McKenna's PR and marketing, the results are remarkable. As we entered mid-July, orders were pouring in like snowflakes, and customers were not limited to the West Coast, but almost all over the United States.

Zerone's cash balance surpassed $5 million early, and its financial position was in shambles. It can be said that as long as you don't die, the company's development prospects are limitless.

In the face of a great situation, Tang Huan didn't dare to get carried away. After Gates's success, he said that "Microsoft is only 18 months away from bankruptcy", he took it seriously, and directly applied it, wrote it on paper, and pasted it on the wall of his office. Therefore, compared with before, the company is more strict in management.

During the cooperation, McKenna visited Zerone's office twice, and Tang Huan saw that he had a good impression, so he invited him to join the company's board of directors, and the other party directly agreed in person, obviously considering the issue of investment before.

In this part of the United States, you may not need to find a relationship to do ordinary things, but if you want to do big things smoothly, you can't do without network resources, especially in economic cooperation, and pay more attention to circles.

Therefore, Tang Huan, who has long seen through this, has always been generous in attracting talents, of course, the premise is that in the board of directors, he must occupy a dominant position.

McKenna and Apple also have a close relationship, and it is through him that Macura conveyed the willingness of the two sides to release their previous suspicions and further cooperate, of course, in essence, it is a cross-shareholding and an alliance of software and hardware in the business.

Entering the board of directors of Apple is a big goal for Tang Huan, he naturally will not refuse the olive branch handed over by Macoola, the two sides hit it off, and all that needs to be done is to bargain at the negotiation table.

Apple wanted to get 20 percent of Zerone's shares, and Tang Huan agreed, but he asked for 8 percent of Apple's shares accordingly, because Tang Huan believed that the value of his company was no worse than Apple's, and simply predicted from the current sales that it would not be less than one-third of the other party's for the whole year, but Apple only agreed to exchange 4 percent of the shares on the grounds that the current financing ratio was limited, and the two sides were so deadlocked because of the big difference in conditions.

This is also understandable, how could Apple have been operating painstakingly for two or three years, how could it willingly let Zerone, which has only been established for a few months, get so many benefits.

Scott was overweight, suffering from cramps and health problems, and was suffering from a high degree of nervous tension, even clenching his fists while he was hanging out. Now that the negotiations are at an impasse, Scott feels a little dizzy, but he has to continue to negotiate.

"Don, your conditions are indeed difficult to meet, you should revise your expectations. Scott patiently persuaded.

"Okay, I'll lower it by one percentage point, if Apple still can't take out the three percent shares, let the three founders dedicate it, after all, everyone has common interests. ”

Jobs snorted when he heard this, with a "you really know how to calculate" expression on his face, he was recently disturbed by the lawsuit over his daughter's child support, and at this time, it was already very face-saving to endure the fact that he was not crazy and lifted the table.

Scott sighed softly helplessly, he attached great importance to cooperating with Tang Huan, but there was nothing he could do when it came to the shares of the company's founder.

"Since everyone can't agree, let's take a coffee break. Tang Huan shrugged indifferently, "In order to express my sincerity, I specially brought a small gift to show you this time." ”

As he spoke, Tang Huan took out a circuit board shaped like a display enhancement card, found an Apple machine, installed it on an expansion slot, and then turned it on, inserted the disk he brought, and typed a command.

"Oh my God. Forcedly pulled to participate in the meeting, Woz, who had been sleepy, exclaimed, as if he had discovered a new world, ran to the computer for a while, and then asked urgently, "The computer is running in Z80 mode now?"

Tang Huan smiled and nodded, "Thanks to your original expansion slot design, otherwise this function would not be so convenient to achieve, I think that the expansion slot design around the Mac machine will produce a market with considerable benefits." ”

Tang Huan is not lying to say this, historically, using the openness of Apple's second-generation computer hardware architecture given by Wads, the relevant first-party developer and retailer community has created a business with annual revenue of more than a billion dollars. What was the concept of a billion dollars in the 80s, this is almost a field where companies can't make enough money while rolling.

Examples of Apple second-generation computer expansion boards include serial controllers, advanced display controllers, memory expansion cards, analog cards, hard disks, and network components, as well as some alternative expansion boards, such as the 6809 card that can run OS-9LevelOne, and the Mockingboard sound card, which provides simple music synthesis and text-to-speech conversion functions.

One of the most successful of all the expansion board manufacturers is AppliedEngineering, which has the most widespread and successful use of RamWorks and TransWarp cards in the market. RamWorks III cards can replace Apple IIe's add-on memory cards, and can be expanded up to 3MiB with an adapted daughter card. The TransWarp card is an accelerator card that can increase the speed of the Apple II, which can increase the Apple II from the original 1MHz to 3.6MHz, and the TransWarpII can be increased to 8MHz.

Due to the arrival of Tang Huan, a traverser, the expansion board industry, like the microcomputer office software industry, was opened in advance.

Zerone already has a display enhancement card and a print enhancement card, and now it has launched the Z80 analog card, and the market leadership advantage will be even more obvious.

The Z80 emulation card allows Apple 2nd Gen computers to switch to Z80 processors, allowing them to run software developed under the CP/M operating system, such as WordEasy.

Everyone present quickly realized the significance of the Z80 analog card to Apple computers, and with this expansion, it is impossible to estimate how much the number of programs that can be run on Apple computers has swelled, but it will definitely make users more eager to Apple computers.

At the same time, the faces of the nimble brains immediately changed, and they thought that if competitors had similar Mac analog cards, it would seriously compress the market space for Apple machines. Looking at Tang Huanyun's breezy appearance, it seems that this research and development is not a problem.

In fact, these people are too worried, now most of the microcomputers are closed design, and the expansion card with an open structure is not so easy to popularize, but Tang Huan naturally will not take the initiative to weaken the role of his chips.

Jobs kicked Tang Huan, "You want to threaten us with this thing?"

Tang Huan glanced at the onlookers and others, and spread his hands helplessly, "The sincerity of cooperation is regarded as a threat, and I have nothing to say." ”

Makula glanced at Tang Huan with complicated eyes, and a thought flashed in his heart, it's strange to believe you.

"Okay, it's really troublesome to fight around, I'll give out those shares, okay. Don is technically too imaginative, and I'm willing to be a colleague with him. Wads muttered.

He has always been so simple, according to Jobs's evaluation, childish and ridiculous. Historically, after Apple's successful IPO, many of the old employees who started the business together did not benefit from it, because Jobs did not give them shares, and even included his classmates and close friends. Eventually, Watts gave his shares to the men, but he was ridiculed for it.

Watts' example was a turning point, as Marcula and Jobs agreed to Tang's plan, and since then Apple has controlled 20 percent of Zerone's shares, and Tang Huan has gotten 7 percent of Apple's shares, and as long as this proportion is not significantly diluted before going public, Tang Huan will properly become the fourth billionaire behind Woz at the peak of Apple's stock price in the early 1980s.

"The painstaking acquisition of Apple shares shows that I recognize the value of Apple, and from the moment we signed it, we were partners with common interests. ”

In the celebration session that followed, Tang Huan said with a spring breeze: "I will use office software and expansion cards to release the energy of the Mac, so that it can challenge the small computers of HP, DEC, and IBM in the field of commercial computers." In addition, I've made good progress with foreign language support like French and Spanish, and that's what I can help Apple at the moment. ”

This is the case in the business field, when there is hostility, when there is a sword, when it is good, it is called a brother and a brother, in the final analysis, the word is the head.

In any case, the old shareholders recognized Tang Huan's role. After a round of applause, Macoola took the lead in speaking: "At present, the company is developing the successor of Apple's second-generation computer, the new model of Apple's third-generation computer. ”

Tang Huan nodded, "It's an honor, and it's my duty." ”

Historically, by the fall of 1979, there were three potential successors to the Apple II: the Apple III, the Lisa Project, and the Annie Project.

In the R&D office of Apple's third-generation machine, Tang Huan fell into thought.

Historically, because of Jobs's selfishness, the research and development of this project was deeply involved by him, a layman, as a result, the product frequently had problems, and after Jobs found that it was not good, he immediately pulled out the bird and left, and the final market reaction also proved that Apple's third-generation machine was a failure, for such a miserable thing, is it necessary to waste energy to develop software to match it?

At this time, Jobs triumphantly asked Tang to express his opinion.

Touching his chin and thinking about it for a long time, Tang Huan actually got stuck. Nima, this project is destined to be a failure, what do you want my brother to comment? To tell the truth, at this time, Jobs, who was still very enthusiastic about Apple's third-generation computers, hoping to invent products with his own historical mark like Wads, might have said angrily that you idiot, how thankless, the relationship between the two finally eased.

Tang Huan walked out of the R&D office noncommittally, and slowly said to Jobs, who came over: "Do you know the concept of graphical user interface?"

"What's that?" Jobs asked angrily.

"By moving a device called a mouse back and forth, you can control various elements on the screen as if you were directing them with your hands, so that even people who don't know anything about computers can operate without having to learn complex commands. ”

Seeing that Jobs was lost in thought, Tang Huan smiled slightly, "I heard that Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center has already had research results in this area, if you can actually investigate it, you will understand what a great invention it is." However, when it comes to trade secrets, I'm afraid Xerox's senior management will not agree. ”

Jobs snorted, his face proud, "There's nothing I can't do." ”

"I hope so. Tang Huan nodded, said goodbye and left.

Today, he finally got the shares of Apple, and he must find Deng Lijun to celebrate and share the joy in his heart.