Reborn America, this is my time

Chapter 290 The Avengers assemble again!

The last time the Avengers officially assembled was last winter.

When Ethan Jones took out Johnson's home console and the "Starry Sky" game during the all-American live broadcast, Steve Ross, who was shocked beyond measure, took the initiative to take the lead and send invitations to all Ethan Jones' competitors to compete on the East Coast. A meeting was held in Central New York to discuss the invasion of Iraq.

In that meeting, the members who were invited to participate were full of confidence, gearing up, and had the momentum to kill Ethan Jones in three moves, but now...

Half a year later, on August [-]th, the atmosphere in the huge conference room at Warner Headquarters in Los Angeles was solemn.

There were only five seats placed around the round table, which was in sharp contrast to the previous six-person group. Even though no one said anything, everyone knew that Ron Miller was out.

Although everyone present was a bloodthirsty wolf, and each of them had used cruel methods to suppress competitors in their entrepreneurial journey in the past, but even so, after discovering that one of their allies was missing, they still felt an inexplicable feeling. The sadness.

Because everyone knows that the current Ron Miller may be his future self. Once they are attacked by Ethan Jones to a weak point and have no chance of rescue, or the cost of rescue is greater than the benefit of release, then now allies will definitely abandon them directly for their own safety.

It seemed that he could see the thoughts of the people around him, but it was more like he knew that the current alliance was not unbreakable. After looking around the scene, Steve Ross smiled and said: "Everyone, Ron Miller was looking for me before, and he asked me Please help, I hope I can help him keep his management rights at Disney."

"I agreed and provided him with an operational white knight plan. He accepted it, but he did not choose to let me operate it. Instead, he took the initiative to find other allies."

"And the allies he found were my former enemies."

"It makes me very sad."

"So I didn't call him during this meeting."

"Because he actively betrayed the alliance."

Steve Ross's words stunned everyone present for a moment. The next second, laughter suddenly appeared on the scene, "Oh - so Ron Miller is actually such a person?" MGM Chairman Kirk Kerkorian shook his head regretfully and said, "I always thought he was a loyal young man."

"did not expect……"

"Hey!"

The heavy sigh caused the other three to nod politely.

As for what they are thinking in their hearts?

Everyone knows that.

But this is not important, because even Steve Ross himself knows that the explanation just now is just a whitewash, and their real purpose is...

That is to analyze Ethan Jones's strange behavior and deal with possible revenge.

"Okay, although Ron Miller betrayed us, his actions did not cause us much harm, so we don't need to worry about him."

"Right now, the question we need to discuss is what exactly Ethan Jones is doing."

"In the past ten days, he acquired a company, bought a bunch of patents, and reached cooperation agreements with Xerox and HP. Although his behavior was a bit chaotic, everything pointed to 11 years ago. , a demonstration that took place in San Francisco.”

“At that time, an engineer named Douglas Engelbart showed his creativity to the world in San Francisco. He wanted to revolutionize computers and sweep the command line interface into the dustbin of history. His declaration caused a stir at the time. discussion, but alas, he failed.”

"Because in the past 11 years, even if other companies researched in the direction he pointed to, they have not come up with world-shaking products. Not only that, most teams researching graphical user interfaces have announced in recent years Understood. But now..."

"Ethan Jones seems to want to conduct special research in this area."

"He wanted to bring this thing to market."

With these words, Steve Ross also distributed the documents in his hand.

Then he said: "Everyone, do you think Ethan Jones's behavior will have an impact on us?"

In fact, before inviting everyone, Steve Ross had already sent them the compiled information, and the information recorded in that report was actually no different from the current document.

It's just that the current summary document contains more content and more comprehensive information.

Therefore, in less than 10 minutes, everyone at the scene had already read the information.

After everyone closed the documents, a strong sense of contrast appeared instantly.

Sitting on the left side of Steve Ross are Kirk Kerkorian, the boss of MGM, and Cornelis van der Klucht, the CEO of Philips North America. They look calm at this moment.

Not only did he have no intention of speaking, but he cast inquiring glances at Commodore boss Jack Trammell and Rockwell chairman Willard Rockwell Jr. opposite him.

It seems that they want to know the inner thoughts of these two guys.

As for the boss of Komodo and the chairman of Rockwell...

The two of them looked gloomy and were in a bad mood.

As for the reason?

"I don't know if Ethan Jones's behavior will have an impact on us." Commodore boss Jack Trammell said in a tough tone: "But I know that Ethan Jones's next target is us. ! Because now he is mobilizing all resources to target us!"

Before the words were finished, Rockwell Chairman Willard Rockwell Jr. nodded in agreement and said: "Yes, I have asked the R&D personnel in the company to analyze the graphical user interface technology. They said, This thing can only be used on personal computers, so..."

"Steve." Willard Rockwell Jr. looked at the Warner chairman sitting in the front seat with a smile, "You called me to come to the meeting, do you want to give us some help on behalf of the alliance? ?”

"Or rather..."

Willard Rockwell Jr. turned his head and focused his attention on the boss of MGM and the CEO of Philips North America, "You also want to help us?"

"Oh - thank you so much!"

The boss of MGM and the CEO of Philips North America looked condensed after hearing these strange words.

It also made the face of Steve Ross twitch in the first seat.

At this moment, they all could smell the bad smell permeating the air.

That's right!

The boss of Komodo and the chairman of Rockwell came with emotions!

Or in other words, when they discovered that after Ethan Jones slapped them five times, he did not declare war on all of them, but only responded actively to their personal computer industry, They felt like they were being targeted!

Obviously everyone did it together, so why were they the only ones targeted?

Obviously the cooperation between Philips and Sony is the first shot in this war!
Their alliance with Casio and providing chips for Casio is already the second step in the war!

In this case, Ethan Jones chose to hammer them first?

This is unfair no matter how you look at it, right?

To be honest, even if Steve Ross didn't call and invite them to come to the meeting, they would take the initiative after understanding the graphical user interface and ask the alliance members to meet!

Because they don't want to confront Ethan Jones!
Or rather-

Even if he is beaten, the entire alliance will have to bear it together!

They are not Ron Miller!It would be foolish to choose to work alone!

"Oh - Jack, Willard, I can understand how you feel." Although Steve Ross looked unhappy, within a second, a smile appeared on his face again, "It's precisely because We know this matter is very serious, which is why we are convening a collective meeting today."

"Since none of us know how powerful the technology captured by Ethan Jones is, let's analyze the matter first? If his actions can have a profound impact on the entire industry, then we will naturally find ways to help you. After all, We are all comrades in the same alliance, right?"

Everyone can talk about beautiful scenes, but this thing is completely useless to human spirits.

Komodo's boss and Rockwell's chairman just shrugged and didn't accept it.

Steve Ross's last rhetorical question was directed at the boss of MGM and the CEO of Philips North America. The two of them...

The former nodded in agreement and his attitude was quite cooperative.

The latter smiled and showed nothing else.

When three people at a five-person table showed extremely perfunctory attitudes, Steve Ralston became a little angry.But he knew he couldn't get angry.

Take a deep breath and force a smile.

"Since everyone's goals are the same, let's discuss Ethan Jones' behavior in detail. According to the information I got, Apple's transaction was carried out through a share transfer. When Ethan Jones is willing When Apple's shares are exchanged for patented technical support from Xerox, HP and Stanford Research Institute, I personally feel that they should have full confidence in this product."

"I wonder what you think?"

The matter-of-fact words surprised the three people who responded perfunctorily.In their view, today's gathering meeting is a one-man show for Steve Ross. His core purpose should be to appease Commodore and Rockwell and let them continue to fight Ethan Jones to the end. But I didn't expect... Steve Ross was really here to discuss things?
When this idea appeared in everyone's mind, the boss of Commodore and the chairman of Rockwell, who wanted to drag everyone into trouble with anger, suddenly looked at Steve Ross twice.

The violence in him has subsided a lot.

But at the same time, they had no intention of speaking.

As they fell silent, Steve Ross continued: "Well, since I invited you to come, then I will set an example and express my views first."

"First of all, what I want to say is why I feel that Ethan Jones is confident in the GUI product, because under normal circumstances, share transactions in commercial activities represent shared risks."

"When a company wants to acquire something or a certain company, the management feels that the transaction may be feasible, but is not fully sure. At this time, they will proactively propose a share transaction, and once they feel that the transaction may be feasible, they are not fully sure. If a certain technology or company is a great complement to itself, then the management will definitely find a way to turn this transaction into a cash transaction."

"Even if you pay a certain premium."

“Because only in this way can we truly maximize our benefits.”

"But that's not something you can do with Ethan Jones."

"Because when Ethan Jones is very optimistic about a certain technology, his desire for this technology will become a flaw in negotiations, and the companies he deals with will definitely find ways to get the stocks in his company."

"If Ethan Jones hesitates, it proves that he does not have enough grasp of this technology. If Ethan Jones is willing to negotiate, it proves that he is very optimistic about this technology. And if Ethan Jones and the other party If a deal is reached, it proves that he is really confident."

"and this……"

"That's the most important thing."

Having said this, Steve Ross tapped his index finger on the table with a serious expression, "Although Ethan Jones and I are enemies of each other, I admit that Ethan Jones may have a vision for success that is difficult for ordinary people to understand."

"Everything he looks at should have a higher chance of success, so, judging from the worst outcome, the graphical user interface may be the next product he discovers that can change the world."

"I've made my reasons clear."

"I don't think you will object, right?"

Steve Ross glanced at the four people around him one by one.

The boss of MGM and the CEO of Philips North America had no objections, while the previously angry chairman of Rockwell and the boss of Commodore also expressed their approval in a silent manner.

This situation made Steve Ross nod slightly——

"Okay, since you have no objections, I will continue."

“When I discovered that Ethan Jones’ newly acquired patented technology could be another key to changing the world, I asked professionals to carefully evaluate the technology.”

"Then……"

"I learned the following news."

"First of all, the first point is that there should be no possibility of this technology being brought to the market in a short period of time. Because according to the information I have learned, Xerox's technology is embodied in mainframes."

"If you want to move something from a mainframe to a personal computer, even the simplest porting, it will take up to one to two years to optimize the testing."

"So, even if GUIs are the future..."

"Ethan Jones can't turn it on right away either."

"The second point is that the graphical user interface requires very high computer configurations, which is not something the current personal computer market can afford."

"According to Xerox's report, the minimum operating standard for this product is a 5-bit 128MHz central microprocessor and [-]KB of RAM."

"There are currently only two companies that can produce sixteen-bit chips. They are Intel and Motorola. The latter Motorola has had conflicts with Ethan Jones because of the patent issue of MOS 6502. Although the former Intel is an industry invested by Lawrence Rockefeller , but their chips are very expensive.”

"This expensiveness does not refer to the selling price, but the manufacturing cost."

"So, even if Lawrence Rockefeller is here, they can't get cheap chips, and once Apple loses the advantage of cheap chips..."

"Then what else do they have?"

"At the same time, we should all know about RAM. The cheapest RAM at the moment is in Neon."

"And this is not something Ethan Jones and the others can obtain easily."

"To sum up, when Ethan Jones and others need to spend a lot of time to put the graphical user interface on the personal computer and spend a lot of energy to solve the cost problem, the threat to us from his behavior this time is actually Relatively small. Not to mention..."

"Chuck Paido is still with us. In the words of MOS Technology, it is impossible for Bill Mensch to develop a [-]-bit chip without losing his team."

"Only we can be the first to produce a 6502-bit chip based on MOS [-]."

When Steve Ross laid out the facts and reasoned, everyone at the scene fell silent.

While waiting for Steve Ross to call his assistant and ask him to distribute the report that he had prepared, Jack Trammell and Willard Rockwell Jr. breathed a sigh of relief after seeing all the details.

"Steve, is this report credible?"

Jack Trammell shook the papers in his hand.

"Where did you get this information?"

"I can only say that the last farewell ceremonies of the Jews on the North American continent were held in my church." Steve Ross shrugged.

There seemed to be no answer, but he answered everything.

As the owner of the largest funeral company in America and the owner of the American Jewish Church, Steve Ross knows more of his own kind than Jack Trammell.

Even Jack Trammell was Jewish.

"Okay, I have no problem." Jack Trammell stopped talking.

But Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., still had problems.

"Steve, I understand what you mean. When Ethan Jones can't bring the graphical user interface product to market immediately, there is still room for our plan to be implemented."

"As long as we use cheap computers to seize Apple's market and encroach on Apple's living space, they may have revenue problems and fall into a situation where it is difficult to develop."

"But, what I want to say is that Apple's current craziness is not due to the influence of Apple itself, but because Microsoft's spreadsheet has given them a huge boost."

"When Microsoft was taken over by Ethan Jones, our spreadsheets..."

"Where is it again?"

Willard Rockwell Jr. asked a crucial question.

His words also caused Commodore boss Jack Trammell to nod repeatedly, "Yes, Steve, although Bill Gates said that Microsoft will provide spreadsheets for all computers on the market, after all, Microsoft Accepted investment from Ethan Jones."

"I don't believe they're going to give us the spreadsheet unconditionally."

This question made Steve Ross raise his eyebrows.

"So, this is how we help you..."

"I said before that I solve the problem with sincerity..."

"You have to believe me..."

The two of them didn't understand the incomprehensible words, and Steve Ross turned his head directly and set his sights on MGM boss Kirk Kerkorian.

Following his gaze, Kirk Kerkorian also took out a document from the briefcase he carried and handed it to the two of them. After the two briefly browsed...

A cry of surprise came from their mouths!
"Jack Valenti?"

This name made Cornelis van der Klucht, CEO of Philips North America, frown for a moment, and it also made Steve Ross, who was sitting in the front seat, nod his head.

"Yes, that's Jack Valenti."

Steve Ross laughed and said, "Jack Valenti who went to Southeast Asia."

"After he spent some time in Southeast Asia..."

"I asked him to go to Neon."

(End of this chapter)