Super Spender - Chapter 350

Chapter 350: Chapter 344: Getting Implicated – Part 1

Translator: 549690339

Pure profit! A mere investment of 100 billion federal coins, and if they close now, deducting the cost of the initial 100 billion, the bank’s profit will reach the terrifying amount of 280 billion federal coins! All within less than a week! What kind of wealth accumulation speed is that?

Furthermore, what made these top financiers suspicious was that banks rarely deal in futures, and when they do, they play it safe with stable and profitable options like gold, which have less volatility and are closely tied to the banking industry, allowing them to control the prices.

And they won’t hold too much, using just over a hundred billion federal coins, often closing after making several billion federal coins. They would never touch something like oil futures. In fact, most banks don’t dabble in these futures, contrary to the general perception that banks are invincible.

Most of the money banks use to invest comes from depositors, so their risk-bearing ability is limited. If they lose money in the futures market, they could be in real trouble. In fact, only major investment funds usually engage in the futures market.

Like the Hawking Investment Fund. This time, in a deviation from the norm, the bank not only invested in oil futures, but also invested on a large scale! An amount of 100 billion federal coins is not a small figure, especially when the bank’s leverage is not low.

So, what prompted the bank to make such a decision? Without having to think hard, most people, after learning of Finn Lewis’ connection with the mysterious old foundation, immediately linked it to him.

Presumably, the bank must have been guided by Mr. Lewis, right? Otherwise, there’s absolutely no way they wouldn’t have closed by now. Although the calls between Finn Lewis, Matthew Chan, and Clarence Johnson were not leaked, in this circle, you don’t even need to know what was said. A little analysis of your daily behavior is enough to put two and two together.

Finn Lewis knew nothing about all this. Although he has become the richest man in the world, he didn’t have a lot of ready cash. Even though he managed to buy back his shares, he didn’t have much money left. Moreover, on the day after the press conference, something happened that made Finn Lewis feel a bit annoyed.

Kelly Damian Bryan, the man who was unwilling to sell his shares of Activision Blizzard to Finn Lewis, ended up selling his shares! What really stung was, this guy probably did it on purpose, he sold his 24% stake directly to Northern Federation’s Artis Electronics!

That’s one of the two largest gaming giants in the Northern Federation, the EA company, a name familiar to many.

Since he already had absolute control over Activision Blizzard, Finn Lewis was definitely going to call a directors’ meeting. But before the directors’ meeting was called, Finn Lewis received a notification from EA Company that they would be sending representatives to attend Activision Blizzard’s directors’ meeting.

Damn it, Finn Lewis didn’t plan on buying EA. However, with Jay Sommer and her team completing the acquisition of those gaming companies in the Southern Federation, Finn Lewis would have nearly 80% stake in the gaming market, which would naturally complete the task of the birth of Toras.

As the saying goes, people in the same industry are competitors. Now that EA is represented in the board of Activision Blizzard, what kind of competition can there be? All the secrets are revealed.

Although a 24% stake can’t influence any decision of the board, but those attending the meeting would definitely know the company’s next step.

“Olivia, what do you think we should do?” Finn Lewis asked, somewhat frustrated.

“Well… How about we buy EA as well?” Olivia suggested after some thought.

“We can’t buy them, it would lead to an antitrust investigation.” Finn Lewis shook his head. Don’t think that the Northern Federation’s antitrust investigations are idle. If it was a company of Northern Federation citizens, they might be a bit lenient, but if it’s a foreign company, the Northern Federation’s antitrust investigators definitely won’t go easy.

EA and Activision Blizzard are virtually the two largest gaming companies in the Northern Federation, and if Finn Lewis were to acquire EA as well, his company would command almost 95% of the market share in the Northern Federation. There would certainly be an antitrust investigation. Finn Lewis did not want his company to be forcibly broken up in the end.

“We could buy the shares from EA.” Olivia suggested after some thought.

“They probably won’t sell.” Finn Lewis shook his head helplessly. With Activision Blizzard’s shares becoming more and more concentrated, Finn Lewis owned 56% and EA Company owned 24%, adding up to 80%. On top of that, with the previous parent company of Activision Blizzard, Vivandi, holding 10%, that already made 90%. The rest was held by various investment funds.

It’s safe to say, there was virtually no retail stock left now.

“Master, you better answer this call first. It’s from a magazine.” Before they could come up with a solution, and with just two hours left before the board meeting, Olivia reminded Finn Lewis again.

“Why are they calling me?” Finn Lewis sounded puzzled.

I don’t know! Damn it! But the magazine was almost going insane recently. Even though it’s only been 24 hours since the news broke out, Forbes’ official website was almost overloaded with traffic, as Northern Federation’s netizens are just as interested in jumping on the bandwagon as those from other places.

Damn it, a man with a net worth of 1200 billion federal coins, who appeared out of nowhere. Isn’t this a mistake on Forbes’ part? You can’t seriously tell us readers that this man earned 1200 billion Federal coins in just over half a year, can you?

The magazine also felt they were being victimized. Damn it, who knew where this guy came from? Yet, Forbes was quick on the draw. They didn’t start investigating Finn Lewis after he became the wealthiest man but as soon as that first program was aired, Forbes immediately dispatched people to look into Finn Lewis.

However, the financial institutions of Flame Nation are not as open and transparent as those in the west, and they have not been able to contact Finn Lewis, nor could they understand the source of his wealth. They wanted to report on it, but if the report turned out to be inaccurate, it would be better to not report at all. Their reputation was not easy to build, and they didn’t want to ruin it.

Even though the call seemed strange, Finn Lewis still answered it, “Hello, may I speak to Mr. Lewis?” As soon as Finn Lewis picked up the phone, a pleasant female voice came on.

“Speaking.” Finn Lewis nodded as he responded.

“Hello, I’m Jessica, an editor from Forbes Magazine. I was hoping we could have the chance to interview you, Mr. Lewis. You’ve just become the richest man in the world, and everyone’s curious about your wealth.” The woman introduced herself as Jessica and delved right into the subject.