Even though Miles Lanier was still in the army sniping people when Ken Roper and Michael Eld were killed in 'accidents', but ...
Does anybody wonder how, inside only three years out of getting his MBA from Harvard Business School (2030) Richard Villiers was able to take control over JRJ International, one of the Big Seven?? Does anybody else think that not even a 'well-to-do father and rich HBS friends' could finance that sort of thing?? Does anyone wonder how Dunkelzahn got several hundred thousand shares worth of Renraku stock?
Ares wasn't the first of the Big Seven that that particular group took over. Follow me for a minute, here ...
- 2012: Dunkelzahn appears, starts getting used to the world.
- 2029: The Crash of '29. (The 'Slow' Crash.) Echo Mirage (Maj. David Gavilan, USAF, commanding), first crashes, revamps, then goes after the virus.
- 2030: Villiers graduates Harvard Business School with an MBA and starts cutting throats. Metaphorically, anyhow.
- 2031: 30 November -- Gavilan disappears.
- 2033: 24 January -- Knight takes over Ares in the Nanosecond Buyout.
- 2033: 14 November -- Roper and Eld demonstrate the first public cyberdeck prototype. Villiers buys into their company, Matrix Systems, to the tune of 49% of its value.
- 2034: 1 May -- Matrix Systems releases the Portal.
- 2034: 12 June -- Roper and Eld are whacked, Matrix Systems' computers are wiped.
- 2034: 7 August -- Villiers shows up at Fuchi with an offer: Portal Systems prototypes and designs plus folding JRJ International under the Fuchi umbrella (automatic AAA status) for 1/3 of the massive-but-not-AAA Fuchi.
- Jump some time.
- 2052: 14 March -- Cross Applied Technologies (CATCo), run by Lucien Cross, achieves an A rating.
- 2053: 28 June -- CATCo achieves AA status.
- 2057: 9 August -- Dunkelzahn bites it. Miles Lanier gets oodles of Renraku stock, and they play games with both Fuchi and, well, everybody.
- 2059: 6 October -- Richard Villiers finishes the forming of Novatech, moving JRJ International into its holdings. Novatech is thus by default a AAA-rated megacorporation.
- 2060: 28 July -- Fuchi finishes dying, having lost its AAA rating. Pieces move to Renraku and Shiawase.
- 2060: Cross Applied Technologies (CATCo) achieves AAA status during the Fall of Fuchi and the rise of NovaTech.
- 2064: 2 November -- Lucien Cross dies in an EMP-related plane crash. CATCo falls.
Now, we know that Cross was on the Nanosecond Buyout program team. Dunkelzahn financed it. Knight/Gavilan spearheaded it. The questions that should be in your brain are ...
... who figured it out?
... who could actually finance a 23-25-year-old's takeover of one of the 7 most powerful corporations in the world,
and keep it under the radar? Not just from us stupid blind norms, but also from Lofwyr, who has been paying close attention to corporate affairs while getting Saeder-Krupp into his fist??
For my money, two -- maybe three -- take over JRJ. Dunkelzahn finances Villiers, Villiers figures out the moves, and Gavilan/Knight acts as a proxy for some of the movements and learns (along with Dunkelzahn) how to do all the corporate stuff. It takes some time, but poof -- they take over JRJ International.
Knight now knows Dunkelzahn. While the Big D has been playing around in the stock market, getting big chunks of interesting stock (and promissory notes), Knight offers a proposal -- finance his takeover of Ares, and Dunkelzahn will have a seat (when he wants it) at the big table. Dunkelzahn agrees, but notes that any major moves are going to be spotted by both Villiers (now at his own place) and/or Lofwyr, and stopped by one or the other. Knight proposes that it gets done, but -fast-. Cross is found, bribed with 'your own company', and helps program the smart systems that'll do to Ares in seconds what took Dunkelzahn, Knight, and Villiers months to pull off.
Nanosecond Buyout.
Cross gets set up in his home country of Quebec. Knight has control of Ares, with Dunkelzahn's 'Gavilan Ventures' proxy. Etc. etc.
Tell me I'm wrong. Explain how within 3 years of graduating, mister corporate raider took over one of the seven
biggest, most powerful corporations in the world. Go check my data; don't worry, I'll wait.
