Chapter 3182

When Steve returned to the banquet hall, his father, Howard, had not yet returned.

After he took his seat, Howard walked back, clutching the medicinal pill, his expression a mix of joy and sorrow.

Steve kept his eyes fixed on his father's face, wanting to see if he had become younger after meeting Helena in private; if so, it would prove that he had certainly obtained Ye Chen's medicinal pill from Helena.

Yet, strangely, his father seemed no different than he had ten minutes ago.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself: "Father is so attentive in Northern Europe this time; could it be that he couldn't even manage to get a pill or half a pill from Ye Chen?"

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a bit of joy. He felt that since Ye Chen hadn't given his father the pill but had specifically met with him in private, it must mean he was preparing to increase his stake in him for the future.

He did not know that the half-pill was being kept by his father with extreme care, close to his body.

Although Howard had been impatient to take it, in order to consider his eldest son's feelings, he decided to bring the pill back to the United States and find a suitable opportunity to take it after Steve went to China.

At this time, Helena had not yet returned to the banquet hall. After Howard sat down, he whispered to Steve: "Let's go back early tomorrow morning. There are many things at home waiting for me to handle. Don't you also want to go back as soon as possible to prepare and set off for China early?"

Steve nodded and said: "I will follow Father's arrangements in everything."

As he spoke, Steve remembered Ye Chen's instructions and said: "By the way, Father, after returning to New York, I need to make a trip to Houston. I want to acquire a remote sensing satellite company, and I hope you can approve it."

Steve knew clearly that although the remote sensing satellite company Ye Chen wanted was worth no more than three or four billion US dollars, he had not yet become the head of the family. Such an acquisition could absolutely not be operated without family authorization, otherwise, it would be easy for his father to think that he did not respect him as the family head.

This was different from his investment in China. This time, his father had promised to let him manage a 50 billion investment fund. Since his father had already given him the decision-making power, he could invest that 50 billion in China as he pleased. But if he spent that 50 billion intended for China elsewhere, it would certainly make his father dissatisfied.

Therefore, he had to obtain his father's consent before he could openly acquire that enterprise.

Howard was a bit surprised for a moment. He asked Steve in confusion: "Why do you suddenly want to acquire a remote sensing satellite company? This kind of company shouldn't be of much help to our existing businesses, right?"

Steve explained earnestly: "Father, I feel that the satellite field will definitely be a huge market in the future. We are already a bit late to enter the game, having missed Musk's enterprise, so I want to acquire a related company first to practice, familiarize myself with satellite-related businesses and the upstream and downstream industries, including satellite manufacturing and satellite launch operations."

Howard said indifferently: "In the satellite industry, being late is being late. No matter how profitable this industry is, it cannot be as profitable as oil and finance, and it is not as stable as the latter."

Seeing that Howard didn't seem very interested, Steve quickly said: "Father, the enterprise I intend to acquire is estimated to be at most around five billion US dollars. I know this industry certainly cannot be compared with energy and finance, but I still want to give it a try, and I hope you can approve it."

Hearing that it was only five billion US dollars, Howard thought for a moment and said: "Since you have this idea to explore more, I, as a father, should give you more support. Go ahead and do it. I will increase your budget a bit; you can make your own decisions for anything under ten billion US dollars."

Howard was indeed gradually feeling at ease with Steve. Sometimes he even felt that his son was truly too sensible, so he really wanted to treat him a bit better. Since his son wanted to do something he was interested in, giving him more help could be considered compensation for him.

This was exactly the response Steve had been waiting for.

He knew very well that in his current situation, as long as his requests were not outrageous and the funds used did not make his father feel pained, his father would definitely give him the green light.

With Howard's words, Steve planned to talk to that remote sensing satellite company about the acquisition after returning, and once the acquisition details were settled, he would let his subordinates complete the follow-up matters, while he would go to China to report his work to Ye Chen as soon as possible.

After the father and son left the palace and returned to the hotel, Steve returned to his room and arranged for his trusted aides to contact the remote sensing satellite enterprise Ye Chen wanted immediately.

At times like this, one must cut the Gordian knot, hurry to contact, hurry to reach an agreement, and hurry to complete it.

Coincidentally, he could also use this opportunity to show Ye Chen his ability to get things done.

This remote sensing satellite enterprise had not been doing too well for many years. Their main revenue came from providing data licensing to enterprises around the world that needed satellite maps, just like navigation companies selling their own map licenses—they paid the costs to create a set of maps and then sold them to enterprises that needed map functions in their own software.

However, because they provided high-precision satellite images, the company had long been on file with the US national security department. The National Security Agency had many requirements and constraints on them, and these requirements and constraints greatly limited their revenue-generating ability.

For example, any enterprise purchasing their satellite data could only buy images from several months ago at the latest. Don't look at how their satellites were constantly filming the whole world every day; the Department of Homeland Security worried that they would leak military and other department secrets when updating the latest data, so they required their timeliness to be at least six months late at the fastest.

To put it bluntly, what could be opened to partners today were satellite images taken six months ago, while satellite images taken today had to wait six months before they could be opened to partners.

This resulted in satellite images lacking attractiveness to a considerable number of users because of insufficient real-time capability.

If the database updated fast enough, the practicality would also increase geometrically, but for the US government, if such a company's database updated too quickly, it would also be a threat to them. If the US President traveled secretly, ordinary netizens could capture the President's movement trajectory through the change in the position of Air Force One a day later, which was absolutely intolerable.

Moreover, the United States had military operations in many countries. Take Syria, for example: the US military would steal Syria's oil, and the next day the satellite photos would be seen clearly by others, which was also unacceptable to the US military.

Therefore, in addition to hard requirements on timeliness, the national security department also had many other requirements. For example, satellite images within certain coordinates had to be at least two years old, while some coordinates were not allowed to be filmed by their satellites in any form, and some coordinates even had to be replaced with image materials provided by the national security department to deceive people. Perhaps ten nuclear missile silos had already been built in this place, but on the satellite map, it was still a piece of uninhabited desert where birds didn't lay eggs.

In addition, their database was also directly connected to the security department, and the security department checked their data at any time to prevent any possibility of leaking secrets.

So many restrictions and shackles were simply as torturous as a tightening hoop for this enterprise. Their founders and shareholders had once hoped to sell the enterprise and start a new business in a track without restrictions, but the national security department did not give them this opportunity. They stipulated that the controlling shareholder of this enterprise must be a native US enterprise, and the actual controller of the enterprise must also be a US citizen of three generations or more. This immediately restricted some potential buyers in the United States, as well as all potential buyers outside the United States.

Not only were there requirements for controlling shareholders, but even before the enterprise went public, all shareholders had to be enterprises from NATO member countries. Any current shareholder was not allowed to resell such shares to enterprises in countries other than NATO member countries.

This meant that if Ye Chen went through normal channels, even obtaining 1% of the company's shares would be wishful thinking.

Of course, so many restrictions also made the founder of this enterprise want to cash out, which was also wishful thinking, because no one would be interested in his company at all. After all, no one wanted to buy a company that was constrained everywhere.

Just when the company founder felt that he would never be able to cash out and leave in his life, he suddenly received news that the famous Rothschild family was actually interested in his inconspicuous little company! Even, Rothschild wanted to acquire his company in full!