Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 49 Good news, Apple is a success! Bad news, Jobs is out of work!
Wozniacki's words made Ethan a little confused, but his help made Ethan very happy.

After finishing my breakfast happily, I hummed a tune and sang a song while cleaning up the dishes at home.

Woz, the fat guy, went to work at HP, but Jobs...

But he followed Ethan into the kitchen.

At first, Ethan was a little surprised, but when he asked Jobs what was going on while washing dishes, Jobs didn't mean to hide anything. He leaned against the door frame and said directly: "Ethan, I did a simple calculation last night. The cost of making a computer motherboard with 6502 should only be $, while the price of the Altair computer motherboard is $."

"I think you understand what I mean?"

Jobs winked at Ethan and said, "I just found out that Stephen's computer has a very high commercial prospect, and then you said that 6502 has a bigger commercial potential?"

"Wow~ Isn't this too coincidental?"

"Besides, I think that only half of what you just said is true, right?"

"Using 6502 to make games? No! No! No! That's too extravagant!"

"So... what you want to do is actually computers?"

"uh-huh?"

Ethan smiled and shook his head at such a straightforward question.

"Oh - Steve -" he stretched out his voice.

At the same time, he leaned on the side of the pool with his hands and said with emotion: "I really don't know what to say. I feel that we have a very high level of tacit understanding!"

Steve Jobs was right. If he really got the 6502, he would definitely give priority to supplying it to Apple.

The reason is simple, that is, it can maximize benefits.

Just imagine, a computer motherboard equipped with 6502 can sell for more than three hundred dollars, while a game console can only sell for $199.

When the CPU prices are the same, everyone knows that the former makes more money.

As for why the core selling point of a game console is games?
The core selling point of computers is also software!

Once office software is developed, the profit will not be lower than that of games.

Therefore, Ethan would not even consider this fruitless question. Besides, he wanted to have it all now.

In this case, follow the course of history, use computers to squeeze out profits when CPU prices are relatively high, and then use game consoles to reap the profits again and again after CPU prices drop. That's what a businessman should do!

If I have to describe it, it is like crossing a river while touching the bodies of your ancestors from your previous life.

"Yeah~"

Ethan's admission also made Jobs very happy. "This shows that we have the same vision!"

Before he finished speaking, he clenched his fist with one hand, pressed it downward, and made a cheering gesture towards Ethan.

“I hope you succeed!”

"I'm waiting for your good news!"

"Wait!" Seeing that the other party was about to leave, Ethan hurriedly stopped him and said, "Don't leave in a hurry."

"Since you asked me a question, let's be fair and ask you a question too."

"You ask," Jobs said indifferently. "Any question is fine."

"I want to know, why do you want to sell computers? Is it because they make money?"

Yes, Ethan has always been curious about this.

In his memory, the media in his previous life had always said that it was inevitable for Jobs to create Apple because he had wanted to change the world since he was a child, but this kind of American dream rhetoric that couldn't be more standard... no one would believe it!
After all, Jobs is not a rich second-generation!

It is understandable that a guy like Ralph Baer, ​​who has achieved financial freedom, talks about his dreams.

And Jobs, who was on the brink of survival, was also talking about dreams?

Isn’t this nonsense!

You can’t even afford to eat, but still want to dream of a better future?

This is so sublime it makes me want to cry!
So, when Jobs broke the window paper, Ethan wanted to know what this guy's original intention was in founding Apple.

As he asked, Jobs immediately blinked and asked in confusion: "Ethan, don't you know? I'm going to be unemployed soon..."

"what?"

Ethan was a little surprised, "What did you say?"

Jobs said again, "I said I was going to lose my job."

"Because Nolan is planning to sell Atari."

"What???"

This news made Ethan raise his voice.

He looked at Old Joe with a puzzled look on his face, "Nolan wants to sell Atari?"

"When did this happen?"

It's no wonder that Ethan was so surprised, because in his memory, Atari's most famous achievement was not opening the door to electronic games with the arcade machine "Pong", but closing the door with "ET the Alien" while bringing happiness to the North American people.

The Atari crash is a story that veteran gamers have probably heard of.

And now, Jobs told him that Nolan Bushnell was going to sell Atari?

This……

'Could it be that the Atari crash had nothing to do with Nolan Bushnell? 'Ethan knew that this was indeed possible, but he still felt that something was wrong.

While he was showing his confusion, Jobs spread his hands and explained the whole story.

It turned out that after Milova formally sued Atari, Atari's senior management was in despair.

Because everyone knew that this was a losing lawsuit, and Atari would definitely be forced to exit the market with a huge fine.

Although Atari and MIRO finally reached an out-of-court settlement thanks to Nolan Bushnell's efforts, the fact that new games could not be released within a year made Nolan Bushnell somewhat discouraged.

He wanted to sell the company while it was still valuable, so he wouldn't have to go bankrupt and leave with nothing.

Within a few days after the lawsuit ended, he had contacted several buyers, including Disney and MCA, both of whom were very interested in Atari.

Especially Disney, they have a natural arcade marketing point.

Disneyland is the best place in the world to store video arcades because they have the most receptive fan base in the world to new things, and this group has a strong purchasing power that no other group can match.

To this end, Disney offered a purchase price of 20 million to Atari, which had a certain value.

In order to compete with it, MCA, which also wanted to enter the gaming field, offered 22 million.

At that time, Nolan was about to agree because this way he could at least leave with $15 million.

"but……"

At this point, Steve Jobs shrugged and said, “It happens by accident.”

"Nolan asked me to go to the trade show just to write my own sales pitch, but I didn't expect that I would find you."

"When Nolan saw Snake Game, he wanted to get the deal first."

"He felt that a successful agency business would make Atari more valuable."

"And right now, that's when Atari is most valuable."

Ok!

Ethan understood.

No wonder when Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine were talking about the contract before, they immediately changed the agency contract to one year after being scolded by him. At that time, he thought that he had intimidated them with his arrogance, but he didn't expect...

So they just want to increase the value of the company?
No wonder Nolan Bushnell was so quick to pay him when he asked for his share of the profits...

This is probably to let the giants see that Atari maintains a good cooperative relationship with him?

Ah--

Business is business!

Thinking of this, Ethan shook his head with emotion.

"So, you want to find a way out for yourself? Want to start a company?" He refocused his attention on Jobs.

“Of course!” Jobs nodded. “I’ve discovered that people like me are only suitable to start their own company.”

“It’s impossible to work part-time.”

"Because I always feel like my boss is an idiot."

"Okay." Ethan nodded and said, "One last question. When did you know about this?"

This question made Jobs frown. After thinking for a while, he said, "Ethan, I swear, I just heard this news this month. And it wasn't Nolan who told me this. It was a friend of mine, a friend at MCA who told me this."

"Please forgive me for not being able to reveal his name because he has a special status in MCA."

"I can only say that I have a very good relationship with him, but because it involves commercial secrets, I have to keep it confidential for my friend."

"Okay, Oaky, you misunderstood. I didn't mean to blame you. Thank you for your message." Jobs' words prompted Ethan to explain. He also said, "Good luck to you. Let me know if you need any help."

“Thanks, brother.” Jobs breathed a sigh of relief and raised his right fist. “I won’t be polite with you.”

"Please feel free." Ethan didn't even wipe his hands and bumped into him.

When the crisp clicking sound was heard, both of them laughed.

Then Steve Jobs left home.

As for whether to go to work?

Ethan didn't know either.

However, when the sudden roar and excited screams appeared together, the ghostly and wolves howling made Ethan Jones sigh again and again. He never expected that the birth of Apple would be so hasty, and he never expected that the way of intervention would be so simple.

“Is this what we have?”

"I guess so, right?"

Ethan Jones muttered.

His eyes narrowed into a slit in smile.

But the next second, he felt unhappy again.

Because he always had a feeling, a feeling that Nolan Bushnell had tricked him.

"I hope this is an illusion."

Note: ① After Michelangelo sued Atari, Nolan wanted to sell Atari. This happened in reality. The reason is relatively simple. Nolan wanted to find a good father for Atari because he felt that he could not stop Michelangelo's lawsuit. As for finding Disney, this is also very simple. Nolan likes Disney very much. He went to California to find a job at Disney, but failed. But even if he failed to find a job and failed to sell the company, in the end, when he sold Atari and reopened a restaurant, the logo of his restaurant was still a mouse. This is really a deep love.

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(End of this chapter)