Li Xuan finally reluctantly persuaded the company's management to agree to his plan. However, the specific cooperation plan with the mainland will only be come up after Dongfang Electronics has communicated and discussed with the University of Hong Kong and the University of Chinese. Li Xuan naturally did not participate in person, but started to be the shopkeeper again.

The reason why Han Peng hurried back to Hong Kong was to discuss with Li Xuan in detail the possibility of acquiring the British company Acorn. That's right, Acorn is the company that invented the ARM architecture in later generations. It's just that the current Aikang company is still a small company that has just been established for less than two years.

Before Han Peng went to the UK, Li Xuan asked him to pay attention to this little-known small company in Cambridge Town. Han Peng didn't take this matter too seriously at first. But while attending a technology fair in London, he was surprised to find the latest Atom personal computer on display.

The Atom is an all-in-one keyboard with a MOS6502 processor, 2KB of RAM, and a cassette drive. If that's all there is to it, there isn't much to surprise Han Peng. After Apple's Apple computer came out, there were at least hundreds of various microcomputers developed by imitating it all over the world.

The ATOM computer of Aikang, where Han Peng was really pleasantly surprised, was that they developed a local area network. During the on-site demonstration, the technicians of Aikang Company connected 8 ATOM computers together to perform a series of operations such as document sharing, remote desktop display and remote keyboard entry through a demonstration system.

The Atom PC is also very inexpensive, costing £150 for unassembled parts and £170 for a finished product. That is to say, the finished machine is only equivalent to about 400 US dollars, which is very competitive. If the user thinks that the memory is too small and not enough, it can be scaled up to 12KB.

Li Xuan previously had a systematic plan for the computer products developed by Dongfang Electronics, and the low-end machines were mainly aimed at the educational computer market, with cheap as the selling point. The mid-range machine is mainly aimed at the business office market, with application software as the selling point. High-end machines are workstation computers, with high configuration and high performance as the selling point.

Apple's Apple computer, in Li Xuan's opinion, is a low-end machine, although its price is not cheap. In addition to individual gamers, Apple's most important customers are primary and secondary schools across the United States. And Atom is undoubtedly very much in line with Li Xuan's requirements for low-end computers.

In particular, his LAN system is very suitable for school teaching, and teachers can operate students' computers on their own computers through functions such as remote desktop display and remote keyboard input, which will undoubtedly make teaching work easier and more effective.

"I've met with Chris Currie and Hermann Hauser, the two founders of Ikon. Hauzer's attitude was indifferent to my suggestion that Dongfang Electronics should acquire Aikang, and Curry directly rejected me. ”

Han Peng introduced to Li Xuan in detail the process of meeting with the two partners of Aikang: "But I noticed some details, there are quite a few differences between Hauzer and Curry about the future development direction of Aikang. Currie hopes that the company will focus on entering the general consumer market in the future. Hauzer is the opposite, he thinks that Aikang should be a computer company dedicated to the field of real room equipment!"

Li Xuan listened quietly to Han Peng's narration, he didn't know much about Aikang, except for the famous Arm architecture, he only knew that this company was known as the "Apple of Britain" in the early days.

If the two founders work together, it will not be easy for Dongfang Electronics to attack Aikang. But since the two founders had obvious differences, they gave Li Xuan a chance to break through.

"How much information have you collected about this company?, who of the two of them is more supported within the company?" Li Xuan asked.

Before the launch of the Atom personal computer, the company's main product was a semi-professional computer system for engineering and practical users, called acornsystem, which was developed from the original system1 to the current system3!

The Atom PC project was originally developed by Currie and another friend at Currie's home. Later, after Currie resigned from another company, he began to work full-time at Aikang, and only then did he bring the unfinished ATOM development project to Aikang! But most of the company's R&D personnel were dismissive of ATOM, and they preferred to continue to develop the previous system computer system!" Han Peng said with a smile.

Li Xuan also showed a smile on his face, no wonder Han Peng felt that Dongfang Electronics had great hope of acquiring Aikang. Hauzer, who is supported by most of the company's employees, is not resistant to being acquired, while Currie, who explicitly refuses to be acquired, is in a somewhat difficult situation within Aikang.

If Dongfang Electronics made it conditional on supporting Curry's foray into personal consumer computers, it was likely to persuade him to accept the acquisition of Dongfang Electronics. In fact, developing a personal computer is not a very difficult thing to do, but it is a bit like a PC building game.

Of course, it doesn't mean that you can just save a computer and go into the market to make money. Whether the configuration of the machine is reasonable and whether the cost is low will determine the final success or failure of the product.

Dongfang Electronics is also developing its own personal computer with the 6502 processor as the CPU. However, if you acquire Aikang, you can directly obtain a mature product. More importantly, since Li Xuan knows that Aikang has the title of "British Apple", it shows that in the era of eight-bit personal computers, this company must have its own uniqueness.

The LAN system that Han Peng just mentioned is undoubtedly a killer feature in the computer market for Raiders Education. Another reason why both Li Xuan and Han Peng feel that it is worth acquiring Aikang is that the current Aikang is just an inconspicuous small company. According to Han Peng's estimates, Dongfang Electronics will not need two million pounds to complete the annexation. For Dongfang Electronics, the copyright fee for "Pac-Man" has not been bought out, and there is no pressure at all.

"I decided to go to Cambridge myself, but I will meet this Mr. Currie for a while!" Li Xuan said with high spirits, he was a little curious and longing for Aikang Company, and wanted to see what the company that developed Arm was like.

Since Li Xuan and Han Peng made the decision to acquire Aikang, Li Ke instructed the branch in London to start making preliminary preparations. Buying a company is not something that can be done with a few words.

Before Li Xuan went to meet with several partners of Aikang, he should at least be clear about their personalities, their status in the company, and some of their usual remarks and opinions. In this way, we can focus on what they like and improve the certainty of persuasion success.

It was already a week before the British branch fed back all the information that Li Xuan needed back to Hong Kong. Li Xuan and Han Peng made a detailed plan, and then boarded a flight to London.

After arriving in London, the two only took a short rest, and before they even waited for the jet lag to reverse, they went to Cambridgetown, Cambridgeshire. Cambridge and Oxford are two of the most famous and important university towns in the UK.

Quietly I went, just as I came quietly. I wave my sleeves and don't take away half of the clouds!

The poet Xu Zhimo's Cambridge is undoubtedly full of romantic beauty, but Li Xuan, an engineering student, obviously has few literary cells. Even if he stood by the Cam River, he could not appreciate the poetic beauty contained in the "beautiful shadow in the waves". Cambridge is nothing more than a quiet English town with a strong smell of books.