The True Master of Stark Industries

All of the company's board members were present in a large conference room in the Stark Industries office building.

They sat upright in their respective chairs, chatting familiarly, their words revealing their dissatisfaction with Tony Stark's late arrival.

After Howard faked his death, Stark Industries was in trouble. At Obadiah's urging, Tony Stark sold 10% of the 40% of Stark Industries shares he inherited from Howard to save the struggling company, which led to the current board of directors.

Furthermore, after the company went public, Tony Stark reduced his stake by 20% to outstanding shares. Now, Tony only owns 10% of Stark Industries. Following a series of shareholding changes, the board of directors has expanded further, now consisting of nine directors who control more than 10% of the company's shares.

Therefore, the actual control of Stark Industries does not lie with Tony Stark, but with the board members present here.

This was also Obadiah's plan: to use the board of directors to sideline Tony and gain control of Stark Industries.

Like Obadiah, the board members treated Tony Stark merely as a tool to make money for them. As Tony Stark continued to develop new weapons, they sold them to anyone who needed them, whether it was a national army or terrorists. As long as it brought them wealth, they didn't care who ended up with the weapons.

In this respect, they shared the same ideas and pursuits as Obadiah. So when Tony planned to close the weapons manufacturing department, they did not hesitate to stop Tony's work and help Obadiah seize power, allowing him to completely control the company.

This is also the result of Obadiah's years of planning and hard work.

Now that Obadiah, the board's spokesperson, is dead, Tony Stark, as Chairman, has convened a board meeting, but they don't know what Tony's purpose is in calling it.

Although he became Iron Man, in their eyes he was still the playboy they could manipulate. If it were them, they would never reveal their identity. He was still as arrogant and naive as before.

If he's sensible, they wouldn't mind reinstating him and letting him continue managing the company and making money for them.

After all, Tony Stark is a true genius when it comes to weapons development. As long as he is willing to continue developing more advanced and powerful weapons for the company, they will continue to enjoy the enormous wealth that Stark Industries has created for them, just as before.

If Tony Stark remains obstinate, they wouldn't mind keeping him under control and promoting a more compliant representative. After all, Stark Industries' existing weapons technology is already enough for them to make huge profits; without Tony Stark, they would only earn a little less.

So when Tony Stark walked in, the board members didn't show any respect for the Chairman; instead, they looked at him with a condescending scrutiny.

However, their gazes soon shifted to the group of people who walked in with Tony Stark. In particular, when a tall, slender, and dignified young Chinese man sat down in the chair that originally belonged to the Chairman, the brows of the directors couldn't help but furrow.

"Tony! Who is this person?"

A man who looked to be in his fifties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and with a mean face, asked Tony Stark, who had just sat down next to Chen Mo, in an impolite manner.

Tony Stark completely ignored his question, not even glancing at him.

If you dare talk to me like that, I'm not going to listen to you!

Moreover, he didn't know how to introduce Chen Mo, to tell everyone, "This is my godfather, you can call him Dad like I do."

No, I mean uncle, because he's almost a hundred years old and just came out from under the ice.

You are all able to live here and point fingers, and you should all thank him for saving your lives back then!

Tony Stark convened the board meeting simply at Chen Mo's request, but he was unaware of Chen Mo's intentions. However, whatever Chen Mo wanted to do, he would fully support him.

The director who had just asked the question realized that no one was paying attention to him, and his face turned red with anger. He glared at Tony Stark and then turned his gaze to Chen Mo. Just as he was about to question Chen Mo directly, Chen Mo suddenly looked at him.

Chen Mo's gaze was indifferent and cold, sending chills down one's spine, seemingly capable of freezing one's soul. The sharp aura contained within it made one's heart clench involuntarily. The question that was about to be uttered was swallowed back down, and the proud head unconsciously lowered, avoiding Chen Mo's gaze.

Chen Mo's gaze swept across the faces of everyone present, and those who met his eyes instantly changed their arrogant expressions.

These directors are just wealthy people who control the company; in the end, they are just ordinary people. How could they possibly compare to Chen Mo, who has killed countless people and wielded imperial power?

They all retreated under his sharp gaze, not daring to meet his eyes, and couldn't help but feel a bit of fear towards this suddenly appearing stranger.

After casually glancing around, Chen Mo raised his hand and waved to Phil Coulson behind him. As he and Pepper Potts stepped forward to distribute the documents they were carrying to everyone, Chen Mo slowly began to speak.

"I am the boss of this company!"

Everyone present, including Tony Stark, was taken aback upon hearing this, and then they saw the documents that Phil Coulson and Pepper had placed in front of them.

With some questions in their minds, everyone opened the documents in front of them and began to read them.

As the documents were flipped through, the expressions on everyone's faces became increasingly interesting.

At the top of the document is a copy of a share transfer agreement. This agreement shows that seventy years ago, Howard sold 60 percent of Stark Industries' shares to Chen Mo for $60 million. In other words, the person named Chen Mo on the contract held 60 percent of the company's shares and was the real owner of Stark Industries.

In fact, everyone present knew that Stark Industries had a mysterious major shareholder who owned 60 percent of the company's shares, but had never appeared in person or interfered with the company's operations.

The huge annual dividends were always deposited into Howard's private research account, and after Howard's "death," they were transferred to Tony Stark. Therefore, Tony Stark's research funding has always been provided by this mysterious controlling shareholder. If Howard hadn't spent too much money on his research into Anti-Gravity Technology and depleted the account, Tony Stark wouldn't have been persuaded by Obadiah to sell his shares to save the struggling company.

Although Tony Stark only owns 10 percent of Stark Industries, he actually enjoys 70 percent of the company's profits, while each of the board members owns only about 1 percent.

However, Tony Stark was obsessed with weapons and technology research and development, and spent most of this huge profit on experiments. The final results were then handed over to Stark Industries for production and sales, saving the company and other shareholders a large amount of research funding.

However, Tony Stark didn't care about these things before. In his view, experimentation and research were his hobbies, and he enjoyed the process. Stark Industries was also his own company, so there was no need to calculate it so clearly.

So these board shareholders have actually been taking advantage of Tony all along, and they feel perfectly justified in doing so.

Tony Stark didn't care before, because in the end, 70% of the profits would still come back to him. And money was just a number to him. Stark Industries was built by his father Howard and was now in his hands. He wanted to see it continue to grow and expand. His research results were used by his own company, so there was no need to worry about research and development expenses.

Of course, now that he's been outmaneuvered by Obadiah and the board, Tony won't be as naive as before.

In fact, including Tony, no one knew anything about this mysterious major shareholder before. His information seemed to have been deliberately hidden. Everyone knew that he existed, but no one knew who he was, or why he never participated in the management of the company despite having controlling rights, and why he gave the huge dividends to the Stark family to use at will.

At this moment, the contract cleared up everyone's doubts. An additional clause in the contract stated that Chen Mo would hand over all the proceeds to Howard for research purposes.

As for not participating in management, that was a verbal agreement between the two of them. Of course, for the two of them, that was enough. If it weren't for the fact that equity and profit distribution required formal documents, the two of them wouldn't even need to sign a contract. Would Howard dare to renege on Chen Mo's debt? Obviously, he wouldn't have the guts.

If Chen Mo reneges on the debt, Howard will have no choice but to tolerate it, since he can't beat Chen Mo.

The authenticity of this contract can be easily verified. They don't believe it's fake, but some people have noticed problems.

"This contract was signed seventy years ago. Don't tell us you're Chen Mo?"

Although they were initially intimidated by Chen Mo's imposing presence, the huge profits involved, which concerned the company's control, made them set aside their fears.

At this point, Tony Stark, having finished reading the contract, spoke.

"You should know my father's identity. During World War II, he joined a special department of the Allies. You must have heard of one of his former comrades, the Special Operations Team Commander, Chen Mo!"

"That is the person standing in front of you!"