Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 61 Operation Codename: Kill Ethan

After Ethan finished looking through the agency's share of the accounts, Nolan Bushnell handed him another document.

"What is this?" Ethan asked puzzledly.

"This is our own sales list." Nolan Bushnell smiled at Ethan Jones and said, "Since this is the second phase of dividends, why don't we pay it all off? It's much easier to pay it all at once than in batches."

"Yo!"

Ethan really likes this quote from Nolan Bushnell.

After he looked through the documents handed over by the other party, he also found that in the past three months, the shipments of "Sanke Game" in the Midwest of the United States were 404 electronic arcade machines and 400.00 circuit motherboards, with corresponding operating incomes of US$611 and US$200.00 respectively.

Based on the commission ratio of 170% and 676.00%, Ethan Jones and his sister can get dividends of US$.

Although the numbers above are not as shocking as the ones just now, the content is also very impressive.

You know, before this, there was a wave of sales in the Midwest!

At that time, the total dividends taken by Ethan and Evelyn were close to four hundred thousand!

The original 400,000 plus the current 170,000, a total of 500,000 to 700,000, this number...

Eh--

its not right!
Ethan stared at the document for a few seconds, trying hard to recall the original dividend figures, and then he found a problem.

The dividends for the Midwest region managed by Atari are $570,000? And the dividends for the East and Central regions managed by the agents are $1.2 million? Although the agent's selling price is higher than Atari's, the sales gap between the Central and Eastern regions and the Midwest is too big, isn't it?
This shouldn't be!
Is it possible...

Did Atari Fake Its Financial Statements?

There was a flash of doubt in Ethan's eyes, but when he looked up, a smile appeared on his face again.

"Nolan, I have a question for you."

"Just say it." Nolan Bushnell was very polite.

"Why do I feel that the sales gap between the Midwest and the Northwest is a bit too big?"

Ethan spoke frankly and asked what was on his mind.

"Oh, this question? It's very simple!" Nolan Bushnell didn't seem to hear Ethan's hidden meaning, and smiled and said, "Because they serve a larger population than us. There are a total of 32 states with a population of over 100 million."

"Although California and Texas have large populations, so large that they can even rank in the top three of the American population list, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming do not account for a large proportion of the population. In the east, the populations of New York and Florida are on par with our California and Texas. If we include those states with large populations such as New Jersey, we have far fewer customers than they do."

"Since there is a gap in population, there will naturally be a gap in product sales. After all, games are meant to be played by people..."

'is that so?'

Ethan felt something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it for a moment.

Because in his memory, the population gap in the United States doesn’t seem to be that big - right?

Just as he was thinking about the problem with a frown on his face, Nolan Bushnell said again, "Oh - Ethan - I called you here today, in addition to wanting to settle dividends with you, I also want to ask you something else."

These words interrupted Ethan's thoughts.

He blinked his eyes, smiled, and said, "Nolan, we are all friends, if you have anything to say, just tell me directly..."

"Oh - I love what you call me!"

"Yes! We are all friends!" Nolan nodded excitedly, and then, endless anticipation emerged on his face, "Then, I want to know, have you come up with any new ideas in the past two months?"

He rubbed his hands.

"You used to work at Milohua, so I think you should know how long the money-making period of video games is."

"The first three months after a video game comes out are the explosive period in their lives. Driven by curiosity, players will invest a lot of time and money in the newly released video games, and in order to make huge profits from the players, the merchants will frantically buy video arcade machines and circuit boards from the game companies."

"After three months, even if the video game is still fun and players are still willing to spend a lot of money, the demand for arcade machines is actually declining because they want to make more money with the existing machines."

"There's nothing we can do about it. People are greedy, just like the little snake in the Snake Game you made."

Nolan smiled at Ethan.

And Ethan also understood his words.

This guy was asking if he had any new games.

If he said yes, Nolan would be very excited and then discuss cooperation with him.

And if not...

Sorry, he has!

But he doesn't want to work with Atari anymore!
Firstly, Jobs told him that Nolan wanted to sell Atari, and Ethan didn't want to negotiate with the real capitalists because they were annoying and difficult to deal with. Secondly, he had found his real big brother now, and when he knew that his backer was very powerful, what he wanted to do was to grab absolute profits.

After personally experiencing the operation of the American arcade market in this era, others still want to make money from him?
You’re dreaming!
Thinking of this, Ethan shook his head and said with a smile: "Oh Nolan, inspiration is not that easy to come by."

"I've been playing for the past two months without using my brain at all."

"so--"

Ethan spread his hands.

Act like I'm done.

"Really?" Nolan did not completely believe Ethan's words and asked again. In response to his question, Ethan still shook his head and said, "Really not."

This fact made Nolan look regretful, and he said helplessly: "Okay then."

At the same time, he added, "Since we are friends, we must cooperate again if there is a chance."

"Just like last time, we will pay you the dividends within two weeks."

"Okay." Ethan nodded with a smile.

I continued chatting with Nolan for a while, then left Atari.

As he left, Nolan stood up and closed the office door.

But the moment he turned around, a person came out from the office lounge.

That was Don Valentine, the founder of Sequoia Capital and an investor in Atari.

"Did you hear that?" Nolan Bushnell raised his eyebrows and said, "He said he has no new ideas."

Don Valentine did not respond immediately. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets, walked to the window, and looked down at everyone from above.

As he watched, Ethan Jones drove the Chevrolet away from Atari.

Only then did he turn around and ask, "Do you believe it?"

Nolan nodded, then shook his head.

That contradictory action did not arouse Don Valentine's suspicion, but made him stare at Nolan more sharply.

Nolan accepted the sharp look in his eyes. In this situation, he spread his hands and said, "Oh - brother - can I just believe in this kind of thing? I believe that Ethan has inspiration, so he has inspiration? If I have this ability, then why don't I believe that I am the master of the world?"

Don Valentine nodded slightly at the slightly complaining words and said, "If that's the case, let's just implement the plan."

This statement made Nolan Bushnell narrow his eyes, "Are you really going to do this?"

"Of course!" Don Valentine nodded and said, "Roy Disney said it! If we get the copyright of Snake Game, they will consider buying Atari for 40 million!"

"You know, before that, they offered us a purchase price of 22 million."

"If they're willing to pay an extra 18 million for a little snake, why don't we give it a try?"

"And this attempt can earn you an extra eight million, or get you into Disney directly."

"Since killing Ethan can double our profits, why don't we do it?"

Don Valentine's mouth curled up into a smile.

Nolan pursed his lips when he heard these words.

After staring at Don Valentine for a while, he nodded vigorously and said, "Then let's execute the plan."

"Let's put off the dividend for now. There will definitely be a result within two weeks."

At the same time, he also asked: "The New York Times or the Washington Post?"

"The New York Times," Don Valentine said. "I checked. Ethan's sister Evelyn, who is at Stanford, has a very close relationship with Barbara Babcock, a law professor at Stanford. Barbara Babcock's teacher is Edward Williams. If we call The Washington Post, there might be something unexpected."

This news made Nolan's face tense. "Edward Williams? How could he exist? Are we going to sue this kind of person? We can't win!"

Seeing the slightly worried look, Don Valentine smiled and shook his head.

He came to Nolan's side, patted his arm, and said, "Don't be so nervous, brother. We will win the case."

"Because he, Ethan, is infringing the rights!"

"If he can find a loophole here, then all the game companies in the world will counter-sue Mi Luohua, right?"

"Besides, we didn't file the lawsuit first. It was Mi Luohua who filed the lawsuit first. What we are doing now is to release the news, the news that will make Mi Luohua excited."

"so……"

"What are you nervous about?"

Don Valentine smiled at Nolan Bushnell.

I don’t know whether it was the magic of Don Valentine’s words that could soothe people’s minds, or it was Disney’s promise that made Nolan Bushnell want to fuck him, but in any case, with Don Valentine’s comfort, Nolan Bushnell came to the desk.

He stroked the phone for a while, then dialed the number resolutely.

"Hello, could you please put me through to The New York Times?"

After a moment, he smiled and said, "Is this from the collection department of the New York Times? I'm Nolan Bushnell, CEO of Atari. I'm calling today to tell you something. According to our confirmation, the sales of Snake Game have exceeded 10 million. Do you have time to send a reporter to San Francisco to do an interview with us?"

"Yes, what you are hearing now is exclusive news. Before this, I have not told this to anyone."

"You want to meet the inventor of Snake Game? Oh - I want to tell you the story of Ethan Jones. He is a genius and the most imaginative person I have ever met. Although he is not accepting interviews for the time being because he is polishing his new ideas, I can talk to you more, for example, our first meeting was at the launch of Odyssey..."

"Yes, yes, we knew each other when he was working at Mirowa..."

"Ok, see you tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)