With that, he went out leaving Gladys to stare at the closed door. What a welcome! She wondered what had gone wrong. She hoped it could be resolved and picked up her mobile.
**********
Edward barged into his office and straight to the boardroom. He pressed the buzzer, and leaned back in the nearest swivel chair. Benibo and Mrs. Olayomi came in together; each carried a large sheaf of papers. It was Benibo who‘d called him on the house phone.
“Welcome back Edward,” Mrs. Olayomi greeted.
“Thanks.” Edward closed his eyes again. The adrenaline rush seemed to subside all of a sudden and he felt lightheaded. It had actually been a long day. Damn these sharks.
Odili the accountant came in next, followed by his personal assistant Ogbonna and the secretary.
“You should all take your seats.” Edward sat up, drawing on his last reserves of energy.
They all sat down silently while his personal assistant placed some folders before him.
“Ogbonna, I left my contacts with you. Why didn‘t you tell me about this takeover business as soon as it happened?”
“I sent an email, but when you remained incommunicado I didn‘t want to pursue it.”
“So what were you saying?” Edward turned to Benibo.
“The Monday after you left, Ogbonna contacted me about an expression of interest for takeover in the mail. We all know how you feel about that so I contacted Mrs. Olayomi,” he gestured at the company lawyer, “and we sent back a reply in the negative.”
Edward steepled his fingers and nodded briefly.
Benibo continued, “Later the same week, we received another note informing us that they held fifteen percent of the company‘s stock and wanted a place on the board. They noted that they had enough voting rights to make this demand and wanted to challenge the non- negotiation policy of the current directors to takeovers. That was when I sent you an email.”
“Dammit! Who are those people?” Edward burst out.
“They wrote through their lawyers, Agama, Fagbenu and Co.” Ogbonna replied.
“We sent back that we held controlling interest,” Mrs. Olayomi continued, “and they could not have a place on the board unless we agreed on it in a general meeting.”
The cogs whirled in his brain, but Edward remained silent.
The lawyer continued. “We were stunned to get another correspondence last week. They said they now hold over thirty percent of the stock and would apply for a takeover…”