1336 Who Goes Bankrupt First?
What Weston said immediately stunned Gregory.
“A few days? Th-this doesn’t seem possible, right? No matter what, the Stardust Corporation is a major enterprise worth tens of billions of dollars. It’s a Global 500 company. Surely it can last more than a few days, right?” Gregory asked in surprise.
Weston laughed out loud. “You have no idea. The Stardust Corporation’s market value has indeed exceeded twenty billion dollars, but they have invested way too much into the Stardust City project. As long as I cut off their building materials supply, they’ll have to suspend work on the construction site. For every day of suspension, the losses will be enormous.
“Furthermore, I’ve already gotten people to spread some news and rumors, such as cash flow problems are the cause for the suspension of work of Stardust City, the management of the Stardust Corporation absconded with the company funds, and so on. I guarantee that the Stardust Corporation’s stock price will plummet within three days! It might even go bankrupt!
“When the time comes, how will the Stardust Corporation be able to fill up the black hole that is Stardust City? As long as I have a death grip on their most important link, the Stardust Corporation will definitely die!”
Weston had a complacent look on his face.
Gregory clapped his hands while laughing. “As expected of you. What an amazing move! As long as the news of Stardust City’s suspension is true, who cares what the real reason is? As soon as the news gets out, the stock of the Stardust Corporation will definitely plummet! Amazing! Seriously amazing!”
Weston laughed proudly. Just as he was about to say something, someone suddenly charged into his office.
Weston’s secretary hurried in without even knocking on the door. “Bad news, Mr. Barlowe! The Glory Group is in trouble! The news just reported that a building under construction in the northern suburbs of DC collapsed due to the use of substandard building materials supplied by the Glory Group! Now, many reporters have come to our company to interview the company’s executives. They’re demanding an explanation!”
Weston’s face darkened as he hollered, “Who allowed you to come in without knocking?! Where are your manners? What bullshit reporters? Collapsed building? Hurry up and get the PR department to deal with it! Get the legal department to sue all the troublemakers and those who exposed this! In any case, we will never admit it or take responsibility for this. Do you still need me to teach you how to deal with it?”
He glowered at his secretary.
Before Weston drove his secretary out of his office, the general manager of the Glory Group ran in, drenched in sweat. “Bad news, Mr. Barlowe! Some people are saying that there are problems with the building materials supplied by the Glory Group, and the government has come to conduct a random raid. They’ve sealed our largest warehouse!”
“What?” Weston widened his eyes and looked at the general manager in disbelief.
“Mr. Barlowe, bad news!”
Before Mr. Weston could ask anything in detail, the company’s CFO also rushed in and shouted, “Mr. Barlowe, just after the stock market opened, the market value of the Glory Group plummeted. Within just ten minutes, trading was halted on our stock. The situation is terrible!”
“Wh-wh-what’s going on?!”
After receiving three pieces of bad news in a row, each worse than the other, Weston slumped down on the couch in complete disbelief.
Everything was fine yesterday, and he had even become acquainted with a bigwig like the Hamiltons. The Glory Group should be rising to success. Why was it facing so many issues?
Be it the sealing of the warehouse, the public backlash for the collapse of the building under construction, or the news of the stock price plummetting, it was all terrible for the Glory Group. If he mishandled any of these matters, it would bring destructive disaster to the Glory Group.
It was incredibly difficult for a business to develop, but it could collapse overnight!
In particular, a large listed corporation like the Glory Group could easily have its stock price fluctuate with any random bad news. Moreover, the stock price fell so much that trading was halted on it. Weston knew how terrible the consequences would be without even having to think about them.
“How did things suddenly become like this? Everything was fine yesterday. How could this happen?!” Weston shouted angrily.
Gregory frowned and thought about it for a while before saying, “Such incidents happened one after another on the same day. No matter how I look at it, it seems fishy. Weston, I’m afraid someone is creating trouble for you on purpose and targeting the Glory Group!”
Weston’s eyes were bloodshot. He knew that this matter was definitely unusual. He gritted his teeth and roared, “Which bastard has the audacity to target me behind my back?! Once I find him, I’ll chop him up into pieces!”
The CFO wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and said gingerly, “Mr. Barlowe, our stock price is down ten percent today, which is equivalent to a loss of three billion dollars!
“The situation is terrible. If it wasn’t for the trading halt, I’m afraid we’d lose more than half of our market value today!
“But at this rate, even with the trading halt, the Glory Group won’t be able to last a few days!
“In particular, there’s great controversy around the Glory Group, and all the major social media platforms are talking about the collapsed building. If we can’t deal with this matter quickly, we might have to apply for bankruptcy and liquidation in a few days!”
Weston turned pale as large droplets of cold sweat gushed out of his forehead and drenched his clothes.
He never thought that after gloating to Gregory about how the Stardust Corporation wouldn’t be able to last for a few days and would go bankrupt due to plummeting market value, the Stardust Corporation was fine, but the Glory Group was now in great trouble and on the verge of collapse.
Gregory suddenly felt that something was wrong. With a flash of inspiration, he blurted out, “Weston, is it possible that today’s incident is related to that punk we met yesterday in World Entertainment City? You still remember what he said before he left yesterday?”
Weston thought about it carefully and recalled that the young man who claimed to be the chairman of the Stardust Corporation did say something after seeing his ‘pistol’ and ‘being scared away’.
Lucas’s original words were: “In that case, I’ll discuss it with you another day, Mr. Barlowe. I hope you can continue being so stubborn after the market value of the Glory Group plunges.”
When he thought of what Lucas said, his pupils constricted.
The market value of the Glory Group plunges!
These words were the perfect description of the troubles that the Glory Group had encountered today!
But Weston refused to believe that a young man in his twenties was capable of this.
“That’s impossible. That punk is just an ignorant greenhorn. How could he possibly make the Glory Group encounter so much trouble within a short time? This definitely isn’t his doing!” Weston immediately shook his head in denial.
But suddenly, a mocking voice sounded outside the office. “Mr. Barlowe, you should have already received the great gift I’ve prepared for you. Are you pleased with it?”
