Chong Sheng 1977Nian Cong Zhi Qing Kai Shi

Nan Yi: "Scarlett."

Scarlett: "Did you read the email?"

Nan Yi: "Hmm, wait a minute, Rachel will be online soon."

Rachel: "I'm here."

Nanyi: "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 the early years, he founded the MITS company to produce programmable calculators. At the beginning, the business did not do well, and he almost went bankrupt. However, he launched it in 1974. The first personal computer based on the Intel microprocessor, the "Altair 8800".

Therefore, he is known as the father of PC.

His light shines on a man named Jobs. Jobs followed the footsteps of Roberts to create Apple. At the same time, his light also shines on two Jewish students at school, Paul Allen and Bill Gates.

When Gates saw the news about Altair, he looked up to the sky and laughed, "Hahaha, I, Zhuge Gates, have a chance."

Gates knew very well that the advent of the PC was tantamount to opening a new era of computers, so he called Roberts, claiming to develop a special language for Altair, which is Basic, a student with a hairless mouth, and Roberts naturally I was skeptical, but I just asked Gates to make a DEMO first.

Gates cherished this opportunity very much, and pulled Allen to work day and night at the Harvard Aken Computer Center for eight weeks, writing the Basic language for Altair.

After writing, the two excitedly went to demonstrate to Roberts. Roberts saw that the two younger boys were good, so he wanted to pull them into MITS. This was in the arms of Gates and the two of them. Naturally, they agreed again and again, but just to be on the safe side, Allen dropped out of school and went to MITS, while Gates didn't work and joined as a part-time job.

In the spring of 1975, Allen entered MITS as the manager of the software department. After a period of time, Allen found that Roberts was a bit shaky, so he quickly called Gates, who had finished his second grade, and the two continued to improve Basic. Registered a company called Microsoft to hold the ownership of Basic.

In late July 1975, Gates and Roberts signed an agreement: a ten-year term, allowing MITS to use and transfer Basic and source code worldwide, including third parties.

According to the agreement, the two of Gates can make a maximum profit of 180,000 US dollars, which is not a lot of money, but it can let Microsoft parasitize in MITS and get a ride.

After getting Basic, Roberts launched a huge publicity in the United States. The business of MITS was booming. With the popularity of Altair, the Basic language was also promoted. Microsoft won two big customers, Ge and Nce, and Microsoft became famous. The child hardened.

Later, internal fluctuations occurred in MITS. Roberts wanted to sell MITS to Perterc. Perterc insisted on taking 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 out, but there were controversy.

Controversy is beneficial to Gates. Don’t forget what Father Gates does. He is a top-ranked lawyer in the United States, not to mention his mother. With the help of Father Gates, after several lawsuits, Basic’s Ownership is still firmly in the hands of Microsoft, and MITS has become the first stepping stone for Microsoft's rise.

Looking back from the perspective of latecomers, the first microcomputer users were a bunch of scumbags. They wore jeans, listened to rock, dissatisfied with the status quo, and with the belief of returning computers to the people, they tried to change the world.

They rely on clubs and fairs to communicate with each other and buy products from each other. They reject naked commerce. They are not as ambitious as Gates, and their eyes are directly locked on wealth, but out of a certain belief, an obsessive hobby.

The Homebrew Computer Club, established in 1975, was the most famous link for microcomputer users at that time. It advocated an open system and freely disseminated software codes and internal operations to everyone. It was this open ideal that led to the early PCs. industries because they were the first and foremost consumers, inventors, innovators, and makers.

It can be said that the earliest personal-oriented software advocated the idea of ​​free, and the software authors did not want to make a profit, but just wanted to hear fellow enthusiasts say "Brother, you are so awesome".

If the PC continues to develop in this way, it will never be popularized, and it will only become a plaything of a small circle. Fortunately, Gates at that time already had a very mature business thinking-by free means, the Basic Promote it, wait for more people to use it, and then slowly find a way to collect money.

Basic's reputation grew through the Homebrew Computer Club, and by 1976 Gates felt the time was right, so in January he wrote an open letter to amateurs, published in the Homebrew Club Newsletter and other place.

In the letter, he accused the widespread illegal copying of Basic and called the amateurs who did it thieves, writing: "The royalties we receive for selling to amateurs count , so that the time we spend on the Altair Basic language is only worth $2 an hour, why is this so?

Most amateurs must know that many of you use steal software, hardware has to be bought, software can be shared, but who cares if the people who do the research get paid? "

This letter has become the banner and manifesto of Microsoft's development. After improvement, popularize first and then charge, it has also become the only magic weapon for Microsoft's product promotion.

If Basic can be regarded as an innovation of PC language, then since Basic, Microsoft has no so-called innovation. MS-DOS was transformed on the basis of Quick and Dirty, and Quick and Dirty was a relatively powerful operating system CP at that time. Made modifications and simplifications on the old version 8086 of /M.

MS-DOS was actually when IBM was eager to enter the PC market. For some reason, it failed to reach an agreement with CP/M, and turned to jointly develop a new operating system with Microsoft. Microsoft took the above measures in order to hurry up.

Therefore, strictly speaking, MS-DOS is the third grandson of CP/M, and its blood is pure, it is absolutely biological.

After being on the big tree of IBM on the list, Microsoft got out of control and grew slowly on the giant blue. But at that time, the person in charge of the PC department of IBM was called Estridge. As treacherous as a ghost, he still crushed Gates and couldn't move.

The thing is very strange. Estrich has been in charge of IBM's PC division for less than four years, bringing in $4 billion in revenue for IBM. It is said that he is a great contributor, but this major contributor quickly stepped aside. The last one was a guy named Roy.

IBM’s actions probably have nothing to do with Gates’ mother who was misrepresented as an IBM director in later generations. Gates’ mother did not work for IBM. She is actually an executive of First Intercontinental Bank. Her father seems to be First Intercontinental Bank. Shareholders, First Intercontinental Bank seems to have a little bit of IBM's shares, and Gates' mother has 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 can install it on its own computer at will, almost free of charge, but allows 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 machines was extremely low. Roy agreed almost without thinking. By 1989, the compatible machine market had reached 80%. Just $2 billion in revenue.

Later, the cooperation between Microsoft and IBM on OS/2 did not continue, and Microsoft turned to "develop" Windows. Yes, that's right, Windows95 is the adopted son of OS/2, and windows3. 2 parent-child.

From Basic to Windows 1.0, Microsoft took a parasitic road, standing on the shoulders of giants and climbing up. When Windows 3.0 came out, Microsoft itself was already a giant, but it did not go on the road of innovation, and did not become a giant. Instead of being a banner in the PC world, he quietly went to Meizhuang in West Lake to meet with Ren Woxing and his predecessors, and devoted himself to practicing the star-absorbing method. When he learned it, he combined his own characteristics and changed it into the soft-absorbing method.

One day, Gates was standing on the top of Seattle, and started to suck soft Dafa. Wordstar and WordPerfect were sucked by him. He left Word, kicked Star and Perfect away, and then sucked in Lotus 1-2 -3, looking at this weird name, he didn't know how to divide it, so he simply gave it a new name "Excel".

Just like this, Microsoft became more and more powerful. One day in 1989, Gates became interested in Intuit’s Quicken financial software. I clicked it a few times, but Quicken just didn't move at all.

Since it can’t suck it, forget it, Gates is not discouraged, Microsoft is already strong, and they simply write a MS-Money to compete with Quicken, but it’s also evil, MS-Money was rubbed on the ground by Quicken, a little He has no power to fight back, and he also watched Intuit go public.

Gates took a look, no, I have to inhale again.

Therefore, last year, Gates made another effort, which obviously failed, otherwise there would be no such effort.

Speaking of it as a non-war crime, it’s not that Microsoft can’t do Intuit, but that the Ministry of Justice held Microsoft down. The reason is 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 the dictatorship of the anti-monopoly law. However, Microsoft, as an American legend in the information age, had powerful shareholders behind it, so it was naturally opened by the Internet. On the one hand, the Justice Department is only making restrictive rulings.

Just after the ruling here, on the other side, Gates wanted to suck Intuit again. The Ministry of Justice felt that this little guy was ignorant at all, so he just held him down. Now that the limelight has not passed, Gates actually still To commit crimes against the wind, that's why Nanyi asked this question.

Rachel: "It's unlikely. Microsoft has already violated the antitrust law. It is only because of the operation of shareholders and the consideration of the national information strategy (restraining Europe) that Microsoft has not received a big fine."

Nan Yi: "Scarlett, is it possible to work?"

Scarlett: "No, it's just a commercial merger that doesn't involve national security. No one will agree to shake the spirit of the law."

Nanyi scoffed at Scarlett's words, talking about the spirit of the law, it's nothing more than the fact that this merger is just a little guy's jump, it doesn't involve too high-level interests, no one will throw out a special "special" word, Just follow the rules, if you can do it, you can’t do it.

"OK, I suggest buying some Intuit shares in the secondary market. Once the news of Microsoft's acquisition failure comes out, I believe Intuit's stock price will rise."

Scarlett said noncommittally: "Can it be doubled?"

Nan Yi was a little embarrassed when he heard that Intuit's market value was only a little over 100 million US dollars, and it was just a small guy among the companies held by Pan Am Holdings. In terms of market value alone, Rachel didn't need to ask Si With the opinions of Jiali and Nanyi, she can make a decision directly.

It’s just that Nanyi told Rachel a long time ago that he should be informed of any computer-related business matters. Scarlett’s words were actually complaining that a small business business not only needs to send emails, but also needs to open a It's a bit of a fuss for such a high-level conference call.

"Double should be impossible, Rachel, the secondary market."

Rachel: "OK, I'll get attention."

At the end of the conference call, Nanyi called out TTM and set up a discussion group to chat with Ke Hanlin and Nan Ruofing 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. It was only luck that the market share followed Netscape before. On the Internet, there are only two reliable browsers, and the function of the South browser is better than that of Netscape, but it is also ranked after Netscape.

Since he didn't pay much attention to it, and didn't intend to operate it independently, he simply sold it to Netscape while the current market share was okay and Netscape was rich and powerful.

This matter, Nanyi handed over to Nan Ruofing to operate, not all money, but more money for shares, Netscape's stock still has a lot of room for growth, it will be more cost-effective to hold stocks, it depends on how the freeze period is discussed, time Too long is no fun.

Less than 20 minutes after the discussion group discussion ended, Nan Ruofing called Nan Yi.

"Dad, do you want to add another step?"

"What?"

"Celebrity Capital acquired a 20% stake in South Browser for $60 million."

After thinking about it for a while, Nan Yi smiled and said, "Little girl is quite good at calculating. This price is just right, but it may not be cost-effective to occupy such a large sum of money for celebrity capital, and the shareholders may not agree."

Nanyi's valuation of South Browser is 140 million US dollars. During the negotiation, it may be able to add another 10 to 20 million. The price quoted by Nan Ruofing has obviously included all the appreciation expectations of Netscape's stock price. Take it into consideration and form a situation of risk transfer and sharing.

"Megan and the others will agree. Celebrity Capital has just raised a lot of funds."

"Okay, I personally agree with you, you can talk to Ke Hanlin. Also, don't forget to ask Yi Zai for his opinion, it is also a shareholder."

"Hey, Yi Zai will definitely agree."

Nan Yi dotingly said: "Ghost spirit, don't stay up late, go to bed early."

"Got it, Dad, good morning."

"Good night."

Ending the call again, Nanyi called out Quicken to study for a while, learning from the products of other companies.

Feilong Software and Intuit will become real friends. Quicken is unlikely to sell well in China, and Feilong Software's future financial software has no chance to squeeze into the US market. The two will not become competitors. Wait for Feilong Software to show off Put it up, let the backbone go to Intuit to visit.

At noon, Nan Yi was too lazy to go out, and was about to serve himself a bowl of noodles to deal with it. Just as he was about to go to the kitchen, the phone on the long table rang, it was Liu Zhen's fixed line.

Nanyi thought it was quite new. Liu Zhen had already equipped a mobile phone, and the fixed line at home was almost a decoration. After Liu Zhen was transferred back to the capital, it hadn't rang once, why did it rang today.

Although it's new, Nan Yi didn't plan to answer it. If he really needed something urgent to call Liu Zhen, the caller would definitely have a way to find Liu Zhen directly, so he didn't need to worry about it.

When Nan Yi went to the kitchen to sit on the water and left the living room, the phone was still ringing, and now he couldn't answer it.

"Hi, Liu Zhen is in class, please call her office." Nan Yi picked up the phone and threw a sentence directly.

"I'm not looking for Liu Zhen, I'm looking for you."

As soon as Nanyi heard the voice, he knew that the opposite was Min Jinsheng. In the past few years, he had been promoted step by step. Liu Zhen's fixed line, Min Jinsheng knows his mobile phone.

"Uncle Min, why did you call here?"