Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 923 Streaming Media and Online Selling

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Louis Platt, the low-key CEO of HP, saw that Tang Huan was quite concerned about the troubles caused by the deal between HP and Iran, so he answered truthfully: "The operation will be carried out in Europe. The unit is a company in the Netherlands with only three employees..."

At this point, Louis Pratt stopped talking, and Tang Huan also understood that HP's response was to use the loopholes in the rules to justify, and those who blamed it had long been prepared.

To be honest, this method cannot be said to be very clever. If it is used by HP, which is not lacking in energy and sophistication, the effect will naturally have its own unique mystery.

The richest man nodded slightly, "If HP needs help in public relations, I will be happy to help."

"Of course that's the best." Louis Platt responded gratefully.

In fact, despite the fact that HP sold 1 million US dollars of computers, printers and other products to Iran this time, its current company positioning is really not the computer company that the public is familiar with after a few years. After entering the 2000s, through the acquisition of two microcomputer companies, it began to increase investment in personal computers.

This is also the internal reason why Tang Huan and IBM have been fighting in the dark for more than ten years, but they have basically lived in peace with HP, a "Silicon Valley witness" who is close at hand.

Hewlett-Packard, which has almost never dominated any industrial revolution, started its business with measuring instruments such as oscilloscopes, and its second specialty is medical instruments such as nuclear magnetic resonance.

It is not difficult to imagine that the reason why HP extended its business tentacles into the computer field is to better serve its specialty business.

More than 20 years ago, Jobs persuaded Woz, who was still an engineer at HP, to start a company with the Apple machine he developed. However, Woz, an honest and kind-hearted person, first showed the prototype to his employer in a good manner, but HP was not interested, and then lost the company. The opportunity to participate in the vigorous personal computer industrial revolution is not unrelated to this factor.

Now, the wave of the Internet can be described as turbulent. No matter how mature and prudent HP is, it can no longer take it easy in the operation of personal computers. This will inevitably change the relationship between HP and Fangyuan Company controlled by Tang Huan.

To put it bluntly, Tang Huan is not afraid of HP. Although HP is very large, it is just like Chu State during the Warring States Period in China. It is large but not strong in the computer field.

However, the necessary arrangements still need to be made - the richest man who came here to send "warmth" on the surface this time just wanted to stumble quietly.

Seeing an opportunity, Tang Huan changed the subject quickly and said: "DEC, which has a history of 40 years, is no longer what it used to be. In order to save the emergency, the actions of selling non-core businesses in the past few years have been dizzying. Now it's almost time to sell. There's nowhere near the end of the spectrum. So, I'm going to make a move—is HP interested?"

"Don really doesn't let go of anything of value." Louis Pratt took advantage of the jokes to ponder the stakes.

The decline of DEC reflects the cruelty of competition in the computer industry.

Back then, DEC was the dominant player in the minicomputer field, with IBM and HP taking a backseat. HP even considered acquiring each other to control the minicomputer market, but DEC was too aggressive at the time, and in the end it had no choice but to Giving up angrily.

How popular DEC's minicomputers are can be seen from the fact that the programming language C and the operating system Unix were first developed on its PDP minicomputers.

But there is no success, no failure—DEC's minicomputer was so successful that its founder and leader, Ken Olson, stubbornly believed that the personal computer was just a toy worth mentioning, and was eventually cruelly destroyed. Ruthless industry competition knocks it out.

For a long time, Tang Huan had difficulty understanding Ken Olson's thinking.

If we say that in the early 1980s, the performance of 8-bit personal computers was not worth mentioning in front of minicomputers, and their functions were not much better than toys, then 16-bit personal computers were outstanding; wait until around 1985. 32-bit personal computers have already threatened DEC minicomputers.

DEC's most successful model in the 1970s was the 16-bit PDP-11. Not counting those third-party imitations, DEC alone sold about 60 units.You know, this is an early minicomputer, not a personal computer.Bell Labs' programming language C and operating system Unix were first implemented on the PDP-11, which itself shows how rich and complete the IT ecological chain centered on the PDP-11 is.

However, the premise of eternal life is that the environment remains unchanged.

The most obvious change outside of DEC is that even in the second half of the 1970s, semiconductor memory was still as precious as Atari's home video game console, the Atari 2600, which only designed 128 bytes. It ceased to exist, especially under the impact of a semiconductor memory company. Even the personal computer that Ken Olson regarded as a toy was equipped with a memory that quickly reached 1980 kilobytes, and even broke through 64 kilobytes all the way. Kilobyte, or 1024 MB.

On the other hand, among the various CPUs used in personal computers, the 1978-bit microprocessor Intel_16 released by Intel in 8086 is equipped with a 20-bit address bus and can access 1 MB of memory space; and the new microprocessor released in 1982 A generation of 16-bit microprocessor Intel_80286, the address bus has been increased to 24 bits, and 16 MB of memory space can be accessed.

No matter how good DEC's PDP-11 is, it can't stand up to personal computers and such "hard work can make up for one's weakness". Under the wave of 11-bit personal computers, it has also been significantly impacted.

In short, no matter whether it is IBM's mainframe or DEC's minicomputer, it has been forced to decline step by step by personal computers, workstations, and servers derived upwards, and then die.

IBM was at least involved in the personal computer industrial revolution. As a participant, it knew that it had to change. However, under the leadership of Ken Olson, the stubborn founder, DEC fell into the dark side of minicomputers. After hitting the wall, it was too late to turn around - even if the 64-bit RISC microprocessor Alpha was finally launched, the situation was over and it would not help.

In 1990, when the U.S. economic cycle was at its lowest point in the early 1992s, DEC lost $28 billion for the year. The DEC board couldn't take it anymore, and fired off Ken Olson, the company's father, and let Robert Palmer turn the tide.

Robert Palmer's routine is not uncommon. The most effective life-saving tactics are reorganization and layoffs-so he swung his sword and more than 60000 people lost their jobs.

As the U.S. economic cycle enters an upward phase, DEC's life has improved slightly, but don't forget that the market competition has become increasingly fierce and cruel-DEC has no chance to be a prodigal son.

The tactic of layoffs has already been used, and DEC had no choice but to sell non-core assets. In 1994 alone, it successively sold the relational database product Rdb to Oracle, PDP-11 to Mentec, and the tape data storage development technology DLT. It was given to Quantum, a well-known company that manufactures hard drives at this stage.

After entering this year, DEC has intensified its efforts and is eyeing Intel - Boy, your Pentium microprocessor is selling very well, but it infringes on at least 14 of our patents. Stop talking nonsense and pay the protection fee.

Now, DEC has fallen into such a state, and Tang IT feels that the situation is almost over, and it is time to help the industry clean up this mess.

Hewlett-Packard is big but not strong in the computer field at this time, coupled with the feelings of being unsuccessful in courting DEC, it should be interested in DEC's core assets.

If HP takes the road, there will be a series of interesting chain reactions.

For example, in addition to spending energy to digest DEC, which has a 40-year history and thus form its own corporate culture, HP also needs to decide how to deal with the overlapping parts of the two parties' businesses.

Take DEC's 64-bit RISC microprocessor Alpha as an example. Hewlett-Packard, which has already established an EPIC alliance, how to install this really excellent thing?
Louis Platt thought for a while, but finally couldn't hide his slander about DEC, and asked: "What is the current market situation of DEC?"

The richest man replied casually: "No more than 90 billion US dollars at most."

Louis Platt turned to test and asked: "Listen to what Tang said, if HP is not interested in DEC, it also plans to take action and has its own disposal plan?"

"Indeed." Tang Huan nodded candidly, "DEC is an old computer company with a long history after all, and it was once so powerful. With its first-mover advantage, it really has a lot of valuable things in its hands - If I were to win it alone, I would naturally focus on intellectual property and eliminate some patent conflicts.”

Although Louis Pratt did not know how Google would deal with Motorola more than ten years later in the original time and space, he could also imagine how DEC would be beaten to the bone from the seemingly relaxed but cruel words of Mr. Richest Man.

"Since Tang already has a comprehensive plan, why did he come to HP?" Louis Pratt asked with a wry smile.

"Obviously, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse—my family is definitely not the only one interested in DEC, maybe HP will see the opportunity to join the fray." Tang Huan explained leisurely: "If the two of us join forces, nothing will happen. Undoubtedly, it will save more effort and be more sure, and in the process of dealing with DEC in the future, not only will there be no suspicion due to differences, but will use this cooperation opportunity to further enhance friendship."

Having said this, the richest man looked at Louis Platt with great sincerity and said slowly: "Under the brilliance of the two founders of HP, you may not be so dazzling, but you are down-to-earth and implement and practice what you know and do." Following the 'HP Way', HP's reputation in the industry is highly respected - I look forward to and believe that the cooperation between the two parties can develop to a deeper level."

In fact, under Tang Huan's pure appearance, he has accepted the "kindness" of HP under the current management of Louis Platt.

How trustworthy is HP for its collaborators at this time?An example can illustrate the problem - Zheru and HP have 42 cooperative projects in the field of basic network research. Although they have not signed contracts that are haggling and strictly bound, the two parties have cooperated very happily.

This precious trait is believed to be swallowed up soon in the era of utilitarianism - of course we must hurry up and leave good memories now!
How else could Louis Pratt be an honest man? He immediately believed the words of Mr. Richest Man, but he still hesitated, "According to Tang's disposal plan for DEC, he will definitely have to spend a lot of cash..."

Tang Huan waved his hand and said with a smile, "Don't prevaricate me with the funding issue—I've heard that HP plans to separate its best measurement and medical businesses to form a company called Agilent and go public. financing."

Why is the richest man wary of Wall Street?
Under its influence, Zheru first separated its software business and became Zheru Software Company, which attracted a lot of money in the U.S. stock market; then AT&T separated its communication equipment business and became Lucent Corporation, which attracted money in the U.S. stock market. Countless; now it's HP's turn to separate the measurement and medical business, become Agilent, and continue to make money-absorbing gimmicks.

No one knows whether Wall Street will swing its flesh-cutting knife at Zheru again after the big circle is completed. Tang Huan, who has his own plans in mind, naturally pays attention to such trends.

Seeing that the richest man spoke so straightforwardly, Louis Platt stopped speaking in official terms and immediately expressed his position: "Then let's start making a plan."

……

Tang Huan continued to cheer up and attend this year's Zheru Spring Developers Conference after finishing the work of the top leaders in Silicon Valley.

Although the "NOISE" alliance is a bit wilted, especially Netscape and Oracle, which seem to be unusually busy, this Zheru Spring Developer Conference was still held at its own pace, grandly and lively.

In the tide of the Internet, the theme of the meeting naturally revolves around the Internet.

During this period, Fangyuan, Zheru Software, and EA, three industry-leading companies in this field, announced almost at the same time that the Internet online sales system was officially launched. Users can learn about text, static pictures, animations, and even streaming media advertisements through the online mall Product introduction in the form of tablets, and place orders according to your own needs.

Streaming media can be regarded as the most vivid illustration of how fast the Internet is developing - this year's Zheru Spring Developers Conference cooperated with Hollywood's [-]th Century Fox to release the epic masterpiece "Titan The trailer of "Nick" made the attendees, including major mainstream media, order and watch it again and again!
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(End of this chapter)