My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 490 Bad News

In front of Longshan Station, in the Military Personnel's Home Building, in a meeting room on the seventh floor.

An Rusong bowed and poured wine into Leonard's glass, then gestured to the young man sitting on his right.

Like Leonard, the young man was a white American, also wearing a military uniform, but his rank was much lower than Leonard's—just a second lieutenant. The young man's name was John, his last name unknown; he was Leonard's secretary, and had only recently taken up the post.

Seeing An Rusong's gesture, the young man smiled and pushed the wine glass in front of him towards An Rusong.

With a smile, An Rusong filled the other person's glass with wine, and then poured a small half glass of wine into his own glass before handing the bottle to Jenny, who was sitting on the other side.

Jenny was also dressed in a military uniform today, with a boat cap on her head, looking quite dashing. She took the wine bottle from An Rusong's hand, glanced casually at John across from her, and then poured herself a drink.

“John,” Leonard, who had been fiddling with his cigar, said as Jenny poured himself a drink, “Mr. Ann and I have something to discuss. Would you mind leaving for a moment?”

The young man had just picked up his wine glass when he heard this, and he was clearly taken aback for a moment, but he quickly put down his glass, got up and walked out the door.

“Ann, John is the son of an old friend of mine,” Leonard said awkwardly as he handed the cigar to Ann after the young man left. “An old friend asked me to bring him along. Heh, young man, you have little experience in dealing with people and are lacking in manners. Please don’t mind.”

An Rusong smiled and shook his head, picking up a pack of cigarettes from beside him as he said, "It's alright. John is new to Korea and doesn't know much about the local customs. He'll get used to it after a while."

Leonard took the cigar back, trimming it with cigar tongs as he looked around and asked, "How are the paperwork going? Is there anything else I can help you with?"

When Lin Ya'en wanted to take over the management rights of "Military Home", An Rusong asked Leonard to help make the connection, which led to his connection with Zheng Shizhi. Later, although some problems arose in the process of their dealings, An Rusong took timely precautions and they did not have a significant impact on the whole matter.

Although An Rusong has not been specifically involved in the progress of the matter over the past period of time, the corresponding procedures have been going on all along. Because of this, Lin Ya'en is currently very busy. Otherwise, she would definitely be present at an event like today.

“Everything went smoothly,” An Rusong smiled, lit a cigarette, and said, “Of course, if you need anything, I won’t hesitate to ask.”

Leonard didn't speak. He put the cigar in his mouth, heated it with a lighter until it was lit, took another puff, then inhaled deeply, licked his lips, and said, "That woman named Susan is not easy to deal with, is she?"

Today marks the fourth day since BlackRock's negotiating team arrived in Seoul. In these four days, An Rusong has already held two discussions with the team. However, Susan, the team leader, has yet to make an appearance. According to the opposing team, Susan fell ill after arriving in Seoul, suffering from both a cold and a fever, which has become quite serious. Therefore, the formal negotiations have to be postponed.

An Rusong neither confirmed nor denied this claim, but one thing was certain: regardless of whether the other party was truly ill, the fact that they never even met him demonstrated a basic attitude—either they disrespected him or they were trying to put pressure on him in this way. Of course, even in the latter case, their behavior itself revealed a lack of respect for him.

If we consider it from the perspective of "equal strength," this disrespect seems understandable. After all, South Koreans aren't even considered second-class citizens. Moreover, BlackRock is not the same BlackRock it was a few months ago. Its true colors have been revealed. It can devour behemoths like Bear Stearns, let alone a small NGN.

From An Rusong's perspective, however, he wasn't bothered by the other party's stance. He had already made a clear plan for this negotiation, specifying what he could concede, to what extent, and what the other party needed to give up, and how much. He had a bottom line. If the other party's stance was tough enough, he would concede more; conversely, he could concede less. But no matter what methods or strategies the other party used, his bottom line would not be lowered further. This was his current principle.

Based solely on his memories from his previous life, An Rusong knew that Belad's background and strength were extraordinary. Even if he had a few more years to develop, let alone his current abilities, he would not be able to confront such a behemoth head-on.

However, what BlackRock hopes to gain from NGN is simply an investment opportunity, or more specifically, a chance to reap substantial returns and high profits. For BlackRock to achieve this, it must ensure NGN's healthy development, not target An Rusong and destroy its rapid growth. Therefore, as long as this fundamental principle remains unchanged, An Rusong has the right to negotiate. Again, constrained by his limited capital, An Rusong cannot monopolize all the profits NGN can generate for its rapid development; he has no intention of taking everything for himself. He simply needs a chance to participate.

"Whether they are difficult to deal with or not, I don't know right now, because I haven't met them yet," An Rusong said innocently, shrugging his shoulders.

"Haha," Leonard laughed loudly, his laughter clearly carrying a hint of schadenfreude.

“Is it that funny?” An Rusong curled his lip and said, “I don’t believe that BlackRock is easier to talk to than me. You have to understand that if control of NGN really falls into BlackRock’s hands, it’s not so easy to say whether your cooperation with NGN can continue.”

“Don’t worry, Anne,” Leonard chuckled twice before saying, “You have a misunderstanding about Belad. They’re not interested in controlling NGN.”

He paused here, seemingly gathering his thoughts before continuing, "To be precise, as long as you keep NGN on the right track, the company has a good future and can guarantee their profit expectations, they will not be interested in controlling NGN."

He paused, then emphasized, "Ultimately, what they need is to make profits through NGN, not to control its operations. BlackRock controls assets, not businesses. What they need to do is make money for shareholders and investors, not help them acquire companies."

An Rusong nodded in understanding, and then said, "I understand, you are also a lobbyist for BlackRock."

Leonard neither confirmed nor denied it. He took a puff of his cigar and then asked, "You know ICQ?"

An Rusong stopped smoking, looked at the other person, frowned, and said, "What do you think?"

His tone wasn't very pleasant, but Leonard didn't seem to care. He smiled and said, "Actually, I don't know much about what's going on in your IT industry. However, I recently received some news that BlackRock is reportedly in contact with AOL and is preparing to buy out all of ICQ's business from them."

An Rusong frowned even more deeply.

Currently, NGN isn't the only popular instant messaging software internationally. However, when it comes to which instant messaging software poses the greatest threat to NGN, Microsoft's MSN doesn't even rank at the top. After all, Microsoft has been in its dominant position for too long, developing an arrogant attitude that has significantly weakened its market responsiveness. MSN simply can't keep up with market demands in terms of functionality and user-friendliness, making its defeat inevitable. Of course, this is also directly related to the fact that MSN isn't Microsoft's core business.

The real threat to NSN is undoubtedly ICQ. Although it is under the control of AOL and its development prospects are also very limited, and it cannot compare with NGN in terms of vitality, it still has nearly 40 million active users, especially in Europe, where it has a wide range of loyal users.

The limited prospects for ICQ are mainly due to AOL's lack of attention to its development and minimal investment in related areas. However, if it were acquired by BlackRock, with the injection of sufficient capital, its threat to NGN's development would be undeniable.

“To date, the two parties have reached a preliminary agreement on the acquisition and sale,” Leonard continued. “If all goes well, the final acquisition agreement will be reached in October, and the amount involved may be as high as $2 million.”

When AOL acquired ICQ ten years ago, it spent nearly $3 million. Now, ten years later, when AOL is preparing to sell it, it will lose nearly $1 million, which shows how dire ICQ's situation has been over the past decade.

However, none of this matters to An Rusong. What matters is that BlackRock will likely complete the acquisition in October, around the same time NGN is preparing for its second round of financing. If the timing is close, the news of BlackRock's acquisition of ICQ will certainly be detrimental to NGN's financing, which is predictable.

(End of this chapter)