Jobs pretended to be surprised: "Hey, Jill, I don't understand what you're saying." ”

Amelio said angrily: "Don't play stupid! The whole world knows about your sale of shares in the morning! You broke our agreement!"

Jobs was silent for a while: "Uh, Jill, I'm sorry to bother you, I don't know how to say this, but I can't help it, I need money lately." ”

Amelio sneered: "Steve, don't lie to me anymore, what do you want to do? You know that this is only a temporary difficulty, at most by the first quarter of next year, Apple's loss situation will definitely improve, you sell stocks at this time, do you want to see my joke?"

Jobs pretended not to hear clearly: "Hey, hey, can't you hear me, can you hear me? Hey, Jill, damn it." ”

Amelio said angrily, "Fxck! I can hear you, you liar!"

Jobs said quickly: "Maybe the signal is too bad for you to hear what you say, I think there must be some misunderstanding here, when you come back, we can talk about it." ”

Ending this conversation with Jobs, Amelio gradually calmed down, he did not believe that this was an isolated incident, and there must be a reason behind it.

What about tomorrow's phone call?

Amelio called the other board members to find out about the emergency board meeting tomorrow, but everyone was confused, and two of the directors who were more familiar with him also complained about his handling of the Jobs matter, but also expressed their support for him, which made Amelio feel reassured.

Amelio decided to snub the emergency board meeting, not believing that it would be a good idea to confront Ed Woolrad in person, and that he might as well wait until he returned to the company after his vacation.

Amelio decided to take the procrastination trick.

He also did this because he was confident in his current performance and that the board would be able to see the improvements Apple made under his stewardship.

————————————

"Steve, what did that Amelio say?" asked Jobs next to him, sitting on a deck chair by his heated pool in a pair of big beach pants.

Jobs didn't swim, he still wore a blue shirt, and his eyes had a falcon-like gaze, as if staring at a distant prey: "He asked me why I sold my Apple stock, and I didn't answer, poor fool." ”

Larry Ellison laughed, "Congratulations in advance, after tomorrow, you'll get your company back." ”

Jobs shrugged: "Maybe, it depends on whether Ed can persuade the entire board tomorrow, but frankly, I don't know if it's right or wrong to do so, and I'm not sure I'll be able to save Apple right now." Larry, can you believe it, I don't have faith. ”

Larry Ellison shook his head: "Steve, you're a genius, you're perfectly positioned for Apple's consumer market, and I'm sure that if you are given a certain amount of time, you'll get this company on the right track." If we can launch a topical product in a year or two, I believe that Apple's revival will be faster than anyone expected. ”

"And you don't have to worry about the money in two or three years, I said a long time ago, if you are short of money, I have prepared two billion dollars in cash for you, and we can even delist Apple from the NASDAQ and turn Apple into a completely private company. ”

Jobs smiled, he knew that although Larry Ellison had a good relationship with him, it was really unprofitable, and the other party wanted to buy Apple as a whole for two billion dollars, but Apple was asking for more than four billion dollars in a large deal alone. Larry Ellison's calculations were too fine.

Apple's actual value is much more than $4 billion.

And Larry Ellison is extremely controlling, no less than himself, if he uses his money to buy Apple, there is no doubt that after a period of time, the personalities of the two will inevitably clash, and then they will not even have to be friends.

Larry Ellison saw that Jobs didn't speak, and talked vigorously about how he would support Jobs after he took control, and what a great company Apple would eventually become.

Seeing that Jobs didn't react, Larry Ellison was quite bored and changed the subject: "Steve, now you need to start thinking about how to pull Apple out of the quagmire after taking over, how do you think about that?"

Jobs stood up, "Larry, you just said that Apple is revival, and a topical product is needed, but it's not enough. ”

"What Apple needs is a revolutionary product, like the Macintosh back then, that will disrupt the entire industry. ”

Larry Ellison was intrigued: "Oh, where are you going to start?"

Steve Jobs did not hesitate: "Mac, only Mac! Mac is the lifeblood of Apple, and only by making revolutionary changes to Macs can Apple regain its foothold in the market!"

"Apple has taken the wrong path before, bent on entering the enterprise market, but Apple is a consumer goods company in its genes, and the corporatization of the Mac has wasted a lot of Apple's resources, and I will not allow this situation to continue! Apple will focus on the consumer goods market in the next few years, and make a personal computer that is truly consumer-oriented, that is, the new Mac. ”

Larry Ellison suddenly said: "Speaking of personal computers, have you heard that there is another PC manufacturer in Silicon Valley recently, what is it called Matrix? ”

Ellison asked the butler to find today's Los Angeles Times, flipped a few pages, and pulled out one: "Look at the full page of Coming soon, the number has gone from 30 to 19." ”

Jobs frowned: "What does this mean?"

Larry Ellison shrugged: "Obviously, countdown, there is a line of small print underneath, May 16th Yerba Buena Art Center, it is estimated that on that day, this company will do its own product launch, right? This company is very good at gimmicks, and the pen is not small, and the full-page advertisements have been posted for so many days in a row, just doing a countdown, without any product and company publicity, which has whetted the appetite of readers." ”

Jobs disdainfully threw the newspaper aside, "This kind of small company that doesn't know what it is to appear once or two every year, and when they really enter the market, they will know what cruelty is." ”

Larry Ellison laughed: "Steve, Apple was also a small company back then, don't underestimate small companies, maybe one day they will surprise you." Guess who the founder of this company is?"

Jobs shook his head: "I don't know, it doesn't matter who it is, they are so unlucky, they have chosen the same industry as Apple, they are working in the wrong direction, everything is zero." ”

Larry Ellison said with a smile, "I'll give you a hint, the person who started this company is one of the people you hate the most." ”

Jobs frowned: "The person I hate the most? Jean Louis Garcy Scully?"

Larry Ellison shook his head and smiled: "No, it's not them, it's the person you kept cursing for a while ago, the last time you scolded was because he preemptively registered your iMac trademark, haha." ”

Jobs gritted his teeth: "You mean that Chinese monkey!? Good, I'll let him know that he's just a beginner's luck!

(End of chapter)