Mergers and Acquisitions Read online

  “Tracey, down in accounts on the second floor,” Sophie replied.

  “Ah, I wondered why I hadn’t seen you around before,” he said. He pulled a handkerchief out from his pocket and wiped some dust from the top of the desk lamp. “So, you were an intern in accounts?”

  “Yes, I interned there for three months. When my internship ended, Human Resources asked me if I wanted a job up here, with the operations department. I’m on probation.” She winced, wondering why she had added that last bit of information. Of course she was on probation. All new employees were. Bringing it up just showed how nervous she was about the whole thing. Specifically about working so closely with the CEO of Red Door Marketing.

  Kate Kennedy was a legend. For as long as Sophie could remember, Kate had been the one to watch in the marketing sector. Never in her wildest dreams did Sophie think that she would work for Red Door, never mind on the same floor as Kate. She’d spent the last two weeks of her internship pinching herself and expecting to wake up.

  Despite her three months at Red Door, she’d never once seen Kate in person. Her absence had just made her even more mysterious and fascinating. She knew that she had something of an obsession with Kate. When she was a little girl, she would pretend that she owned an impressive marketing agency, a rather specific bit of make-believe that makes her mum and dad chuckle to this day. In high school, she had her hair cut into Kate’s iconic style. At university, she’d studied marketing in the hopes that she’d one day be able to follow in Kate’s footsteps.

  Sadly, life didn’t go the way she had planned. Necessity had forced her into the first job she could find, and her dreams of working in marketing had faded. Until recently, that is, when she had seen the internship position advertised. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

  Now she needed to get her nerves under control.

  “H-have you worked for Kate for long?” She tried to move the topic of conversation away from herself.

  “Three years this September,” Jonathan replied. He detached the telephone cable and unwound the knots that had formed in it.

  “What’s she like?” Of course, she had intensively researched Kate. She’d heard rumours about her brilliance. But, as always, there were conflicting stories. Sophie was desperate to get to the truth.

  Jonathan chuckled. “She’s brilliant at her job. But a complete nightmare to work for. All the rumours you’ve heard are true.”

  Sophie swallowed. She’d hoped the opposite would be true. “Even about the intern and the stairwell?” Surely that was made up, she mused.

  “Yep, all true.” He tucked the handkerchief into his trouser pocket. He stood and gave the desk one final look. “She’s the best in the biz, there’s no doubt about that. But she works hard; her life is Red Door. She founded this company when she was twenty-three, and she’s built it into the multi-million-pound empire it is today. We employ four hundred people here in the London office. If you’ve worked here for a year and survived, you can get a job anywhere.”

  “That’s what I heard,” Sophie admitted. She hadn’t felt the need to tell anyone about her encyclopaedic knowledge of Kate Kennedy and the Red Door Agency. She wanted to fit in. Even though she had been bumped up from intern to a junior administrator position, she still knew that her employment was fragile. Kate’s temper was legendary; she didn’t suffer fools.

  He looked at her and smiled. “So, what is it that you want to do?”

  Sophie nervously adjusted her glasses. She’d only known Jonathan Llewellyn for a couple of hours, but already she felt like she could trust him. He was Kate’s personal assistant, her right-hand man. He was kind and considerate, funny and intelligent. It was a relief that she’d be shadowing him while she learnt what her new job entailed.

  “Come on,” he encouraged. “What’s Sophie Young’s dream?”

  “Well, I… I know it’s silly, but I love marketing. I always have. When I was a kid, I used to draw brand logos instead of stick figures of my family. My dad got me a board game just about company brands. When I see an advertisement at a bus stop, I notice the fonts, I notice the colours. I just love it. I want to be a part of it. I want to learn everything there is to know about it.”

  Sophie took a step towards Kate’s desk. Looking Jonathan in the eye, she said, “I know some people think it’s just… just a tool to get people to buy stuff they don’t want. But I know it’s more than that. It’s complicated, dynamic. There’s psychology and beauty to it. I want to be surrounded by people who feel the same way.”

  Jonathan smiled and nodded. He opened his mouth to reply and then slowly closed it again, a frown emerging on his face.

  Sophie realised he was looking past her and turned around.

  Kate Kennedy was storming her way across the office. In all her time at Red Door, Sophie had never seen Kate once. Now the woman was walking towards her, straight towards her.

  Sophie felt her eyes widen in fear. Suddenly she felt woefully underdressed. Her baby-blue shirt and khaki-coloured trousers were no match for Kate’s fitted light-grey skirt-suit, clearly designer label. Probably costing more than Sophie made in a month.

  Kate entered the office and threw her binder onto the coffee table. “I need a team meeting, now. All Atrom account managers,” Kate told Jonathan.

  As she walked across the room towards her desk, she looked Sophie up and down. “Who is this?”

  “I’ll introduce you both later,” Jonathan replied. He took hold of Sophie’s shoulders and gently moved her towards the door. Sophie was glad for the assistance. Not only had she lost the ability to walk, but also the ability to speak.

  Luckily, Kate was quick to ignore Sophie and focus on whatever drama was happening.

  “Get Jeremy up here, and Colin. And that woman in digital, the one with the hair.”

  “Alice?” Jonathan asked.

  Kate sat at her desk. “Yes, that one. Ten minutes.”

  Jonathan guided Sophie out of the office and towards his desk.

  “What’s going on?” Sophie whispered to him.

  “No idea, but it looks bad. Can you speak to reception? Tell them we need one of the larger meeting rooms immediately. Block it out for the whole afternoon, just in case.” He picked up the phone and held it to his shoulder.

  “Sure,” Sophie agreed, excited to help. “And then what?”

  He held up his hand and turned to speak into the phone. “Jez, big hoopla up here, I need your team for a meeting in, like, ten minutes. Okay, great, great, bye.” He hung up the call with his finger and then dialled another number. He looked at her. “Then you can go back to writing those name cards for the party tomorrow night,” he told her.

  Sophie felt herself deflate at not being more involved. She’d always known it would take some time to be considered a real member of the team, not just the ex-intern. But it was her first day. Something big was happening, and she’d just seen Kate Kennedy. The Kate Kennedy. Who presumably thought she was a mute nobody.

  She shook off her disappointment and hurried towards her desk. She opened the interoffice messaging system and sent a message down to reception to request the main conference room.

  While she waited for a reply, she picked up her mobile. She unlocked the screen and hammered out a text message to her boyfriend, Matt. Her hands were still shaking from the excitement and thrill of seeing Kate.

  OMG, just saw Kate Kennedy!

  Her computer pinged. Reception had replied and booked the room for her. She sent another message to Jonathan to let him know that the room was available.

  The screen of her phone lit up.

  Awesome, what did you say? What did she say?

  Sophie scrunched up her face.

  I froze :(

  She lowered the phone to her desk and looked up. Jonathan and Kate marched across the office towards the bank of elevators in the middle of the floor.

  The open-plan office was bustling with people. Different departments were denoted by signs hanging f
rom the ceiling. They were split by marketing media, specific accounts, and general departments. When she had been offered a job in Operations, she had been ecstatic.

  Operations had sounded important, central to the running of the business. It wasn’t until she had received her job description that she realised Operations was a fancy term used for the person who did anything and everything.

  It seemed that she would be helping whoever needed it, doing whatever they said. She reported to anyone, and no one reported to her. Operations consisted of one person. Her.

  On the bright side, her desk was by a window. The London skyline was breathtaking. On the not-so-bright side, the view within the office wasn’t quite as glamorous. She was surrounded by filing cabinets and the photocopier.

  Sophie cheered herself up by thinking about how her job seemed to involve helping Jonathan. Which meant she’d be seeing a lot more of Kate, a thought which excited and terrified her at the same time.

  She picked up the calligraphy pen and the guest list Jonathan had given her that morning. Writing name cards wasn’t exactly her idea of getting involved in the marketing industry, but it was a start. She knew she’d have to start from the bottom.

  Luckily, Jonathan was nice. She’d had horrible bosses in the past and knew how difficult work could be with a bad boss. They hadn’t had much time together, but at least he was talking to her and showing her the ropes. Even taking the time to ask her about her professional aspirations.

  At the memory, she put the pen down and lowered her head and softly banged it on the desk. She couldn’t believe she’d come out with that impassioned speech about marketing. She must have sounded like a complete idiot. She took a deep breath and sat back up. The last thing she needed was for the office to think she was weird.

  Her phone lit up again, and she looked at the message.

  Aww, I’m sorry, babe. I’ll make you a great dinner tonight and you’ll forget all about it.

  She smiled.

  Thanks, Matt. Best boyfriend award on its way! xx

  She put the phone back down.

  It’s my first day, first days are supposed to be rubbish. I’ll just get through it, go home, and have a lovely dinner, and tomorrow everything will look better, she told herself.

  Chapter 3

  “This whole thing is giving me a headache,” Kate grumbled.

  She folded her arms and waited for the elevator to arrive. Not only had she been forced to listen to Yannis’s insane plan, she’d then had to sound interested and convinced of its success. The whole thing was exhausting.

  “He’s making ten super cars?” Jonathan asked, surprise evident in his tone.

  The lift arrived, and they both stepped in.

  “Yes, thinking he’s going to sell them for a million. Each.”

  “Why sports cars, though?”

  The elevator doors started to close. Kate leaned against the back wall, holding onto the handrail behind her with outstretched arms. “Because he is an overgrown boy. Don’t let the bald head fool you, he’s actually a child.”

  Jonathan snorted a laugh. “And he seriously wants us to work with Mastery? Doesn’t he know they are based in New York?”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Well, in this world of modern communication, apparently, we can video chat.”

  It had taken a lot of effort not to laugh at Yannis when he had told her his solution to the three-and-a-half-thousand mile distance between the two offices. As far as Yannis was concerned, the distance would be overcome by technology.

  “It’s just not going to work,” Jonathan said. “Can we talk him out of it?”

  She shook her head and stood up straight. “No, he has an idea, and he likes the sound of it. As far as he’s concerned, we are the very best in Europe, and she is the very best in America. He thinks that combining our strengths will make us this unstoppable team, and everyone will get to hear about his Bolt.”

  “Bolt?”

  “The car.” Kate waved her hand. “He thinks he’ll call it The Bolt. I’m trying to get him to change it. He hasn’t given two seconds thought to the name, I’m sure.”

  “Why does he want to go through all this hassle?” Jonathan asked. “He’s only making ten cars. Even at a million each they could be snapped up. He doesn’t need a worldwide campaign, he just needs a sales team to target the right prospects.”

  “It’s a vanity project. It’s the Yannis Show. This isn’t about making money, this is about him and his fast, little car being on everyone’s lips.”

  The elevator doors opened. “But we’re not going to take this lying down,” she said quietly as they stepped out. “We don’t want to work with Masters, but we can be sure that she doesn’t want to work with us either. This is just a play for the account. We need to give the impression that we’re happy to do this, that we think it’s a great idea. It’s going to be a case of who blinks first.”

  “Sounds like you have an idea?” Jonathan opened the meeting room door for her.

  The room was empty; they had a few moments before the others started to arrive. She tossed her notepad and pen onto the table and pulled out the chair at the head. She was still livid, but she was gradually calming down and seeing a way through the storm.

  “The car is being built here, in England,” she said, “so I think that gives us reasonable grounds to suggest using this office as HQ. I plan to suggest to Yannis that Georgina and a small team come here. If I can convince him that this is a good idea, she’ll have to agree to it. And then we’ll have the home team advantage.”

  “What kind of advantage?” Jonathan asked.

  Kate leaned on the high-backed chair and watched as Jonathan made them both tea. He’d clearly noticed her stress levels were on the rise and had taken the initiative to soothe her with her favourite herbal blend. It was times like this that she thanked the employment gods for bringing her Jonathan.

  “Just taking Georgina out of her environment will be an advantage,” she explained. “She’ll be here, using our services, even our team. I can’t imagine that she’ll want to take many members of staff out of Mastery and bring them here. She won’t even want to come here herself. Yannis will push the issue, and she’ll come with a skeleton team. But once she is here, we’ll see her face-to-face and we can figure out what she’s planning. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

  “You really think she is making a play for the account?” Jonathan placed a cup and saucer on the table in front of Kate.

  She nodded her gratitude towards him and sat down. “I believe so. As you know, Georgina and I don’t exactly get on. I’m sure she’d be delighted to take the Atrom account from me. It wouldn’t take much investigation for her to find out that they are our largest account. But I have no intention of letting her take it.”

  Kate picked up the teaspoon and slowly stirred her drink. She watched as steam rose, feeling calmed by its indistinct patterns in the air.

  “You know,” Kate continued, “she actually presented to him. Some ridiculous notion about having a social conversation, as if Atrom are going to be tweeting with Mary in Cardiff about compressor valves. But she presented to him, and now Yannis’s head is filled with ideas.”

  Jonathan winced at the thought. He knew as well as Kate did that clients having their heads filled with nonsensical ideas was trouble. “So, what do we do?”

  “Well, first things first. We need to know what she’s planning.”

  “How do we do that?” Jonathan asked.

  Kate regarded him silently, conveying her idea in a look alone. She didn’t want to be the one to say the distasteful words out loud. She knew Jonathan would catch her meaning soon enough.

  “You think that we should spy on her?” he asked.

  Kate nodded once. “Exactly.”

  “Who do you think should do it? It can’t be me, she’ll see right through that. And the other PAs are drowning in work for the audit.”

  “I don’t know,” Kate admitted. “It ne
eds to be someone loyal but unassuming.” She sipped at her tea. Finding someone was going to be tricky. She needed someone unimportant, someone Georgina wouldn’t be enticed to poach for her own staff. It had to be someone that she could trust, someone unobtrusive, someone Georgina would also trust.

  “How about the new girl?”

  Kate frowned. “What new girl?”

  “The new girl. She was in your office just now.”

  Kate lowered her cup to the saucer. She tried to recall but came up blank.

  Jonathan leaned on the back of his chair. “Long blonde hair, ponytail? Glasses?”

  Kate shook her head. Why Jonathan continued to think that she had the ability to remember people after all the years they worked together escaped her.

  “Sophie Young,” he prompted. “She’s the one I told you about. The intern, she was in accounts, showed a lot of promise. She’s now on the top floor. We told HR to put her in Operations so you could move her to wherever there was a need.”

  “It’s starting to sound familiar.” Kate toyed with the teaspoon. “You think she’s the right person?”

  “I think she is dedicated to the company. She seems quiet, unassuming. I don’t think Georgina would think she was a spy.”

  While the transfer sounded familiar, Kate couldn’t place the girl he was speaking of. It wasn’t unusual; people came and went fairly quickly at Red Door. If they couldn’t keep up, or they weren’t up to the job, they were out. She knew it had earned her a harsh reputation, and that was just fine with her. You didn’t get to be one of the top marketing agencies in Europe by being kind and forgiving.

  If the girl was new and willing to impress, she might be just what Kate needed.

  Kate stared at the email she was trying to compose. Choosing the right words for her first communication with Georgina wasn’t going to be easy. She’d been looking at the empty text box for ten minutes, and she was no closer to choosing a suitable greeting.