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Martin stood and put his first foil on the projector. His presentation was quite a bit more monotone than Josh’s would have been if I’d let him do it. The first three slides went by without any questions from our audience of two.
Josh shifted in his seat, preparing for the inevitable.
The shit hit the fan when Martin moved on to the foods division.
Craig zeroed in on the operating margin and overhead numbers, asking Josh numerous questions.
Josh tried valiantly to defend his baby, but the verdict was already in as far as these two were concerned.
Syd saved his ammunition and let Craig pummel Josh for several minutes. The real battle would be the next foil with the consolidated results.
Poor Martin moved on and put up the consolidated results slide.
With blood in the water, it only took Syd five seconds to paste on a devilish grin. “Liam, looking at the bottom line number there, would it be safe to say you’ve missed your commitments from a year ago?”
“Forecast,” I corrected him. “Yes, the numbers are two percent shy of where we wanted to be, but we plan to make up that ground in the next quarter or two.”
The duo exchanged glances, and Syd pulled a folded piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. He slid it over to me.
“These results are unacceptable,” he said coldly.
I took a deep breath. Even though I had expected this, my hands still shook as I unfolded the paper. It was the note I had been dreading for weeks, official notice that these two wanted to pull their investments out immediately based on lack of performance according to paragraph three dah, dah, dah——it ended with a demand to wire the funds tomorrow.
Syd eyed me. “Well?”
I didn’t answer.
The door opened and Hue Schmulian entered, coffee cup in hand.
I put the letter aside. “Before we deal with this, I’d like to introduce our newest board member. I think you both know Hubricht Schmulian.”
Syd’s brow creased. He seemed temporarily taken aback.
Craig looked to Syd, unsure what to say.
“I don’t understand,” Syd said, finding his voice.
“Nobody told us about a change to the board,” Craig added.
“That’s because it just happened yesterday,” Josh told them. “And we thought it best to introduce him in person, since you were coming in today anyway.”
That settled the duo for the moment.
Hue stirred his drink. “I was just freshening up my coffee. Sorry if I’m late.”
“Not at all,” I told him.
“Good to see you again, Syd, and you too, Craig.” He shook their hands before rounding the table to sit between Josh and me.
Hue, it turned out, knew these two very well, having participated in several investments with them and sitting on another board with Craig.
“Let me explain,” I told Syd and Craig. “I met Hue here while negotiating to buy his company last month.”
“Didn’t that fall through?” Craig asked.
“No,” Hue told them. “Not at all. Young Liam here helped me get a fifty-percent premium out of that poor schmuck Damien Winterbourne. Made me a lot of money, he did.” He shot them a killer smile and patted me on the shoulder.
After learning that Winterbourne was locked into outbidding me by twenty percent, I’d upped our offer by thirty percent, forcing Winterbourne to take his shot and pay Schmulian a fifty-percent markup for the company.
