Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 135: Unexpected Gains
After taking a shower, Tommy walked out of the bathroom without wrapping himself in a towel. Jason had already gone to the SSD meeting, and there was no one else in the dormitory.
He opened the refrigerator in the dormitory and found that the food inside had gone bad. Its black and rotten appearance reminded him and Jason that they had not opened the refrigerator .
Tommy took out the last can of beer and just opened the pull ring when Charles opened the door and walked in. He took the beer from Tommy and took a sip. "Thank you, Mr. Exhibitionist."
"No need to thank me, because you stole it. I didn't intend to give it to you. It was the last can of beer in the refrigerator." Tommy sighed: "What happened?"
When Charles heard the last can, he didn't bother to explain to Tommy and drank it all. Then he said, "Nothing. Our SSD Stanford chapter just received a donation of 100,000 yuan from an alumnus, so you better put on your clothes and come with me to thank the other party in person."
"Mr. Chairman, I don't have any position in SSD right now. I'm a rookie, okay?" Tommy heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that the donation was from alumni. He fell directly on the bed and closed his eyes. "Just let me sleep for another half an hour. I have to call Florida in half an hour. Please walk lightly when you go out."
Organizations like fraternities can hire lawyers and have the funds to organize various large-scale activities, mainly relying on donations from members after graduation. The annual membership fees paid by members on campus are only enough to pay the rent of Stanford University and hire cooks and cleaners.
If alumni who live too far away donate by mailing checks, SSD can only call to express their gratitude. But if alumni near Silicon Valley donate, SSD will organize a group of members to visit them to express their gratitude. They will sit down together for a meal or a drink, and talk about how SSD is different now than when they were studying, and what interesting things happened.
In short, it is just a regular social event, which is usually controlled by a few SSD veterans. It is difficult for rookies to get a chance. After all, the veterans have to enter the society faster than them and need to discover various opportunities through the internal connections of the brotherhood.
"The other team specifically asked you to go over. It's just you and me." Charles looked at Tommy, picked up the can in his hand, and threw it at Tommy. It hit Tommy's club accurately, and he said with satisfaction, "Valid score!"
The cold beer can taken out of the refrigerator suddenly stimulated the golf club, causing Tommy to quickly open his eyes and sit up, covering his vital parts with both hands. He did not bother to ask why he wanted to see him, but instead sent a series of swear words to Charles, the current chairman of SSD.
"Benjamin Rosen, Stanford University 1955, SSD fraternity member, it seems that you are not satisfied with me, so I decided to let Ted accompany me, and I will tell you..."
"I was wrong, Charles. The reason I was dissatisfied just now was not your behavior, but how could you choose a beer can? You should have used darts instead and took the opportunity to put a hole in my cue!" Tommy stood up: "As long as you can take me to meet the other party after you are done."
Benjamin Rosen, chairman and CEO of Compaq Computer Corporation, a tycoon in the computer hardware industry. Tommy had certainly heard of his name, but he didn't expect that he would want to meet him. He thought that those SSD alumni who were keen on investing in the software industry might be the first.
As he was putting on his clothes, he was thinking about the general history of Compaq. He suddenly froze and looked at Charles: "Why did he donate 100,000 to SSD before asking us to meet him? I mean... he could have just asked us to meet him directly."
"It's an attitude," Charles said to Tommy, crossing his arms.
Tommy also nodded and said, "Compaq, founded in 1982, is essentially the Actor company in the computer hardware industry."
"SSD is really full of talented people. You all chose to plagiarize. The only difference is that your Actor is software and his Compaq is hardware." Charles said with a sly smile, "I think he might want to exchange experiences with you on how to plagiarize and shamelessly blackmail each other, so as to become bigger and stronger and make Stanford University notorious."
"No, he plagiarized to make money, and I did it for equal rights." Tommy corrected the grammatical errors in Charles' words.
Charles rolled his eyes. "Hurry up and pull up your pants. Benjamin's limousine is waiting for us. Tommy Hawke, your equal rights plagiarism methods are much more harmful to the American computer industry than Benjamin who plagiarized generously."
…
Fifty-year-old Benjamin Rosen received Charles and Tommy in his 430-square-meter top-floor duplex apartment in Silicon Valley, which is arguably the most upscale residential area in the Silicon Valley today.
"I work at Compaq's headquarters in Harris, Texas most of the year. I only live here when I occasionally fly to Silicon Valley for business events. So if you need a party venue, feel free to choose this place. Although I don't live here, servants such as nannies, housekeepers and gardeners will clean up every day." Benjamin, wearing a loose sportswear, took the two of them directly to his own sky garden and sat down. He said to them casually:
"I know that if SSD wants to hold some exciting parties, they often need to pay to rent additional venues. You can consider this place. It's nice here. There is an outdoor swimming pool in the garden. Girls shouldn't hate the environment here."
Although he was dressed like a middle school physical education teacher who was about to retire, Charles and Tommy had no intention of looking down on each other. They sat up straight and looked each other in the eye.
After graduating from Stanford University, Benjamin Rosen went to Columbia University Business School for further studies, and then went to work on Wall Street. In fifteen years, he became the senior vice president of Morgan Stanley. He then chose to retire and founded the venture capital company Seven Rosen Foundation with Leon Seven in 1981. In the same year of its establishment, he invested in Compaq Computer Corporation and served as chairman and CEO.
In 1982, Compaq sold 53,000 personal computers with sales of $111 million, becoming the fastest startup in the U.S. computer hardware industry to achieve sales of $100 million. Coincidentally, in the same year, Lotus became the fastest startup in the U.S. computer software industry to achieve sales of $100 million.
The performance of these two companies in 1982 seemed to tell all investors that the American computer industry had officially entered a new era.
What’s even more coincidental is that the investors of Compaq and Lotus are Benjamin Rosen and Leon Seven, a pair of old friends who jointly established an investment company.
They were all right, but their endings were different. Benjamin was in charge of Compaq, a rapidly rising company in the hardware industry, and he turned Compaq, a copycat company, into the third place in the personal computer market share.
Leon had a keen eye for talent and invested in Lotus, a company that was leading the software industry. However, he ultimately chose to withdraw his investment due to irreconcilable conflicts with the two founders, and the return was far below his expectations.
"Tommy is our SSD's designated next party manager, but I guess he is not in the mood to help us design the party recently because his small company is running into some troubles." After listening to Benjamin's greetings, Charles smiled and turned the topic to Tommy.
Tommy glanced at Charles. This fraternity president was still his favorite. He was the perfect candidate for the CEO of Actor Corporation and a man with high IQ and EQ. But this guy insisted on working in those think tanks.
Benjamin did not continue to exchange hypocritical pleasantries, but continued to talk along the topic raised by Charles: "I saw the article in the magazine. Lotus Company. Leon told me after withdrawing his investment that the company would be wiped out sooner or later. I just didn't expect that it would not die under the siege of other large companies, but would fall under the knife of our SSD members, one hundred and seventy-six friends of the court. Tommy, you shouldn't do computer software. You should go to work for those lobbying firms on K Street in Washington and help businessmen and politicians pimp. You did a great job on this."
"Yeah, Charles and the others gave me a lot of help. I couldn't have done all this without SSD. Charles is the leader of us pimps." Tommy said to Benjamin.
Benjamin nodded. "I guess you don't think that an old guy like me called you here to have a party, so to make a long story short, I'm very interested in Actor. Although Compaq will not get involved in the software industry, there are aspects of the software industry that are worth learning from. I want to invest in it, either for financing, or Tommy, you three can transfer some shares to me to cash out. In addition, Compaq can directly purchase OSS software as a supporting product to enter those large companies. I know that although your software has good sales, the main purchasing group seems a little... strange."
"It would be best if all this was done before the trial?" Tommy was silent for a moment and 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 both of us a little... tired."
"If you can convince IBM to invest or acquire Actor's shares, then I can personally consider transferring 15% of the shares to you at an SSD friendly price of 10 million." Tommy thought for a moment and quoted a price to Benjamin.
This means that Tommy himself values Actor at $66 million.
Benjamin didn't think the price was excessive. After all, Actor's OSS sales data of tens of thousands of sets was there. He handed the cigar in his hand to Tommy and laughed, "IBM, you want me to convince them to invest in you? Are you kidding? They are now eager to send me to the gallows. Let them, in their eyes, be the competitor, to persuade them to invest in your Actor ?"
Although he was joking, Tommy's words made Benjamin believe that this young man was indeed a robber in a suit as described in the magazine.
Ten million was a friendly price for him, but it would definitely not be sold to IBM at this price. The most important thing was that he now believed that the whole thing was designed by Tommy Hawke, because the young man's mind was very quick. Not long after he sat down, he already understood why he should invest in or acquire Actor, and why IBM might also be willing to acquire Actor.
Compaq and IBM were somewhat like Actor and Lotus at this time, because eleven computer companies including Compaq used PC cloning to copy personal computers that were fully compatible with IBM-PC. They reverse-engineered IBM's BIOS firmware and used the same 16-bit AT bus as IBM, etc. Except for the different trademarks, the entire computer was no different from IBM-PC, all hardware could be perfectly replaced, all software was perfectly compatible, and they could be sold cheaper than IBM, causing IBM to lose its price advantage.
IBM originally hoped that its strategic partner Microsoft would help it limit the unscrupulous competition from other computer companies and make Microsoft's MS·DOS system choose to cooperate exclusively with IBM, so that those computer companies would have no choice but to look for other systems.
But Microsoft immediately sold IBM everything. As long as Microsoft paid a licensing fee, computer companies would accept any offer. After all, as long as they paid the money, they could use the MS·DOS system at will.
Microsoft thus became a giant in the software industry, but at the cost of its former partner IBM's market share in the personal computer market being halved.
It is not certain whether IBM wants to kill Compaq, but everyone is sure that IBM definitely wants to kill Microsoft, which stabbed it in the back.
Although it was clearly betrayed, IBM was helpless because everyone knew that IBM dared not be too arrogant now. After all, the US government has accused IBM of monopoly for twenty years. Since 1962, the US government has tried to break up this behemoth with many tentacles and a monopoly in multiple industries.
If it weren't for the excellent vision and means of IBM's executives, ten IBMs would have been torn apart by politicians using the excuse of monopoly.
Congressmen are still drooling and holding knives, looking for opportunities, so IBM dare not take any high-profile action against these other computer companies that are stealing its business. It can only file some minor lawsuits in state courts that are favorable to its situation.
Be it Microsoft, Compaq, or even Oracle before, they were certain that even if IBM was in the plaintiff's seat, as long as the case became a big one, it would be the loser in the end, so they dared to act so unscrupulously.
Generally speaking, the lawsuits between IBM and eleven computer companies including Compaq are just small-scale petty disputes. Although IBM does not intend to take the case to Congress and the Supreme Court, it also hopes to use the endless litigation to make everyone remember that at this moment, no matter how much money computer manufacturers such as Compaq make, it is an illegal business behavior. As long as the law is improved one day, IBM will sooner or later have a reasonable excuse to deal with them.
The frustrating thing for the copycats at Compaq is that they have no grounds for counter-claims because they don't have the bullshit charitable excuse of Actor. They simply copied IBM and made money. After all, OSS also had some practical and quick functions designed by Tommy, but their computer hardware did not have any innovation. They just produced whatever IBM produced and then sold it to users at 80% off the price of IBM computers.
"To use one case to promote the rules of two industries, to be honest, this is an unexpected gain that I didn't expect. It was only when Charles mentioned that you wanted to see me that I realized that Compaq has ranked third in the computer market in just over a year, and is qualified to weld car doors." Tommy was silent for a moment, and said to Benjamin:
"IBM, Apple, and Compaq, each of you should pick a few computer companies that you like to be your followers, come together to come up with some industry standard architectures, bus development standards and other plans, and then share the market together. In this way, IBM will avoid being accused of monopoly, and you will no longer have to worry about other small companies like Compaq emerging to grab the market, because if they dare to do so again, you can work together to solve it. So back to the original question, is IBM willing to see Compaq change from its rival to its partner?"
"IBM has been chased by the US government for 20 years and has not fallen. Guess why? It is not the Lotus company that almost angered Leon to death," said Benjamin.
Beep, beep, beep…Tommy’s pager rang. He made an embarrassed gesture to Benjamin, picked it up and took a look. It was an unfamiliar number. “Excuse me, can I call you back?”
"Of course, the phone is over there." Benjamin signaled the butler in the distance to accompany Tommy to answer the call, and he chatted with Charles about the recent situation of SSD.
Tommy walked over to the phone and dialed the number: "Hello?"
"Tommy? Is that you? I'm Ottilia." Ottilia's voice sounded on the other end of the phone.
"Miss Otilia Farrell? It's me, yes, I'm Tommy Hawke." Tommy was stunned for a few seconds before he smiled into the receiver and said, "So, are you planning to find a man to marry? The timing is really good. My girlfriend just broke up with me, and I'm about to make my first 10 million. I mean, although it's not as much as your father, Mr. Farrell, made from selling yachts, it shouldn't be too bad."
Otilia chuckled on the other end of the phone and said, "If you keep talking to ladies like this, I think your next girlfriend will leave you quickly."
"This call surprised me. How do you have my pager number?" Tommy had a smile on his face and the image of this beautiful teacher and a group of high school students in summer camp appeared in his mind.
Otilia said, "I called your house and got it from your father."
"So, if you're not looking for a man to marry, why are you looking for me?" Tommy asked curiously.
"Wait a minute, someone wants to talk to you..." After Otilia finished speaking, a somewhat vicissitudes of life voice came from the other end of the phone: "Tommy Hawke, I'm Robert Miller, a member of the SSD Cornell University branch. I saw the magazine. I don't know if I'm the first person to contact you, but I hope I am. What are you doing?"
"I'm negotiating a business deal to make a little money, sir." Tommy had never heard of this name, but since the other party was a member of SSD, he had to be respectful and tell the truth.
The rule of SSD is that you can disrespect anyone in this world outside of your family, but you must always respect your SSD brothers, because they are your family members with different surnames.
"Go to the DFS duty-free shop at San Francisco International Airport, where they will prepare a first-class ticket for you." Robert Miller said calmly:
"This is what I want to tell you. From now on, there is no need to talk about it. You are not short of money."
