After signing a 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. The designer of SOM Architectural Design Office was responsible for the design. After the design was completed, Li Zetian proposed revisions. In fact, he had nothing to do, and his main energy was still on Apple.
Between July and August, Apple has established flagship stores in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia, all of which are over 1,000 square meters in size. Each store costs an average of $600,000 and is currently under renovation.
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.
Taking all into consideration, Li Zetian decided to find a new profitable project for Apple.
After thinking for a while, on the morning of August 1, Li Zetian came to Tian Shuai's office. At noon that day, Apple officially launched an acquisition invitation to Advent to acquire Advent for $3.5 million!
Since Apple is not listed, this matter has not received media attention at present.
Soon, the two companies entered into the first round of negotiations.
For Apple's first acquisition of other companies, Li Zetian naturally had to go out in person and become a member of Apple's negotiating team.
Advent CEO and chairman Mark Davey came to Apple with four directors.
After the two sides chatted for a while, they entered the formal negotiation stage.
Advent Corporation is a tape machine development company that, in 1971, introduced the Model 201 tape machine - which was equipped with a Dolby B noise reduction system before tapes were more seriously used for recording music, for later hi-fi cassettes and players. The era has laid a solid foundation. The project that Li Zetian selected for Apple was locked into Sony's future product, the Walkman portable tape player. As soon as this machine came out, it quickly swept the world and created huge profits for Sony. The success of Sony will be able to achieve brilliant achievements in the CD and DVD market! ! !
The technology of the Walkman portable tape player is not a problem, the key is creativity! Sony introduced the Walkman in 1979, and now it's August 1975, so close in time. If Apple recruits people to develop by itself, it will be closer to Sony in terms of time, which is very disadvantageous, so it directly buys Advent and launches Walkman as soon as possible!
Negotiations weren't all smooth sailing, with Advent's negotiators insisting that Apple raise the purchase price to $5 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 Apple-ll sales, and thought that our company was very rich, so the lion opened his mouth!" Tian Shuai said helplessly, "PCs from other manufacturers only sell for a few hundred dollars, while Apple- The low-end version of the ll sells for $1,400, and Apple's ultra-high profits are no secret in the industry..."
"Is technology and creativity worthless? Hmph, there are always so many jealous people in the world!" Li Zetian sneered disdainfully.
The next day, Li Zetian's attitude began to change, and he was very tough and determined. He said to the representative of Advent: "Mr. Mark David, $3.5 million, if you sell it, I will find another company!"
Advent chairman Mark Davey hesitated for a moment and said, "Chronos li, how about $3.8 million if we all make a step back and compromise with each other?"
Li Zetian thought for a while, and said, "It's okay to make concessions to each other, but Apple can only offer $3.6 million! Mr. Mark Davey, this is already a very favorable condition. You know, you are not the only one in the United States that makes tapes. What's more, with Apple's strength, do you think we can't develop a tape player? I think it's just a matter of time!"
Mark Davey was silent, obviously thinking about the pros and cons.
As far as Advent is concerned, $3.6 million is indeed a very good figure. If it does not accept Apple's acquisition conditions now, once the other party is provoked, I am afraid this negotiation will fail...
Mark David and a few of his companions lowered their heads 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 this $3.6 million. price!"
Li Zetian showed a triumphant smile at this time, nodded and said, "Okay, let's draft the contract now and complete the transaction!"
"Ok, no problem!"
Half an hour later, the two sides signed the acquisition agreement.
Since then, Apple has acquired the first company.
Three days later, the Advent Company temporarily moved to San Jose and changed its name to the Walkman division. Immediately afterwards, Li Zetian announced the Walkman project, but the project requires confidentiality, and all department developers must sign a non-disclosure agreement. The purpose of this is to prevent the news from leaking out to Sony and attracting the attention of the other party.
Of course, the news of Apple's acquisition of Advent didn't take long, and it was quickly exposed by the media, causing a sensation in the industry for a while.
"What did Apple do with Advent? Was it to develop the Apple-lll personal computer?"
The outside world can't help but speculate, and Apple is also scratching its head.
However, this incident passed quickly. Apple is still not the leader in the computer field, and Advent is not a well-known company. Companies are merged every day around the world, which is sparse and common, which is nothing.
And Li Zetian became busier for a while, because when developing the Walkman project, there were many problems. The first is a technical problem. It is not easy to make the Walkman small, and the noise is so loud that it is difficult to hear at all. The Walkman project leader suggested that Li Zetian invite people from Dolby Laboratories to assist. development.
Li Zetian thought to himself, Dolby Laboratories is a well-deserved giant in the sound field. Wouldn't it be better to directly acquire it while it is still young
Therefore, Li Zetian decided to acquire Dolby Laboratories!
Dolby Laboratories was founded in 1965 by Dr. Dolby, headquartered in San Francisco, and developed the Dolby Noise Reduction System. The Dolby noise reduction system is a noise reduction circuit based on tape machine applications, mainly used to reduce the noise of recording or playback, and has been widely used in home tape recorders in the 1970s. In addition, Dolby is developing a Dolby Surround Sound system, which will soon be used in George Lucas' "Star Wars", and then successfully synchronize the direction of the sound with the movement of the picture, so that the audience can feel The sense of orientation and presence of the sound whizzing over the head caused a 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, Dolby Laboratories has authorized 65 manufacturers, including all major manufacturers of consumer audio equipment. Li Zetian gave Dolby Laboratories an estimate. , at least tens of millions of dollars.
The second problem encountered is that Walkman is released. If there is no support from the record company, 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, 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...
Li Zetian rubbed his temples at this time, and secretly said, there are so many things, it makes people feel like a big head.
PS: The number of votes is too small, not happy~~