Chapter 3005 Backing Off

At 8 o'clock in the evening, Charlie Kidder called Cummins, his voice full of fatigue, "They haven't decided yet,"

Cummins was stunned. It’s been two hours since your meeting, and you haven’t convinced Intel yet?

Guys, you are the Wintel Alliance. The Wintel Alliance has dominated the high-tech industry for decades. Now you can't even reach an agreement on cooperation in such a direction that is not the core?

Isn't this not even a friendship between you?

Cummins suddenly became a little anxious. If Intel joins forces with Apple again, then they will definitely have no chance of winning.

"You know, Intel really cares about Apple using their CPUs," Charlie Kidder said, "especially if Apple is interested in developing its own chips."

Cummings thought for a while, "You make arrangements and I'll go meet them."

Putting down the phone, he couldn't help but curse, this is all a bunch of mess.

It should be said that Intel should really cherish its relationship with Apple, because their current cooperation with Apple is quite hard-won.

The feud between Apple and Intel certainly has a lot to do with the strong and individual Steve Jobs.

Speaking of which, Lao Qiao has a close friendship with Robert Noyce, one of the founders of Intel, a man who can be called the father of Silicon Valley, and even regards him as his life mentor.

But his relationship with Andy Grove, the other founder of Intel, was quite bad. The reason is very common. It was the kind of me back then that you ignored, but the me now , a clichéd plot that you can’t afford.

In the early days of Apple, Jobs hoped to get a preferential price from Intel, but Apple at that time was a completely small business. In business negotiations, Andy Grove simply rejected Jobs' proposal.

What kind of person was Steve Jobs?

What he resented the most was being looked down upon, so from then on, he hated Intel.

Later, when Intel and Microsoft established the Wintel Alliance, he pulled his own chip supplier Motorola - yes, Motorola was also a microprocessor giant at that time, and the blue giant IBM, to establish a rival AMI PowerPC. alliance.

Since 1995, Apple has been using PowerPC chips developed by this alliance until 2004, when Motorola withdrew from the alliance after separating its semiconductor business, leading to the end of the alliance.

In June 2005, Jobs finally invited Intel to the stage at a press conference and announced that Apple would use Intel chips from now on. That is, from then on, Apple's laptops were renamed to the MacBooks we all know - they were previously called PowerBooks. .

Now that Apple has become the most well-known brand of electronic fast-moving consumer goods, it is certainly worth Intel's efforts to cooperate.

So, where is our advantage?

This is a question Cummins is constantly thinking about along the way.

There don't seem to be many advantages. After all, ARM is currently Intel's most powerful competitor.

When Microsoft's friendship doesn't work, it seems even harder for me to convince Intel.

He walked into the agreed-upon cigar bar with a straight face. After seeing Kidder and Intel Vice President Brian Krzanich sitting on the large sofa, he simply skipped the pleasantries and said directly, "Krzanich, everyone I know that there is currently quite fierce competition between your two families in many fields. I want to know if this is the reason why you are unwilling to join hands with Microsoft and us in the auction? "

Krzanich held his cigar and smiled, "Of course not, Cummins, we all know that this is an unavoidable situation, and Intel has always welcomed such competition that is beneficial to the development of the entire industry,"

Competition, of course, is fierce?

We want to be fierce, but in the mobile field, it is still difficult for us to get involved. As for other fields, whether it is PC or server, you want to be fierce, but do you have the ability?

Cummins suddenly felt that this Intel vice president, who always looked very tired, really had the potential to be a CEO. These clichés were so easy to say.

"Well, we all know that when a company develops to become the absolute leader in the industry like Intel, it will inevitably encounter challenges from time to time," he said with a small compliment.

“We have always adhered to this principle. When competition is inevitable, we should be more active in cooperation with each other. I think Intel should have a very clear understanding of this. The latest version of the software we will release soon Android will fully support Intel x86 architecture chips,"

Whether these words are a gesture of goodwill or a slight threat depends on how the other party sees them.

Krzanich smiled and raised his glass, "We very much welcome and appreciate Android's efforts in this regard,"

"In this case, I don't understand why Intel doesn't choose to join forces with us?" Cummins asked.

Ke Zaiqi thought, "Why don't you wait for me to wait for what kind of conditions Apple will offer me?"

"Could it be that Intel hopes to join forces with Apple to share Nortel's 6,000 patents with at least five companies there?"

"Are these up to 1,000 patents worth Intel's efforts?"

"It's hard to have 1,000 patents," Charlie Kidd also chimed in at the right time, "Apple will definitely want to hold at least one-third to half, and if we join forces, that's at least 2,000 patents,"

Krzanich, who had been swinging the red wine in his glass, stopped and looked up at the chandelier above, "This is a problem,"

He lowered his head and said, "Okay, you convinced me, I'll join," he stretched out his hand.

Cummins immediately felt that something was wrong.

I said, you guys, I'm afraid you have already decided to join forces with us, but you have to wait for me to say a few soft words?

He was too lazy to care about this for a while, "We have to discuss tomorrow's strategy now, I think, is this the case..."

…………

George Riddle, Chief Strategy Officer of Nortel, was still very happy to look at the last two parties, "Welcome everyone again, I think, let's start now?"

His attitude was very popular with the only two parties. For these 6,000 patents, everyone has stayed in Toronto for a long time.

Cummins was the last to bid yesterday, so of course it was Apple's turn to bid first today, "3.3 billion dollars," Jeff Williams said calmly.

It seems that he doesn't care too much about Intel joining the alliance of Android and Microsoft.

Riddle was a little disappointed with this offer. Everyone knows that Apple is the strongest and has the most cash, but their bids have always been so mediocre and never give people a surprise.

Can't you just raise it to 3.5 billion dollars?

But he knew that 3.5 billion dollars should not be a problem, because Intel has just joined, so Android will have to raise the price at least once, and according to their habit, a one-time increase of 200 million dollars is really a piece of cake.

He looked over with expectation and saw that Cummins and Charlie Kiddell were both signaling Intel's Brian Krzanich, oh, this is to let the new member make an offer.

Krzanich smiled and also quoted a price very calmly, "4 billion dollars,"

Riddle was stunned at first, and then ecstatic, 4 billion dollars!

That's 4 billion dollars?

At this moment, he wanted to draw a cross on his chest, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

At this moment, he really wanted to hug Cummins and kiss them hard.

Cummins and the other three stared at Apple with a smile, what are you going to do, increase it or not?

"I'll make a call," Jeff Williams stood up.

Riddle's eyes suddenly lit up, there is a way, it seems that it is likely to be more than 4 billion US dollars.

He kept looking at the watch, hoping that Williams could bring better news as soon as possible. Yes, Apple should finally show its strength.

And the smiles on Cummins' faces at this time are gradually no longer as relaxed as before. Apple actually wants to increase the price?

Three minutes later, Williams came back briskly. He didn't even sit down. He stood up and said, "$4.5 billion!"

The nervous Riddle couldn't help but stand up and applaud, "Welcome Apple's bid!"

On the other side, Charlie Kidd and Brian Krzanich looked so ugly. They glanced at Cummins who didn't say anything and immediately said, "We hope to continue two hours later this afternoon."

Ten minutes later, Feng Yiping received a call from Cummins, "Feng, Apple bid $4.5 billion, Microsoft and Intel have decided to give up,"