Chapter 236: The Mess

After some haggling, William White successfully completed the acquisition. The Department of Justice wasn't talking about monopolies anymore, and in fact, seemed quite pleased with the situation.

Using strong capital to acquire competitors was one thing, but acquiring a company on the brink of bankruptcy was entirely another. The Department of Justice was well aware that there were many forces pushing this development from behind the scenes. This was not the time for them to assert their presence.

Had Atari still been the number one gaming company, this acquisition would naturally have been difficult to approve. But now the situation was different; the company couldn't carry on any longer.

Those damned fools actually wanted him to issue more shares to supplement Atari's cash flow.

This suggestion was, of course, rejected. William White wasn't stupid. He knew exactly what those fools were thinking.

...

By the end of the year, William White didn't plan to take any more actions. In fact, after assessing the assets of both companies, he ended up with a headache.

William White really didn't know what to say. How could you have so many development plans?

My goodness, tens of thousands of games were waiting to be developed.

He finally understood why the gaming console market of the previous era collapsed. Honestly speaking, it's a miracle it didn't collapse sooner.

Did you really intend to swindle consumers like fools?

A simple tennis game, yet you had over a dozen versions? A racing game had hundreds?

"Filson, let's merge similar things. Consolidate everything with similar content, and have the think tank oversee it. We'll deal with the rest after the New Year."

"Okay, boss. What about DC? Does it need to be merged?"

"No, leave it as a subsidiary. Go get all the folks in charge of planning."

...

DC had stopped publishing.

This news caused a frenzy on Wall Street. They couldn't understand. Were you trying to eliminate a competitor? Was such a big fuss necessary?

Stan Lee sighed. He had guessed it right. That guy really planned to rebuild DC.

Wall Street's agitation didn't affect DC's employees. On the contrary, they were very excited.

For a storied comic company, being taken over was quite humiliating. As for who the boss was? They didn't really care.

Now it was different. It wasn't about being absorbed. Quite the opposite, the new boss highly valued DC's comic characters and knew these stories inside out.

Being industry insiders, they naturally understood the tight spot DC was in. Unfortunately, no one had the courage to tear it down and rebuild.

Now, the boss not only had money but ideas and would grant them autonomy. So what was there to worry about? They'll just follow the boss's lead.

The first change would naturally be Superman. Forgetting the timeline, they turned this guy into a superhero, but why make his character split? Shouldn't Superman be just like Captain America?

Saving innocent people, catching a few thieves, oh, and you must have an undefeatable villain or force. Otherwise, how could the story continue?

Since Marvel used the Titans, you might as well use Mars. It's much more well-known than the Titans, plus it's the real dark constellation.

There was no rush with DC's matters; they could take their time. These folks left were unlikely to perform worse than his own company.

...

Atari was a bit of a headache; they had too many staff. He simply couldn't develop that many games simultaneously unless he planned to crash the gaming market.

Of course, firing them wouldn't work; the unions would surely make trouble.

Oh, well, might as well move into developing PDAs. This requires more work than gaming software and it's better than those study machines. Yes, study machines could also work, especially if tied with something like Teletubbies.

William White had to admire his own brilliance. With these two major projects, there might not be enough people after all. Of course, talented game programmers still needed to be selected, but for regular coders, they could code anything so long as you outline the process.

...

With Atari's people settled, William White was ready for a break. He wasn't as driven as before; now he planned to spend this long vacation hanging out on Lanai Island.

People outside only heard bits and pieces, yet they were quite shocked. It seemed like William White didn't shoot arrows without aim; this clearly was a longstanding plan!

Damn, he even had to act like he was extremely reluctant. Those Oscar folks must be blind; why not give this guy an Oscar already?

As for the outside world's complaints, William didn't care. They could say whatever they liked. He'd long been called a little fox, so they could say whatever.

On the stock market, there was no need to elaborate. New projects meant new profit points, and expanding product lines while existing products were still hot selling was a good thing from any angle.

Generally speaking, Wall Street didn't like diversification. They preferred specialized companies. In their view, if your main business was doing well, why diversify?

There were only two reasons for diversification: either your main business wasn't doing well, or you were jumping into a trendy industry.

If you couldn't manage your main business, why would shareholders believe you could manage other businesses? Trend-following was even less reliable, leaving your familiar industry, what were you thinking?

When it came to William White, though, it seemed different. He could cross industries, and if people didn't like it, they could vote with their feet.

As for trendy industries, sorry, but the industry he's playing in was a blank slate.

What in the world is a study machine?

Can it replace a teacher?

What's a PDA now?

Electronic organizer?

Really don't understand, only ever seen a leather-bound organizer as an exhibition souvenir.

But electronic?

Alright, whatever, there is a small sense of anticipation anyway!

...

"Boss, where are you headed this holiday?"

"Lanai Island. If you have time, come over and hang out."

"So, you're not planning to budge from there?"

"Hehe, you don't understand the joy of farming. Watching a barren island turn into paradise, don't you think that's quite an accomplishment?"

"Okay, I'll arrange something. I'll hitch a ride on your plane then."

"Alright, once you're ready, we leave."

William White knew that Americans didn't really use electronic organizers. The most popular place would be Japan, so before the Japanese figured it out, he'd register a bunch of patents first.

*****

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