Chapter 232: The Turn of Time for Microsoft

"Thank you for looking up to EA. After a full financial calendar year, it's not too late for us to discuss it." Tang Huan smiled and waved his hands, "Now, let's continue talking about Apple Computer."

Tang Huan scanned the audience confidently. This move was different from Jobs's provocation just now, but revealed a kind of persuasion, "No matter how much I say, it's not as good as you who often deal with money and figures. I bought an Apple computer, and I have a deep experience in using spreadsheet software. If everyone here is reluctant to part with this investment, then there is a danger of being surpassed by their peers, because they can make reports more conveniently and win the favor of customers."

Speaking of this, Tang Huan snapped his fingers, "The reason why everyone needs Apple computers is so simple. Just think about how cars have become popular in middle-class families."

Seeing Tang Huan, who is good at dancing with long sleeves, flickering here and there on the stage, the people below can listen to it with gusto, Jobs almost got his nose crooked.

"Look at how Don pleases these bankers!" Markkula glared at Jobs angrily, "In the beginning, you obviously gave a good speech, but why did you have to turn around and offend these powerful people on Wall Street? .”

"I'm also thinking about the interests of the company. The subscription price is underestimated, so wouldn't the financing be less?" Jobs was a little unconvinced.

"Then discuss it with Morgan Stanley in private. Why are you putting pressure on these people in public?" A black line appeared on Markkula's forehead.

After the meeting ended perfectly, Tang Huan said to Markkula: "Mike, maybe we can make a small change. Use the reverse auction method to price Apple's stock. Maybe we will increase the price at that time, and take to a higher financing amount.”

"Then let's discuss it with Humber and Quest first, and if possible, we can bring Morgan Stanley to discuss it." Markkula readily accepted this suggestion.

As soon as they boarded the plane back to San Francisco from New York, they began to exchange ideas about this change. However, Tang Huan did not intend to get involved in this too deeply. Apple founders such as Markkula and Jobs were obviously more motivated and came up with an idea themselves. That's enough. There's no need to worry about that.

What's more, now that ibm has released rumors that it is developing the next generation of personal computers, Tang Huan has to pay more attention to the 386 project.

...

Sunnyvale, in the same Silicon Valley area as Cupertino, is the headquarters of Atari.

Gates had just finished negotiating a development contract for the Atari PC with Ray Casa, here.

As he walked outside,

While recalling the scene of receiving several visitors from IBM at the Microsoft headquarters a few days ago, the two sides spent more than three hours without discussing any substantive content. The other party only consulted about Microsoft's operations and discussed Computer trends. Then the survey ended.

This made Gates, Ballmer, and Allen very depressed, and they could clearly guess that the other party must do something about personal computers. But it was just scratching the surface, and there was no chance of even a little cooperation.

Seeing that Apple is preparing to go public in full swing, the founders of Markkula, Jobs, and Woz are sure to make a fortune. Gates would be deluding himself if he said he was not envious.

Let's go to Apple and Zheru's headquarters in Cupertino to see if there is any business, Gates sighed to himself.

As soon as he walked to the entrance of the building, Gates suddenly heard someone calling him from behind, "Sir, your company's call is here, please come and answer it."

"What's the rush?" Gates wondered to himself.

"Bill, IBM is sending people to investigate again. I feel like there are articles in it. Come back quickly. Let's prepare." Ballmer on the microphone was almost shouting.

"Okay, I'll return to Seattle right away." Gates lifted his spirits.

...

Sure enough, Gates was not disappointed this time. Sams, the chief representative of IBM, first took out a legal text and asked them to sign it seriously, because only in this way can we continue the following topic.

Gates and Ballmer looked at the document and saw that it was a non-disclosure contract that was obviously beneficial to IBM. The general requirement was that Microsoft must agree to keep everything IBM said confidential, and IBM had the right to use any signature information provided by the person.

In a word, a typical overlord clause.

Seeing that the guys from IBM are so serious, Gates and the others are even more curious. Besides, Microsoft is a small company now, far behind Apple and Zheru. Big opportunity.

After reading the signatures, the ibm representatives put away the documents with satisfaction, and Sams finally revealed his intentions—the chess project under development required a programming language, and Microsoft's was selected.

It's really a great opportunity, and it's very desirable to be able to cooperate with a giant enterprise like IBM. Gates and Ballmer glanced at each other, and couldn't hide the joy on their brows.

Therefore, when the representative of ibm proposed the delivery time, Gates patted his chest and assured that there was no problem.

Seeing that these young people from Microsoft are so up-to-date, the representatives of IBM are very satisfied, so Sams asked whether Microsoft can provide software in three high-level languages, , and, at the same time.

Gates nodded, and pondered: "Microsoft's can run on the operating system, and it can be loaded directly through the read-only memory when it is turned on, but,,, and these three high-level language software require an operating system, which is digital research. The company's cp/m match."

"Then there's no problem." Sams waved his hand and said with a smile, "Our next stop is going to Digital Research Corporation."

"Although cp/m has a monopoly position in the operating system market, it can only run on Intel's 8-bit CPU." Gates' eyes flickered, and he seemed to remind him kindly, "However. I have a My friend. I also built a similar 16-bit operating system."

The reason why he did it. Is it because Microsoft is having trouble with the digital research company.

Originally, the relationship between Gates and Kildare, both natives of Seattle, was very strong. The two once drove a sports car on the highway together, and Gates even got a speeding ticket.

Therefore, they naturally reached a tacit understanding that Microsoft's programming tools and the digital research company's operating system do not cross-border and develop together.

Everyone was fine at first, but just last year, the digital research company added language tools to the operating system's catalog. So Microsoft fought back, bought a license from AT&T, and created an operating system called .

"I believe that the digital research company will be willing to modify its own software." Sams replied with IBM's unique arrogance without doubt.

...

The representatives of ibm did have the confidence to speak like this, but when they came to the headquarters of the digital research company in Pacific Grove, Monterey County, they did not meet the boss Kildare, and the other party was on a business trip.

Sams is a little unhappy about this, haven't we already contacted in advance. The chess plan is most afraid of unnecessary delays.

Luckily, Kildare's wife, Dolucy, vice president of digital research, can call the shots. So the two sides started negotiations.

As always, the representatives of IBM solemnly showed their confidentiality clauses of the overlord, which immediately frightened Dolucy.

After consulting with the company's lawyers, she decided not to sign the document.

As a result, the two sides obviously had nothing to talk about, and Sams got up and left angrily.

However, Dolucy also knew how powerful IBM was, so she hurriedly said some good things and mentioned that Kildare would be back soon.

Because cp/m is the most popular and mature operating system on the intel8080 platform, Sams could only endure it and decided to wait for Kildare.

However, when the two sides met again, Kildare did not immediately sign a non-disclosure agreement, but chatted casually first.

Although ibm representatives cannot disclose the content of the chess plan without authorization, Kildare has already guessed the intention of the other party. After all, the news that ibm is developing the next generation of personal computers is spreading more and more widely up.

In fact, IBM was completely frightened by anti-monopoly lawsuits, so it used legal provisions to protect itself in advance, but the side effects were also very obvious, and it was restrained in doing things and lacked flexibility.

Fortunately, Kildall is not generally smart, and knows that these people should want a 16-bit version of cp/m that can run on the intel 8086, and Digital Research Corporation is also developing such an operating system.

So Kildall introduced his company, which made Sams overjoyed.

Look, without the damn overlord's confidentiality rules, the two sides have also achieved the goal of smooth communication.

However, when Sams proposed the delivery time that ibm wanted. Kildare hesitated.

There are many reasons for this, but in summary, nothing more than the following points.

First of all, developing the intel8086 version of cp/m is technically difficult, and the problem cannot be solved by simple code transplantation.

Secondly, relying on cp/m's market monopoly position, Kildare has already lived the life of a rich man. He has small private jets and other toys, and he is also happy to enjoy the current comfort. I want him to live day and night It is difficult to work overtime.

In the end, Kildall is too real. His company is already busy with business. Many computer manufacturers are waiting in line for the cp/m corresponding to their computer platforms. IBM's delivery time seems a bit difficult, even if Even jumping in the queue may not be able to finish on time. If Big Blue is annoyed and it goes to court, it will be a pain in the ass.

In this way, Kildall told the truth that the delivery time was too strict, and he was a little bit difficult.

Compared with the aggressive young people at Microsoft, Sams was dissatisfied with Kildare's insouciance, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Before getting on the plane, Sams remembered that Gates had said that he had a way to get an operating system, so he called and asked.

At this time, Gates was excitedly discussing the cooperation with IBM with Ballmer and Allen, when he understood what Sams meant. Gates suppressed his excitement. He said slowly: "Sir. If IBM agrees to let Microsoft become the operating system supplier, I am naturally willing to help."

With little thought, Sams agreed.

It has to be said that the world is sometimes so wonderful. The chess planning team eager for success, for the sake of the progress of the project, will use the doctrine to the fullest, and the little Microsoft who dares to take risks and speculate. So he saw the opportunity, took advantage of this loophole, hugged his thigh, and his fate began to change from then on.

"Guys, it's unbelievable that we have reached the intention of cooperating with IBM so easily." Gates, who put down the phone, roared loudly.

"It's really hard to imagine." Ballmer muttered to himself.

"Then quickly contact Seattle Computer Products and get that one," Allen suggested.

The one he mentioned is also a small company, very close to Microsoft. About 20 minutes away by car, there is a computer whiz named Tim Patterson working there.

When Intel launched the intel8086. Tim Patterson developed an interface card for the s100 bus of the Altair computer. In order to test whether it could work normally, he found Gates, who had just finished a copyright lawsuit and moved the Microsoft headquarters back to his hometown of Seattle, and tried to Find a set that can run on intel8086 to test.

At that time, Microsoft just used the intel8086 emulator on the minicomputer pdp- to develop a version suitable for intel8086, but there was no actual device to verify the quality of this version.

Tim Patterson's visit is like someone sending a pillow when he is dozing off. The two sides hit it off immediately, cooperated with each other according to what they needed, and completed the verification work after a series of adjustments to their respective products.

During this contact process, the two parties were deeply impressed by each other, and Tim Patterson, who benefited a lot, began to consider developing an operating system suitable for intel8086, which is in a monopoly position in the market and can be called the de facto standard cp of the industry. /m, naturally became the target of reference.

When Tim Patterson completed this humble operating system, he named it -, which roughly means "fast and evil operating system", but after the official commercial release, he called it 86-.

Gates was not stunned by the pie falling from the sky. After hearing Allen's proposal, he took it seriously and decided to take immediate action to contact the Seattle Computer Products Company.

...

In the Chess Project R&D Center in Boca Raton Industrial Zone, Florida, Bill Lovo nodded in relief after hearing the information brought back by Sams, "Very good, I'm going to report the progress of the project to the management committee."

Speaking of this, Bill Lovo sighed, "I'm going to be transferred. Although I can't share the honor after the success of the chess project, I still have to make arrangements as far as possible before leaving."

It turned out that the general manager of an ibm factory in Rochester with 7,000 employees died of a heart attack. The management committee favored Bill Lovo to take over this position. Man, this is a big promotion, and Bill Lovo has no way to refuse it.

However, what Bill Lovo said made the members of the Chess Project team think differently. Should be eligible to fill the vacancy left by Bill Lovo.

Bill Lovo didn't know that he was expressing his feelings, which caused some undercurrents to the project team. He hurriedly took the sorted materials and reported to the management committee.

In fact, the position of the chess project is still not stable, so Bill Lovo is bombarded with various questions again.

When someone noticed that the project team actually handed over all the software development of the operating system and high-level language to a small company like Microsoft, they questioned it.

"Although Microsoft is small in scale, it already has many successful software application cases. The company's operation is very mature." Bill Lovo, who is very eloquent, answered unhurriedly.

At this time, Bill Gates' mother, Mary Gates, is a member of the United Way National Board of Directors and will soon succeed Frank Cary. John Opel, who will become the president, said, "Bill is not Is it Mary's son?"

As a result, the doubts about this issue disappeared all of a sudden.

This is "the world is the same force, and the heroes are not free". Gates may not be able to play with his own deliberations, and he also needs Kildare's lack of power, Tim Patterson's, and The nobleman John Oppell interjected by chance.

It has to be said that Gates is a talented guy just because of the many coincidences in the dark.

At the end of the meeting, it was natural to talk about who would take over as the person in charge of the chess project team after Bill Lovo was promoted and left.

"There is no doubt that Don Ethridge is the most suitable successor." Bill Lovo firmly gave his recommendation.

Obviously, as the current project leader, Bill Lovo's opinion has a decisive role, and the chess plan that is allowed to bypass the company's rules is an alternative, so the appointment was easily passed. (To be continued..)

...

... ()