Rebirth of the Tech Madman

Chapter 14 Apple shares start

McKenna’s public relations and marketing are very effective. As soon as it entered mid-July, orders were rolling in like snow flakes, and customers were not limited to the West Coast region, almost all over the United States.

Zerone’s cash balance surpassed $5 million early, and his financial situation was in a mess. It can be said that as long as it does not die, the company’s development prospects are unlimited.

In the face of a great situation, Tang Huan didn’t dare to forget it. After Gates succeeded, he said that “Microsoft is only 18 months away from bankruptcy”, he took it seriously, and directly applied it, wrote it on paper, and pasted it on the wall of the office. Therefore, compared with before, the company has become more stringent in management.

During the cooperation period, McKenna visited Zerone’s office twice. Tang Huan saw that he had a good look, so he invited him to the company’s board of directors. The other party agreed directly in person. Obviously, he had considered the investment issue before.

In this place in the United States, you may not need to find relationships for ordinary tasks, but if you want to do big things smoothly, you can’t do without human resources, especially in economic cooperation, and pay more attention to the circle.

Therefore, Tang Huan, who has seen this point a long time ago, has always been generous in attracting talents. Of course, the premise is that he must occupy a dominant position in the board of directors.

McKenna and Apple are also very close, and Markkula used him to pass on the willingness of the two parties to clarify the past and further cooperation. Of course, it is essentially a cross-shareholding, forming an alliance between software and hardware in business. .

Joining Apple’s board of directors is one of Tang Huan’s goals. He will naturally not refuse the olive branch offered by Markkula. The two sides hit it off, and all that needs to be done is bargaining at the negotiating table.

Apple wanted 20% of Zerone’s shares. Tang Huan agreed, but he asked for 8% of Apple’s shares, because according to historical data from previous lives, it was only over 6%. Only when Apple is listed next year can he be worth more than 100 million yuan like Markkula, Jobs and Woz. However, Apple only agreed to exchange 4% of the shares on the grounds that the current financing ratio is limited. Because the conditions are too different, the stalemate has been held.

This is also understandable. Apple has worked so hard for two or three years, how can it willingly let Zeroe, which has only been established for a few months, get so many benefits.

Scott suffered from cramps and health problems because of his overweight body, and he also suffered from high nervousness. He even clenched his fists when he was hanging out. Now that the cooperation negotiations are at a deadlock, Scott feels a little dizzy, but he has to continue negotiations.

“Don, your conditions are really difficult to meet, you should correct your expectations.” Scott patiently persuaded.

“Okay, I can lower it by one percentage point. If Apple still can’t take out the 3% of the shares, let the three founders give it away. After all, everyone has a common interest.”

Jobs snorted when he heard the words, with an expression of “You really know how to calculate” on his face. Recently, he was upset by his daughter’s alimony lawsuit. At this time, it was already a shame for everyone to endure no madness and throw the table up. .

Scott sighed softly and helplessly. He values ​​the cooperation with Tang Huan very much, but there is nothing he can do when it comes to the shares of the company’s founder.

“Since everyone can’t reach an agreement, take a coffee break.” Tang Huan shrugged indifferently, “In order to show my sincerity, I brought a small gift to show everyone.”

Talking, Tang Huan took out a circuit board shaped like a display enhancement card, found an Apple computer, installed it in an expansion slot, turned it on, inserted the disk that he brought, and typed a command.

“My God.” Wozzi, who was forced to participate in the meeting, exclaimed, as if he had discovered a new world, ran to the computer for a while, and then asked urgently, “The computer is now running on Z80. Mode?”

Tang Huan nodded with a smile, “Thanks to your original expansion slot design, otherwise it would not be so convenient to implement this function. I think the expansion slot design around the Mac will create a market with considerable benefits.”

Tang Huan’s words are not a lie. Historically, using the openness of Apple’s second-generation computer hardware architecture given by Wozniak, the related first-party developer and retailer communities have created a business with annual revenue of more than one billion US dollars. . What is the concept of billions of dollars in the 1980s? This is almost a field where companies can’t make any money.

Examples of expansion boards for Apple’s second-generation computers include serial controllers, advanced display controllers, memory expansion cards, analog cards, hard disks, and network components. In addition, there are some more alternative expansion boards, such as OS-9LevelOne. The 6809 card, Mockingboard sound card that provides simple music synthesis and text-to-speech functions is the magic sound card.

The most successful company among all expansion board manufacturers is AppliedEngineering. Among its products, RamWorks series cards and TransWarp series cards are the most popular and successful in the market. The RamWorksIII card can replace the additional slot memory card of AppleIIe, and the memory card can be expanded to 3MiB with an adapted daughter card. TransWarp card is an acceleration card that can increase the running speed of AppleII. It can increase AppleII from the original 1MHz to 3.6MHz, and TransWarpII can even increase to 8MHz.

Thanks to the arrival of Tang Huan, the traveler, the expansion board industry, like the microcomputer office software industry, was opened ahead of schedule.

Zerone currently has a display enhancement card and a printing enhancement card, and it has taken the lead. Now it has launched the Z80 analog card, and its market-leading advantage will be more obvious.

The Z80 simulation card can switch to the Z80 processor in Apple’s second-generation machine, so that it can run software developed under the CP/M operating system, such as WordEasy.

Everyone at the scene quickly realized that the Z80 analog card is of great significance to Apple computers. With this expansion, it is impossible to estimate how many programs can run on Apple computers, but it will definitely make users more eager for Apple computers. .

At the same time, the flexible-minded people immediately changed their expressions. They thought that if a competitor had a similar Macintosh simulation card, it would severely compress the market space of the Macintosh. Looking at Tang Huanyun’s light and breezy appearance, it seems that this research and development is not a problem.

In fact, these people have been worrying too much. Now that most microcomputers are of closed design, expansion cards with open structures are not so easy to popularize, but Tang Huan will naturally not take the initiative to weaken the role of his bargaining chip.

Jobs kicked Tang Huan, “Do you want to threaten us with this thing?”

Tang Huan glanced at the onlookers and spread out his hands helplessly, “Sincere cooperation is regarded as a threat, I have nothing to say.”

Markkula glanced at Tang Huan with a complicated wink, and a thought flashed through his heart. It’s strange to believe you.

“Okay, it’s really troublesome to fight back and forth. I’ll take out those shares. Okay. Tang is too imaginative in technology. I’m willing to be a colleague with him.” Woz muttered.

He has always been so innocent, according to Jobs’ evaluation, he is naive and ridiculous. Historically, after Apple’s successful listing, many old employees who started a business together did not benefit from it, because Jobs did not give them shares, even including his classmates and buddies. In the end, Woz took out his stock to share with those people, but it also caused ridicule.

Woz’s example was a turning point. Markkula and Jobs successively agreed to Tang Huan’s plan. Since then, Apple has controlled 20% of Zerone’s shares, and Tang Huan has gotten 7% of Apple’s shares as he wished. As long as this ratio is not significantly diluted before listing, Tang Huan will properly become the fourth billionaire behind Woz.

“Such a painstaking effort to get Apple’s shares just shows my recognition of Apple’s value. From the moment of signing, we are partners with common interests.”

In the subsequent champagne celebration, Tang Huan said with a spring breeze: “I will use office software and expansion cards to release the energy of the Mac, and let it challenge the minicomputers of HP, DEC, and IBM in the field of commercial computers. In addition, like I have made good progress with foreign language support such as French and Spanish. These are the help I can bring to Apple at the moment.”

This is the case in the business field. When you are hostile, you are called brothers and brothers when you are reconciled. In the final analysis, the word of profit takes the lead.

In any case, the old shareholders recognized Tang Huan’s role. After a round of applause, Markkula took the lead and said: “At present, the company is developing the successor of Apple’s second-generation computer, a new model of Apple’s third-generation computer. Come visit it, and prepare for the development of office software for Apple’s third-generation computer.”

Tang Huan nodded, “It’s a great honor and duty.”

Historically, by the autumn of 1979, there were three potential successors to Apple II: Apple III, the Lisa project, and the Anne project.

In the R&D office of Apple’s third-generation machine, Tang Huan fell into thinking.

Historically, because of Jobs’ selfishness, his layman was deeply involved in the research and development of this project. As a result, there were frequent product problems. After Jobs discovered that he was not good, he immediately fought off. The final market reaction also proved that Apple’s third-generation machine was a failure. , For such a miserable thing, is it necessary for oneself to waste energy to develop supporting software?

At this time, UU reading www.uukanshu.com Jobs triumphantly asked Tang Huan to express his opinion.

Touching his chin for a long time, Tang Huan got stuck. Nima, this project is destined to be a failure. How can you comment on it? To be honest, at this time, I still have great enthusiasm for Apple’s three generations of computers. Jobs, who hopes to invent a product with his own historical imprint like Woz, may be angrily saying you idiot, that’s not pleased. , The relationship between the two finally eased down.

Tang Huan walked out of the R&D office noncommittal, and slowly said to Jobs who followed him: “Do you know the concept of graphical user interface?”

“What’s that stuff?” Jobs asked angrily.

“By moving a device called a mouse back and forth, you can control various elements on the screen like direct hand commands. This way, even people who don’t understand computers at all can operate without learning various complicated commands. .”

Seeing Steve Jobs lost in thought, Tang Huan smiled slightly, “I heard that Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center already has research results in this area. If you can actually inspect it, you will understand what a great invention that is. However, business secrets are involved, I am afraid that Xerox executives will not agree.”

Jobs snorted, his face arrogantly, “There is nothing I can’t handle.”

“I hope so.” Tang Huan nodded and left.

Today, he finally got the shares of Apple. He must find Deng Lijun to celebrate and share the joy in his heart.