Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 14: Getting Apple Shares
McKenna's PR and marketing, the effect is very significant.As soon as it entered mid-July, orders began to pour in like snowflakes, and customers were not limited to the West Coast, but almost all over the United States.

Zerone's cash balance was well over $500 million early on, and its financials were a mess.It can be said that as long as you don't risk your life, the company's development prospects are limitless.

In the face of such a good situation, Tang Huan did not dare to get carried away.The phrase Gates said after his success, "Microsoft is always only 18 months away from bankruptcy", he took it very seriously, and directly applied it, wrote it on paper, and posted it on the wall of the office.Therefore, compared with before, the company has stricter management.

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

In the United States, you may not need to find a relationship to do ordinary things, but if you want to do big things smoothly, you cannot do without network resources, especially in economic cooperation.

Therefore, Tang Huan, who has seen through this for a long time, 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 also have a close relationship. Through him, Markkula conveyed the willingness of the two parties to clear up their suspicions and further cooperate. Of course, in essence, it is cross-shareholding and an alliance between business software and hardware. .

Entering Apple's board of directors is a major goal of Tang Huan. Naturally, he will not refuse the olive branch offered by Markkula.

Apple hoped to get 20.00% of Zerone’s shares, and Tang Huan agreed, but he demanded to get [-]% of Apple’s shares accordingly, because Tang Huan believed that the value of his company was no worse than Apple’s, and he simply increased the value from the current Based on the forecast of sales, it will not be less than one-third of the other party's annual sales. However, Apple only agreed to exchange [-]% of the shares on the grounds that the current financing ratio is limited.

This is also understandable. After two or three years of painstaking efforts, how could Apple be willing to let Zerone, which has only been established for a few months, get so many benefits.

Scott suffered from cramps and health problems because he was overweight, and he also suffered from hypertonicity, so much so that he clenched his fists as he walked around.Now that the cooperation negotiations have reached an impasse, Scott feels a little dizzy, but he has to continue to negotiate.

"Don, your conditions are really difficult to meet, you should revise your expectations." Scott persuaded patiently.

"Okay, let me lower it by one percentage point. If Apple still can't give up the three percent of its shares, it can let the three founders contribute. After all, we all have common interests."

Jobs snorted when he heard the words, with an expression of "you really know how to calculate" on his face. Recently, he has been troubled by his daughter's custody lawsuit. At this time, it is already very embarrassing for everyone to hold back the madness and throw the table. .

Scott sighed helplessly. He valued the cooperation with Tang Huan very much, but there was nothing he could do when it came to the shares of the company founder.

"Since everyone can't reach an agreement, let's take a break with a cup of coffee." Tang Huan shrugged indifferently, "To express my sincerity, I brought a small gift here to show everyone."

As he said that, 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 he brought, and typed a command.

"My God." Woz, who was forced to participate in the meeting, had been drowsy and exclaimed, as if he had discovered a new world, ran to the computer for a while to operate, and then asked urgently, "The computer is now running on Z80 mode?"

Tang Huan smiled and nodded, "Thanks to your original expansion slot design, otherwise this function would not be so convenient. I think there will be a market with considerable benefits around the expansion slot design of the Apple machine."

Tang Huan’s words are not false. Historically, the openness of the hardware architecture of Apple’s second-generation computer given by Woz, and the relevant first-party developer and retailer communities have created a business with an annual revenue of more than one billion U.S. dollars. . What is the concept of a billion dollars in the 80s? This is almost an area where companies can't make money.

Examples of Apple second-generation computer expansion boards 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, the Mockingboard sound card that provides simple music synthesis and text-to-speech conversion functions, is the magic sound card.

Among all expansion board manufacturers, the most successful one is a company called AppliedEngineering. Among its products, RamWorks series cards and TransWarp series cards are the most widely used and successful in the market. The RamWorksIII card can replace the additional slot memory card of the AppleIIe, and the memory can be expanded to 3MiB with an adapted daughter card. TransWarp card is an accelerator 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.

Due to the arrival of Tang Huan, a traveler, the expansion board industry, like the microcomputer office software industry, was opened in advance.

Zerone already has a display enhancement card and a printing enhancement card, and now it has launched the Z80 analog card, and its market-leading advantage will be even more obvious.

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

Everyone present quickly realized the great significance of the Z80 simulation card to Apple computers. With this expansion, it is impossible to estimate the extent to which the number of programs that can be run on Apple computers will expand, but it will definitely make users more attracted to Apple computers. .

At the same time, the complexion of the quick-witted people immediately changed. They thought that if competitors had similar analog cards for the Macintosh, the market space for the Macintosh would be severely compressed.Looking at Tang Huanyun's indifferent appearance, it seems that this research and development is not a problem.

In fact, these people are overthinking. Most of the microcomputers are now of a closed design, and expansion cards with an open structure are not so easy to popularize. Naturally, Tang Huan will not take the initiative to weaken the role of his chips.

Jobs kicked Tang Huan, "You want to threaten us with this thing?"

Tang Huan glanced at the onlookers, and spread his hands helplessly, "The sincerity of cooperation is regarded as a threat, and I have nothing to say."

Markkula glanced at Tang Huan with complicated eyes, and a thought flashed in his mind, it would be strange to believe you.

"Okay, it's really troublesome to fight back and forth. I'll sell those shares, okay. Tang is too imaginative technically, I would like to be a colleague with him." Woz muttered.

He has always been so simple, according to Jobs' evaluation, childish and ridiculous.Historically, after Apple's successful listing, many old employees who started the business together did not benefit from it, because Jobs did not distribute shares to them, and even his classmates and buddies were among them.In the end, Woz distributed his shares to 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 20.00% of Zerone’s shares, and Tang Huan has obtained 1980% of Apple’s shares as he wished. As long as this ratio is not significantly diluted before going public, Tang Huan will properly become the fourth billionaire behind Woz when Apple's stock price peaked in the early [-]s.

"It took so much trouble to get Apple's stock, which just shows my recognition of Apple's value. From the moment we signed the contract, we are partners with common interests."

During the subsequent champagne celebration, Tang Huan said cheerfully: "I will use office software and expansion cards to unleash the power of the Apple computer, so that it can 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, and 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 like a sword, and when you are reconciled, you are brothers. In the final analysis, the word comes first.

In any case, the old shareholders recognized Tang Huan's role.After a burst of applause, Markkula took the lead and said, "Currently the company is developing the successor of the Apple II computer, the new model of the Apple III computer. Come and visit, and prepare for the development of office software for the Apple III."

Tang Huan nodded, "It's an honor, and it's my duty."

Historically, by the fall of 1979, there were three potential successors to Apple II: Apple III, Project Lisa, and Project Annie.

In the research and development office of Apple's third-generation phones, Tang Huan fell into deep thought.

Historically, because of Jobs’ selfishness, he, a layman, was deeply involved in the development of this project. As a result, the product frequently had problems. After Jobs found out that something was wrong, he immediately pulled the bird out. The final market reaction also proved that Apple’s third-generation machine was a failure. , For such a miserable thing, is it necessary for me to waste my energy on developing the software that goes with it?
At this time, Jobs complacently asked Tang Huan to express his opinion.

After rubbing his chin and thinking for a long time, Tang Huan actually got stuck.Nima, this project is doomed to be a failure, how do you ask my brother to comment.To be honest, Jobs, who still has great enthusiasm for Apple's three generations of computers at this time, hoping to invent products with his own historical imprint like Woz, might say angrily that you are an idiot, what a thankless effort! , the relationship between the two finally eased down.

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

"What is that?" Jobs asked angrily.

"It is to control various elements on the screen by moving a device called a mouse back and forth, just like direct command with your hands. In this way, even people who do not understand computers at all can operate without having to learn various complicated commands. ."

Seeing that Jobs was lost in thought, Tang Huan smiled slightly, "I heard that Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center has already produced research results in this area. If you can actually inspect it, you will understand what a great invention it is. However, if it involves commercial secrets, I am afraid that Xerox's top management will not agree."

Jobs snorted and looked proud, "There's nothing I can't handle."

"I hope so." Tang Huan nodded and left.

Today he finally secured shares in Apple. He must find Deng Lijun to celebrate and share his joy.

(End of this chapter)