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“Will do boss.” He pulls out a hundred-dollar bill and lets him know that he has impressed a man who is not easily impressed. The kid stands there beaming for a moment as Anthony pulls away from the curb.
“There are still a few good kids in this world,” he grumbles, changing lanes and weaving into traffic.
Trey
By the time we arrive at Addison Media, Bolt is already waiting for us in the lobby. We all board the elevator as a group and ascend to the executive suite. After the events of yesterday, I can tell Mandy is apprehensive about seeing Tommy again. At this point, I’m honestly ready to go a few rounds with him. I can’t wait to see his face when we lay this case file on his desk and hit him with our demands.
“Need us to do anything?” Anthony asks once we reach the C-suite.
“Nah, you guys just make yourself comfortable. Mandy and I will talk to him,” I tell them, confident that we have all the ammunition we need.
“Can I help you?” a new temp asks us upon entering.
“We’re here to see Tommy,” Mandy says, displaying the case file.
“Who may I tell him is calling?” she asks.
“I’m Trey Addison,” I tell her, but it doesn’t click for her. “Addison as in Addison Media, I reiterate, pointing at the sign on the wall.
“I’m so sorry,” she exclaims, suddenly realizing who I am. “I’ll tell him you are here.” She quickly announces our arrival through the intercom and after another minute or so Tommy opens the door.
“Come on in, guys,” he says, gesturing for us to enter his office. Walking toward his desk I immediately notice all the magazine and newspaper clippings that he has put up on the wall behind him. Most of them are articles about his Reality TV show and the companies that were part of FireFly Media. “Each of those twenty-seven companies has the potential to be a billion dollar company within the next five years,” he spouts egotistically. “And yet, I sold the whole empire for a mere eight hundred million. It’s sad really.”
“The sad part,” Mandy replies, opening up the case file and pulling out the cover letter. “Is that, due to the dilution and fraudulent accounting, those companies were only worth about half that.” She hands him Vicky’s letter.
“With a capital infusion from Addison Media, most of those situations would turn around in the first twelve months,” he counters, tossing the letter onto his desk. “That’s the problem with this company, there are no fucking visionaries left. The board is about as progressive as the fucking SEC.”
“Is that why you didn’t follow through on the deal once you became CEO?” I ask, wanting to hear his version of the story.
“Partly, but Bill didn’t help anything,” he scoffs. “He got cold feet as soon as the accountants found a few little accounting irregularities. Big fucking deal… in the end, none of it would’ve mattered.”
“That’s not how Bill conducted business,” I inform him. “Most Fortune 100 companies tend to have pretty clean accounting, otherwise things go downhill pretty fast. Remember AIG, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual before the bailout?”
“Totally irrelevant,” he retorts. “Those companies were all dinosaurs, these companies are the future.” He turns and waves his hand across the wall.
“I hope you’re right,” I reply, wanting to tell him my plans to bring in a couple of business development and turnaround specialists to turn them around. Instead, I decide to focus on his resignation and getting back as much money as possible for the FireFly investors. “I have a document for you as well,” I tell him, pulling it from my leather binder and laying it on the desk in front of him. “This is your resignation letter.”
“You must be a mind reader,” he says with a sneer. “There isn’t much I can do for this stodgy old company now that all of this is officially off the table.”
“That leads us to one more document,” Mandy adds, pulling a second document from the case file. “This is a case settlement agreement,” she tells him, pointing to the details that pertain to a negotiated settlement with FireFly investors.
“You really think I have access to three hundred and fifty million dollars?” he asks with a look of sheer disbelief. “You might as well ask for the full eight hundred.”
“This is negotiable, but I can guarantee if you can’t come up with a meaningful chunk of it, they will pursue a criminal case against you,” she informs him.
