During the time when Sulei Electronics and Morgan Group were competing for the market, in Japan, the internet portal company YOO suddenly announced the acquisition of multiple gaming companies, intending to once again occupy a territory in the gaming industry.
Its main battlefield was the PC side and other gaming platforms, conspicuously excluding Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
Previously, Gamestar had rejected YOO's request for investment, prompting CEO Nagao to personally establish a gaming department to compete with Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
At the time, his choice was online games. However, compared to the currently popular console games, the status of online games was not high. Moreover, he was starting from scratch, recruiting some people with game development experience who still didn't know how to develop online games.
So for several years, they were only able to maintain a balance between income and expenses.
Later, Nagao forgot about electronic games, until recently when the gaming industry became even more prosperous, he reconsidered.
Moreover, not long ago, YOO suddenly received a substantial overseas financing.
YOO's stock price also surged rapidly, multiplying several times.
In fact, it wasn't just the stock price of this internet company that skyrocketed; all high-tech companies related to the internet saw a surge in market value.
Among them, FACEBOOK soared to over fifty billion dollars, becoming the hottest social media networking company.
At this moment, it seemed to mark the beginning of a crazy era, where all companies related to the internet became highly sought after.
A three to five-fold increase in a day was entirely possible.
Before this, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment, valued at over five billion dollars on Wall Street, was already a top target. And importantly, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment had always been profitable.
But as the number of internet users began to rapidly expand and people's demand for the internet grew, the internet became something more and more people sought after.
Yet, the valuation of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment remained unchanged.
After all, Gamestar Electronic Entertainment had always identified itself as a gaming entertainment company, hardly touching the internet. At most, they increased internet services, but gaming remained their focus.
In this world, recent data showed that the number of internet users had reached one and a half billion.
Although this was far from the nearly five billion internet users in Takayuki's era, it still shocked the Wall Street community.
With over a billion internet users, how could internet companies not make money?
And precisely because of this, companies like YOO, internet portal companies, became the most dazzling enterprises in recent times.
With increased valuation, soaring stock prices, and extremely smooth financing, investors eagerly waved their money to join the frenzy.
Nagao of YOO also followed suit.
Not long after acquiring multiple gaming companies, he once again extended an invitation to Yuxing Electronic Entertainment.
YOO was willing to buy Gamestar Electronic Entertainment for ten billion dollars.
"Now, we're very wealthy. Your small gaming company, valued at several billion dollars, should bow down to us. Moreover, I'm offering cash. As the absolute controlling shareholder with ninety percent ownership, Takayuki can decide the fate of the company."
As long as Takayuki nodded, the ten billion dollars would be in his hands.
And this time, Nagao's invitation was very high-profile. He directly bought large sections in several newspapers and magazines to announce his intention to acquire Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
Last time, he only wanted to invest. This time, he wanted to directly acquire? Money indeed easily leads people astray.
Takayuki suddenly felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
But for a moment, he couldn't recall what it was.
However, electronic gaming was indeed a very promising industry, and the other party really wanted to seize this opportunity.
Not long after, a call from YOO came to Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
In the phone call, YOO's boss, Nagao, earnestly discussed the acquisition with Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. Furthermore, if Gamestar Electronic Entertainment was willing, he could guarantee not only the ten billion acquisition amount but also approximately one billion dollars' worth of YOO company shares for them.
"President Takayuki, this is a very profitable acquisition. We can say we are sincere. As long as you nod, the cash will be deposited into your account, not a penny less. How about it?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Nagao, but I have no intention of selling."
"President Takayuki, don't reject it so straightforwardly. We have the widest user base now. As long as you join us, we can share all the user base. Isn't that good? Moreover, we will continue to expand in the future. We already have several investment companies ready to discuss new financing with us, and we will be even bigger and stronger in the future."
Takayuki still shook his head and said, "No, I'm not interested. If I wanted to sell, I would have done it a long time ago, not now."
"...Well, President Takayuki, let's find a place to talk or I can send my people to your company for negotiations. We can take this slowly. Actually, if you don't want to be acquired, we can also talk about investment. You invest in my company, and I invest in your company. Let's develop together."
"No, your company's stock price is too high now. It doesn't seem reliable to me. I always feel like it could burst at any moment..."
As Takayuki spoke, he suddenly seemed to have a flash of insight.
Right, he had a sense of déjà vu before.
Wasn't this another bubble being inflated?
The internet had become a hot cake for many people, yet there weren't many profitable points at the moment. It was entirely reliant on burning money to continuously expand. How long could this last? How long could it endure?
No one knew.
And Takayuki recalled the most intense internet bubble around the year 2000 in his previous life.
At that time, he was still a child and naturally wouldn't pay attention to such matters. It was only later, when he worked in the internet industry, that he somewhat understood upon reviewing the past.
And now, these internet companies felt very much like bubble-blowers.