Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 300 Panic-stricken Hard

Just three hours after opening, Masato Takeshita couldn't wait to ask his secretary.

"How is it, how are the data?"

"Because of our free policy, every Internet cafe is now packed."

"That's fine, that's fine."

The young man repeated a few words in a low voice, then smiled with a look of success and continued muttering to himself.

“I wonder what kind of expression Microsoft will have when it sees the operating system in our Internet cafe.”

“If there’s a panicked scene, that’s going to be interesting.”

Because of the time difference, Internet cafes in North America and Western Europe will open later. The Xinghai operating system will naturally be available to Americans later.

Time passed, and just after Masato Takeshita, who wanted to eat melons, fell asleep, 1800 Internet cafes in Europe and the United States opened on time.

Compared to Asia, the cost of building a single Internet cafe here is higher, and the decoration alone can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This is still ordinary level decoration. If we follow the high-end route of less developed countries, it will probably be extremely expensive.

The only thing that was the same on both sides was that the store quickly became packed.

"Bill, something terrible has happened. Do you know the company called Galaxy Internet Cafe Alliance?"

"Well, it's indeed a genius idea. What's the matter?"

During this period of time, the media has been advertising Galaxy Internet Cafe extensively. As a member of the technology community, I naturally know what an Internet cafe is.

But how is Galaxy Internet Cafe related to such a big thing?

"I went to the Galaxy Internet Cafe and found that their operating system is countless times better than what we use now, and they also have their own office software."

"Our threat has emerged. If you don't believe me, look at our company's current stock price."

Wall Street also had some knowledge of what Ballmer had discovered, so Microsoft's stock price fell as soon as the Galaxy Internet Cafe opened.

As of now, the stock price has fallen by more than 21%, and billions of dollars have evaporated in an instant.

When Bill Gates saw the sharp drop in stock prices, he instantly realized the seriousness of the matter and muttered to himself.

"No wonder Xinghai Capital suddenly sold more than half of its shares a few days ago. I thought they wanted to lock in the profits, but I didn't expect they were waiting for us here."

"Yes, that should be the case."

"Has the company been shorted? Does it include Xinghai Capital?"

In response to Bill Gates' inquiry, Ballmer shook his head and said that Xinghai Capital never shorted and there would be no such stocks in it.

With such a big market, there will naturally be bears. However, it is basically domestic US capital that is celebrating, with almost no foreign capital.

"Hmph, damn it!"

He slammed the table hard, then stood up with a serious expression and said, "Let's go and take a look together."

"it is good."

Ballmer responded, then followed him with an equally gloomy expression, heading to the nearest Internet cafe to observe the situation.

The crowded Internet cafes made Bill Gates, a guy with a slightly home-bound personality, feel a little out of place.

But now was obviously not the time to care about these things. He walked behind a user and took out the loose dollars he had prepared.

"Can you let me play for a while? One hour, these are all yours."

"Of course, of course no problem."

The white guy happily took the several hundred dollars in cash and immediately gave up his seat respectfully.

This amount of money is almost a week's salary. Not to mention giving up an hour, even a whole day would be no problem.

The Xinghai operating system is simple, clean and easy to understand. Bill Gates showed a bad look as soon as he started using it. And as time went by, his expression became uglier and uglier.

It is so smooth and convenient to use, it is like alien technology.

"No, it must be contained."

He made vicious plans in his mind and decided to leverage the advantages of his American company to defeat the Xinghai operating system just like he defeated Tron.

Thinking of this, he lost interest in continuing to try.

After leaving the Internet cafe with mixed emotions, he decisively said to Ballmer: "Let's go to the White House now."

"Okay, we can't let the Japanese run rampant on our land."

When it comes to his own interests, Ballmer also shows a ferocious expression. Xinghai Group must be taught a lesson and told that this is America.

Xinghai Group had already anticipated this situation, even the possible joint action of Microsoft and Intel.

Therefore, just as the two were planning to go to the White House, Xinghai Group had already spent a large amount of public relations fees in Washington.

In addition, Lou Gerstner also took charge of the U.S. branch early on to facilitate the handling of emergencies.

"How to do?"

After learning about Xinghai Group's money-throwing from a familiar congressman, Bill Gates looked at Ballmer.

“Don’t rush it, and always remember that we are an American company.”

Public relations does help, but everything must be done while ensuring that American interests come first.

The current situation is clearly beyond the margin, and it is impossible for the White House to change its attitude because of this little money.

"But we also need to take action to show our patriotic stance."

Patriotism can also be a business. Microsoft is a patriotic enterprise, a reef against the invasion of Japanese companies.

"Okay, the company fully supports you."

Now is the most dangerous moment, and Bill Gates is very willing to give up power.

While Microsoft and Xinghai Group were busy with public relations, Intel, as Microsoft's strategic ally, remained silent.

This is because Xinghai Group realized that Microsoft would inevitably resist strongly and eventually gave up the idea of launching its own computers online.

Don't offend the public.

If Xinghai Computer is launched online, it will not only offend American computer manufacturers such as Compaq, IBM, and HP, but also chip companies such as Intel.

With so many American companies attacking together, not to mention the Japanese company Xinghai Group, even domestic American companies will have to kneel down.

Facing the various strategies of Xinghai Group, Bill Gates clearly realized that even if Microsoft alone could defeat Xinghai Group, it would take a long time.

Maybe by that time, the company would have gone bankrupt.

So he quickly called the president of Intel and whispered to his allies for help.

"Grove, we hope to get your help."

"No problem, we are the best partners, aren't we?"

Intel had three important employees in its early days: industry leader Noyce, research genius Moore, and ruthless manager Grove.

However, the identities of the first two are closer to founders, while Grove is roughly equivalent to the first employee.

But this does not affect Grove's position in Intel, because under his promotion, Intel is currently the world's largest semiconductor company, leaving the second place far behind.

As an outstanding CEO who experienced the US-Japan memory chip war in the 80s, Grove was well aware of the difficulty of dealing with Japanese companies.

Therefore, like Noyce, he always paid close attention to the development of Japanese semiconductor companies.

In Intel's eyes, Xinghai Computer is not a secret at all.

Grove just wants to gain more benefits, so he will temporarily keep quiet in the war between Xinghai Group and Microsoft.

After hearing what the Intel president said, Bill Gates felt relieved.

He raised the corners of his mouth slightly, suppressing the joy in his heart.

"Of course, we have always been the best of allies."

The power that Intel can bring is far greater than that of Microsoft at this time. Therefore, once it went online, Xinghai Group faced tremendous pressure.

"President, Microsoft and Intel have formed an alliance, and we will resist for a long time."

"Well, let's proceed according to the plan."

Xinghai Group naturally had a response plan in place, and Masato Takeshita issued the latest order very straightforwardly.

"Yes!"

After Lou Gerstner hung up the phone, a depressed expression appeared on his face.

Although they clearly have the advantage, they have to make the first choice to compromise just because they are not an American company.

"It seems like it's time to leave."

He thought about the invitation he had recently received and decided to start a new journey after this was over.

"Bill, Xinghai Group wants to discuss something with us."

"Oh, Xinghai Group actually took the initiative to lower its stance. What do you think it is?"

Ballmer had a confident smile on his face.

"It's normal. We are a patriotic company."

"Yes, we are a patriotic company." Bill Gates showed a proud smile, and then said happily: "Let's go and listen to their conditions."

After the two sides greeted each other, Lou Gerstner said simply: "Our goal is to make money. There is no need to fight to the death and make other companies laugh at us. And although we are competitors, we can still win together."

"Oh, I wonder what President Lou Gerstner thinks?"

Bill Gates also didn't want to rely too much on administrative measures, as it would be easy to get caught up in them. If Xinghai Group really had a suitable solution, he could accept it.

"Our company can license the operating system to Microsoft, but under certain conditions."

Lou Gerstner went straight to the point of using his ultimate move in an effort to win with one strike.

"What, is this true? Selling the operating system to us?"

“Yes, this is a decision made by our entire company.”

"Excuse me, we have to go out for a while, can you wait for a moment?"

Bill Gates is now very upset and wants to go out to calm down.

"Of course, feel free to do so."

Bill Gates led his team to quickly leave the negotiation site and find a hidden office.

"Ballmer, why do you think the other party did this?"

There was a shrewd gleam in Ballmer's small eyes, and he quickly organized his thoughts and spoke.

"I think things won't be as simple as you think. Even if Xinghai Group authorizes the operating system to us, it will require a lot of conditions."

"For example, a certain amount of shares, or issues related to CPU compatibility."

After such a long confrontation, Microsoft also discovered the problems with Xinghai computers.

No wonder Intel agreed so readily. It turns out that Intel’s interests may also be involved in the future.

Why other CPUs cannot compete with Intel.

On the one hand, Intel's chips are more advanced, but more importantly, the chips produced by Intel are more suitable for the software on the market.

If the Xinghai operating system really becomes the dominant PC system, Xinghai computers will definitely be more suitable for computer software when they are released in the future.

By then, Intel will become Motorola. Even if its chips are more advanced, it will not be able to sell as well.

"We can agree to the shares, after all, we are not the only possible partner. But we must not agree to the CPU, Intel is our ally."

Microsoft will naturally not make such a decision just because it is an ally of Intel. After all, Microsoft will abandon Intel without hesitation in the future.

Bill Gates made such a decision only because he felt that his company could not withstand the attack from Intel.

"Okay, I understand."

Microsoft's senior leaders discussed the issue for half an hour and only returned to the negotiating table after making the final decision.

"I'm sorry to have delayed President Lou Gerstner for so long."

"It's ok, can we continue?"

"Of course, please say so."

Bill Gates smiled and made a gesture of invitation, wanting to hear more specific conditions from the other party.

"Our technology licensing conditions are very simple. The entire American market belongs to you, and the rest of the market belongs to us. We will divide the world into two."

During a negotiation, you naturally cannot reveal your bottom line right from the start.

Lou Gerstner opened his mouth wide and increased the demand several times.

"No way, we will not give up the European market."

Bill Gates refused without even thinking about it.

At present, the entire computer communications market is dominated by the United States, which accounts for most of the global market share.

But Western Europe is growing very fast and will soon approach the United States. And even surpassing the United States is not impossible.

If Microsoft loses the European market, it will be difficult for it to become a global giant.

Japan can become the private territory of the Star Ocean operating system, but Western Europe cannot.

Because of the huge gap in goals, the first negotiation between the two parties ended quickly in a bad mood.

But Xinghai Group is worried that its operating system will be killed by the US government, and Microsoft is worried that other US companies will obtain this advanced operating system.

In order to avoid any consequences, both sides quickly returned to the negotiation table.

The differences between the two companies are still huge, and roars can be heard from time to time at the negotiating table.

After more than ten days of negotiations, Lou Gerstner saw that the time was right and a very reluctant expression appeared on his face.

"We, Xinghai Group, are willing to take a step back for the sake of negotiations and give up the Western European market, but Microsoft must transfer 5% of its shares to us."

"Yes, but the maximum equity ceded is 2%."

"No, it has to be 5%. We can't lose the market and not get any profit."

"No, 5% is too much."

The quarrel lasted for another half a month, and finally the exhausted two sides reluctantly reached an agreement.

Xinghai Group transferred the operating system to Microsoft free of charge.

In return, Microsoft transferred 3.5% of its own shares in Xinghai Group.

At the same time, the two parties defined the sales scope of the operating system.

The entire Americas, Europe outside the CIS countries, and the entire Africa are within Microsoft's sphere of influence.

The entire Asia, Australia, and CIS countries belong to the sphere of influence of the Xinghai Group.

If your own software appears in the other party's sphere of influence, it will be automatically considered to belong to the other party.

In other words, if Microsoft's operating system and office software appear in Japan, the profits will automatically belong to Xinghai Group.

Similarly, when Xinghai Group's operating system and office software appeared in Europe and the United States, the profits belonged to Microsoft.

Both parties were very satisfied with the negotiation results.

Microsoft, for its part, thinks it has gotten a great deal.

Because except for Japan, Australia, and a few small countries, the entire sphere of influence of the Xinghai Group is composed of backward countries.

Operating systems and office software simply cannot make money in these places.

(End of this chapter)