I Became Spider-Man's Cousin in Anime Crossover

Chapter 277 [3 Chapters Combined] Stark Industries' Shareholders' Meeting

Just as Sheriff Black's anxiety was soothed by Uncle Long, and by chance, he met the other half who would accompany him for the rest of his life.

On the other side, Stark Industries.

Obadiah stared at the unchanging phone screen, remaining silent for a long time.

Even after their patience ran out, the good news they wanted never came.

Obadiah, whose emotions were becoming increasingly volatile, couldn't help but raise his hand, instinctively wanting to smash his phone to pieces!

But the thought that if this one-way communication phone were smashed, he would completely lose his only way of staying in touch with the other party, even though Obadiah's face was contorted with rage and he looked like he was about to explode, could only take deep breaths and force himself to calm down.

He then took a deep look at the phone to make sure there was still no activity on it before putting it into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

He then stared at the computer screen at the stock, which had been plummeting ever since Tony publicly announced the closure of Stark Industries' weapons division, his expression growing increasingly cold and profound.

If this trend continues, not only will the other side be unreliable, but even the mighty Stark Industries will likely be ruined by that spendthrift Tony!

Even more critically, Spider-Man has now most likely discovered his own secret.

If you stay here any longer, the day Spider-Man takes care of S.H.I.E.L.D. and starts picking on everyone will be the day you die!

Rather than sitting and waiting to die, it's better to...

While Stark Industries still has some value, they'll make a killing, grab the money, and run away!

With this thought, Obadiah's face quickly suppressed the negative emotions such as irritability, unease, and panic.

When the pre-set alarm clock sounds a pleasant ringtone to remind you...

Obadiah has reverted to his usual "hard-working and kind-hearted" persona. After patting and tugging at his suit, he stepped into today's shareholders' meeting with a smile.

Clearly, Obadiah wasn't the only one complaining about Tony's "irrational" behavior, as Steve Industries' stock continued to decline and suffered significant asset losses.

As a standard publicly traded company, even on ordinary days, Tony, as Howard's biological son, can do whatever he wants.

But what if the shareholders who usually don't get along with each other were to put aside their differences and unite to turn their guns on Tony, their common enemy?

Therefore, by leveraging their controlling stake, the shareholders' meeting can gain the upper hand and exert pressure step by step, forcing Tony to retract his previous decision.

To go even further, we could consider setting a trap to divide up Tony's shares and fire him from Stark Industries!

In their view, no matter how talented Tony was, he was a useless piece of trash from the moment he announced the closure of the weapons division, as Stark Industries' core source of revenue was arms sales.

Rather than keeping this spendthrift child around and worrying that he might suddenly disappear and cause them trouble, it's better to avoid him altogether.

It would be better to take advantage of the fact that Stark Industries still has a chance to be salvaged and kick this piece of trash out of the way as soon as possible!

After all, even with the continuous decline in stock prices, Stark Industries has lost a significant amount of capital in the past two weeks.

Even a single percentage is a terrifying number that an average family could never catch up to in their entire life!

Fortunately, Stark Industries, thanks to the technological monopoly of the two genius father and son Howard and Tony, has amassed a fortune over the years and laid a solid foundation.

Despite experiencing two major calamities—Tony's three-month kidnapping and his immediate return leading to the closure of the weapons division, effectively severing the company's economic lifeline—Stark Industries was able to maintain normal operations for a certain period of time.

The reason why, despite its continuous decline and lack of improvement, and despite being underestimated by everyone, Stark Industries has never been abandoned by the military, which continues to closely monitor its every move...

That's all thanks to the "friendship" of my peers, Hammer Industries!

As the saying goes, our competitors are XX.

Logically speaking, during the period when Stark Industries closed its weapons division and never recovered...

As a lower-tier alternative to Stark Industries, Hammer Industries should have seized this opportunity to become the military's preferred supplier and fill the market gap that Stark Industries has relinquished!

Unfortunately, Hammer Industries' performance in front of the military was as terrible as ever.

They were given a chance; immense wealth was practically handed to them for free, yet they couldn't seize it!

Leaving aside the fact that most of Hammer Industries' products are suspected of plagiarizing Tony's patents, if Tony were to take the matter seriously and sue, the company could very well end up losing more money than it gained—an embarrassing outcome. This has led Hammer Industries to suspect that a large order from the military is a trap set by Tony, waiting for them to take the bait and hand over the money, causing them to remain hesitant and uncertain about who is actually in charge…

The main reason lies with the owners of the two companies.

If we say that Tony's main job is enjoying life, his side job is inventing, and his side job is selling weapons...

So the boss of Hammer Industries is a true capitalist, the kind who pursues profit margins to the extreme!

Reflecting on their respective subsidiaries, one company is willing to use high-quality materials, completely disregarding profit margins. The other, however, is always meticulous about details, seemingly wanting to use mud to make guns and turn it into huge sums of real money!

This results in Hammer Industries' products, while ranking among the top in the industry and compared to other arms suppliers, being considered top-tier.

But once you take it and put it next to Stark Industries' products, it's like comparing a fire poker to precise German craftsmanship!

So much so that before Tony announced the closure of the weapons division.

Although the military, in order to save money, purchased some weapons from Hammer Industries in addition to mainly purchasing weapons from Stark Industries, it also purchased some weapons from Hammer Industries.

However, the vast majority of these weapons were provided to the Marine Corps, which has the lowest status among the Army, Navy, and Air Force and is jokingly referred to as "Marine Corps".

Even so, the discovery that the weapons they received were manufactured by Hammer Industries still caused the Marines to complain bitterly!

On several occasions, there were even awkward scenes where, as soon as they entered the battlefield, they would throw away the Hammer Industries weapons they were holding and turn around to fight with their teammates to pick up AK47s from the enemy's corpses and start a series of rambles!

Under this premise, if the military dares to be greedy and replace all the weapons provided to the frontline soldiers with those from the sturdy and durable Stark Industries, they will be replaced with those from the constantly faulty Hammer Industries.

Well, they figured the procurement order would be issued in the morning, the guns would be turned against the White House by noon, and the new regime would be announced in the afternoon!

After giving Hammer Industries several chances, only to find that the company remained incorrigible, the military had no choice but to turn to Obadiah. Through Obadiah, they made promises to the shareholders…

If only they could find a way to revive Stark Industries' weapons division.

Even if the products provided later are just the existing old versions, there will be no more innovation or improvement.

The military will also sign a supply contract with Stark Industries as soon as possible!

This was to ensure that as long as they delivered the goods on time, they could make a fortune over the next decade or so!

In the end, he lived a wonderful retirement with a fortune he could never spend in several lifetimes!

Even shareholders who have been in the business world for so many years know that the unpredictable military is simply not trustworthy...

Faced with Stark Industries' continuous decline and its inevitable march towards bankruptcy, a situation where the end couldn't be worse, they still couldn't resist the sweet bait offered by the military. Under Obadiah's persuasion, they organized today's shareholders' meeting.

Now, as the camera shifts, the scene moves to the conference room...

At this moment, in the conference room of Stark Industries headquarters, the twenty-three board members, who were usually rarely seen and seldom met, were gathered together around a ten-meter-long ebony conference table.

Even so, there wasn't a trace of a smile on any of their faces.

The air, under the influence of this oppressive atmosphere, seemed to solidify as if it could cut through steel plates.

With uncertain expressions on their faces, everyone silently stared at the document with a gold-embossed cover placed in front of them.

"Stark Industries Strategic Adjustment Proposal".

Clearly, even if Obadiah and others knew in their hearts that the so-called shareholders' meeting was actually a premeditated removal act aimed at Tony.

However, in order to make it legally sound and prevent Tony from having any chance to retaliate, the necessary procedures must still be followed, and the charade must be carried out thoroughly.

Therefore, after the secretary distributed all the prepared proposal documents...

Obadiah, standing in front of the projection screen, deliberately paused for ten seconds, allowing the unease in the meeting room to continue to fester.

Only when he felt the time was right did Obadiah clear his throat and speak in a serious tone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, over the past seventeen days, our stock price has fallen by forty-two percent. Conservatively speaking, this means that each of you here has lost an average of two hundred million US dollars."

As he spoke, Obadiah pressed the remote control, and a set of shocking graphs immediately appeared on the screen.

Although everyone present had seen these graphs countless times in the past few days.

But even now, looking at it again, they can still feel their hearts bleeding!

That's not just cold, hard data; it's huge sums of money waving goodbye to them!

For capitalists like them, this is no different than taking a knife and cutting flesh out of their hearts!

So much so that no sooner had Obadiah finished speaking than a dull thud of a fist being pounded on the table came from the far end of the conference table.

That was Williams, the newly appointed CFO who had recently inherited his father's shares and was now sitting here among the twenty-three shareholders.

The young man couldn't hold his temper. When he discovered that today's data still showed no signs of recovery and that the company was still losing money, he got so angry that he punched the expensive conference table in front of him.

And this is exactly the result Obadiah wanted to see.

With the young man's help, the atmosphere in the meeting room became increasingly heavy.

The few marginal shareholders who were originally undecided and hesitant to vote in favor were completely disarmed the moment the graph appeared, and had no further objections.

This caused Obadiah's lips to curl into a slight, almost imperceptible smile as he slowly walked to the window and pulled back the heavy blackout curtains.

At that moment, the New York skyline outside the window shimmered with golden light under the setting sun.

As one of New York City's iconic buildings, the Stark Tower is undoubtedly the most dazzling jewel in the city!

"Just three weeks ago, we were still dreaming about the future and discussing how many percentage points the year-end dividend would increase in the current hot market."

Just as everyone's attention was drawn to Obadiah's actions, and they began to admire the beautiful sunset, revealing thoughtful expressions.

Obadiah's voice suddenly rose, and he adopted the tone of a disappointed elder, loudly criticizing Tony's mistakes in front of everyone.

"But what about now? Because of Tony's one immature and impulsive decision, those hyenas on Wall Street have started shorting our stock!"

"Do you know what the Daily Bugle's headline was this morning? 'Genius's Recklessness: The Twilight of Stark Industries'!"

"In their eyes, we're practically dead, just waiting for the champagne to be popped!"

"Having come to this point, are we really going to tolerate Tony's recklessness and let him destroy Stark Industries! Destroy all the hard work we've put in!"

Obadiah's impassioned speech, which seemed less like pretense and more like a personal vendetta, caused the board members to exchange cryptic glances and opinions.

The white-haired old director, who held the fourth-class seat and whose shareholding was second only to Obadiah and Chili, knew after a glance from Obadiah that Obadiah had done his job and it was time for him to perform.

He then coughed lightly a few times, took the opportunity to pick up the conversation, and responded insincerely.

"Hey, Obby, we all know how bad things are... It might be unfair to Tony, but we can't just stand by and watch this kid ruin the company his father built. So, have you thought of a solution?"

Obadiah was waiting for this very sentence.

He pressed another button, and the screens on both sides of the conference room lit up simultaneously, playing the same video.

At a US military base in Afghanistan, soldiers are complaining about the frequent jamming problems of their newly issued rifles, manufactured by Hammer Industries.

Then, with the pressing of another button, the screen switched to a Pentagon press conference.

General Ross, facing reporters' cameras, vaguely stated that the military had not yet decided on a new supplier and was still evaluating and assessing them, and did not rule out the possibility of renewing the contract with Stark Industries.

"As you all have seen, the military has given us an ultimatum."

It was at this moment that Obadiah pressed the pause button, freezing the image on General Ross's last words.

Then he waved to his assistant, signaling him to come forward. The assistant opened his briefcase, took out a document that was tightly sealed in a file folder, and waved it at everyone.

"Restore the weapons production line within 72 hours, or all of Stark Industries' existing contracts will be transferred to Hammer Industries."

As soon as Obadiah finished speaking, the conference room erupted in chaos.

After all, if there's anything more painful than watching a company go bankrupt...

That is to watch helplessly as the fruits of your hard work are handed over to your arch-rival company, and to watch your competitors make huge profits in the market you've built!

This is even more painful than killing them!

But Tony not only shut down the weapons department, but also, on the very day he issued the order, he forced the dismissal of the technical team and staff, and the dismantling of all production lines!

This is similar to how the US was misled into dismantling the F-22 production line, and as a result, it has yet to resume production...

Aside from the high cost of reconstruction...

Recalling all the talent that has already been lost is harder than climbing to heaven!

Not to mention that production was restored in just three days!

In this situation, even if one resorts to any means necessary to barely meet the basic production needs, the resulting products, let alone those from before, would probably be worse than even the firewood sticks produced by Hammer Industries!

As a result, the director who was originally in charge of the weapons department and was planning to raise the price and take advantage of this power restructuring to make a lot of money for himself was caught off guard by Obadiah's unexpected move. He slammed his hands on the table, stood up abruptly, and loudly refuted Obadiah.

"This is impossible! Are you kidding me! We dismantled the entire production line equipment, and the technical team was disbanded!"

"Calm down, old friend. Of course I knew that, which is why I kept a backup plan."

Only now did Obadiah, who seemed to be on good terms with the shareholders, bare his sharp fangs like a jackal.

In his response, he ignored the anger of the veteran director in front of him and snapped his fingers.

He instructed his understanding assistant to take a small, exquisite portable hard drive from his open briefcase and show it to the board members present.

"This contains the design blueprints and production processes for all our weapons from the past twenty years. As for the equipment—"

At this point, Obadiah deliberately drew out his words.

Only after he had whetted everyone's appetite did he continue speaking with the smugness of a cunning old fox.

"I knew long ago that Tony's decision was wrong. So before he demanded the dismantling of all weapons production lines, I deliberately preserved one complete production line in Texas. Although the daily output from this single line will certainly not be as high as before, it's still barely enough to deliver the first batch of orders to the military. So I plan to…!"

But just as Obadiah was preparing to use this specially preserved weapons production line as capital to coerce the shareholders present into making concessions and raising enough funds to abscond with his money, he was about to leave.

Hogan, the security chief who had remained silent and seemed to have already colluded with the corrupt practices, suddenly looked up and posed a probing question to Obadiah.

"Excuse me, does Tony know about this? You should understand that before the impeachment proposal is passed, any action that goes against Tony's decisions will be considered a betrayal, an act of corporate espionage. Tony has every right to sue you if he wants, right?"

"..."

The barrage of questions clearly disrupted Obadiah's dream.

Not only did the smile on his face freeze instantly, but he also couldn't help but look in the direction of the sound and glare fiercely at Hogan.

Unfortunately, at this moment, due to the timeline, Hogan, who hadn't yet become Iron Man and no longer needed Hogan's close protection, had indulged in food and gained a lot of weight, still maintained his muscular physique.

Therefore, even when faced with Obadiah's threatening gaze, Hogan sat in his seat with his arms crossed and a relaxed expression, showing no intention of backing down.

This made Obadiah's heart skip a beat, and a sudden sense of foreboding arose within him.

But at this point, Obadiah was already on the verge of disaster and had no choice but to act; there was no turning back!

In order to preserve his happiness for the rest of his life, he could only suppress his anger, put on a nice guy face again, and respond with a forced smile.

"Haha, Hogan, my good brother, you don't need to worry about that at all. When Howard and I joined forces to create Stark Industries, we set up a backup base in Texas. All the procedures were legal and legitimate, and it's registered with Stark Industries."

"As for Tony... as you've seen, his mental state has been unstable ever since he returned from the Middle East, making him prone to doing foolish things that could harm Stark Industries' interests. And lately, he's been locking himself in his villa, rarely going out, and refusing to meet with us. We don't know what he's up to. So I don't think it's necessary to let these trivial matters interfere with this genius's creative output."

"So, I can understand that you did indeed act without informing Tony..."

"Ahem! Okay, let's put this topic aside for now and talk about it later. Time waits for no one, my friend, we're losing money every second! We have to make a decision immediately!"

He walked back to the chairman's seat and placed his hands on the table. Under the light, his shadow, like a giant bear, enveloped half of the conference room, adding to the imposing presence of Obadiah, who was already quite large.

"Now, let's begin the vote. Those who support removing Tony Stark from his position as CEO, with me temporarily assuming the role, and immediately rescinding Tony's decision to restart the weapons division, please raise your hands."

As the words fell, facing Obadiah who had completely torn off his mask and revealed his true colors, the already tense and oppressive atmosphere in the conference room seemed to have been sucked out of the air, making everyone feel inexplicably suffocated.

After a moment of silence, the directors, who had already chosen to side with Obadiah because of the benefits promised in advance, began to raise their trembling hands and cast their votes in favor.

Once the first person took the lead, others followed suit, as if triggering a herd mentality.

Before long, all twenty-two directors except Hogan voted in favor.

This made the strong and robust Hogan appear lonely, weak, and powerless in this situation.