Page 143 of 12 Years
‘What did he say?’
‘He said he has a client who owns a company that wants to acquire SecurityNet.’
‘What about the IPO? Don’t we have plans to do that?’
‘We do. But if this buyer gives us a good offer, then who knows? We should talk to them.’
‘Okay, find out more. Who’s this client?’
‘He won’t say. He wants to have a meeting with us first. He said if we show real interest, he’ll bring the client in at the next meeting.’
‘All this is in Dubai?’
‘Yes. Don’t worry, you won’t have to go anywhere. I’ll call him in next week then?’
‘Sure, whenever,’ I said.
‘Cool. Good night, bro. And happy birthday. Glad you got laid.’
‘Stop it, Mudit.’
Mudit burst into laughter before ending the call.
‘Give us one minute, Max,’ Mudit said. ‘Let me talk to Saket in private.’
‘Sure,’ said Max Glenfell, the managing director of Goldman Sachs’s Mergers and Acquisitions division, getting up from his chair. Alan Smith, his junior associate, followed suit. Max and Alan were British and had flown in from the Goldman Sachs London office. Their formal suits and crisp British accents reminded me of the BBC news presenters.
‘No, no, you guys stay here,’ Mudit said, gesturing for Max and Alan to remain seated. ‘Saket and I will go to his office for a minute.’
We were all sitting in the swanky twenty-seater conference room, in the new SecurityNet office in Downtown Dubai. Max and Alan had just finished giving us a short presentation on the proposed buyout.
Mudit and I left the room and hurried to my office.
‘Bro, it’s real,’ Mudit said, closing the office door behind him. ‘Someone wants to buy the whole company. In cash. The cleanest exit ever.’
‘We exit? Like completely?’
‘Yes. Can you believe it? None of the IPO hassle. No need for roadshows, compliance, regulations and investor relations. No risk of being at the mercy of market conditions.’
‘True,’ I said. ‘But it also means we’re out. What willwedo? What willIdo? I’ll have no job.’
‘Bro, you won’tneeda job. You’ll have close to a billion dollars in the bank. Not just paper wealth either.’
I looked out of my window. In the distance, the Burj Khalifa soared into the clear blue sky, much like how SecurityNet had soared over the years.
‘I already have everything I want. What will I do with so much money? And all the free time?’
‘Come on, bro. We’ll find something productive to do. Maybe build another start-up. Or do fun stuff. Go back to running a comedy club, only this time, we go to work in a Rolls-Royce.’
I smiled, still unconvinced.
‘Okay, listen. I can talk to them. We’ll sell the company to them, but not the whole thing. Say, ninety per cent? We keep the remaining ten per cent. And you stay on as the CEO, if that’s what you want.’
‘I don’t know what I want,’ I said.
‘Take your time to figure it out. Point is, we should stay engaged with them. Discuss whatever terms we want. I’m sure they’ll be happy to let you run it anyway. For now, let’s meet the mystery client.’
‘Okay. We can do that. I’m curious about who the client is anyway.’
