Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 1286 - 1043: Epoch-Making Product

Chapter 1286: Chapter 1043: Epoch-Making Product

By this year, or 2006 more precisely, Apple’s stock price had already risen significantly thanks to the ongoing success of its music shop and the continued strong sales of the IPOD...

Originally, Wang Ye had bought all of the 160 million newly issued shares of Apple at $5 per share, owning a sixteen percent stake in the company and becoming the largest shareholder!

Now, the stock price of Apple had risen to over $160!

Just with this investment alone, Wang Ye had already made more than $25 billion!

Of course, cashing out such a large amount of shares and exiting the market would be extremely difficult; if Wang Ye were to dump all those Apple shares onto the market, it would trigger a rapid decline, significantly devaluing the stock.

After all, as the company’s biggest shareholder, if even he cashed out and ran for the hills, other investors would certainly feel the pressure and scramble to cash out as well.

But only Wang Ye knew that this was just the beginning!

With the future launch of the IPHONE and the IPAD, Apple’s company market value would continue to soar, even reaching a peak of over three trillion US dollars at its highest!

By that time, his sixteen percent stake would be worth nearly $500 billion...

Moreover, in addition to the soaring stock price, a few years later when Apple’s cash reserves grew to more than what they could spend, the company would begin distributing substantial dividends, with the most outrageous year having paid out dividends to shareholders four times!

That certainly flaunted wealth and power.

Therefore, Wang Ye did not intend to cash out these shares at all; at the very least, he planned to keep them for another decade or so, slowly cashing out a portion when Apple’s market value neared its peak.

After all, he didn’t need a large amount of capital right now, so why kill the goose that laid the golden eggs?

......

"Mr. Mikhail, I wonder if you have some time to come to Apple headquarters recently. Our epoch-making product has been successfully developed!"

On the phone, Boss Qiao’s voice sounded slightly tremulous, clearly a bit excited.

Wang Ye of course understood what that "epoch-making product" Boss Qiao referred to, it had to be the IPHONE!

Moreover, when the project was initially proposed, there was considerable opposition from the board of directors, as many directors believed there was no need to enter the cellphone business, with a plethora of brands like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Blackberry, etc., the competition had already become fierce—it was a red-ocean market!

But Wang Ye resolutely stood by Boss Qiao’s side, supporting his opinion.

It was with the support of Wang Ye, the major shareholder, that Boss Qiao was able to formally initiate the cellphone project. Under strict confidentiality, the project team had been developing for over three years, and today, they had finally produced a product that satisfied Boss Qiao.

Boss Qiao also hoped that Wang Ye could personally take a look at the product and provide some feedback, as it was after all his first foray into cell phones, and he was genuinely a little nervous.

Although Wang Ye was not an industry insider, at the beginning of the project, he had already provided himself with several critical and important product suggestions, such as the new phone must be different from all others on the market, eliminating all physical keyboards and adopting a full touchscreen design, positioning the phone toward a mini-computer, and developing its own mobile operating system, and so on...

It has to be said, some of those suggestions coincided exactly with what Boss Qiao had in mind!

So he regarded Wang Ye as a very insightful young man, with a keen sense for the future development of the mobile phone industry, and valued his opinions for consideration...

As for Wang Ye’s current status, Boss Qiao was not unaware, but he did not care about these things; no matter how high Wang Ye’s official rank, what did that have to do with him?

......

Hearing Boss Qiao say this, Wang Ye was also delighted.

Even though he already knew that the Apple product that would change the world would make its debut in early 2007, when the moment actually arrived, his feelings were different.

But going to the United States...

That, Wang Ye had to consider.

On one hand, his last trip to the United States left him with some unpleasant memories.

On the other hand, his movements in Eastern Europe and Africa over the last few years had certainly offended the United States—it would be self-deceptive to claim otherwise.

Wang Ye genuinely worried that if he went there, some "accident" might happen by chance!

Some things, if one can do them, others certainly can too, and maybe others do it even more skillfully...

After a moment’s contemplation, Wang Ye replied with a smile:

"I’ve been quite busy lately, about to visit several countries, so I might not have time to go to the United States.

But rest assured, I have a rough idea of what the new product is like.

While it’s certainly a new starting point for Apple and is bound to change a lot of things, keep in mind, you can’t rush these things.

As I’ve told you before, steady progress, fast iteration.

In my view, the first product is indeed spectacular, but not yet at the level to transform the worldwide mobile phone industry. What excites me more is the new products set for next year and the year after.

I anticipate it will take until the third or even fourth generation of products to truly change the world, and this first generation product might only sell one or two million units..."

Regarding Apple’s upcoming phone products, Wang Ye’s advice was to release just one new model each year, concentrate all the company’s resources and technology, to ensure that each year’s new model made significant breakthroughs and had enough selling points!