Rebirth of America, this is my time

Chapter 300 Bill Gates shows his teeth for the first time

In Ethan's memory, in the past life, in order to cooperate with IBM and win orders from IBM, Intel signed a technology exchange agreement with AMD, making AMD become IBM's second supplier. This agreement gives AMD the right to use Intel's chips and can openly produce Intel chips.

According to reports from various parties circulating on the Internet, the reason why IBM asked Intel to license patents to AMD was to avoid over-reliance in business from happening to IBM.

To put it simply, the fewer suppliers a company has in a single project, the lower the risk resistance of the project. When the supplier and the purchaser are in the honeymoon period, it may be peaceful and peaceful forever, but if there is a conflict between the two parties, or the supplier encounters some unexpected situations, such as being hostilely acquired by a competitor, the purchaser's project will be in trouble. There is a risk of thunderstorms.

Therefore, when most companies are operating projects that require resources from suppliers, they will increase the number of suppliers to a very large number.

Take McDonald's for example. In his previous life, Ethan had already discovered when looking through McDonald's supplier documents that they had established long-term cooperative relationships with more than a hundred suppliers in North America alone.

In addition, there is another way to prevent it, which is to acquire important suppliers directly.

Solve all your problems once and for all.

When Ethan Jones built his company, he chose the latter, doing everything at once.

IBM is obviously taking the former path, introducing enough suppliers to reduce risks.

Because IBM is a public company, they need to be responsible for their own financial reports. When the products supplied by key suppliers are difficult and low-profit, it is impossible for them to embrace them.

When these facts appeared in Ethan's mind like a quick glance, he understood that the cheap chips Bill Gates mentioned were the Intel chips produced by AMD.

But this kind of thing...

Need help from Bill Gates?

Ethan changed his sitting position, leaned on the sofa, looked at the richest man in the world in his previous life with a smile, and said: "William, I think I understand what you mean..."

"When Intel follows IBM's idea and licenses its patents to other chip manufacturers, we can purchase cheap chips from those licensed manufacturers."

"But there's one thing I don't understand."

"When Intel wants to cooperate with IBM, it is inevitable that they will license it externally. In other words, after they complete the negotiation, we will definitely be able to get cheap chips."

"in this case……"

"Where is your bargaining chip?"

Ethan had already spoken very tactfully.

After Bill Gates reminded him that Intel would eventually contribute its x86 to AMD, he knew that Steve Jobs' obsession with chips could end here.

Because AMD will definitely get Intel's chips.

unless……

Intel and IBM are in talks.

But that's impossible.

Because there are only a few chip companies on the planet right now, and the only companies that can produce 16-bit chips are Intel and Motorola. The former Intel is still very young and easy to figure out. If they are asked to open up their patents, they can only open up their patents. , but the latter is different with Motorola. This giant has looked down on the central microprocessor industry from the beginning. Do you want them to create a second supplier?

Even if IBM talks about it, it is impossible to do it!

Robert Galvin is not short of money at all!

All he pursues is the right to speak in the market!

And when Bill Gates felt the curious gaze cast by Ethan, the Harvard dropout immediately laughed, "Oh Ethan - you are right, judging from the current situation, I do There’s no stake in getting a GUI, but I would say the eyes can be deceiving a lot of the time.”

"Because at the moment, the reason why IBM chooses Intel is extremely simple, that is, Intel can control it, but Motorola cannot. Other than that... Intel has no advantages."

These words made Ethan frown slightly.

The unabashed micro-expression made Bill Gates spread his hands and said: "Ethan, it seems that you don't know the gap between Intel and Motorola."

“Although Intel was the first to make central microprocessors and Motorola wanted to give up on this industry before, this does not mean that Intel is invincible, nor does it mean that Motorola is lagging behind, because Motorola’s accumulation is not comparable to Intel’s. "

"Comparing the Intel 8086 that Apple wants to use now with the 68000 launched by Motorola last year, there is a huge gap between the two products. Motorola's chip has at least five times the floating point computing performance of Intel, because Motorola's chip It has more than 70,000 transistors, but Intel's chips have less than 30,000. In addition, their clock frequencies and address widths are different. No matter which aspect you compare, Motorola has it crushed. Advantage."

"It is precisely because this fact has been placed in front of everyone that I will say that compared with Motorola, Intel's advantage is that the company is small and easy to control, but we should all know that in the field of technology, companies Small handling is not an advantage.”

"When one company's technology can crush another..."

"Chasing performance and constantly dreaming is the only choice for all companies."

"Now, IBM chooses to embrace Intel because they feel that personal computers with command line interfaces do not need a very good central microprocessor, but even so, there are engineers within IBM who feel that they want to make spreadsheets better Running environment, if you want your spreadsheet to have richer functions, you must use a better central microprocessor."

"When the graphical user interface was not even on the market, IBM was already despising Intel. If, I mean if, if I told IBM, Apple could bring Xerox's research and development to the world..."

"Ethan."

"Do you think IBM will just give up on Intel?"

"Um?"

When Bill Gates asked this question with a smile.

Ethan, who was sitting across from him, only wanted to use the word "villain success" to describe the founder of Microsoft.

Because he understood Bill Gates’ plan!

When Bill Gates told IBM that the computers you are developing now rely on defense, because Ethan has secretly helped Apple get a prototype of the graphical user interface, IBM will definitely take the initiative to get rid of Intel and embrace Motorola crazily. !

Because when IBM feels that software such as spreadsheets deserve better chips, they who want a better future will definitely understand that graphical user interfaces will have higher requirements for chips!

In this case, Motorola is the best choice!

none of them!

Similarly, their abandonment of Intel can also be a bargaining chip for them to touch the future!

IBM can let Intel disclose its patents because IBM itself is strong enough!

If they don't lower Intel's chip prices, Apple alone won't be able to do it.

When Apple can't get chips from Intel at a low price, or a reasonable price, Apple can't even build a graphical user interface.

Because when Ethan had copied Motorola's chips over and over again, Robert Galvin could communicate with Ethan in a friendly manner, which was already a favor to Fred Terman!

Steve Ross instead?

With his old face in such disgrace, it would be impossible for him to negotiate business with Ethan even if he died!

When the chip shortage problem arises, America's blue giant IBM will definitely take the initiative to negotiate with Apple and Ethan on behalf of Bill Gates.

And when that time comes...

The outcome of the matter cannot be measured.

Because Ethan didn't know how strong IBM's desire for the personal computer industry was.

But at the same time, Ethan knew that this thing could be licensed to Microsoft, but it would never be licensed to IBM.

As for the reason?

After all, he controls Microsoft.

"So, William, are you here for revenge?"

Thinking of this, Ethan laughed, "You want to vent your dissatisfaction when I forced myself to vote for Microsoft?"

"No——" Bill Gates also laughed, shook his head, and said: "Ethan, the year before last, when you used strong methods to invest in our Microsoft, I was indeed very unhappy."

"Because when I saw your spreadsheet idea, I did have the idea of ​​plagiarizing it directly. But before I could implement it or even leave Palo Alto, you had already killed my idea in the cradle. , which made me very angry and wanted revenge."

"But now, I am indeed not negotiating with you out of revenge."

"I came with sincerity and sincerity in wanting to get a graphical user interface."

"Then why don't you talk to Steve Jobs directly?" Ethan was curious.

"Because Steve Jobs will not give me authorization." Bill Gates replied very bachelorly.

"Ethan, do you remember Christmas in 1978? We celebrated it at your house."

“And you made me show you the spreadsheet.”

"When I came up with the spreadsheet idea, Steve Jobs's first reaction was not to be happy or delighted, but to ask why you didn't put this idea in Apple."

"Since then, I have known that Steve Jobs is a very pure person, he is a very pure paranoid, he only wants to have success alone, he does not want to share the victory with others."

"Although I don't know why he became friends with you, because in my opinion, such a person does not deserve to have friends, but it doesn't matter, because I understand that I can't talk to him about business."

"He wants to grab everything and rule the world!"

“As long as your product is good enough, you will be invincible!”

"But I don't think so, and I believe you do the same. We all know that one person cannot rule the world with his own strength, so there must be various transactions involved."

"And now, I'm negotiating a deal with you."

Chi Guoguo's words made Ethan nod his head repeatedly.

Although the guy in front of me looks quite polite, how many children born in capitalist families are really polite? The fact that opening one's mouth means 'business' and shutting one's mouth means 'domination' has proved that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are actually the same type of people.

They all want to succeed.

"William, why do you think I will definitely talk to you?"

Ethan said: "To tell you the truth, Steve was already here before you came."

"He told me that the graphical user interface cannot be handed over to you."

"But giving this technology to us is the best choice, isn't it?"

Bill Gates shrugged: "Ethan, you should understand that monopoly can never allow us to occupy all markets. Instead, it will encourage other companies in other countries to develop their own research and development."

“Only by supplying the market at low prices and making other companies feel that it is better to develop their own products than to purchase them directly, can we truly gain access to the entire market.”

"Steve Jobs probably couldn't accept that."

"But I think you can."

"Is it right?"

Bill Gates' rhetorical question made the smile on Ethan's face even wider.

"So you're not going to threaten me?"

"There's no point in threatening you."

"Then I want to know, what else can you bring me?"

"I can bring you a lot, for example, IBM's negotiation process..."

Perhaps because Intel is so controllable, IBM hopes that Intel will open its doors to itself while opening up its patents. They want to invest in Intel and obtain at least 15% of the equity.

Of course, IBM did not appear so naked when communicating.

He just said that he was optimistic about Intel's products and wanted to bring greater research and development power to them. Provide them with support of no less than 350 million U.S. dollars, which would be about 15% if converted into shares.

This requirement is the root cause of the deadlock in the entire negotiation, because after Intel went public, they have become a public company. Whether to accept external investment cannot be decided by the board of directors at a closed meeting. Shareholders must be summoned to explain to them. Condition.

The two-pronged approach of stock ownership and sharing is IBM's real means of controlling suppliers.

When these facts were laid out in front of Ethan by Bill Gates, Ethan knew that Bill Gates had made up his mind to win the graphical user interface, but this matter...

"William, I need a moment to think."

Ethan smiled.

"Okay. I'll be waiting for your good news in Seattle."

Bill Gates is very casual.

As he left, Ethan also found his sister and asked her to verify the authenticity of the chip.

After Evelin nodded and admitted that Bill Gates was right, Motorola's chips could beat Intel, Ethan discovered that the water in graphical user interfaces was deeper than he had imagined.

He thought he had control of the future once he got the graphical user interface.

But I didn’t expect that someone could get stuck in the neck just because of the chip?

The most important thing is that it is not outsiders that are holding him back, but Microsoft, the company he invested in!

When the young richest man shows his fangs and wants to get a place on the cake called the future...

The choice to take the initiative made Ethan narrow his eyes.

"Special code!"

"Those who can achieve success are a group of ambitious people!"

"This kind of person is really hard to control!"

Note: ①In the 1970s and 1980s, Intel could not beat Motorola. Companies such as HP, Sun Microsystems, and Apollo all used Motorola’s chips, because Motorola’s chips were several times better than Intel’s. In order to compete for the market, Intel, which cannot match the technology, even played word games. Their second-generation processor was originally 80186, but they forcibly changed the code name to 80286 before it was launched, which directly bluffed the purchaser, thinking that Intel's technology is one generation ahead of Motorola, but when tested, the results are worse than anything else. Intel's success relies on IBM and Microsoft. They use market share to win the war on technical standards, and Motorola has achieved great success in the mobile phone business. ②In reality, in order to control Intel, IBM did invest 250 million to take 12% of the equity. Controlling suppliers is the most common behavior in business. This is really not a one-man rule. In many cases, it is just to reduce risks.