America 1982

After taking a shower, Tommy walked out of the bathroom without wrapping a bath towel. Jason had already gone to the SSD General Assembly anyway, and there was no one else in the dormitory.

He opened the refrigerator in the dormitory and found that the food inside had spoiled. At this time, the black and rotten shape reminded him and Jason that they had not opened the refrigerator for a long time.

Tommy took out the last can of beer from it. As soon as he opened the tab, Charles opened the door and walked in. He took the beer in Tommy's hand and took a sip: "Thank you, Mr. Exhibitionist."

"You're welcome, because you took it away and I didn't plan to give it to you. It was the last can of beer in the refrigerator." Tommy sighed: "What happened?"

When Charles heard the last can, he didn't bother to explain to Tommy, and just drank it all before saying: "It's nothing, our SSD Stanford branch just received an alumni donation of 100,000 yuan, so you better fucking Put on your clothes and come with me to say thank you to the other party."

"Mr. Chairman, I don't have any position in SSD now. I'm a rookie, okay?" Tommy breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that it was an alumni donation. He fell directly on the bed and closed his eyes: "Just let me sleep for half an hour more. I have to make a call to Florida in half an hour, so please walk more slowly when you go out."

Organizations like fraternities can hire lawyers and have funds to organize various large-scale activities. They mainly rely on donations from members after graduation. The annual membership dues paid by members on campus are only enough to pay Stanford University’s land rent and hire cooks and Just a cleaner.

If alumni who are too far away mail a check to donate, SSD can only call to say thank you. However, if alumni near Silicon Valley donate, SSD will organize a group of members to come to thank them, and everyone will sit down to have a meal or drink some wine and chat. Let’s talk about the difference between SSD today and when the other party was studying, and what interesting things happened.

In short, it is just a regular communication. This kind of communication is usually controlled by a few SSD veterans. It is difficult for rookies to get opportunities. After all, veterans can enter the society faster than them, and they need to discover various kinds of connections through this kind of internal network of the fraternity. Chance.

"The other party called your name and asked you to come over. It's just you and me." Charles looked at Tommy, picked up the can in his hand, threw it towards Tommy, and accurately hit Tommy's club, and said with satisfaction. : "Valid score!"

The cold beer can taken out from the refrigerator suddenly stimulated the club. Tommy quickly opened his eyes and sat up, covering his vitals with his hands. He didn't bother to ask why he wanted to see him, but first sent a series of swear words to the current chairman of SSD. charles.

"Benjamin Rosen, a Stanford student in 1955 and a member of the SSD fraternity. It seems that you are dissatisfied with me. I decided to change Ted to accompany me, so I said you..."

"I was wrong, Charles. The reason I was dissatisfied just now was not your behavior, but how you could choose the beer can. You should switch to darts and take the opportunity to open a hole in my club!" Tommy stood up. : "As long as you're done having fun, you can take me to see each other."

Benjamin Rosen, the chairman and CEO of Compaq Computer Company, a tycoon in the computer hardware industry, of course Tommy had heard of his name, but he didn’t expect that the other party would want to meet him. He thought those SSD people were keen on investing in the software industry. Alumni may be the first.

While he was putting on his clothes, he was thinking about the general development history of Compaq. He suddenly froze and looked at Charles: "Why did he ask us to see him after donating 100,000 to SSD? I mean...he You can obviously call us directly to see him."

"It's an attitude." Charles crossed his arms and said to Tommy.

Tommy also nodded and said: "Compaq, founded in 1982, is essentially the Actor Company of the computer hardware industry."

"SSD is really full of talents. You all have chosen the path of plagiarism. It's just that your Actor is software and his Compaq is hardware." Charles said with a smirk: "I think he may want to communicate with you, how? Plagiarizing the other party’s experience and shamelessly blackmailing it, making it bigger and stronger, and completely making Stanford University infamous.”

"No, he plagiarized to make money, I did it for equal rights." Tommy corrected Charles's speech.

Charles rolled his eyes: "Hurry up and lift up your pants. Benjamin's limousine is waiting for us. Tommy Hawke, your affirmative plagiarism method is much more harmful to the American computer industry than Benjamin's generous plagiarism."

…

Fifty-year-old Benjamin Rosen received Charles and Tommy in his 430-square-meter penthouse apartment in Silicon Valley, which is almost the most upscale community in Silicon Valley today.

"I work at the Compaq headquarters in Harris, Texas, most of the year. I only live here when I occasionally fly to Silicon Valley to attend some business events, so if you need a party venue, feel free to choose this place. Although we don’t live here, servants such as nannies, housekeepers and gardeners will clean and clean every day.” Benjamin, wearing loose sportswear, took the two of them directly to the sky garden of his home to sit down, and spoke to them in a casual tone. said:

"I know that if SSD wants to hold some exciting parties, it often needs to temporarily pay to rent additional venues. You can consider this place. It is good. There is an outdoor swimming pool in the garden. Girls should not hate the environment here. "

Although they looked like they were retiring middle school physical education teachers, Charles and Tommy didn't mean to look down on each other at all. They sat upright and looked directly at each other.

Benjamin Rosen, after graduating from Stanford University, went to Columbia University Business School to further his studies, and then went to work on Wall Street. Within fifteen years, he sat as a senior vice president of Morgan Stanley, and then chose to retire and work with Leon Sai. Wen established the venture capital company Severn Rosen Foundation in 1981. In the same year of its establishment, he invested in Compaq Computer Company and served as chairman and CEO.

In 1982, Compaq sold 53,000 personal computers, with sales reaching US$111 million, becoming the fastest start-up company in the US computer hardware industry to achieve sales of US$100 million. Coincidentally, it was also in 1982 that Lotus The company became the fastest startup in the U.S. computer software industry to reach 100 million sales.

The performance of these two companies in 2082 seemed to tell all investors that the American computer industry had officially entered a new era.

What's more coincidental is that the investors of Compaq and Lotus are Benjamin Rosen and Leon Severn, old friends who formed an investment company respectively.

None of them made a mistake, but they ended up with different consequences. Benjamin took charge of Compaq, which was rapidly rising in the hardware industry, and turned a copycat company into the third largest market share of personal computers.

However, Leon had a keen eye and invested in Lotus, a company that was unparalleled in the software industry. However, due to irreconcilable conflicts with the two founders, Leon finally chose to divest, and the return was far less than expected.

"Tommy is our SSD's appointed next party manager, but I guess he is not in the mood to help us design parties recently because his small company is encountering some troubles." After listening to Benjamin's greetings, Charles smiled and brought the topic to the soup On rice.

Tommy glanced at Charles. The president of the fraternity is still his favorite. He is the best choice for CEO of Actor Company and a figure in Shuangshang Online. This guy has to work in one of those think tanks.

Benjamin did not continue the greetings hypocritically, but continued following the topic raised by Charles: "I saw that article in the magazine, Lotus Company, Leon told me after he withdrew his capital, that company will be eaten out sooner or later. Wipe it clean, I just didn’t expect that it would not die under the siege of other big companies, but would fall under the knife of our SSD members, one hundred and seventy-six amicus curiae, Tommy, you should not be doing computer software, You should go work for one of those lobbying firms on K Street in Washington, pimping businessmen and politicians, it's such a beautiful thing to do."

"Yeah, Charles and the others have given me a lot of help. Without SSD, I couldn't do all this. Charles is the leader of our pimps." Tommy said to Benjamin.

Benjamin nodded: "I guess you won't think that this old guy like me called you here to have a party, so to make a long story short, I am very interested in Actor Company. Although Compaq will not be involved in the software industry, we are in the software industry. It's worth reference. I want to invest in it, whether it's financing, or Tommy and you three, transfer me some shares to cash out, and Compaq can directly purchase OSS software as supporting products and break into those large companies. I know your Although the sales of the software are good, the main buying group seems a bit... strange."

"It's best if this is all done before the trial?" Tommy was silent for a moment and then asked Benjamin.

Benjamin nodded slightly, picked up a cigar from the side and looked at it: "The lawsuit between IBM and our eleven computer companies has made both of us a little...tired."

"If you can convince IBM to invest in or acquire Actor's shares, then I can personally consider transferring 15% of the shares to you. The SSD friendly price is 10 million." Tommy thought for a moment and quoted a price to Benjamin. .

This means that Tommy's own valuation of Actor is 66 million.

Benjamin didn’t think the price was excessive. After all, Actor’s sales data of tens of thousands of sets of OSS was there. He handed the cigar in his hand to Tommy and laughed: “IBM, you want me to convince them to invest in you? No. Are you kidding? Now they want to put me on the gallows and let their competitors in their eyes persuade them to invest in your Actor?"

Although he was joking, Tommy's words convinced Benjamin that this young man was indeed the suit robber as written in the magazine.

Ten million is a friendly price to him, but it will definitely not be this price when sold to IBM. The most important thing is that he now believes that the whole thing was designed by Tommy Hawke, because this young man's mind reacts very quickly. , not long after sitting down, I already understood why I wanted to invest in or acquire Actor, and why IBM might also be willing to acquire Actor.

Compaq and IBM are somewhat like Actor and Lotus at this time, because eleven computer companies including Compaq used PC cloning to copy personal computers that were fully compatible with IBM-PC, and they reverse-engineered IBM's BIOS firmware. , uses the same 16-bit AT bus as IBM, etc., except for the different trademarks, the entire computer is no different from the IBM-PC. All hardware can be perfectly replaced, all software can be perfectly compatible, and it can be sold cheaper than IBM. IBM lost its price advantage.

IBM originally hoped that its strategic partner Microsoft would help it limit unscrupulous competition from other computer companies and let Microsoft choose to cooperate exclusively with IBM for its MS-DOS system, so that those computer companies could only look for other systems.

But Microsoft turned around and sold IBM completely. As long as Microsoft paid a licensing fee, the computer company would accept anyone who came. In short, after paying the money, you can use the MS-DOS system at will.

As a result, Microsoft became a giant in the software industry, but at the cost of its former partner IBM's share of the personal computer market being directly cut in half.

I'm not sure whether IBM wants to kill Compaq, but everyone is sure that IBM definitely wants to kill Microsoft, which is stabbing itself in the back.

It was clearly betrayed, but IBM was helpless because everyone knew that IBM did not dare to be too arrogant now. After all, the U.S. government had been accusing IBM of monopoly for 20 years. Since 1962, the U.S. government had been trying to break up this company with many tentacles. Multiple industries constitute a monopoly behemoth.

If it weren't for the excellent vision and skills of IBM's executives, ten IBMs would have been torn apart by politicians using the excuse of monopoly.

Until now, members of Congress are still drooling and holding a knife looking for opportunities. Therefore, IBM does not dare to make a big deal against these other computer companies that are stealing business. It can only initiate some indifferent lawsuits in some state courts that are beneficial to its situation. Accusation.

Whether it's Microsoft, Compaq, or even Oracle in the past, they are sure that even if IBM stands in the plaintiff's seat, as long as it makes a big fuss, it will eventually lose, so it dares to be so unscrupulous.

Generally speaking, the lawsuits between IBM and 11 computer companies, including Compaq, are small-scale disputes. Although IBM is not planning to go to Congress and the Supreme Court, it hopes to use uninterrupted litigation to bring all the lawsuits to justice. Everyone remembers that at this moment, it is an illegal business practice for computer manufacturers such as Compaq to make money. As long as the law is improved one day, IBM will have a reasonable excuse to get rid of them sooner or later.

The frustrating thing about these plagiarists from Compaq is that they have no reason to counterclaim, because they don’t have a bullshit charity excuse like Actor. They just copy IBM and make money. After all, OSS also has some practical shortcut functions designed by Tommy. , but there is no innovation in their computer hardware. They just produce whatever IBM produces, and then sell it to users at a 20% discount on the selling price of IBM computers.

"Using one case to promote the rules of two industries, to be honest, this is an unexpected gain that I did not expect. It was only when Charles said that you wanted to see me that I realized that Compaq had just over a year's time. Now it ranks third in the computer market and is qualified to weld car doors shut." Tommy was silent for a moment and said to Benjamin:

"IBM, Apple, and Compaq, each of you select a few computer companies that you like as your followers, get together, introduce several industry standard architectures, bus development standards and other solutions, and then share the market together , In this way, IBM avoids being labeled as a monopoly, and you no longer have to worry about other small companies coming out like Compaq to grab this market, because if they dare to do that, you can work together to solve it, so go back to the beginning The question is, is IBM willing to see Compaq change from its enemy to its partner?"

"IBM has been chased and bitten by the US government for twenty years and has not fallen down. Guess why, it is not the Lotus company that almost killed Leon." Benjamin said.

Beep, beep, beep, beep... Tommy's pager rang. He made an embarrassed gesture towards Benjamin, picked it up and looked at it. It was an unfamiliar number: "Excuse me, can I call you back?"

"Of course, the phone is over there." Benjamin motioned to the butler in the distance to accompany Tommy to return the call, and he chatted with Charles about the recent situation of the SSD.

Tommy walked to the phone and dialed the number: "Hello?"

"Tommy? Is that you? I'm Otilia." Otilia's voice rang on the other side of the phone.

"Miss Otilia Farrell? It's me, yes, I'm Tommy Hawke." Tommy was stunned for a few seconds, then smiled into the receiver and said: "So, are you going to find Is the man married? The timing was perfect. My girlfriend just broke up with me, and I was just about to make my first ten million. I mean, although not as much as your father, Mr. Farrell, made from selling yachts. A lot, but it shouldn’t be too bad.”

Otilia chuckled over the phone: "If you always talk to ladies like this, I think your next girlfriend will leave you quickly."

"This phone call surprises me. How do you have my pager number?" Tommy had a smile on his face, thinking of the beautiful teacher at a summer camp with a group of high school students.

Otilia said: "I called your home and got it from your father."

"So, if you are not planning to find a man to marry, why are you looking for me?" Tommy asked curiously.

"Wait a moment, someone wants to talk to you..." After Otilia finished speaking, a slightly older voice came over the phone: "Tommy Hawke, this is Robert Miller, SSD Cornell University Chapter member, I saw the magazine and I don’t know if I was the first person to contact you, but I wish I was, what are you doing?”

"I'm talking about business to make some money, sir." Tommy had never heard of this name, but since the other party was a member of SSD, he had to be respectful and said it truthfully.

According to SSD's rules, you don't have to respect anyone outside of your family in this world, but you must always respect your SSD brothers, because they are your family members with different surnames.

"Go to the DFS duty-free store at San Francisco International Airport. They will prepare a first-class ticket for you." Robert Miller said calmly:

"This is what I want to tell you, from now on, there is no need to talk, you are not short of money."

Second update~