Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 359
Before Markkula finished speaking, Tang Huan understood that the other party was lazy and wanted to retire early, and if the historical track develops, the next CEO will be John Sculley from Coca-Cola—— John Scully.

Tang Huan doesn't care who will succeed Markkula, as long as Apple can continue to occupy a place in the middle and low-end market by virtue of its original first-mover advantage, and keep its software's market share rising continuously, that's enough.

Therefore, Tang Huan expressed his opinions on Apple's high-level personnel relations without hesitation, "I think that the next CEO should have some necessary characteristics, such as the demeanor of a big business person, and the ability to earn a living on Wall Street." , and preferably an expert in consumer product marketing who understands advertising and market research."

"Indeed, now that Apple is a listed company, it must become a regular company." Markkula nodded approvingly, "However, to meet such requirements, this person must have very good qualifications. It is estimated that only IBM, HP Only these big companies can find the right candidates.”

"Actually, the range of choices..." Tang Huan was about to explain his different views when he was interrupted by Jobs banging the table. He said in an passionate tone: "I have thought of a candidate, who is absolutely suitable."

Tang Huan was too lazy to get angry, and nodded slightly, "Then, who is it?"

"Don Estridge, head of IBM's personal computer division," Jobs replied with bright eyes.

"You really dare to think about it." After Tang Huan muttered something in his heart, he picked up the cup to hide his urge to laugh out loud.

"Is it feasible?" Markkula showed suspicion on his face, feeling that Jobs was a bit whimsical.

"What's wrong? We'll give him a salary of 100 million dollars. Such a CEO is no better than him being the head of a small department at IBM." Jobs analyzed confidently.

Tang Huan rubbed his nose, thinking that Jobs was quite reasonable.

"A salary of one million dollars..." Markkula muttered to himself, feeling that the asking price was a bit high.

"Since you have no objections, then I'll contact Don Estridge." Jobs did what he said, which can be described as swift and resolute.

Looking at the back of Jobs leaving, Tang Huan was thoughtful.

Regarding the matter of finding a competent CEO, Jobs seemed to be too active and enthusiastic, which made Tang Huan have to doubt the other party's motives.

Perhaps, Jobs suffered a lot from his former CEO Mike Scott, so he planned to find a colleague who was in tune with him, or even a puppet, and when he had enough ability to control the overall situation, he would kick the other Kick it away and take the position yourself.

"Steve is still so impatient." Markkula shook his head helplessly, "Don, what did you want to say just now?"

"What I mean is that the choice of CEO does not need to be limited to the circle of high-tech companies, as long as the other party meets the requirements. After all, business management has something in common."

Having said this, Tang Huan smiled slightly, "I heard a widely circulated joke, what is the difference between Apple and the Boy Scouts? The answer is that the Boy Scouts are under the supervision of adults."

Markkula waved his hands in embarrassment. He and the ex-CEO Mike Scott both wanted to bring order to Apple, but they have not been able to do so until now. The reason is self-evident. .

"So you're not optimistic about the result of Steve's contact with Don Estridge?" Markkula pondered for a moment, "It seems that it is necessary to expand the scope of the search. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Enterprise headhunter Gerry Roche—Gerry Roche can be said to have a wide range of social contacts. In terms of high-end talent needs, I found them to provide services." Tang Huan wrote some information on a note and handed it to Markkula.

"I estimate that it will take some time for Apple to find a satisfactory candidate for the CEO." Tang Huan looked at Markkula and sincerely suggested: "Mike, I hope you can replace the Apple IIe before the end of your term. An upgraded version of it, the 16-bit Apple II."

"Do you think, compared with the Lisa and MAC under development, Apple II still has potential to be tapped?" Markkula asked humbly, "But most people in the company think that Apple II is too outdated."

"But the reality is that Apple II contributes most of Apple's revenue." Tang Huan smiled playfully, "So far, Apple II has sold a total of hundreds of thousands of units. This user base is hard-won. , and it cannot be ignored, there are definitely many benefits to launching a smooth and excessive upgrade product, such as application software and entertainment games.”

Markkula nodded knowingly, "But Woz, the head of the Apple II department, has temporarily left the company to go to college."

"You need to invite it." Tang Huan said solemnly: "Mike, believe me, this project is definitely worth doing, and you will understand the benefits in a short time."

……

In fact, just as Tang Huan and Markkula expected, Jobs went to poach IBM, but ended up in trouble.

He flew to Boca Raton, Fla., home of IBM's personal computer division, and offered a $100 million salary plus a $100 million signing bonus, but was turned down.

It has to be said that Don Esterlich is not the kind of person who betrays his enemies, and he is unwilling to leave IBM, a company that can bring him a sense of honor.

Don Estridge is self-motivated, quick-witted, inspiring to his men, and a little rebellious.But he and Jobs are two kinds of people, which can be clearly seen from this point.

When Jobs tried to use his personal charm and lobbying, he mentioned the story of stealing a phone call with a blue box. This was something worth showing off in his opinion, but it made Don Estridge feel very uncomfortable. Comfortable, the two sides have less and less common language.

Tang Huan didn't say anything about Jobs' failure this time. Even if it didn't succeed, this action can still make IBM's management have some suspicions. It is enough to achieve such an effect. This is why he is optimistic about the success of Jobs. The main reason for a trip.

What's more, after all, this is the internal affairs of the partners. Tang Huan still has a lot of things to deal with, so he doesn't have too much time to criticize others.

Ever since Tang Huan had money in hand, Tang Huan has made frequent capital acquisitions. The most recent one is to include Pacific Bell worth tens of billions of dollars in his pocket.

Tang Huan did not need to worry about the operation of these companies, but Pacific Communications was a slight exception, because this large platform involved a lot of layout.

Tang Huan admired the execution ability of CEO Chuck Smith very much. In a short period of time, the organization has basically been adjusted in place, except for the addition of a value-added service department that can directly report to the highest level within Pacific Communications. In addition, two companies parallel to Pacific Communications were established under Yinhe Communications: a company operating telecommunication equipment - Network Communication Electronics Company; a company operating advanced data application services - Cloud Data Service Company.

Among them, the products of the former include DN350 series telecom program-controlled switches using Yipeng/Holder-L processors, phones that support the caller display function, etc.; Online game MUD.

As for the implementation of the caller ID function, it took the San Francisco Bay Area as a pilot and started to start in an all-round way.

The media has a very optimistic outlook on this. Because of the caller ID function, users have been looking forward to it for too long.

In Tang Huan's view, AT&T's long-term monopoly has indeed produced many mistakes.The more and more easy money is rolling in, so that they lack the motivation to upgrade their technology.Caller ID is such a promising function, but it has been unable to enter the stage of practical application.

Roughly speaking, in addition to the service fee for the caller ID function, the supporting telephone set is a very large industry, but AT&T has never entered this golden mountain.

After some on-site experience, Tang Huan began to think about the next move in the communication field. There is no doubt that it is mobile phones, but there are still many articles to be done in the field of traditional telephony, as long as the network supports it.

At this time, Intel President and CEO Andy Grove, accompanied by fellow Hungarian Charles Simonyi, came to visit.

It has to be said that Feng Shui turns, and with Tang Huan's rapid rise in status, Intel's top leader has to come to the door in person when he has something to do.

There is nothing to go to the Three Treasures Hall. Andy Grove came here this time to seek support from Tang Huan for his new processor, the Intel 2, which was officially released on February 1 this year.

You know, with the support of Zheru's comprehensive programming language, Motorola launched the processor MC1979 series in 68000, and the sales momentum has been extremely rapid in the past two years. Such a successful business case must be used for reference.

Compared with the previous generation processor Intel 8086, the same 16-bit Intel 80286 has made many improvements and upgrades.

它采用16位数据总线和24位地址总线，集成了大约13万个晶体管，制作工艺为1.5微米，时钟频率从6MHz到20MHz。

The biggest improvement of the Intel 80286 is that it provides two modes of operation - real mode and protected mode.

In real mode, the direct access memory space of Intel 80286 is limited to 1M bytes, which is the operation mode of Intel 8086 before, and more memory needs to be mapped through EMS or XMS memory mechanism.

In protected mode, Intel 80286 can directly access 16M bytes of memory and has an exception handling mechanism.

This is especially important because it provides native support for multitasking systems on the hardware.

However, in the original time and space, Intel was winking at the blind. Including the Intel 80386 launched later, the software industry rarely used this mechanism throughout the 1980s. Because MS-DOS, which had already monopolized the market, did not support it, Microsoft There is no intention or ability to make improvements to support it.

Andy Grove was naturally unable to realize these problems. He came to Tang Huan this time to seek supporting compiler tools for the newly born Intel 80286.

Unconsciously, Zheru's programming tools have monopolized the commercial development market, among which assembly language, C language and C++ language are the most talked about.

Recently, Zheru launched a new programming tool, Turbo PASCAL that supports the PASCAL language. Its coding quality and running speed have attracted the attention of the entire industry and immediately attracted a large number of hardcore users.

It is no exaggeration to say that Zheru has already stood on the top of the pyramid in the field of compiler technology.

Andy Grove doesn't expect Zheru's programming tools to fully support Intel 80286 immediately, but he hopes to get the most basic assembly language development tools of all ages at the fastest speed.

Originally, the relationship between Intel and Tang Huan could be regarded as a close cooperation, but since IBM got in the way, especially after the supply of Intel 8086 was messed up, the two sides became a little rusty.

In this regard, Andy Grove was both helpless and innocent. The board of directors was ecstatic about the result of hugging IBM's thigh, but it also caused a lot of troubles, which really made him, the CEO in charge of specific affairs, sway. Difficult.

In order to negotiate smoothly, Andy Grove used his personal relationship to meet Tang Huan through the channel of Zheru's vice president and fellow countryman Charles Simeone.

Although he was dissatisfied with Intel, Tang Huan still showed his due magnanimity and warmly entertained Andy Grove.

"To be honest, Zheru Compiler's support for CPU is largely in cooperation with Fangyuan Computer." Tang Huan said frankly.

"Intel welcomes Fangyuan Computer to adopt Intel 80286 to develop new personal computer models, and is willing to cooperate in all aspects." Andy Grove earnestly sent out the invitation.

IBM has already planned to develop the IBM-PC model of Intel 80286. If the Fangyuan computer is brought in, it will definitely replicate the market situation of Intel 8086.

Andy Grove was thinking happily, but Tang Huan sneered, "When we develop a new model, will you play tricks on the CPU supply again? In the era of Intel 8086, what do you want IBM specially provided the Intel 8088, and there was barely any direct conflict; but in the era of the Intel 80286, all manufacturers used the same Intel 80286, so I ask, do we have IBM's priority?"

(End of this chapter)