Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 300 Bill Gates shows off his fangs

In Ethan's memory, in his previous life, in order to cooperate with IBM and win IBM's orders, Intel signed a technology exchange agreement with AMD, making AMD IBM's second supplier. This agreement allowed AMD to obtain the right to use Intel's chips and openly produce Intel chips.

According to various stories circulating on the Internet, the reason why IBM allowed Intel to license its patents to AMD was to avoid over-dependence on IBM in business.

To put it simply, the fewer suppliers a company has in a single project, the lower the risk resistance of the project. When suppliers and buyers are in the honeymoon period, it may be a peaceful and harmonious life, but if there is a conflict between the two parties, or if the supplier encounters some unexpected situation, such as being maliciously acquired by a competitor, then the buyer's project is at risk of collapse.

Therefore, when most companies are running projects that require suppliers to provide resources, they will make the number of suppliers very large.

Take McDonald's for example. Ethan in his previous life discovered when he was looking through McDonald's supplier documents that they had established long-term cooperative relationships with more than one hundred suppliers in North America alone.

In addition, there is another way to prevent this, which is to directly acquire important suppliers.

Solve all problems once and for all.

Ethan Jones chose the latter approach when building his own company, taking charge of everything.

IBM is obviously taking the former path, introducing enough suppliers to reduce risks.

Because IBM is a public company, they need to be responsible for their own financial statements. When the products supplied by key suppliers are difficult to supply and have low profits, it is impossible for them to take them into their arms.

When these facts flashed through Ethan's mind, he realized that the cheap chips Bill Gates was referring to were the Intel chips produced by AMD.

But this kind of thing...

Need Bill Gates' help?
Ethan changed his sitting position, leaning on the sofa, looking at the world's richest man in his previous life with a smile, and said: "William, I think I understand what you mean..."

"When Intel follows IBM's idea and licenses its patents to other chip manufacturers, we can purchase cheap chips from those licensed manufacturers."

"But there is one thing I don't understand."

"If Intel wants to cooperate with IBM, it is inevitable that they will license it to others, which means that after they finish the negotiations, we will definitely be able to get cheap chips."

"in this case……"

"Where is your bargaining chip?"

Ethan had already put his words very tactfully.

After Bill Gates reminded him that Intel would eventually contribute its x86 to AMD, he knew that Steve Jobs' obsession with chips could end there.

Because AMD will definitely get Intel's chips.

unless……

Talks between Intel and IBM broke down.

But that's impossible.

There are only a few chip companies on the planet, and only Intel and Motorola can produce 16-bit chips. Intel is still very young and easy to control, and they will open up their patents if asked. But Motorola is different. This giant has looked down on the central microprocessor industry from the beginning. Do you want them to create a second supplier?

Even if IBM were to negotiate, it would be impossible to do it!
Robert Galvin doesn't need this little money at all!

All he pursues is the right to speak in the market!
And when Bill Gates felt the curious gaze cast by Ethan, the Harvard dropout immediately laughed, "Oh Ethan - you are right, judging from the current situation, I do There’s no stake in getting a GUI, but I would say the eyes can be deceiving a lot of the time.”

"Because at the moment, the reason why IBM chose Intel is extremely simple, that is, Intel can be controlled, but Motorola cannot. Other than that... Intel has no advantages at all."

These words made Ethan frown slightly.

The unconcealed micro-expression made Bill Gates spread his hands and said, "Ethan, it seems that you don't know the gap between Intel and Motorola."

"Although Intel was the first to make central microprocessors and Motorola wanted to give up this industry, this does not mean that Intel is invincible, nor does it mean that Motorola is lagging behind, because Motorola's accumulation is not comparable to Intel's."

"Take the Intel 8086 that Apple wants to use now and the 68000 that Motorola launched last year. There is a huge gap between the two products. Motorola's chip has at least five times the floating-point performance of Intel's, because Motorola's chip has more than transistors, while Intel's chip has less than . In addition, their clock frequencies and address widths are different. No matter which aspect is compared, Motorola has a crushing advantage."

"It is precisely because this fact is in front of everyone that I say that the only advantage Intel and Motorola have over them is that they are small and easy to control. But we all know that in the field of technology, being small and easy to control is not an advantage."

“When one company’s technology is already overwhelming that of another…”

“Chasing performance and dreaming constantly is the only choice for all companies.”

"Now, IBM chose to embrace Intel because they felt that personal computers with command-line interfaces did not require a very good central microprocessor. But even so, there were engineers within IBM who felt that if they wanted to provide a better operating environment for spreadsheets and to give them more features, they had to use a better central microprocessor."

"When the graphical user interface was not even on the market, IBM was already disliking Intel. If, I mean if, I told IBM that Apple could bring Xerox's research and development to the world..."

"Ethan."

“Do you think IBM will just abandon Intel?”

"Ok?"

When Bill Gates asked this question with a smile.

Ethan, who was sitting opposite him, just wanted to describe the founder of Microsoft as a villain who succeeded.

Because he understood Bill Gates' plan!
When Bill Gates told IBM that the computers they were developing were based on Intel, because Ethan had secretly helped Apple get a graphical user interface that already had a prototype, IBM would definitely take the initiative to get rid of Intel and madly embrace Motorola!
Because when IBM feels that software like spreadsheets deserve better chips, those who want a better future will definitely understand that graphical user interfaces will have higher requirements for chips!

In this case, Motorola is the best choice!

none of them!

Similarly, their abandonment of Intel can also become their bargaining chip to touch the future!

IBM can make Intel disclose its patents because IBM itself is strong enough!
If they don't drive down Intel's chip prices, Apple won't be able to accomplish anything on its own.

If Apple cannot get chips from Intel at a low price or a reasonable price, it will not be able to build a graphical user interface even if it has one.

Because after Ethan had copied Motorola's chips time and time again, Robert Galvin was able to communicate with Ethan in a friendly manner, which was already giving face to Fred Terman!

What about Steve Ross?
With his old face completely humiliated, there was no way he would negotiate business with Ethan even if he died!

When the chip shortage problem arises, America's blue giant IBM will definitely take the initiative to negotiate with Apple and Ethan on behalf of Bill Gates.

And when that time comes...

The outcome of the matter cannot be predicted.

Because Ethan didn't know how strong IBM's desire for the personal computer industry was.

But at the same time, Ethan knew that this thing could be licensed to Microsoft, but it would never be licensed to IBM.

As for the reason? After all, he controls Microsoft.

"So, William, are you here for revenge?"

Thinking of this, Ethan laughed, "You want to vent your dissatisfaction with me forcing you to invest in Microsoft?"

“No——” Bill Gates also laughed, shook his head, and said, “Ethan, two years ago, when you used tough means to invest in our Microsoft, I was really unhappy.”

"Because when I saw your spreadsheet idea, I did want to copy it. But before I could implement it, before I even left Palo Alto, you killed my idea in the cradle. This made me very angry and wanted revenge."

"But now, I am indeed not negotiating with you with a revengeful mentality."

"I came here with sincerity, with the sincerity of wanting to get the graphical user interface."

“Then why don’t you talk to Steve Jobs directly?” Ethan was curious.

"Because Steve Jobs won't authorize me." Bill Gates answered very bluntly.

"Ethan, do you remember Christmas of 1978? We celebrated it at your house."

“And you made me show you the spreadsheet.”

"When I came up with the idea of ​​the spreadsheet, Steve Jobs' first reaction was not happiness or joy, but to ask why you didn't bring this idea to Apple."

"Since then, I have known that Steve Jobs is a very pure person, he is a very pure paranoid, he only wants to enjoy the success alone, he does not want to share the victory with others."

"Although I don't know why he wants to be friends with you, because in my opinion, such a person doesn't deserve to have friends, but it doesn't matter, because I know that I can't discuss business with him."

"He wants to seize everything and rule the world!"

"As long as your product is good enough, you will be invincible!"

"But I don't think so, and I believe you don't either. We all know that one person alone cannot rule the world, so there must be various deals involved."

"And now, I am negotiating a deal with you."

Ethan nodded repeatedly after hearing Naked's words.

Although this guy in front of me looks quite gentle, how many children born in capitalist families are really gentle? The fact that he always talks about "business" and "rule" has proved that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are actually the same kind of people.

They all want to succeed.

"William, why do you think I will definitely talk to you?"

Ethan said: "To be honest, Steve had been here before you came."

"He told me that he couldn't give you the graphical user interface."

"But handing this technology over to us is the best option, isn't it?"

Bill Gates shrugged and said, “Ethan, you should understand that monopoly will never allow us to occupy all markets. Instead, it will encourage other companies in other countries to develop their own products.”

"Only by supplying the market at low prices, so that other companies feel that it is better to purchase directly than to develop on their own, can we truly gain the entire market."

"Steve Jobs probably wouldn't have accepted that view."

"But I think you can."

"Is it right?"

Bill Gates's rhetorical question made the smile on Ethan's face grow wider.

"So you're not going to threaten me?"

"There's no point in threatening you."

"Then I want to know, what else can you bring me?"

"I can bring you a lot of information, for example, the negotiation process of IBM..."

Perhaps because Intel is too easy to control, IBM hopes that Intel will open its doors to itself while opening up its patents. They want to invest in Intel and acquire at least 15% of its shares.

Of course, IBM was not so blunt when it came to communication.

He just said that he was optimistic about Intel's products and wanted to bring them greater research and development momentum. He provided them with no less than 350 million US dollars in support, which would be about 15% in shares.

This requirement was the root cause of the deadlock in the entire negotiation, because after Intel went public, they had become a public company. Whether to accept external investment was not something that could be decided by the board of directors in a closed-door meeting. Shareholders had to be convened to explain the situation to them.

The dual approach of investing and sharing is IBM's real means of controlling suppliers.

When Bill Gates laid these facts out to Ethan, Ethan knew that Bill Gates had made up his mind to take over the graphical user interface, but this matter...

"William, I need some time to think."

Ethan said with a smile.

"Okay. I'll be waiting for your good news in Seattle."

Bill Gates is casual.

As he left, Ethan also found his sister and asked her to verify the authenticity of the chip.

After Evelyn nodded and admitted that Bill Gates was right and Motorola's chips were able to beat Intel, Ethan realized that the graphical user interface was more complicated than he had imagined.

He thought he had mastered the future by inventing the graphical user interface.

But I didn’t expect that the chip alone would be a choke point for me?
The most important thing is that the one who is choking him is not an outsider, but Microsoft, the company he invested in!
When the young richest man shows his fangs and wants to get a seat on the cake called the future...

The choice to take the initiative made Ethan narrow his eyes.

"Special code!"

“Those who can succeed are all ambitious people!”

"This kind of person is so hard to control!"

Note: ① In the 80186s and 80286s, Intel was indeed no match for Motorola. HP, Sun, Apollo and many other companies all used Motorola chips because Motorola's chips were several times stronger than Intel's. In order to compete for the market, Intel, which was no match for technology, even played word games. Their second-generation processor was originally , but they forcibly changed the code name to before it went on the market, which directly fooled the purchaser, who thought that Intel's technology was one generation higher than Motorola's. As a result, after testing, it was not as good as fart. Intel's success was all due to IBM and Microsoft. They used market share to win the war of technical standards, and Motorola achieved great success in the mobile phone business. ② In reality, in order to control Intel, IBM did invest million yuan to get % of the shares. Controlling suppliers is the most common behavior in business. This is really not eating alone, but often just to reduce risks.

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(End of this chapter)