Chicago 1990

April 28, 2003.

The noisy footsteps faded away, and there was only a small tail left in the queue at the door. The cleaner was about to enter the hall to pack up the empty mineral water bottles, papers and some souvenirs that the careless person left on the leg of the chair and forgot to take away. Bag, the staff who maintained order at the venue stopped him, murmured in one place, and then all looked towards the podium.

"Thanks aplus."

"You're welcome."

"See you next year..."

In front of the 3dfx logo, there was only one person sitting in the middle of the podium. He was dealing with the last group of representatives who took the opportunity to ask for a signature. After signing a few strokes, he raised his head and smiled and stretched out his hand, "Of course, see you next year."

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

"I have already taken a photo just now..."

"We two again..."

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

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

The white representative, who was about 30 years old, didn't entangle him anymore, and jogged away cheerfully. His figure quickly disappeared from the venue.

"call……"

Song Ya was really tired. After the five-hour general meeting of shareholders, he took a group photo and signed his signature for a long time.

He let out a sigh of relief, his body relaxed, he glanced at the empty meeting place, and then closed his eyes for a while.

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

CEO Asaph noticed that he was not taking a nap, so he walked over and whispered, "He is very angry."

"Oh, good."

It’s no wonder that I’m not angry. At the shareholders’ meeting just now, his family’s board of directors in 3dfx was successfully slapped, "Let’s go, too. Everyone will be there at night."

Song Ya did not intend to call back immediately. Today, he prepared a salon dinner at the mansion in Palla Alto. The 3dfx department and the top executives of the companies involved in the beats project will be there.

"Your demeanor at the meeting is heartbreaking, Mr. Chairman."

On the way back to Palla Alto from San Jose, where 3dfx is located, Asaph, who was in the same car, complimented him. Ninety-nine percent was sincere. Such a young and charismatic chairman of the chip industry can still be present at the general meeting of shareholders. In the face of cross-examinations, even in the Silicon Valley, where there are clever brains, it is completely possible to slap most of your colleagues.

Those who know technology do not look as good as him, those who look good are not as attractive as him, those who are attractive are not as good as his wrists, and those who have wrists are not as good as his expressive ability, and Jobs, who has all of the above, is not as rich as his wealth...

"Yes?"

While Song Ya was busy with the beats music store during this time, he was preparing for today's general meeting of shareholders, and did a lot of homework in advance. Asaph has confirmed the results of his labor, which is very useful.

"Of course, just now..."

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

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

Today is also the day when Apple released the third-generation iPod. The rush-buying line outside the store was long. Some customers who bought it already took the small and beautiful third-generation iPod in their hands and began to enjoy music with headphones. , And some hold the product box to their face, use the specialty store as the background, and ask a friend to help take pictures.

Song Ya watched this scene intently, with a drag voice expressing negative emotions in his voice.

Although Apple's itunes music store does not support windows and users are scarce, but Apple has its own store, where users can seek help from the store staff to download the genuine songs on itunes to their iPod...

This is not necessarily the most correct method. Even if the beats music store supports windows first, it will be easier to get started than itunes. However, for ordinary American users in the US, the more foolish the use of electronic products, the better, there is nothing to do with what operating system the music store supports. , Downloading songs with a computer is itself a hassle! It's better to go to the physical store and let the clerk help save worry and effort!

Beats, which does not have an independent store, has an absolute disadvantage in this regard. Although Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other chain stores have set up a separate display space for bests, it is completely necessary for those supermarket staff to reach the same level of service quality as Apple stores. Think too much...

Song Ya was observing his competitors, and Asaph, who closed his mouth and didn't bother him anymore, was observing him.

Asaph remembered the wonderful exercise of his own board of directors today. He had been deliberately releasing to the outside world to take this opportunity to get rid of the illusion of the second largest individual shareholder director seat. Then, taking advantage of the second largest individual shareholder panic, he again Before the general meeting of shareholders, he showed his trump card to the other party who was desperately defending himself, threatening and enticing him to let the second largest individual shareholder 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 before. They were all watching the jokes of the second largest individual shareholder, and ignored the other party’s request for help. Waiting for the second largest individual shareholder to desperately seek help from the owner’s seat. , ID’s director representative finally realized that his true goal was actually himself. At this time, he wanted to look back and win enough support?

It's a pity, it's too late.

As soon as I recalled the frustrated expression of id's director representative today and id founder Carmack's yelling at him on the phone, Asaph wanted to laugh.

"Let's go."

Song Ya didn't know Yasa's heart activities, and the more crowded the Apple store, the more upset he was.

The group returned to Pallaotu. At first glance, Asa was caught by the long-legged supermodel who was wiping his hair with a bath towel from the swimming pool. The female friend of Dong Zuo’s family has changed again. He also knows this, Adriana. Lima, the graphic spokesperson of the beats player, posters are often seen everywhere in the United States.

"Hey."

Lima saw the man come back and trot over immediately, 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 the passionate French long kiss.

Asaph turned a blind eye and walked straight into the mansion without any surprises.

‘It just needs to be like this...’

The familiar faces of beats such as Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky are already in the hall. With the buttons on the white third-generation ipod, when the backlight of the screen lights up, the audience immediately cheered with excitement.

‘So...’ Jobs turned his finger in the circular area below, and the third-generation iPod function menu was switched accordingly.

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

"Yes, Apple has eliminated mechanical buttons on this generation of iPods. This is not a big deal."

Jeff Hawkins curled his lips to express his disdain. He hadn't known how many years he had been playing these technologies. The treo270 phone in Song Ya's pocket even used the touch screen.

But Jobs has the ability to create a magical display effect at the press conference, just like an e-magazine editor's complaint: "When Jobs said that imac only costs $18, I was so excited, I applauded with everyone. , Blew the whistle, but when I returned home to calm down, I realized that the mainstream desktop computer with similar performance at home cost only 900 dollars, so why did I have the idea of ​​having to buy another imac? ’

Think of the pocket because Jeff Hawkins thinks that the touch screen is easy to stain and wear based on the thinking of the engineer, so he added a transparent flip to the user in an extra "intimate", which caused the treo270 whose appearance was seriously dragged down. Song Ya looked at the TV again. The beautiful third-generation iPod in here has some fluctuations in mood.

How to make good consumer electronics products like this! He thought so.

‘It supports up to 20g hard drives...’ Jobs again began to preach that iPod occupies an absolute leading advantage in terms of capacity.

"Oh no!"

Jeff Hawkins and others lamented in unison. It’s still an old problem. U.S. users don’t like complicated operations such as troublesome deletion and changing songs. Beats’ first-generation mp3 player has been sold for so long, and everyone is aware of this. One point, but the second generation of beats to be released at the end of the year only supports 10g hard drives, which can no longer be changed.

Jobs then showed off the non-angular fuselage of the third-generation iPod. The smooth curves of the four corners spoke a lot of things. The audience then began to marvel at the artistic fuselage design.

The camera cut right into the audience. Song Ya actually saw the 3dfx trio sitting in the crowd applauding cheerfully. He frowned and rubbed his brows with his hands.

‘Sitting over there are our auditors... Mr. and Mr.... our secretary... will make on-the-spot records,... Madam, was selected as the voting monitor of this general meeting of shareholders...’

He didn't know that at the same time in Cupertino, Jobs also watched the 3dfx shareholder meeting video he had brought to the Apple headquarters, starting from the beginning.

The black pharaoh on the TV was confessing all the necessary matters according to the booklet, introducing the various functional personnel participating in the shareholders meeting to the delegates. In Jobs’s eyes, he is naturally not too sophisticated and a bit too serious, but he speaks clearly and behaves calmly. When introducing each person, he smiles and gestures friendly to each other, the demeanor is indeed very good.

‘3dfx currently owns...shares of class a stocks...shares of class b stocks, and each share of class a or class b represents ... votes and ... votes in this voting. ’

‘I will preside over the agenda of the meeting. I will answer your questions when I come back from the adjournment... Okay, let’s get started. ’

Without any nonsense, after he finished reading, he signaled that the relevant personnel could start the first item on the agenda.

‘Regarding the director seats due for rotation, we propose to replace the director seats of... Mr.... by the chief financial officer of 3dfx...

‘Please allow me to interrupt. 'Black Pharaoh is here to add something.' Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed last year, we think we need our cfo...Mr. to enter the board of directors to gain greater power and freedom to better serve the company And it urges us to perfectly fulfill all the compliance requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on financial discipline. ok, please go on...’

The long voting period was boring, and Jobs pressed the fast forward button on the remote control.

‘The motion is passed. ’

After the votes were cast, 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. The financial report released by 3dfx before was very beautiful. It seems that shareholders have nothing to dissatisfy with him.

‘The following is the question session. There is a vertical microphone there. After getting permission, representatives who have questions will go there and ask me questions. Please pay attention to maintaining order in the venue. ’

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

‘We just lost Apple’s chip order. I heard some rumors that this is related to aplus you...er, Mr. Chairman himself and Apple’s conflicts in other businesses. What's your explanation for this? ’

After hearing a question from a shareholder, the black pharaoh laughed, ‘then you should ask Apple. The venue outside the camera also burst into laughter.

'Of course we want to keep these orders. I can tell you that our sales department is still working hard to get them to change their minds, but sometimes the business is like this. I think Apple will also explain to their shareholders the motivation for doing so. . ’

Black Pharaoh didn’t let the laughter last too long, and soon switched to Su Rong’s answer: “Our chip performance is still the best choice for performance-conscious consumers. Our latest sli model is 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. ’

In response to his abandonment of the 3dfx chip, Jobs knew that 3dfx was supporting other PC manufacturers to compete for the market for those abandoned models of imac, for example, through indirect means to provide preferential prices on the supply prices of those standard models of chips.

Those methods did cause some complaints and transfers from high-end Apple users, but the overall impact was not significant.

'Although the loss suffered by 3dfx is very small due to the problem of Apple’s market share, we don’t want to lose any customer, especially an excellent customer like Apple. Personally and our company are doing their best to reverse the situation, please Everyone, give us some time. ’

The black pharaoh ended the problem smoothly.

‘I noticed that last year 3dfx spent millions of meters on supporting ethnic minority equality, politician campaigns and charity activities. Is this necessary for a technology company? Mr. Chairman, are you spending company profits on supporting your personal friends and interest groups? I think we should abolish these expenditures. I don’t have any opinion on those jobs, but I call for the money to be spent on pure company operations and research and development...’

Another person asked.

'Before I got the funds to move out of Chicago’s South City ghetto by writing songs, I lived there for fifteen years. I want to say that if it weren’t for the support of generous charitable organizations, well-wishers and social workers, I and my Relatives may die of poverty, hunger and disease. I feel that among them, there is a donation from a Vietnam War veteran in my second-hand clothes to keep out the cold...'

Second-hand clothes... Jobs fast forward.

‘You insist that 3dfx be a pure chip design company, but this will make us subject to foundries and graphics card manufacturers, which will lead to our strategic security being subject to others, right? And over the years, I have noticed that due to the small actions of various graphics card brands, the performance of products using the same chip will have very large pricing differences in sales channels. ’

When encountering a technical problem, the black pharaoh will first look down to find 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 spirit of 3dfx, 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 not politely.

‘So their stb is broke. 'Black Pharaoh's pungent retort.

There was laughter again from the venue.

‘They said you used shameless means to drive them away. ’

"I respect them. I and them are very good friends, but I also admit that there are irreconcilable differences between us in the company's business philosophy... In the early days of the development of 3D chips, maybe they were right, but the market was changing rapidly. , So later 3dfx invited Jim Keller to redesign the chip architecture, and later facts proved that our choice was right. ’

The more confident the black Pharaoh in the camera, and the more straightforward his eyes, the worse Jobs' mood, and he left in front of the TV.

At this time Steve Jobs had noticed that he had been swept away from Apple. Amelio, who had found a new job in Black Pharaoh, was leading the First Bank of New Jersey to collect shares in Apple. Since his personal assets are heavily weighted in Pixar Animation, he has been paying attention very early. The power struggle within Disney has also been involved in the planning, layout and even tentative participation very early. The alliance between Linton and the Black Pharaoh...

And the beats music store invited Napster founder Fan Ning and the trend of recruiting programmers in Silicon Valley with great fanfare. Jobs also has mastered it. If nothing else, according to the previous accumulation and gameplay of napster, the beats music store will be better than originally expected. It was launched earlier, and it was born to support windows.

He felt that Pharaoh Black was like a squid, with tentacles sticking into his territory from all directions, just **** stalker!

It's time to make a choice!

After he meditated alone, he called a friend not far from the headquarters, Oracle boss Larry Ellison, and then called Buffett.

I was forced by him to summon foreign aid...

"Should we adjust the second-generation beats?"

Song Ya and the others walked into the study, "Or also started to set up their own specialty store?"

"It's only less than half a year~www.NovelMTL.com~ I try my best, but be careful to avoid Apple's patent barriers, and we can't be a follower of the same trend..."

Jeffrey Hawkins questioned: "As for specialty stores...just for mp3 players? Even with the addition of handspring's mobile phone products and magic earphones, our products are not enough to support a specialty store. Apple has a full range. Computer products, and their users are very loyal."

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

"Didn't 3 try to merge palm and handspring?" Song Ya asked, "How's the talk going?"

"Talking, progress is slow." Jeffrey Hawkins replied.

"I'll take over, I'll contact there personally, what's the number of President 3?"

Song Ya asked for a phone number, and after thinking about it, he asked William Zhang, "Goto and Yahoo's acquisition negotiations can also make some concessions. Let us see how much sincerity there is..."