After a troubled night, Vince Maston entered the office of Maston Holdings Ltd. bright and early the next morning, walking through the glass doors. The feelings of last night's unrest were still present, but even stronger.
Vince needed to see numbers...actual numbers. He needed to determine how much "muscle" he would have when he went into battle for Vox Broadcasting.
In the office was Gavin Lindman (the company's CEO), Vince's closest friend. Gavin was at his desk reclining on top of a mountain of paperwork with two empty coffee cups in front of him, revealing the kind of night Gavin had. When Gavin saw Vince enter the office, he raised his head from the pile of papers.
"You aren't giving up on this idea yet," Gavin said in a low voice.
"I need to know how much we hold in value," Vince replied, calmly taking a seat at Gavin's desk across from Gavin. "I need to know our total amount of all of our shareholdings, our total physical and intangible Assets".
Gavin rubbed his forehead where he had been trying to massage out the tension. "Vince... let Vox go. I mean it; if we dive head-first into that abyss, we'll be digging ourselves a grave."
"I still have not accessed the site yet, but I will be obtaining data as well," Vincent stated. "Please remember that the phrase "data" is used just prior to leap" "
"I am searching for numbers now."
After giving another deep sigh, Gavin pressed the intercom button, calling out "Sarah can you give us the equity portfolio with the breakdown."
Within a minute, Sarah Clarkson, the organization's 50-year-old office manager with bright red hair and amazing organization skills, arrived carrying an enormous binder. She could feel the tension in the room and quietly placed the binder in front of Gavin.
"Here is everything you asked for, Mr. Lindman."
"Thank you Sarah," Gavin responded. She nodded and left so quickly.
Gavin quickly flipped through the documents and slid them over to Vince.
"Here are the updated equity portfolio numbers as of yesterday's market closing."
Finishing his summary as Vince scanned, Gavin continued his briefing.
NetCapes-950,000 shares
Current Share Price: $60.12
Original Price per Share: $0.10
Total Current Value: approximately $57 million
Aurora Microchips Ltd.-420,000 shares
Current Price: $18
Initial Price per Share: $4 per Share
Total Current Value: $7.5 million
StreamSync Software-500,000
Current Price:$7.55
Original Price per Share: $1.20
Total Current Value $3.7 million
Holler Technologies (Founded by Carl)-28% of the Equity
Currently not valued but currently cash-burning
Dongle-35% of the Equity
Current Estimated Value is estimated at $45 million
Miscellaneous early-stage equity investments & real estate-Total Combined Value: $3.5 million
Gavin patted the document.
"Maston Holdings has $40-$42 million in liquid funds. However, Vince…Vox is a complete blackhole. You could pour every cent into it and never find out what's at the bottom."
Vince avoided Gavin's question and simply referenced NetCapes' stock price.
"Sell every share we have."
Gavin gasped in horror and nearly fell over.
"What?!?"
"Sell every share of NetCapes we possess."
Gavin looked at Vince as if he were insane.
"Vince - the shares are going up! If we sell now, we'll be falsely accused by the analysts of being shortsighted! If the trend continues, we could be losing hundreds of millions!"
Vince reclined and remained calm.
"When we bought the shares, they were ten cents apiece. Now they are at $60. That's a 600-fold return on investment. Stocks never keep climbing forever, only going down when the market corrects. And when it corrects, it crashes."
Gavin shook his head. "Timing isn't like that - "
"And in my previous life," Vince interrupted mentally, reminiscing about the collapse of the dot coms due to the inflated stock prices of technology companies with overvalued revenue, "something very similar happened."
Although he didn't express his feelings using words, he felt it in the marrow of his bones that he was under pressure.
He said it out loud anyway by saying:
"You inflated it too much. It has to pop. I'd prefer to take my 57 million dollars now and leave, rather than watch it decline to two million later."
Gavin then asked another question. "If we sell everything at once, we will create a price shock in the stock market, and it will tank if we all sell at the same time."
Vince said, "Then don't do it at once. You can do it slowly by selling parts of it each day to different buyers over a period of seven days."
Gavin stood there shaking his head and feeling extremely frustrated, but he didn't want to fight with Vince again.
"Okay, I'll work with the brokers to sell it slowly and quietly," he replied with a heavy sigh.
"That's great. In the meantime, Gavin, can you get a complete analysis on Vox and an estimate of how much liquid capital we will have after the NetCapes sale?" Vince asked Gavin after the first conversation ended.
Gavin made a loud groan. "You know, you're going to give me a heart attack, Vince."
"Not before I buy the television empire, that's for sure," Vince said. Then Gavin threw his hands up in exasperation and left to complete the orders he had just received.
_______
Later on that day at the gym:
Vince was halfway through his workout, as he finished the leg presses and his shirt was soaked with sweat, he was calculating numbers in his head and thinking about all the possibilities of what would happen if he was able to get Vox, and what that would mean for IRW as far as finally having a "real home" and "real" national distribution.
Then he heard a loud voice behind him.
"What are you doing? That is not the way to do those."
As he turned around, there was a huge shadow standing right behind him.
It was André René Roussimoff.
Vince sat up and asked, "What am I doing wrong?"
André laughed and explained, "You are doing them too low and using too much weight; if you continue to do them that way, you will rip your quads. Here, let me adjust your machine."
He made adjustments to the machine that were precise.
Vince was confused and said, "I have been doing leg presses for the past few weeks before I signed up."
"Then you've been doing it wrong for weeks."
Vince snorted. "Fair point."
André folded his huge arms.
"You don't have a trainer yet?"
"No. I thought you were my trainer."
André raised an eyebrow. "I rejected your offer last time."
Vince considered before asking, "I rejected your rejection."
André looked startled. "What? Is that even valid?"
"Yeah."
They shared a laugh.
They chatted for a moment before Vince asked casually, "How's the bar? The bouncer job?"
André's expression shifted.
"Gone. Fired yesterday."
Vince blinked. "What? How does a bar fire a literal giant?"
"My boss say I scare off women customers." He shrugged, not emotionally broken—just resigned. "He say big man not good for business."
Vince chuckled. "He's not wrong. Most girls wouldn't survive a hug from you."
André actually laughed at that.
Then his face softened, uncertain.
"Is the wrestling job still open?"
Vince stood.
Stepped forward.
Reached up—way up—and attempted to pat André's head.
He barely reached the man's jawline.
The dominance attempt failed miserably.
But Vince grinned anyway.
"André… men like you are always welcome."
André's eyes brightened with childlike relief.
"Then… I want to try."
Vince extended his hand.
And the giant shook it.
Hard enough that Vince almost lost feeling in his arm.
But inside, he was celebrating, because had just taken another step toward reshaping the wrestling world.