NeoNET - Ares Rivalry

NeoNET and Ares Macrotechnology have been battling one another for the last decade, since the moment NeoNET was born out of the ashes of Crash 2.0. In the beginning it was simply a case of having a new challenger to Ares' dominance over the UCAS but things became heated as engineers and executives from Cross Applied Technologies, a former AAA Megacorp based in Quebec that Ares helped take down (and incorporate into their own holdings), joined NeoNET bringing with them wealth and expertise.
The first blow to Ares was the installation of the Matrix itself, which began in Boston, NeoNET's home town and not Detroit where Ares had campaigned for. Ares at the time was already reeling from the disaster of "Bug City" Chicago, having launched a nuke into the heart of the city and subsequently cordoned it off - and then was further weakened by the Crash itself, as all megacorporations besides SK were. The migration of business to NeoNET's sphere of influence further weakened Ares, which banked heavily on its next line of weaponry, the Ares Excalibur, the flagship gun of the Manatek line - weapons powered by magic and capable of wounding spirits and other astral forms. While the details on what exactly happened is vague, NeoNET happily blasted out that the Excalibur was underperforming and exceeding all cost estimates - the product was pushed back and then silently cancelled, a massive blow to Ares' interests. On the social side of things the drama between the Executives, and even CEOs, of the company were tabloid fodder of the highest quality - horse races, combat sprawl games, social galas - nothing was left untouched by their more civil war.
Subsequently Ares' Presidential candidate for the UCAS election was defeated by the NeoNET backed alternative, Helen Fontaine, who strongly laid her support behind NeoNET affecting the distribution of lucrative government contracts greatly. The back and forth in the shadows following these happenings is said to be legendary, a lucrative time for runners in the UCAS area. To top it off, AO (Aleph - Omega Industries) launched a new handgun, the Nephrit, a challenger to the Ares Predator for the finest Heavy Handgun on the market - and it was showcased heavily in the 72 Desert Wars.
While NeoNET seemed to be getting the better of Ares in most of these contests, not all was bleak - the Amazonia/Aztlan war was a boon for heavy weapons business, and Ares expensive investment into Matrix technologies has begun to show promising results, with several large partnerships announced in the past few years potentially delivering a victory for Ares in the near future.