Disclaimer: Please do not sue me! I'm poor.
Background: This is a lame story, and I know nuts about economics, so don't sue me!
Author's Notes: Please review! Also, give me reviews that pinpoint what is good and what is bad, so I can improve. I'm not saying Godsbane's reviews are not good, just that they could use some more pointers for my writing?
Sitting in his comfortable chair in the main office of Urashima Enterprises, Managing Director Keitaro Urashima thought carefully of his next move. Both his company and rival company Aoyoma Industries were bidding for the acquisition of Su Technologies, the leading company in flash based memory products and hard disk drive players. Acquiring the company would give its new owner a head start in both the data storage and music industries, both of which involved billions of dollars. As such, the competition at the start for Su technologies was rather rough, but eventually, the two key players were revealed to be Urashima Enterprises and Aoyama Industries.
Su Technologies was currently in a financial crisis due something happening with its top-level management that caused the cash reserves of the company to be depleted. Apparently, the director, Kaolla Su, was involved in illegal production of high tech weapons, and as such the company was sued by the federal government. The compensation took away the entire cash reserves of the company, and since the director could no longer support it by herself she was giving up to competitors.
The latest bid by Keitaro was at 5 dollars per share, and Aoyama Industries had just announced their bid, which was 50 cents higher than the price offered by them, 5 dollars and 50 cents. However, Keitaro knew better than to immediately up the ante by calling out a higher bid. His maximum budget for this company was 7 dollars per stock, and the limit was not far from the current price. Moreover, Aoyoma Industries might be hoping to spark off a bidding frenzy by the other companies, which could push the price of each stock beyond the 10 dollars level, far out of Keitaro's reach.
Many companies were clamoring for Su Tech because of the various benefits mentioned. However, Keitaro was sure that they were biding their time, waiting for Keitaro's answer to Motoko Aoyama's challenge. By now, he had already decided to put out another bid. But, it had had to be priced just right. If he priced too low, other companies might take it that he was reaching the limit, and they would all jump in and bid vigorously, pushing the price way up. Motoko Industries would also back out, and wait for the eventual winning company to go into financial trouble over the jacked up price of the company, Effectively taking out one rival for the short, or perhaps even long term.
If he priced the bid too high, rivals would see that he still had the power to put out money, and most would back off. As such, he might have to pay a bad price for Su Tech. He judged the company to be worth at most 6 dollars 50 cents per stock, but he couldn't be sure. He thought about it. How would he price the bid between 5 dollars 50 cents and 6 dollars 50 cents? The obvious choice would be 6 dollars, but Keitaro felt uncomfortable . He had a feeling in his gut that 6 dollars would not cut it. Aoyama Industries would probably back up this one.
He knew that Aoyama Industries had more cash flow at their fingertips that him, even though his company was the bigger of the two. Once more, he started to think about their head, the beautiful Motoko Aoyoma. He himself had the honor to meet the stunning woman at one of the parties regularly thrown by some good friends of his, and he had admired her good looks. However, at that time he had no idea that Aoyoma was actually the chief of Aoyoma Industries. Somehow, his brain had been dulled in her presence. Later on, when he realized that she was the director of Aoyoma Industries, he admired her for BOTH her beauty and her sharp wits.
Keitaro had come to a decision. Hoping that he was not wrong, he pressed the button, and thereby raised the stock price to a new high.
8 dollars.
Motoko Aoyoma paced around her office, occasionally glancing up at the screen that showed the shocking new bid from Urashima Enterprises. He had expected the maximum bid from the man to be 7 dollars, but here the screen displayed 8. Perhaps her eyes were playing tricks on her. Once again, she had to praise the man's intelligence. 8 dollars would be enough to scare off most competitors, but he knew she would still fight for control of Su Tech. After all, if Urashima Enterprises did get the company, the gap between the two companies would widen until the point in which they were no longer rivals, but instead superior and subordinate.
The woman sat down heavily into her chair, and thought about her next bid. She was already making a big loss if she bid any higher than 7 dollars, but nobody knew. Most people thought that Aoyoma Industries were filled with liquid assets usable at any time, but that was not true. Most of the assets were buried under other commitments such as the acquisition of Maehera Coporation. Yet another of the numerous battles fought with Urashima. She sighed. Perhaps the man had guessed the true status of her company, even though she had tried her best to keep it secret.
Oh the irony!
Her own "victory" was now squeezing her chances of winning this battle.
Sighing to herself, she pressed the button.