Although Classmate Kyle always adhered to the philosophy that harmony breeds wealth, he was definitely not one to swallow his pride. On the contrary, he was somewhat petty and believed in the principle of 'repaying every kindness and seeking revenge for every grievance.'
Immediately, Kyle dialed a phone number.
"Hello, is this Campbell? This is Kyle Page," Kyle said into the phone.
"It's me, it's me. Mr. Page, what are your instructions?"
A middle-aged man's voice came through the phone.
At this moment, if someone from the media circle heard it, they would most likely recognize who this middle-aged man was just by his voice.
His name was Campbell, and he was the owner of the Los Angeles Entertainment News.
He currently had a deep and long-standing cooperative relationship with several of Kyle's subsidiaries. Furthermore, because he had repeatedly stood on Kyle's side, constantly flattering him and attacking Kyle's opponents, he was mockingly called 'The Page Family's Top Lackey' by many media peers.
"Campbell, do you know about the Hollywood Express program that aired on NBC Television Station not long ago? Hehe, I was pointed at and cursed at, called ungrateful, and said my character is worse than a dog's~" Kyle curled his lip.
As his voice fell.
The other end of the phone fell into a silence that lasted for dozens of seconds.
"Mr. Page, I know the situation. But... with my small stature, how can I withstand the pressure from NBC Television Station?" Campbell said.
Hearing this, Kyle immediately slapped his forehead and gritted his teeth, saying, "Who said anything about moving against NBC Television Station? Forget you, even I don't want to clash with them. Do you think being the number one public television network in the U.S. is a joke? I'm talking about that bastard Steve Bing!"
"Oh~"
Campbell drew out a long sound over the phone and said, "So the person you want to deal with is that third-generation rich playboy, Steve Bing! That's easy then. I'll contact my friends in the media circle to suppress the negative reports first."
Suppressing negative reports was a standard tactic in the media circle.
Campbell was very familiar with such things!
Furthermore, although Steve Bing was wealthy and worth hundreds of millions of dollars, his power truly couldn't influence the media circle Campbell was in.
Campbell could completely ignore him.
"No!"
Kyle suddenly shouted, "Don't suppress the news. I want you to use your power so that the content of Steve Bing cursing me hits the papers tomorrow morning. Hmm, the widespread kind."
Campbell was momentarily dazed.
What? Not only not suppressing the negative news but expanding it instead?
However, a smart person is a smart person. After only a few seconds, Campbell reacted.
"Mr. Page, are you referring to ICQ Company and Mr. Visger?" Campbell said, suddenly seeing the light.
"Bullseye!"
Kyle immediately gave him a thumbs up. "I always said you have a belly full of bad water, bubbling with evil. As soon as I mentioned it, you understood."
The news that ICQ Chairman Visger had cast aside his dignity to personally beg Kyle to return to ICQ Company and seek help, only to be scolded by Kyle, was something very few people knew.
This was big news;
Once the news was exposed and spread on a large scale, how could the retail investors in the market still trust ICQ's future?
Although Kyle now didn't hold a single share of ICQ, he was previously the founder of ICQ and its Angel investor.
In the current situation where ICQ was being directly suppressed and beaten down by Microsoft's MSN, if news suddenly broke that the founder, Kyle, was not optimistic about ICQ's prospects and that ICQ was short on funds... how do you think the retail investors would react?
Would those investment institutions that bought ICQ shares sell them off on a large scale?
Would those bloodthirsty wolves on Wall Street take the opportunity to stir up trouble?
Would Microsoft, the holder of ICQ's rival MSN software, add fuel to the fire?
...As expected~
The next day.
Monday, the changes in the U.S. stock market were enough to indicate everything.
The NASDAQ trading hall.
"What?"
A middle-aged man looked at his companion with a strange expression. "Old friend, are you crazy? Or do you just not read the newspapers usually?"
"What, can't I buy ICQ stock?" the companion frowned.
The middle-aged man immediately pulled a roll of newspapers out of his briefcase and stuffed it into his companion's hands. "Take a good look. Kyle Page is one of the founders of ICQ, and even he isn't optimistic about ICQ's future. The article also exposes ICQ's blind expansion, leading to the current situation of a cash flow shortage. In this case, buying its stock is just seeking death!"
Hearing this, the companion was instantly pale with fright and quickly flipped through the Los Angeles Entertainment News in his hand.
In fact, it wasn't just the Los Angeles Entertainment News that reported on ICQ Company's situation. Under Campbell's coordination, as many as 30 media outlets and newspapers across the U.S. published this news that morning.
Bloomberg Observation, Today's Economy News, NASDAQ Index Analysis News... these nine newspapers, which are quite influential in the stock market and financial fields, even published the report as front-page headlines.
Once the news was exposed and spread on a large scale, its impact was quite terrifying.
ICQ's market value dropped rapidly by nearly 1 percentage point after the widespread dissemination of the reports.
Tens of millions of dollars in market value evaporated in an instant!
And it was still continuing to fall.
ICQ's situation was not optimistic!
...ICQ Company.
At this moment, the atmosphere in the conference room was heavy, so heavy it almost seemed solid.
CEO Vadi roared, "We must resolve the negative reports as soon as possible, otherwise our market value will continue to decline."
Chairman Visger gritted his teeth and said, "I've chosen my friends poorly!"
"Hmph!"
Vadi snorted coldly, "Visger, I told you long ago that Steve Bing, that third-generation rich playboy, is unreliable and is a notorious big mouth. But I never imagined that you would even tell him such a secret. My god, what were you thinking?!"
As the company's top leader, Visger was also extremely depressed at this time.
Disaster from the heavens!
Although he and Kyle were somewhat at odds, it hadn't reached the point of being diametrically opposed or a fight to the death. But after being spoken by Steve Bing's big mouth, ICQ's market value plummeted.
A typical pig teammate!
The group of company executives remained silent.
They were angry but dared not speak!
Just then, the company's technical director and one of the founders, Goldfinger, stepped into the conference room with a solemn expression.
"Visger, Vadi, now is not the time to argue about whether Steve Bing is reliable!"
Goldfinger said in a deep voice, "Just now, I received multiple calls from shareholders and shareholder representatives. They demand that we resolve these negative news stories as soon as possible, otherwise they don't rule out applying to withdraw their shares or trading them away."
Bang!!!
Hearing this, Vadi immediately slammed the table and stood up, roaring, "The situation is already so serious, and these bastards are actually threatening us? If we can't keep going, at most everyone will go down together."
It must be said that in ICQ's current state of being already jittery and ruthlessly suppressed by Microsoft, this exposure news undoubtedly dealt a huge blow to ICQ.
A sudden drop in market value still has room for recovery, after all, that's just paper wealth. But losing market trust causes quite a lot of damage.
"Bastard~"
Visger clenched his fists and cursed a few times.
From various bits of news, he had already analyzed that this was Kyle's retaliatory action.
However, he didn't resent Kyle right now.
Because Kyle only used the media power of the Los Angeles Entertainment News and did not use the media power of the Golden Dawn Entertainment Group. Otherwise, the power erupting at this moment wouldn't be just this much.
He hated Steve Bing's big mouth to death!
"Of all the people to provoke, you just had to provoke him, you bastard!" Visger cursed loudly.
Visger had known Kyle for many years, after all, and knew Kyle's character all too well. Saying he was 'petty and seeking revenge for every grievance' wasn't even enough to describe Kyle's style of doing things.
Half an hour later.
The ICQ public relations department, led by Visger, immediately held a press conference to clarify the news.
"Mr. Kyle Page and I have a good relationship; we have no conflict."
"You say the news was learned from Steve Bing?"
"Haha, he and I are not friends; we aren't close~"
"Therefore, all the previous news about a 'cash flow' shortage and the news that Kyle is not optimistic about ICQ are all fake news. I state this again as the Chairman of ICQ!"
Visger personally came forward to clarify.
When Kyle saw the news of this press conference, he was immediately delighted.
"Good friends? Your plastic friendship is being torn apart right now!"
Kyle curled his lip. "If you, Steve Bing, curse me and I just curse back, wouldn't that be no fun? Now it's much more fun."
Now the first person who wouldn't let Steve Bing off was none other than his so-called good friend Visger, as well as the entire ICQ Company!