The Rise Of Australasia

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President Hoover’s inauguration was seen as great news by the American people, who placed high hopes on him, believing that he could lead the United States out of the economic crisis and allow the American people to return to a prosperous and wealthy life.

No matter what the American people thought, Arthur was happy to see President Hoover’s inauguration.

Nevermind his historical reputation and actions, the fact that President Hoover continued President Coolidge’s laissez-faire economic strategy was enough for Arthur to give Hoover a big thumbs up.

The collapse of the United States Stock Market wasn’t something that happened over just one or two days; by all reasoning, the government should have exercised control or provided relief by now.

But that damnable laissez-faire economic strategy meant the American Government provided very little relief or regulation for the Stock Market, leading to all sorts of chaotic occurrences within it.

The bankruptcy of small and medium-sized enterprises goes without saying, accompanied by a large number of capital-rich enterprises frantically buying at rock-bottom prices to establish absolute monopolies within their industries.

Many industry giants were born during this historical period, the result of large capital’s frenzied acquisition of smaller capital.

Since President Hoover still maintained a laissez-faire economic approach, Arthur certainly wasn’t going to be polite—immediately starting a major buying spree.

Previous buying sprees were cautious to avoid drawing the attention of the American people, but now their attention was no longer on the stock market, making it the perfect time to buy.

However, to avoid drawing attention, Australasia’s buying would be dispersed among various factions, acquiring assets in a myriad of different ways.

February 23, 1927, Virginia, United States.

Getting out of the car, Frank looked at the huge Pepsi-Cola sign in front of him and nodded in satisfaction as he made his way inside the enterprise.

This was his second short-term target, as these enterprises affected by the economic crisis had seen their stock prices plummet, even if they hadn’t gone bankrupt.

Speaking of the famous Pepsi-Cola, its path to creation and development was much more difficult than that of Coca-Cola, which was established earlier.

The name "Pepsi" in Pepsi-Cola is derived from dyspepsia, which translates to indigestion. Simply put, Pepsi-Cola’s selling point was that it contained pepsin, which was supposed to help with digestion.

The "Cola" part of the name was simply to ride on the popularity of Coca-Cola, which made the trademark registration for Pepsi-Cola take five years to be approved, and at one point it was even regarded as a counterfeit product of Coca-Cola.

The development of Pepsi-Cola was not smooth even after the successful trademark registration, as Coca-Cola had already taken a significant share of the market, and Pepsi-Cola was competing with dozens of other cola companies for prominence, making it difficult to stand out.

Pepsi-Cola had gone public in 1919 but as a small-scale, low-profile beverage company, it lasted only four years before declaring bankruptcy in 1923. @@novelbin@@

Afterward, the Pepsi-Cola beverage company was acquired by a company from Virginia and managed to survive till now.

The current situation of the Pepsi-Cola beverage company wasn’t very good; due to the impact of the economic crisis, Pepsi-Cola was facing a second bankruptcy.

The Virginia company that acquired Pepsi-Cola didn’t have a huge amount of capital itself and faced the risk of bankruptcy, not to mention a small beverage company under its umbrella.

Pepsi-Cola now was like an abandoned stepchild, waiting to be re-acquired after bankruptcy if no one was willing to take it on.

The mother company’s economic crisis, the severe overstock of Pepsi-Cola, the rising production costs (namely sugar prices), coupled with pressure from Coca-Cola and other cola companies, made the bankruptcy of the Pepsi-Cola beverage company inevitable, and it was essentially given up by the Virginia company.

This was the information that Frank had gathered. For intelligence personnel like him tasked with acquisitions, understanding the weaknesses of each company to better haggle was part of their duty.

Upon entering the Pepsi company, Frank skillfully ignored the crowds of job seekers and expressed his intentions to the enterprise’s security guard.

The guard clearly saw Frank alight from his car dressed sumptuously, no ordinary individual, and was eager to report to his boss.

Before long, Pradoham, the helmsman of Pepsi, personally came to greet him. Seeing the luxuriously dressed Frank, he hurriedly extended his hand with a smile and asked, "Sir, who might you be?"

"Allow me to introduce myself, Frank," Frank replied with a light smile, giving his name.

Pradoham nodded inwardly. Although the name was not famous, the intention to acquire the Pepsi-Cola company excited him greatly.

Of course, this did not mean Pradoham was ready to give up the enterprise he had painstakingly founded. But the problem was, under the auspices of the Virginia company, there was no future for the Pepsi-Cola beverage company.

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Instead of waiting for Pepsi-Cola to self-destruct, it’s better to find a better destination for my hard work, allowing the great name of Pepsi-Cola to echo throughout the entire United States.

"Mr. Frank, please come to the Meeting Room to discuss in detail. Honestly, I fully agree with selling Pepsi-Cola, and I believe that Bragi (Pepsi-Cola’s previous acquirer) would agree as well," Pradoham signaled with a smile, leading Frank to Pepsi-Cola’s Meeting Room.

Inside the meeting room, Pradoham’s smile disappeared, and he said with a worried face, "Mr. Frank, may I ask how you would like to acquire Pepsi-Cola Beverage Company?"

Looking at the Pradoham in front of him, how could Frank not guess his intentions? But since Australasia wasn’t planning on personally managing the company, and Arthur didn’t think the economic experts of Australasia could do a better job than Pepsi-Cola itself.

"A full acquisition, Mr. Pradoham, of course. However, due to the reason that we have too many companies under our wing, we could retain the Upper Echelons of Pepsi-Cola Beverage Company, including yourself, and give you sufficient managerial authority under supervision," said Frank with a smile.

Pradoham nodded slightly, not opposed to what Frank had suggested.

At the time of the acquisition in 1923, Pradoham only retained a 10% share of the stock; the remaining 90% was sold to Bragi.

It’s worth mentioning that the initial offering price of Pepsi-Cola per share was as high as 40 US dollars, signifying that Pepsi-Cola was actually a company worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars.

But in 1923, when it went bankrupt, the price per share of Pepsi-Cola dropped to around 25 US dollars, which also caused Pepsi-Cola’s market value to plummet below 300,000 US dollars.

Despite appearing to be a lot, maintaining normal operation of the company also needed substantial funds. Coupled with the constantly rising cost of making Cola and the declining sales of Pepsi-Cola, the company was forced into bankruptcy and had to be acquired by Bragi.

In fact, after being acquired, Pepsi-Cola did have a time of glory. With new capital injected, Pepsi-Cola managed to capture some of the market in the Virginia area, becoming the most famous beverage company in Virginia State and causing the stock price of Pepsi-Cola to continually rise, reaching a peak of 120 US dollars per share at one point.

However, an economic crisis isn’t something that small and medium-sized enterprises can withstand. And companies like Pepsi-Cola, highly dependent on the sales of Cola for profits and recouping investments, were especially vulnerable.

The economic crisis caused tens of millions of American People to lose their jobs directly, and the sales volume of Cola naturally dropped again and again, making the stock price of Pepsi-Cola plummet from millions of US dollars once again to a few hundred thousand, and it was still dropping.

What’s worse, Bragi’s Company was also facing the economic crisis, and Pepsi-Cola could not expect any financial support, and furthermore, it had to forcibly allocate some funds to Bragi’s Company.

Under such blows, if nothing unexpected, Pepsi-Cola would go bankrupt in a short period of time.

This caused all shareholders of Pepsi-Cola, including Pradoham and Bragi, to contemplate selling their shares.

The difference is, as the creator of Pepsi-Cola, Pradoham naturally hoped that Pepsi-Cola could develop in a better direction.

And Bragi himself was an investor. What he thought of was only one thing, that selling his shares would allow him to secure funds to ensure that his original company would not go bankrupt.

Regarding what Frank had said about retaining management rights, Pradoham was very pleased to see.

Although without shares, staying in the company he created was enough for Pradoham.

The history of Pepsi-Cola Company was nearing 30 years, and only Pradoham himself knew how much effort he had put in during these 30 years.

And to Pradoham, the bankruptcy of Pepsi-Cola was as if his heart was bleeding; if he could find a haven with stronger capital for Pepsi-Cola, he was definitely willing.

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"Then I have no problem, Mr. Frank," Pradoham said earnestly, "I will help you persuade Mr. Bragi. When can we start the acquisition of shares?"

Surprised by the eagerness of Pradoham in front of him, Frank found it to be a good thing: "If possible, today would not be a problem."

As a seasoned intelligence personnel, Frank had activity funds amounting to several million US dollars for the acquisition of American enterprises.

If he could successfully complete the mission and have a windfall, these activity funds could increase even further, which meant that Frank virtually had no worries about the funds.

The stock price of Pepsi-Cola at its highest point was worth only a few million US dollars, and the current market value would be good if it exceeded two hundred thousand dollars.

After all, this is a company on the verge of bankruptcy; one must take into consideration the continuous debt issues faced by the enterprise when taking over.

If the problems of production costs and Market Scale cannot be solved, the value of Pepsi-Cola Company will not rise.

Especially during an economic crisis, such a beverage company on the brink of bankruptcy is all too common, and selling at a high price is even more improbable.