Chapter 24: Ch24. Crashing the part-, ahem, the court session
Tony stood in front of a door leading to the courtroom where the trial at which Obadiah intended to 'put Tony aside' and 'relieve' him from the responsibility for the company was in a session.
Much to Tony's surprise, they actually started the trial despite the fact that Obadiah was arrested so when JARVIS informed him of it, he was forced to actually stand up from his ass and go set some idiotic people straight.
Hence, here he was.
Tony didn't bother being polite. This entire thing was a farce and anyone stupid enough to attend such a proceeding did not deserve anything but hard smacking in the hope of gaining some lacking latent intelligence.
He pushed the door open with a bang, instantly stopping whatever was going on in the room and causing silence to spread over it as he nonchalantly walked in as if he owned the place with a self-assured smile on his face.
Tony walked forward, arriving in front of the judge, in the place where the lawyer or prosecutor, or whatever these people were called nowadays, usually questioned the witness, and smirked, looking around to see which members of his board of directors actually attended.
"Well hello there, Useless, Stupid, and What's-Your-Name-Again. I didn't see you for some months now." Tony wistfully sighed as he stared at the only three members of the board of directors present. "Happy times, that. Anyway... isn't it a naptime for you? What are you doing here?"
The judge finally recollected himself and angrily banged his hammer. "Mr. Stark, you are disturbing these proceedings. If you want to attend, sit down in the area for the public and keep quiet. If you will continue to be disruptive, I will be forced to fine or arrest you depending on-." He heatedly explained but Tony interrupted him midway.
"Oh, get on with it." He rolled his eyes before giving the judge an unamused look, "Also, nope, you won't because you can't."
"I can't? Try me. Don't think that your wealth will-" The judge gritted his teeth at the blatant disrespect but Tony again interrupted him.
"Ah! Now I see why they choose you as the judge for these proceedings. You are stubborn but stupid enough for the job!" Tony exclaimed in surprise.
"Mr. Stark-!" The judge growled.
"Okay, okay, okay." Tony showed a placating gesture with his hands and the judge sneered at him but was inwardly happy that his authority was obeyed. Well, that was before Tony nonchalantly continued speaking. "But... you know. Yesterday, Obadiah Stane was arrested and this whole proceeding can be in session only because of his 25% of shares which are now irrelevant, or rather, mine. You can play house here as much as you want," Tony gave the judge an innocent look, "but I own 66% of the Stark Industries stocks so whatever verdict you pass here? I can piss on it, Grumpy Pants."
Now that seemed to send the judge into a gaping silence as he realized in what shit he found himself. He was basically presiding over an unlawful trial! This could very well end his career right then and there.
Yes, the board of directors had the right to 'relieve' Tony of his responsibility for the company and with that, take away any control he had over it despite him owning the biggest share. They had their rights.
The problem comes when this biggest share equals or surpasses 51%.
With Obadiah gone, the board of directors did not have enough shares between themselves to start this kind of lawsuit against Tony. Not even close.
If the judge passed a verdict on this trial? The guy could say bye-bye to his license.
Tony was actually doing the dude a favor!
Sure, even though he had over 51% of shares, there still was a way for the board of directors to get what they wanted. It would have been infinitely harder for them to accomplish their goal but not completely impossible. Alas, for that, they would need the second-biggest shareholder to file a complaint and join their side in this legal tug of war.
Which didn't happen.
Obadiah no longer counted since he 'gifted' his shares to Tony before he was arrested which made this entire trial just a monumental waste of time for everyone present.
Unfortunately for them, the second-biggest shareholder was now one, Anthony Jarvis who owned 18% of the shares and for some reason, Tony really doubted the guy would be interested in this farce.
"Yeah... awkward, isn't it?" Tony interrupted the sudden silence in the room, totally gloating at the lost and flabbergasted expressions of those present. The members of the jury were looking at each other, not knowing what to do, the judge was speechless and the prosecutor tried to hide his face in his hands all the while the present members of the board of directors were red from quiet anger but knew they could not erupt here. They were in a deep enough shit as it was.
Needless to say, Tony enjoyed and savored every second of it.
...
After the trial was concluded, Tony's control of the company became unshakable. With openly holding 66% of the company shares, he could do almost whatever he wanted with it and nobody could complain.
The board of directors no longer mattered. They had barely 13% between themselves while the last 3 percent were scattered over so many people who owned a minuscule amount of SI shares that their representative could only dream of getting the necessary consent from all of them to do anything that his mandate did not allow him.
Even among those thirteen remaining percent, not every member of the board was against Tony. In fact, now that Obadiah was gone, they did not have even a full 10%.
And while Tony would like nothing else than to buy out their shares, these people were smart. They refused to sell no matter what price he offered and when it reached really incredulous range, Tony could only wryly admit his defeat. No way was he paying for 2% of the shares the same price as 20% cost originally before his announcement.
Yes, Tony could sick Natasha on them and get their lives over with but he'd like to think he didn't sink that low... yet.
If he wanted them dead, he would have killed them himself.
Well... they were totally a non-issue anyway.
They could only helplessly watch in silence, and complain in their minds, as Tony appointed Pepper as the new CEO.
While Pepper was known as Tony's personal assistant, that really wasn't qualification enough. It was as if the owner of an academy suddenly decided to name the canteen lady a headmistress.
And while that comparison did not do Pepper justice, it fit.
Well, Tony didn't care about the opinions of others anyway and despite Pepper feeling embarrassed and very nervous from all the looks she was getting, Tony knew it would only serve as a powerful motivator for her. It did in the past and it will be the same here.
Some things simply don't change.
With Pepper in place, Tony released new patents for the company and set Pepper to prepare the production for them.
It wasn't anything extremely big yet. Just more advanced smartphones, better solar panels, improved medical scanning technology, and with this one, Tony hoped to get the interest of Helen Cho and make her come to him with a request for funding because he wanted to co-own the patent to her Healing Cradle.
The Healing Cradle was not something Tony was willing just anyone to have. Right now, nobody believed Helen to be capable of constructing it but Tony knew better and he would be damned if someone like Hydra got their hands on it. The potential of that device was simply immense.
Even Tony didn't intend to actually sell the Cradles. He wanted to make hospitals where the patients could be treated in one for a fee. Selling them would be foolish and in the long run, would probably make more problems than it was worth it.
Then there were some improvements to the software and hardware of the current computers, some more medical technology, and more technology Tony deemed unimportant but will be extremely popular with the general populace and make the company a lot of money.
Plus there were the things the Stark Industries scientists came up with in the past month so there was that. After all, Tony Stark was not the only person researching new products for the company. He was only the best one.
For a new start, it was honestly quite a big mix without any specialization but... The Stark Industries started to move again and Tony had no doubt it would eventually rise above its past station.
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Author Note:
I don't have much experience or knowledge with corporate law or lawsuit proceedings and regulations so don't go at me with: 'This is not how it works!' or something.
Just chill, guys. It is called a fantasy for a reason.
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