Under the new terms proposed by Ed Woolrad, Apple shareholders will have about 20% of the remaining shares in the hands of Apple shareholders after receiving half of the cash.

Seeing that Zhang Chen still disagreed, Ed Woolrad smiled: "Zack, Apple's equity is very dispersed, much more dispersed than ordinary listed companies, and the largest shareholder only holds about 3% of Apple's shares. Your relationship with Steve is no secret, the board of directors has given Steve a lot of power, and it will be difficult for your acquisition plan to succeed if you can't enlist the support of minority shareholders. ”

"From the perspective of investors' mentality, of course, I hope that Apple will be acquired by Matrix, and the value of its own shares will be enhanced. But if it's just a 10 percent premium, I don't think these investors will be willing to give up their shares. These investors have been holding stocks that have fallen for so many years, and they would rather continue to hold them, after all, Steve is doing a good job now, and after the new Mac goes public, it may not be impossible to have better returns. ”

Ed Woolrad has been the CEO of DuPont for so many years, and he has a lot of experience in capital operation, and he has calculated the additional cost that Matrix will need to spend if it is forced to adopt a two-step acquisition, and Zhang Chen will definitely agree to his plan.

Zhang Chen was noncommittal and poured a cup of tea for Ed Woolrad. "There's some truth to what you're saying, but it's all premised on the success of the new Mac, isn't it?"

"The new Mac is Apple's only lifesaver. Zhang Chen tapped his index finger on the table and looked directly at Ed Woolrad, "If the new Mac fails to be released, Apple's cash is no longer enough to support the next product cycle, that is, it can be as short as half a year, or as long as eight months, and Apple can only file for bankruptcy." When the time comes, what is the value of the shares in the hands of shareholders?"

No matter how strong Ed Woolrad's bargaining power is, this is indeed Apple's dead end.

Zhang Chen is right, if he gives up being acquired by Matrix, he is gambling that Jobs' new Mac can save Apple.

At this time, Jobs did not have such a strong distorted reality force field as later generations, and not all investors were optimistic that he could really save Apple, and most people's attitude was to be a dead horse as a live horse doctor, which is already like this, and it will not be bad if Jobs is replaced.

Even if they are die-hard Apple fans, these people who would rather die than abandon Apple stocks are all in a tragic mood and want to accompany Apple on this last journey. The proportion of these people is negligible, and it will not have any impact on the acquisition.

Ed Woolrad was speechless for a moment, and Zhang Chen leaned in: "In addition, until now, there has been no news of any new Mac, are you sure that Steve can really launch a new Mac as scheduled in May?"

Ed Woolrad couldn't help but sigh in his heart, until now, even he hadn't seen a prototype of the new Mac. Jobs was confident in the development of the new Mac before the board, but Ed Woolrad knew Jobs too well, and the more Jobs behaved like this, the more it proved that the development of the new Mac did not go as smoothly as he reported to the board.

It's December, and it's only half a year before the annual Macorld conference, but there's no news of a new Mac starting trial production in small batches. Every time the board of directors questioned Jobs' R&D team, the answer was always confidential.

Zhang Chen looked at Ed Woolrad quietly, there was almost no suspense in this negotiation, and the chips in the hands of the two sides were too unequal.

"Ed, I have great respect for your accomplishments at DuPont and all that you have done for Apple, and I hope you will continue to join the Matrix Board of Directors after the acquisition. Zhang Chen threw an olive branch to Ed Woolrad.

"What about Steve, what are you going to do with this?" said Ed Woolrad slowly.

Zhang Chen smiled: "Ed, do me a favor。。。。。。 ”

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"Perfect!" Jobs exclaimed.

"Jon, you've really solved this problem, well done!" Jobs patted Rubinstein on the shoulder, beaming.

Rubinstein also smiled on his thin face: "In the case of immaturity of liquid crystal and plasma, going back to the CRT solution is the only option, and all I have to do is how to integrate all the parts into the base, which is not difficult." ”

"No, of course it's hard!" Jobs exclaimed, "it's amazing, and I can't wait to see the new prototype." ”

Rubinstein hesitated: "Steve, although we have now completed most of the industrial design, and Goto has worked with us to refine the shape, the cost of our Macman has also increased a lot, which is $112 higher than the original raw material budget of $810, which will have a big impact on the price of our terminal." If the terminal selling price remains the same, our net profit will fall to less than 8%. ”

Jobs still had a happy face on his face, and said warmly: "You don't need to think about this, your only task is to build this Macman more perfectly." ”

Steve Jobs stroked the black piano-lacquered shell of the Macman, which had a very different look from the first draft designed by Goto. Apple has ditched the white color it has always used and instead used the black color that IBM often uses.

Black is also different from black, the black used by Macman was determined by Rubinstein after looking at the materials of countless suppliers, although it is still plastic, and when the polishing process is advanced enough, it can make the effect of piano lacquer.

Because the plasma technology was not up to par, Jobs wasted three months on it, and due to the pressure of both cost and technology, he switched back to the CRT scheme, and Goto needed to readjust the exterior design.

Jobs may really have the luck of the atmosphere, in the case of Goto Zhenyou's inspiration, he actually came up with a new design plan in just fifteen days, and this plan is more mature and perfect than the previous table lamp plan.

The entire Macman also has a streamlined design, but unlike the iCom's streamlined design, this computer is designed with a focus on the base case.

The base has been transformed from a semi-circular lamp to a streamlined cylindrical shape with a thickness of about 5 cm, and a two-centimeter-diameter support rod is completely integrated with the base to connect a 14-inch CRT monitor. The pole looks slim, but it has stainless steel inside for added strength, enough to support an 11kg CRT display.

It's worth noting that only one power cord is needed to connect the entire computer to the outlet, and all other chassis and display cables are integrated into this slim support column.

In terms of aesthetic design, this Macman is indeed more stunning than the popular iCom.

Steve Jobs was confident enough that once this computer was launched, combined with his unmatched on-site performance, it would inevitably cause a whirlwind in the IT world!

500,000 units, as long as the sales reach 500,000 units in a year, Apple will be able to come back to life, and now all problems are no longer a problem!

(End of chapter)