Chapter 87 New Project Development

After signing the land purchase contract with the Cupertino city government, Li Zetian had another task, which was to participate in the design of Apple's headquarters. However, he mainly made requests. The designers from SOM Architectural Design Office were responsible for the design. After the design was completed, Li Zetian proposed modifications. In fact, he had nothing to do and his main focus was still on Apple.

Between July and August, Apple established flagship stores in five cities: New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia. Each store is more than 1,000 square meters in size. Each store costs an average of US$600,000, and is currently under renovation.

Apple's current main profitable product 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.

After comprehensive 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 issued an invitation to Advent to acquire Advent for $3.5 million!

Since Apple is not listed on the stock market, this matter has not received media attention so far.

Soon, the two companies held the first round of negotiations.

It was Apple's first time to acquire another company, so Li Zetian naturally had to take action personally and become a member of Apple's negotiation team.

Advent CEO and Chairman Mark David came to Apple with four directors.

After a while of pleasantries, the two sides entered the formal negotiation session.

Advent is a tape drive development company. In 1971, it launched the 201 tape drive, which was equipped with a Dolby B noise reduction system. Only then did tapes become more seriously used for recording music, paving the way for the subsequent development of high-fidelity cassettes and playback. laid a solid foundation for the Age of Artifacts. The project Li Zetian selected for Apple was locked in Sony's future product, the Walkman portable tape player. As soon as this machine came out, it quickly became popular all over the world and created huge profits for Sony. It also originated from the Walkman With success, Sony can achieve brilliant achievements in the CD and DVD markets! ! !

The technology of Walkman portable tape player is not a problem, the key is creativity! Sony launched the Walkman in 1979, and now it is August 1975, which is very close in time. If Apple hires its own people to develop, 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!

The negotiations were not smooth sailing, with Advent's negotiators insisting that Apple increase the purchase price to $5 million.

Of course, Li Zetian would not agree so easily, so the first round of negotiations failed.

The two parties agreed to continue the discussion the next day.

"Chronos·li, the other party saw that Apple's recent sales of Apple-ll were booming, and thought that our company is very rich, so the lion opened his mouth!" Tian Shuai said helplessly, "Other manufacturers' personal computers only sell for a few hundred dollars, and Apple- The low-end version of ll sells for US$1,400. Apple’s ultra-high profits are not a hidden secret in the industry..."

"Aren't technologies and ideas valuable? Humph, there are always so many envious people in the world!" Li Zetian sneered disdainfully.

The next day, Li Zetian's attitude began to change, and he acted very tough and resolute. He said to the representative of Advent: "Mr. Mark David, 3.5 million US dollars, do you want to sell it? If not, I will find another company!"

Mark David, chairman of Advent, hesitated for a moment and said: "Chronos·li, how about we all take a step back and compromise with each other, how about $3.8 million?"

Li Zetian thought for a while and said: "We can make concessions to each other, but Apple can only offer 3.6 million US dollars! Mr. Mark David, this is already a very generous condition. You know, you are not the only one in the United States who makes tape playback. Not to mention, with Apple’s strength, do you think we can’t develop a tape player? I think it’s only a matter of time!”

Mark David was silent, obviously thinking about the pros and cons.

As far as Advent is concerned, US$3.6 million is indeed a very good figure. If it does not accept Apple's acquisition conditions now, once it angers the other party, I am afraid that this negotiation will fail...

Mark David and several companions immediately 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 Company has decided to accept the US$3.6 million. price!"

Li Zetian showed a victorious smile at this time, nodded and said: "Okay, let's draft the contract now and complete the deal!"

"Ok, no problem!"

Half an hour later, the two parties signed the acquisition agreement.

Since then, Apple has merged with the first company.

Three days later, Advent temporarily moved to San Jose and changed its name to the Walkman division. Immediately afterwards, Li Zetian announced the Walkman project, but the project required confidentiality and all department developers had to sign a confidentiality agreement. The purpose of this is to prevent the news from leaking out, reaching Sony, and attracting the other party's attention.

Of course, the news of Apple's acquisition of Advent could not be hidden for long, and it was quickly exposed by the media, causing a sensation in the industry.

"Why did Apple acquire Advent? Is it to develop Apple-llll personal computers?"

The outside world can't help but speculate, and Apple is also confused internally.

However, this matter passed quickly. Apple is not currently the leader in the computer field, and Advent is not a well-known company. Companies are being merged every day around the world. They are sparse and ordinary, and this is nothing.

Li Zetian suddenly became busier because many problems arose while developing the Walkman project. The first is the technical problem. It is not easy to make the Walkman very small, and the noise is so loud that it is difficult to hear clearly. The person in charge of the Walkman project suggested that Li Zetian invite people from Dolby Laboratories to assist. development.

Li Zetian secretly thought, Dolby Laboratories is a well-deserved giant in the field of sound. Wouldn't it be better to acquire it directly while it is still young?

Therefore, Li Zetian decided to acquire Dolby Laboratories!

Dolby Laboratories was founded by Dr. Dolby in 1965 and is headquartered in San Francisco. It developed the Dolby noise reduction system. The Dolby noise reduction system is a noise reduction circuit based on tape machine applications. It is mainly used to reduce the noise of recording or playback. It 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's "Star Wars" to successfully synchronize the sound direction with the movement of the picture, allowing the audience to feel The sense of direction and presence of sound whizzing overhead caused shock in the film industry, so this system later became extremely widely used in movie theaters.

Therefore, it is not easy for Apple to acquire Dolby Laboratories. As of now, there are 65 authorized manufacturers of Dolby Laboratories, including all major manufacturers of consumer audio equipment. Li Zetian gave a valuation of Dolby Laboratories , at least tens of millions of dollars.

The second difficulty encountered is that after the release of Walkman, without the support of record companies, Walkman is equivalent to an empty box, and naturally no users will buy it. Li Zetian also needs to find cooperation with record companies to establish a cassette tape standard, and obtain music copyright authorization to allow Apple to produce and sell cassette tapes. Of course, they can also profit from it...

Li Zetian rubbed his temples at this time and thought to himself, there are so many things going on, which makes people feel dizzy.

PS: The number of votes is too small, I’m not happy~~