Chapter 1805 Wang An

This year, Christmas Eve became especially deserted.

Li Xiaobin took his wife and daughter to the Bahamas for vacation. Eric and Mary sent greeting cards and expressed their blessings on the phone.

Norma, who was dating little Kendi, rarely called them to express her blessing.

It seems that Li Zitao's attitude towards their relationship has changed and he has gained Norma's understanding!

The Grand Duke was busy celebrating with the people, and also had to prepare for the Federation Summit to be held in London a month later, so he didn't have time to come.

Not to mention Mason, who was traveling to Bermuda on behalf of Elizabeth to offer condolences.

So, this year, only their family came to celebrate.

But because of what happened before, the atmosphere was not pleasant, but rather deserted and deadlocked.

"It would be great if there was an atmosphere team." Li Zitao suddenly missed the girls who were dedicated to their duties.

Fortunately, the festival only lasted one day. Aiden flew back to New York the next day, and Li Zitao also had to go to Seattle for a meeting.

Thanks to massive capital investment, IBM has developed rapidly in recent years.

Among them, the "Advanced Planning Laboratory" project that attracted the most attention was declared a success.

Currently, IBM has become an important partner of the Department of Defense.

It connected half of the United States' military network to them, multiplying the U.S. military's communication and coordination capabilities by dozens of times.

On the private side, it has also begun to be used in many fields such as large enterprises, administration and education.

Network is no longer an unfamiliar word.

However, it is still far away from ordinary people. Only the government and big entrepreneurs who are not short of money can feel its magic and convenience.

Shareholders who complained at the beginning are now an afterthought.

When it comes to shooting rainbow farts, each one is better than the other.

It was a good annual meeting, but they almost turned it into a forum for sycophants.

"IBM still needs to maintain a very high level of investment in its overall development. We must look to the future, rather than settle for immediate profit gains and losses."

"I think you have received sufficient returns, and hope to receive more." Li Zitao's words spoke to the shareholders' hearts.

Does anyone think they have too much money?

Even Charlie Lee, who is predicted to be worth tens of billions by the media, doesn't realize how they can be arrogant and complacent.

There is still a huge gap between the same billionaires.

"The investment in the laboratory can be guaranteed, but...Charlie, should we cut off some projects and focus on the Internet?"

Watson considers it from a business perspective. The project plans they currently invest in are too scattered, which is not a good phenomenon.

Especially for large companies like IBM, decentralization is not as good as concentration. Only concentration can achieve the best.

"What are you referring to?" Li Zitao looked at him and asked.

"The research and development of minicomputers has still not yielded any results to this day. We should wait."

Watson's speech was approved by shareholders. Tens of millions of investments have now accumulated over 200 million, but there is still no return.

Even shareholders who see hope in the stock market don't think it will change in the short term.

1 year, 2 years, 3 years...

Under Li Zitao's strong pressure and other projects continuing to generate benefits,

They can tolerate it.

But today, six years later, there is still no hope.

This feeling is like constantly throwing money into a bottomless abyss, which can never be filled and create profits!

At least in the short term, there is no hope in recent years.

They hope to shut down the project and reinvest in research and development when the time is right.

"It's all thanks to the fact that our host has gone from occupying a room to being the size of a car."

Li Zitao looked at the shareholders one by one, looked into each other's eyes and said, "Isn't it the change in volume that enables success?"

The shareholders looked at each other in shock. What he said was true, but it was not very accurate!

If you want to reduce the size of the machine to today's size, it will cost no more than tens of millions of dollars, and the subsequent more than 100 million will have no results.

Everyone knows that computers in the future will become smaller, faster, and more advanced.

But before the technology matures, there is no need to invest an unlimited amount of money to promote that trivial change.

“A thousand-mile embankment is destroyed by an anthill. It is often those seemingly inconspicuous changes that set off huge waves.”

"Believe me, your investment will be fully rewarded. If anyone is dissatisfied, you can come to me at any time and I will give him a suitable price."

After hearing what he said, no one complained anymore, even Watson remained silent.

No one would agree to sell the shares to him unless he faced bankruptcy or encountered force majeure reasons.

Those who can still remain on the board of directors at this time are all people who have full confidence in him and are extremely optimistic about IBM's future.

Backing off is not their style.

When it was not stable enough and was not officially launched on the market, some shareholders encountered financial difficulties.

But he would rather let go of his profitable investments and insist on holding shares in IBM.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that its stock price at that time was not high enough to fill the hole.

But it also proves from the side how optimistic he is about IBM.

The success, the huge public opinion and reforms it triggered, and the huge profits it brought all proved to him that his vision was right.

Li Zitao's achievements and legendary experience also played a big role in it.

Shareholders believe that he will never make money-losing transactions, that his judgment is correct and that he can achieve huge profits.

This is actually a kind of gamble, and from the perspective of shareholders, it is very dangerous.

Fortunately, they won the bet!

Now, they can only count this as another gamble.

If you win the bet, your rewards will be even greater.

There was a debate almost every time, and the old issue of R&D investment ended here. Watson thought of another thing.

"Charlie, do you know there is a company called Wang Laboratories?"

"Oh? What's the difference?" Li Zitao neither admitted nor rejected it.

I would like to hear what Watson has to say, Wang Laboratories, of course he knows this company.

It should be said that any Chinese who is interested in IT history will not be unfamiliar with the two words Wang An.

"We acquired its magnetic core memory patent, which is a technology that can replace punch cards. It is compact, lightweight and more advanced."

"It's just that there was a misunderstanding between us during the transaction. Wang used the money from selling the patent to establish a new computer company..."

Watson looked a little embarrassed when he said this. Compared with IBM, Wang An's computer company was like an inconspicuous little ant.

But it was this little ant that successively designed products that surprised them, and gradually grew up.

Even, it already has the ability to reject and resist IBM.

They worry that if this continues, IBM will lose its dominance and monopoly in the industry.