Chapter 102: Next Move

My words visibly shocked Larry and Sergey.I continued, "All I'm trying to tell you is that when I choose to invest in something, when I put my money on the line, it's because I believe it's the absolute best thing out there... Google is the absolute best thing out there."

"We appreciate your confidence in us." Sergey spoke up. "Would you mind letting us talk about this in private for a moment?"

"Of course," I replied smoothly, nodding. "Take all the time you need."

They both stood up, giving us a polite nod before stepping out of the room, leaving Danny and me alone with our coffee.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Danny leaned in. "Do you think they'll agree to this?"

I took a sip of my coffee. "If they don't agree to these terms, I'll make the offer even better," I said, my tone calm. "Even if we were to only secure 5% of the shares, it's still worth it. Getting in now, at any percentage, is a win."

Danny leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "I have to say, I'm not sure how you manage to be so confident about this," he remarked, "But the final battle over share size isn't going to happen today, anyway. That's something we'll need to discuss with the other major investors."

After a while, Larry and Sergey returned to the room, both looking more resolute.

Larry smiled as he took his seat. "We've talked it over," he began, his tone firm yet open. "As the founders, we're positive about moving forward with this, but we do have a couple of conditions."

I nodded.

"First," Larry continued, "if this is going to be beneficial to us, then it must include you relaying your ideas to us."

"Secondly," Sergey added, "the equity size we're discussing should be tied to performance. Specifically, we'd like to implement a revenue-linked equity allocation system. The shares would be rewarded based on the company's revenue surpassing certain milestones."

They looked at me, waiting for my response.

I turned to Danny. "What do you think about this, Danny?"

Danny considered their proposal. "I think we'll need to work out the exact rules and details," he said after a moment. "We'll want to ensure that the milestones and equity allocation are structured in a way that's fair and motivating for both sides."

Larry put both of his hands on the table and crossed his fingers. "Of course," he said. "I'll schedule a meeting with the other investors so we can go over the details."

"Sounds great to me." I nodded in agreement.

After discussing the main points, we moved on to some formalities. We talked about what Johnson Trading could offer in terms of financial advice and how I wanted to split the investment 50/50 between Johnson Trading and myself.

The details were not sealed yet, but I was positive that the investment in Google would go through in one way or another. S~eaʀᴄh the nôvel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The groundwork was laid. Now it will all depend on how much dilution they agree to.

When the meeting was over, we shook hands and left.

With time to kill before our return flight, Danny and I grabbed dinner together.

Then, on my way through a small shopping area, I ran into a place selling Hawaii shirts. There was this one green shirt with orange flowers that reminded me of the shirt that my grandpa bought me. I decided to buy it.

Just an hour later, we were on our flight back to Gainesville.

When I finally got home that evening, the stock market was already closed for the day.

Earlier in the week, I sold off the rest of my shares in Monster Beverage. The price still hasn't fallen that much; it was currently sitting at $26, but clearly the short percentage in the stock has fallen quite a bit.

'They should be out of all naked shorts at this point,' I thought.

[Charles Schwab]

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[Total Balance: $121,715,520.64]

[Available Balance: $121,715,520.64]

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[Market Value of Holdings: $0.00]

[Buying Power: $365,146,561.92] (3x Leverage: Futures Trading)

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Recent Transactions:

[Shares Sell: $MNST, Amount: 4,560,000 , Average Price: $30.11 , -3,42$/share Margin]

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'When I first started accumulating Monster Beverage shares, my portfolio was worth just over 19 million dollars and now I'm here...' I thought.

I turned off the PC and walked to the kitchen.

I grabbed a cold bottle of Coke from the fridge, uncorked it, and tilted it up for a sip.

As I drank, I thought about my next move. I couldn't reinvest all of the money into futures—I needed to allocate a chunk for the Google investment.

'I will withdraw $51,000,000.' I thought.

...

After waking up on Thursday, I sat down at my desk and made the withdrawal.

[Withdrawal: $51,000,000, Recipient: Jack Somnus, {Bank of America}]

This left me with more than $212,000,000 of buying power.

Now came the challenge of distributing that money into futures at 3x leverage.

Unfortunately, pouring it all back into Axon Enterprise would be foolish. It's true that the stock was about to rise another 400% this year, but getting this much money in and out of such a small-cap stock would be like trying to drink a gallon of syrup from a tiny teacup...

Not only would it take forever, but it could spill all over if I poured too much at once.

RING!RING!RING!

Just then, the doorbell rang loudly.

I was pretty sure who was at the door since my bodyguards would not let anyone they did not know just approach my house like this.

I looked through the peephole and saw Charlotte standing there.

Her lips were bright red, but otherwise she wore light make-up. Her coppery hair was falling around her shoulders. She had on a white polo shirt and pink tennis shorts made out of thin fabric.

When I opened the door, she immediately smiled brightly and held up a white, see-through bag with two pizza boxes inside.

"Surprise!" she said with a big grin.

I smiled. "You are a sight for sore eyes, Charlotte; come on in."

As she sashayed past me, I smelled the garlic, the tomato sauce and the melted cheese.

My stomach growled.

Charlotte set the pizzas down on the dining table. "I figured we could eat something before we go."

"Before we go?" I asked as I walked up to her.

She looked up at me, her eyes twinkling with mild annoyance. "I had a feeling you might forget."

I paused... and then it hit me. "Ah, of course, your tennis game..." I said, running my hand through my disheveled hair. "Sorry. My mind has been busy these last few days."

Charlotte flipped open one of the pizza boxes. "But you do have time to go, right?"

"Of course I do; I just need to finish something up." I said as I grabbed some plates off the shelf.

As we sat down and started eating, I thought about how much Charlotte had helped me in the past few weeks as I was trying to get my memory back into a good place.

The way I have been with Charlotte has been very open. I did not try to hide my wealth from her at all. That seemed like too much trouble.

She looked me in the eyes as she ate her pizza. "How did the Google thing go?"

"It went exactly how I wanted it to."