service centered around JP Securities. An increase in JP Service users meant an increase in JP Securities’ sales.

“Okay. Then I’ll talk to JPMorgan.”

Negotiating with JPMorgan was her responsibility.

“Let’s move on to the next item.”

Sarah nodded and opened her ledger.

“The next item is about taxes.”

“Taxes? Corporate tax?”

“No, the National Tax Service [South Korea’s equivalent of the IRS] has determined the taxes we have to pay.”

Hyun-woo sighed briefly.

“Hoo… That’s a personal matter, can we even talk about it here?”

“It’s also related to the company’s management rights.”

“Come to think of it, what happens to the shares we gave to Robert?”

If it was transferred from individual to individual, then naturally, a transfer tax would have to be paid.

“It was processed as a stock option.”

It wasn’t transferred from Hyun-woo and Sarah to Robert directly, but it became a stock option through Victoria Corporation.

“So, there won’t be a transfer tax.”

“You’ll have to pay when you sell it.”

Hyun-woo raised his voice slightly.

“So, how much tax do we two have to pay?”

The amount the two received from JPMorgan was $1 billion.

“Slightly over $200 million.”

“Less than I thought.”

“The National Tax Service recognized it as a long-term holding.”

Hyun-woo recalled Adam Snyder, the National Tax Service investigator.

“Even though they were harsh, they weren’t bad people.”

“Even if they aren’t bad people, we still have to pay a huge amount of taxes.”

Hyun-woo’s share was 70% of $200 million, about $140 million.

“Let’s think positively. If the result was bad, it wouldn’t have ended with taxes.”

Hyun-woo and Sarah had been to the National Tax Service on suspicion of money laundering.

‘If the result was bad, they would have not only turned our company inside out but also indicted us for tax evasion or money laundering.’

Robert was also aware of this fact.

“The good result is probably because the Fed [Federal Reserve] exerted some influence.”

He mentioned Justin Balmer, who had been Hyun-woo’s background.

“Are you saying Mr. Balmer helped this time too?”

“It’s possible that he didn’t just use force to suppress it, but also told the truth.”

The Federal Reserve and the National Tax Service weren’t close, but they were located in the same area anyway.

“That could be.”

Sarah didn’t deny Robert’s words. She knew that federal officials were intricately intertwined.

‘In the end, they’re all from the same family.’

Hyun-woo clasped his hands together and said.

“Let’s stop talking about taxes here.”

He wanted to talk about the company’s direction.

Sarah nodded in agreement.

“Okay.”

Hyun-woo raised his voice slightly.

“What’s the next item?”

“Establishing Development Team 3.”

Hyun-woo and Robert both smacked their lips at the same time. Both of them wanted to be the head of Development Team 3, but they couldn’t because of their current responsibilities.

“It’s finally being established.”

Sarah raised her voice slightly and responded to Hyun-woo’s words.

“Finally? Didn’t Charlie decide on this item?”

“That’s true, but…”

Robert spoke as if explaining on behalf of Hyun-woo.

“It means Victoria Corporation is jumping back into the game business, so it’s okay to say ‘finally’.”

The business that Development Team 3 would handle was games.

John River was already appointed as the first team leader.

Hyun-woo highly valued him for not being swayed by JPMorgan’s temptation and for protecting the New York branch.

“How’s the IP [Intellectual Property] acquisition going?”

Robert raised his right hand on the table and answered.

“We’re in discussions with Titan.”

Titan.

It was a company he had never heard of.

Hyun-woo couldn’t help but tilt his head at his answer.

“Titan?”

“It’s a company that’s trying to acquire Atari.”

Hyun-woo frowned at his answer.

“Titan is acquiring Atari?”

“Atari’s situation seems to be very bad.”

With hundreds of game developers already bankrupt.

Some even said that Atari had been lucky to survive this long.

Hyun-woo let out a long sigh.

“Hoo… So, it’s finally being acquired.”

“Activision won’t be any different.”

Activision had rejected Hyun-woo’s proposal in Las Vegas.

“Are they also in a bad situation?”

“Their new releases have failed one after another.”

Activision’s new release in the first quarter actually had decent gameplay.

However, the market had shrunk, so it didn’t achieve the same sales as in the past.

In fact, even if it had achieved the same sales as in the past, it would have been difficult to improve profitability because the price of cartridges had fallen. Nevertheless, they believed that Activision could survive and rejected Hyun-woo’s proposal.

“Should we just acquire Activision instead?”

Robert shook his head at Hyun-woo’s words.

“As I said before, they won’t sell the company to us.”

“Even if they go bankrupt?”

Robert nodded.

“Jerome and Camille are stubborn people.”

Jerome Nell was the president of Activision who rejected Hyun-woo’s proposal, and Camille Henderson was the vice president who rejected Robert’s proposal.

In short, both the president and vice president had antipathy towards Victoria Corporation.

Hyun-woo sighed briefly and said.

“I understand. Then let’s go with Titan.”

Robert asked as if confirming.

“Charlie, how much can we spend on this IP acquisition?”

Previously, Hyun-woo had allocated a budget of more than $5 million to acquire Activision’s IP.

“Atari is larger than Activision, so let’s spend up to $10 million.”

Sarah dropped her pen at Hyun-woo’s words.

Clang.

Soon, she raised her voice.

“Charlie, you’re spending $10 million on IP acquisition?”

She had previously opposed the huge budget allocation for Activision as well.

“This time it’s Atari, not Activision.”

“We’re not acquiring Atari.”

Hyun-woo shrugged.

“It’s better than that. If we acquire Atari, we have to take on their debt as well.”

He was thinking of approaching it with the feeling of extracting only the core of Atari.

‘If we can take all of Atari’s hit games with $10 million, it will be a business that makes several times the profit.’

Sarah frowned and asked.

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“It’s okay. We have Robert.”

It was a statement that he would proceed with this matter trusting Robert. Robert smiled awkwardly as if he thought Hyun-woo’s trust was excessive.

“Hahaha, it’s a bit *budam스럽네요* [burdensome] when you say that.”

Hyun-woo turned his gaze to him and said.

“Robert, you don’t have to buy everything, so don’t feel *budam 가지지 마세요* [don’t feel burdened].”

“It sounds like you’re telling me to buy everything.”

“I really don’t mean it. Make sure to extract only the valuable assets.”

Robert scratched his head.

“Isn’t it more difficult to extract only the valuable assets?”

“Robert, you can do it.”

“I understand. I’ll try.”

Once the story about IP acquisition was over, discussions about the development team composition took place.

“Charlie, so how many people are you going to hire for Development Team 3?”

The team leader and deputy team leader of Development Team 3 had been decided, but there was still disagreement about its size.

“Let’s hire as many as John wants.”

Sarah immediately raised an objection.

“Are you going to hire a hundred people if he wants a hundred people?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“So, Charlie, you have to set a limit.”

Hyun-woo turned his gaze to Robert.

“What do you think, Robert?”

Robert paused for a moment in response to his question.

‘Recent games are investing more developers than before to improve quality. But that doesn’t mean we can use hundreds of people on one game.’

He unfolded three fingers and answered.

“Thirty people would be good.”

“Why?”

“In the past, we formed a team with 4 or 5 people. But games made with that many people won’t work in the current market.”

It meant that a different approach was needed than in the heyday when Zero Space sold well.

“Are you saying that at least thirty people are needed to make a decent game?”

Robert folded his fingers and answered.

“It’s not that much, but I think we need about 15 people per team.”

It was a proposal to invest three times as many people compared to 2 or 3 years ago.

Hyun-woo didn’t raise any objections to his opinion.

“I understand. Then let’s go with thirty people.”

This time, Sarah didn’t object either. She thought Robert’s explanation was correct.

“Okay. Then we’ll form the team with around thirty people.”

They continued to talk about establishing a marketing department for game sales.

The marketing department story was in full swing when Hyun-woo suddenly called Robert as if he had remembered something.

“Robert.”

Robert tilted his head and asked.

“Is there something you’re curious about?”

“What we talked about last time.”

“Last time?”

“Buying up game shops across the country.”

Robert had suggested last year that they buy up the game shops that were being used as JP Service agencies.

“Have you changed your mind?”

“Now we have the *yeoyu니까요* [financial leeway].”

“I’m always in favor.”

Robert was planning to build a huge service network centered around game shops.

“Let’s try to push that forward too.”

Sarah sighed deeply as Hyun-woo started to increase new businesses again.

“Hoo… Charlie, our budget is limited.”

JP Service was earning millions of dollars every month, but it was too much to proceed with all the businesses at the same time.

‘Besides, we have to start a new business with Bank of America.’

The service network and manpower could be used together with JP Service, but the data center and mainframe for Bank of America had to be newly purchased.

And all of that was money.

Hyun-woo also knew that a lot of money was needed.

“If we don’t have enough money, let’s use my money.”

Sarah raised her eyebrows at his words.

“You’re going to put Charlie’s money into the company?”

“Can’t I?”

“It’s not that you can’t, but…”

Hyun-woo clasped his hands together.

“It’s money I earned because of Victoria Corporation.”

Without Victoria Corporation, there would have been no $1 billion deal.

Sarah nodded slowly.

“Okay, I’ll invest too.”

She thought that if Hyun-woo invested, she should do the same.

‘That’s what I thought from the beginning.’

On the other hand, Hyun-woo didn’t think so.

“Sarah, you don’t have to.”

Soon, Sarah’s voice hardened.

“No. We have to go together.”

It meant that she wasn’t just a co-CEO in name.

The next moment, Hyun-woo’s voice softened.

“Sarah, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Victoria Corporation is my company too.”

Robert bowed slightly as the two agreed.

“Thank you for accepting my opinion, both of you.”

As he showed his respect, Hyun-woo bowed his head as well.

“Robert, I’m counting on you for this too.”

Respect for respect.

It was a statement that he would repay gratitude with gratitude.

Sarah looked at the two and thought.

‘They’re a good combination.’

She thought that recruiting Robert had the biggest impact on Victoria Corporation’s success.

Robert raised his head and sighed briefly.

“Ha… The work is getting more and more.”

Sarah turned her gaze to him and raised her voice.

“Robert?”

“Is there anything else you’d like to order?”

“It’s not that, Amanda alone isn’t enough.”

“Are you saying I should have more secretaries?”

Sarah shook her head.

“No. I’d like to have a team for Robert in the company.”

She wanted to establish a sales team to work with Robert.

“A team for me?”

“How about starting with about five people?”

“Hmm, that’s not a bad idea.”

Robert was also feeling that Amanda and himself alone were not enough.

“If you tell me about the type of people you need, I’ll hire them for you.”

“The type of people I need?”

“Like the ideal candidate Robert prefers.”

Sarah was in charge of both finance and personnel at Victoria Corporation.

Hyun-woo thought that in the long run, her work should also be divided among someone.

‘That’s the process of the company growing.’

Victoria Corporation was moving from a small startup to a mid-sized company.