My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 488 Game
As the current president, it is only natural that Lee Min-bo is concerned about the growth of NGN, after all, his macro-planning includes promoting the development of South Korea's internet economy. In the past two years, NGN has undoubtedly been the fastest growing and most influential internet company in South Korea.

Of course, this is mainly due to South Korea's small size and small population. If it were in China, companies like NGN might not easily receive direct attention from national leaders. But that's because China is so large; a population of over a billion represents a vast market. Even in today's China, NGN's growth is extraordinary.

As for An Rusong, after receiving Li Minbo's invitation, he could basically guess the other party's purpose. In the end, Li Minbo's attention to NGN should come from three aspects: First, it is his personal attention. As the chairman of NGN, An Rusong is his supporter. By extension, NGN Company also supports him in terms of political stance. Therefore, it is only natural that he pays attention to the development of NGN.

On the other hand, from a macro perspective, or from the perspective of national interests, he also needs to pay some attention to NGN, since NGN is currently the most promising and fastest-growing internet company in South Korea.

Today, in terms of scale, NGN may not be comparable to NAVER, a company that has been established for ten years. After all, the latter has not only been around longer but has also completed its listing on KOSDAQ, and is already using shareholders' money. However, in terms of development prospects, NAVER cannot compare with NGN.

Why? Because NAVER primarily focuses on search engines. Although it is relatively advanced in the core technology of search engines, it still faces competition from companies in related fields from China, the United States, and Russia. In particular, the strength of American companies in this field is too great, which directly limits NAVER's development prospects. This allows it to struggle to survive in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea at most, but it is difficult to penetrate into the broader international arena.

However, NGN's development trajectory is completely different from NAVER's. Although it faces competition from a series of similar software internationally in terms of functionality, its originality and novelty in some functions, especially its strong capabilities in functional innovation, have enabled it to maintain an absolute advantage in competition with similar software.

Most importantly, instant messaging software like NGN inherently possesses social attributes, and people easily become dependent on software with social attributes. Just like in An Rusong's previous life, once WeChat became popular, users who got used to it found it very difficult to give it up, not for any other reason than that a large part of their social relationships relied on this software.

Today, NGN, with its innovative and powerful features and frequent and rapid updates, has defeated a series of competitors, including MSN. Its rapidly expanding number of registered users has allowed it to break free from the constraints of the South Korean domestic market and become a software that is going global, attracting the attention of multinational financial giants. It is only natural that South Korean President Lee Min-bok would pay close attention to it.

Finally, BlackRock's negotiation team has arrived in Seoul. Considering the US government's attention to this matter, Lee Min-bo will certainly have to make some statements. The best statement he can make is to mediate between An Ru-song and BlackRock's negotiation team.

An Rusong knew perfectly well that since he could guess the purpose of Li Minbo's meeting with him tonight, he would naturally make the corresponding preparations before coming. Therefore, when faced with the question raised by Li Minbo, he answered without hesitation: "At present, the focus of NGN's overall work is mainly on the second round of financing."

After saying this in a simple sentence, he continued, "According to the original negotiations with DFJ, the second round of financing was supposed to be scheduled for the end of the year. However, now that DFJ has decided to transfer its shares to BlackRock, the relevant negotiations will have to wait until we meet with BlackRock's negotiating representatives to finalize the details."

"What is your stance on the issue of share transfer?" Li Minbo then asked.

His point is that An Rusong's stance on DFJ's transfer of its shares to BlackRock is, as mentioned before, that as the largest shareholder of NGN, An Rusong had a preemptive right to repurchase the shares stipulated in the initial investment agreement with DFJ. This means that although DFJ and BlackRock have agreed on the share transfer, if An Rusong disagrees and offers the same repurchase price, the transaction between DFJ and BlackRock cannot be completed.

“Cooperation always requires both parties to share the same goals to come together,” An Rusong said with a smile. “In the past, our cooperation with DFJ was very pleasant. The first investment from DFJ provided crucial support for NGN’s growth and expansion, and NGN has also earned DFJ a substantial return in the past few months. Therefore, this cooperation was an absolute win-win situation. Now, we can understand DFJ’s withdrawal from this cooperation. We are also full of expectations for our subsequent cooperation with BlackRock, and we hope that this cooperation can also lead to another win-win situation. This is my attitude towards the share transfer issue.”

Li Minbo nodded. Since An Rusong had said that, it meant he didn't intend to redeem the relevant shares from DFJ through a bidding process. This attitude and stance was what BlackRock wanted to see, and also what some people in Washington wanted to see. For Li Minbo, this outcome was naturally the most ideal.

"Sir, has BlackRock made any requests to you?" An Rusong asked for the first time after answering Li Minbo's question.

Li Minbo did not answer directly. He waved the hand holding the chopsticks in front of him, indicating that everyone should eat. Then, he picked up a plate of kimchi and put it in the bowl in front of him before saying, "BlackRock is a very powerful company in lobbying. There are quite a few people in Washington who are willing to speak up for them."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Ms. Susan Wagner, who led the team to Seoul, is clearly very optimistic about NGN's future. She hopes to lead NGN's upcoming series of financing rounds, and someone has reached out to me, hoping I can provide some assistance." An Rusong remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

“Of course, from my perspective, I cannot directly interfere with any of NGN’s business activities,” Li Minbo continued. “Moreover, I hope that NGN can carefully examine its cooperation with BlackRock from a long-term perspective.”

“I understand what you mean, sir,” An Rusong said solemnly, putting down his chopsticks.

It was already past midnight at the Renwang Mountain Villa, but the light in the study on the second floor was still on. Behind the large desk, which was dimly lit by the computer screen, the room was empty and there was no one in sight.

In the nursery diagonally opposite the study, An Rusong glanced at her baby son sleeping in the crib one last time. After confirming that the little guy was sleeping soundly, she carefully walked to the door.

He turned off the dim light, left the door slightly ajar, coughed softly, and walked towards the study.

The woman in the house was already fast asleep, but he couldn't sleep yet because there was still some work to be done.

On the large desk in the study was a cup of coffee that had long since gone cold. It was brewed for him by Sun Manzhu earlier, but he hadn't drunk it until now. He didn't mind, and when he walked to the desk, he picked it up and took a sip.

The bitter coffee made him instantly more alert. He adjusted his chair, which had been tilted to one side, and settled down comfortably before turning to look at his computer screen.

At this moment, what was displayed on the computer screen was an open electronic document, the contents of which were drafted by An Rusong himself, outlining the main points of NGN Company's next development plan.

During his meeting with Lee Min-bo tonight, the president made it clear that he does not take a clear position on whether and how NGN and BlackRock should cooperate.

These words were well-spoken, and his attitude at the time was very sincere. However, in An Rusong's view, the fact that the other party had invited him to meet and inquired about the matter itself was a clear statement of his position: as president, he hoped that NGN could reach a further cooperation with BlackRock.

Perhaps from the perspective of all South Koreans, it's a good thing for a South Korean company to cooperate with an American company. After all, which large-scale company in South Korea doesn't have an American shareholder as its main shareholder? Samsung isn't, is LG? So why should NGN be an exception?
Indeed, although he had not yet met with the negotiating representatives from BlackRock, An Rusong already sensed that the reason they had made such a big fuss was not just for the 20% stake held by DFJ. They wanted more, and might even want to become the largest shareholder of NGN.

An Rusong didn't actually insist on absolute control. What he needed was simply to be the largest shareholder. In addition, he also had ideas about when and at what price to sell his shares, as he also needed to protect his own interests.

To put it bluntly, this is a game of strategy, a game between him and his new partner, BlackRock. Currently, the other party has used various means to put pressure on him, the chairman of NGN, and naturally, he also needs to come up with some means of counterattack.

(End of this chapter)