Chapter 827: Chapter 827: Jacob Clark is at his Wit’s End
The Clark Family company was now under dark clouds.
The atmosphere was as oppressive as if a disaster was imminent.
In the Main Conference Room, nearly all the shareholders had arrived and were sitting in their seats, silent.
Jacob Clark, furious, looked across at them, “Isn’t there a single one of you who opposes the acquisition?”
“Really, not even one?”
The response came from the quiet conference room; all the shareholders kept their heads down, as if the notebooks on the table were particularly fascinating, absorbed in their reading. Even those who didn’t have meeting notebooks on their tables just stared at their cups, as if the floating tea leaves were some kind of miracle, not taking their eyes off them.
The secretary tiptoed in, filled everyone’s glasses with water, and then slowly left…
Jacob Clark felt like he could spit blood from anger, his face an ashen purple, as he repeated, “Rhine is about to acquire our company, and the shareholders’ meeting is about to start. As long as you all oppose, then Rhine would have to apply for approval from the bank once more before they can file the report. What I mean is, we’ve struggled together, through thick and thin, for decades. This time, I hope to face it together with all of you. I hope everyone will cast a vote against it. When Rhine applies to the bank, I will think of another way.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a shareholder spoke up, “President Clark, it’s not that we don’t want to stand with the company, but being acquired by Rhine also has its benefits for the company itself. You’re not unaware of Rhine’s background—Rhine is a company of the Habsden Family, which controls most of the oil resources in Country T and can be said to be wealthy enough to rival nations. If the company is acquired by Rhine, we can consider ourselves aligned with the international community, and the future looks bright. For the good of the company, we really have no reason to refuse.”
Once someone spoke up, others quickly followed, “Exactly, President Clark, we’re not opposing the acquisition because we want the best for the company.”
“If the company is consolidated and backed by Rhine, it will only grow and develop better in the future. It’s a good thing for our employees, for all of us.”
This kind of acquisition, everyone was clear, was only bad for one person—Jacob Clark.
Because once the company was acquired, it would become a subsidiary of Rhine. At that point, it wouldn’t be Jacob Clark who called the shots. Naturally, someone else would be sent to manage, and the only person truly at a disadvantage would be Jacob himself since he would be squeezed out of the Chairman’s position.
But what did that have to do with them? It wasn’t them being pushed out.
Besides, over this past year, Jacob Clark had been harshly suppressing them, acting willfully, whether with projects or other matters, never consulting the shareholders. It was always only him calling the shots. Now that he needed them, he came to them playing for sympathy, talking about braving storms together for decades, asking them to reject a bright future. Why should they? They were not fools. Even a dog had to be thrown a bone to bark.
Jacob Clark had been just short of driving them to extinction in normal times, so now that he was out of luck, who would be willing to pull him up?
One by one, the shareholders made their positions clear, each parroting the first person’s reasoning, using the company’s benefit as an excuse.
But everyone knew what it was really about—it was all for the money!
Jacob Clark hadn’t expected the shareholders who used to flatter him to change their tune now, and his face turned even redder with rage!