Chapter 402: Newspaper Company
"Can I really use this car?" Utaha's father asked.
"I am not 18 years old yet and I don't have a driving license," Haru said.
Utaha's father looked at a black Mercedes G400 that Haru had taken out from the garage of his cafe. He had promised to come to his cafe in the early morning and didn't expect for him to take out such a car.
Haru thought that it would be wasteful to not use this car since he had kept it inside his body. He had Ritsu to help him register this car and it was very easy to do it. He didn't care much even though he knew that it was a crime. "Let's go, I am going to buy a newspaper company. I can't let them see me using a taxi to go there."
"Well, that's true." Utaha's father nodded.
"Let's go, we might be able to start the news that I have acquired this newspaper in the evening edition," Haru said.
"Good." Utaha's father nodded and started the car to go to the headquarters of Tokyo Shimbun.
Tokyo Shimbun is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan. The group dates back to 1888 when a regional newspaper was founded in Nagoya. In 1942, another Nagoya-based newspaper merged with the Miyako Shimbun. The publication took its current form by merging it with a Tokyo-based paper in 1967. The group has thirteen foreign bureaus. They are in New York City, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, Manila, and Bangkok.
Though, he knew that such a big newspaper had a very large deficit and loss each year.
Haru and Utaha's father, whose name is Eichi, came together and went directly to meet the boss of Chunichi Shimbun or the parents of the Tokyo Shimbun. He was wondering whether he could buy the entire Chunichi Shimbun directly, but he knew that it wouldn't be that easy unless he used hypnotic magic to do it.
They entered the headquarters of Tokyo Shimbun together and saw a lot of people looking at them. They were guided by one of the employees to go to the meeting room. They entered the room together and saw a lot of people who had been waiting for them.
Then one of the groups of people who sat down in the center of the table stood up and greeted him. "Hello, are you Kasugano Haruka?"
"Yes, that's me." Haru nodded.
"That's good, my name is Bungo Yoda. I am the representative of Chunichi Shimbun. I am very surprised to know that you're only 16 years old this year," Yoda said.
"Age is only a number," Haru said.
"That might be true, but age also gives people an experience," Yoda said.
"Experience is nothing in front of talent," Haru replied.
Yoda raised his eyebrow and asked, "So you have said that you have that talent?"
"Yes." Haru wasn't going to be modest in this matter.
Yoda shook his head and said, "Don't you be busy going to school now? Why have you decided to buy a newspaper?"
"I dropped out of school when my parents died...." Haru said.
Everyone seemed to exclaimed when they heard Haru's words.
"Even though the newspaper seems to be declining with the age of digitalization, I believe that I can revive it," Haru said.
"You sure are very confident," Yoda said.
"If I am not confident then I am not going to buy this newspaper company." Haru looked at Yoda and said, "How about we start the negotiation now?"
"Sure, but can I have a request?" Yoda asked.
"Please do tell me," Haru said.
"I hope that you won't try to lay off the employees since all of them are part of the family of Tokyo Shimbun," Yoda said.
Haru looked at Yoda's skin thickness and wondered who had made the decision to lay off the employee before. He shook his head and said, "I'll let Kasumigaoka Eichi make that decision. I am not familiar with the newspaper business, but I believe in his ability to let him manage this company."
"I won't let you down, boss," Eichi said.
Haru nodded and didn't mind him since Eichi might become his father-in-law in the future.
Yoda looked at Eichi and knew that Eichi was one of the previous employees that had been laid off from this company. He felt a bit complex but didn't say anything. He was grateful for someone who would be able to buy this newspaper then also shouldered the debt of this company.
That's right, debt.
Tokyo Shimbun has quite a large debt and that number is almost one billion yen.
Haru didn't care much about the debt since he believed in the future his company would become the number one newspaper company in this country.
The process of negotiation was quite long since Yoda wanted to increase the price of the buy out for this company.
Haru wasn't going to lose since he also needed to shoulder a quite big debt from this company.
In the end, they decided to sell the company for 110 million yen. The newspaper company with a century of history had been bought with such a price, but the reality was cruel since the owner of Tokyo Shimbun needed money to run their company.
Today, Haru had officially become the owner of Tokyo Shimbun and he was able to manipulate the voice of people in this country to a certain extent. He was sure that a political group would come to him to ask him to support them since this newspaper had a circulation of 100,000 people in Tokyo. Such a large number of people would be able to affect the vote in their election.
"Thank you, I hope that you can make this company flourish," Yoda said.
Haru nodded and said, "Thank you." He didn't want to talk too much with Yoda since the business deal had ended then he wanted to start the meeting. He sat down on his seat along with Kasumigaoka Eichi on his side. "Let's start the meeting now."
Everyone who joined this meeting knew that their career might end with one word from their new boss. They had to admit someone who was able to buy a newspaper company when he was 16 years old was a genius, but in the end, he was a child. Though, they knew that they couldn't offend him.
"First, I'll make Kasumigaoka Eichi become the Chief Editor for this Tokyo Shimbun," Haru said.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Everyone clapped their hands together only the current Chief Editor of Tokyo Shimbun was silent and knew that his career was over.
"For the current Chief Editor, please get out and pack your things since we need to talk about how to develop this newspaper in the future," Haru said to everyone.