Beyond the penthouse's expansive glass windows, the lush greenery of Central Park spread out like a painting.
Having arrived in New York and checked into the Plaza Hotel as usual, Seok-won was enjoying a relaxed late breakfast in the cool comfort of the room.
On a table draped with a crisp white cloth sat toast topped with smoked salmon and avocado, scrambled eggs, and a cup of hot coffee, all giving off an appetizing aroma.
Dressed casually in linen pants and a linen shirt, Seok-won sat back in his chair and spoke on the phone with Managing Director Yoon Gihun back in Seoul.
[As instructed, we've finalized the acquisition agreement for Cyber World.]
Hearing the news he had been waiting for, a satisfied smile formed on Seok-won's lips.
"Good work. The acquisition terms are the same as we discussed last time, right?"
[Of course. We acquired 100 percent of Cyber World's shares for seven billion won.]
"It couldn't have been easy getting even the founder's shares. You did well."
[The founder wanted to retain management control, but once we offered employment continuity along with a price twenty billion won above the market valuation, he signed the contract right away.]
A chuckle came through the phone from Yoon Gihun.
"He must have been reluctant, but the practical difficulties were too great. He didn't really have a choice but to accept."
[Still, it's not an industry leader but a lower-tier IT platform. I can't help wondering if we overpaid.]
At the note of concern in his voice, Seok-won lifted one corner of his mouth in a faint smile.
"It may look that way now, but a few years from now, you'll realize it was an absolute bargain."
Cyber World was a community portal launched in 1999 by computer science students from KAIST, often referred to as the MIT of Korea, who banded together with shared ambition.
However, despite the enthusiasm behind its founding, it was pushed aside by leading competitors and remained a perennial lower-tier player, with only around three million members and roughly one hundred thousand communities.
"As a small-scale venture company, whenever traffic surged all at once, the servers often couldn't handle the load, leading to frequent outages or maintenance shutdowns."
More troubling was the fact that it generated almost no revenue. Losses continued to pile up, pushing the company to the brink of capital impairment.
To make matters worse, the collapse of the dot-com bubble completely reversed the investment climate. Venture funding dried up almost entirely, making the situation even more dire.
"Gasping for air… an acquisition offer that came just before they stopped breathing altogether. There was no way they could easily turn it down."
No one could have imagined that Cyber World, which had failed to gain much popularity, would rise as a dark horse just a year later, when a paid-service controversy at the number-one platform drove a mass exodus of users into its ecosystem.
"It may have been an unavoidable move to generate revenue, but instead of persuading users, they forced monetisation through a unilateral and heavy-handed approach. The backlash was fierce, and it ended up backfiring."
Then, with the launch of the MiniHomePage service two years later, Cyber World exploded in popularity and eventually established itself as Korea's representative social networking service.
Years later, when Mark Zuckerberg first created Facebook while attending Harvard University, it became a major topic on campus and gained significant traction. Yet there were stories of Korean students studying abroad who tried it once and reacted lukewarmly, saying, "This feels flimsy compared to Cyber World." That was how innovative the service had been.
At its peak, Cyber World boasted over thirty million users. It was hardly an exaggeration to say that every Korean except infants was using a Minihomepage.
Not only that, it secured a solid revenue stream, with annual sales from its proprietary cyber-currency alone exceeding one hundred billion won.
"If they hadn't been content with just the Korean market and had instead aggressively expanded overseas, the global SNS landscape might have looked very different."
But Cyber World, having settled into complacency and stumbled through repeated missteps, fell behind as overseas platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram emerged, and as the world shifted to smartphones. Its decline was swift and severe.
"Before my regression, it collapsed almost overnight, despite having once enjoyed nationwide popularity, and quietly shut down its service. But this time, that won't happen."
By pouring future knowledge and enormous capital into it, he intended to turn it into a platform that would dominate the global social networking service market.
Seok-won pushed aside his brief reverie and opened his mouth to speak.
"Once the acquisition is fully finalized, invest an additional fifty billion won. Tell them to pay off all outstanding debt and expand both their servers and workforce."
[An additional fifty billion won?]
Managing Director Yoon Gihun asked back in shock.
"If we're acquiring them, we might as well invest properly and grow the company. That fifty billion is just seed money. Depending on how things go, we'll inject even more capital, so tell them to secure equipment and personnel with plenty of room to spare."
[Ah… yes. Understood.]
Well aware of the scale of Seok-won's spending habits, Yoon Gihun still found himself unable to even guess how much money Seok-won ultimately intended to pour in once he spoke of investing in earnest.
At the same time, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't quite wrap his head around whether a company like Cyber World, a small venture with fewer than fifty employees, was really worth that level of investment.
'The Chairman must have his reasons.'
This was Seok-won, after all, known as the Midas touch of the venture investment world.
Convincing himself that Seok-won must be seeing something he couldn't, Yoon Gihun chose not to dwell on it further.
Just then, as if something had occurred to him, Seok-won adjusted his grip on the phone and added,
"As the company grows, the current office space won't be enough. Pick a suitable building in the Gangnam area that Bluehole Construction owns and let them use it exclusively."
Hearing that Seok-won was even providing a dedicated headquarters, Yoon Gihun finally realized just how serious he was about investing in Cyber World.
[We'll take care of it.]
After giving a few more instructions to Managing Director Yoon Gihun, who was responding with a more serious tone than before, Seok-won ended the call and set his phone down on one side of the table.
He then speared a piece of perfectly grilled smoked salmon with his fork and brought it to his mouth. A gently salty, rich flavor spread smoothly across his palate.
As expected from food prepared personally by the hotel's executive chef, it had been made exactly to his taste.
By the time he had nearly finished the plate and was leisurely sipping his coffee, Landon, dressed in a gray suit, entered the penthouse living room under the guidance of Assistant Manager Han Ji-sung.
"It seems I always end up interrupting you during meals," Landon said with an awkward smile.
"I just finished eating anyway, so it's no problem."
Seok-won wiped his mouth with a napkin and gestured with his eyes toward the empty chair across from him.
"Haha. Thank you."
As Landon took his seat, a hotel staff member stepped over, poured coffee into a fresh cup, and quietly withdrew.
Landon unwrapped a sugar cube, dropped it into the cup, and stirred it with a teaspoon before speaking first.
"Have you heard the news that executives and employees of Arthur Andersen, which handled Enron's accounting audits, have been indicted on five charges, including obstruction of justice?"
"I read the article in The Wall Street Journal."
"It looks like Enron's management, including Chairman Haywood, will also be indicted soon on charges such as accounting fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy."
Seok-won replied as if it were only natural.
"After causing a disaster of that scale, it would be stranger if they weren't punished."
"That's true."
Nodding, Landon leaned forward slightly in his chair.
"Most of the bad news seems to have already come out, and the situation looks like it's stabilizing. Wouldn't it be a good time to start unwinding our position?"
"What's Enron's stock price right now?"
"It's been hovering around nine dollars sixty cents per share for several days."
"So it's down roughly eighty-nine percent from its peak."
Landon inclined his upper body forward a bit more as he responded.
"Even if we close out the position now, the return is an astounding eighty-six percent."
An eighty-six percent return from a single short-selling bet was an extraordinary figure.
Unlike Landon, whose face was flushed with excitement at the astonishing results, Seok-won remained calm as he asked another question.
"How large is our total short position so far?"
"A little over four hundred billion dollars."
"With Enron's market cap having shrunk to under seven billion dollars, that means the short interest is roughly seven times the current market capitalization."
"After major investment banks like Goldman Sachs got badly burned trying to counter-short, there haven't been any movements we need to be especially wary of. Still—now that all the bad news has been priced in and Enron's stock appears to have hit bottom, some cautious bargain-hunting buyers are starting to trickle in, watching our moves."
Landon glanced at Seok-won's expression and continued.
"On top of that, since Enron's share price has fallen so much, the relative size of the outstanding short position has grown even larger. Wouldn't it be wise to reduce risk by closing at least part of the position?"
Seok-won leaned back against the chair and replied.
"There's no denying that a large short position is a source of risk."
"Then should we start buying back the shares—"
Just as Landon's face brightened, Seok-won cut him off mid-sentence.
"The stock may have stopped falling for now and entered a period of sideways movement, but I don't believe Enron's crisis is truly over yet."
"…Pardon?"
Landon opened his mouth with a look of disbelief.
"You think it's going to fall even further from here?"
Seeing his reaction, Seok-won curled one corner of his lips upward.
"I told you from the start. The target price was one dollar."
"Well… yes, but still…"
No matter how he looked at it, one dollar seemed completely unrealistic, and Landon worked his mouth as if at a loss for words.
Seok-won interlaced his fingers, rested his elbows on both armrests, and straightened his posture.
"You know as well as I do that Enron's cash is being burned through at a rapid pace. Its credit rating has been slashed, accounting fraud has been confirmed, and funding channels are completely choked off."
"But there are also rumors that other energy companies are in talks to acquire Enron. If an acquisition actually goes through, the stock could rebound sharply, and that could put us in a difficult position."
That acquisition possibility was precisely why bargain hunters were slowly stepping in, even while the accounting scandal was still unfolding.
Unlike the visibly anxious Landon, Seok-won remained relaxed.
"That won't happen, so don't worry."
In fact, specific rumors were already circulating on Wall Street that Texas-based energy company Dynegy was seriously considering acquiring Enron with backing from multinational oil major Chevron Texaco.
Unable to understand how Seok-won could be so certain the deal would fall through, Landon asked cautiously,
"Do you happen to have information I'm not aware of?"
"Through the SEC investigation, billions of dollars in previously hidden debt have already come to light. And considering the investigation isn't even finished yet, no one knows how much more debt is still concealed. Under those circumstances, an acquisition isn't going to be easy to finalize."
The debt risk was clearly significant, but by itself, it still felt like thin grounds to be absolutely certain an acquisition would fail.
"Enron will never be acquired by anyone. Trust me."
At Seok-won's firm assertion, Landon had no choice but to swallow his doubts and hold his tongue.
'Once the September 11 attacks happen in a few days, the economy will freeze up overnight. Any company considering acquiring Enron will pull out, and Enron will head straight into bankruptcy. Closing the position now would be such a waste.'
Murmuring inwardly, Seok-won lifted his coffee cup to his lips.