Microsoft and Apple have been at each other's throats for more than a day or two.
Although everyone thinks that Microsoft's Windows copied Apple's Windows operating system, it is undeniable that the success of Windows in the field of operating systems is simply unmatched by Apple, and Windows almost achieved unification, but this dream The antitrust laws that destroyed America.
If it weren't for antitrust laws holding Microsoft back, Microsoft could have almost killed and crippled the Apple OS system a few years before it was launched.
Apple is not a fuel-efficient lamp. It relies on anti-monopoly laws to constantly litigate with Microsoft. In the past few years, the US court based on anti-monopoly laws and ruled that Microsoft must provide technical support to Apple for five consecutive years. In other words, in order to ensure that Microsoft Windows will not form a monopoly in the market. The U.S. court ruled that Microsoft must provide Apple with a large amount of Microsoft's own technology and product support on Apple MacOS to enhance the viability of Apple MacOS to prevent it from being completely destroyed by Windows.
The IE browser on Windows is the best choice for most users to surf the Internet, but there is no IE on MacOS, and Apple's own Safari has not been developed at that time. What should I do? Microsoft must develop IE browser for MacOS for Apple...
Windows office software is one of the biggest dependencies in the commercial field of Windows systems, and it is also a fundamental reason why users cannot live without Windows systems. What should I do? With the antitrust law coming, Microsoft must develop Office for MacOS to be used on the Mac...
In addition, in order to get Apple to give up suing Microsoft for infringing its copyright, Microsoft also invested US$150 million in Apple, giving Apple the most critical food and grass.
Such an anti-monopoly law is almost unimaginable in China. It means that Tengxun QQ has almost monopolized the market. When Sina UC is on the verge of death, it can go to court to sue Tengxun, and then require Tengxun to provide Sina UC with Various QQ proprietary technical supports, and even required Teng Xun to invest a certain amount of money in Sina UC. I was trying to kill him, but in the end I beat my opponent to death. Not only could I not continue to fight, but I also had to Why would you turn around and save him
It’s because of antitrust laws…
Therefore, even though Microsoft is a shareholder of Apple, it is an outright enemy at heart. However, the referee of the Anti-Monopoly Law does not allow Microsoft to beat its opponents to death. There are countless things in Microsoft's heart that MMP cannot say out loud.
What Microsoft never dreamed of was that Apple had a new opponent. This new opponent was an Internet company from China. Moreover, this new opponent did not compete with Apple on the operating system, but broke on the music player. Apple's way out!
In Microsoft’s eyes, this is so damn cool! Because the "Anti-Monopoly Law" cannot save Apple's life this time. There are so many music player companies and so many products. Even if the iPod is completely killed by Makino Technology, Makino Technology will not violate the "Anti-Monopoly Law"!
Seeing the collapse of Apple's stock price, Microsoft immediately decided to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and give Apple a serious blow.
Therefore, before the market close, Microsoft issued an announcement announcing several of its decisions:
First of all, Microsoft will stop updating the IE browser on the Mac side and will no longer provide new technical support for IE on the Mac side;
Secondly, due to the reorganization of Microsoft's internal team and business, it was forced to suspend Office R&D support on the Mac side and wait until the team and business reorganization is completed before opening it up;
Once again, after discussion, Microsoft's board of directors announced the latest reduction plan for Apple shares and will continue to reduce its holdings of Apple shares.
Microsoft has been selling off Apple's stock since 2000, and now there aren't many left. It originally planned to sell it all within this year, but it never thought of selling it in such a hurry, but it happened that Makino Technology started a war with Apple. , so Microsoft decided to add insult to injury to Apple.
When stock prices plummet, the market is most afraid of investors losing confidence in the stock. If even institutions and major shareholders announce reductions in holdings, retail investors will lose confidence even more.
Microsoft's last strike this time is actually very stupid. The last time the US court imposed a five-year penalty on Microsoft based on antitrust laws, it just expired last year. Under normal circumstances, Microsoft would not dare to fall out immediately after the penalty period ended. In that case , as soon as Apple turns around, it can sue Microsoft on the grounds of the Anti-Monopoly Law. Microsoft will definitely lose the lawsuit, and will definitely bear huge compensation, and the gain will not be worth the loss.
However, now Microsoft has a foolproof plan to stop supporting IE on the MAC because at the beginning of this year, the beta version of Safari developed by Apple was already online. Since Apple already has a browser, Microsoft will stop supporting IE from Apple. It will violate antitrust laws, so there is no problem in simply stopping updates.
In addition, Microsoft did not dare to really terminate support for Office on the MAC, so they changed their approach. They did not stop the service, but passively suspended support because the internal team and business needed to be reorganized. They will continue to do so in the near future. Serve.
Microsoft's intention is very simple. Even if this suspension of support cannot last long, issuing such an announcement at this time is mainly to give Apple a critical blow to Apple's already gloomy market prospects. If it cannot kill Apple by itself, then Of course, Microsoft was happy to see Apple die at the hands of others. In order to fear that Li Mu could not kill him, Microsoft came with such an indirect last-ditch attack.
As for Microsoft's follow-up attack, on this already gloomy trading day, Apple and the capital behind it, which had been clinging to the $6 mark, suffered a fatal blow in an instant. The stock price plummeted like a flood.
The stock price fell from US$6.02 to US$5.76 almost instantly. The two major levels of US$5.9 and US$5.8 were not even seen before they were completely crushed.
Wall Street and Silicon Valley were dumbfounded. They couldn't imagine that Apple, a star-like company, could be so completely defeated in one round. This also made people begin to re-examine Makino Technology and start to be in awe of this company.
The market was wailing. Apple's stock price was like a plane that had lost its engine and wings. Not only was it unable to climb, it was not even possible to glide. It was plummeting straight down. No investor could withstand such a plummeting trend. live.
With the plummeting stock price, no institution even dares to buy the bottom, because from a business perspective, Apple has almost no chance of turning around. This is already the case before Mango-ME2 is listed. The stock price is unlikely to hit the bottom at this time. The real bottom will have to wait until Mango-ME2 is officially launched in the United States. By that time, if the anti-dumping duties can help Apple defend the domestic market in the United States, then the stock price may rebound. If the anti-dumping duties cannot completely resist the trend of Mango-ME2 in the United States, then Apple’s The iPod business can be laid to rest.
What's even worse is that Apple's other business lines don't see any possibility of standing up to turn the tide. Now Microsoft has come out to add insult to injury. The MacOS and Apple computer markets will inevitably be affected by Microsoft. This will undoubtedly add fuel to the fire. Oil, adding insult to injury, maybe Apple will collapse under this double pressure.
In the capital market, good products and strong R&D capabilities are not the most important. The most important thing is to be recognized by the market. Once the market loses confidence, everything else will be a bubble.
During the Internet bubble two or three years ago, the market value of countless companies shrank by more than 90% overnight. Even the giant AOL, which had a market value of nearly US$200 billion back then, now has a market value less than one-tenth of its glory days.
Apple's stock price plummeted from US$7.36 to US$5.74. The stock price fell by 22% in one trading day, and the cumulative decline in several trading days was nearly 34%. The original market value was nearly 8 billion US dollars, and now it barely has 50 billion left. One hundred million U.S. dollars.
But in comparison, Apple's stock price crash rate is not the most serious stock in the Internet industry, and it is not even ranked in the top ten.
However, this is enough to cause a devastating blow to Apple from top to bottom.
Jobs, who was extremely confident, began to doubt his life at this time. He always insisted on hardware as the mainstay and software as the supplement. This is because he felt that the software development bubble was too big and far less solid than hardware to take root, just like those who had experienced the bursting of the Internet bubble. Most of the companies that collapsed overnight were software companies.
However, he never expected that Apple, which is centered on hardware, would suffer such a tragic blow. A company from China had single-handedly reduced Apple's market value by almost three billion U.S. dollars. He didn't know what would happen next. How long will the negative news last? Maybe Makino Technology’s tit-for-tat confrontation will cause Apple’s market value to shrink by more than half.
Now, there are two problems before Jobs.
First, how to restore the stock price in a short period of time
Second, how to reverse the passive situation in business in the next few months
Apple's shareholders and investors asked Jobs nothing more than these two questions.
Sadly, Jobs couldn't find any way to break the situation.
He has always insisted on focusing on hardware. At this time, he saw the biggest drawbacks of hardware companies - turning around is too slow and the cost is too high!
A hardware company is like a heavy-duty truck driving at high speed. Let alone turning around completely, even if there is a slight problem in the direction control, the vehicle will be destroyed and people will be killed. Any piece of hardware will take at least several months. R&D cycle, even if Mango-ME2 has completed all design and R&D work, it will still take time to prepare for its official global launch. If Apple develops a new hardware now and hopes that it can reverse the predicament, the possibility is almost zero.
When Jobs and the entire Apple fell into despair, Li Mu, who stayed up late and worked overtime in the office, was staring at the U.S. stock market with his mouth agape.
He expected that Apple's stock price would plummet today, but he did not expect it to plummet so completely, nor did he expect that Microsoft would suddenly stab Apple at this time.
Watching Apple's stock price continue to break through the two levels of US$5.7 and US$5.6, Li Mu checked Apple's latest market value and found that it had fallen below US$5 billion.
Not surprisingly, Apple still failed to hold the $5.5 mark at the last moment of closing, closing at $5.47, a single-day drop of 25.6%, becoming Apple's Dark Monday...
The day's killing was over. No smoke could be seen, but one could feel the river of blood flowing behind him. Moreover, it was far from over.
If this continues, Apple's stock price will only get lower and lower, and its market value will only get smaller and smaller. If Mango-ME2 is listed, it will be good to have 3 billion US dollars left.
It seems that a company with three billion dollars left seems like a skinny camel bigger than a horse, but it’s bullshit!
With Apple's current corporate scale, not only do there are a lot of people waiting to eat, but there are also a lot of projects under development that are in urgent need of blood transfusions. The stock price causing the market value to plummet is only one aspect. The subsequent capital chain problems are Apple's biggest dynamite package.
If there is a problem with funding, Apple has a market value of less than 3 billion, and the possibility of refinancing is very slim against the backdrop of market pessimism. At that time, it can only watch the capital chain break. Once the capital chain breaks, everything that has been All projects that have invested a lot of effort in research will be abolished, and all talents will be lost one after another. By that time, Apple will either file for bankruptcy liquidation, or it will have to ask other big guys to take over at a low price. But who dares to take over this hot potato
Suddenly, Li Mu's eyes lit up.
He said to Li Ziwei next to him: "Please contact the people at Sequoia Capital for me and ask them to send a senior person who is proficient in US stock capital operations to my office immediately tomorrow."
Sequoia is the capital behind Makino Technology and is also a world-class capital. Li Mu asked them to find someone who is proficient in US stock capital operations. After hearing this, Li Ziwei was shocked and asked: "Mr. Li, what are you doing? Are you ready for an IPO?”
Li Mu waved his hand: "It's not time for an IPO yet. I would like to inquire about the feasibility of acquiring Apple, delisting Apple from Nasdaq, and then privatizing it..."
At this point, Li Mu sighed and said, "Microsoft really did a great last-ditch job today!"
(End of chapter)