Chapter 166

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Both domestic and international media were running the same headline right now.

“Red Wave.”

The Republican Party’s overwhelming victory. The ruling Democratic Party appeared to be shaken internally by this shocking defeat.

“Normally the ruling party wins midterm elections by a wide margin, so it’s almost unprecedented for the opposition to be this dominant. That’s why the ruling party is in disarray right now.”

“I guess the Silicon Valley Bank collapse really had a huge impact.”

“Yes. The opposition really latched onto their prey. And they did well to tie Qatar Gate, which broke out in Europe, to the Democrats and run an offensive campaign.”

The problem was that the Democrats had no room to mount any kind of counterattack. Silicon Valley Bank had filed for bankruptcy just before the election, causing enormous damage to countless people.

“So what happens to the political situation in the U.S. now?”

“Since the Republicans won, you can consider the Aiden administration dead. There are still nearly two years left in the term, but now the entire Congress has become Republican territory.”

There was such a thing as lame duck. It referred to the phenomenon where a leader’s power weakened as their term neared its end, and their influence over government affairs dropped significantly.

In simple terms, it was like a sergeant nearing the end of his military service. The problem was that this wasn’t just a normal lame duck—it was a super lame duck.

“The U.S. political system is designed so that the president and Congress check each other, right? But with both the Senate and House falling to the Republican Party, the ruling party can’t even pass legislation now. Of course, not everything changes with this midterm election—they’ve left a minimum of their forces in place. But even if Aiden wants to do something, the opposition will thoroughly block it.”

At this, the employees who had been listening to the Division Head also chimed in.

“Wasn’t the opposition gunning for President Aiden hard?”

“Right. Especially the allegation that he was directly involved in and gave preferential treatment to the company his son runs. The opposition even brought up impeachment over that.”

“So could he actually get impeached?”

“No. Even so, impeachment would be difficult. But they could create an impeachment crisis and completely paralyze the government.”

As expected, politics was a brutal arena. Running a company inevitably entangled you with the political world.

I had avoided getting involved in politics as much as possible because I didn’t want to enter that terrifying world. And I intended to keep doing so.

I was being careful every moment just to avoid getting tangled up in domestic politics, and I absolutely didn’t want to get involved in the U.S. political scene, which was an even bigger game.

“They’ll sort things out on their end. This won’t cause a financial crisis in the U.S. or anything like that.”

“Yes. The SVB bankruptcy did cause problems at other banks, leading to a chain of failures, but it’s not on the scale of the subprime crisis. Besides, the CEO personally stepped up and provided a bailout, which helped us weather the crisis well. Wouldn’t the Republicans give high marks for that?”

As long as whoever was in power didn’t cause damage to us at Gwangwoon, that was all that mattered.

“Let’s move on from that. What’s the next matter?”

“It seems Jackson Peltz, the activist fund manager, is going to enter a management dispute at Wizni.”

“Wizni?”

What was America’s premier media company? It was Wizni.

They had acquired multiple major studios to the point where it was no exaggeration to say Wizni dominated the Hollywood box office. They owned Alphabet Broadcasting, one of America’s top three terrestrial broadcasters, and ESAN, the undisputed king of sports broadcasting. And above all, their most globally famous creation was undoubtedly Wizni Land.

“But Wizni’s situation isn’t great right now. Just a few years ago, their market cap surpassed $400 billion, showing incredible growth. But now it’s dropped to $160 billion.”

In 2019, Wizni had enjoyed its peak with the superhero movie Embel, and in 2021, the launch of Wizni Plus pushed them all the way to $400 billion.

But Wizni couldn’t overcome Amplflix’s dominance. With fewer productions than expected, subscribers were leaving Wizni Plus, and Amplflix’s stock price just kept climbing.

“On top of that, they’ve been so focused on injecting PC ideology into children’s movies that parents have started banning their kids from watching Wizni productions entirely, which has hit them even harder.”

That was exactly why Jackson Peltz had launched a management attack with his activist fund.

“Jackson Peltz is asking shareholders for their support, claiming he can revive Wizni. Right now, Peltz and his activist fund hold about 2% of the shares. If they win a majority in the shareholder vote, Peltz could get involved in management.”

Wizni’s current governance structure was decentralized.

Rather than a single major shareholder controlling everything, large asset management firms like Wingard and Whitrock each held over 10% of the shares, and the board of directors operated within that framework.

Given the nature of these asset management firms, they didn’t participate in management, so the board ran everything. And since shares weren’t concentrated with one holder but spread among shareholders, even 2% was enough to make a play for a board seat.

“What if Peltz actually gets on the board?”

“Then he’d aim for the chairman’s seat. But from the looks of things, Wingard and Whitrock probably won’t allow it.”

However, Wizni was under considerable pressure. Why had Jackson Peltz suddenly come forward? Because Wizni’s market cap, once $400 billion, had plummeted to $160 billion.

“If they don’t make emergency changes, it’s a dangerous situation. Wizni isn’t operating at a loss, but the streaming service they saw as their future has become a money pit consuming trillions of won, causing shareholders to lose confidence.”

Wizni was a company that made movies and animation. Their theme parks were consistently profitable, but the stock market didn’t look at Wizni’s theme parks.

It looked at their identity—their filmography. But when their streaming service and the filmography they were so proud of both fell apart, their stock price quickly hit rock bottom.

“There’s a lot of talk that Wizni will launch a massive restructuring this time. There are also rumors that they’ll bring back Bob Iger, who led Wizni through its golden age.”

Bob Iger was called a living legend in the film industry. Wizni had grown to this scale entirely because of Bob Iger’s productions.

“But sir, Amplflix sent us an interesting request.”

“From Amplflix?”

“Yes. Amplflix wants to expand the size of its outside board of directors. They sent us a list of candidates, and there’s a fascinating name on it.”

Amplflix’s outside board was quite well-known. They didn’t receive salaries from Amplflix.

Nor were they business partners.

Yet they wielded enormous influence within Amplflix. Created to ensure Amplflix’s healthy and transparent governance, the board was composed of experts from various fields.

So whenever new content was created, they could gain fresh perspectives without falling into internal groupthink, and the diverse expertise and sophisticated oversight prevented internal rot. It was an extremely useful board.

“Bob Iger?”

“Yes. Amplflix is trying to recruit Bob Iger as an outside board member.”

“Suddenly?”

“I didn’t know about this either, but after Bob Iger retired from Wizni, he invested in a metaverse technology company and joined their board. And when we acquired Cyclone, didn’t we also absorb several startup companies along with it?”

“Ah, don’t tell me…”

“Yes. One of the companies Bob Iger was serving as a director on was mixed in among them. Amplflix knew about it and sent this request.”

I certainly hadn’t intended any of this. How was I supposed to know that legendary figure had invested in one of the companies we acquired?

“The outside board requires fresh, specialized perspectives, so they seem to think Bob Iger, who’s considered the best in the industry, would be a tremendous help.”

I agreed. If Bob Iger could help Amplflix’s future, we could produce even higher-quality content.

“………..”

And my intuition was showing only Bob Iger’s name glowing with brilliant golden light from this list.

***

The Republican Party had completely crushed the Democratic Party. They were ecstatic about reclaiming American power, but internally, they weren’t celebrating. Rather, the mood was serious.

“No matter how I think about it, I can’t figure it out. Why exactly did Gwangwoon help our Republican Party?”

“Didn’t they send campaign donations through Kangsung during former President Trent’s election?”

“That was ages ago. We lost power to the Democrats precisely because of Gwangwoon, didn’t we?”

The Republican leadership weren’t fools. They had essentially given up on this midterm election halfway through. Anyone could see it was an election the Democrats were sure to win.

But Gwangwoon had flipped it.

“I heard that the Democrats tried to pressure Gwangwoon with antitrust sanctions internally. But there was significant pushback, and they fought among themselves for a while.”

“And Gwangwoon found out and retaliated?”

“Yes. They completely wiped out the threatening Democrats through this election. And they empowered us in the process.”

The Democrats’ downfall wasn’t so much a good thing as it was terrifying. Had a single company really toppled a nation’s ruling party?

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“It is.”

“Then we have to stop them from expanding their influence somehow!”

“Yes. And that’s exactly what happened to the Democrats.”

“……”

They had toppled the Democrats by acquiring a single game company. Could you even imagine? No, could you even predict that acquiring a game company called Cyclone was actually a strategy to target the ruling party?

Only an insider would believe it. That Gwangwoon’s acquisition of Cyclone was actually an attack on the Democratic Party.

“That’s the kind of terrifying company they are. Every action they take carries enormous meaning. Do you really want to make them your enemy?”

No one could refute Representative Niko Haley, the Republican House Speaker.

“So we’re just supposed to follow them around?”

“No. For now, it’s about joining hands. It seems Gwangwoon and we share a common enemy.”

“A common enemy?”

“Representatives, what company does our Republican Party hate the most?”

The company they hated most. The answer came immediately without even having to think.

“Wizni?”

“Right. The conflict between our Republican Party and Wizni is known to everyone in the world.”

The feud between Wizni and the Republican Party was now so public that no one in America was unaware of it. From the day Wizni began forcibly injecting PC ideology into children, the conservative Republicans immediately issued a statement of opposition.

But Wizni ignored the Republicans and pushed even harder with their beliefs. Eventually, the Republicans submitted legislation specifically targeting Wizni, and the conflict escalated severely.

“You’re saying Gwangwoon is targeting Wizni?”

“Yes. Amplflix recently recruited an outside board member. Do you know who it is? Bob Iger himself.”

And the very Wizni that the Republicans had designated as a satanic corporation was now in Gwangwoon’s sights.

“Wizni is currently under attack from an activist fund, and the board’s control is shaky. In this situation, Amplflix suddenly recruits Bob Iger, Wizni’s former CEO, to their outside board? Can’t you see the picture forming?”

“They’re trying to put Bob Iger back into Wizni? But is that possible while he’s on the board?”

“Yes, because Amplflix’s outside board members all hold executive positions at other companies. But what if Bob Iger gets reappointed as Wizni’s CEO while also serving on Amplflix’s outside board?”

Gwangwoon’s influence was now reaching Wizni. If Bob Iger really did return to Wizni, Gwangwoon could potentially have indirect involvement in management.

“But there’ll be fierce resistance from their side.”

“That’s where we come in. Gwangwoon gave us a midterm election victory. Surely they’d expect that much in return? And I hear there are quite a few people here who’ve been itching to take down Wizni.”

At those words, a sinister smile crept onto the representatives’ faces.

“Wizni has been targeting the Chinese market and injecting strange ideologies that damage American values. We need to cut off their anti-national activities once and for all this time. I personally want nothing more than to see the Wizni that made my childhood happy return.”

The representatives nodded. Even though they didn’t feel entirely comfortable being led around by Gwangwoon…

If they could destroy that satanic corporation with their own hands, they were more than ready to move according to Gwangwoon’s wishes.

< End of Chapter 166 >