Chapter 3183

Although this remote sensing satellite enterprise was a special enterprise listed under control by the national security department and subject to various restrictions, if the buyer was a genuine American, and also the famous Rothschild family, then all control measures could be perfectly bypassed.

Coupled with the fact that the company's boss and shareholders had long been hoping to cash out and leave, when they heard that the number two figure of the Rothschild family was coming to discuss the acquisition, they organized a vote online in advance.

The result was without exception: everyone was in favor of selling.

Thus, the founder and CEO immediately began to discuss the bottom line of the acquisition with his partners and investors.

On Steve's way to Houston, they reached several points of consensus regarding the acquisition.

If the other party paid the acquisition price in a lump sum, the floor price could be lowered to three billion US dollars. As long as the contract Steve gave was above this amount, the agreement could be signed;

If the acquisition payment needed to be in batches and installments, and the total payment cycle exceeded one year, but there were no other additional terms, the floor price had to be raised to 3.3 billion US dollars, and for every additional year of the payment cycle, it would increase by 10% on the basis of three billion US dollars;

If the acquisition payment needed to be in batches and installments, and also included performance gambling and non-compete agreements, then the floor price had to start from four billion US dollars, and the first installment had to be two billion US dollars.

After everyone reached a consensus, CEO Karl Lucas suppressed his excitement and waited for Steve's arrival in the office.

And after arriving in New York, Steve rushed to Houston almost without stopping.

Originally, he could have let Karl Lucas bring the core team to New York to see him, but in order to know more about this enterprise and to better win people's hearts, he decided to come in person. After all, acquiring this company was only Ye Chen's preliminary requirement; making this company operate stably and controllably for Ye Chen was the most important thing.

When Steve arrived at the company's headquarters in Houston, accompanied by a group of bodyguards and entourage, all the executives, including the CEO, were lined up in front of the helipad on the roof waiting.

Three helicopters arrived one after another. Since there was only one helipad, the first two helicopters landed and waited for the passengers to disembark before taking off again. The people who came down from the two planes were all bodyguards, numbering nearly twenty.

When the third helicopter landed, Steve and his assistants walked off the helicopter together. CEO Karl Lucas wanted to step forward, but was blocked by several bodyguards a few meters away. After the bodyguards searched him, he was allowed to come near Steve.

Seeing Steve, Karl Lucas said excitedly: "Mr. Rothschild, it is a great honor to meet you. I am the CEO of Skyline, Karl Lucas. You can call me Karl!"

Steve nodded slightly, shook hands with him, and then said: "Hello, Karl. I think you are very clear about my intention for coming. Let's find a conference room and have a good talk."

Karl immediately said: "Okay, Mr. Rothschild, please follow me. I will take you to the conference room."

Steve smiled and walked out, and a group of bodyguards immediately surrounded him and Karl and came to the top-floor conference room of the office building.

After the two arrived at the conference room, other executives were only allowed to enter after being searched one by one.

To prevent too many people from being chaotic, Karl only brought two people to participate in the talks: one was the company's Chief Technology Officer, and the other was the company's Chief Financial Officer.

After Steve took his seat, he said to Karl: "Karl, first introduce the general situation of your company to me."

Karl nodded and said respectfully: "Back to Mr. Rothschild, our Skyline has a total of nearly eight hundred employees. The building you are in is our headquarters, and about five hundred employees work here. Our servers are also here. This building is our own property, and the current market value is about 70 million US dollars;"

"Skyline currently has a total of twenty-nine satellites in orbit. We have reached a cooperation with SpaceX. Next month, three more sky satellites will hitch a ride and be launched together with their Starlink satellites. There will be three more in the first quarter of next year. According to our original goal, within next year, we want to increase the number of satellites to forty-five;"

Steve asked him: "How is your current revisit capability?"

Karl said: "Under normal circumstances, four to five revisits a day is no problem. Under special circumstances, twenty revisits a day can be achieved for special targets, but this also depends on the target's light exposure time. Our satellites belong to the excellent level in the civilian grade, and the precision can currently reach the meter level, but imaging has high requirements for light. If the light is weak or even at night, basically nothing of value can be captured."

Steve nodded and asked again: "Are you filming every day now? Is the data also updated every day?"

"Yes." Karl said: "Let our Chief Technology Officer introduce this to you in detail."

The Chief Technology Officer pushed his glasses and explained: "When our satellites rotate around the Earth in orbit, they will film the passing ground according to the predetermined orbit. Each area will be numbered, and filming will also be carried out one by one according to the numbered plots, and then handed over to the background for splicing and synthesis. The satellite will choose whether to film according to the light, weather, and visibility of the passing ground. Our CEO just introduced it to you. Our technology and hardware cannot compare with the US military's Keyhole, so generally speaking, if the passing ground is in the evening or at night, we don't film; if it is cloudy or rainy, we don't film; generally, we only film when the light is good and there is no cloud or fog. The images after filming will be automatically screened, and only those that meet the clarity standard will be allowed to enter the database;"

"After entering the database, the filmed materials will be archived according to the timestamp. After the fixed timeliness of the security department passes, the system will automatically replace the previous image materials. However, the Earth's surface area is very large. Under normal circumstances, we need at least two months to carry out a qualified comprehensive filming of the global land, so our database can also provide users with the changes of any piece of land on the Earth's surface in the past nearly ten years every few months. This is a paid function on our own software, and it is also the source of income for our self-operated business;"

Karl said: "Mr. Rothschild, since we are talking about income, let our Chief Financial Officer introduce our current financial situation to you."

Steve waved his hand: "Don't worry for now. I want to ask, can you access the data that the security department requires you to archive internally?"

"Yes." The Chief Technology Officer said: "All data filmed by satellites is directly transmitted from our satellites to our own server database for the first time, and the security department's requirement is that our data must be archived and cannot be made public until the timeliness period has passed."

Steve nodded gently. If it was just a requirement that it could not be made public, then it was easy to talk about. At the very least, the first-hand data could be obtained by Ye Chen at the first time.

So, Steve asked again: "If I am particularly interested in a certain place and hope that the satellite will keep staring at it, I think it can be done, right?"

The Chief Technology Officer said: "It can be done, but if this kind of demand is relatively frequent, it will have a certain impact on the satellite's original filming mission."

Steve felt relieved. Buying this enterprise was not intended to make money from it. Being able to let Ye Chen use it smoothly was the best. The main thing was that these satellites had to keep turning in the sky. Otherwise, he would rather have all the satellites run to the sky above the location Ye Chen was concerned about and film 24 hours a day without interruption. As for the company's original business, it was just an egg; even if it didn't make a penny, it was completely acceptable.

Thinking of this, Steve looked at the Chief Financial Officer and said: "Next, introduce the financial situation."

The Chief Financial Officer said respectfully: "Mr. Rothschild, our Skyline has currently gone through four rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of 670 million US dollars. The most recent financing was at the beginning of last year, with a financing amount of 300 million US dollars. Our annual revenue last year was 230 million US dollars, and the net profit was negative 50 million US dollars. This year is not over yet, and the revenue is expected to be around 270 million, and the net profit is expected to be negative 100 million US dollars. This is mainly because this year's hardware investment is relatively large. I will introduce it to you in detail in fixed assets later. Next, I want to introduce our cash reserves, external investments, and equity situation to you. If you have any other questions, you can also ask me at any time."

Steve waved his hand, looked at Karl, and said seriously: "My time is limited. For too detailed content, let professionals connect later. I will state my acquisition requirements, and then let's set a price and directly promote the core issues. What do you think?"

Karl immediately said: "No problem, we will follow your rhythm."

"Good." Steve nodded and said: "Before I came, I inquired about it roughly. Relatively professional people have evaluated your company's valuation for me, which is roughly in the range of three billion to four billion US dollars. But you also know that valuation is a very virtual thing. Even if your valuation can reach four billion US dollars, that is only the price when others invest in you. I think your prospects are quite good. I have 400 million US dollars to invest in you, in exchange for 10% of your shares to bet on a future. But this 400 million US dollars cannot be put into your pockets, but placed in your company account to develop business. If you want to put it into your own pockets, then it is not an investment, but a private equity transaction. In that case, no one would be willing to pay a valuation of three billion;"

Speaking of this, Steve added: "However, I can give you a condition that you can't get anywhere you go. I will acquire your company directly at a valuation of five billion US dollars. For this five billion US dollars, I can give you 2.5 billion directly, making you immediately become real billionaires;"

"Then, all your shareholders must stay here and continue to help me operate this company. I won't pay you extra salaries, but I will give you the remaining 2.5 billion US dollars within three years. After three years, if I still need you to stay here, we will renegotiate the conditions. If you can accept it, you can directly enter the acquisition process today. If you can't accept it, I will go back to New York. This offer is valid within three days. You call other shareholders to discuss it together. If you change your mind, contact me within three days."