Chapter 539: Chapter 533: I Can’t Help With This (Part 2)

“Mr. Lewis, my father invites you to dine with him.” Graceful Lee bowed respectfully to Finn Lewis and then spoke.

“Okay, sure.” Finn Lewis nodded and then stood up with Kay Lee from his seat. Fortunately, there weren’t many people in this restaurant, if someone were to recognize that Graceful Lee was here, it was likely that tomorrow Southland Country’s news media would explode.

Hanson Lee had already prepared the banquet, Finn Lewis and Kay Lee did not change their clothes, and they directly rode in Graceful Lee’s car to the banquet arranged by Hanson Lee. It seemed that Hanson Lee knew Finn Lewis well. The banquet was simple, and so was the food. There were not only Southland Country specialties, but also many Flame Nation dishes, and all tasted very authentic.

Both sides were not strangers, so there was no need for pleasantries. Once everyone had sat down and a cup of tea had been poured for Mr. Lewis, Hanson Lee voiced his question, “Mr. Lewis, I must admit I did not fully understand the matters of the day. Could you provide clarity?”

“It doesn’t make much sense to talk about it now. Let’s discuss it in a few days, then I believe Chairman Lee will understand. Now let’s talk about other matters, such as cooperation with the Planet. To be honest, I am not going to use this ‘Planet’ brand.” Finn Lewis was direct and succinct in his response.

Finn Lewis’s words did not elicit any particular reaction from Hanson Lee. In Hanson Lee’s current age bracket, plus the fact that he had, in a sense, already ‘died’ once, he seemed relatively indifferent to the matter. It’s likely that he was involved in running the Planet Corporation simply because he cared about his own life’s work, otherwise Graceful Lee, who was already in his fifties, may have already run into certain controlling issues.

“How about we make a joint investment?” Hanson Lee suggested after some thought.

“That depends on how Chairman Lee plans to invest,” Finn Lewis replied with a faint smile.

“What do you imply, Mr. Lewis?” Hanson Lee asked curiously.

“If it’s the Lee family investing, I can give you a maximum of 20% of the shares. If it’s the Planet Corporation investing, the share ratio is only 15% at most,” Finn Lewis replied straightforwardly.

“So your intent, Mr. Lewis, is to establish a new brand?” Hanson Lee promptly questioned, noticing the contrast of rejecting the Planet brand with the permission of investment cooperation, clearly alluding to the establishment of a new brand.

“Yes,” Finn Lewis affirmed, nodding his head to indicate his serious intent. He elaborated, “We can cooperate on the Planet’s mobile phones, but if it’s for a new phone, I won’t be using the Planet’s brand.”

“Regarding this new brand, we, the Lee family, would like to invest. Could you specify the number of required funds?” Hanson Lee asked directly, knowing that he had no technological advantage. If you have to ask, what is the most important facet of a phone? The first would be the mobile CPU, followed by the mobile screen and battery. These three things determine the performance of a phone, and without a doubt, Finn Lewis had patents for more advanced technology for these three facets.

The rest of the components, simply put, are not worth much; any supplier could provide them. Therefore, the Lee Family yielded no technological advantage. Even including Planet, the Lee Family did not hold much sway; if Finn Lewis were to make a phone independently, presumably, whether it were Planet or ‘Company A’, their share prices would plummet immediately. Although currently ‘Company A’ was the highest-valued company in the world, its market value was at 740 billion Federal coins, but what does that matter in reality?

“Offer 15 billion Federal coins for 20% of the shares,” Finn Lewis proposed after some thought, quoting a reasonable price.

15 billion Federal coins, in cash, is certainly not a meager amount, especially for a new company at the start. However, such a figure readily disposed Hanson Lee to immediately raise his tea cup to Finn Lewis, saying: “Then I must thank Mr. Lewis now. The funds will be available in the shortest possible time, within three days.”

There were no hidden intentions behind Hanson Lee’s words. From Hanson Lee’s perspective, money was the thing Finn Lewis was least lacking. Although Hanson Lee had no idea of how much capital Finn Lewis held, a series of actions demonstrated that Lewis’ capital was simply not in line with his net wealth. Looking at Lewis’ vast projects under construction in the mainland of Flame nation, it was clear that this was absolutely not something an individual with a net wealth of just over 100 billion Federal coins could handle.

Not to mention anything else, net wealth includes the market value of his companies. However, Finn Lewis was generally assessed at around 150 billion Federal coins. When his companies’ market values were deducted, only about 30 billion Federal coins remained. With 30 billion Federal coins, it would be impossible to construct such a large industrial park. Not to mention the construction cost of the airport and its associated facilities alone, which was estimated to consume several billion Federal coins, and this did not include other more critical construction projects yet to begin.

“Let’s consider that settled then. The related companies will be established soon. Additionally, I’ve already arranged for people to apply for patents and to begin licensing for various aspects of the mobile technology production. However, eighty percent of these technical licenses will not be granted to foreign manufacturers.” Finn Lewis said with a smile.

Hanson Lee simply nodded and said no more. However, if he still didn’t understand what this meant, then he wasn’t Hanson Lee. Even though he was unsure about what Finn Lewis was up to, it was clear that he intended to expand the market first. Every kind of advanced device that is produced requires accompanying infrastructure to succeed. For instance, the failure of WT’s first 64-bit CPU was a case in point.

WT’s first 64-bit CPU failed because WT overlooked the production of ancillary components, which resulted in a situation where while the CPU was being produced, there were only one or two types of motherboards available in the market. Moreover, the most critical point was that the system provider, WF, had not upgraded its system to 64 bits yet. So what’s the point of buying your CPU? It can’t be used at all! Furthermore, countless software and hardware were not supported, that’s why such a technically advanced CPU failed.

Every product is a complete industrial chain, it’s not that you can simply upgrade a part of the technology and expect everything to work. However, if you’re only upgrading something like a battery which is a supporting facility, then it doesn’t really matter.

“Well, then, I should thank Mr. Lewis in advance.” Hanson Lee actually found it a little strange; he did not really understand Finn Lewis’s intention – bluntly put, Hanson Lee wondered why Finn Lewis was collaborating with the Planet.