Another crappy plot. Okay, let's pick the overview apart.
This is a story about a successful businessman, owner of a large company, and just about the happiest man on earth who has everything. More precisely, he was so... Until that fateful day.
Okay, an owner of a successful large company. The guy is called successful, bear this in mind.
An accident dooms him to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, but a group of scientists from a private laboratory suddenly give hope of a cure. For only $ 500 million.
Right. $500 million? Suppose the guy is about forty and an owner of a large company. Assuming the company is actually
LARGE (on a global scale), raising half a billion is nothing. Getting it financed would be a piece of cake.
After the sale of the company and all the property,
WHAT? WHY?! Why sell the company and all assets? That's not how public companies get sold. If he controls the company, he could just sell a large stake in the company which is already quite attractive, and keep a controlling stake of the company. He could issue bonds, preferred stock, anything, and not lose control of the company.
Active owners of private companies can negotiate much sweeter deals without the need of a complete sale or losing control of a company.
But there's an elephant in the room. If your company equity is just $500 million, the company is
NOWHERE near large enough to be called large.
So it could be a fire sale, but then:
I'll get back to it in a second.
and waits for the first dose of medicine.
Hold up. WAITS? Why sell the company off on a whim based on a promise? How the fuck did he build a business if he's that fickle?
Now, back to this bit:
WHY? Why would he fall into debt?
• If the company is successful, why would the new ownership get rid of him? He'd be kept with a salary. A successful company without the leadership that built it is literally worthless. Worse, if he was laid off or forced to resign, his best staffers would follow.
• Owning a large company means you have a huge network of contacts. You can get another high paying job in a split second.
• If he was successful, he could start a new company based on his network. He'd be able to secure financing from his partners and customers.
But the waiting is killing, and with each passing day more and more doubts creep into his head: "What if the injections don't cure?", "What if it's all for nothing?"
This. If the cure is not tested and not guaranteed to work, why risk money? It's not like he was an athlete that's unable to perform anymore. Being confined to a wheelchair doesn't preclude being able to run a business.
And let me refrain from commenting on the last sentence of the overview.
On size of a company:
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Large companies annual revenue is over $1 billion. Mid-market companies have annual revenues of $10m—$1b.
For most companies in the services sector, equity is usually well over annual revenues (let alone profits) and total assets are typically several times equity (otherwise a company is a target for a hostile takeover). If a company was determined to be worth $500 million, its annual revenues would be rather modest at $50-100 million. Nothing to sneeze at, but not large in any sense of the word.
Oh, and with $50m revenues, securing financing for $500 million is still doable, especially with an extensive network of contacts that an owner would have.