Chapter 502: Acquiring An Aerospace Company
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
The development of the private space industry had context to it. It was the failure of the early space shuttles, and the end of the cold war that caused the conclusion of the space race, The storm led the UA to drop a large number of important projects in the 80s which resulted in aerospace giants never realizing their investment and their enthusiasm for the industry taking a significant hit.
After the cut in the 90s, as well as the integration of the aerospace industry, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, Lockheed Martin’s monopoly of the market were not comparable to the 60s. They were more sensitive to risk and began to be half-hearted on commercial launches, only favoring the defense business. The price of launches was not only expensive but the RD-180 engine invested by the UA, due to manufacturers reluctance to build a plant, must depend on Russia for production.
It was this reason Russia could hold their head high against sanctions. They threatened to terminate the cooperation and to “cut the food supply” of the International Space Station. “Cutting the food supply” has been staged more than once, and time-tested. Until the rise of private space companies in recent years, this kind of insatiable threat started to lose its effectiveness.
Facts proved that the bureaucratic-led industry had no future, it was also reflected most vividly in the aerospace industry.
Take the famous private space company SpaceX as an example.
Its launch price has been low to a near-absurd point at only a fraction of the cost of the market. No country or business in the world could compete with them. These new companies inherited a large number of research results from the old era of space giants, but not the debt.
Speaking of SpaceX boss Elon Musk, he was also a legendary figure, but his popularity in Hua was far less than Steve Jobs. But if a few pieces of his astonishing feats were mentioned, his name was vivid in people’s memory. For example, he and his partner founded PayPal online payment mechanism and by far the most successful way to pay online. After acquisition by eBay, he earned his first pot of gold in life.
Another example is the most recent year, the most popular car brand without a doubt, Tesla, was designed by him.
Not only that, he invited three well-known entrepreneurs to co-found SpaceX and made a strategic plan with “space tourism as a starting point. Open the era of privatization of space resources, and the destination to Mars.”
And the fact proved that in the field of space technology, they were indeed walking in the forefront of the world.
Falcon rocket appeared out of nowhere, its trust weight ratio (trust to weight ratio) reached an astounding 1: 150! It replaced Russia’s best score of 1: 120 and became the world’s most advanced rocket. What made people more envious was that the rocket not only had a low launch cost, it actually could be reused! The first stage rocket hovered at the height of two hundred meters and then dropped vertically without damage.
Finally, its engine was 3D printed.
With so many advantages infused together, its market competitiveness is unparalleled. At the same time, its relationship with NASA, the UA Air Force, could almost be described as best friends. The pile of orders came storming in, and Elon Musk made a great fortune.
But it was precisely because of its astounding competitiveness that a lot of small private space companies were forced to the brink of bankruptcy.
SpaceX almost monopolized the most profitable defense orders, and the launch profits of commercial satellites were compressed to the limit for various reasons. For this very reason, Jiang Chen managed to use 5 billion USD floor price to buy two space companies for restructuring, enrich the Celestial Trade wholly-owned space science and technology center talent team.
Kelvin Burrow, former director and chief technical officer of Mississippi Aerospace Technologies, has a Ph.D. degree at Amber Reid University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and were involved in the early development of the Falcon Rockets. He later resigned to return home to establish the Mississippi Aerospace Technologies. But it turned out that not all scientists could be great businesspeople like Gates and Jobs. After failing to invest, his company owed 500 million USD in debt and wandered on the brink of bankruptcy.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen came just in time to “help” as he was able to keep his life’s efforts without selling at a discount.
Of course, capital is ruthless. The first thing Jiang Chen did after he became chairman was sell most of the company’s assets at a low price. At the same time offered their employees two times the original salary and a work visa to Xin.
“Do you know what you did? These assets are worth at least 200 million USD! And you sold it at a 50% discount to my old boss. Oh, God… If I’m Mr. Musk, I would be laughing in my sleep.” They left Coro Airport, Kelvin dragged onto Jiang Chen and complained passionately.
“Mr. Musk won’t laugh in his sleep, allow me to be honest, SpaceX won’t care about your equipment. Coincidentally, I don’t care either.” Jiang Chen used a leisure tone and opened the car door for him.
“What do you mean?” The honest Kelvin immediately frowned.
“Exactly what you heard, trust me, when you arrive at the destination, you’ll have the same perspective as me.” Jiang Chen sat at the front passenger seat.
Kelvin in the back glanced at the expressionless girl driving and then looked at Jiang Chen anxiously.
“Does she have a driver’s license?”
The tip of Ayesha’s mouth twitched. Jiang Chen paused and laughed.
“Don’t worry, with my net worth, I should be more afraid of dying than you.”
“Okay, I trust you… But I have to remind you, regardless of how rich you are, some things can’t be purchased with money. I have 5671 pages of technical drawings, but I can assure you that this place won’t have a plant that can turn my drawings into equipment.”
“Is that so? Just throw your drawings out then.” Jiang Chen didn’t seem to care.
Kelvin paused and raised his eyebrows.
“Excuse me, what did you say?”
“Nothing, I still hold the same stance as before. I understand that you may have some anxious emotions to your new work location, but I hope you can remain calm. You’re about to see some stunning things… Mhmm, the port is in the front, we have to change to a different transportation vehicle.”
Kelvin scoffed as he replied “un huh” half-heartedly before not saying anything.
Although he was very dissatisfied with how Jiang Chen treated his company and his attitude toward his technical expertise, he had no reason to be angry with his salary. If there were a choice, he certainly would not sell his life’s efforts. But unfortunately, as the founder, he didn’t have a controlling stake of Mississippi Aerospace Technology Company. Instead, it was controlled by profit-oriented capitalists. With the price offered by Jiang Chen, the company’s other shareholders practically didn’t hesitate before they provided their shares with both hands.
The car was parked in the garage next to the port. Ayesha slightly turned her head and spoke a language Kelvin did not understand, “He seems to be very dissatisfied with you.
“Of course, after all, I sold his hard work of six years, and labeled his research results as worthless.” Pushing the door, Jiang Chen smiled.
Jiang Chen turned to look at the impatient Kelvin and said in English, “Well, Mr. Kelvin, we can board the yacht.”
Kelvin shrugged and walked to the yacht.
“Is there no problem hiring him as the chief technology officer?” Ayesha looked at Jiang Chen feeling puzzled. “You are planning to give him something really important.”
Ayesha knew more or less about Jiang Chen’s secrets, that’s why she was so concerned.
“The chief technology officer must be the job of a person with a strong technical background, and I really believe in his learning ability. I’m more tolerating toward talents. As to his rudeness, it is because of his meticulousness toward technicality and has nothing to do with loyalty. As long as I can bring out technology that will shock him, help him achieve his dream, and provide him with enough material reward, he has no reason to be stingy with his loyalty.”
Jiang Chen thought about Jiang Lin when he spoke. He felt that they were the same kind of person.
The confused expression on Ayesha’s face said that she didn’t seem to understand what Jiang Chen said. But because of her absolute trust, she still nodded.
“If you believe him.”
“Of course. If he betrays me, I will have to count on you.” Jiang Chen laughed.
Ayesha didn’t say a word and only nodded.
The traitor would be handled by the Ghost Agents.
No one could escape their pursuit…
