Chapter 101 1976 begins

In this era when games were still in their infancy, the success of Game-Watch and "Chinese Cube" suddenly made Sunbird the most famous game company in the world. Of course, it was also very profitable, making other game companies jealous.

Many people want to know how much money Sunbird made this year!

Yes, it’s the end of the year, and each company’s annual financial statements have been released one after another. The financial statements of Sunbird Company also came out. When Li Zetian saw the financial statements on December 31, he couldn't help but said with emotion: "Damn it, it's more profitable to make games!!!"

Making games is indeed very profitable. In 1981, Atari set a record of US$1 billion in revenue, and drove the rapid development of the entire game industry, making the game industry's revenue more than twice that of the Hollywood film industry, and more than the ticket revenue of baseball, basketball and football. 3 times the sum. What's even more awesome is that in 1992, the profit of RB Nintendo's game console alone was equivalent to the profit of the entire Hollywood film industry, and exceeded the combined profit of the three major domestic television networks in the United States.

Sunbird previously sold 240,000 copies of the game on Apple-ll personal computers at $100 each, bringing in revenue of $24 million.

From the Christmas shopping spree on December 25th to December 31st, a total of nearly 600,000 Game-Watch units were sold, each priced at US$150, and the revenue reached US$90 million.

Sunbird's annual revenue is as high as US$114 million, and its profits are more than US$50 million. It's crazy! However, there will be more game development projects in 1976 as well as the development of arcades and home consoles, all of which will cost a lot of money.

Apple's annual financial statements are naturally very impressive. If the US government's order of 100,000 Apple-ll units is not included, then a total of 15,000 Apple-l personal computers and 104,000 Apple-ll personal computers were sold. Sales Up to $200 million. However, Apple's expenses are huge, including huge employee expenses, establishing headquarters, technology research and development, establishing flagship stores, establishing Seagate, investing in Dolby Laboratories, establishing Star Wars Film Company, etc., which cost more than 60 million US dollars. , at the end of the year, the company only had more than 37 million US dollars left on its books. In addition, the company still owes the bank US$20 million, but Li Zetian does not plan to repay the US$20 million immediately, but will use it to increase investment in technology research and development. Furthermore, the bank doesn’t press, and is eager to get loan interest.

Microsoft's annual financial statements are also very good. In addition to the 100,000 Excel spreadsheet orders from the US government, Microsoft also sold 80,000 copies, 255,000 Microsoft-DOS operating system licenses and 314,000 BAISIC. Language program licensing, revenue is as high as more than 34 million, and net profit is more than 16.5 million US dollars.

It's the end of the year, so naturally bonuses and dividends have to be paid.

At Sunbird Company, Li Zetian decided to reward employees with US$4 million, without paying any dividends to shareholders.

At Apple, Li Zetian decided to use US$7 million to reward employees without paying any dividends to shareholders.

At Microsoft, Li Zetian decided to reward employees with US$4 million, and no dividends would be paid to shareholders.

The reason why shareholders do not pay dividends is that the company still needs funds for rapid development.

According to individual contributions, Tian Shuai, Zhang Han, Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Gary Kildare, the father of the operating system, and others all received bonuses of more than US$200,000. Li Zetian himself also received a share of the bonus. He shared US$400,000, or US$1.2 million, in each of the three companies.

Li Zetian made the greatest contribution and received the most bonuses, so naturally no one gossiped.

In addition, although Li Zetian is not the CEO, his salary is also the highest among everyone, with an annual salary of US$100,000. When settled together at the end of the year, he received a total of US$300,000.

Li Zetian previously took away 1 million US dollars from Apple, and then spent 875,000 US dollars on a car. There is still about 125,000 US dollars in deposits in the bank card, 125,000 + bonus + salary, and now it has naturally become 1.625 million US dollars. . When Li Zetian saw so many deposits in his personal bank account, he truly realized that he was a super rich man! However, the money was quickly spent again. He found the founder of Starbucks and acquired it for $1.6 million. Then let Starbucks operate independently according to its previous development model. Li Zetian is not proficient in this industry, so he does not want to interfere too much and waits for the arrival of Howard Schultz.

Making money is awesome, spending money is even better.

In the blink of an eye, the deposit on Li Zetian's bank card was only 25,000 US dollars. Is this still the bank card of a billionaire? It’s embarrassing to even say it!

In this regard, Li Zetian could only cry without tears...

1976 has begun, a new year and a new atmosphere.

Li Zetian has four most important plans: releasing the Walkman tape player, listing Apple, acquiring Atari, and acquiring the microprocessor department of Intel.

In recent days, Li Zetian has heard that Atari has frequent contacts with Warner Bros. He knew that it wouldn't be long before Atari would be sold to the other party. In its previous life, Atari was sold to Warner Bros. for $28 million in 1976.

In fact, this Christmas vacation, Li Zetian originally planned to go on vacation with Yu Jingqiu, but because the acquisition of Atari was imminent, Li Zetian devoted all his energy to preparing for the acquisition of Atari.

Nowadays, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell is using a new way to make profits: selling machines at low prices for almost no money, and then relying on constantly updated game cards to bring him huge wealth! It's just that this method of profit-making also caused Atari a problem of financial constraints. Producing game cards not only requires advanced craftsmanship, but also requires upfront fixed costs of about US$10 per unit, which means that if newly developed games are not popular, they may shake the company's financial foundation.

In previous years, the sales of Atari products during the Christmas Carnival Shopping Festival were extremely hot. However, this year due to the impact of the Sunbird Company Game-Watch, the sales of Atari products were very unsatisfactory, resulting in game card issues. The massive backlog has placed an extremely heavy burden on Atari. In search of funding, Nolan Bushnell contacted Warner Bros.

Li Zetian wanted to say, why don't you contact Sunbird Company?

Of course, colleagues are enemies. If Li Zetian was in Nolan Bushnell's position, he would definitely not take the initiative to contact him.

Sunbird Corporation, conference room.

Li Zetian sat in the first place and announced in a serious tone: "Atari is now in contact with Warner Brothers. This is a great threat to our Sunbird company! If Warner Brothers acquires Atari The company will definitely increase investment and development in the second generation of home game consoles. By then, we will inevitably face a more powerful competitor than Atari today! For this purpose, in order to eliminate this potential huge threat Eliminate it, it’s time for our Sunbird Company to take the initiative!!!”

"Wu Guangguang, as soon as the meeting is over, immediately launch an acquisition offer to Atari!"

"Yes, Mr. Li!!!"