……

IBM wants to sell its shares in Intel, although the action is quite hidden, but there is no impermeable wall in the world, and the news was soon revealed.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong. Observers generally believe that this move is normal, after all, Intel, a Silicon Valley semiconductor company, is mired in the market quagmire caused by the memory price war between Japan and the United States, and its prospects are worrying.

But it is precisely because of this well-known reason that IBM's plan to find a buyer to take over did not go well.

First of all, Intel's decline is obvious, and no one wants to buy and sell at a loss, so there is a direct disagreement on the price;

Second, IBM requires a one-time settlement in order to quietly improve its cash flow data as quickly as possible, which increases the risk of the transaction.

This industry dynamic naturally alarmed Tang Huan, and he even speculated that IBM's move was not only for the purpose of stopping losses in investment, but also for the purpose of eliminating the business crisis and whitewashing the peace.

There is no doubt that this is a good opportunity to buy the bottom. Although under its own influence, Intel may not be as prosperous as in the original time and space, but just as IBM first bought this part of the shares for strategic value, it has a non-negligible role in the layout of the microprocessors used in Fangyuan's personal computers.

However, Tang Huan did not rush to make an offer, the passive side was IBM, and he was ready to wait and see and suppress the psychological bottom line of the blue giant.

So, while letting someone keep an eye on it, Tang Huan called the team that cooperated with Intel to understand the situation.

It is important to note that Intel's existing microprocessor products. Even the latest Intel80286. It's also not as good as Motorola's MC68000 series. This gap is determined from the most basic architectural design.

Intel also has a good idea, so as early as the 1970s, in its microprocessor product blueprint, the Intel8086 family is a spare tire role, and the leader with high hopes is InteliAPX432.

Unfortunately, despite the joint efforts of Intel, Tang Huan and Siemens, the specific performance of InteliAPX432 is still unsatisfactory due to the current semiconductor level. The actual performance is even significantly behind the Intel 80286, which was already sentenced to death in the second half of last year.

In fact, it is true that the InteliAPX432 project failed, but it is not without value, otherwise, Tang Huan would not have participated as soon as he received the invitation.

Some of the core achievements of the InteliAPX432 project have been realized in the form of RISC, and the product prospects are still very promising, especially in professional fields such as the military.

But Intel is in dire need of profit now, how can it withstand this kind of large amount of money burning. to engage in protracted research and development.

Therefore, everyone went their separate ways. Tang Huan and Siemens helped Intel dispose of this mess, and then carried out follow-up research and development.

Naturally, on Intel's side, the Intel8086 family, whose commercial performance has always been stable, has changed from a spare tire to a genuine brand, and the successor of Intel80286, Intel80386, has entered intensive research and development.

Seeing that Tang Huan's floating-point coprocessor for the MC68000 series of CPUs has been highly praised by the industry and users, Intel did not develop floating-point coprocessors Intel8087 and Intel80287 as before, but pulled Tang Huan in and used his solution.

In addition, Intel was not only very unconvinced by the popularity of Motorola's MC68000 series CPUs in high-end personal computers, workstations and other products, and naturally wanted to regain its disadvantages on the 32-bit platform of the fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computers, and then asked Tang Huan for design specifications, in order to surpass the MC68000 series of competitors in terms of performance.

This is the catfish effect, think about the original time and space, who was the first to introduce 64-bit technology to the x86 desktop processor, you can understand the benefits of this microprocessor flying with both wings.

Tang Huan, who was happy to see it, did not hide it, and actively helped Intel80386, which Intel is developing, to enter the system of the fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer.

Overall, the cooperation between the two sides is really getting closer and closer.

After learning about the progress of the project, Tang Huan bowed slightly, and said in his heart that Intel had not lost its due value, and it was worth buying the 20% shares in IBM's hands.

After listening to the report of his subordinates, Tang Huan called Craig Barrett and Paul Otellin, two representatives of Intel in the cooperation team, and asked directly: "I just heard that IBM is going to sell Intel's stock, what is the reaction within your company?"

"Of course, I was very dissatisfied. The younger Paul Otellens was the first to answer.

Intel has huge pressure from its Japanese counterparts outside the company, and there is a fierce quarrel over whether the company's business should be transformed, which can be described as a domestic and external dilemma, and the stock price is even weaker.

Now IBM has suddenly made such a move to sell stocks, which is simply adding fuel to the fire and falling into the ground.

IBM has been a strong party in previous collaborations, such as gaining the power to modify and manufacture Intel 8088 and Intel 80286 – though it has hardly been exercised seriously, and trying to stop Intel's products from flowing to competitors like Fangyuan Computer.

Although Intel, which was constrained, was not happy, it endured it for the sake of the status of the other party's industry boss and the importance of business cooperation.

But the end result was that IBM was not optimistic about the value of Intel and wanted to sell its stocks. You know, a large number of employees within Intel hold shares in the company, and no one is happy to see their wealth shrink out of thin air.

Tang Huan nodded, and said in his heart that as long as Intel gets through the current difficulties, it will definitely be separated from IBM in the future.

……

February 20th, the Lunar New Year, before and after the period of time. Tang Huan inevitably followed tradition. I walked around intensively with the Chinese community.

this day. Tang Huan was gathering a lot of his little ones together to count the red envelopes, and he was having a lot of fun, and the housekeeper sent an invitation card that read:

……

There's an old Indian proverb that says, "In the first 30 years of life, you form habits, and in the last 30 years, habits shape you." ”

Come and celebrate my 30th birthday with me.

February 24th

Steve Jobs.

……

Tang Huan put away the invitation card and asked casually, "Who can tell me." What is the 24th of this month?"

As a result, only Zhao Yazhi's twin pairs, Jin Ying and Jin Jie, honestly had five fingers; among the rest, the small one clumsily threw a paper airplane folded with empty red envelopes; and the older one looked at the New Year's money that Tang Huan had "scavenged" on the table with a protesting face.

"Sample, you still have an opinion about me. Tang Huan laughed, "For Jinying's sake, for Jinjie's sake, I'll give you five dollars each." ”

……

To celebrate his 30th birthday, Jobs threw a very formal but fun party in the ballroom of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The scale has reached 1,000 people.

It is not surprising that it is so lively, although the current Jobs has a perverse temperament. It's not an exaggeration to say that he is a secondary two, but in the United States, a place that celebrates individuality, he has successfully shaped himself into an idol, and he has met many people from there.

On February 24th, Tang Huan came to the St. Francis Hotel in accordance with some inappropriate dress advice, wearing a black tie and tennis shoes, and presented a collector's edition record as a gift.

The arrangement of guests in the banquet hall is also divided into circles.

For example, in addition to Apple's veterans such as Watts, Tang Huan sat with IT celebrities such as Microsoft's Gates and Lotus's Mitchell Kapole.

Compared to the favorable situation of the expansion of the entire plate of personal computers, IBM has not been able to reap the benefits of growth, and Gates and Mitchell Kapole have benefited, whether it is a genuine IBM-PC or a compatible IBM-PC, Microsoft's operating system MS-DOS and Lotus1-2-3 spreadsheet Lotus1-2-3.

In addition, Don Valentine was arranged to sit with other venture capitalists. Recently, he finally found a startup company in Silicon Valley without Tang Huan's involvement-Cisco.

But only Tang Huan knows that the biggest significance of this company's existence is a foil to avoid anti-monopoly investigations in the industry.

What's interesting about this celebrity-studded birthday party is that it reflects Jobs' artistic tastes, such as his love of music.

Originally, Steve Jobs wanted to ask his idol Bob Dylan to sing, but the other party refused, and finally changed to Ella Fitzgerald-Ella Fitzgerald.

The lady, Lady Ella, or First Lady of Song, is widely regarded as one of the most important jazz singers of the century, and is good enough to take the scene.

Able to span three octaves, Ella Fitzgera is known for her pure timbre, near-perfect segmentation and intonation. And her scatsinging, which is onomatopoeia, especially shows the talent of improvisation like a trumpet.

On today's occasion, Ella Fitzgera, accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, used her traditional repertoire to give everyone a taste of these musical talents.

Of course, Ella Fitzgerala also improvised, such as adapting "TheGirlFromIpanema" into "The Cupertino Boys".

Tang Huan quipped while listening: "I'm also a Cupertino guy. ”

The person next to him laughed, "Looks like I'm going to think about moving the company to Cupertino." ”

Ella Fitzgera asked the audience to order songs, and Jobs ordered a few. Finally, she ended the performance with a slow-paced song "Happy Birthday".

I have to say that the atmosphere of the birthday party was very good, but Tang Huan still realized from the brief speeches of Jobs, John Scully and others that it did not have other purposes such as public relations.

The relationship between Steve Jobs and John Scully was once so intimate that it could be mistaken for gay, but with the disagreement over Apple's management, that rapport has long since disappeared.

In Jobs's view, John Scully was still the manager who sold sugar water, and he didn't understand the MAC he designed, and John Scully became less and less able to understand Jobs's almost extreme approach, computers and Coke were essentially commodities, and they had to find a way to sell them to make the financial statements look good, didn't they?

This kind of chicken-duck talking, not on the same channel, naturally leads to mutual disgust.

However, in order to reverse Apple's current decline, and under pressure from the board of directors, Jobs and John Scully had to try to ease the conflict and mend the relationship, and this birthday party was a good opportunity.

This is an internal effect, and the external effect is to compensate for the bad impact caused by Apple's advertising at the beginning of the year.

MAC'S DISMAL SALES LED JOBS TO HOPE THAT A SIMILAR AD WOULD BE CREATED IN 1985 TO REKINDLE INTEREST IN THE MAC, JUST AS THE MAC'S "1984" AD EVOKED EMOTIONAL RESONANCE.

Unfortunately, this advertisement, called "Lemmings" - "Lemmings", although the planning, production and other aspects are almost the same as "1984", but it is fundamentally different.

"1984" ends with a heroic and optimistic tone, while "Lemmings" follows a group of blindfolded business executives in dark suits as they march to a cliff and die.

In other words, the story described in this ad is an insult to every business manager who buys an IBM-PC, or even a company that buys a computer - you don't know the value of MAC.

In fact, the advertising creative team, which only wanted to create a sensation by relying on unconventionality like "1984", insulted even the target user group of MAC this time, which simply made Apple isolate itself from the personal computer industry.

Ordinary viewers have no reaction after seeing the "Lemmings" advertisement, which is already good, and the industry with more voice has given a negative evaluation - Apple, I know that you kid likes to play personality the most, but you don't have to be so buried!

Steve Jobs and John Scully made up for their mistakes by entertaining guests at their birthday parties.

Looking at the show of these two people, Tang Huan secretly shook his head, some things can't be avoided, but it has nothing to do with him, he has enough things to worry about. For example, Fangyuan Computer Company, which is crowned the first place in market capitalization, is not without problems.

After the banquet was over, after Tang Huan got into the car, the assistant hurriedly reported that there was another buyer who also took a fancy to the Intel shares that IBM was about to sell. (To be continued.) )