I smiled at that. Ashton had sharp-tongued but a soft heart. “Then, why didn’t you tell Rachel the truth earlier?”
He paused for a moment before looking at me. “I have made it clear to her, a technical staff like her has no right to information like this.”
“Then, what about me?” I put down my fork and crossed my arms on the table. I gave him a flattering smile and continued, “As a shareholder of Fuller Corporation, may I ask why you’re neglecting your own R&D Department and bought over a foreign robotics company? Can you explain why you did that, Mr. Fuller?”
I had gotten news of this on Facebook and was originally going to ask him about it. However, Rachel managed to disrupt the atmosphere with her unfriendliness.
Ashton snorted and he didn’t even look up as he said sarcastically, “The R&D Department receives an investment every two months. And each time, the amount they get is nearly ten million. They are basically burning cash. When have I not invest such a huge sum of money in them? But what happened in the end? A year has already passed but they still haven’t made any progress. The people in the R&D Department are too comfortable with their situation now. Now that I’ve cut down on their budget, it should give them a little pressure.”
Pfft! I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Alright, I understand now. Mr. Fuller doesn’t want to be taken advantage of anymore. But what does this have to do with acquiring Eisen Corporation?”
When he heard my question, Ashton’s face turned grim and he started to discuss the pros and cons of it.
It turned out that those people who despised him in K City had never stopped what they were doing. Not only did they sabotage the Fuller Corporation’s projects, but they also gradually attacked the commodity trading chain under the company.
Fuller Corporation had been in K City for a few months now but they still couldn’t get a hold of their own large warehouse. Many of their products, including building materials could only be located in J City. It was extremely unfavorable for their international trade in the network of international commodity trading.
Dartan’s robots were always in the lead and Eisen Corporation was a company that specialized in the research on robots. However, they weren’t good at management and it resulted in them operating at a loss. Ashton got involved with them because he wanted to use this to his advantage. He could possess the core technologies of Eisen Corporation and build a logistic network of his own. Robots could be used to identify and deliver goods and they could completely get out of K City’s restrictions.
“But it won’t be easy to get there. Dartan’s government is worried that once this is possible, there would be an irreversible outflow of technology. That’s why they have been encouraging local companies to try and acquire Eisen Corporation. Investors from other countries have already emptied their hedge funds. To both foreigners and the local companies, this acquisition doesn’t look too good. The worst case scenario will be that the Eisen Corporation’s stocks that I hold will eventually become a pile of worthless rubbish.”
This was all just a gamble. Even I couldn’t help but frown upon hearing that so it wasn’t surprising that Ashton didn’t want to reveal this to Rachel.
Once everything was successful, Fuller Corporation would be able to gain a strong foothold in K City. She was only focused on the AI field, so even if she knew the truth, she would never have understood the big picture.
However, appeasing the R&D department was still a big deal. After Ashton went back to the company, I had personally called Rachel.
She was probably still mad at Ashton as she only answered after hanging up on me twice.
“What do you want, Mrs. Fuller?” Rachel’s tone was not pleasant.
“Don’t be so hostile towards me. I mean no harm.”
“Spit it out,” she said.
Her hot temper made me feel rather uncomfortable but I took in a deep breath and tried to calm myself. “Do you know that I’ve been preparing for my bar exam recently, Ms. Zimmer?”
