Extraordinary Genius
Chapter 745 – Sixth Sense Company’s developments
Nasdaq is a stock exchange in New York but operates differently from the NYSE. The most significant difference is Nasdaq uses electronic trades, while NYSE still needed to go through brokers.
In its early days, Nasdaq was a platform for unlisted small companies to raise funds and for people to trade unlisted companies’ shares. It was also the world’s first electronic stock market.
Nasdaq grew at an alarming rate. Their over-the-counter trading system does not require brokers and dealers. Some people even felt that Nasdaq was not a real stock exchange, but a virtual stock market!
But the Nasdaq will become one of US major stock exchange. Nasdaq composite index also became an essential indicator of the security markets.
Microsoft and Apple were listed on the Nasdaq.
Of course. Trading can also be done on NYSE through phone or internet. But it was still not as convenient as Nasdaq.
The Sixth Sense Company will be getting listed on Nasdaq. This was because the requirements to get listed there were the lowest. The conditions were much lower than NYSE, Tokyo Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, etc.
The requirements for getting listed on Nasdaq was tangible or physical assets worth more than 6 million USD, profits of more than 1 million USD before taxes the year before, outstanding shares of more than 1.1 million shares, minimum of three market makers, each stock must be at least 5 USD and at least 400 shareholders.
All other stock exchange needed the financial reports for the last 3 years and must have more than 2,000 shareholders. The company’s tangible assets must be worth more than 1.8 million USD, etc.
Because of the lower requirements of Nasdaq, there were a lot of companies listed. Most of the companies were small-medium enterprises and new startups. These small companies were able to raise funds quickly. Nasdaq was like China’s Growth Enterprise Market.
The Sixth Sense Company had met the criteria for both the assets and income. But they did not have enough shareholders because they only had a few hundred longtime employees.
Most Japanese companies will have lifetime employment contracts for their employees. But these contracts were only for mainly Japanese, and companies seldom issue this contract to a foreign worker. This was a common practice in big Japanese enterprises. As long as the employee did not make any grave mistake or committed any crimes, they could remain at the company for the rest of their lives.
Also, these employees will get salary increments based on their age. Some companies, like Panasonic will offer unique benefits. For instance, a male employee got married, the company will ask the wife to resign and stay at home to take care of the house. At the same time, the husband will get a pay raise of about 50% or even more. The increment will have to depend on the wife’s previous salary. In Japan, female employees’ wages were generally about half of the male employees at equivalent rank.
Japanese firms took good care of their employees. The Sixth Sense Company had more than 5,000 employees, but only a few hundred of them were given lifetime employment contracts. This was because the rest of their staffs were from other countries like Europe, the US and other parts of Asia. Kameda Masao will not give such employment contracts to these staffs.
If something happened at the company and there was a need for retrenchment, Kameda Masao could just retrench those ordinary employees. The company would not need to pay out a large amount of retrenchment fees.
Kameda Masao will not tell the press about this. If he told the media, the reporters would question him why can’t the other employees not under lifetime employment contracts purchase the company’s shares?
The other employees were also allowed to purchase the company’s shares. But it was limited to the middle and higher management staffs. Their treatment was not like Japan, where even a lifetime employment security guard can purchase the Sixth Sense Company’s shares.
Feng Yu was speechless when he learned about this. All of them were employed under the same company. You can just set a minimum year of service as the criteria. This way, more people will be willing to buy the company’s shares.
But Kameda Masao explained that their overseas employees were mainly salespeople. Everyone knew that sales had the highest turnovers. He cannot just issue a long-term contract to them just because their performance is good for the past two years. Unless the staff is the top salesman in the company. But if the staff is the top salesman in the company, he will be given a management role, and he could also buy the company’s shares.
Feng Yu could not retort Kameda Masao, as Kameda Masao was more familiar with the company. Even when it comes to managing a company, Kameda Masao was much better than Feng Yu.
Feng Yu did not use his status as the main shareholder to pressurize Kameda Masao. He just let Kameda Masao do whatever he wants. Anyway, the Sixth Sense Company was developing much faster than Feng Yu’s expectation. It was already the world’s biggest sex toy manufacturer. Most of the company’s profits came from their sex dolls, lingerie, vibrators, and condoms.
Out of the 4 products, sex dolls and lingerie had already dominated the global market in terms of market share and sales.
The other two products’ sales and market share were also rising. They were closing in on the global leaders fast.
As Japanese porn adult videos became more popular in the US and Europe, Kameda Masao believes that the sales of his vibrators will also increase. Japan’s design of such products is the most advanced in the world!
Condoms are the Sixth Sense Company’s latest product. Although the sales were not bad, their condoms were still not the best in Japan. Currently, Okamoto brand was still the top condom in Japan.
Kameda Masao had planned to use the fund raised from this listing to invest in the R&D of condoms. He aimed to beat Okamoto in Japan first and then be the top condom producer in Asia, followed by the world/
Feng Yu was not optimistic about Kameda Masao’s goal. It was still a question mark whether if he could win Okamoto. Even if he exceeds Okamoto, there are still lots of big condoms manufacturers in the world.
But Feng Yu agreed that the condom market will increase in the next few years, and it’s a must for the company to increase its scale and invest more into R&D after the listing.
If it weren’t for Feng Yu taking away parts of Sixth Sense Company’s profits, they would need to depend on this listing to raise funds.
Feng Yu and Kameda Masao were very confident about this listing. This was because they had engaged the services of a few top brokerages as their market makers!
Translator’s notes: I thought lifelong employment in Japanese firms had ceased. This is not a good practice and will result in many redundant staffs in the company. Even when the company is in a crisis, they can’t retrench these staffs. But from the perspective of the employees, this is a good thing. They would have job security and does not need to worry about unemployment. However, if a lazy person like me got this contract, I will just do the minimum work every day and wait for my pay increments every year.
Growth Enterprise Market
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_Enterprise_Market
Japan’s lifetime employment.