Chapter 2411 Pressure

The meaning of Lawrence's words couldn't be clearer. He was obviously saying that Jobs didn't want to have a direct conflict with Feng Yiping because of their personal relationship.

Jobs was furious when he heard this. Once bitten by a snake, he was afraid of the rope for ten years. Lawrence's words made him feel that these guys were targeting him again.

From the day he returned, no, from the day he was expelled from Apple by John Sculley in an indecent manner, he swore that such a thing would never happen to him again.

And Lawrence's words immediately reminded him of the humiliating past that he didn't want to remember the most.

"You are such a stupid parasite, a greedy termite..."

Lawrence Fink, who faced the angry Jobs for the first time, couldn't help but be a little confused.

He has been a celebrity for many years, and he has never been insulted like this.

He sat there with the microphone, feeling that the employees coming and going outside the door and the tall buildings outside the window suddenly seemed as funny and unreal as Chaplin's silent movies.

It was unknown how long it took him to come back to his senses, and at this time, Jobs had not yet finished his words, "...You are just some despicable thieves, the culprits who harm the economy,"

"...Have you ever produced even one product that can be compared with the packaging boxes of our computers, iPods, and iPhones?"

Jobs's sharp voice continued to come, and Lawrence's forehead was in pain. As a big man who was at ease on Wall Street, he was not without the ability to curse, but in front of Jobs, who was the first to fire, he really had no power to fight back.

Jobs had always been tireless in cursing, and Lawrence had been pretending to be a big wolf recently, so he gradually became unfamiliar and gradually forgot this ability. In such a close combat, let alone the ability to fight back, he didn't even have the ability to parry.

This damn, shameless, mean-mouthed hippie, the adopted son of a filthy fruit farmer... Lawrence's face was livid, and he cursed in his heart. At the same time, he couldn't help thinking, I just made an allusion, why did things develop to this point?

But Jobs still didn't finish, "... What's funny is that you seem to be screwing up such a low-level job of promoting social wealth after so many years of work,"

"Not only have you caused millions of people to be displaced, but you are almost losing your own jobs,"

"It seems that you are really much better than those people in Hollywood in acting in comedy. You are acting in comedy with your future and life..."

Lawrence:...

You, Jobs, are a well-known business leader for many years. Why do you speak so ungentle and so sarcastic?

You have been famous for so many years, don't you even understand the basic principle of being objective and not subjective? ——Jobs is too lazy to understand.

But as a member of Wall Street, facing the current situation, Lawrence was extremely angry about Jobs' words, but it was hard to refute them.

At present, it seems that this is the fact. Many people on Wall Street will indeed kill themselves.

But Jobs still didn't stop. He kept scolding people like this, "Oh, this is not surprising, right? Decades ago, you messed up in this area once."

Jobs's additional words made Lawrence's temples throb. He couldn't help it anymore and immediately slammed the table and stood up, "Yes, you are Jobs, so you can be better and more creative than us in grabbing social wealth."

"I heard that the fund you and Mr. Feng jointly established seems to have good returns?"

After hearing this, Jobs was stunned.

"These millions of people displaced will bring you billions of dollars in returns, Steve, you are really professional, noble, and a role model for us!"

After hearing no sound from the other end, Lawrence, who felt that he had the upper hand, finally felt relieved, "Then Steve, can we have a good talk now?"

But, "bang," the phone was hung up rudely.

Holding the microphone that only made a "beeping" sound, Lawrence was so angry that his hands were shaking, this uneducated barbarian!

He couldn't help but smash the microphone heavily on the ground.

Hearing such unusual movements in his office and facing his cold eyes, the people outside immediately lowered their steps one by one.

"Mr. Lawrence," the secretary knocked on the door gently.

"Give me a glass of ice water," Lawrence loosened the tie that his wife had tied for him in the morning, and couldn't stop breathing heavily.

But a whole glass of ice water couldn't calm him down.

He looked at the busy Manhattan outside through the glass curtain wall. This was what he liked to do normally, but looking at it now, he felt very irritated.

He simply closed his eyes and thought of the question again. How did things develop to this point?

Did I say anything? I didn't say anything. The most important thing was almost not mentioned, right?

…………

In Cupertino, Jobs was also not calm at this time.

Although he was very happy to scold just now, Lawrence Fink's last words still made him feel uneasy.

Things seemed to be more complicated than he thought.

Although he believed that his actions would definitely pass the review of the directors.

He believed that several directors of the board of directors, including the members of the audit committee and the independent directors of the company's management committee, would stand on his side at this time.

Because in the "option backdating" incident that broke out in 2006, the board members finally chose to stand on his side.

The so-called option backdating refers to the fact that listed companies usually grant executives stock options as an incentive mechanism to improve the company's performance and stock price. However, many listed company managers manipulate the stock option backdating date and deliberately choose a low stock price as the option grant date to expand their profit margins.

The difference profit brought by option backdating is usually tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars. (In that case in 2006, according to the charges of the US SEC, Jobs earned an additional profit of more than 20 million US dollars.)

What's more, this year, he just launched the iPhone, which was very popular, and Apple's stock price once again returned to the high of 100 US dollars.

At present, through the sales of iPhones and iPods, as well as iTunes and other services, the company's daily net profit is close to 10 million US dollars.

Now he is not the Jobs who brought huge losses to shareholders in the 1980s, but the Jobs who brings high returns to shareholders every day. Coupled with his reputation today, he is convinced that no one can shake his position in Apple.

Even though he and Feng Yiping did have a good personal relationship, and he did set up a fund with him that seemed to have high returns.

However, Jobs still couldn't rest assured.

He once again remembered Lawrence Fink's purpose. He wanted to invest in Feng Yiping's company, so he hoped that he could cooperate with his actions.

Feng Yiping's company... Although Jobs still didn't know what Apple's targeting of Feng Yiping's company had to do with their investment in Feng Yiping's company, he knew that if the investment was successful, it would definitely bring high returns to Lawrence and others.

With their character, they would never give up easily, so they would definitely have a back-up plan, that is, there would definitely be measures against themselves.

He didn't expect that just because Feng Yiping's company launched an operating system, just how Apple faced competition, it would bring such a complex series of problems.

He looked out, dark clouds were rolling in the sky, and at this moment, his mood was as gloomy as the sky outside the window.

The phone on the table rang again, and Jobs turned around, "Steve, Mr. Edward Johnson is on the line," said the secretary.

As expected, he came. "Take it," he said.

"Steve, my old friend," Edward Johnson, who rarely appears and is already old, greeted Jobs.

Edward Johnson, the youngest son of the founder of the well-known American Fidelity Fund, is also the soul of Fidelity to become the world's largest asset management institution.

Under his leadership, Fidelity has long been ranked among the top two asset management institutions in the world together with Vanguard Group.

For Apple, Vanguard Group is currently the first among the top ten institutional shareholders, Black Rock is second, and Fidelity is fifth.

"Hello Edward," Jobs already knew his purpose at this time and took the initiative to say, "If I remember correctly, Black Rock is a competitor of Fidelity, right?"

Although his words were also not very polite, they were much milder than the previous conversation with Lawrence.

Lawrence Fink was still young, but Edward Johnson was not very young, and Jobs was also worried that he would make him angry.

Although he didn't know much about finance, Jobs still knew a lot about the major shareholders of his company.

So he knew that after successfully merging Merrill Lynch's asset management business, BlackRock, which was originally ranked behind, has indeed become the strongest competitor of Fidelity and Vanguard.

"Oh Steve," Johnson laughed, "You know, in front of interests, there are only friends,"

"You have to understand that people like Lawrence who don't have much background and are impulsive are not very good at communicating with people," - just said that they and BlackRock are friends in front of interests, but immediately said bad things about friends. The gold content of their friends may be lower than the gold content of the currency of the country with the highest inflation in the world at this time.

Jobs was not at ease after hearing this. The words of the head of Fidelity Fund clearly showed that they and BlackRock had the same position on this matter.

Among Apple's institutional shareholders, there are not only these two companies and Vanguard. The well-known State Street Fund and Buffett's Berkshire Savell are also among the top institutional shareholders of Apple.

In normal times, this is undoubtedly an affirmation of Apple and a reflection of Apple's success. After all, for these companies that are ranked at the top and well-known in the world, not all companies are worth their joint investment.

But at this moment, Jobs only felt pressure, unprecedented pressure...