Chapter 425 – Buying the Little Tyran
When Duan Yongping was feeling helplessness, an unexpected guest arrived at The Little Tyrant’s office.
“Hi, I am Fu Guangzheng, General Manager of Hong Kong Aiwa Co., there is something I need to discuss with you.”
Feng Yu had told Fu Guangzheng to monitor this company. This company will surely manufacture Learning Machine. Fu Guangzheng must let this company know that they will be infringing patents before their products are introduced into the market. He must make sure that this company could not sell even one product!
If The Little Tyrant dares to sell, then Fu Guanzheng will get a team of lawyers to sue them!
But Feng Yu had not expected The Little Tyrant dare not to sell their learning machines, although they had already produced those products! Now, their factory had stop production, and all their goods were sitting in the warehouse collecting dust.
Fu Guangzheng showed up at The Little Tyrant was not to grant them the authorization. It was Feng Yu who was interested in The Little Tyrant’s factory, brand, and staffs. He wants to acquire The Little Tyrant!
“You want to buy The Little Tyrant?”
“That’s right. The Little Tyrant should be in debt now, right? The newly produced product cannot be sold. If you sell them, it will consider patent infringement. Your company will also have to be close down! If you sell The Little Tyrant to me, the City will get a sum of money, the workers will not be out of a job, and the company will still be here. The City will still be able to collect taxes.”
Duan Yongping stared at Fu Guangzheng: “Did you do this on purpose?” How did he found out that The Little Tyrant was manufacturing Learning Machines? Had he been monitoring us way before everything had happened? Was this a trap?
Fu Guangzheng calmly replied: “Purposely? We purposely let you use our technologies illegally? If this is really on purpose, then I will place a huge order with your company. I will wait until you can’t deliver the goods and demand compensations from you. Maybe I do not even need to come over to acquire this company. The courts might even give The Little Tyrant to me!”
Duan Yongping slumped back into his chair. That’s right. If Fu Guangzheng really does that, then there was no way for The Little Tyrant to survive. But he still felt something fishy. Why someone else had already developed the Learning Machine when they just started to develop? It was normal to register the patents, but why was Learning Machine was registered as their brand?
This was weird. But like what Fu Guanzheng had said, if this were plotted, The Little Tyrant would be in a worse off situation than now. Also, Aiwa should not know that The Little Tyrant was developing Learning Machine.
But no matter what, selling the company to Aiwa was the best solution.
“Are you going to fully own The Little Tyrant?”
“No, I am only a small shareholder. There is still a major shareholder from Bing City. But he had said that in the future, he will give you some of this company’s shares as a reward!”
……
“Duan Yongpping, this is the solution you are talking about? Sell The Little Tyrant?” The City’s leader looked at Duan Yongping angrily. You want the City to sell a company that had made almost 30 million last year?
“Secretary Liu, other than selling this company to me, what other solution do you have? I am the only who can prevent The Little Tyrant from compensating the distributors double the amount. Because we can supply the distributors with Aiwa Learning Machine and they will definitely accept. Maybe we can also authorize The Little Tyrant to use our technologies. This is also something that only we can do, as we own all the patents.” Fu Guangzheng beat his chest arrogantly.
Secretary Liu lowered his head and kept quiet. Duan Yongping was also sitting by the side and keeping quiet.
“Are there another other solution? How about we let you invest in The Little Tyrant?”
Fu Guanzheng shook his head and smiled: “I am not only representing myself. The Little Tyrant, including the company, factory, brand and all assets must be sold to us. Of course, we will also promise that we will not fire any workers without any reasons. We will also not deduct their salaries!”
Hmmm… Workers cannot be sacked, but not for those at the management level. It was too easy to look for an excuse to sack those in the management level.
Fu Guangzheng was the same as Feng Yu. They could accept the union in the company but cannot allow anyone who does not do anything in the company. A company is a company and not a government. There was no need for the company to have all sorts of departments. Some of these departments have overlapping functions! The salaries for those department heads were much higher than the workers!
“Can the City still keep some shares? You can own the majority of the shares.” Secretary Liu’s attitude was almost like he was begging with Fu Guangzheng.
If the City still owns some shares, then he can say that he had gotten investors from Hong Kong and private companies to invest in the company for expansion. However, if he were to sell off the company entirely, how would he explain to the higher-ups? Because we almost sold counterfeit products, the company was facing closure and was acquired by someone else?
Fu Guangzheng shook his head: “I’m sorry. We can’t do that! If you sell The Little Tyrant to us, we will evaluate all the assets, including your stocks in the warehouse. Other than us, no other companies will accept those stocks! The city will get at least 20 million RMB. If you do not sell the company to us, then The Little Tyrant needs at least 30 million RMB to settle all the debts. You can think it over carefully. Do you want 20 million cash, your workers will continue to have a job, and a company that will carry on paying taxes to the city, or you want to take out 30 million to save this company. There is also a high possibility of the company going bankrupt after you have saved it. I will be waiting for your answer.”
Fu Guangzheng made a call to Feng Yu when he arrived at the hotel. He told Feng Yu that they would definitely acquire this company. But why didn’t Feng Yu take this opportunity to buy out this company at a low price? He believes that if he uses some strategies, he might be able to press the amount to less than 10 million RMB. Now, they were using almost 20 million RMB to buy this company. This was a waste.
However, Feng Yu was okay with this. This way, their relationship with the City will also be better, and they could still keep the technical staffs in the company.
Fu Guangzheng also felt that The Little Tyrant’s technical staffs were really skillful. They managed to break the Learning Machine’s technologies in such a short time. But they should not be worth for Feng Yu to invest so much money. As a Hong Kong Businessman, he was not afraid of the Local Government.
……
That very day, Zhongshan City government meeting lasted until midnight. All the leaders were discussing whether to accept Fu Guanzheng’s offer. At the end of the session, all of them agreed to accept this deal.
After all, all the situations mentioned by Fu Guangzheng might happen, and they must face it. They only have two solutions. One was to sell the company and take the money. The other was to come out with 30 million to save the company, but the company could still be bankrupt, and the workers will be out of jobs.
Secretary Liu reported this to his higher-up in Yang City, and his higher-up hesitated for a while and agreed to sell The Little Tyrant to the Hong Kong businessman.
Fu Guangzheng brought his team to evaluate The Little Tyrant’s assets. The materials and products in the warehouse were worth a few million. All the equipment and other assets were still in the company. But the liquid assets were missing. The city had withdrawn all the money from the company.
Fu Guangzheng was furious. They had agreed that he will take over all the company’s debts and the city cannot touch all the assets. Now, the money was missing. During negotiations, Fu Guangzheng did not give the City any face. He pointed out the many problems in The Little Tyrant company. For instance, the factory was too small, the workers were too old, the management was too messy, multiple mistakes in the accounts, the bad assets were also valued too high, etc.
You mentioned that you have tens of millions of orders? Please…… Can you even finish those orders? Without us, those orders will kill you!
In the end, Fu Guangzheng sacked most of the people in the management level. Only a few people that were in charge of production, sales and R&D remained. The final takeover amount was also lowered to 17 million RMB. At first, Fu Guangzheng had promised 20 million RMB, and the City had withdrawn only about 800,000 RMB from the accounts. Because of the City’s greediness, they lost a few million!
The Little Tyrant was officially renamed as Aiwa Little Tyrant Company. Feng Yu held 80% shares, and Fu Guangzheng held 10%. Feng Yu gave Duan Yongping the remaining 10% shares for him to distribute to the rest of the staffs. It was up to him to decide which staff would get the shares. Feng Yu also promised Duan Yongping the company’s shares if he could make significant contributions to the company.