The rest of the men stared at Si Chen without speaking a word. The silence continued for a while, until Chen Yang stood up and dryly coughed, "Si Chen, all the co-partners of the place are gathered here today. Let me introduce you to them."
With that said, he named out each and every one of them, and a portion of them casually greeted him back, while the rest simply kept quiet.
They talked for quite a bit for a while, before somebody interrupted their conversation and impatiently said, "Are you done talking? Could we start the negotiations right now?"
Si Chen turned his head to see who talked, and found it to be a scholarly looking middle-aged man. This man was one of the people who wanted to sell off his shares, as Chen Yang had told him.
"Gu Bing! Don't be rude." Chen Yang turned his head back and scolded.
The scholarly middle-aged man named Gu Bing simply scoffed at his words in indifference.
Si Chen was not offended by this. On the other hand, he was rather delighted. Chen Yang had told him who each of the co-partners were, and this man was one of the people who merely invested their money into OnShop, but did not contribute anything else to the website development process.
Gu Bing had initially thought that investing his money into the website would be a lucrative deal, but who knew that his investments kept sliding down in monetary value?
He had panicked when he saw that, and insistently urged and pestered for Chen Yang and the other website developers to buck up and stop losing money.
However, nothing worked, and the initial amiability and respect he had showed to Chen Yang became nothing but pure detest and disdain.
Now that somebody had expressed their interest towards his share of the website, how could he not be impatient to sell it off immediately, and not let it burn his hands further?
In Si Chen's perspective though, this was the kind of idiot who he would be able to take advantage of the most.
Emotional and hot-blooded, unsteady and restless.
He clasped his hands onto the table, and slightly leaned forward, "So my offer is $20000 for 80% of the shares. Have you agreed to this?"
Chen Yang threw a slight glance at the others, before turning back towards Si Chen, "I will be selling off 55% of mine, while the rest will contribute the rest of the 25%."
"Okay. I will make up a document to confirm the split of the money for the shares. Now, we can get on to the other agenda. Which one of you…wants to sell of another portion of your shares?" Si Chen lightly smiled while asking.
"And there is no need to worry. I will definitely not cheat you off your money, and will buy the shares at a slightly higher price it is valuated at." Si Chen did not forget to add.
Almost instantly, 5 men went towards him and began expressing their intent to sell of their shares, which of course, also includes Gu Bing.
Chen Yang had told him the shares distribution amongst them.
The main founder, Chen Yang, had 60% of the shares.
The co-founders, who had contributed to the website development, had around 30% in total.
As for the rest, it was all given to the people who merely invested their money into the website, who were similarly the 5 people who was in front of him right now.
It was good to get rid of the rest of the share owners who did not contribute anything, and get more of the profits for himself.
While Si Chen was smilingly in talks with each of the 5 people, they also had their own thoughts, as they thought that Si Chen was far too naïve and ignorant to actually believe that this OnShop had any further potential.
All they wishes, was to quickly dump their shares, while all Si Chen wanted to, was to buy their shares.
It was easy to reach a mutual cooperation when the interests of both sides coincide, and Si Chen had struck a deal to buy the rest of their shares for a total of $3000.
He made the sellers feel like he was indifferent about whether he bought the shares, as though it didn't matter to him because he already bought 80% of it, and the sellers were naturally panicked and offered to lower the price.
This, was much different from buying into the website, because he was now buying out the entirety of their shares, so it was normal for him to pay more.
He won't paying more either, because these shares were definitely worth more than what he had bought it for right now.
The 5 men who managed to sell of their shares were all snickering inwardly in delight, but how could they know that the higher they rise, the harder they fall?
When the deal was done, he would own 90% of the entire website, 80% from Chen Yang plus the Co-founders, and 10% from the miscellaneous investors.
"Thank you for coming." Chen Yang thanked Si Chen, and the rest of the men also thanked him before they left, and as for whether it was sincere or faked, Si Chen did not care.
He returned to his apartment after that, and comfortably slumped down onto his chair, while thinking about how he should develop the OnShop business.
Adding the Eternal Fashion's clothing onto the website for sale was a must, as not only will it help to promote Eternal Fashion, it would also increase the variety of items for customers to buy.
And the most important thing that was needed, was to make customers feel like the items they can buy online, is not anything less than the items they can buy in a real store.
Then, there was still the matter on the web design, to make it more accessible and easier to use. His Art & Design skill is really broad, and can be used almost anywhere, from the design packing of food, to the shop layout design, and of course clothes' designs.
Art and Design is present in almost every corner of our lives, so this skill was remarkable.
Si Chen wrote up the shares transfer contract, then printed it out.
On the next day, he went to the same café and signed the contract along with the rest of the related parties, officially confirming their deals.
There was still another layer they had to go through, which was the lawyer, but such things were simply standard procedure, and it will almost always go through with that green light, so there was no need to worry.
The 5 investors, after receiving the money, did not wait a single moment as they walked out of the café without even bothering to hide their delight.
As for Chen Yang and the co-founders, they sat there with a hint of elation, but within their eyes, there was still a trace of the listlessness, as though they thought that receiving more investments at this period of time was just delaying the inevitable - the collapse of the website.
Si Chen turned towards Chen Yang and questioned, "How many shops are participating in our online shopping website?"
Chen Yang thought for a while, before answering, "There is around 4 shops, but they are all small scale ones. We even had to pay to ask them a fee to sell their items on our websites, since they did not believe in the prospects of our website at all. Our situation is not really looking good at the moment."
Si Chen slightly frowned his eyebrows, before he released them, "There is no need to worry about that for now. Place the clothing shop, 'Eternal Fashion' onto the website, and set it as a premium shop. As for the goods, I will let the owner of Eternal Fashion contact you."
"Eternal Fashion? What kind of shop is that?" Chen Yang curiously asked.
"Just a shop that I invested in. You don't need to think too much about it. And as for the website design, I will send you some of my ideas later this evening on email." Si Chen stood up and stated, and after sending some perfunctory words, he left.
Eternal Fashion was taking a longer time to rise up than the rest of his investments, and now, he was wondering if he should plan ahead and invest in other kinds of retail shops instead.
He could go for retail shops either selling household products, groceries, or also beauty products like make-up.
With that, he could then be able to introduce a wider range of products and items on the OnShop website, and similarly also benefiting his own shops.
It was a win-win situation, and Si Chen went back to the Tong Lin apartment to do his research.