Volume 8 Final Chapter Chapter 1051 Parasitic Development
Nan Yi: "Scarlett."
Scarlett: "Have you read the email?"
Nan Yi: "Hmm, wait a moment, Rachel will be online soon."
Rachel: "I'm here."
Nan Yi: "OK, Rachel, do you think Microsoft's acquisition offer can be approved by the Department of Justice?"
There is a man named Edward Roberts, who is now a doctor. In his early years, he founded MITS to produce programmable calculators. At the beginning, the business was not doing well and he almost went bankrupt. But by some strange coincidence, he launched the earliest personal computer based on Intel microprocessor, "Altair 8800" in 1974.
Therefore, he is known as the father of PC.
His light illuminated a man named Steve Jobs, who followed in the footsteps of the great Roberts and founded Apple. His light also illuminated two Jewish students at school, Paul Allen and Bill Gates.
When Gates saw the news about Altair, he laughed out loud, "Hahaha, my chance has come."
Gates knew very well that the emergence of the PC opened a new era of computers, so he called Roberts and claimed that he would develop a special language for Altair, namely Basic. As a student with no experience in this field, Roberts was naturally skeptical and just asked Gates to make a DEMO first.
Gates cherished this opportunity very much, and he worked day and night with Allen at the Harvard Aken Computer Center for eight weeks to write the Basic language for Altair.
After writing, the two excitedly went to demonstrate to Roberts. Roberts saw that the two young men were good and wanted to recruit them to MITS. This was exactly what Gates and the others wanted, so they agreed. However, to be safe, Allen dropped out of school to go to MITS, while Gates did not work in the office and joined as a part-timer.
In the spring of 1975, Allen joined MITS as the manager of the software department. After a while, Allen found that Roberts was a bit erratic, so he quickly called Gates, who had just finished his sophomore year, over. While the two continued to improve Basic, they registered a company called Microsoft to hold the ownership of Basic.
In late July 1975, Gates and Roberts signed an agreement: for a period of ten years, MITS was allowed to use and transfer Basic and source code worldwide, including to third parties.
According to the agreement, Gates and his partner could make a maximum profit of $180,000, which was not a lot of money, but it would allow Microsoft to parasitize on MITS and take advantage of the situation.
After mastering Basic, Roberts launched a massive publicity campaign across the United States. MITS's business was booming. With the popularity of Altair, the Basic language was also promoted. Microsoft won two major customers, Ge and Nce. Microsoft's reputation soared and its position became stronger.
Later, there were turmoil within MITS. Roberts wanted to sell MITS to Perterc, but Perterc insisted on including Basic as part of the transaction. According to the agreement signed by Roberts and Gates at the time, Roberts had the right to trade Basic, but there was some controversy.
Controversy means good for Gates. Don't forget what Gates' father did. He was one of the best lawyers in the United States, not to mention his mother. Even with the help of Gates' father, after several lawsuits, the ownership of Basic was still firmly in the hands of Microsoft. MITS became the first stepping stone for Microsoft's rise.
Looking back from the perspective of later generations, the first microcomputer users were a bunch of stupid young people who wore jeans, listened to rock music, were dissatisfied with the status quo, and wanted to change the world with the belief of returning computers to the people.
They rely on clubs and trade fairs to communicate with each other and buy products from each other. They reject naked commercialism. They are not as ambitious as Gates, who has his eyes fixed directly on wealth. Instead, they are motivated by a certain belief, an obsessive hobby.
The Homebrew Computer Club, founded in 1975, was the most famous link between microcomputer users at the time. It advocated an open system and distributed software codes and internal operations to everyone for free. It was this open ideal that contributed to the early PC industry because they were the most important consumers, inventors, innovators and manufacturers in the early days.
It can be said that the earliest software for individuals advocated the idea of free software. The software authors did not seek profit, but just wanted to hear their fellow enthusiasts say, "Brother, you are awesome."
If the PC had continued to develop in this way, it would never have become popular and would have only become a toy for a small circle. Fortunately, Gates already had a very mature business mindset at the time - he would promote Basic for free first, and then slowly find ways to charge for it when more people used it.
Thanks to the Homebrew Computer Club, Basic became more and more famous. When it came to 1976, Gates felt that the time was right, so in January, he wrote an open letter to amateurs and published it in the Homebrew Club Newsletter and other places.
In the letter, he decried widespread illegal copying of Basic and labeled the amateurs who did it thieves, writing: "Why is it that the royalties we receive from selling to amateurs make our time spent on Altair Basic worth only $2 an hour?
Most amateurs will understand that many of you are using stolen software, the hardware has to be bought but the software can be shared, but who cares if the people who produce the results are paid?"
This letter became the banner and declaration of Microsoft's development. After being improved, it was first popularized and then charged for, and it also became Microsoft's magic weapon for promoting its products.
If Basic can be regarded as an innovation in PC language, then Microsoft has not had any so-called innovation since Basic. MS-DOS was modified on the basis of Quick and Dirty, and Quick and Dirty was modified and simplified on the old version 8086 of CP/M, which was a relatively powerful operating system at that time.
MS-DOS was actually created when IBM was eager to enter the PC market. For unknown reasons, it failed to reach an agreement with CP/M and instead worked with Microsoft to jointly develop a new operating system. In order to save time, Microsoft took the above-mentioned action.
So, strictly speaking, MS-DOS is the third grandson of CP/M, and it has pure bloodline and is definitely a biological child.
After Microsoft listed IBM as a big tree, it was unstoppable and grew slowly by relying on the blue giant. However, the person in charge of IBM's PC department at that time was a man named Estridge, who was a very capable man. No matter how cunning Gates was, he could still suppress Gates and make him unable to move.
Things are very strange. Estridge was in charge of IBM's PC division for less than four years and brought IBM $4 billion in revenue. He was supposed to be a great contributor, but he was soon sidelined and replaced by a man named Roy.
This operation of IBM probably has nothing to do with Gates' mother, who was later mistakenly reported to be an IBM director. Gates' mother never worked at IBM. She was actually an executive of First Intercontinental Bank. Her father seemed to be a shareholder of First Intercontinental Bank, and First Intercontinental Bank seemed to have a little bit of IBM shares. In fact, Gates' mother had nothing to do with IBM.
In June 1985, Microsoft and IBM reached an agreement to jointly develop the OS/2 operating system. According to the agreement, IBM could install it on its own computers at will, almost without charging a penny, but allowed Microsoft to charge other computer manufacturers for the use of OS/2.
At that time, IBM had an absolute advantage in the PC market and the share of compatible computers was extremely low. Roy agreed without hesitation. By 1989, the compatible computer market share had reached 80%, and Microsoft earned $2 billion in operating system licensing fees in just a few years.
Later, Microsoft and IBM did not continue their cooperation on OS/2, and Microsoft began to "develop" Windows. Yes, that's right, Windows 95 is the adopted son of OS/2, and Windows 3.0 and previous versions are the biological children of OS/2.
From Basic to Windows 1.0, Microsoft took a parasitic path, climbing up on the shoulders of giants. By the time Windows 3.0 came out, Microsoft itself was already a giant, but it did not take the path of innovation, nor did it become a banner in the PC industry. Instead, it quietly went to Meizhuang in West Lake to pay a visit to senior Ren Woxing, and devoted itself to practicing the Star-Absorbing Art. After it was completed, it combined its own characteristics and changed it into the Software-Absorbing Art.
One day, Gates stood on the top of Seattle and used his magic to suck in software. Wordstar and WordPerfect were sucked in. He kept Word and kicked Star and Perfect away. Then he sucked in Lotus 1-2-3. Looking at this weird name, he didn't know how to split it, so he simply gave it a new name "Excel".
Microsoft continued to suck and suck, and became more and more powerful. One day in 1989, Gates became interested in Intuit's product Quicken financial software. He stood on the top of the mountain and used the suction method, sucking repeatedly in the direction of Intuit several times, but Quicken did not move at all.
Since it couldn't be sucked away, forget it. Gates didn't give up. Microsoft was already strong and powerful, so he simply wrote MS-Money to compete with Quicken. But it was strange that MS-Money was actually crushed by Quicken and had no power to fight back. It also had to watch Intuit go public.
Gates took a look and thought, No, I have to smoke again.
So, last year, Gates tried again, but obviously failed, otherwise he would not have tried this time.
It can be said that it is a crime without war. It is not that Microsoft cannot beat Intuit, but that the Department of Justice has suppressed Microsoft. The reason is very simple, two words, monopoly.
In 1990, the Federal Trade Commission had already noticed Microsoft because Microsoft's bundling sales method was one of the targets of antitrust law. However, as an American legend in the information age and with powerful shareholders behind it, Microsoft was naturally given a break and the Department of Justice only made a restrictive ruling.
The ruling had just been made, and on the other side, Gates wanted to take advantage of the situation again. The Ministry of Justice felt that this little guy was not sensible at all and didn't want to take advantage of the situation, so they simply detained him. Now the storm has not passed yet, and Gates is still committing crimes against the storm. That's why Nan Yi asked this question.
Rachel: "It's unlikely. Microsoft has violated antitrust laws. It's only because of the operations of shareholders and the consideration of the national information strategy (suppressing Europe) that Microsoft has not received a big fine."
Nan Yi: "Scarlett, is it possible to work?"
Scarlett: "No, it's just a business merger. It doesn't involve national security. No one will agree to shake the spirit of the law."
Nan Yi sneered at Scarlett's words. What's the point of talking about the spirit of the law? This merger was nothing more than a small guy's prank. It didn't involve high-level interests. No one would throw out the word "special" for special matters. Just follow the rules. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't.
"OK, I suggest buying some Intuit shares in the secondary market. Once the news of Microsoft's failed acquisition comes out, I believe Intuit's stock price will go up."
Scarlett said noncommittally: "Can it be doubled?"
Nan Yi felt a little embarrassed when he heard that. Intuit's market value was just over 100 million US dollars. It was just a small company among the companies held by Pan American Investments. Judging from the market value alone, Rachel didn't need to ask Scarlett and Nan Yi for their opinions. She could make the decision directly.
It was just that Nan Yi had told Rachel a long time ago that she should inform him of any computer-related business affairs. Scarlett's words were actually a complaint that the affairs of a small business not only required sending emails, but also holding such a high-level conference call, which was a bit of an exaggeration.
"One times shouldn't be possible, Rachel, the secondary market."
Rachel: "OK, I'll get someone to pay attention."
After the conference call ended, Nan Yi called TTM and set up a discussion group to chat with Ke Hanlin and Nan Ruoyin about the South browser.
Neither Nantianmen nor Nanyi paid enough attention to the South browser. They only regarded it as an auxiliary tool and did not operate it well as an independent product. The fact that its market share was closely following Netscape was just luck. There were only two reliable browsers on the market, and the South browser had better functions than Netscape. However, it still ranked behind Netscape.
Since they don't take it seriously and have no plans to operate it independently, they might as well just sell it to Netscape while their market share is still good and they are rich.
Nan Yi handed this matter over to Nan Ruoyin to run. It doesn't require all money, but shares and money. Netscape's stock still has a lot of room for appreciation, and it would be more cost-effective to hold the stock. It depends on how the freezing period is negotiated. It will be boring if the time is too long.
Less than twenty minutes after the group discussion ended, Nan Ruoyin called Nan Yi.
"Dad, do you want to add a step?"
"What?"
"Mingyuan Capital acquires 20% stake in South Browser for $60 million."
Nan Yi thought for a moment and then smiled, "Little girl, you are quite good at calculating. This price is just right. However, it may not be cost-effective for Mingyuan Capital to occupy such a large amount of funds. The shareholders may not agree."
Nan Yi's valuation of South Browser is 140 million US dollars. If the negotiation goes well, it may be able to get another 100 million or 20 million more. The price quoted by Nan Ruoyin has obviously taken into account the expected appreciation of Netscape's stock price, forming a situation of risk transfer and sharing.
"Meghan and the others will agree. Mingyuan Capital has just raised a lot of funds."
"Okay, I personally agree with your opinion. You can go talk to Ke Hanlin. Also, don't forget to ask Yizai's opinion. He is also a shareholder."
"Hehe, Yizai will definitely agree."
Nan Yi said lovingly, "Ghost, don't stay up late, go to bed early."
"I know, Dad. Good morning."
"Good night."
After ending the call again, Nan Yi called out Quicken to study it for a while and learn from the products of other competitors.
Feilong Software and Intuit will become real friendly competitors. Quicken will not be able to sell well in China, and Feilong Software's future financial software will not have any chance to squeeze into the US market. The two will not become competitors. Once Feilong Software's framework is set up, key personnel can visit Intuit.
At noon, Nan Yi was too lazy to go out, so he prepared to make himself a bowl of noodles. Just as he was about to go to the kitchen, the phone on the long table rang. It was Liu Zhen's landline.
Nan Yi found it quite novel. Liu Zhen had already had a mobile phone, and the landline at home had almost become a decoration. It had never rang once since Liu Zhen was transferred back to the capital, so why did it ring today?
Although it was new, Nan Yi didn't plan to answer the call. If the person who called really had something important to talk to Liu Zhen about, the person would definitely be able to find Liu Zhen directly, so he wouldn't have to worry about it.
When Nan Yi went to the kitchen to get some water and left the living room, the phone was still ringing. He had no choice but to answer it.
"Hello, Liu Zhen is in class, please call her office." Nan Yi picked up the phone and said directly.
"I'm not looking for Liu Zhen, I'm looking for you."
As soon as Nan Yi heard the voice, he knew it was Min Jinsheng. In the past few years, he had been promoted step by step, from the district to an important position in the ministry. It stands to reason that he and Min Jinsheng had no official intersections in the area under their jurisdiction, so why would he call him, and the call was from Liu Zhen's landline? Min Jinsheng knew his cell phone number.
"Uncle Min, why did you call here?"
