Chapter 220 Avengers Alliance

Thinking of Jobs, Eisner inevitably thought of Pixar. Although Disney has made a lot of profits from Pixar in recent years, after all, it is not their own Disney animated film.

Although Eisner is arrogant, he is not stupid. From the success of Pixar Animation's "Toy Story", he knew that 3D computer graphics would play an important role in the future development of animation, so he asked Disney to build a top-notch computer Animation and special effects studio known as "Secret Lab".

It took several years for Disney to produce the animated film "Dinosaurs" by itself. With realistic skin and hair effects, excellent dynamic capture, and Disney-specific facial expressions and movements, combined with cutting-edge CG standards, it is a feast.

The animation "Dinosaur" not only cost a huge production cost of 130 million, but also invested extremely high publicity expenses. However, since its release in May, the North American box office of "Dinosaur" has only been 130 million, which is far behind Pixar's "Toy Story 2" last year, which was 250 million!

You know, the cost of the first part of "Toy Story" was only 30 million, and the cost of the second part was only 90 million. Together, they are not as high as the 130 million of "Dinosaur", but the box office of the two movies is much higher than that of "Dinosaur".

Naturally, Eisner was not satisfied with the box office results of "Dinosaurs". It should be said that it was far from meeting his expectations. Since the people you train yourself are not good, then you might as well swing your big hoe and start poaching people!

The target of poaching people is not an obvious target. Naturally, it is aimed at Pixar, a good partner of Disney!

Eisner glanced at Jobs in the newspaper. It happened that this guy was busy with Apple and had no energy to pay attention to Pixar. Now was a good time.

Eisner called his secretary: "Help me make an appointment with John Lasseter from Pixar."

John Lasseter is the leader of Pixar animation creation and the actual manager of the daily operations of Pixar Studio. He is the true core figure of Pixar.

Eisner snorted, "When he recruits Pixar's core team, you Steve Jobs will be nothing!" Let’s see how you still dance with me!

…

On the other side, Wu Yuchen looked at Roy Disney's leaving figure and asked Katzenberg next to him: "Will he be on our side?"

Katzenberg smiled and said: "Don't worry, although he said he would not do anything to harm Disney, as long as we can create trouble for Eisner, this old man will not let it go. In fact, within Disney, , he always finds fault with Eisner, and if he hadn’t been a member of the Disney family and a spiritual symbol, Eisner would have wanted to kick him out.”

Wu Yuchen couldn't help but nodded. This Roy Disney should be considered a half ally. Next, he planned to develop another real ally.

…

Three days later, Eisner's phone rang. As soon as he picked up the phone, he heard Jobs' angry roar from the other side:

"Damn Eisner, retract your dirty claws. You are not allowed to touch Pixar. If you dare to do something like this again next time, I will chop off your claws!"

Eisner was furious when he heard this:

"Jobs, who do you think you are! You know, no one cared about Pixar's works at all. If Disney hadn't been willing to sign a contract with Pixar and give them the opportunity to publish, you and Pixar would have been doomed long ago! Yes! Disney, I saved you and Pixar, how dare you, an ungrateful villain, speak to me like this!"

"Fuck you, it was Pixar and I who were willing to sign an unequal treaty with Disney to get where we are today, but you have never had respect for me or Pixar. You have received so much from Pixar, but you have never said thank you. .Don’t think I don’t know, you said that Pixar’s works are only liked by three-year-old children! You are an evil and greedy exploiter, arrogant, and dictator!

do you know? John didn't even want to go to damn Disney and work for you damn guy. He called me as soon as he came back! Anyone who wants to poach Pixar, go to hell! "

The two men exchanged trash talk on the phone, and then hung up the phone with a bang.

Eisner also tugged at his collar angrily. He had thought that Jobs would know about this, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. And John Lasseter, who promised him generous terms, turned around and reported it to Steve Jobs. What a fool!

On the other side, Jobs, who had been complaining for a long time, was also very angry. You must know that his biggest asset now is Pixar. If Eisner really succeeds and poaches away the core creative team, then his Pixar will collapse!

How could this not piss Jobs off?

Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents. It almost touched his reverse scales!

Fortunately, this time John Lasseter did not agree to his past feelings for Pixar, otherwise his Jobs property would have been wasted.

Now Jobs not only hated Eisner, he really wanted to strangle him. He swore that if he had a chance in the future, he would kill Eisner!

Before Jobs could finish being angry, the phone rang again. When he saw the calls from these shareholders, he couldn't help but get a headache again.

…

Two weeks later.

"Share price, stock price, stock price! These short-sighted guys can only see what's in front of them and don't care about Apple's long-term development!"

After Jobs hung up on a shareholder, he banged the table angrily and cursed.

He has indeed been a little worried recently. Ever since Apple's stock price halved on September 29, shareholders have reacted greatly. After all, many people must not be able to bear this kind of cliff-like plunge. Moreover, in the past half month, Apple's stock price has not only declined. After a slight rebound, it fell another 20%. Jobs' phone calls were almost inundated with calls from a group of shareholders, many of whom threatened to impeach him at the shareholders' meeting in a few months.

Jobs was under a lot of pressure now, and he couldn't help feeling a little regretful. It would have been better if he had not sold Apple's stock.

In 1985, due to poor performance of Apple, the founder Steve Jobs was kicked out by the board of directors. In a rage, he sold out 11% of his Apple shares, leaving only one share as a souvenir. Now he is entering the palace for the second time and has returned to Apple to take charge of the company he founded. He only has a small amount of shares. Now that he has no shares, he will feel very passive at this time.

After venting his anger, Jobs calmed down and picked up the phone again. He still had to try his best to appease some shareholders. At least at next year's shareholder meeting, he couldn't vote against all the company's major decisions, otherwise he would have to do a lot of things. No.

Just when he was about to make a call, the ringer rang. When Jobs saw the name displayed, he was the manager of Northern Trust, Apple's third largest shareholder. He quickly answered the phone.

Before Jobs could say anything, the other party came up and asked:

"Steve, regarding the Walkman plan you mentioned, do you still insist on not being compatible with Windows systems?"

Jobs explained patiently:

"Yes, iPod can only be used on Apple computers. This not only provides end-to-end control, which can create a better experience for users, but also allows Apple's hardware, software and peripherals to be perfectly integrated, and is also conducive to promoting Apple computers." promotion of……"

Before he could finish speaking, the other party interrupted: "If you actively turn away more than 90% of your customers, this will not be a successful product. Let's stop here!"

Before Jobs could say anything more, the other party hung up the phone. An angry Jobs cursed again: "Damn it!"

Half an hour later, Jobs saw his secretary hurried over and made an urgent report:

"Mr. Jobs, a major transaction has occurred. Northern Trust called us to inform us that it had sold all 7.23% of its shares!"

Jobs was shocked when he heard this, and couldn't help feeling embarrassed again. What did this mean? Does selling stocks express his opposition to himself? It's best for such opponents to get out!

Then he quickly asked: "Who is the buyer?"

"White Bear Charitable Fund, I just checked. This is a newly established charity fund in recent months."

"White Bear Charity Fund?"

Jobs was not surprised. It was normal for charitable funds to invest, and many charitable funds were actually tools for wealthy people to avoid taxes. He just didn't know who the new shareholder was.

"Mr. Jobs, and this person from the White Bear Charitable Foundation wants to visit the company tomorrow and meet with you."

Jobs raised his eyebrows when he heard this. It seemed that this new shareholder should have a friendly attitude towards Apple and him.

The next day, when Jobs rushed over to the reception room, he saw a young Asian man sitting in the sitting room, drinking coffee leisurely. And why does this face look familiar?

Because Jobs was the boss of Pixar, he was not the kind of person who didn't know much about Hollywood. He took a closer look and saw that this was none other than the great young director in Hollywood, Wu Yuchen!

Jobs was a little surprised, but he still reached out and said, "Hello, Wu, are you the founder of the White Bear Charity Foundation?"

Wu Yuchen also stood up immediately and shook hands with Jobs:

"Yes, it's me! Mr. Jobs, I have been famous for you for a long time and have wanted to get to know you for a long time. But you don't usually attend those parties in Hollywood~"

Jobs smiled when he heard this: "Pixar Studio's main focus is animation. Most of my energy is now focused on Apple, so I am indeed somewhat out of touch with the Hollywood circle. I really didn't expect that this new shareholder would be you. , Wu, welcome you to become Apple’s new shareholder!”

Wu Yuchen laughed: "Actually, I have wanted to buy Apple stock for a long time, but its previous price was too high. Unexpectedly, it suddenly fell and gave me a chance~"

After the two let go, Jobs personally took Wu Yuchen, the new shareholder, on a tour of the company.

This time he invested in Apple through the White Bear Charitable Fund, which bought 7.23% of Apple's shares from Northern Trust, which cost him about US$400 million.

The White Bear Charity Fund was started by Wu Yuchen last year and was officially established this year. The purpose is actually to help Wu Yuchen avoid taxes as much as possible.

Of course, charity projects must be done, mainly to support poor children. Among them, 20% of the annual donations will be used in the United States. After all, making money in the United States still has to be done for a while, and the other 80% will naturally be used to help poor children in China and build primary schools in various mountainous areas!

Also, Wu Yuchen’s personal expenses in the United States will all go to the White Bear Charity Fund in the future. This is what everyone does.

In fact, it cannot be said that it is the best time for him to invest in Apple this time, because Apple's stock price has not really fallen to the bottom yet, and will fall another 30%, and the next two years will be a low period for the stock price. From this perspective, Northern Trust was absolutely right to sell Apple shares.

But Wu Yuchen doesn't mind this, because there are really few opportunities for major shareholders to sell so many shares at once. If you encounter such an opportunity, you have to seize it, and he doesn't mind waiting a few more years.

In fact, Wu Yuchen was worried before that his transaction would be blocked by some special department in the United States, but it was not at all. Thinking about it later, Apple today is not the giant that it was later. It is just a small company that builds its own computers, and its market share is only in single digits.

The current representative of high-tech in the United States is Microsoft. If he really buys more than 5% of the current shares of Microsoft, he will receive special attention, but he cannot afford it at all. 5% of Microsoft's current value is over 10 billion US dollars.

By the time they had lunch, Wu Yuchen and Steve Jobs had become quite familiar with each other. At this time, Jobs asked: "Wu, why do you want to invest in Apple?"

Wu Yuchen smiled, thinking of Apple's trillion-dollar empire in his previous life: "It will become the greatest technology company in the world!"

Jobs smiled when he heard this: "Oh? Why do you think so? You must know that Microsoft is far ahead of Apple~"

Microsoft is now at its peak. It is undoubtedly the world's number one technology company, and Bill Gates has also ascended to the position of the world's richest man. Apple's current market value is only US$5 billion. From this perspective, it is not an exaggeration to say that Microsoft is now worth 100 Apples.

Wu Yuchen smiled and said: "Because Apple has you, and the set of ideas you proposed to create Apple's own ecosystem, I think it is the only way to become a great technology company."

These words couldn't help but make Jobs feel very good. He suddenly felt that Wu Yuchen was really his confidant. After all, there were many people opposing him now, and Wu Yuchen, the new shareholder, had the same idea as him, that is, he was a front-line person!

Jobs couldn't help but continue to ask: "Then what do you think of my iPod plan?"

Wu Yuchen said sincerely: "It will become one of the most successful Walkman products in the world."

Jobs just raised the corner of his mouth, and this wave has stabilized. It seems that the young Hollywood director in front of him is his fan brother!

Then the next moment I heard Wu Yuchen say again: "But I also think it should be compatible with windows."

Jobs raised his eyebrows and immediately asked: "Why? Don't you support Apple in creating its own ecosystem? Being compatible with Windows will make it impure!"

Why, of course it’s because of past life experiences!

The product Ipod is an MP3 player that helped Apple take off, creating billions of dollars in profits for Apple. This is why it has the capital to continue to develop the iPhone.

But in fact, although the first-generation iPod launched next year is not a failure, it is far from a success, with only a few hundred thousand units sold. Ipod really took off when the second generation was launched the year after that. It made one of the most important changes. Jobs made a compromise and made it compatible with Windows systems. Then iPod2 sold millions of units as soon as it came out. Once you gain a reputation, the sales will get better and better.

Wu Yuchen explained:

"Jobs, it is a big strategic goal for Apple to create its own ecosystem, but to achieve this strategy, it is inevitable to attract enough people to use Apple first, and making iPod compatible with Windows system is a necessary tactical means. You must know that 90 More than % of people are using Windows computers. If it is not compatible with it, many people will not consider iPod at all."

Jobs immediately retorted:

"No, no, no, Wu, as long as iPod is good enough, it will attract everyone. If I make it compatible with Windows, then this ecosystem will be destroyed, which defeats the purpose of using iPod to attract traffic to Apple computers."

Wu Yuchen shrugged and shook his head to express his disapproval. Very few people would buy a computer just for a portable player. Everyone knows this. However, Wu Yuchen did not continue to persuade the other party. If Jobs was really so easy to persuade, it would not be Gang Leader Qiao who was known for his stubbornness.

"Jobs, I still think that iPod should be compatible with Windows, but I will support you and let's see what the market gives us."

Jobs nodded: "OK, then we'll see how the market responds."

But then he still smiled at Wu Yuchen and said: "Wu, thank you very much for your support. This makes me feel a lot less stressed~"

Although the White Bear Charitable Foundation only holds 7.23% of the shares, this power is already considerable within Apple. Listed companies in Lao America are different from domestic A-shares. Many major shareholders of domestic A-shares often own more than 50% of the shares, but the shares of many listed companies in Lao America are very dispersed. For example, in Apple, its largest shareholder currently holds less than 10% of the shares, so now that White Bear Fund has bought 7.23% of the shares, it is already the third largest shareholder.

For Jobs, being able to gain support from Wu Yuchen at this time was a huge relief.

Wu Yuchen smiled: "Steve, in fact, if you are willing to sell Pixar, you can use the money to become Apple's major shareholder again."

After Jobs sold Apple, he bought a computer studio to build Pixar, and then it grew. Now he owns more than 50% of Pixar Animation's shares. If he is willing to sell now, he can get 2 billion U.S. dollars, which he can buy Buy half an apple at the current trough.

When Pixar was mentioned, Jobs' heart moved and he looked at Wu Yuchen: "Wu, are you also interested in Pixar?"

"Of course, who can say no to Pixar now? Pixar is attractive to everyone, but it's a pity that I don't have the strength to acquire Pixar."

Wu Yuchen sighed with emotion, and then changed his tone and asked: "Jobs, you don't want to sell Pixar to Disney, do you?"

Jobs's expression changed immediately, and he immediately said: "Impossible, absolutely impossible! As long as that damn guy Eisner is at Disney, this kind of thing will never happen! If it weren't for the contract signed between Pixar and Disney, I would have Just take Pixar away from Disney!”

Jobs was still angry about what happened before, and he and Eisner were really feuding this time. Unfortunately, Pixar and Disney signed a contract for five feature-length animated films, which has not yet been completed. Otherwise, he would definitely take Pixar and switch to other major companies.

Wu Yuchen immediately shared the same hatred: "Yes, Steve Jobs, Eisner is arrogant and arrogant, and has no respect for anyone at all. He is such a nasty guy. I think we should unite to boycott him!"

After hearing this, Jobs glanced sideways at Wu Yuchen and asked curiously: "Wu, do you and Eisner also have any grudges?"

"Of course! He stole my Oscar for Best Director!"

Later, Wu Yuchen told Jobs about being stabbed in the back by Disney. It was not a secret anyway, anyone who wanted to know could find out.

Yes, Jobs is another anti-Eisner ally that Wu Yuchen plans to win over. This time Wu Yuchen invested in Apple, on the one hand, it was a long-term investment, and on the other hand, of course, he took the opportunity to build a good relationship with Steve Jobs and unite the front against Eisner.

Pixar is now very important to Disney. If Disney wants to start negotiations to renew its contract with Pixar again, it must go through Jobs. As long as you win over Jobs and convince him to disagree, you can keep him stuck in negotiations, and then take the opportunity to target Eisner.

"Jobs, I heard that Eisner only visited Pixar once and said some bad things about Pixar. He looked down on Pixar from the bottom of his heart. As long as he is in office for one day, Pixar will never get good enough treatment from Disney." . I think it would be good for all of us if this dictator could be removed from power, wouldn’t it?”

Jobs narrowed his eyes, then smiled and said:

"Of course, Eisner is nothing without Disney. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this annoying guy will look when he is kicked out. But he has been in this position for 16 years and I want to push him out. But it’s not easy.”

Hearing Jobs's statement, Wu Yuchen smiled:

"It's not easy, but it doesn't have to be very difficult. Eisner has made enemies all over the years, and there are a lot of people who want him to come down.

And now Disney's stock price has also entered a downward channel. At present, it can still rely on its accumulated prestige to stabilize, but when the stock price drops to a certain stage, if it cannot reverse, even if it sits for 16 years, Disney's shareholders will Very unhappy with him.

In fact, Disney’s business situation in recent years has not been good. We just need to wait for the opportunity to appear, and when the time comes, one person will push it..."

Wu Yuchen said, making a falling motion with his hand.

Of course Jobs understood it and said with a smile: "I am very willing to contribute to driving Eisner into the abyss~"