The Chaebol Who Flies From Space - Chapter 74



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The Tycoon Who Flies Into Space Episode 74

Episode 74 Iridium Satellite Communications Acquisition (2)

He sent a private plane to bring his mother. They say that when three women gather together, dishes break. No, the house was in an uproar.

I was completely left out.

“The paparazzi can’t even come near my house because there are armed guards. In America, you can shoot someone who breaks into your house. It’s self-defense.”

“How long have you been around?”

“It seems like it’s too hot. There’s probably no place to rest nearby. You’re really working hard.”

There was only one mansion at the entrance to the house, and the back was surrounded by mountains. The trees in front were also thick and obstructed the view.

This means that it is difficult to take pictures with a telephoto lens.

I wondered if it would be possible to take a picture by any means possible.

If you can get through this level of security, you’re amazing.

While running away from the women’s gossip, I checked the security situation at the mansion once more. Using that as an excuse, I walked around the house with Team Leader Oh and heard stories about returning to Korea.

“It looks like you will be acquiring Gyeong-In Energy.”

“Really? I guess the government is pushing for it. Is it because it’s the last one?”

Now, with the presidential election only a few months away, I wondered why they would do that.

“The Ministry of Economy and Finance is pushing for this more strongly than the Blue House. I guess they judged that if they acquired Gyeong-In Energy, they would make money.”

Gyeongin Energy was unable to sign a long-term contract to import crude oil due to lack of money. The facility, which can process up to 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was not operating at even a third of its capacity.

“It looks like the Ministry of Strategy and Finance is distracted by the budget.”

How much additional tax will be collected if the crude oil is received from Seohae Oil and the facility is properly operated?

The reason why Seohae Oil is not actively increasing its oil production is due to a lack of refining facilities, but it must be incredibly frustrating to see one oil refinery company sitting idle.

“Even the snobbish banks can’t move because the Ministry of Strategy and Finance is pressing down.”

“Not long ago, there was a huge uproar over the banks being killed. These days, there’s a lot of mergers and acquisitions going on among banks.”

If you fall out of favor with the Ministry of Finance, you never know when your bank might be absorbed.

“Public opinion is also very positive about increasing crude oil production. There is an uproar over the immediate handover of Gyeongin Energy. Public opinion is being formed as newspapers and broadcasts cover the West Sea oil field.”

It was a pleasant sound just to hear.

The fact that Korea has become a country that produces crude oil means that it can create a lot of jobs.

Many high-skilled jobs will be created in oil exploration, drilling, and refining.

It was a tough job, but it offered high pay.

If there is crude oil to pump but it cannot be refined, and thus the creation of high-income jobs is delayed, the reaction was obvious.

“Her Korea did hire a lot of people.”

Her, a resource exploration company, opened a branch in Korea and recruited new employees on a large scale.

“And I requested WD Chosun’s internal information as you requested.”

While the toads were bleeding over the results of the audit, the newly acquired WD Chosun was left alone.

It’s not that I left it alone because there were no problems.

The number of people in Holdings was not yet sufficient to conduct a thorough audit of WD Chosun. And since the executives had been thoroughly cleaned out during the acquisition, they were planning to leave it alone for the time being. They had to have the information on corruption in advance.

“WD Chosun also hired a large number of new employees.”

“I bet other oil companies are excited too.”

“Even the government did not know that the oil business would have such a great effect on related industries.”

The problem of youth unemployment, which had been increasing since the IMF, has also been reduced considerably. When the petrochemical plant was completed, there was a shortage of young people.

A large-scale petrochemical plant was being built rapidly in an industrial complex in Mokpo, close to the oilfield.

Once the plant is completed, it will be able to easily handle an increase in oil production to one million barrels per day.

“But why are you really acquiring Iridium Communications?”

“Because it’s cheap. It’s not easy to bring in 70 communications satellites for that price.”

“You’re not planning to use it for any other purpose?”

“I guess I’ve watched too many spy movies. Do you think it’s possible with modern technology to repurpose communications satellites?”

“What’s wrong with us? They keep nagging me to find out the relevant information from above. I don’t know about other people, but Chairman Cho is a genius in many ways.”

“You guys are really unstoppable. You seem to want to pretend to launch a communications satellite and replace it with another satellite. Do you think the US government will just sit by and do nothing? Iridium is used by the US military, so it is under strict surveillance.”

I couldn’t tell you the truth with my own mouth. It can’t be helped since it’s a skill to find out information on your own.

“The higher-ups want to use Iridium to take over by any means necessary.”

“Then let me say this. Cho Yong-won is really acquiring satellites to start a communications business. He will launch spare satellites for now, but later he will launch 100 new communications satellites into orbit and open the era of full-fledged satellite communications.”

The Iridium plan wasn’t wrong, but the marketing was wrong. No, the customer targeting was the problem.

Why would an ordinary person pay such high rates to make a satellite phone call?

The plan was to change the design of the bulky, ugly satellite terminal to a fresh one and also drastically lower its usage fees.

If the extremely high usage fees were lowered, airlines and shipping companies that had hesitated to subscribe due to cost issues would have changed their minds. Although it was more expensive than general communication fees, there were many people in the world who needed it if the price was lowered. The excessively high usage fees suppressed demand.

I was thinking of changing the usage fee per minute to a flat rate.

The low-orbit satellite business had enormous future value.

It was very important to get this right.

“I don’t think you’ll believe me if I report it like that, but I understand. I’ll report it like that.”

Progress was made one by one on things that had been put off.

“It’s been a while.”

“I thought about going to Texas and reporting, but everyone around me advised me against it.”

“Well done. If you had come, you would have gotten a lot of glares.”

“To the chairman?”

“No, to Jamie.”

“That sounds incredibly scary.”

“You said it was hard to find a takeover target?”

Team Leader Jeong shook his head at my words.

“The bankruptcy court guys were all in cahoots and instead of cooperating with the work, they obstructed it. The unity among local businesses was truly amazing.”

“Think about it the other way around. If a foreigner came to Seoul and took over a bankrupt beverage company, would you readily accept their cooperation?”

“Every single one of these events has been a truly new experience.”

For Team Leader Jeong Gi-ha, who had been on a roll, it was a series of difficult times. The acquisition of Hansen failed, and his attempt to acquire a new beverage company was also met with persistent obstruction.

So, I decided to just take over the factory of the bankrupt company.

The process of creating a new beverage company was not very difficult. We even scouted experts.

Edward Murphy was a beverage expert who worked at Coca-Cola for over a decade.

He was set to take over as president of a newly created beverage company and oversee its U.S. energy drinks business.

“How does it taste when you make it according to the recipe?”

“I made it as a test and distributed it to Korean affiliates with the help of Team Leader Jeong Gi-ha. I had no idea it was a beverage with caffeine until they told me. Among the various beverages, the lemon-based drinks received the best response.”

“Have you sufficiently confirmed stability?”

“Yes, we have received reports from testing agencies in the US and Korea that there are no problems.”

“When do you plan to release it?”

“It will take about a month. The California region is sourcing from its own factories, and the rest of the regions are negotiating with local bottlers.”

“Advertising is the problem.”

Everyone around me knew how to pour out huge amounts of stuff in a short period of time. When Emma Brown’s Time Shock sales were slowing down, I marketed it for over $100 million.

“We need to advertise a lot to compete with Red Bull and Monster, who already dominate the market.”

I smiled slightly at the sight of Edward looking at me with expectant eyes.

“If you go to my house, there’s the hottest person these days. Every newspaper is full of stories about us.”

“There is also a lot of malicious content.”

“That’s the kind of guy they are. We can give them a hot financial treatment. Anyway, we’ll make Jamie the model and pour out the money. Contact Emma Brown and have her follow the same route we advertised last time.”

My strategy was to start advertising in the US and take over the Chinese market. The Chinese market, with its rapid economic growth, was not yet a fiercely competitive energy drink market.

“Have you decided on a name for your energy drink?”

“I named it Ultra for now.”

“Good. Let’s launch it under that name.”

After the staff members who had come to visit left, I handed Jamie a test product. The person who was going to shoot the commercial had to taste it.

“what’s this?”

“I recently started a beverage company. This is a new product that they released.”

Jamie looked closely at the bottle, hearing that it was a product of the company he created.

“Is this fruit juice?”

“No, have you heard of energy drinks like Red Bull?”

“I heard that’s a popular energy drink in Europe? I’ve seen people around me drinking it.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“Uh, well then, the taste would be just so-so.”

“Because you don’t drink energy drinks for the taste.”

“Is this the same?”

“Try it.”

Jamie drank the energy drink, unable to hide his disgusted expression.

“This is delicious. It tastes like fruit juice because it has a lemony flavor, not an energy drink.”

Energy drinks have a peculiar coppery taste. I can’t stand that taste in my own products.

“We’re going to advertise it extensively. You should be the model this time too.”

“If I advertise your company’s products, it will be very effective, right?”

“of course.”

“How much will you pay as a model?”

“I’ll give you as much as last time. No, I’ll give you more this time.”

“Huh? Why?”

“This commercial might have a negative effect on your image compared to the last perfume commercial.”

Jamie’s appearance in a perfume commercial created the image of a goddess.

Energy drinks are a little different, and if done wrong, can damage your image.

“Is it safe to drink?”

“Then there’s no problem as long as you don’t drink more than ten cans in a row.”

“What if you drink them one after another? There are a lot of weird people out there.”

“Your heart will be beating fast. It’s because you had a lot of caffeine.”

“What’s that? Then I’ll do it. I’ll tell my agent. I’ve been hinting that I’m not doing movies, but if I do commercials, I’ll make a big fuss.”

“Who? Auntie Cathy said so.”

“Then, who would it be?”

Cathy Everdian was the representative of the agency that Emma was represented by.

Since their college days, Cathy has been a close friend of Jamie, constantly bringing him work, and she also landed the film that made Jamie a world-class star.

We weren’t close, but I knew his face. To be honest, we weren’t on good terms, even if we weren’t enemies.

“What was your reaction when I told you I was going to produce a movie?”

“He said he would invest in the movie I’m making.”

He’s quick-witted. Any movie Jamie makes has the potential to be a blockbuster, even more so than a blockbuster.

I thought he might break the Star Wars record, but he was quick to get in the way.

“I won’t let others invest. I’ll invest everything myself. What does Cash do when he invests?”

“Cash and Yongwon, why don’t you two get along so well?”

“It’s nice that Cathy thinks of you as a daughter, but she’s too obsessed with me.”

“That means that much Cathy cares about me.”

“Anyway, I don’t get along with that lady.”

If it weren’t for the fact that Cassie treats me like that because she cares about Jamie, I would have destroyed her a long time ago.

“Anyway, you two take care of your own business, and I’ll call Cathy.”