That was all Eric needed to hear to understand that this person was the real deal. He didn't need to inquire further and got straight to the point.
"I will be upfront with you, and as I communicated through email, Google would like to acquire the services of HyperComp," Eric said.
"No problem. At the right price and under the correct conditions, we are ready to sell it off or make a partnership," Aric replied. This brought bright smiles to the faces of everyone representing Google. Eric didn't waste a moment and forwarded a well-made file to Aric.
Aric took the file and gave it a quick glance. Uncle Kurien and his father were also intrigued. With the help of Mira, Aric realized what this was. It was a contract along with various formalities associated with it. Aric then handed it to Uncle Kurien to read. After a quick read, he passed it to his father.
His father noticed Uncle Kurien's hands were shaking, but he didn't say anything. He didn't understand at that time, but when he saw the numbers in the contract, his eyes went wide. So much so that he almost released a groan.
The contract stated that Google would pay 2 billion dollars to buy the software. Of course, it wasn't all in cash; 30% was in cash, and the rest was in various investments in Google and other ways, but even 30% was enough to make his father take deep breaths.
Uncle Kurien, just like his father, was speechless, but he had better control of his emotions. As a lawyer, he needed to be more professional, but he was definitely shaken.
"I think Google isn't being very sincere and upright with its intentions," Aric said. This stopped the smiles on Google's side, except for Eric. He didn't seem fazed by the words at all.
"I am very sorry if you think so, and I agree that the contract here isn't up to standard. This contract was made at the HQ and went through the board members. You know how they can be. They will try to squeeze every bit of sweat out of anyone. I am not blaming them since, in the end, it was they who invested money and took risks with Google. But they are shortsighted at times. I will take the blame for this poor contract and by tomorrow, Google will provide better contract details to fulfill your wishes and properly respect your work," Eric replied. Aric's eyes squinted when he heard that from Eric.
Did this guy just badmouth his own board members to an outsider? He just did. He is more shrewd than Aric thought.
"Give us a day, and we will build an appropriate contract that will be acceptable for both India and the USA," Eric said. Aric nodded. They had a bit more talk about the mechanics of how the software works, and then both groups separated, with Eric promising a better deal.
Soon, the trio was out of the hotel.
"Aric..." His father could finally breathe a bit, and before he could complete his words, Aric raised his hand and said,
"Not here. We can talk after we reach the hotel. Uncle Kurien, if you aren't held up with much work, you should join too." Aric said. Uncle Kurien hesitated a bit, not because he had work, but because it was a big deal, and he wasn't sure he was up for this kind of major deal. After hesitating a bit, he nodded and joined them. After hailing a taxi, they reached the hotel and took long strides to their room.
"Now tell me what is going on?" Aric's father asked.
"Do you want the short story or the long story?" Aric asked.
"You brat, you think using fancy words will make you a big man. Just lay it out for me. Uncle Kurien and I aren't so useless that we can't understand the words you say," Aric's father said, while Uncle Kurien was also confused and interested to know what was going on.
"A few months ago, I started to learn coding. It was the basics, but I found some books in the school library and self-taught myself. After going to the cafe multiple times, I realized that whenever I used the Internet, it took longer to load any image. It is mostly because of the image size and data transfer over the Internet. I, with the help of coding and some help from the Internet, was able to make software that reduces the size of images. It is called image compression. The software reduces the size but doesn't affect the quality, and later, when it is displayed, it also decompresses it, allowing it to work everywhere while ensuring that the speed of image transfer is almost halved," Aric said.
This made the duo think about what Aric said, and Uncle Kurien asked,
"So you mean to say your software can make images transfer over the Internet faster?"
"More or less," Aric said.
"And they are willing to pay you 2 billion dollars for this? I don't even know how much that is in Indian rupees," Aric's father said, shaking a bit, and Uncle Kurien placed his hand on his shoulder. No one was sure if he was making sure that Aric's father was fine or if he himself was trying to hold himself up when it came to such an amount of money.
They might not know how huge 2 billion dollars is, but they knew it had many zeros involved.
"You are wrong. They were willing to pay 2 billion dollars. Now they will pay more," Aric said. This made both of them look daggers at Aric, as if to say how dare you throw away such a deal. Though they were present at the meeting and heard what was said, they weren't that fluent in understanding such an accent of English.
"You are thinking too much. They want this software more than you realize."
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