Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 349 The Time Person of the Year
Just as AT&T will begin to split its more than 1982 subsidiaries in January 1, the US Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against IBM, which began in 20, has also been put on the predictable withdrawal schedule.

It is generally inferred from the outside world that this time point is very likely to be January 1982 as well.

During the 13 years that the sword of Damocles hung over IBM's head, Big Blue was trembling.

Even the previous CEO, Frank Cary, split the entire company's business in two and moved resources other than the mainframe to the General Systems Department in Atlanta, Georgia, in response to a possible spin-off judgment from the Department of Justice.

After entering the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Justice's attitude towards AT&T, which had assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars, became more and more aggressive, but it eased towards IBM, which had assets worth tens of billions of dollars.

Especially after Reagan took office, all kinds of signs convinced the top leaders of Big Blue that they were safe and sound.

And taking 20.00% of Intel's shares is a manifestation of this giant in the computer industry getting rid of the shackles and testing the reactions of all parties.

Now at COMDEX, IBM's top executives couldn't hide their ambitions, and announced that they wanted to buy Fangyuan Computer Company, a small freshman in the industry.

Tang Huan, who happened to hear this, immediately felt very funny.

In his opinion, although IBM, which was released by the US Department of Justice, looks like a tiger out of the cage, it is a pity that its teeth are no longer so sharp in the past 30 years.

Seeing Tang Huan's imposing appearance, and the entourage beside him even looking at him with sarcasm, this IBM executive who was talking about running the train immediately felt like he was on his back, and asked displeasedly, "Are you who?"

Tang Huan casually pointed behind him, "Aren't you planning to buy Fangyuan Computer? I am Tang Huan, the boss of this company."

"It turned out to be you." The other party nodded, and said slowly and confidently: "The condition is very simple. Apple Computer, which has already been listed, can be used as a reference."

Don Estridge, who was watching this scene from the sidelines, couldn't bear to continue to watch his side being so ignorant and arrogant. He was about to step forward to smooth things over and expose the matter, but Bill Lovo gently Pulled.

Seeing Don Estridge looking at him suspiciously, Bill Lovo smiled meaningfully, and pointed out in a low voice, "Let them fight, maybe your personal computer department will be more valued than before, your Suggestions will be heeded by more people.”

Since the first COMDEX, Tang Huan instructed Sheldon Adelson to take advantage of the long-term accumulated conflicts among large companies in the computer industry, and successfully invited their top leaders to increase the gold content of the exhibition activities. The CEOs and The president rarely comes to the scene in person.

The group of IBM executives led by Don Estridge really aroused Tang Huan's interest at first, but when he saw that the other party's knowledge was nothing more than that, he became dull.

"Anyway, thank you very much for your optimism about the value of Fangyuan Computer Company. Actually, I am also quite interested in IBM." Tang Huan waved his hand noncommittally, which seemed to drive him away.

"What do you mean by 'You are also very interested in IBM'? Do you still plan to buy our IBM? Don't say whether we agree or not. Are you qualified to care about these tens of billions of assets?" The person was choked He had to roll his eyes, and just about to think about it, he saw that Tang Huan had already turned his attention to Don Estridge.

"Old friend, do you feel that my personal computer business is getting more and more prosperous?" Tang Huan greeted enthusiastically.

Don Estridge glanced at Bill Lovo, who was about to watch a good show, and said that this Tang Huan was not at all the simple person you thought who liked to waste money and spit, no, he just shifted the firepower come over.

"Blooming fire, you mean the second-generation Fangyuan computers compatible with those Japanese companies." Don Estridge was naturally very upset at Tang Huan's indistinct condescension, and immediately laughed sarcastically, "Also I don’t know, when will the price war between Fangyuan Computers start?”

"This kind of possible dispute is a small matter. I am a business person who pays attention to sincere cooperation and equal interests." Tang Huan waved his hand disapprovingly, "If IBM wants to produce computers compatible with the second generation of Fangyuan, we are not You can’t just sit down and talk about it.”

"Our own IBM-PC is good enough, so we don't have time to pay attention to your second-generation Fangyuan computer." Don Estridge snorted, turned and left.

Seeing the IBM group retreating one after another, Tang Huan snapped his fingers, "Don't you know how annoying I am to these guys who came to spy on information? Don't buy anything, don't talk about it, and stand here proudly, blocking other real customers."

Amidst the laughter of the crowd, Chambers said in a low voice: "Don Estridge has been observing carefully. I just got the news that those Japanese manufacturers who have obtained the authorization of the second-generation Fangyuan computer compatible machine are working with customers. Among the contacts, the quotations of some models are already lower than our similar products.”

"There is no need to be overly nervous. This kind of price squeeze will not have a negative impact on us for at least a year." Tang Huan smiled lightly, "Apple's Apple II has already begun to fail, and I estimate that it will be released next year. It would be nice to be able to draw a tie with IBM-PC, and at that time, these Japanese partners with great cost advantages will rush forward. The larger the market share of the Fangyuan computer platform, the correspondingly the greater the revenue of Zheru Software.”

Having said that, Tang Huan turned around and looked at the booths of Zheru and Fangyuan Computers, and smiled smugly, "We just need to continue to make special computers. The industry computers in front of us, the mid-term multimedia computers, and portable computers are enough. Been fighting for a while."

……

Tang Huan's current priority is to acquire Pacific Bell, so he returned to San Francisco from Las Vegas without a long stay at COMDEX.

Although Tang Huan never deliberately exerted influence, EA, Fangyuan Computer, Zheru and its satellite companies Adobe, Autodesk, etc. still attracted enough attention at COMDEX and continued to play the role of industry leader.

Among them, the personal workstation PS-2400 series products equipped with Photoshop and AutoCAD have become a big hit, and people come to consult in an endless stream.

The growth of the entire camp of the second-generation Fangyuan computer is also a beautiful scene on COMDEX.

In addition, Zerone Exchange Server, an email server system launched by Zheru, let people in the industry understand that the network and communication mentioned by Tang Huan in his speech at COMDEX are by no means empty talk.

However, the actions of the upstarts in Silicon Valley are too efficient, making more and more followers feel overwhelmed.

……

On Tuesday, December 1981, 12, Tang Huan's acquisition of Pacific Bell, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, was completed in a low-key manner as he requested.

This is the largest asset that Tang Huan has bought so far. In order to prevent too much attention from the outside world from interfering with his plan, he carefully chose to avoid public attention.

In other words, Tang Huan himself felt a lot of pressure.

But with such a large capital operation, how could the media easily let go of the opportunity to report and dig out the details of the transaction announced by AT&T one after another.

Among the more than 20 subsidiaries owned by AT&T, Pacific Bell is the largest, with assets of up to 145 billion US dollars, known as a jewel in the crown of the Bell system.

AT&T retained 20.00% of the shares and sold the rest to Tang Huan.Among them, Galaxy Communications made a one-time payment of 100 billion U.S. dollars, and the unsettled balance payment will be deferred.

In the view of AT&T, Pacific Bell is just a piece of candy in its own pocket, and it can be sold as soon as it is wanted, and it has nothing to do with others, as long as the shareholders support it.

In the matter of being forced to dismantle by the US Department of Justice, the media gloated and deserved their voices, which has always made AT&T annoyed and fearful.

The low-key that Tang Huan asked for was just in line with AT&T's wishes, and he made a fortune honestly and silently, so as not to be roasted on the fire.

……

The 1925 New Montgomery Building, built in 140, is the headquarters of Pacific Bell, and the topmost office is ready for the new boss.

One of the reasons why this company is so expensive, and the fixed assets it contains, is one of the reasons.

After acquiring Pacific Bell, there are many matters to be dealt with, such as trivial things such as the name and trademark of Bell, which have no right to continue to use, and major things such as the company's future development direction.

For the former, Tang Huan directly swiped his pen and changed Pacific Bell to Pacific Communications; for the latter, Tang Huan had already had a series of goals, which is exactly his motivation for this acquisition.

Pacific Communications now has only two major shareholders - Galaxy Communications and AT&T.

In order to reduce his workload, Tang Huan invited two shareholders of Galaxy Communications, Warren Buffett and Motorola's Christopher Galvin, into Pacific Communications as executive directors.

Tang Huan hardly made any adjustments to the original structure of Pacific Communications, because there was nothing wrong with the company's operations, but it was the original parent company, AT&T, who made a profit with the mentality of earning a little. He had a chance.

One of Tang Huan's main actions is to set up a high-level value-added service department under the existing system of Pacific Communications, and make it directly responsible to himself.

There is no doubt that this value-added service department will be the executor of Tang Huanxin's plan, such as Caller ID-caller ID, email service, etc.

Pacific Communications' business scope is not limited to California, but covers the west coast of the United States, and even includes a subsidiary in Nevada, where Las Vegas is located - Nevada Bell.

After buying things, of course, first of all, he had to personally check the family property. It took Tang Huan more than two weeks to travel around to complete this grassroots research work.

He didn't feel much, but his companions were exhausted. Apart from complaining secretly, they also sincerely admired, "The so-called upstarts in Silicon Valley are really misleading people, making them seem like they don't have to work. But in reality Look, this boss is a high-energy workaholic."

After knowing the situation of Pacific Communications in his chest, Tang Huan held another meeting at the headquarters to arrange the company's next work.

Chuck Smith, CEO of Pacific Communications——Chuck Smith was an executive in the Bell era, and Tang Huan was quite satisfied with his ability.

It must be mentioned that Chuck Smith is a black man of African descent, which is relatively rare among American business executives.

Chuck Smith welcomed Tang Huan's caller ID implementation plan with both hands, and even felt that AT&T's previous statement "I believe that Pacific Bell will develop better and better under the leadership of the new team" Official rhetoric is not so ridiculous anymore.

But for Tang Huan's proposed free e-mail service, Chuck Smith expressed clear opposition, because he believed that this business would not only lose money, but also the prospect was very unclear.

Chuck Smith's worry was not unreasonable, Tang Huan naturally didn't take it seriously, he waved his hand with a smile, "Then set up an additional new company to test this business. If you don't have the courage to try, you won't know where you are going. .Pacific Communications cannot fix itself in the traditional business model and not think about making progress.”

They were discussing, the subordinates came to report, and the people from "Time" magazine came to visit.

Tang Huan nodded slightly. He heard from the public relations consultant Regis McKenna that there was an internal debate in Time magazine whether to make himself the Person of the Year in 1981.

Because they also like another target - Lech Wasa in Poland - Lech Wawensa, who led the strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk in 1980. The momentum was extremely large, and all parts of Poland responded one after another. jail.

At this time, Poland still belonged to the Eastern camp. People who went on strike in socialist countries naturally attracted the attention of the West, and some people in "Time" also favored them.

But the problem is that during this year, Tang Huan, who sold personal computers everywhere and spoke for himself, also had a considerable influence. The career plans of a large number of young people in the United States changed because of this, and new characteristics appeared in the Silicon Valley economy.

Tang Huan even placed the ad on the British royal wedding, which was broadcast live to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Whether to serve politics or support technology, "Time" is really in a dilemma.

Seeing that the end of the year is getting closer, "Time" decided to interview Tang Huan nearby before making a choice.

(End of this chapter)