Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 331 The Most Difficult Time_1

Chapter 331: Chapter 331 The Most Difficult Time_1

After seeing off Veith and his team, Cook hurried back to Boss Qiao’s office on the fourth floor.

When he knocked on the door and went in, he saw Boss Qiao sitting dejectedly on the small sofa, aimlessly flipping through channels on the TV.

Seeing Cook come in, Boss Qiao looked lost and asked, "Cook, do you think our company can keep going? How long can we last in this situation?"

For Boss Qiao, who has been strong all his life, this must be the most helpless and unconfident moment, right?

Cook walked over and patted him on the shoulder, comforting him:

"Qiao, have you forgotten the gigantic poster in the park when you returned last year? It said exceptional, didn’t it? In our meeting, you always said what we are doing is to change the world. The difficulties we face now are just minor problems we’ll inevitably encounter on our way to greatness."

Admittedly, Cook has Boss Qiao’s trust for good reason.

At least when it comes to communication, he is quite competent...

After hearing Cook’s words, Boss Qiao’s expression softened a bit, and he managed a small smile.

He rubbed his forehead, took off his glasses to clean them, and asked, "Has the sale of the iPod shown any improvement? Why are the sales so poor for such an excellent product?"

Cook shook his head, sighed and said:

"There’s certainly no problem with the iPod in terms of hardware, it’s far superior to any other MP3 on the market!

The issue lies in the software, in the end, it’s all about the music.

Other MP3s can download songs freely from the internet, with no restrictions whatsoever, supporting a variety of music formats.

Our iPod, however, has severe restrictions and lots of limitations in downloading songs, the users are claiming that they can’t find songs to listen to..."

As for this year’s flagship product of the company, Cook knew it like the back of his hand.

He admits that the iPod, which Boss Qiao pushed with all his might, is indeed an excellent product.

At a time when other MP3s typically only have a capacity of 64MB and 128MB or 256MB can be regarded as large-capacity MP3s, the iPod starts at 1GB!

In terms of capacity, it absolutely crushes all other MP3 products on the market, and concerning manufacturing quality, Apple spared no expense, using a full aluminum shell and a silver-white color, striving for perfection.

After its release, the product was highly praised by all, including the media and the users.

The key problem, however, lies in the lack of songs to listen to...

In the end, the iPod is a music player. With no music to play, the sales naturally falter.

This problem, Boss Qiao is not unaware of.

He sighed and said, "Ah, negotiations with the main record companies must continue. Also, we must accelerate the establishment of our own online music store. After all, we lack funds! If we had sufficient funds, we could show our sincerity in negotiations with the record companies and acquire ample music rights. If we had money, we could increase the workforce, quickly establishing our own online music store..."

Money makes a difference; what Apple lacks is not a small amount of money, but the more cash, the better!

........

Upon seeing Boss Qiao’s worried face, Cook suddenly thought of something.

He said with a smile, "Oh, by the way, there’s an investment company coming tomorrow, and they’re supposedly from Russia. They might be able to give us a huge amount of money, and then all our problems would be solved!"

But Boss Qiao wasn’t as optimistic as he was, he shook his head and said, "Russia? Isn’t it in a state of chaos? What sort of legit investment company could possibly exist there? They must be looking to profit off our crisis, expecting to invest little money while demanding much."

"Hey, we don’t lose much by meeting them, let’s see tomorrow," Cook suggested.

In truth, both men had little hope for the meeting the next day.

Because a few days earlier, when the person in charge of the so-called Russian Polar Bear Investment Company contacted Cook, he hadn’t revealed much information.

He merely said his company was interested in making contact with Apple and explore investment opportunities.

Only because this person, Milna, graduated from the Ivy League Schools and previously worked at a large investment firm, Cook agreed to meeting him.

Otherwise, Cook would probably have not bothered to let them come.

Are there any large companies in Russia, really?

Oh, there are, but they’re energy tycoons who are busy selling oil and wouldn’t be interested in Apple, a computer company.

.......

October 4th, at a five-star hotel in San Francisco.

Inside the Presidential suite, Wang Ye had called a brief meeting.

Milna gave him a brief report of his work,

including the establishment of the branch office, located here in San Francisco, not on Wall Street.

Because this was instructed by Wang Ye...

Additionally, he had confirmed a preliminary negotiation with Apple to take place this afternoon, which was also why Wang Ye came.

And of course, the more significant details include Apple’s current situation, as well as the stock price, company market value, financial status, and other information.

Milna had conducted a detailed investigation on these.

After gaining a general understanding of the situation, Wang Ye looked through the information about Apple that Milna had compiled while asking, "Is Apple’s situation really this bad, only half of the workforce remains?"

In Wang Ye’s memory, Apple is indeed not doing well this year, but didn’t the iPod hit the market? How can they be this bad now!

Milna jokingly said: "It may be even worse than I’ve described! The company’s new flagship product, the one they strongly promoted this year, the iPod, has declining sales. And the company has invested a great deal of resources and funds for this project. They are lucky they haven’t gone bankrupt with poor sales and now this economic climate."

Indeed, the whole United States economy isn’t doing well this year, especially after something that happened last month...

But for Wang Ye, this is good news.

The more difficult it gets for Apple, it means it would be easier for him to buy in.

After all, he holds a significant amount of cash, which is probably what Apple needs most right now...

Looking at the time, it was already 11 a.m. Wang Ye got up and said: "Let’s go, let’s go to the restaurant for lunch first. Then we head to Apple, aiming to resolve everything at once!"

From downtown San Francisco to Apple’s headquarters, it’s about an hour’s drive, not far at all.

......

After lunch, Wang Ye and his team got into two Mercedes S600 provided by the hotel and headed for Apple!