Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

Isabella seemed to know a lot about business, so he decided to go consult her about it.

He left Madison's office and headed towards the training room, where Isabella spent most of her time. When he got there, he found her in her usual corner, sparring with a training dummy.

She saw him and halted her training. He could tell that she had to fight off the impulse to kneel or bow to him.

"Sir?"

He told her about Rina's advancement in VR tech and the need to create a VR headset company.

"Why not just buy one?" she asked.

"Buy?"

"Sure. There are a bunch of VR headset companies out there; just find one that is struggling and buy it cheap. Take it private, restructure it, and introduce your new tech. Then they can release the new improved model under an existing brand."

"But we need to manufacture our own displays. Don't most of these companies use overseas chip makers and existing displays for their headsets?"

"You can still do that for all the other parts. You don't even need to hide the fact that you bought the company for their supply chain and not their secret-sauce. Just claim you developed a proprietary display tech and are keeping the manufacturing of that part in-house. It's not the first time something like that has happened."

"Huh. Okay, that could work. But I still don't know jack shit about electronics manufacturing."

"Buy a display manufacturing company as well? You said you'd be making your own fabrication machines, right? Just buy an existing company and have them retool for the new machines."

It was a good idea. Instead of trying to build a company from scratch, he could just buy two companies and merge them. And because Rina's new displays could only be fabricated with the machine she was designing, he wouldn't need to worry about industrial espionage.

Even if someone stole the display design, they wouldn't be able to manufacture it. He'd have to patent it, just to be safe, but without the new machine, the competition would be left behind.

As he left the training room and headed back to his lab, he wondered how he would go about buying a publicly traded company. Did he just start buying stock?

——————————

He had planned to have lunch with Robin on Thursday, but she bailed last minute, claiming she had something else she needed to do, so he was eating alone.

He could tell that she was still struggling to come to terms with his attitude towards weddings and "I love you's" and had simply made an excuse to avoid having lunch with him.

It bothered him a little, but only a little. He had four soul bonded girlfriends, so he was not starved for attention.

While he ate, he researched VR headset companies, looking for one that might be worth buying.

He'd found two that were struggling, one because their product was aging and had an outdated product, the other because their CEO had a meltdown and called his customers "Basement dwelling NEET's with shriveled balls and no appreciation for [his] vision."

The second company had a decent product, but their customer service was nonexistent, and it seemed like the company was going to implode due to mismanagement. At least, most analysts seemed to think so.

The other company, Horizon VR, had a small but loyal customer base with a strong customer service reputation. The company founder was still the president and CEO but was struggling to maintain his grip on the helm because development of the next version of their headset was behind schedule.

Worse, all signs pointed to their next version having a lackluster display resolution as well. Their customers were loyal because the Horizon VR headset was the lightest and most ergonomic of all the available headsets.

Some analysts suspected that the bigger companies had worked some backroom deals and locked Horizon VR out of being able to use the latest display tech.

Jack was just finishing lunch when Isabella approached him in his lab in his soul space. Something she almost never did.

"Sir," she said hesitantly. "I did some research on VR headset companies."

"Oh? What did you find?"

"I found two that have lost significant market value over the last few years."

"Horizon and Primal?"

"Yes, those two. But I would hesitate to recommend buying Primal."

"Because the CEO is a hot mess?"

"That. And I suspect he owes money to the Novarossiyan mafia."

"So... radioactive hot mess?"

She nodded. "Yes, very radioactive. Once the Novarossiyan mafia gets their fingers into something, then never let go."

"What about display manufacturers? I haven't been able to find much yet."

"I recommend looking at Jensen Manufacturing. They make the displays for Horizon's headset. They also have a contract with the government that is about to expire, and they lost the bid for the follow-on contract, so they will lose eighty percent of their revenue in six months."

"Ouch. Eighty percent. I bet that did a number on their stock price."

"It would have if they were publicly traded. But they are a privately held company. As far as I can tell, they are a family-owned S-corp. I suspect they'll be more willing to sell if you offer all their employees a generous severance, or something equivalent."

He walked over and gave Isabella a hug. "Thanks for taking the initiative to look into this for me. You saved me a lot of time by finding Jenson Manufacturing for me. And thanks for the inside info on Primal. I was leaning towards Horizon, but now I'm certain it's the right choice."

She returned his hug while saying, "It's a pleasure to be of service to you, sir."

Now that he'd decided on which companies to buy, the next step was a "candid" conversation with the CEO of Horizon.

Instead of sending Isabella back to the training room, he had her get cleaned up and change into a business suit, then join him in a conference room he'd created.

He also grabbed a copy of the VR headset Rina had made and had her set it up to show the same demo nature scene.

With Jeeves' help, he located Phineas Dermot, the founder and CEO of Horizon. Then he templatized and summoned him, setting him to unconscious obedience. As soon as the CEO appeared, he told the man to speak truthfully but to forget the instruction.