The unnamed platform, not knowing how to proceed, had not yet decided on a name. Meanwhile, the first round of funding for the oo game platform had already been disbursed.
One day, Bannon was in his office, looking at the steadily declining sales and data. He couldn't help but bite his lip, but biting his lip was useless. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Bannon estimated that Bell Mobile could only last another three months before running out of resources and shutting down completely.
This was because Bell Mobile had fallen into a state where expenses far outweighed income. This month's revenue was less than $200,000, while various expenditures exceeded $1 million.
There was no way around it. Bell Mobile had been spun off from the Bell Communications Group and carried too many historical burdens. It employed a large number of redundant staff who couldn't be fired because they were placed there by the shareholders. Even Bannon himself lacked the authority to dismiss them.
Of course, the primary reason was the continuously deteriorating sales of Bell Mobile. When monthly revenue was $2 million, the operational costs were $2 million.
However, with monthly revenue having plummeted to $200,000, the staffing levels remained at $2 million. It was no wonder the company was losing money. If Bell Mobile hadn't taken out a loan, it wouldn't have survived this long.
But the loan repayment deadline was three months away. If they couldn't find a way to repay the loan, Bell Mobile would have no choice but to declare bankruptcy.
Just as Bannon was contemplating where to find new employment after the company went bankrupt, someone suddenly burst into his office, full of excitement and a hint of confusion. "President," they said, "we just received $302,000 in revenue, but I can't find out where this money came from. Are there any problems with this?"
"$302,000!" Bannon was also surprised. For Bell Mobile, which currently had only $200,000 in monthly revenue, $302,000 was an absolutely significant amount, far exceeding the monthly income. But the problem was, even Bannon himself didn't know where this money had come from.
He couldn't recall anyone owing his company $302,000 in external debt.
"Call the bank and ask whose account this transfer came from!" Bannon immediately said. If the transfer account was a private account, it naturally wouldn't be traceable.
But if it was a corporate account, the source of the transfer could be identified.
Indeed, Bannon's assumption was correct. After the call, the bank provided a definitive answer: the money originated from the North American branch's corporate account of oo Network.
"This is the revenue from the oo game platform? I remember now! The contract stated that the 10th of every month is when oo game platform settles and distributes the previous month's revenue share with the companies!" Bannon's expression shifted to one of sudden realization. He then realized that today was indeed September 10th, the date oo game platform was scheduled to disburse funds.
"In just 20 days, they made $302,000? My God, is this oo game platform really that profitable?" Bannon's mouth hung open as he mumbled to himself. He had never expected this platform to generate so much money.
Bannon recalled that the oo game platform was launched on his phone on August 10th, and the settlement period extended to the end of each month. This meant that from August 10th to August 31st, a period of 21 days, his phone had already earned over $302,000 in revenue from the oo game platform?
He estimated that earning $40,000 to $50,000 in revenue for the entire month would have been extremely fortunate. After all, the most attractive and nostalgic Atari series games on the oo game platform were completely free, generating no revenue even with a large number of players. Only the later released paid games could generate some profit. However, Bannon didn't believe that with thousands of free games available to play, anyone would be willing to pay to play games. It was simply unbelievable!
Although the $302,000 felt like a windfall from heaven and a stroke of great luck, one shouldn't scrutinize it too closely. However, Bannon felt restless without understanding the situation clearly.
This made Bannon desperately want to figure out the circumstances. Driven by curiosity, he casually asked the finance department employee next to him, although he knew this employee was unlikely to have the answer.
To his surprise, the elderly woman, who was over fifty and no longer in her prime, nodded and said, "While I don't know the reason, those few scoundrels in the company probably know very well. For the past month, I've been watching them play games on their phones, apparently games from the oo game platform.
"I couldn't stand it and told them to at least pay attention to company matters, as the company was on the verge of collapse. But they told me that the games they were playing were contributing to the company. They even said they were contributing more than their salaries, and that I should thank them. It's utterly baffling!" The old lady rolled her eyes, clearly not understanding what they were talking about.
"Those scoundrels?" Hearing this, Bannon's expression turned troubled. These individuals were none other than the hangers-on placed by the company's shareholders.
Don't assume that the United States doesn't have such connections. Quite the contrary, the connections in American companies are far more numerous than in Chinese companies. At least in China, with the deepening of reforms, employees who got in purely through connections without any skills are now very rare.
Furthermore, these employees, once hired, cannot simply slack off. At the very least, they must complete their assigned tasks, otherwise, even the greatest favor cannot protect their jobs, as the system is in place.
But it's different for American companies' connections. Firstly, some connections are placed by shareholders and directors. These connections have strong backing and are also one of the main ways shareholders "milk" the company.
Due to the relevant regulations for publicly listed companies in the United States, shareholders must ensure the company distributes dividends if they wish to obtain benefits from it. However, dividends cannot be distributed only to these directors; they must be distributed to all shareholders who own stock.
This way, the company's board members don't receive much money. More money goes to institutional investors and unfortunate retail investors in the stock market. These directors are not that foolish.
They need a method to obtain benefits from the company without dividends. Therefore, inserting various connections becomes a matter of course.
By bringing in dozens of employees at once, these employees only collect salaries without working, thus "milking" a considerable amount from the company. Of course, only the major shareholders on the board of directors can do this; smaller shareholders can only dream of it.
However, this is not the only channel for company connections. The largest source actually comes from various government departments, and the salaries for these connections are at least tens of thousands of dollars per month.
You might often see rankings of national integrity issued by various organizations, and the United States consistently ranks high. This seems like a country completely free of corruption.
To some extent, this is true. From the perspective of direct corruption, these indeed do not exist. However, American officials don't need to engage in direct corruption; they have more sophisticated methods, such as serving as consultants for various companies.
If you provide convenience to a company while in office, after retirement, the company will invite you to serve as a company consultant, receiving tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in high salaries each month without doing anything.
If you help enough companies, after retirement, you can simultaneously serve as a consultant for a dozen or even dozens of companies, with monthly earnings exceeding a million dollars.
If you examine the employee expenses of these companies, you will find that many large publicly traded companies pay tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in monthly salaries to various consultants.
Ahem, I've digressed a bit. Bell Company doesn't have many consultants, only two. Most of them are connections placed by shareholders... Especially when shareholders discovered that the company was soon to be unable to cover its expenses and was on the verge of bankruptcy, the number of connections being placed increased even more. They wanted to take advantage of the company's existence and its ability to draw from loans to quickly "milk" some benefits for themselves.
The "scoundrels" mentioned by the finance department are precisely these connections. Although they come to the company to work every day, they essentially act as masters. They either read newspapers during work hours, or simply play cards, or directly take leave and don't come in. They can do anything but work.
Other employees in the company are accustomed to these connections and usually ignore them. However, some occasionally can't help but say a few words, like this finance lady.
So, Bannon asked the lady to invite these scoundrels into his office.
"Sir, tell us what you need, we're listening!" As these scoundrels entered, they didn't even look up, holding their phones and constantly operating something on the screens, not even glancing at their president.
If anyone else had such an arrogant attitude, Bannon would have kicked them out long ago. However, these scoundrels were backed by the company's major shareholders, so Bannon was helpless.
Fortunately, their phones were precisely the subject Bannon wanted to inquire about. So, he smiled and asked, "I heard that your contributions to the company exceed your salaries. What's going on? I had no idea you were making such significant contributions to the company. If it's true, I can even call your parents to commend you!"
"No! Absolutely not!" The scoundrels were startled by this and repeatedly shook their heads. While they were somewhat disdainful of Bannon, they became somewhat fearful upon hearing about being commended.
"Let's clarify things first. Once everything is clear, everything will be easy to handle!" Bannon narrowed his eyes. The scoundrels exchanged glances and then reluctantly said, "Actually, it's not really a contribution. It's just that the money we've spent on mobile games recently is much more than the salary you give us!"