July 29th, Friday.
This week, Pei Qian had been driven to distraction by the Slackin’ Takeout situation.
Even while drinking coffee at Slackin’ Internet Café in the morning, he could see delivery personnel outside picking up orders, making deliveries, picking up orders, making deliveries—endlessly.
Slackin’ Internet Café 1.0 still offered Slackin’ Takeout services, though delivery personnel wouldn’t enter through the main entrance but used a dedicated side door to pick up orders, avoiding any impact on the café’s customers.
But for Pei Qian, just seeing Slackin’ Takeout making deliveries made him miserable!
Slackin’ Takeout’s market share was expanding visibly, leaving other takeout services completely defenseless.
Originally, dish recycling had been Slackin’ Takeout’s biggest disadvantage, but now it had transformed into its greatest advantage!
And other takeout services simply couldn’t copy it.
Every Slackin’ Takeout store had dishwashers, ready-made dishes, and refined recipes. Crucially, after such a long period of cultivation, most people thinking about a takeout service with recyclable dishes would first think of Slackin’ Takeout, not other brands.
Plus, Slackin’ Takeout had many stores and a strong first-mover advantage; other stores couldn’t copy it even if they wanted to.
Pei Qian was deeply troubled.
Could it be that Slackin’ Takeout was also slipping away from him?
Was it also going down the path of profitability, never to return?
Pei Qian felt heartbroken. A project that had been losing substantial money suddenly started making profits—this reversal was doubly painful.
He could only hope that the microbial garbage processors, each costing 130,000 yuan, would increase store costs and help the stores earn as little money as possible.
As Pei Qian sipped his coffee, he felt melancholic.
Just then, his phone on the table vibrated—a call from Lin Wan.
“Hmm?”
Pei Qian frowned.
Hadn’t he told everyone at Shangyang Games to rest? What urgent matter required a phone call?
Pei Qian instinctively felt something was amiss and answered: “Hello?”
Lin Wan’s slightly worried voice came through: “Mr. Pei, bad news—Finger Company seems to be getting acquired!”
Pei Qian was stunned: “By whom?”
Lin Wan: “Daiark Group. They’ve reportedly offered 180 million dollars to acquire an 80% controlling stake in Finger Company!”
Pei Qian looked completely bewildered; he had no impression of this name.
But an 80% controlling stake meant that aside from the roughly 20% stake in his hands, all other shares would be bought by this Daiark Group?
180 million dollars…
Pei Qian could only sigh—money truly allowed one to do whatever one wanted!
Even though Pei Qian was still burdened by financial concerns, he had to admit that Tenda couldn’t raise this much money even if they sold everything they had.
This was indeed big news, but it didn’t seem to have much impact on Pei Qian.
Finger Company’s IOI was developing well overseas, and calculating the timing, it was about time for some wealthy investor to target this piece of fat.
Pei Qian’s only expectation for the IOI domestic server now was for it to become a money-burning tree, so he couldn’t really be concerned about what happened at Finger Company.
Besides, even if Tenda wanted to compete with Daiark, they didn’t have enough money.
After all, how could a small company established just two years ago compare with these giants?
Pei Qian nodded: “Alright, I understand. This matter doesn’t concern us; no need to pay too much attention.”
Lin Wan was silent for a moment: “Mr. Pei…”
“In the meeting, when you said we should relax and not worry about the IOI domestic server affairs shortly, was it because you had already received advance information?”
“Have you already decided to sell the 20% stake and the domestic server agency rights?”
“I understand now, Mr. Pei! Nothing else, goodbye!”
After speaking, Lin Wan hung up.
Pei Qian was silent for a moment, a question mark slowly floating above his head.
?
Who said I was selling the shares and IOI domestic server agency rights?
Don’t interpret things randomly!
How could I possibly sell this?
The shares in Pei Qian’s hands were worth at least 40 million dollars. If he sold them all, at a ratio of 1000:1, they would only convert to nearly 300,000 yuan.
And Pei Qian’s goal for this period was to lose 8 million and convert 800,000 yuan!
That’s a difference of 500,000 yuan!
Moreover, Pei Qian didn’t want to give up the IOI domestic server money-burning tree. Finally, having something where throwing money at it would go down the drain, making losses of several million or tens of millions easily—how could he possibly sell it?
What nonsense!
Pei Qian couldn’t be bothered to respond. Let things be as they may. This Daiark Group could do whatever they wanted—if he uttered a single word about “selling,” he would admit defeat.
However, Pei Qian did casually look up information about this Daiark Group.
A world-class multinational group occupying important positions in water utilities, transportation, energy, media, and other fields; one of the world’s top five media groups; annual sales exceeding 20 billion dollars; with an insignificant little hobby of buying game companies for fun—they were notorious in the gaming industry.
Many large companies acquire game studios with an eye on the studio’s decision-making capability, so after acquisition, they maintain the company’s independent decision-making and don’t interfere too much.
Daiark Group’s infamous reputation stemmed from their extensive interference and influence on the original company after the acquisition, aiming for rapid, massive profits and squeezing the company’s value in a short time.
Whether rapidly developing and resetting numerous profitable IPs or forcibly compressing development cycles leading to declining game quality—in short, Daiark Group was an enterprise that neither understood nor cared about games. All their acquisition plans were for faster money-grabbing.
Similar tragedies had occurred more than once, but targeted companies had no choice—money could do whatever it wanted.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and felt this matter didn’t concern him much.
Even if Daiark Group forcibly interfered with Finger Company’s development, causing IOI’s reputation to plummet, so what?
He already planned to use the IOI domestic server as a money-burning tree and had already given up—how could they harm him?
So Pei Qian didn’t think too much about it and continued worrying about the Slackin’ Takeout situation.
……
……
July 30th, Saturday.
H4 Esports Club, IOI Division.
“I’m so angry, this isn’t fair!”
“We won the championship, so why is it that both the online popularity and the attitude of the club’s higher-ups all favor the GOG people?”
“What’s the meaning of this trophy, then?”
Several IOI division players took advantage of having no outsiders in the room to complain.
Last weekend, H4 Esports Club’s IOI division team successfully defeated foreign teams and other established domestic clubs, bringing home the champion trophy from the IOI international competition.
It should have been a happy occasion, but the events of the following week didn’t unfold as they had imagined!
Online, hardly anyone discussed IOI’s match.
After their victorious return, the club only gave verbal praise, seemingly having no other plans.
In contrast, the treatment of the GOG division was completely different!
Although they only secured second place, team captain Pang Ling performed exceptionally in the matches and was now widely discussed online.
Pang Ling started a livestream, and his popularity continuously increased.
Even the club was discussing reinforcement plans for the GOG division, clearly preparing to invest more resources there!
How could the IOI division players tolerate this? Their mindset was bound to be unbalanced.
No one cared about those who won the championship, while everyone flocked to those who came in second.
Why?!
It was especially unbalanced considering that the GOG division had been badly thrashed in training matches by a new club, while their side had good results in both training and official matches.
Of course, being upset was one thing, but they could only complain privately.
The club’s strategic direction wasn’t something they could decide.
Suddenly, footsteps came from outside the door, and everyone immediately stopped discussing.
The manager and team leader of H4 Club’s IOI division opened the door and entered.
Today’s training match is cancelled. Everyone should try GOG and see if there’s any possibility of transitioning.”
The team members were all stunned, almost thinking they had misheard.
“Manager, you’re saying… You want us to transition to GOG?”
“Why?”
“We just won the championship!”
The team members were, of course, completely unwilling.
The manager sighed softly: “I understand how everyone feels. I was even angrier than you all before.”
“But the club just held a high-level meeting, which I attended, and I realized that things aren’t at all what we thought.”
“Do you know why there’s such a huge gap in popularity between the GOG and IOI matches? There’s certainly a reason related to GOG’s higher popularity, but the more important reason lies in the competitive level and viewing experience!”
“The GOG division was previously thrashed so badly because they faced DGE Club, which is Tenda’s club! DGE Club thrashed all domestic clubs, objectively raising their competitive level, which is why they played more spectacularly than us.”
“The IOI side didn’t receive this treatment. Although I’m reluctant to admit it, our side was indeed just novices fighting each other, including the foreign teams—they didn’t invite strong teams.”
“So, Tenda’s attitude is very clear—they’re primarily promoting GOG! Therefore, the club has decided to shift its strategic focus to the GOG side.”
“Don’t be stubborn; you should all have noticed that GOG’s popularity is significantly higher. If you transition to become a GOG professional player, you’ll receive more attention. Whether your future involves livestreaming or working in related esports industries, your prospects will be broader.”
“That’s the current situation. As for what to do specifically, you all can decide for yourselves.”
All the team members fell silent.
After the manager’s explanation, everyone finally understood. It wasn’t that the GOG division players were weak; everyone was equally inexperienced, but they had encountered more formidable opponents…
Although very unwilling, thinking calmly, the manager was right.
A professional player’s career was just these few short years. If one chose the wrong project, it could be a mistake regretted for a lifetime.
Conversely, choosing the right project could lead to meteoric success.
Being stubborn was meaningless; in the adult world, only considerations of benefit mattered.
After a long silence, one team member quietly opened the GOG official website and began downloading the client.
Soon, more team members started downloading the GOG client, preparing to transition.