On the 23rd of February, 2010,
we made Chinese business

General

Each player represents a business and has his/her own color: blue, red, green and black.
A subsidiary is indicated by a dot (ca. 5 mm diameter)
A deal is indicated by encircling a subsidiary (ca. 3 mm width).

Businesses want to grow. Their growth is indicated by the amount of deals their subsidiaries are involved in and the amount of their ability to start new subsidiaries. A subsidiary occupies more space with each deal. The proximity between two subsidiaries determines whether a deal may be pursued.

Start

Play in turns. In the first round each player positions his first subsidiary on the sheet. During each turn a deal must be pursued, unless the business owner can start a new subsidiary.

Deals

A deal must be pursued with the closest subsidiary of another business.
The distance is measured between the outer rings of the subsidiaries.
A deal may only be pursued if there is a direct line of sight between the two cores of the subsidiaries.
A deal may only be pursued with a subsidiary if you haven't dealt with it before or after the other businesses owners have all dealt with it since your last deal.

Subsidiaries

Whenever a subsidiary has completed a succession of deals with every other business owner, the owner may start a new subsidiary. (This can happen more than once.)
A new subsidiary can also be started if a business owner can’t pursue a deal.

Tip: In positioning the subsidiaries one has to balance between being close enough to other subsidiaries for making deals and keeping enough distance for future growth.

Business stagnation

A subsidiary is allowed to grow until it makes contact with another subsidiary.
If a big subsidiary reaches a smaller subsidiary it can incorporate it, under the condition that the deal (encircling color) works for both businesses.