Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 330 Don’t be ungrateful_1

Chapter 330: Chapter 330 Don’t be ungrateful_1

The United States, California’s San Francisco Bay Area, this place is the renowned Silicon Valley.

Between the southern part of the Bay Area and west of Santa Clara County, there’s a small town named Cupertino. Maybe the majority of people haven’t heard of this place.

However, this place is the headquarters of several world-class companies, amongst which Apple is probably the most famous one!

In the year 2001, though, Apple couldn’t be considered a big company, let alone world-famous.

Keep in mind that this company, which went public in 1980, had a market value of just 50 billion US dollars in 2001, even on the brink of bankruptcy...

The Apple headquarters at the time went by the name "Infinite Loop". It’s a group of circular buildings formed by six office buildings. As for "Apple Park", it was nowhere even on the blueprints yet.

In the Infinite Loop campus, in building number one, was where Apple’s core operations were located and where the management and marketing departments had their offices.

In a meeting room on the fourth floor, Boss Qiao and a few high-ranking Apple officials were discussing matters with the representatives from Gateway, including Veith.

Veith looked up, not even bothering to look at Boss Qiao, and said with arrogance:

"Our company is ready to evaluate Apple at 50 billion US dollars for a merger through additional share issuance. Of course, if your shareholders want cash, that can also be discussed. But the valuation won’t reach 50 billion, as it’s a well-known fact that Apple is on the brink of bankruptcy. The MP3 player you guys launched hasn’t really been selling well. The company has also laid off half of its employees..."

Apparently, Gateway, represented by Veith, was trying to take advantage of the situation and acquire Apple.

Jobs fixed his sharp gaze on Veith, lips pursed, saying nothing.

Apple was a company he had built from scratch, carrying his lifelong dreams!

Being depreciated to what seemed like next to nothing made his blood boil, but his rationality helped him keep his emotions in check. Otherwise, he was afraid he’d lose his temper.

The current situation at Apple was indeed not ideal. After his return to the company last year, the performance of the iPod he had launched was not as expected. Half a year had passed and total sales were less than 30,000 units...

Moreover, with the impact of the global internet bubble bursting, all investment companies were more cautious than before, controlling their investment sizes more carefully.

In short, everyone was out of money...

To save on expenses, Apple had reluctantly carried out large-scale layoffs. Nowadays, the Infinite Loop campus was looking rather deserted.

Half of the offices in the six office buildings were vacant. The gloomy atmosphere made it seem as if Apple might not survive.

Even such a domineering person as Boss Qiao had to face up to reality. Hence, this takeover negotiation.

In the past, he would never entertain someone like Veith or a company like Gateway. That would simply be an insult to him and Apple!

Of course, that was just Boss Qiao being heated, the reality is that Gateway was no small fry either.

Its Chinese name was Jetway, once a personal PC company that even rivaled giants like HP. It was also one of the earliest companies in the personal computer business.

Even so, Gateway had no business trying to acquire Apple!

Although Apple’s market value wasn’t high - just 50 billion US dollars - Gateway wasn’t even up there yet, at just under 20 billion.

Talking about issuing additional shares for acquisition was just an empty scheme, they were trying to pull off a snake swallowing an elephant...

.........

Seeing the tense atmosphere inside the meeting room, Cook on the side decided to break the ice: "Veith, your offer really lacks sincerity. You should know that Apple Company is indeed facing difficulties and is in urgent need of capital. That’s why we agreed to negotiate with you. We don’t intend to sell the company entirely, we’d rather reach a collaboration agreement through equity financing."

Even though Cook only joined Apple this year, he has quickly become Boss Qiao’s right-hand man. After all, Boss Qiao had just staged a "King Returns" plot and didn’t have many people working on his behalf, so he was trying to rebuild his foundation. Cook was someone he had personally interviewed and recruited, making him a trusted subordinate.

Veith, however, was not grateful for Cook’s goodwill.

He smiled indifferently, maintaining his air of arrogance, and said: "Cook, you know what our company does, we’re not an investment company! These past two years, are there any investment companies left at our home? They have all died, haha..."

Although his attitude was irritating, there’s no denying that his words were rooted in reality.

Everyone knew that the investment companies had been overly optimistic about the internet industry and had suffered enormous losses for the past two years.

Every day, countless investment companies were on the brink of collapse on Wall Street!

At this stage, it’s hard to find an investment company that was once throwing money around...

At this point, Boss Qiao apparently couldn’t bear it anymore. He coldly asked: "Veith, do you think Apple or Gateway has more value?"

Veith was taken aback. He really wanted to answer Gateway, but the reality was that both companies were publicly traded, and both were similar types of companies. At the moment, Apple’s market value was 50 billion US dollars, while Gateway was less than 20 billion...

That’s the reality, and even lies couldn’t fool anyone.

So, he had to honestly answer: "For now, Apple is definitely worth more money, but..."

Before he finished saying "but", Boss Qiao interrupted him.

"Either come and talk with a cash cheque, or get out of the meeting room and don’t play games with financial swindlers in front of me!" Boss Qiao said without any courtesy.

After hearing this, the arrogant look on Veith’s face collapsed.

He was noticeably upset. Standing up abruptly, his hands slamming onto the conference table, he leaned forward toward Boss Qiao and said menacingly: "Fine! Jobs, I’m looking forward to seeing how long Apple can last! If you agree to be acquired by our Gateway company, I might be able to offer you a position in the merged company. I would advise you not to ignore a good deal!"

But Boss Qiao seemed to ignore his words altogether. He stood up, turned around and walked out of the meeting room, leaving the rest of them looking at each other in bewilderment.

Cook could only clean up the aftermath, trying to smooth things over by saying that Apple’s board still needed to discuss Gateway’s offer...