Chapter 124 A hard-fought battle

The phone in the office suddenly rang. Li Zetian picked up the phone and asked, "Hello, who are you?"

"Hello, Chronos, I'm Li Jiacheng."

"Oh, hello, Mr. Li, are you okay?" Li Zetian asked, wondering what Li Jiacheng meant by calling at this time.

"Oh, that's right,"

Li Jiacheng hesitated for a moment and said, "Hong Kong real estate is on the rise, and Cheung Kong Corporation plans to spend huge sums of money to enter the market. You have talked to me about investing in Apple before. I'm really sorry. Cheung Kong Corporation is having difficulty withdrawing funds for the time being. If there is a chance in the future, let’s cooperate again…”

Li Zetian's face changed slightly when he heard this. Apparently, Li Jiacheng saw that Apple was in trouble and no longer planned to invest.

"Okay, if there's nothing else, I'll hang up first. I have some things to be busy with!" Li Zetian didn't want to waste any more words and just found an excuse to end the call as soon as possible. When Apple is doing well, everyone is rushing to invest in it. Once Apple is in trouble, it's really too late for them to run away...

"Okay, okay, I won't bother you anymore!" Li Jiacheng said.

After hanging up the phone, Li Zetian snorted coldly and sneered: "It doesn't matter if you don't invest, who cares! If you still want to invest in Apple in the future - there is no way!!!"

Just as Li Zetian finished complaining about Li Jiacheng, there was a knock on the door, and Tian Shuai walked in with an unnatural look on his face.

"Mr. Li, Mr. Maxwell from First Intercontinental Bank is here and is waiting for you in the reception room..."

Li Zetian frowned when he heard this, "Is he here to urge us to repay the loan?"

"should be……"

Li Zetian nodded, said nothing, and stood up, "Let's go and meet this creditor!"

Soon, the two came to the reception room. Maxwell was sitting in a chair with no expression on his face.

"Hello, Mr. Maxwell." Li Zetian said hello, and then asked directly, "I wonder why you came to Apple?"

"Chronos, Apple has borrowed a total of US$20 million from First Intercontinental Bank. The bank's board of directors hopes that Apple can repay it as soon as possible!" Maxwell said lukewarmly.

"Mr. Maxwell, First Intercontinental Bank believes that Apple is in ruins, so it wants us to repay the loan immediately, right?" Li Zetian said bluntly and bluntly.

Maxwell smiled awkwardly and was organizing the words in his mind.

But before he could say anything, Li Zetian said: "Mr. Maxwell, let's open the skylight and speak frankly. I believe you should know Apple's current situation, so can you give Apple some time? You know, we have to start from retailers. It will take a while to get the money back there!”

"Of course, no problem. How about a month?" Maxwell said.

Li Zetian said solemnly: "How can one month be enough? At least three months!"

"Two months, this is the longest time I can fight for Apple!"

Li Zetian was silent for a moment, nodded and said: "Okay! Two months is two months!"

Maxwell nodded and then stood up from his chair.

“Please ask Apple to pay back the loan within two months!”

After Maxwell finished speaking, he said goodbye to Li Zetian.

As soon as Maxwell left, Apple employees began to talk privately.

"Mr. Maxwell is not here to urge our company to repay the loan, right?"

"Definitely, that's right! When Mr. Maxwell came to our company before, he never smiled. Did you see him smiling this time?"

"Damn, bankers are so damn snobbish! They really know how to add insult to injury!"

"Needless to say, look at those guys on Wall Street, which one is not a demon who 'eats people without spitting out their bones'?"

"You can't say that. Apple is indeed in big trouble, and banks are worried that their loans will become a bad debt."

"No matter what, I don't have a good impression of bankers!"

"..."

At this moment, Li Zetian and Tian Shuai were talking in the office.

Li Zetian asked: "How much money does Apple still have?"

"There are still more than 50 million US dollars on the books, but we have not yet paid the supplier of Walkman and Apple-ll accessories. In addition, the company has more than 3,400 employees, and a monthly salary of more than 500 US dollars has to be paid. Ten thousand U.S. dollars."

Li Zetian frowned and said: "If we repay the bank loan of 20 million U.S. dollars, we will only have more than 30 million U.S. dollars left. The financial pressure is very high!"

"Yes," Tian Shuai nodded, "and we may not be able to collect the payment from the retailer for a while!"

Li Zetian thought for a while and said: "In order to save costs, the construction of Apple's new headquarters was immediately stopped, and the three factories in Hong Kong announced a shutdown. At present, the company has stopped expansion and suspended development. After this difficulty is overcome, in Accelerate development."

"Well, that's all."

…

Zhang Hao happily ordered people to post the new statement notice outside the glass doors and windows of Apple's flagship store, and the "Anti-Walkman Alliance" learned the news immediately.

"Apple is so shameless. It has repeated its old tricks and started to guide people to buy pirated tapes at canteens, convenience stores, supermarkets, bookstores, etc.!"

"Oh, although it's the same old trick, it works very well. Many people actually go to these places to ask if they have pirated tapes!"

"..."

Everyone is very popular. I didn’t expect Apple to be so difficult to deal with!

Of course, Apple is not having a good time either.

Not only banks are pressing for payment, but also parts suppliers are also pressing for payment.

At this time, the media were slandering Apple. Of course, behind this, Apple's competitors are indispensable.

The Wall Street Journal reported: "Walkman was opposed by the vast majority of record companies, resulting in poor sales of the product. Apple encountered Waterloo for the first time, and the company faced a huge crisis. Standard \u0026 Poor's re-rated Apple's credit rating. Apple's AA rating has been downgraded to CCC. It is reported that First Intercontinental Bank has asked Apple to repay the loan..."

The New York Daily reported: "Apple is now facing bankruptcy due to blind expansion! The Walkman tape player has become Apple's most failed product and is also the culprit that led to Apple's bankruptcy!"

"USA Today" reported: "The legendary myth of Chinese-American billionaire Chronos Li is about to fall!!!"

"..."

Almost all the news is bad-mouthing Apple and Li Zetian. Li Zetian himself is fine and ignores it, but the atmosphere in the company seems to be getting more and more tense, and many employees are already panicking.

Apple's competitors did not miss this opportunity.

Soon, one after another Apple employees were poached by people from other companies, which made Tian Shuai very anxious, and he quickly held a meeting to discuss countermeasures!

Tian Shuai said: "Mr. Li, in order to retain talents, I suggest taking out more shares to establish an equity incentive mechanism!"

Li Zetian nodded and said: "I agree with your suggestion, and give another 10%!"

After speaking, he glanced at the others and asked, "Do you have any other suggestions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Then do what Tian Shuai said! In addition, department managers should strengthen communication with employees and talk to them about feelings, culture, and ideals. Although we don't have money now, we can promise them a happy life. future!" Li Zetian paused for a while and said, "If they still want to leave, then there is nothing we can do. It is going to rain and my mother wants to get married. Let him go. Those who can stay and share the difficulties with Apple , are the people Apple needs most!"

"yes!!!"

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but feel passionate and enthusiastic.

After the meeting, the content of the meeting quickly spread throughout the company, and Apple's morale improved significantly. However, there are still some people who can't stand the temptation of high salaries offered by other companies, coupled with Apple's difficult situation and bleak future, so they quit. Li Zetian personally sent them off every time. Before leaving, he said to them: "You must think clearly. If you walk out of this gate today, it will not be so easy to come back in the future!"

"Mr. Li, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do..."

Li Zetian waved his hand and said: "Let's go, I can guarantee that you will regret it in the future!"

These people left in despair. Most of them were poached by Li Zetian from other companies, and now they have also experienced the taste of talents poached from his own company.

"Jack Ma is right. Talents poached from other companies have no sense of belonging to the company... It seems that in the future, we must train talents from our own company and establish a standard and scientific talent training system!"

In the following period, Apple experienced an arduous and outstanding battle, facing many troubles including difficulties from users, reminders from banks and accessory suppliers, delays in payment from retail department stores, bad-mouthing from the media, etc.

Li Zetian is under the greatest pressure, and his face has become a little haggard recently. He often calls Zhang Hao to his office to ask about the pirated tapes. Every time I hear that the number of pirated tapes is increasing, I feel better.

At this moment, someone was extremely happy, and this person was Wang Lie.

The worse Apple suffers, the happier he is.

He hugged his new girlfriend, a sexy and beautiful white-skinned blonde, and said proudly: "Among the Chinese, my father Wang An is the most powerful and famous. Who does Chronos Li mean?"

April is the most difficult period for Apple, and Wang Lie has always been in a good mood.

However, by mid-May, the situation changed dramatically! ! !

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Some of my book friends are also named Wang Lie... Haha, this is purely a coincidence. But congratulations, you have become a great villain.