As the end of April gradually approached, two major events shook the international technology world.
One was East Asia Communications' $20 billion financing deal for SubCom, which stunned all of North America.
No one had expected that this giant, which had once held more than 40 percent of the undersea fiber-optic cable market, would meet such a hasty end.
What surprised people even more was that the Federal Commerce Department had actually approved the financing plan, allowing a communications company with Hua Nation backing to acquire an American communications company.
And the money even came from a Bank of America loan.
According to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal, SubCom's poor financial performance, repeated losses in global undersea fiber-optic cable projects, and the seemingly unreachable breakthrough in key quantum repeater technology had left it with no hope of defeating its competitors. In the end, the board of directors gave up resisting East Asia Communications' financing proposal.
Although the official statement was indeed that, and Chairman Carter had also said in an interview that joining forces with East Asia Communications was the better choice, that the two sides could complement each other well in terms of experience and technology, and that it was merely a business transaction not worth overthinking.
Quite a few people still detected something unusual in this financing proposal, which was practically an unequal treaty.
But no matter what, it had already happened.
The Federal Commerce Department had indeed approved the proposal.
Quantum undersea fiber-optic cables were advancing toward the Americas, with eight landing stations established along North America's West Coast. Everyone was happy...
As for the other major event, the Star Sea-1 Quantum Supercomputing Center had finally been completed after more than two months of construction...
Lingang Development Zone.
Beside a broad six-lane highway stood