Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 529

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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529. It’s clear evidence that the bubble has inflated to its breaking point.

Landon Shore, Chief Operating Officer of the Eldorado Fund, which had risen to prominence as Wall Street’s representative hedge fund in just a few years, was commuting from his estate in Long Island East Hampton to his office in Manhattan, New York by private helicopter.
The morning sunlight reflected off Manhattan’s skyscrapers—steel-columned structures surrounded entirely by glass—with such brilliance that it was blinding.
The helicopter ascended through the Upper Bay, passing just beside the Statue of Liberty, New York’s iconic symbol.
Seated in the plush chair, I turned my head to gaze down through the windshield, documents still in hand.
The Statue of Liberty, standing alone in the blue sea, felt like a symbol of America as the land of opportunity and the American Dream itself.
And looking down at that Statue of Liberty from above, I believed I had achieved the American Dream—acquiring wealth and fame that I couldn’t have dared imagine just a few years ago.

“When I think about it now, meeting my boss in Austin was the opportunity of a lifetime for me.”

When Seok-won first revealed that he was a major lottery winner and entrusted me with handling the legal matters, I merely regarded him as a fortunate Asian exchange student.

“To be more honest, I thought he’d end up broke like other major lottery winners, squandering money recklessly.”

But instead of indulging in the debauchery I’d expected—recklessly buying expensive supercars, throwing parties with women every night, using drugs—Seok-won did something entirely different: he invested.

“And with extraordinarily high-risk investments at that.”

Starting with betting his entire lottery winnings on the pound’s collapse, followed by Mexican investments and yen short-selling against the Nikkei index, the reckless bets bordered on gambling.
No matter how much people spoke of high risk, high return, most Wall Street investors ridiculed such tightrope-walking bets, predicting that success wouldn’t last long before catastrophic losses and bankruptcy would follow.
Truthfully, I myself had watched Seok-won’s risky investments with considerable anxiety.

“But as if mocking Wall Street’s skepticism, the results were a spectacular success.”

With Seok-won’s seemingly divine investment acumen hitting jackpot after jackpot and his jaw-dropping returns, not only Wall Street investors but even George Hamilton, the legendary hedge fund titan, publicly acknowledged him, cementing his position as a major player on Wall Street.

“With the nickname ‘the Midas Touch,’ there are now quite a few funds and traders who follow his investment moves, so there’s nothing more to say about it.”

As Seok-won and the Eldorado Fund’s reputation soared, my own status as his representative rose vertically as well.

That a mere Lawyer could now move in circles with the titans of Wall Street’s investment banks and hedge funds, not to mention Washington’s political elite—it was something he couldn’t have dreamed of just a few years ago.
All of this had been made possible by Seok-won alone.
Landon Shore gazed at the densely packed supertall buildings of Manhattan and reflected once more that accepting Seok-won’s proposal to work together had been the best decision of his life.
And on the other hand, he found himself anticipating just how many more legends Seok-won, with his remarkable investment acumen and foresight, would create on Wall Street in the years to come.
Lost in such reverie, the helicopter that had arrived at the One New York Plaza Building looming just behind the Ferry Terminal made a wide arc through the sky before gradually descending.
Soon the helicopter touched down smoothly on the landing pad atop the building, where an “H” was painted in crisp white letters.
With rotor winds whipping at his clothes, a security officer in formal attire bent low and quickly approached, opening the passenger door.
Landon Shore emerged in a thin cashmere coat, briefcase in hand.
As the acrid smell of exhaust filled his nostrils, he felt anew that he had arrived in Manhattan, the very heart of global finance.
Landon Shore strode briskly down the metal stairs and made his way into the building through the emergency exit that had been left open.
Moments later, after taking the elevator down and entering the Eldorado Fund Office, his executive secretary Cathy rose from her desk and greeted him with a smile.

“Welcome back.”
“Good morning.”

As Landon Shore entered his spacious private office overlooking the Upper Bay, he spoke to Cathy.

“Coffee, the usual, please.”
“Of course. I’ll bring it right away.”

Landon Shore set his briefcase on the desk and hung his cashmere coat on the rack.
As he settled into his chair and reviewed materials sent from the Japan branch, Cathy knocked and entered, setting down a cup of richly aromatic coffee.

“Is there anything else you need?”
“Nothing. Carry on with your work.”
“I’ll be going then.”

As Cathy turned and left, Landon Shore picked up his cup and sipped his coffee, allowing himself a moment of leisure.
The taste of coffee savored while gazing out over the Upper Bay was incomparably exquisite.
After indulging in this brief luxury, Landon Shore returned to his desk, moved his mouse to check the New York Stock Exchange futures, and noticed an unusual movement that made his eyebrows twitch.

[BROD : 100.50 (󰀺24.50)]

The stock price of Broadcast.com, which pioneered internet radio and video streaming services and was enjoying explosive popularity, was surging dramatically.

“Could it be…”

Sensing that some major event had broken, Landon Shore reached for the telephone receiver just as a knock sounded at the door.
Looking up, he saw Andrew, the CIO, enter through the door in his trademark suspenders, and he set down the receiver he’d been holding.

“I was actually about to call you, so this works out perfectly.”

Andrew walked toward the desk with a somewhat excited expression.

“It looks like you’ve seen the Broadcast.com stock price.”

Landon nodded and asked with a note of anticipation in his voice.

“Seeing the stock surge like this in the over-the-counter market suggests something happened. Is this what the boss predicted?”

Andrew, receiving his gaze, flashed a bright smile and answered.

“Exactly. Just moments ago, the Wall Street Journal broke an exclusive story that Yahoo has agreed to acquire Broadcast.com for $140 per share to enter the interactive internet broadcasting business.”
“$140 per share!”
“Yes. The total acquisition value comes to a staggering $6.2 billion—a major deal.”

At the astronomical figure, Landon whistled with delight.

“No wonder the stock is soaring like this!”
“It’s nearly double yesterday’s closing price.”

With this development, it was virtually certain the stock would climb all the way to $140 per share, the acquisition price both companies had agreed upon.

“If the acquisition goes through as planned, we’ll pocket $520 million in gains.”

Andrew’s eyes gleamed with admiration as he spoke.

“A 180% return in just one month—the boss’s prediction hit the mark perfectly again.”

Landon’s lips curled into a proud smile as he replied.

“When has the boss ever been wrong?”
“That’s true.”

Seok-won had predicted that major IT companies like Yahoo would likely pursue acquiring Broadcast.com to capture the rapidly growing internet streaming service market.
Accordingly, the Eldorado Fund had aggressively accumulated Broadcast.com shares, securing a 15% stake at an average price of $50 per share.

“Honestly, while Broadcast.com is certainly an attractive company, I never imagined they’d acquire a company that’s only been listed on the market for a year at such an enormous price.”

Broadcast.com, which had streamed sports events and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show over the internet, rapidly amassing over 700,000 users and becoming a sensation, was a fledgling venture company that had gone public last July.

“I’ll admit I trusted the boss’s insight—he’s never been wrong—but I didn’t expect such a major deal to close this quickly.”

Andrew stood before his desk, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Seeing this, I can’t help but think the boss is extraordinary. It’s like he lives in a completely different world from the rest of us.”
“That’s precisely why he’s called the Midas Touch on Wall Street, where all the so-called geniuses congregate.”
“Exactly.”

Landon Shore spoke to Andrew, who was nodding in agreement.

“As a major shareholder, verify whether the acquisition agreement between Yahoo and Broadcast.com is genuine, and find out the specific terms.”
“Understood.”

Andrew replied curtly and immediately turned to leave the office.
As the door closed, Landon Shore rolled up his sleeve and checked his watch.
It would be the middle of the night in Korea, but this was urgent enough to warrant an immediate report, so he picked up the receiver without hesitation.

* * *

Seok-won sat on the plush living room sofa, sipping a canned beer while reading the information report compiled by Lee Chul-gyun, when his cell phone on the table vibrated.

“Hello.”
[Boss, it’s Landon Shore.]

Seok-won set down the report in his hand, noticing the excitement in Landon Shore’s voice.

“What brings you to call at this hour?”
[I have good news.]
“What is it?”
[Yahoo has announced it’s acquiring Broadcast.com for 6.2 billion dollars.]

Seok-won’s eyes widened as he straightened his upper body.

“Is that confirmed?”
[Yes. The Wall Street Journal broke the story exclusively, and Yahoo has officially acknowledged it.]
“Then it’s certain.”

Landon answered with a smile.

[Once again, your prediction has proven perfectly accurate, sir.]
“They’ve demonstrated that through sports broadcasting and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, the internet can deliver video services—not just simple searches or news. More importantly, they can insert advertisements in between to generate revenue, so any major IT company would be drooling over them.”

Seok-won spoke as if it were nothing remarkable.
From this, one could see that Patrick Chang and Randy Grossman, who had acquired Broadcast.com after recognizing video as the next growth engine early on, were reading the direction of internet development with precision.

‘But no matter how right the direction is, if the timing is off and you’re too far ahead, you’ll fail.’

Seok-won’s expression turned bitter, knowing that within just three years of the acquisition, Broadcast.com would shut down all its services and become known as one of the worst M&A failures in history.

[I hear they’ve agreed to pay the acquisition price in Yahoo stock rather than cash.]
“No matter how well Yahoo is doing, it wouldn’t be easy for them to come up with that much cash all at once. They must have chosen the stock exchange method.”
[Because of that, Yahoo’s stock price has been showing weakness in the market since the acquisition announcement.]
“Even if it’s an acquisition to strengthen competitiveness, from an investor’s perspective, an increase in total shares outstanding isn’t a good thing, so that makes sense.”

Seok-won adjusted his grip on the phone in his hand as he spoke.

“Once the acquisition is complete and the Yahoo shares come in, we’ll sell them off sequentially.”
[All of them, sir?]
“Yes.”

Landon asked carefully, taken aback by the decisive decision.

[But Yahoo is a quality IT company—its stock has surged over tenfold since going public, and it posted a 25.6 million dollar profit last year. Wouldn’t it be better to keep holding the shares?]

But Seok-won’s stance was firm.

“My assessment is that the greater the rise, the greater the risk of a fall. So not only will we sell off the newly acquired shares, but we’ll also gradually divest our existing Yahoo holdings in installments starting from year-end.”
[You mean to sell even the existing shares, sir?]

Landon asked back in surprise.

“That’s right. The stock has risen as much as it needs to. Now it’s time to realize those gains.”

Having invested in Yahoo early on, I held a forty percent stake in the company.
However, I had delegated all voting rights to the two founders and refrained from interfering in management whatsoever, which was why—despite being the largest shareholder—I had only been notified belatedly about the Broadcast.com acquisition after it appeared in Wall Street reports.
I had also intentionally maintained distance to avoid suspicion that I had acquired Broadcast.com shares after learning about the acquisition in advance.
While the dot-com fever still burned hot and selling stock in the hottest company seemed premature, Landon trusted my judgment, which had never been wrong before, and suppressed his reluctance to proceed as I directed.

[If that’s your wish, sir, there’s nothing to be done about it. As you say, we’re already generating more than sufficient profits, so I’ll proceed as instructed.]
“Keep me updated on the progress regularly.”

After ending the call and setting down my phone, I sank into the sofa and muttered in a measured voice.

“The fact that the market capitalization is approaching forty billion dollars while net profit is merely twenty-five point six million dollars is clear evidence that the bubble has inflated to its breaking point.”

It was time to slip away from the party before the music stopped.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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