Chapter 498: Death Penalty and Justice
Beautiful country.
New York.
Armonk City.
The moonlight at three o'clock in the morning falls quietly along with the snowflakes.
"Ding-ling-ling..."
Rich area.
Some residential area.
bedroom.
The phone rang suddenly.
On the bed, Samuel Palmisano, who was sleeping soundly, tossed and turned in a daze.
The ringing continued, and he finally became impatient and groped for the phone on the bedside table like a blind man.
"What's up?"
A voice came from the other side, mumbling something.
After hearing this, Samuel
He sat up in bed and asked in surprise: "Now?"
The person on the other side said, “Yes.”
"In that case, book me a flight for four o'clock immediately. I'll go to Chicago right away."
After Samuel Palmisano answered the phone, he immediately left the warm bed with a strong will. A cold wind blew in from the window, and he shivered involuntarily.
His wife was awakened by the noise of him getting up and complained unhappily, "What time is it? What are you doing?"
She turned her head and looked out the window, saying, "It's not even daybreak yet, is there anything that can't wait until tomorrow ?"
Samuel Palmisano coaxed his wife with an apologetic look on his face: "There is an emergency in the company, and I have to go to Chicago. You know, I was just promoted to the head of the global service department not long ago, and I must make some achievements, otherwise I can't lead the employees below. It's three o'clock in the morning. If you are sleepy, go back to sleep, honey."
After saying this, Samuel Palmisano swiftly sat up from the bed and walked to the bathroom. Although his head was still dizzy, his consciousness was beginning to become clear.
IBM's International Computer Services Division, with 135,000 employees, is IBM's fastest-growing division. If the previous head had not retired due to health problems, Samuel Palmisano would never have had the opportunity to take charge of such a core department that is related to the company's future.
His wife got up to help him pack his luggage, while Samuel Palmisano called the full-time driver assigned to him by the company. While the driver was not here yet, Samuel Palmisano hurried to wash up.
In the bathroom, Samuel Palmisano looked at his aging self in the mirror with a stern expression.
He has always been a man of fighting spirit and execution, just like those traditional white elites.
He was cold and shrewd, and he was exceptionally good in both his savage physique and his cunning intelligence.
While attending Johns Hopkins University, he was a star player on the school's American football team.
After graduation, he brought the wild and ruthless style he developed in the team to IBM.
He started from the bottom of the sales team and then worked in IBM's island country division, IT services, PC division and mainframe division. When he was the executive assistant to Lou Gerstner's predecessor John Ackles, he was called "the best assistant" by the latter.
It took him 27 years to climb to his current position.
But even so, Samuel Palmisano was not satisfied. After all, Roosevelt became the President of the United States at the age of 42, while he was almost 50 years old and had not yet become the CEO of IBM.
He feels that there is still a lot of room for improvement in his life.
It is this ambition that urges him to move forward in his career.
Soon, the driver drove the car to his doorstep.
Samuel Palmisano kissed his wife goodbye at the porch, then turned and walked into the snow.
On the way to the airport, Deputy Gordon Myers called and said, "There's a problem with the VALinux plan."
The two had worked together for many years, and Samuel Palmisano had always trusted Gooden Myers very much, but the VA Linux project was too important to fail. He frowned and asked excitedly, "What's going on? What happened?"
There was a reason why he was so excited.
If one wanted to climb up in IBM, especially someone like him with no background, the only way was to achieve real results.
It's not just about making money, it's also about striking down IBM's enemies.
Therefore, as a company that purely operates the Linux business, VA Linux entered Samuel Palmisano's vision more than a year ago.
This small company has huge potential and value because it has the potential to break Microsoft's monopoly on PC operating software.
Therefore, VA Linux was regarded by Samuel Palmisano as a hidden trump card in his hand, which was related to his future destiny, so it must not be lost.
Now that he heard that something had gone wrong with the plan, he was of course very nervous.
Gooden Miles could only explain in a low voice, "VA Linux's stock was secretly purchased in large quantities. The other party was generous and directly bought about 30% of the original shares. I only learned about this from Torvalds recently. Not only him, but many VA Linux internal staff also sold their shares in advance."
"What? These idiots!"
Samuel Palmisano was so excited that he almost jumped up and hit his head on the roof of the car with a loud bang. His face was distorted and he couldn't help but groan.
On the other end of the phone, Gooden Myers asked: "I know they are idiots, but now the deal is done, it's useless to fire them. The important thing is, what should we do now?"
Samuel Palmisano took a deep breath to calm himself down and avoid high blood pressure. He thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know who bought these shares?"
Samuel Palmisano didn't need to remind him about this, as Gooden Myers had already investigated it. He said, "It's a wealthy man from the East. I heard his last name is Lu. He's the Xia guy who was working so hard with Bill Gates. The MP3s produced by his company beat the Supreme Alliance and they also reached a cooperation with the Recording Industry Association of the United States."
Samuel Palmisano heard this and immediately cursed: "Damn Torvalds! What a bullshit liberal pope, is his brain full of shit?"
After cursing for several times, Samuel Palmisano finally vented his anger. What he was most worried about now was that Bill Gates would get wind of the news in advance, which would make the plan full of variables.
After finally calming down, Samuel Palmisano sighed and said, "It seems that I have to have a serious talk with this mysterious rich man from the East."
At the same time, the founder of VA Linux, the "Pope of Liberalism" who subverted the world, the software genius Linus Benedict Torvalds was sitting in front of the computer screen, chatting late into the night with his close netizen Lu Yiming who was on the other side of the ocean.
Torvalds was so excited that his face flushed and his breathing became rapid. He said to Lu Yiming on the other end, "Lu, your idea is really surprising."
Lu Yiming said: "For the Internet, free is the future, so the social software I developed is free for life. Next, I plan to develop a free antivirus software to send those software companies who only try to monopolize the market to hell."
Torvalds laughed when he heard this. "Your idea is the same as mine! Lu, let's challenge the corrupt old order together. They have been in that position for too long."
Although he is already 30 years old, Torvalds is apparently still as immature as he was a dozen years ago. His mind is full of open source and free things, and he wants to break the monopoly and blockade of the virtual world by commercial companies such as Microsoft.
The social software MM developed by Lu Yiming was very much to his liking, and he was even willing to sell some of his VA Linux original shares to Lu Yiming.
Of course, the price Lu Yiming offered was not low, at least not at the time of purchase.
Both of them are programmers and have similar values, so they naturally had a great chat.
But Lu Yiming quickly sent a message: "Sorry, I have to answer a call first, let's talk later."
After finishing the chat with Linus Benedict Torvalds, Lu Yiming picked up his mobile phone and found a long string of numbers on it.
Obviously, this is not a serious phone number.
However, if someone calls you at this time, it's either a scam or an emergency.
Lu Yiming is more inclined to the latter.
He pressed the answer button.
"Hello?"
The caller was Samuel Palmisano, who introduced himself as the head of IBM Global Services.
As soon as Lu Yiming heard Samuel Palmisano introduce himself, he immediately guessed the purpose of his call.
It's nothing more than asking about purchasing shares of VALinux.
Lu Yiming pretended to be dumbfounded and followed Samuel Palmisano's words and said, "I'm not an IBM customer. What service can you provide me?"
Samuel Palmisano did not point it out directly, but said coldly: "It depends on whether you want to be a friend of IBM or an enemy of IBM, Mr. Lu."
Lu Yiming laughed and said, "Sir, can I think you are threatening me?"
Facing the giant IBM, Lu Yiming was not panicked at all. He said calmly: "I am not anyone's friend, nor have I ever thought of becoming anyone's enemy. I only make friends with interests."
These words were so capitalist that even Samuel Palmisano, a veteran who had been working in the world of free capital for decades, was shocked.
There is no doubt that Samuel Palmisano is a very smart man. He immediately understood the hidden meaning of Lu Yiming's words.
His expression softened a little, and he said, "So, you won't ruin my original plan because of your friendship with Mr. Bill Gates?"
Lu Yiming asked back: "Are you talking about VALinux's free open source?"
When Samuel Palmisano heard Lu Yiming's words, his face froze.
"You really know everything!"
Lu Yiming laughed: "Come on, this doesn't seem to be a secret, right? After all, Torvalds wanted to rebel against Microsoft, and he never hid it from anyone. Instead, he showed it off everywhere. I don't know, that's a strange thing, right?"
Samuel Palmisano's face darkened, and he cursed Torvalds in his heart again. Then he quickly adjusted his mood and said to Lu Yiming: "Although this matter is not a secret, at least Bill Gates does not know that IBM is behind it."
Lu Yiming teased, "So you sneaked into the village, don't you want to shoot?"
Samuel Palmisano looked puzzled.
"What?"
"Nothing, just continue."
Samuel Palmisano snorted and said, "Do you want to object to this plan?"
To Samuel Palmisano's surprise, Lu Yiming said bluntly: "Of course, after all, the whole United States knows that Bill Gates is my brother and dearest friend. Our friendship is more real than gold."
Samuel Palmisano frowned and said, "Do you really want to choose to be the enemy of IBM?"
Lu Yiming immediately smiled and said, "No, I mean, you have to pay more."
After hanging up the phone, Samuel Palmisano lay down in the chair with mixed feelings. He had never thought that a person could be so shameless.
But precisely because of this, he became more and more wary of Lu Yiming, the mysterious oriental tycoon.
Pinching his brows, Samuel Palmisano suddenly felt very tired and exhausted.
Why is it that other people's children are already successful in the business field just after graduating from high school, while my own son, who is about to graduate from college, basically spends every day picking up girls and playing ball?
It's just that comparing people will make you die, and comparing goods will make you throw them away.
China Overseas.
Xiaoshan Airport.
Lu Yiming came personally to see Li Yiwen off.
Lu Yiming grabbed some sand from the ground and said to Li Yiwen, "Cousin, I would rather love a handful of soil from my hometown than thousands of taels of gold from another country."
Li Yiwen was not polite at all. He directly slapped the sand out of Lu Yiming's hand and scolded him with a smile: "That's enough. You are trying the same trick on me again! The TV station won't rerun Journey to the West during the winter vacation!"
"Come on, stop talking nonsense, cousin. Are you sure you want me to go? This matter is too big, and I am unsure about it."
How could he not be nervous about a business worth two billion dollars?
He hasn't been able to sleep well for several days. If this thing fails, he will regret it for the rest of his life.
Lu Yiming was not panicked at all. He smiled and said, "Don't worry. I have already arranged everything for you at IBM. When you get there, just call Lao Peng. He will take care of everything. You just need to keep an eye on him."
Li Yiwen frowned and fell into deep thought.
After a long while, he looked at Lu Yiming with a bad face: "Why do you sound like an ancient military supervisor? Moreover, this kind of thing seems to be the responsibility of the eunuchs, right?"
Lu Yiming said: "Be more confident and remove the 'seemingly'."
Li Yiwen turned and left.
Lu Yiming waved goodbye: "Cousin, have a safe trip!"
Li Yiwen turned around and cursed: "The plane took off against the wind. It's terrible to be uneducated."
Li Yiwen turned around, got on a private plane and embarked on his journey.
The Zhonghai in December is colder than in November.
However, A-shares have become hot because of Lu Yiming's wave of "magic predictions". Retail investors in the market have full confidence in the young new stock god, especially the stocks that Lu Yiming recommended Chen Li to buy. They are now widely circulated and hard to get.
The four characters of "value investment", along with Lu Yiming's double titles of "richest man" and "stock god", spread across the land of Xia like a spring breeze. It even developed to the point where even the elderly on the streets could casually talk about it, showing how "profound" and "professional" their understanding of the stock market is.
Just at this moment, Lu Yiming was participating in the most grand stock speculation feast in history.
At this moment, the United States has attracted the attention of countless ambitious people, and everyone intends to get what they want from it.
Money, fame, power, and even the illusory sense of accomplishment.
In 1991, eight years ago, the 21-year-old geek king Torvalds, who was then a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland, accidentally created the little toy Linux.
No one at the time could have predicted that it would now be used as a weapon of "murder and robbery". More importantly, no one could have imagined that it would eventually become a belief that incited a "holy war" in the virtual world.
Although he was already familiar with this history, witnessing the miracle with his own eyes still felt extraordinary to Lu Yiming.
In fact, in the beginning, Linux was not particularly popular. To a large extent, it was just a toy for a group of senior programmers and enthusiasts to entertain themselves.
Of course, this toy has some characteristics that later seemed extremely important: free, open source, and free to copy, modify and spread. It is these characteristics that allow it to be endowed with all kinds of strange doctrines, gradually become sacred, and spread rapidly.
Whether something is valuable or how much it is worth depends largely on how rich people view it, just like how much an animal is worth often depends on how much a "gourmet" is willing to spend to eat it.
As a software tool, after a long and lonely "childhood", now, under the secret leadership of IBM, the open source Linux has finally attracted the attention of Wall Street and some commercial enterprises, just like the attention that the Internet once attracted.
At present, the U.S. stock market and the bubble-filled Internet have been given the lofty mission of economics. Linux, this plain-looking and underdeveloped "girl", was suddenly discovered to have some special potential.
Just as using the Internet to modify economics has brought endless opportunities, Linux also implies another tempting possibility - becoming the "gravedigger" of Windows!
Soon, such remarks began to spread widely, causing countless people's hearts to beat violently.
Think about it, digging up the grave of Windows, in simple terms, doesn't it mean redistributing the wealth held by Microsoft?
When Microsoft was basically equivalent to a minting factory, dividing Microsoft was like dividing wealth, like robbing a bank. Since we already knew that there were a lot of treasures hidden in the tomb, betting on the "gravedigger" Linux was nothing more than betting on the treasures that still belonged to Microsoft.
Moreover, those rich people never mind spending some money to buy an attractive coat for their speculation activities. Therefore, it is a capital crime for bandits to rob a money transporter with weapons, but it is justice for the rich to divide Microsoft with Linux.
