12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

There was silence inside the company, and it seemed that everyone was stunned. It was very uncommon for an earthquake to be in the middle of Seoul. Everyone was standing and looking around, holding chairs or desks. I was the only one without any tension. I accessed the portal site after picking up my cell phone.

[Breaking News: 5.2 earthquake in Wonju]

[Earthquake evacuation tips]

[Beware of aftershocks]

The portal window was completely covered by the news of the earthquake, and the news was pouring out. Even without turning on HTS, the rise of the stocks I'd picked seemed to be visible. While I was on my phone, the staff came back to their senses, because as I said, the vibrations didn't come again. I looked back. Secretary Seo still seemed to be stiff.

I patting his shoulder and said, "It'll be all right," lifting Jean's report.

"I want to hear about the report, Vice President Jang."

Jang bowed his head and said, "Yes, boss."

I went into my office with Jang.

Jang closed the door and said, "I've lived in Seoul for nearly forty years... but I've never experienced this kind of shaking."

I could stay calm because I already knew what would happen. I nodded, "I hope nothing big happens."

It would not be a big accident, since I didn't receive any correction news. I went to work and listened to Jang's report. I honestly didn't expect him to bring a list of takeovers so quickly.

There were two conditions for the companies I asked him to find.

First, the company's market capital should be small enough to be able to be taken over with only the funds remaining in Invictus Investment. I decided not to transfer any more money to the Invictus Investment until the amount of money I held increased to $100,000,000. Therefore, I told him to search for a small company that we could take over only with the rest of the money after buying OH Entertainment.

Second, it should be the same type of entertainment company as OH Entertainment or a company that could create synergy with this company. I needed five companies to rank up to the Master Class, but if we incorporated any companies into the subsidiary recklessly, it would be difficult to manage them. It was better to take over a similar company and create synergy with the entertainment company, rather than a construction company, a pharmaceutical company, and so on.

I asked Vice President Jang, his report in his hand, "So what you brought is a company that meets the conditions I offered, right?"

Jang said with his head down, "Of course, boss."

I opened the report and it was an analysis of a Bule E&M company.

[Analysis Report]

'Blue E&M? I've never heard of it.'

Looking at what was behind the topic was E&M, Entertainment and Media; it seemed to be an entertainment business.

'Another entertainment agency?'

I looked down. Its market capital was only $60,000,000. The majority shareholder's stake was 25 percent. At $15,000,000, we could buy all of them. Even after taking over OH Entertainment, the company still had that much money left in Invictus Investment. I looked down further.

[Major Business: Entertainment agency, running Sapphire TV]

Only then did an acquainted name pop out.

"They are the operator of Sapphire TV channel, right?"

"Yes, boss."

Sapphire TV was an Internet personal broadcasting platform. The trends started with European TV, the nation's No. 1 broadcaster, and as the personal broadcasting market grew bigger, several Internet broadcasting stations rushed into the turmoil. Sapphire TV was a small broadcasting station that survived by securing a certain share among the latecomers.

"What's the market share of the Sapphire TV? I think it's 10%?"

"About seven percent. European TV is taking 50%, Coconut TV is taking 20%, foreign platform Fowlert 10%, and YouTube 10%. Sapphire Television is next."

'7%, it's a lot less. That's why its market capital is $60,000,000.'

"Well… it's the fifth-ranked company, but it is also in charge of an agency..."

"Yes. The agency is just beginning to take off. It's been less than a year since it started an agency."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, there is also a little funny story. You know a comedian, Oh Sung-kyun, don't you?"

I tilted my head, "I don't."

"Yes, it seems right that you don't know him. He was shining in his debut year and then he disappeared from the screen."

I typed Oh Sung-kyun on the portal site and a profile popped up. He was 35 years old, and looking at his face reminded me of him. He imitated an orangutan with an orangutan-like face. But it was only once. I didn't remember seeing him anywhere else.

"But this guy started broadcasting on the Sapphire TV, and it seems to be a lot of fun."

"Well, I guess he had more awareness than a regular streamer."

"Yes, that's why they signed a contract with him and set up a company, so he called in other fellow comedians, worked as a planner, and manages his own personal broadcasting."

"Oh… So, he has been serving both personal broadcasting and agency."

"Yes."

'The idea itself is not bad, and there have been quite a few of these singers and comedians who have been transferred to full-time streamers or YouTube, because their income is good.'

"So, do you recommend combining our project with them and creating synergy?"

"Yes, I do. We could send out some of the entertainers from OH Entertainment later on to do personal broadcasts."

I thought about it.

If Oh Hyun-joo and Kim Jun-hyung, famous celebrities, were put into such small personal broadcasts, there would be nothing good. They might feel a bit awkward and less mysterious on personal broadcasting. But newcomers were different. It would be a new opportunity for comedians who could not catch an opportunity to appear on TV, or idols that were less popular with the public.

"Well, the idea is fresh."

Jang bowed his head at my words. "Thank you, boss."

I looked at the financial statements, but it was so bad. There was a lot of debt, no assets. Sales were irregular, so they just managed to break even. It was hard to keep up with the market capital of $60,000,000.

"Who is the CEO of the company here?"

"He is quite young, forty years old. It is said that President Ahn Yong-gyun is quite unusual by the people in the industry."

"Why does he want to turn over the company?"

"He's a little different from CEO Do Chan-ki. He doesn't want to sell his shares and leave the business, he wants to stay invested. He has been asking us to invest in them through a third-party allotment capital increase instead of handing over a certain stake to us..."

"He wants to run the company, though he will be pushed to the second largest shareholder, right?"

"Yes, his career is interesting. He was the first founding member of European TV, but he left the business because of his disagreement with the CEO. He has been in this market from the beginning to now. He started the agency as a side branch, as I said."

"Well, then he'd like to get revenge on his own. He wants to beat European TV with his own Sapphire TV."

"Yes. He thinks that the company has not grown up because of simple financial power. Therefore, he is looking for investors who have money, but are not willing to touch his management. He has no financial resources and he can not afford to pay corporate bonds or CBs. It is his ambition to take the investment and defeat European TV."

'Revenge is also the main motivation for some people.'

"He looks like a funny guy, just listening to the story. These days, the market capital of European TV is probably $600,000,000."

"Yes, about $580,000,000."

"Well, if he succeeds in getting revenge, the Sapphire TV is going to jump ten times as high as it is now. We'll be able to recoup ten times the investment."

"It won't be easy."

"Yes, that's good. Let's have a meeting with him. And... please contact President Kwon of OH Entertainment and ask him to talk with them. It would be good to listen to Kwon in the field of entertainment."

"Yes, I see, boss."

------

Jang bowed his head and went out of my office. I picked up my cell phone and turned on the application. In fact, I sometimes watched private broadcasts. Inside was European TV, Coconut TV, Fowlert, and YouTube, but not Sapphire TV.

'It's in fifth place. If we grow it right, it'll be a jackpot.

'Personal broadcasts have been continuously rising these days. It's been nearly a decade since it started, and now it seems that personal content is getting more and more in the limelight. These days, children's number one dream is not a doctor, not a judge, but a streamer. No matter how latecomers they may be, they share pie when the market grows. The market capital is small, and there are elements that create synergy. It doesn't seem bad.

'Yes, let's make a try. $15,000,000 is cheap.'

I might earn $15,000,000 today. At the sudden thought, I turned on the HTS. Four of the seven earthquake-related stocks were at the upper limit price. In particular, the major three stocks of Seyun Geological, Junyoung Tech, Ace Construction, which were the most invested in, were all in the upper limit price, as they were directly related to the earthquake. It was really fun to see the chart. The stocks that had been going up and down at +1% and -1% in the morning were at the upper limit price after this earthquake.

'Actually, an earthquake doesn't mean sales are up. A theme stock is usually this way. The earthquake has no relation with the earnings of a company, but the stock price goes up to the upper limit price. It's a combination of man's imagination and greed, no different from a scammed stock made by nature's craftsmanship.'

I opened my account at once. With $40,000,000 plus credit, the entire account, which had invested $60,000,000, was marked in green. '$2,000,000, $2,400,000, $1,800,000...:

All in all, it was about $15,000,000 in profit. It was just the amount needed to buy Blue E&M. If only we could predict natural disasters, making money was an easy task like this.

'Then shall I make a harvest?'

I sold half of the stocks at the upper limit price of the day, and I arranged out those that didn't go to the upper limit price and only went at ten to twenty percent.

'Because theme stocks usually play out focused on the leading stock, the winner continues to win.'

There were countless buy-orders at the upper limit price. It meant that there were a lot of people who were willing to make money, saying "Since there is an earthquake, I'm going to make money from it."

I didn't want to say anything about it. That was what I was doing, too. However, I was the one who would win this game.

---

[Sell order is completed. Sell order is completed…]

I won, won, and won. It took about an hour to clean up the trades.

'It's easy. It's too easy…' I ended the sale by whistling. The stocks at the upper limit price were half gone, just in case it would go up tomorrow. I closed the HTS after every sell order. I earned more than $10,000,000 today. It used to be hard to live in the world before, but these days the world was just easy to live in.