Roots of Stone (Irani)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

TION TRADE NEXUS
(OWNERSHIP/TENANCY)

After months on Kilia IV, processed air tasted flat and dirty. That remained true even on a relatively new station like this one. The Tion Trade Nexus had been around for less than a decade, after all -- but in that decade it had played host to the galaxy's business, clean and less so. Even here, in the Akure Executive Interstellar local boardroom, climate-controlled and microfiltered, Mara kept getting a sore throat from the chemical tang. That sensitivity, and the faint accent she'd picked up, counted among the less expected side effects of her time on Kilia. She'd muted the rest -- left the coat of mail and the spear on her ship, made sure her guards wore galactic-standard gear and clothes -- but the accent and the sore throat weren't going away anytime soon.

Akure Executive Interstellar had been rocked by four successive pieces of news. First -- Rave Merrill, AEI's founder, had been found alive, after years of being legally dead. Second -- Rave had then died, more or less heroically. Third -- the damage she'd done to AEI's alchemists had been reversed by her last creation, a set of gauntlets that could restore blocked memories. Fourth -- Ostanes, a rising star at the executive level, and possibly AEI's best alchemist at the moment, had opted to take a less prominent role.

There was a side matter, an issue of an unexpected acquisition that Mara had personally made, but that could wait. At the moment, AEI -- one of the galaxy's largest corporations -- needed some stability. So they'd called on one of their silent partners, Rave's niece, already a minority shareholder. And Mara, conflicted and baffled by options, had turned to the rest of the Foundation Trust. She'd consulted with [member="Rel Connory"] and [member="Selka Ventus"], and they'd given her their advice. She'd consulted with her father, and he'd recommended Connory and Ventus. And Connory and Ventus, in turn, had suggested she speak with Darell Irani, the newest member of the Foundation Trust.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

The days were getting longer, the loads more heavier to carry and still there was no end in sight. Perhaps a little melodramatic, I suppose, considering the end to the Roche Conflict was so beneficial to the corporate fold at large. But what we - the men and women in the well-tailored suits, expensive liquor and more expensive ciggaras - could all agree on was the sheer amusement of the following fact: the Mandalorians were better hosts to the corporations who held an interest in Roche than the Republic, by a long shot.

It was a publicity stunt. Spear-headed by the likes of Larraq and Vereen, who knew just how important public perception was for the wars they waged, but the fact of the matter was that they kept on holding that moral high ground. The Republic's PR machine was working overtime to try and correct the mistakes that their hierarchy heads kept on committing.

No end in sight on that one.

"Sir." Ash was still as meticulous as ever even with the influence of Mai. The datapad she handed over felt too light, considering the amount of data it contained and was worth.

"Thank you, Ash."

The brief walk through the corridors of the Tion Trade Nexus kept me on my toes. Press of the sentients all around, the sheer amount of commerce and credit that were exchanged here on even an hourly basis. Truly this station was one of the finer points the Tion Hegemony had managed to accomplish through its entire course.

Luckily Akure's space was close to ours. A remnant of the close working relationship both of the corporate giants had enjoyed back in the day, even with Rave gone... well, some say that contracts such as the ones they had signed lasted for eternity. Didn't sound too wrong - Vereen might enjoy handing off the contract signing to his lackeys, but after all the signing I did today? Wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of truth in that particular idiom.

Ash decided to stick around the doorway, this was a private meeting for all intents and purposes.

"Miss Merrill." I'd offer. Kept on studying the room though, expensive couture but that was expected from a corporation whose lifeblood was the skin (and other assortment of bodily ware) of Sithspawn.

"A pleasure." Pleasantry, mostly. Mara was an unknown quantity and I was getting too old to keep on meeting new faces. But duty calls, profit was in the air, and this ain't a thing I would delegate to someone else.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

"Mister Irani, likewise." Mara stayed seated; the boardroom table was too broad to lean across for a handshake. "Welcome to the Akure section, though I'd imagine you've been here before at one point or another."

She took a moment to introduce her companions: a hulking half-Valkyri named Styr (security), and a demure Chalactan Adept named Eiarra Denirel (public relations). Both had been with her since before Kilia; she trusted both implicitly. Eiarra, a minor Force-sensitive and one of Mara's teachers, took point.

"Mister Irani," said the Chalactan, "the Akure board of governors has asked Miss Merrill to reach out to the Foundation Trust, as she's the only Trust member who's also an Akure shareholder. Tell me: how much do you know about recent events on Dromund Kaas, the role of Vice President Ostanes, and these?" Eiarra reached under the table and procured a Grip of Enlightenment, which she placed between them.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"My people are still going through reports to figure out what exactly happened." It was beyond my understanding why those disk ships had been trying to destroy that little enclave of people on Kaas. Saiba had quite the investment in the Dromund Kaas system though - a fact that wasn't a secret to anyone. After all, the corporation had been quite busy repairing the damage the Mandalorians caused for a long time now.

It was a chaotic situation though.

First that strange coalition of genocidal maniacs followed by a sudden appearance of a Silver Sanctum strike force. Merrill turning out to be alive, before dying again in defense of said enclave.

"As to what I know for a fact. A coalition of maniacs trying to slaughter residents of an enclave on Kaas. Rave reappearing in the defense of said enclave with allies of her own - the Silver Sanctum jumping in with their own fleet... a sacrifice made to ensure the safety of the enclave."

Couldn't suppress a grimace there. She had always been the one for big gestures. Ostanes though?

"The role of Ostanes is less known to me though."

The gauntlet was a fine piece of alchemical prowess. Looked to be a Rave-work, but I wasn't too sure what it was for.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

Mara took over.

"My aunt turning out to be alive, and then dying, sent ripples through Akure's alchemical community in one way or another. Through Ostanes, she provided the company with these. You might remember that she damaged the memories of most of Akure's alchemists on her way out, years ago.These gauntlets are Light Side artifacts. They fix blocked or damaged memories -- flashburn, slippery aura, things like that. So Akure's alchemists are remembering their old skills. Ostanes is the best of them, but recent events..." She shrugged. "Well, he's enigmatic. Suffice it to say, Akure is in the biggest flux it's experienced since my aunt left, and over half of Akure is publicly traded. Uneducated buyers are selling low. Those in the know are certain that the flux means great things. I would buy up the excess stock myself, but my aunt wrote into the company bylaws that nobody can own more than five percent.

"Which is why I'm turning to the Foundation Trust. We have almost a dozen members-" Most of whom were intensely secretive. "-and up to five percent for each of them adds up quickly. Into a controlling interest, potentially."

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

He took a seat then.

The old Irani would have jumped at this chance. Almighty Akure at the tip of his fingers - well, their fingers, considering it would be divided up between the various members of the Trust, but that fact remained. In recent years, or even recent months, he had become a lot more careful and moderate in his business approach. The slow and steady course. The boring course that brought a steady supply of dividend without the assorted risks inherent.

"I see." a non-committal response, while he pondered. The advantages were clear to them all. After selling his majority share of Iron Crown he probably had enough liquid funds to buy multiple five percentages, but money wasn't the real question here.

"It's been a while since I paid close attention to Akure. Any high-level players' toes we would be stepping on with this move?"

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

"Here's a copy of Akure's current ownership records. Some of them are probably fronts, but we're talking about a legion of minority shareholders. The absolute largest shareholder sits at ten percent -- that's grandfathered in from before the five percent rule."

Mara passed Irani a datapad with the shareholder list. It noted that 33% was divided between employees. 10% was held by a silent partner, the secretive infochant Patches. 5% was held by Mara, as per her aunt's will. The remaining 52% was publicly traded, split between a hundred thousand small shareholders and mutual funds and such. But she'd flagged several 3-5% chunks as vulnerable or willing to sell. The plan would give the Foundation Trust, not counting Mara, control of between 25 and 30 percent of Akure. When backed by the company's unions and certain existing shareholders, the Trust could potentially win a given vote with at least sixty percent. More than enough room to work with.

"Long story short: I don't believe so, no. Oh, and there's another factor to consider, though it's a lesser one."

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Irani took a brief look, but couldn't see anything other than what Mara had just described to him. Perhaps with more research he could have figured out more details, if he had the time, the will and the drive to do so, but coming in late meant that playing catchup on this one would be difficult.

He'd just have to trust her on this one.

"Yes?" Few things were really small in the business they were in.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

"Consolidation," she said, "for efficiency. Iron Crown and Akure both do trade facilitation in the Unknown Regions. They're both heavily invested in the Blood Trail, which may or may not ever get finished -- I think I can say that between us. But a merger between those branches of Akure and Iron Crown could make for a uniquely powerful entity."tiet, let alone attain -- just didn't fit a young Warden of the Sky who scouted for the Underground. In some respects, she thought that this kind of power might be inherently corrupting. There had been precious few Lightsiders who'd been successful in comparable secular fields. Tenel Ka Djo came to mind, and that was about it.

"Or look at, say, Stargo Forge Works. It's a Dathomir-based corporation I happened to acquire at auction the other day. It has ties to Clan Rekali and the Witchmasters of Dathomir, through Isley Verd. It's Akure writ small -- a known name, but cottage industry. Fold that brand name into Akure as a subsidiary, and leverage happens. Frankly, if we could find a way to snare Shule's Workshop from Ashin Varanin's estate, at a stroke that would pretty much leave Akure where it used to be: at the top of the pile. The only quality exception would be Sasori. Oh, chuckle all you like, but my aunt had some complimentary words for some of their creations."

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"No chuckling here. From Baktoid Shiba retained some... interesting designs Sasori-marks all over it. We have been meaning to implement a few of them in a more cost-effective way for quite some time." Things like the tuxedo that conferred low-grav on the wearer's body and the sort. Very interesting possibilities even outside the military market.

"The idea of consolidation has always gotten a favorable opinion from me. More oversight, less costs across the board, streamlined process. I have been meaning to do some of my own... house cleaning."

Mohc. Saiba. There were probably some he was forgetting even now. That was the issue with owning so much... little oversight.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

Mara exchanged a glance with her Chalactan aide, Eiarra.

"Are you saying you've noticed areas of overlap between Akure, Iron Crown, and Saiba Group? Areas where consolidation might be profitable for everyone?" That could take multiple forms -- swapping subsidiaries, combining divisions and spinning them off into new subsidiaries -- sales, trades, various kinds of integration. And comparative advantage also involved location; Akure, for one, had a couple of locations clear on the other side of the galaxy, and Iron Crown owned things everywhere. That being said-

"Not that Iron Crown or Akure is interested in a complete merger, of course." She doubted Saiba was either. It almost didn't need to be said, but she knew she was an unknown quantity, and in some respects she wanted to be less so.

"But there are several ways we could approach this, so as to maximize efficiency, benefit everyone, and keep all of our respective agency intact. You don't want to work for me, and I don't want to work for you."

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Smart woman, indeed.

To the point too without losing common decency and diplomacy. He could respect that, and so Irani listened to her talk - solid points across the board and something of an idea was coming to him. It couldn't be ignored that Arceneau was tightening her grip across the Galaxy in the corporate sense of the word.

He liked her, of course. It was difficult to not like Danger. That was part of her charm... and yet he was starting to doubt his own wisdom when he had decided to let her live.

Could have killed her on Taloraan.

It might have been the better choice for all intents and purposes. But a man's gotta use the tools he had at his disposal, and at the moment that meant dealing with Arceneau Trade, Browncoat, Mara and all the other corporations with her name on it. Some said that the Galaxy was big enough to handle all these various connections and relationships.

But one look at Roche, the Republic and the rest? Told him enough.

The formation of host of companies that spun together Iron Crown, Akure, Saiba? One that would add the Blood Trail, the resources of Mohc and Apex? Ah... now there was a steady front.

"A complete merger would cost us more than it would profit, I'd think." They would need to lay off people, disband fleets, maybe even close-off locations if they wanted to go that route. And nobody did.

"We could always take our inspiration from Silk Holdings, perhaps."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

"The Silk Family of Companies model -- you read my mind. Akure's Board of Directors is interested in pursuing a partnership along those lines."

The meeting proceeded like that for a while, dotting I's and crossing T's. That concluded the initial approach.

They met again later that day, after various consultations with boards and lawyers. This meeting's agenda: discussing areas of overlap.

"So," she said. "Iron Crown handles shipbuilding, Unknown Regions trade facilitation, starship components, spacer equipment, weapons, bacta-related equipment, design production rights broker, and general investment. Akure handles high-end clothing and gear; the management, disposal, and supply of Sithspawn, biots, and warbeasts; the containment and disposal of dangerous locations and artifacts, with a sideline in environmental reclamation; specialty starship and vehicle components; brokerage and middleman functions; incidental prospecting and service provision in Otherspace; alchemist certification; uplift; and stygium mining. Off the top of my head, Akure's starship-and-vehicle components work could easily go to Iron Crown. Iron Crown's spacer equipment line could be folded into Akure, possibly, though probably under a new brand. And the middleman work, the trade facilitation, everything that's focused on the Blood Trail region, could be spun off with assets from both."

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Reviewing all his corporate assets was easier said than done. Luckily the Eridium Industrial and Mon Cal Hypernautics subsidiaries had been merged into Saiba months ago - back when this whole consolidation idea had first started to go off. Which left Saiba with a whole ton of operations and assets throughout the Galaxy. He listened and then nodded once Mara was done with her recollection.

It was interesting to hear all those operations though.

These corporations did... alot. With the three of them together they would basically have a stack in almost every industrial and commercial sector of the galactic economy, well almost all of them.

"Saiba has recently merged two of its subsidiaries into its main holdings. With it the corporation now caters to the military market with experimental weaponry, cybernetics and biochemistry. Eridium's expertise brought and consolidated its experience in space construction; the Taris-like space station orbiting over Dromund Kaas, the infrastructure network all across Techno Union space, things like that."

He looked back at his datapad, making a few short notations.

"Energy creation, planetary survey, resource collections. I see potential with the Blood Trail resources from Akure and Iron Crown for that. And I haven't even started on Mohc Extractives."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

"Oh, we'll definitely come back to Mohc. What interests me at the moment is the Blood Trail. Iron Crown has facilities on Rakata Beta, Verkuyl, 244Core, Dasid Anya, and Serpena. Akure has facilities on Annaj, Serpena, Kad Five, Kalee, Solovarna, Sharb, and Muunilinst. Each company owns exactly half of the Blood Trail. We've made it work, but there's serious room for improvement. Right now, the Akure Board of Directors is strongly considering offering to sell the Akure half to Iron Crown. I think we can both agree that the Blood Trail would do best as a subsidiary of Iron Crown. Akure is looking to refocus its brand name, shed divisions that don't speak to its core competencies. And a lot of those divisions line up well with Iron Crown.

"What's your opinion of the subsidiary angle for Iron Crown -- and Akure? For other operations, not just the Blood Trail?" He was an Iron Crown shareholder, but at a guess he'd pondered similar things for Akure, possibly with an eye to investment. Irani had a reputation for trying to maximize pies per finger.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

This reputation was not ill-earned. Used to be a time him and his predecessor had their fingers in almost, if not every, worthy pie to have in the Galaxy - wasn't bloviating, was just the simple truth about two entities being way too much invested in controlling or at least... guiding events and people like a holographic chess-board.

Things change, though, if not by much. Irani wasn't as hungry for power, capital, success; take your pick, as he used to be.

Didn't mean he wouldn't aim for profit when he saw it.

"My opinion is that it would be in line with what we are striving for. Cut out the fat, reduce costs and maximize efficiency. Iron Crown has always been the gateway to the Unknown Regions for all intents and purposes. Well, there was also some kind of Trade Conglomerate a year or so back - they even got a system in the middle of Sanctuary Pipeline, Conglomerate Prime, but that has been defunct for a while now." Darell replied with a moderate smile, before looking over the data in front of them.

"Consolidating the Blood Trail under Iron Crown would cater to the strengths of its role as trade facilitator to the Unknown Regions."

He frowned, before snorting. "Space equipment? We could probably fit that into Akure somewhere. Think it would fit well with the rough couture, frontier-look and feel, no?"

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Darell Irani"]

"That's for the advertising people to handle, but that said, I've got a report here...where'd that go..."

She rummaged in her digital files for a moment, then produced the document in question. It broke down the Iron Crown line of survival gear in relation to Akure's technical capabilities, brand opportunities, and market share by sector.

"In general, it looks like Akure could easily take over those lines, but distribution volume in the Unknown Regions markets might suffer due to distance. The flipside is that Akure is much better positioned to market in the Tion Cluster, Coalition space, and the Corporate Sector, under whatever brand name the marketing people choose. And if Akure improves its shipping options to the near end of the Blood Trail at Muunilinst, and if the Blood Trail can be stabilized, that Unknown Regions market share will come right back. Like you said, there's no serious competition out that way."