giants of the era

Chapter 87 New Project Development

After signing the land purchase contract with the Cupertino city government, Li Zetian has another task, which is to participate in the design of Apple's headquarters.However, he mainly made requests, and the architects of SOM Architects were responsible for the design. After the design was completed, Li Zetian would propose revisions. In fact, he had nothing to do, and his main focus was on Apple.

Between July and August, Apple established flagship stores in five cities including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia, all of which are over 1000 square meters in size. Each store costs an average of US$60 and is currently being renovated.

Apple's main profitable product now is Apple-ll. If a company only relies on one product to make profits, there will be a huge crisis behind it.Once a very strong competitor appears, Apple will immediately fall from the altar.

After comprehensive consideration, Li Zetian decided to find a new profitable project for Apple.

After thinking for a while, on the morning of August 8st, Li Zetian came to Tian Shuai's office.At noon on the same day, Apple officially issued an acquisition invitation to Advent, and fully acquired Advent for US$1 million!

Since Apple is not listed, this matter has not received media attention at present.

Soon, the two companies conducted the first round of negotiations.

It was Apple's first acquisition of another company, so Li Zetian would naturally go out and become a member of Apple's negotiation team.

Advent CEO and chairman Mark David came to Apple with four directors.

After the two sides exchanged pleasantries, they entered the formal negotiation stage.

Advent is a tape machine development company. In 1971, it launched the 201 tape machine, which was equipped with a Dolby B-type noise reduction system. The tape was used more seriously for recording music, and it was the high-fidelity cassette and playback that started later. The machine age has laid a solid foundation.The project Li Zetian selected for Apple is locked in Sony's future product, the Walkman portable tape player. As soon as this machine came out, it quickly became popular all over the world and created huge profits for Sony. With the success of Sony, Sony can then achieve brilliant achievements in the CD and DVD markets! ! !
The technology of the Walkman portable tape player is not a problem, the key is creativity!Sony launched the Walkman in 1979, and now it is August 1975, and the time is very close.If Apple recruits its own people to develop it, it will be closer to Sony in terms of time, which is very unfavorable, so it directly bought Advent and launched the Walkman as soon as possible!

Negotiations were not all smooth sailing, and Advent negotiators insisted that Apple increase the purchase price to $500 million.

Of course Li Zetian would not agree so easily, so the first round of negotiations failed.

The two sides agreed to continue the talks the next day.

"Chronos li, the other party saw Apple's recent sales of Apple-ll, and thought our company is very rich, so the lion opened his mouth!" Tian Shuai said helplessly, "Other manufacturers' personal computers only sell for a few hundred dollars, while Apple-ll The low-end version of ll sells for $1400, and Apple's ultra-high profits are not a hidden secret in the industry..."

"Are technology and creativity worthless? Hmph, there are always so many jealous people in the world!" Li Zetian sneered disdainfully.

On the second day, Li Zetian's attitude began to change. He was very tough and resolute. He said to the representative of Advent: "Mr. Mark David, $350 million, whether you sell it or not, I will find another company!"

Mark David, the chairman of Advent, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Chronos li, why don't everyone take a step back and compromise with each other, how about $380 million?"

Li Zetian thought for a while and said, "It's okay to give each other a step, but Apple can only pay 360 million US dollars! Mr. Mark David, this is already a very generous condition. You know, you are not the only one in the United States who makes tapes. What's more, with Apple's strength, do you think we can't develop a tape player? I think it's only a matter of time!"

Mark David was silent, obviously thinking about the pros and cons.

As far as Advent is concerned, US$360 million is indeed a very good figure. If Apple does not accept the acquisition conditions now, once the other party is angered, I am afraid that this negotiation will fail...

Mark David immediately lowered his head with a few companions and gathered together to discuss in a low voice. After a while, Mark David sat up straight, looked at Li Zetian and said, "Chronos li, Advent has decided to accept the $360 million offer." price!"

Li Zetian smiled triumphantly at this moment, nodded and said: "Okay, then we will draw up the contract now and complete the deal!"

"Ok, no problem!"

Half an hour later, the two parties signed the acquisition agreement.

Since then, Apple has acquired the first company.

Three days later, Advent temporarily moved to San Jose and changed its name to the Walkman division.Immediately afterwards, Li Zetian announced the Walkman project, but the project required confidentiality, and all department developers had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.The purpose of doing this is to prevent the news from leaking out and spreading to Sony to attract the attention of the other party.

Of course, the news of Apple's acquisition of Advent could not be hidden for long, and it was soon exposed by the media, which caused a sensation in the industry for a while.

"What did Apple buy Advent? Is it to develop the Apple-lll personal computer?"

The outside world can't help but speculate, and Apple is also confused internally.

However, this incident passed quickly. Apple is not yet the leader in the computer field, and Advent is not a well-known company. Companies are merged every day around the world, which is not a big deal.

And Li Zetian became even busier all of a sudden, because many problems arose during the development of the Walkman project.First of all, there are technical difficulties. It is not easy to make the Walkman very small, and the noise is so loud that it is impossible to hear clearly. The person in charge of the Walkman project suggested that Li Zetian invite people from Dolby Laboratories to assist develop.

Li Zetian thought to himself, Dolby Laboratories is a well-deserved giant in the field of sound. Wouldn't it be better to directly acquire Dolby Laboratories while it is still young?

Therefore, Li Zetian decided to acquire Dolby Laboratories!
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1965 by Dr. Dolby and is headquartered in San Francisco, where it developed the Dolby Noise Reduction System.The Dolby Noise Reduction System is a noise reduction circuit based on tape applications, mainly used to reduce the noise of recording or playback, and it has been widely used in home recorders in the 70s.In addition, Dolby is developing the Dolby surround sound system, which will soon be used in George Lucas's "Star Wars", which can successfully synchronize the direction of the sound with the movement of the picture, allowing the audience to feel The sense of direction and presence of the sound whizzing past the head caused shock in the film industry, so this system was later widely used in movie theaters.

Therefore, it is not easy for Apple to acquire Dolby Laboratories. Up to now, there are 65 authorized manufacturers of Dolby Laboratories, including all major manufacturers of consumer audio equipment. Li Zetian estimated the value of Dolby Laboratories , at least tens of millions of dollars.

The second problem is that Walkman is released. If there is no record company support, Walkman is equivalent to an empty box, and naturally no users will buy it.Li Zetian also needs to find a record company to cooperate with, establish a cassette tape standard in total, and obtain music copyright authorization, allowing Apple to produce and sell cassette tapes.Of course, they can also profit from it...

At this moment, Li Zetian rubbed his temples, thinking to himself, there are so many things, it makes people feel dizzy.

PS: Too few votes, I'm not happy~~
　PS: Too few votes, I'm not happy~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)