Jang Gwangchul asked Woosung as he pointed at the newspaper, “President Kang, did you talk to someone from Goryu Newspaper? Why is there an article about us?”

“XFeed wins over TK?”

“According to an official from XFeed, the company has an unlimited amount of fund. This means that it is unlikely for TK to win the golden frequency from this auction.”

“Which official did they talk to? Do I have to get involved?”

Woosung grinned mysteriously and replied, “I think the reporter just made it up.”

“…did you do this?”

Woosung didn’t answer, but Jang Gwangchul didn’t probe. He changed the subject instead.

“Fine. Anyway, the bid is at over two billion dollars now. What will you do now?”

Currently, they were at the eighth round and the current bid was 2.3 billion dollars.

Jang Gwangchul asked, “You realize that two billion is a huge amount, right?”

Woosung knew, but he wasn’t worried. The only thing he had to decide was whether to actually purchase the frequency or just raise the bid and let TK buy it at a ridiculous price.

Winner’s curse.

If the bid went over three billion dollars and TK won, it would have no choice but to increase the cell phone bill to cover this expense. This would cause many of the customers to leave this company.

Which scenario will benefit Woosung the most?

Jang Gwangchul misunderstood Woosung’s silence as his concern for the money, so he offered, “If you really feel like we need this frequency, then I will help you with the money. Don’t worry.”

Woosung grinned. “Haha, I’m not worried about the money. I’m just wondering how high I should raise the bid.”

“Obviously we should try to buy it at the lowest cost possible.”

“But what if we raise it high and get TK to buy it?”

“…what?”

“TK is a huge company that can afford up to two billion dollars, but if the bid goes over three, four, or even five billion dollars? They probably could still buy it, but it will be damaging to their company.”

Jang Gwangchul swallowed. He asked, “But will TK follow us?”

“That’s why I am concerned.”

“So that news article was your way of testing the water?”

“Exactly.”

“But what if they give up?”

“I’m looking into it. It’s not just other companies that plant spies in rival companies.”

“…what?”

***

Next day afternoon.

The result of the ninth round was announced. Jun Taewon frowned.

“2.5 billion dollars!? What the…!”

The assistant replied.

“It looks like XFeed wants it at any cost. What should we do?”

“…go with three billion.”

This was beyond what TK could afford. If they won with this amount, they would have to raise the cell phone bills starting next month.

The assistant hesitantly replied, “We will then have to raise the fees. We have done a survey recently and it sounds like if we raise it, the customers will protest.”

“I know that.”

“And if we raise it, it would mean that we are going against the current President Lee Parksung’s wish to decrease the fees for the public.”

Jun Taewon nodded. “So whoever wins this frequency would suffer from the winner’s curse. If 2.8 is too much for us, it must be way over XFeed’s budget too. Yet they still want this frequency…”

“To be honest, we do not know how much President Kang Woosung can really afford. We don’t know the exact amount of his assets, and what kind of technologies he has.” The assistant took a deep breath and continued, “He is the first one in Korea to commercialize 4G. His Coconut is worth over 100 billion dollars. A few billion dollars may mean nothing to him.”

Jun Taewon replied lightly, “You know what? Just raise the bid.”

“…are you thinking Daeyang will help?”

“It will be a good investment for them.”

“But your father, the Chairman, may disagree…”

Jun Taewon kicked the desk angrily.

The assistant flinched. After a few seconds, he continued, “Then…we need to decide on our plan. Are you saying that we don’t plan on purchasing the frequency now, but just raise the bid so Kang Woosung buys it at the highest price?”

Jun Taewon nodded.

“Then we will get started.”

“Don’t worry about the money.”

The assistant nodded and left the room.

***

Three billion dollars.

That was the bid at the tenth round. The media was starting to mention the possibility of increased cell phone bills if the bid kept increasing. When the auction first started, Korea Communication Commission wanted to make as much money from this as possible, but this was going too far.

Meeting at the Korea Communication Commission office.

XFeed’s Jang Gwangchul, TK’s Park Giho, and Korea Communication Commission official met together.

“This could become very controversial, and that is why we arranged this meeting. three billion dollars is not an appropriate amount for this frequency.”

Jang Gwangchul smiled and replied, “It’s all about the demand. We don’t think three billion dollars is a big number.”

Park Giho frowned and added, “I guess I agree. TK won’t give up either. We need this frequency.”

The official looked at both of them and asked, “Is there any way to arbitrate this situation? If this continues and TK wins, you will have to increase the cell phone fee. Don’t you think that this is unfair for your customers?”

The official turned to Jang Gwangchul, “And if XFeed wins, it will still be too much money to spend on a single frequency.”

Jang Gwangchul smiled. “XFeed will not suffer from lack of funds. You know this. President Kang has significant personal funds besides Coconut and KND. We are not worried at all. It should be TK who should be concerned.”

Park Giho frowned. The official sighed deeply.

“Korea Communication Commission is willing to offer another frequency to resolve this situation. If there is a frequency you are interested, please let me know.”

Jang Gwangchul replied, “We only want 1.8HGz. We need this.”

“TK feels the same way. It’s 1.8 or nothing.” Park Giho said the same thing as per Jun Taewon’s order.

The official sighed again. “So there is no solution?”

When both nodded, the official finally announced.

“Then from now on, whenever a company bids, it will have to prove that it has 50% of the bid in cash available immediately. As the bid increases, the percentage will go up as well.”

Park Giho froze. This meant that for a three billion dollars bid, they would need to prove that they have 1.5 billion dollars in cash.

“If a company can’t prove it, they will have to pay a penalty.”

Jang Gwangchul nodded comfortably while Park Giho looked anxious.