Many successful new companies sprang up and were in the spotlight. However, the most distinctive business was the Smith Technology Fund and it had been pictured twice on the cover of Time magazine. The Fund had been known since the 1980s and it had invested in numerous small businesses to help them enter the market. Smith Technology Fund was also a family business which had passed down the CEO position from father to son. .
In May of 2002 the news reported that the CEO of the company, Hamlet Smith, had died suddenly from snake poisoning while on a hunting vacation with the family. Without any words left behind for the first time the CEO position was passed to his brother, Claudius, with whom he worked closely. Although Hamlet II stayed closely involved with the Fund, he had more relationship issues with his uncle, mother, and girlfriend, then not getting the CEO position. Since Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, married Claudius less than two months after the funeral, Hamlet had been angry at them. Because Hamlet honored and respected his father greatly, he felt that the marriage symbolized Gertrude's betrayal and Claudius?deceit. Besides having issues with the parents, Hamlet's girlfriend, Ophelia Albertstine, was told to distance herself from him. She was the daughter from one of the companies Hamlet's family invested in. Ophelia's father, Polonius, worked closely with senior Hamlet and sent his son, Laertes to France to study business. Polonius wanted to eventually have both his son and daughter working for him and have the Alberstine's grander and more prosperous than the Smith's. In this scene Laertes, Ophelia's brother warned her against her involvement with Hamlet. And Polonius gave Laertes some final advices before he departed to France. All these conversation happened for the purpose of business competition. Warnings for the obedient daughter and the succeeding son. .
