709 The Clubs' Figures

Manager Li looked confused. "Boss Pei, have I gotten the flow wrong? Shouldn't we be negotiating today? Neither party has expressed their interests or requests. I think we should communicate sufficiently before coming to a decision."

Pei Qian was astonished. "Huh? Haven't you all considered it carefully? I thought it was true that all the clubs have joined forces to resist GPL online!"

Manager Li felt light-headed.

It's true, but we never said we would sell our GOG teams!

We were merely trying to put some pressure on you. Do you understand that?

Yet, Boss Pei ended up assuming that all the clubs would be selling their GOG teams.

At that moment, Manager Li was speechless.

Manager Li and the others had tried to stir a debate to increase their bargaining chips. They wanted Boss Pei to see that none of the clubs were willing to hand over control, so that Boss Pei would rid himself of the idea of buying their GOG teams.

In the end, not only had Boss Pei refused to budge, but he had also taken the conversation to an ultimatum.

Now, there seemed to be no room for negotiation!

The ball was in the clubs' court.

Could they say that they had no plans to sell their GOG teams and were only intending to bargain on equal ground to reach a compromise?

No, that would be equivalent to going soft and allowing Boss Pei to take more advantage of them!

Yet, if they didn't say that, they would have to raise their hands in surrender and sell their GOG teams, wouldn't they?

The club managers exchanged blank looks, not knowing what to do next.

Nobody had expected things to develop in this manner when they had been imagining it before. Boss Pei was not acting according to plan. What should they do?

Seeing the club managers remain silent, Pei Qian began to feel anxious as well.

What was going on?

Didn't they agree to sell the GOG teams to Pei Qian?

Why was everyone keeping quiet now?

Quickly, sell them to me so that I can incur losses by holding onto them.

There was an awkward silence in the conference room. Pei Qian cleared his throat and said, "Manager Li, your reaction seemed to be the biggest. How about this? Tell me what you think. Are you going to sell your team or not? Be straightforward with me."

The corners of Manager Li's mouth twitched slightly.

Boss Pei was placing him at the heart of the struggle!

The most important thing was that he had, in fact, organized all of these things. If he said he would not sell his GOG team, the other clubs would not be fools and would follow suit. Wouldn't Boss Pei win on all fronts, then? What else would there be to talk about?

However, it would not be realistic for Manager Li to sell his GOG team either because he did not have such authority. Whether the club sold the team or not was still up to the boss.

What should he do?

The cogs in Manager Li's mind turned very quickly. Soon, he came up with a solution.

He smiled and looked around at the other club managers before resting his gaze on Boss Pei. He looked nonchalant and acted as if everything was under control.

"Boss Pei, let me make this clear first: we still want to continue working with you as equal partners. We never intended for both parties to lose miserably.

"In addition, even if I want to sell my team, we cannot possibly deal directly with the official platform, can we? That would put our own interests at risk.

"For example, if a third party offers a higher price than Tengda, and Tengda buys our GOG team at a low price, it wouldn't make sense, would it? Our interests would be at stake.

"That's why I think that we should look for third-parties to deal with. The one who offers the highest price will get our team. Moreover, the offer must be higher than the figure we have in mind before we decide to sell the team."

Pei Qian's eyes lit up.

Higher than the figure you have in mind?

Do you mean you're trying to ask for a higher price?

That's great!

Pei Qian nodded immediately. "No problem. How about this? Tell me what figures you have in mind. We'll run an auction to sell the GOG teams together with the GPL quota.

"What's your bottom line? Please be upfront. Zhang Yuan, take note of this."

Zhang Yuan nodded and retrieved a pen and paper to take notes.

The other club managers looked at Manager Li and immediately understood his intentions.

The plan remained the same, but they were just entering the next stage ahead of time.

Before this, everyone had intended to pressure Tengda using public opinion, so that Boss Pei would retreat. However, if Boss Pei decided not to back down, they would act like they were selling their GOG teams. This would make Boss Pei believe that nobody would be willing to take over the teams and then willingly compromise.

Everyone had already agreed to raise their prices by twenty percent. For example, if their own GOG team was worth five million yuan, they would quote six million yuan. If it was worth ten million yuan, they would quote twelve million yuan.

On top of that, the original valuation would be inflated to include the value of individual athletes, branding, and other relevant factors.

Manager Li had already spent the past few days speaking to all the other clubs. None of them would take part in the auction.

That meant that no one would take over the teams at those prices.

Then, Boss Pei could either bite the bullet and buy all the GOG teams at those inflated prices, or take a step back and negotiate a compromise with the club managers.

What's more, Boss Pei was not going to hold a private auction this time, but a public one.

None of those clubs had real intentions to sell their GOG teams. Thus, if one single club raised their quote, all the others would follow suit. That would cause all the prices to seem even more inflated.

Manager Li smiled. "The bottom line for SUG Club's GOG team is eleven million yuan."

The other club managers took turns to report their own quotations.

The highest figures were given by the H4 Club and the EK Club, which had just won the first and second places at the international invitational tournament. Their asking prices were 13 and 12.5 million yuan respectively.

On the whole, the clubs had quoted pretty similar prices.

That was to be expected. Boss Pei had distributed the old members of DGE evenly among the other clubs earlier.

All the clubs were similar in terms of strengths and operating costs. Naturally, they did not differ much in their quotations as well.

Soon after, the clubs began to report their expected quotations. All of them had been inflated with premiums.

After all, they were all renting the training locations for their GOG teams at the moment. They did not have much fixed assets, and their most valuable assets were their players. The players' transfer fees were already well-known and no secret to Boss Pei.

Since the esports industry had just taken off and was not that popular yet, the clubs could not ask for too much.

Asking for such prices was already too much in the eyes of the club managers.

Pei Qian frowned, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Everyone, are you not going to ask for more?

"Wouldn't you be incurring losses by selling your GOG teams for over ten million yuan?"

Pei Qian could not wish for anything more than for the club managers to raise their prices.

If they did, he would be able to spend more money!

None of the club managers said anything.

None of them knew if Boss Pei was being sarcastic or not…

Was he saying that the teams were too expensive?

Was he being deliberately sarcastic?

Yet, Boss Pei looked more sincere and genuine than sarcastic.

Thus, everyone was confused by Boss Pei's acting. At that moment, all of them were stumped.

Manager Li could not help but rejoice a little as he saw Boss Pei frown and say those things.

You can't accept the quotations, can you?

Boss Pei must have been sarcastic. On the surface, he was asking if they would sell the teams for a higher price. However, in reality, he was unhappy that they were asking for so much.

He must have been sarcastic. He must have been angry!

The corners of Manager Li's mouth curled upwards. He cleared his throat and said, "Boss Pei, this is the figure that we have in mind. It's indeed higher than the amount we invested into the teams, but I think it's reasonable. After all, we've spent so much time running our GOG teams. We can't let it all go to waste, can we?"

Upon hearing Manager Li's words, Pei Qian immediately realized that his own words had been misunderstood.

Forget it. He would not waste any time explaining himself. The harder he tried, the bigger the problem would become.

The clubs were collectively asking for close to a hundred million yuan now anyway.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment. Someone would surely buy those teams over. All things aside, Boss Li would definitely join forces with a few other investors and buy a team for fun.

Thus, it would be unlikely that the teams would be left unsold. Pei Qian could only say that not all the teams would be bought over.

Boss Pei would fork out money to buy the remaining six or seven teams. He could try his best to squeeze some money out of Tengda for sure. It would not cause any damage to the capital chain or affect departments that were conducting research and development.

He could deal with this. If he had to take the teams at a lower price, so be it.

Pei Qian nodded. "Alright, we will go and speak to third parties with these prices. Everyone will be free to place their own bids!

"However, one thing has to be clear. Now that you have agreed to sell your teams and have given me your expected figures, you cannot go back on your word.

"We will sign an intermediary agency agreement now. Tengda will guarantee the expected price for your GOG teams. We will only pay you more, but not less. If you fail to sell your teams, Tengda will pay for them. Conversely, if third parties offer a price that reaches your expectations, you cannot back out from selling your teams.

"If you breach the contract, you will have to bear the consequences. Compensation will suffice."

This was like doing business. Pei Qian could not allow the seller to back out once he had named his price, and a buyer had expressed interest.

Pei Qian was afraid that the clubs would regret their decision when the time came. What would he do if he failed to spend the money?

That was why he suggested signing the intermediary agency agreement. Its main purpose was to prevent them from backing out once Tengda offered to cover their bases and buy all remaining GOG teams.

For Pei Qian, once the contract was signed, Tengda would either have to spend money buying the teams or pay damages for failing to do so. Either way, Tengda would spend money, and it would be perfect.

Upon hearing that they had to sign an agreement, the club managers shuddered.

Manager Li cleared his throat. "Boss Pei, can I call my boss to ask for his guidance?"

Pei Qian nodded. "Of course, you can."

All the club managers dispersed to various corners at once to call their respective bosses.

Manager Li walked to the garden outside the villa and dialed the number of the boss of his club.

"Hello? Boss, I want to report an update on the GOG team. Boss Pei wants us to sign an agreement…

"That's right, I quoted eleven million yuan. If we really manage to sell the team, we will earn a considerable amount after taking into account the value of each player, the GPL quota, and our operating costs. We won't lose out for sure.

"GPL quota? We can always buy it again if we want to. The quota itself is not worth much. How many local esports clubs are there anyway?

"That's right, Boss. The GPL quota would probably not be worth much because Tengda is now developing the esports ecosystem. Players are allowed to form their own teams and start competing at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe from the get-go. Since that's the case, we can always buy a capable internet cafe team that would be able to take part in GPL.

"That's right. The worst-case scenario is that we sell our team for eleven million yuan and then spend a little more money to buy a new team from the internet cafe. We will not lose out for sure."

"Alright, Boss. I'll sign the agreement, then."

Manager Li hung up and felt much more confident.

No matter which angle he looked at it, the worst-case scenario if he signed the agreement would be earning less money. The club would probably not incur any losses.

The athletes' values and club costs were fixed. The premium was more than enough to cover them.

The club had set up the GOG team for fun and recovered their capital by accepting a couple of sponsors and spokespersons. Now, by selling their team to outsiders at a premium, the club would earn a considerable profit as well.

What's more, even if they sold the team now, they could easily return if they wanted to in the future.

At the moment, the entry requirements for most esports professional leagues around the world were easy to meet. The reason for that was simple—few people took part.

There were only so many clubs to begin with. No one would fight to be counted within the GPL quota.

How could an internet cafe team manage itself forever after making it to the GPL? It would still have to cozy up to a powerful club, wouldn't it? He would be able to buy a club like that with just a bit of money.

Then, SUG would successfully be included within the GPL quota with an internet team, and Boss Pei would have to eat his words and warmly welcome the SUG club anyway!