Wall Street Legend

Chapter 248 The Difficult Little Guy (14)

Ye Dongqing expressed his position. With the shares he currently holds in Apple, Mr. Jobs has no choice but to pay attention to his ideas, fearing that this matter will eventually become unresolved and that he will have to fight to the death in the power dispute.

Taken together, the independent directors will most likely be the losers. After all, Ye Dongqing's shareholding is so high, it is very likely that he will get the controlling rights at the shareholders' meeting, and then remove most of the directors who oppose him. .

After all, Steve Jobs is no longer the Steve Jobs he was in the 1980s. Time and setbacks have worn away all the edges in him, and he is no longer able to manage as freely and freely as he did when he was young. With a big company, there are so many things to consider.

Although he had suffered a lot from the board of directors, Jobs did not want to see Ye Dongqing take the controlling stake. In his opinion, a company should have internal opposition voices to contain major shareholders and avoid If he insists on going his own way, it will be good if it ends well, but he doesn't think that someone can always be smart. Maybe one day he suddenly becomes confused, and the Apple company he worked so hard to create will once again be dragged into a quagmire that is difficult to get out of. among.

He felt that he might not be able to survive the disease this time, so he was even more concerned about gains and losses. He had devoted half his life to Apple. He still hoped that after he left, someone would be able to contain Ye Dongqing. This was the only possibility. The problem is the current board of directors decision-making system. Tamsui Investment Group currently only holds two seats out of eight seats. Jobs thinks this is good now.

The balance of power was very delicate at the moment, almost in a state of balance. Seeing that Ye Dongqing might break this balance, it was strange that Jobs was not in a hurry, so he decisively comforted Ye Dongqing, trying to stabilize him and avoid acting impulsively...

Tim Cook is in the game, but he is like an outsider. He has no awareness of being used by Ye Dongqing as a bargaining chip against the board of directors. At present, what he is most concerned about is whether he can become the interim CEO. For a professional As a manager, everyone hopes to be in charge of a large company with a market value of more than US$7 billion before the age of fifty.

More than ten minutes later, when he accompanied Ye Dongqing to leave Jobs' office, he even wanted to invite him to dinner to thank him for supporting him, but he was declined. Ye Dongqing wanted to keep in close contact with him, but But he couldn't bring himself to have dinner together, so he left alone and went downstairs, leaving as he came.

In the office, Jobs picked up the phone with a headache, called his old friend Mr. Bill Campbell, and asked him to meet now and discuss some things in person.

Just before, the focus of his chat with Ye Dongqing was mainly on Mr. Cook, the chief operating officer. He already knew Ye Dongqing's determination to support Cook. In Jobs' view, there was no need to dwell on such matters. Even He himself is also quite optimistic about Cook's appointment as interim CEO. The last thing he did before leaving was mainly to convince the board of directors that it would be best not to provoke this young Chinese guy.

Young people are motivated and impulsive at the same time. Jobs was very worried that after he left, the two sides would fall into war. Judging from Jobs' understanding of Ye Dongqing, he would definitely not be the one to admit defeat. He was in charge at a young age. With so much wealth, God knows what he will do if he is ruthless.

…

The meeting place with Mr. Bill Campbell was arranged at a cigar club. It was only after one o'clock in the afternoon. It was empty and it seemed that they were the only two guests.

As a recognized practitioner throughout Silicon Valley, Mr. Campbell gave Jobs a lot of help during his decline and was considered a half-friend. After the two met, they first talked about their families, and then the topic turned to recent events. .

With a cigar between his fingers, Steve Jobs told Campbell: "I can probably guess why you are opposed to Tim Cook taking over my job. It's because he is closer to Leo Ye, right? It's a pity that you are wrong. One thing is that Leo is different from ordinary young people. He is not the kind of young man who can be frightened into weakness by waving a big stick and shouting. I can only say that you have made a very, very bad decision. You succeeded in irritating him and irritating the major shareholder who holds the largest number of shares and is still increasing."

"So? That little guy found you crying?"

The old man Campbell didn't have much contact with Ye Dongqing. In his opinion, he was just a lucky little guy. He had met him once before, but it didn't leave a deep impression on him. It was natural for him to rely on his old age.

This is not arrogance. He is indeed very prestigious in the eyes of other board members, including Steve Jobs. But the tacit atmosphere of understanding was broken with the intervention of Ye Dongqing. His two spokespersons always like to put forward some things that Campbell cannot accept. The old man felt that Ye Dongqing was spending money indiscriminately, such as getting involved in LCD panel technology or spending so much money to cooperate with Qualcomm to develop microprocessors.

Before Jobs could answer, Old Campbell continued to smile and said: "I'm not targeting Cook, but he has also been brainwashed by you and Leo Ye recently. Ron is a very capable young man. I hope you can give him some advice." He has more opportunities and supports him like I do. Leo’s ideas are indeed quite strange, but you also know how much money they will cost. You can’t just put all the company’s funds on a project that no one is optimistic about. This is irresponsible to other shareholders. You should pay more attention to the computer development field and get back on track."

There is always a generation gap between the ideas of the older generation and those of the younger generation. They are stubborn and arrogant, and like to naively think that the world is still the same world when they were young. The last time Ye Dongqing met the head of Rolex, the same was true for him. .

"If it was because of my resignation, then I would rather not go to the hospital. I know that my body will not have problems in a short time, and the doctors said so." Jobs actually didn't agree with the elder Campbell's idea, but he still He didn't mean to tell the truth. The other person was one of the people he respected the most. He had maintained a personal relationship for more than ten years. He felt that what the other party said made sense.

Unlike Ye Dongqing, they could not guess what the world would be like more than ten years later. Jobs continued: "Just now, Leo wanted to convene a shareholders' meeting to re-elect the board of directors and amend the company's management articles to allow Shareholders have more say. You should know that this kind of thing is very likely to happen, and his wishes will most likely be met. With only a few shares, he has higher decision-making power than anyone else.

This is why I hope you don’t provoke him. Leo recognized Cook, and I tend to support Cook. Ron is a reckless man and there is absolutely no way he can lead Apple to continue. For the company and for yourselves, Please believe me, Leo is definitely a very difficult little guy, and you will probably lose. "

There is no smoke in the war in the business world, but it is equally fierce. Old Campbell paused and thought of many things in his mind. After weighing it, he found that it was indeed the case. They simply could not gather the shares that could compete with Ye Dongqing. The atmosphere was tense. Time has cooled down...