Chapter 1469 The Day of Decision

April 28, 2003.

The noisy footsteps gradually receded, and there was only a small tail left in the queue at the door. The cleaner was about to enter to clean up the empty mineral water bottles scattered on the table, documents, and some careless souvenirs left behind by the legs of the chair. Bags, the staff who maintained the order of the venue stopped them, made a muttering together, and then looked at the rostrum together.

"Thank you aplus."

"You're welcome."

"See you next year..."

There was only one person sitting in the middle of the rostrum in front of the 3dfx company logo, and he was dealing with the last group of representatives who took the opportunity to ask for autographs. After a few strokes, he raised his head and extended his hand to the other party with a smile, "Of course, see you next year."

"Can I take a photo together?" The other party took the signed paper.

"We took a photo together just now..."

"The two of us..."

"Sorry sir, it's getting late." The bodyguard next to him opened his arms and made a gesture of asking you to leave.

"Okay, we support you aplus! Hehe..."

The Caucasian representative in his thirties didn't bother him any more, he jogged away cheerfully, and quickly disappeared from the venue.

"call……"

Song Ya was indeed quite tired. After the five-hour shareholders meeting, he took a group photo and signed autographs, which took a long time.

He let out a long breath, relaxed his body, glanced at the empty venue, and closed his eyes for a while to rest his mind.

"Mr. Chairman, Mr. Carmack of id is waiting for your call."

CEO Yasa observed that he was not dozing off, so he came over and reported in a low voice, "He's very angry."

"Oh, good."

It's no wonder if you're not angry, at the shareholder meeting just now, one of the directors of his family in 3dfx was successfully removed, "Let's go too, everyone will be here tonight."

Song Ya didn't intend to call back right away. Today, he prepared a salon dinner at his mansion in Palo Alto, and the executives from the 3dfx department and companies involved in the beats project will all be there.

"Your presence at the meeting was heartbreaking, Mr. Chairman."

On the way back to Palo Alto from San Jose, where 3dfx is located, Yasa, who was in the same car, complimented him 99% sincerely. Such a young and charismatic chairman of the chip industry can still speak at the shareholders meeting. Even in Silicon Valley, where smart brains gather, you can beat most of your peers by being impeccable and fluent in the face of interrogation.

Those who understand technology are not as good-looking as him, those who are good-looking are not as attractive as him, those who are attractive are not as tall as his wrists, those with high wrists are not as expressive as him, and Jobs who has all the above is not as rich as him...

"Yeah?"

While Song Ya was busy with the beats music store during this time, she was preparing for today's shareholder meeting, and did a lot of homework in advance. Yasa must have affirmed the fruits of her labor, which is very rewarding.

"Of course, just now..."

Yasa continued to compliment, but Song Ya turned to ask the muffler driving, "Do you know where the Apple store here is?"

After many years of cooperation, the muffler nodded and deviated from the route, detouring to the nearest Apple store.

Today is also the day when Apple releases the third-generation ipod. The rush-buying line outside the specialty store is long. When the customers come out, some of them have already held the small and beautiful third-generation ipod in their hands, and start to enjoy music with headphones. , and some held the product box next to their faces, used the specialty store as the background, and asked their friends to help take pictures.

Song Ya watched this scene intently, with a dragging sound expressing negative emotions in her throat.

Although Apple's itunes music store has few users because it does not support windows, Apple has its own store, where users can seek help from the store staff to download genuine songs from itunes to their ipods...

This may not be the most correct way. Even if the beats music store supports windows in the future, it will be easier to get started than itunes, but for ordinary users in the United States, the more foolish the use of electronic products, the better, it has nothing to do with what operating system the music store supports. , Downloading songs with a computer is a hassle in itself! It's better to go to the physical store and ask the clerk to help you save worry and effort!

Beats without an independent store has an absolute disadvantage in this regard. Although Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other chain stores have been relented and set up a separate display space for bests, it is completely impossible for those supermarket staff to achieve the same level of service quality as Apple stores. Thinking too much...

Song Ya was observing his competitors, and Yasa, who shut his mouth and stopped disturbing him, was also observing him.

Yasa recalled today's wonderful exercise of power by his own director. He had been deliberately releasing the illusion to the outside world that he planned to take this opportunity to get rid of the second largest individual shareholder's seat on the board. Then, taking advantage of the panic of the second largest individual shareholder, he again Before the general meeting of shareholders, he showed his hole card to the opponent who was desperately protecting himself, threatened and lured him, and asked the second largest individual shareholder to cooperate with him to get rid of the director belonging to id.

The loose alliance of Microsoft, EA, and id did not realize the danger at all before, they were all watching the jokes of the second largest individual shareholder, and ignored the other party's call for help, waiting for the second largest individual shareholder to be desperate, and to get the straw to give in to their own directors , the representative of the board of directors of id finally realized that the real target was himself. At this time, do you want to go back and win enough support?

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Yasa wants to laugh as soon as he recalls the irritated expression of id's board representative today and id's founder Carmack's yelling at him on the phone.

"Let's go."

Song Ya didn't know what was going on in Yasa's heart, the more lively the Apple store was, the more unhappy he was.

When the group returned to Palo Alto, Yasa was greeted by a long-legged supermodel who was wiping her hair with a towel from the swimming pool. The female friend at Dong Zuo's house changed again. He also knew this, Adriana Lima, the graphic spokesperson of Beats Walkman, posters can often be seen all over the United States.

"hey."

Lima trotted over when he saw the man coming back, wearing only a three-point bikini, his perfect, hot body was still wet.

"Well."

Song Ya, who was wrapped around her neck, embraced her with one hand without hesitation, and generously enjoyed a passionate French kiss.

Yasa turned a blind eye and walked straight into the mansion without any surprise.

'It just needs to be...'

Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and other Beats-related faces were already in the lobby, and everyone was staring at Jobs on the TV. When Jobs gently touched the simple, beautiful and delicate When the buttons on the white third-generation ipod and the backlight of the screen light up, the audience immediately cheered excitedly.

"This way..." Jobs turned his fingertips in the lower circular area again, and the function menu of the third-generation iPod also switched accordingly.

"Touch type?" Song Ya had left Lima outside and walked behind everyone.

"Yes, Apple did away with the mechanical buttons on this generation of iPods, it's not a big deal technology."

Jeff Hawkins curled his lips to express his disdain. He has been playing with these technologies for many years. The treo 270 mobile phone in Song Ya's pocket even uses the touch screen.

But Jobs has the ability to create a magical display effect at the press conference, just like an e-magazine editor complained: "When Jobs said that the imac only costs 1,800 dollars, I was so excited and applauded with everyone. , Whistle, but when I got home and calmed down, I realized that the mainstream desktop computer with similar performance at home only cost 900 dollars, so why did I have the idea of ​​buying another imac in my heart? '

Thinking of the treo 270 in the pocket because Jeff Hawkins believed that the touch screen is easy to get dusty and worn out based on the engineer's thinking, so he added a transparent flip cover to the user in an extra and 'intimate' way, which seriously affected the appearance of the treo 270. Song Ya looked at the TV again With the beautiful third-generation ipod in the phone, his mood fluctuated again.

How can this continue to be a good consumer electronics product! he thought so.

"It supports a maximum of 20G hard disk..." Jobs began to preach that the ipod occupies the absolute leading advantage project, capacity.

"Oh no!"

Jeff Hawkins and others lamented in unison. It is still an old problem. American users don’t like the troublesome operations such as deleting and replacing songs. Beats’ first-generation mp3 players have been sold for so long, and everyone has realized this. A little bit, but the second-generation beats that will be released at the end of the year only supports a maximum of 10G hard drives, which cannot be changed.

Jobs then showed off the edgeless body of the third-generation iPod. The smooth curves of the four corners alone told a lot, and the audience began to marvel at the artistic body design again.

The camera also cut to the auditorium, and Song Ya actually saw the 3dfx trio sitting in the crowd applauding happily, immediately frowned, and rubbed the center of his brows with his hands.

'Over there are our auditors...sir and...sir, our secretary...will take on-the-spot notes,...ma'am, was elected as the voting monitor for this general meeting of shareholders...'

He didn't know that at the same time in Cupertino, Jobs was also watching the video of 3dfx's shareholders meeting today in Apple's headquarters, starting from scratch.

The black pharaoh on the TV is explaining various necessary matters according to the script, and introducing the various functional personnel participating in the shareholders' meeting to the representatives. Naturally, in the eyes of Jobs, he is not sophisticated and a bit too serious, but he speaks clearly and behaves calmly. When introducing everyone, they will smile and gesture to each other in a friendly manner. The demeanor is really good.

'3dfx company currently owns...shares of class a shares...shares of class b shares, and each share of class a or class b shares represents...votes and...votes in this voting respectively. '

'I'll run the agenda myself, and I'll answer your questions when I get back from the recess...Okay, let's get started. '

Without any nonsense, after he finished reading, he indicated that the relevant personnel can start the first agenda item.

‘With regard to the director’s seat due for election, we propose that the chief financial officer of 3dfx company...Mr. replace the director’s seat of Mr....’

'Please allow me to interrupt. ' Black Pharaoh chimed in here to add, 'Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed last year, we feel that we need our cfo...sir to join the board of directors to gain more power and freedom to better serve the company And it drives us to perfectly meet all the compliance requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Act for financial discipline. ok, please continue...'

The lengthy voting session was boring, and Jobs pressed the remote control's fast-forward button.

'The motion was passed. '

After the voting, the Black Pharaoh made the final announcement.

It seemed that he got what he wanted. Jobs pushed his glasses and continued to fast forward. Most of the subsequent motions were boring. 3dfx's previous financial report was very good. It seems that shareholders have nothing to dislike about him.

‘The following is the questioning session. There is a standing microphone there. Representatives with questions can go there to ask me questions after being allowed. Please pay attention to maintaining order in the venue. '

After a short adjournment, the general meeting of shareholders entered the question-and-answer session, and the questions raised by the shareholder representatives were also sharp and varied.

'We just lost Apple's chip order, I heard some rumors, this is related to aplus you...uh, Mr. Chairman, you have conflicts with Apple in other business, what is your explanation for this? '

Black Pharaoh laughed after listening to a shareholder’s question, ‘Then you should ask Apple. ’ There was also laughter from the venue outside the camera.

'Of course we want to keep those orders and I can tell you our sales department is still working hard to get them back but that's how business is sometimes and I think Apple will explain their motivations to their shareholders . '

The black pharaoh didn't let the laughter last too long, and quickly switched to Su Rong's answer: "Our chip performance is still the best choice for performance-conscious consumers. Our latest sli model was last year's performance champion. Microsoft, HP, Major customers such as Dell have firmly supported our products, and I would like to express my gratitude to them here. '

In response to his abandonment of 3dfx chips, Jobs knew that 3dfx was supporting other PC manufacturers to compete for the market of imac's abandoned models, such as providing discounts on the chip supply prices of those benchmark models through indirect means.

Those methods did cause some high-end Apple users to complain and switch, but the overall impact was not significant.

'Although 3dfx has suffered very little loss because of Apple's market share, we don't want to lose any customers, especially Apple's outstanding customers. I and our company are doing our best to turn the situation around, please Everyone give us a moment. '

The Black Pharaoh ended the question in a smooth manner.

‘I noticed last year that 3dfx spent millions of dollars in support of equal rights for minorities, political campaigns and charitable activities. Is this necessary for a technology company? Mr. Chairman, are you spending company profits to support your personal friends and interest groups? I think we should get rid of these expenses, I don't have a problem with those jobs, but I am calling for money to be spent on pure company operations and R&D...'

Another person asked.

'I lived there for fifteen years before I wrote songs to get enough money to move out of the poor neighborhoods of Chicago's South Side, and I would say if it weren't for the support of generous charities, well-wishers and social workers, me and my Loved ones may die of poverty, hunger and disease, I feel them, and one of my second-hand clothes to keep warm is a donation from a Vietnam Veteran...'

Used clothes... Fast forward Jobs.

‘You insist on making 3dfx a pure chip design company, but this will make us subject to foundries and graphics card manufacturers, which will cause our strategic security to be controlled by others, won’t it? And over the years, I have noticed that due to the small actions of various graphics card brands, products using the same chip will have very large pricing differences in sales channels. '

When encountering technical problems, the black pharaoh will first look down and search for the documents prepared in advance, and then answer: ‘We have also noticed these phenomena. What I want to say is that the spirit of 3dfx is to trust our partners...’

"But the so-called 3dfx spirit, the three founders don't think so, what they want is a company with its own graphics card production line and brand..." The questioner interrupted impolitely.

'So their stb went bankrupt. ’ retorted the black pharaoh bitterly.

There was laughter again in the venue.

'They say you drove them out dishonorably. '

'I respect them, I am very good friends with them, but I also admit that we have irreconcilable differences in the company's business philosophy... In the early days of 3D chip development, maybe they were right, but the market is changing rapidly , so later 3dfx invited Jim Keller to redesign the chip architecture, and later facts proved that our choice was correct. '

The more confident and strict the black pharaoh in the camera is, the worse Jobs' mood is, and he leaves the TV.

At this time, Jobs has already noticed that he has been kicked out of Apple. Amelio, who has found a new job at the Black Pharaoh, is leading the First Bank of New Jersey to collect shares in Apple. Since a large proportion of his personal assets are in Pixar animation, he has been paying attention to it for a long time. Disney's internal power struggle has also been involved in planning, layout and even tentative participation very early. The alliance between Linton and the black pharaoh...

In addition, the beats music store invited Fan Ning, the founder of napster, and recruited programmers in Silicon Valley with great fanfare. The time point was launched earlier, and it was born to support windows.

He felt that the black pharaoh was like a squid, with its tentacles extending into his territory from all directions, just fucking stalk him!

It's time to make a choice!

After meditating alone, he called his friend Larry Ellison, the boss of Oracle, who was not far from the headquarters, and then called Buffett.

I was actually forced by him to call for foreign aid...

"Are we going to tune the second generation beats?"

Song Ya and everyone walked into the study, "Or start your own specialty store?"

"It's less than half a year away. I'll try my best, but be careful to avoid Apple's patent barriers, and we can't follow suit..."

Jeffrey Hawkins questioned: "For specialty stores... just for mp3 players? Even with Handspring's mobile phone products and Monster headphones, our products are not enough to support a specialty store. Apple has a full range of products. computer products, and their users are very loyal."

"Franchise stores require a very large capital investment," echoed Donna Dubinsky. "We can't afford it."

"Isn't 3 trying to merge Palm and Handspring?" Song Ya asked, "How's the talk going?"

"We're talking, progress is slow." Jeffrey Hawkins replied.

"I'll take over. I'll contact you personally. What's the number of President 3?"

Song Ya asked for a phone number, thought for a while and asked William Zhang, "Goto and Yahoo can also make some concessions in the acquisition negotiations, let's see how sincere they are..."