Calm and composed, Kelly straightened his tie and stood up, buttoning his suit as he did so, and made his was to the minibar, while Jetro was trying to attack him personally. He poured himself some tonic water and added a slice of lemon.
“Mr. Jetro. Your ‘was’ and ‘has-been’ don’t stand to debate today. But safe to say, that the companies I’ve been CEO of are still going strong, while yours, well, let’s call it a ‘mixed bag’.
And frankly, your half-true business-proposal is – on the whole – quite ridiculous. As I said before, you’re trying to pay Interspace Commerce, whit asset it already owns. What’s an increase of roughly than 30% of the dividend of Renzu to loosing all of the dividend of IND?”
He took a sip of the tonic water and ambled across the room back to his comfy seat. Unbuttoning his suit while sitting down and quite enjoying the hostility of Mr. Jetro. In the end, he could not see any scenario in which selling IND shares would be beneficial for anybody except Mr. Jetro, unless he started talking in Sirian Credits well above the power of 10 to 10.
“For you. Mr Jetro, I’ll explain. Slowly and simplified. IND owns 40% of Renzu. Now since IC owns roughly 50% and due to the market state of IND, nearly all of the operational profit is paid out to the share holders. That means, Interspace Commerce gets half of that revenue. Plus our 45% that’s in total 65% of the Renzu dividend. You’re promising us 85%, which is roughly an increase of 30%, about 3 times lower than your promised ‘double’.
Even worse, you’re asking us to wave all dividend IND gets from it’s business. So, as I was saying in the beginning: You’re trying to pay IC with stuff we already own.”
"Sir, it's interesting you don't name all these companies, but that is beside the point, I have laid out my proposal, at this point, I have tired of being insulted by you. You can accept it or not. We own 49% of the company, 49% of its interest in Renzu and 49% of its interest in LPI and 49% of everything. Aside from that, we have control of the company itself. You may own the majority of the shares, but we control the board of directors due to the 2 board seats reserved for representatives of the employees. I have been voted President. There is nothing you can do about that. Now if you want to keep fighting, that's fine, give it a try. But, maybe what we will do instead is just cut our loses, IND decides to sell its interest in LPI to, let's say, the Gallics, or our interest in Renzu to Samura. You might control the shares, we control the board. We can fight, or we can come to a solution that works for both of us. Fighting will hurt us both, coming to a satisfactory deal will help us both. But either way sir, I am done talking to you. Gentlemen, I have laid out my offer, you have it. You can decide or ask more questions, but after your colleague here's immature show, my patience is running quite thin."
Mr. Johnson took a deep breath before standing up. As he stood up he put both of his hands on the table. " Gentlemen, we are civilized people and we shall discuss thing in civilized manner. Sure both sides can fight, but fight is something that I am not looking for... " He paused and sipped his water from the glass that was placed on the left side of his arm. After a short pause he continued.
" Mr. Jethro, you and your associates were called here because the company I run is interested in Renzu and few other minor things. I will not enter pointless discussions as they are too uninteresting to me and most of all they bore me. As you proposed Interspace Commerce will gain full control over Renzu company i. e. our company will get 51% shares which will make us a complete owner. Second is that Interspace Commerce will get ownership over 24% LPI shares. In return you will be getting ownership over IND. IND will also retain it's space on the Wall Street as you already mentioned for 99 years yet our company is going to retain it's ownership over the base." Alan then again made a short pause in order to drink some water before continuing his speech.
" I would also like to say that Interspace Commerce won't be in any way responsible for IND's doings. I hope that's clear to you. What do you say Mr. Jetrho, do we have a deal or no? " Alan lifted his hands from the table and signalized his secretary Julia to come to him. Julia stood up from her chair and approached him. He whispered her to bring him the contracts.
Julia went to the other room to get the contracts that Mr. Johnson asked. Meanwhile, Alan and Mr. Jethro sat in the chairs that were in middle of the table next to each other. They both took out their pens as they were waiting for Miss Adams to bring the contracts.
Miss Adams brought the two contracts and placed them in front of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jethro. They signed the contracts and congratulate each other.
" Mr. Jethro, thank you for visiting us and to you as well, gentleman. " Alan said and lifted his arm towards the exit of the conference room. Mr. Jethro and his associates left with Alan's secretary escort while they were entering the elevator Alan turned to his Directors." Thank you all for being here, now that we are done with this one I will notify you about further projects that I had in mind until then take care. Oh and Dean, meet me in Golden Lion with Sofia, I would like to talk to you two." Alan nodded and left the conference room.
Matthias D. Falkenrath stood up and served as a witness during the brief signing ceremony. While Chairman Kelly - the third most powerful figure inside IC after CEO Johnson and VP Dean - voiced some credible concerns, the deal was profitable for IC from an economic viewpoint. It preserved and expanded within the IC Conglomerate the precious LPI and Renzu stock while it got rid of the declining IND.
And numbers was Matthias' job, not politics. So he had simply nodded to his CEO when Mr Jethro fully presented his proposal. Now the decision was made and the signatures decorated the two identical documents.
"Well, I suspect I am not going to hold a senior rank in IND for much longer, but I would like to thank you nonetheless."
Matthias lightly joked and offered his hand for a shake.
Jethro completed signing the contracts and shook the hands of the various executives. He made a mental note of the joke Falkenrath made. With everything finished up, the IND contingent made its way to the elevators to exit the station. The deal finished up, their work was finished and it was time to head back to Wall Street. Jethro and IND were ready to go home.