After taking a shower, Tommy didn't wrap a bath towel and walked out of the bathroom directly, anyway, Jason had already gone to the SSD general meeting, and there was no one else in the dormitory.

He opened the refrigerator in the dormitory, only to find that the food inside had gone bad, and at this time, he was reminding him and Jason with a blackened and rotten appearance that the two had not opened the refrigerator for a long time.

Tommy took out the last can of beer from it, and as soon as he opened the tab, Charles pushed open the door and walked in, taking the beer from Tommy's hand and taking a sip: "Thank you, Mr. Exhibitionist." ”

"No thanks, because you snatched it, I didn't plan to give it to you, it was the last can of beer in the fridge." Tommy sighed, "What's wrong?" ”

When Charles heard the last can, he didn't bother to explain to Tommy, and directly chose to drink it all before he said: "It's nothing, our SSD Stanford chapter just received an alumni donation, 100,000 yuan, so you'd better put on your clothes and follow me to thank each other." ”

"Chairman, I don't have any position in SSD right now, I'm a rookie, okay?" Tommy was relieved to hear that it was an alumni donation, and fell directly on the bed and closed his eyes: "Just let me sleep for half an hour more, and I will call Florida in half an hour, and I will be more troublesome when I go out." ”

Fraternities are organizations that employ lawyers and have the funds to organize large-scale events, mainly through donations from members after graduation, and the annual dues paid by members on campus are only enough to pay Stanford University's rent and hire cooks and cleaners.

If an alumni who are too far away can only call to thank you if they mail a check to donate, but if it is an alumni near Silicon Valley who donates, SSD will organize a group of members to come to the door to thank them, and everyone will sit down for a meal or drink some wine together, and talk about the difference between SSD and when the other party was studying, and what interesting things have happened.

In short, it is a regular communication, this kind of communication is generally controlled by a few SSD old birds, and it is difficult for rookies to get opportunities, after all, old birds want to step into society faster than them, and they need to find various opportunities through this kind of internal contacts in the fraternity.

"The other party named and asked you to come over, only me and you." Charles looked at Tommy, picked up the can in his hand, threw it at Tommy's body, smashed it on Tommy's club accurately, and said with satisfaction: "Effective score!" ”

The cold beer can taken out of the refrigerator suddenly stimulated the club, causing Tommy to quickly open his eyes and sit up, covering his hands to the vital point, not bothering to ask why he was seeing him, but first sending a series of expletives to Charles, the current chairman of the SSD.

"Benjamin Rosen, a 1955 Stanford college student, a member of the SSD fraternity, it looks like you're not happy with me, and I decided to change Ted to accompany me, just say you're ......"

"I was wrong, Charles, the reason for my dissatisfaction just now is not your behavior, but how can you choose a beer can, you should change to a dart and take the opportunity to open my club!" Tommy stood up: "As long as you're done, you can take me to see each other." ”

Benjamin Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Compaq Computer Corporation and a tycoon in the computer hardware industry, Tommy had certainly heard of each other's names, but he didn't expect them to want to see him, and he thought that those SSD alumni who were keen to invest in the software industry might be the first.

While putting on his clothes, he was thinking about the general history of Compaq, and suddenly froze and looked at Charles: "Why did he donate 100,000 SSDs and let us go to see him again, I mean...... He could have called us to see him. ”

"It's an attitude." Charles crossed his arms and said to Tommy.

Tommy also nodded and said, "Compaq, which was established in '82, is essentially an actor company in the computer hardware industry. ”

"SSDs are really talented, and you all chose to plagiarize this path, but your actor is software, and his Compaq is hardware." Charles said with a wicked smile: "I think he may want to share with you how to plagiarize the other party and also shamelessly blackmail the experience, become bigger and stronger, and completely make Stanford University notorious." ”

"No, he plagiarized to make money, and I did it for equal rights." Tommy corrects the dysmorphic tone in Charles's discourse.

Charles rolled his eyes: "Hurry up and lift your pants, Benjamin's stretch car is waiting for us, Tommy Hawke, your means of equal rights plagiarism are much more harmful to the American computer industry than Benjamin's generous plagiarism." ”

……

Fifty-year-old Benjamin Rosen hosted Charles and Tommy in his 430-square-meter penthouse apartment in Silicon Valley, which is now considered the most exclusive neighborhood in Silicon Valley.

"I spend most of the year at Compaq's headquarters in Harris, Texas, and only occasionally fly to Silicon Valley for some business events, so if I need a party space, I don't live here, but the maids like nannies, housekeepers, and gardeners clean up every day." Benjamin wore loose sweatshirts, took the two of them directly to his own sky garden and sat down, and said to the two of them in a casual tone:

"I know that if SSD wants to have some exciting parties, you often need to pay for additional space on the other hand, you can consider this place, it's good, there's an outdoor pool on the other side of the garden, and the girls shouldn't hate the environment."

Although dressed like a retiring middle school PE teacher, Charles and Tommy didn't mean to disdain each other in the slightest, sitting up straight and looking directly at each other.

Benjamin Rosen, after graduating from Stanford University, went to Columbia Business School for further study, then went to work on Wall Street, fifteen years, sat in the position of senior vice president of Morgan Stanley, and then chose to retire, and Leon Severn established the Severn Rosen Foundation, a venture capital company, in 1981, and in the year of its establishment, he invested in Compaq Computer Company and served as chairman and CEO.

In '82, Compaq sold 53,000 personal computers with sales of $111 million, becoming the fastest start-up in the U.S. computer hardware industry to reach 100 million in sales, and coincidentally, in '82, Lotus became the fastest start-up in the U.S. computer software industry to reach 100 million in sales.

The performance of these two companies in '82 seems to tell all investors that the U.S. computer industry has officially entered a new era.

Coincidentally, Compaq and Lotus are investors in Benjamin Rosen and Leon Severn, two old friends who co-founded the investment company.

None of them looked away, but the outcome was different, Benjamin took charge of Compaq, which was rapidly rising in the hardware industry, and made Compaq a copycat company to the third place in the personal computer market share.

Leon had the foresight to invest in Lotus, a company that is unrivaled in the software industry, but in the end, because of irreconcilable contradictions with the two founders, he finally chose to withdraw his investment, and the return was far less than expected.

"Tommy is the next party manager in our SSD, but I guess he's not in the mood to help us design the party lately because his small company is in some trouble." After listening to Benjamin's greetings, Charles smiled and brought the topic to Tommy.

Tommy glanced at Charles, the president of the fraternity is still his favorite, the obvious choice for the CEO of Actor, the figure of Shuangshang Online, is the one who has to go to work in those think tanks.

Benjamin didn't hypocritically continue to greet him, but continued along the topic thrown by Charles: "I saw that article in the magazine, Lotus Company, Leon told me after the divestment, that company will be eaten and wiped out sooner or later, I just didn't expect it to die under the encirclement of other big companies, but to fall under the knife of our SSD members, one hundred and seventy-six amicus curiae, Tommy, you shouldn't be doing computer software, you should go to work for those lobbying firms on K Street in Washington, help businessmen and politicians pimp, It's a beautiful job. ”

"yes, Charles they helped me a lot, I couldn't do it all without the SSD, Charles is the boss of us pimps." Tommy said to Benjamin.

Benjamin nodded: "I guess you don't think that this old guy of mine called you over to have a party, so to make a long story short, I'm very interested in Actor, although Compaq won't get involved in the software industry, but the software industry has something we can refer to, I want to invest in it, financing or Tommy, the three of you transfer some shares to me to cash out, and Compaq can directly purchase OSS software as a supporting product, into those large companies, I know that your software is selling well, But the main buying group seems to be somewhat ...... Odd. ”

"Preferably before the trial?" Tommy was silent for a moment, then asked Benjamin.

Benjamin nodded slightly, picked up a cigar from the side and looked at it: "The lawsuit between IBM and our eleven computer companies has made us both ...... Tired. ”

"If you can convince IBM to invest in or acquire a stake in Actor next, then I can personally consider transferring 15% of the stake to you, SSD friendly price, 10 million." Tommy thought for a moment and offered Benjamin a price.

This represents Tommy's own valuation of Actor at $66 million.

Benjamin didn't think the price was excessive, after all, Actor's OSS sales data of tens of thousands of units was there, he handed Tommy the cigar in his hand, and laughed: "IBM, you asked me to convince them to invest in you?" Not kidding? They're eager to put me on the gallows now, and let their rivals convince them to invest in your Actor? ”

Although he was teasing in his mouth, Tommy's words made Benjamin believe that this young man was indeed a robber in a suit as written in the magazine.

Ten million is a friendly price for himself, but it certainly won't be the price to sell to IBM, and the main thing is that he now believes that the whole thing was designed by Tommy Hawke, because this young man's mind is very responsive, and he has just sat down and already understands why he wants to invest in or buy Actor, and why IBM might be willing to buy Actor.

Compaq and IBM, at this time, are a bit like Actor and Lotus, because Eleven computer companies, including Compaq, use PC cloning to copy personal computers that are fully compatible with IBM-PC, they reverse crack IBM's BIOS firmware, and IBM uses the same 16-bit AT bus, etc., except for the different trademarks, the whole computer is no different from IBM-PC, all hardware can be perfectly replaced, all software can be perfectly compatible, and it can be sold cheaper than IBM, As a result, IBM lost its price advantage.

IBM originally hoped that its strategic partner, Microsoft, would help it limit the unscrupulous competition of other computer companies, so that Microsoft's MS-DOS system would choose to cooperate exclusively with IBM, so that those computer companies could only look for other systems.

But Microsoft turned around and sold IBM completely, as long as Microsoft paid a licensing fee, the computer company did not refuse, in short, paid the money, and could use the MS-DOS system as much as you wanted.

As a result, Microsoft became a software giant, but at the cost of its former partner IBM's share of the PC market.

I'm not sure if IBM wants to hack Compaq to death, but everyone is sure that IBM wants to hack Microsoft to death and stab itself in the back.

It was obviously betrayed, but IBM was helpless, because everyone knew that IBM did not dare to be too arrogant now, after all, the US government has accused IBM of monopoly for 20 years, and since 62 years, the US government has tried to break up this behemoth with many tentacles and monopolies in many industries.

If it weren't for the brilliant vision and means of IBM's executives, ten IBMs would have been torn apart by those politicians under the pretext of monopoly.

Members of Congress are still drooling and holding dinner knives looking for opportunities, so IBM does not dare to deal with these other computer companies that are stealing business, and can only launch some painless accusations in some state courts that are favorable to its own situation.

Whether it is Microsoft, Compaq, or even the previous Oracle, it is determined that even if IBM stands in the plaintiff's seat, as long as it makes a big fuss, it will lose in the end, so it dares to be so unscrupulous.

Although IBM is not ready to go to Congress and the Supreme Court, it also hopes to use the uninterrupted litigation to let everyone remember that at this moment, Compaq these computer manufacturers make money, which is also an illegal business practice, as long as one day the law is perfected, IBM will have a reasonable excuse to clean them up.

And the frustration of these plagiarists of Compaq is that they don't have any reason to countersue, because they don't have the bullshit charity excuse of Actor, they just copy IBM and make money, after all, OSS also has some practical and quick functions designed by Tommy, but their computer hardware does not have any innovation, that is, what IBM produces, they produce, and then sell it to users at a price of 20% off the selling price of IBM computers.

"Using one case to push the rules of two industries, to be honest, this is an unexpected bonus, but it was only when Charles said that you want to see me, I realized that Compaq has now ranked third in the computer market in just over a year, and it is enough to weld the car door." Tommy was silent for a moment, then said to Benjamin:

"IBM, Apple, Compaq, the three of you, and then each choose a few pleasing computer companies as their own subordinates, get together, introduce a few industry standard architecture, bus development standards and other solutions, and then share the market together, so that IBM avoids being detained in the name of monopoly, and you don't have to worry about other small companies like Compaq coming out of nowhere to grab this market, because they dare to do that, you can work together to solve it, so go back to the original problem, Would IBM like to see Compaq go from being its rival to being its partner? ”

"IBM has been chased and bitten by the U.S. government for twenty years and hasn't fallen, and guess what, it's not the Lotus company that almost killed Leon." Benjamin said.

Dididi...... Tommy's pager rang, and he made an embarrassed gesture to Benjamin, picked it up and looked at it, it was an unfamiliar number: "Excuse me, can I call back?". ”

"Of course, the phone is over there." Benjamin motioned for the housekeeper in the distance to accompany Tommy to call back, and he talked to Charles about the recent situation with the SSD.

Tommy walked over to the phone and dialed the number: "Hello?" ”

"Tommy? Is that you? I'm Ottilia. On the other end of the phone, Otilia's voice rang.

"Miss Otilia Farrell? It's me, yes, I'm Tommy Hawke. Tommy was stunned for a few seconds before smiling into the earpiece and saying, "So, are you going to find a man to marry?" The timing was really good, my girlfriend just broke up with me, and I'm just about to make my first 10 million, I mean, although not as much as your father, Mr. Farrell, selling yachts, it shouldn't be too bad. ”

Otilia chuckled on the other end of the phone, "If you always talk to ladies like that, I think the next girlfriend will leave you quickly." ”

"This call surprised me so much, how do you have my pager number?" Tommy has a smile on his face, and he thinks of the beautiful teacher and his group of high school students at summer camp.

Otilia said, "I went to your house and got it from your father. ”

"So, if you're not going to find a man to marry, why are you looking for me?" Tommy asked curiously.

"Wait a minute, someone is going to talk to you......" Otillia finished speaking, and the voice on the other side of the phone changed to a somewhat vicissitudes of life: "Tommy Hawke, I'm Robert Miller, a member of the SSD Cornell University chapter, I saw the magazine, I don't know if I'm the first person to contact you, but I wish I was, what are you doing?" ”

"I'm talking about making a little money, sir." Tommy hadn't heard of the name, but since the other party was a member of the SSD, he obediently treated him with respect and said truthfully.

SSD rules, you can disrespect anyone outside of this family, you must always respect SSD's brothers, because they are your family with different surnames.

"Go to the DFS Duty Free shop at San Francisco International Airport, where you'll get your first-class ticket ready." Robert Miller said lightly:

"That's what I'm going to tell you, from now on, there's no need to talk about it, you're not short of money."

The second more ~

(End of chapter)