American History 1988
Chapter 192 - 186 Unexpected Venture Capital

Chapter 192: Chapter 186 Unexpected Venture Capital

"You transferred to Stanford?" Dean, who was embracing her waist, was so surprised that he even forgot what they were supposed to do next.

"Yeah," Jennifer Connelly wiped away her tears, "I planned to surprise you, but..."

"OK~OK~" Dean quickly shifted her focus, "So, what’s your major at Stanford?"

As far as Dean knew, she had been studying English literature at Yale; Stanford being a research university didn’t seem to have a major suited for her.

"I plan to major in drama at Stanford; I need a change," she said.

The box office disaster of her latest movie made Jennifer decide to seriously hone her acting skills.

"Drama major?" Okay, Dean frowned and thought about it for a while before slowly realizing that Stanford indeed had that major.

It was just that the major was so unpopular that most people subconsciously overlooked it.

"OK, as long as you like it." Dean gave her a hug and casually ducked into an empty room, those trifles could be discussed another day.

...

"Valentine, what do you think?"

In a resort area on the Gold Coast, Dean and Valentine were lounging in the mild afternoon sun, wearing sunglasses.

"This company..." Valentine looked down at the documents in his hand again, "AOL, it’s an internet service company?"

"Yeah," Dean took a sip of the beer beside him, "Internet services will shine in the future, just like personal computing does now."

"But isn’t the network all regulated by the federal government?" Valentine was unenthusiastic about AOL, "They’re poaching the government’s business."

"No," Dean said with a puzzled frown, "The NSF network is already preparing to privatize, and the federal government is allowing private service providers to enter this field."

"Privatization?" Valentine looked at Dean with a blank face.

"Haven’t you heard, Valentine?" Seeing his blankness, Dean was also a bit baffled.

"OK, I don’t pay much attention to these things," shrugged Valentine nonchalantly.

Well, Dean sighed silently in his heart.

Even the most sensitive venture capitalists were unaware of the NSF network’s movements, indicating that the market was not enthusiastic about the internet’s future.

Valentine, seeing Dean’s dejected look, became curious, "Did you invest in this company?"

"Yeah," Dean nodded with a sigh, "Not much, but I am very bullish on its future."

"Come on, buddy," Valentine took a swig of beer, "Personal computing took 20 years to reach its current size, but the internet is just beginning, we have time~"

We have time, that’s the attitude most people have towards the internet market, after all, the federal government is always slow.

"Alright, I’ll look for others." This result did not surprise Dean too much, as the concept of the internet was not yet within the common public’s horizon.

"I heard you made a fortune in the stock market?" Valentine shrugged at Dean, "Since you’re so bullish on it, why not...?"

"All my money is back in the stock market," Dean took off his sunglasses and squinted at the beach not far away, "Americans don’t have the habit of saving money."

"Good, you’re now a qualified capitalist," Valentine raised his beer bottle with a smile.

Ding~, Dean silently clinked his bottle with Valentine’s.

"Ha~" The icy coolness made Valentine comfortably burp, "So buddy, what stocks have you bought recently?

Mother F*cker, can you imagine I actually passed on the financial advisor’s suggestion to buy Walmart stock?"

This year is a big bull market for consumer retail, and the giants in the top ten of the S&P 500 are no longer the tired old energy companies of the 80s.

Walmart and Coca-Cola both made it into the top ten market caps, with the former ranking eighth at 34.2 billion dollars and the latter tenth at 31 billion dollars.

IBM was ranked first, with a market cap of 64.5 billion dollars. However, the fastest riser was Walmart, which hadn’t even been in the top twenty last year.

In response to Valentine’s regretful expression, Dean shook the beer in his hand with a laugh, "I bought Cisco and Microsoft stocks."

"What?!" Valentine looked up in shock, "You bought Cisco stock?"

"Yes," Dean shrugged oddly, "Don’t you believe in your own company?"

"No, of course, I’m confident in Cisco," Valentine was now the chairman of Cisco, the true power-holder.

But he himself hadn’t put all his eggs in Cisco’s basket, on the contrary, he had bought quite a number of other companies’ stocks.

"By the way, Dean, how much Cisco stock did you buy?"

"Around 2%," Dean casually threw out a number.

Pfft, Valentine nearly spat out his beer.

Usually, when people talk stocks, they ask about the number of shares, like ten thousand shares, a hundred thousand shares.

But who reports a percentage like Dean did? That’s...

"Dean, Cisco’s current market value is over 300 million dollars, you bought over 6 million dollars of Cisco stock?" Valentine’s eyes widened as he asked again for confirmation.

"Yes, I support you, Valentine!" Dean proactively reached out with his beer bottle for a clink.

"WTF?" Valentine felt this kid hadn’t realized the seriousness of the situation, "Dean, are you trying to get on Cisco’s board of directors?"

"No, I don’t have that much energy, the Byte Company already keeps me busy enough."

"But you bought 2% of Cisco’s stock! 2%! Mother F*cker, just a little more and you could stage a takeover!"

If Valentine hadn’t known Dean was his ally, he might have suspected his true intentions.

"Relax, buddy," Dean settled into a comfortable position on the chair, "It’s not just Cisco, I also bought Microsoft stocks.

The reason I bought so much is because I am bullish on Cisco’s development, just like I’m bullish on the growth of the Internet now."

"Really?" Valentine wasn’t as optimistic about Cisco himself.

"Of course," Dean patted the documents on his lap, "AOL is the best proof of my investment in Cisco."

"Alright, thanks," Valentine eased up a bit, "But I’m also curious, how many shares of Microsoft did you buy? Also 2%?"

"Cough... cough..." This time Dean nearly choked, "Come on, Microsoft’s market value is approaching 20 billion dollars.

2%? That would mean I’d have to shell out 400 million dollars in cash! Valentine, do you have some misconception about me?"

"Alright," Valentine shrugged innocently, "I thought you made a fortune in the stock market."

"Not even Hollywood movies shoot like that!" Hey, speaking of Hollywood, Dean suddenly remembered something.

"Valentine, did someone from Hollywood contact you before?" Dean began to probe discreetly.

"Hollywood?" Valentine didn’t catch on at first.

"Orion Pictures," Dean reminded him nonchalantly.

"Crap, now I remember," Valentine looked at Dean discontentedly, "Why did you introduce these human traitors to me?

I checked out this production company, and they’re nearly bankrupt! And that recent movie ’Boiling Point’, it seems to be theirs too.

I heard it made only about 1 million dollars at the box office, I’m curious how they manage to make a loss on every film?"

"Well," Dean put his sunglasses back on awkwardly, "I thought you were interested in investing in any company."

"Excluding Hollywood," Valentine bluntly rejected Dean’s offer.

It seemed like Dean wouldn’t be able to help Jennifer Connelly for the time being.

He thought about pulling some resources for her, but Valentine’s reaction made it clear that the CEO of Orion had returned empty-handed.

...

"An internet service company?" Durell looked at the materials brought by Dean, his chin in his hand, pondering.

"Yes, Durell, you must have seen the news lately." Dean pulled out a newspaper.

"Senator Gore from Tennessee, the information superhighway plan he proposed is quite popular.

It’s said that Congress is discussing it, and if the plan is approved, the development of the internet will surely speed up."

In order to persuade the venture capitalist, Dean brought up the fiber optics plan he had previously scorned, using it as solid evidence for his arguments.

Durell just glanced over the newspaper in his hands before losing interest in them.

"Dean, I can invest in AOL."

Durell’s answer perked up Dean; indeed, as an impromptu investor, Durell was easier to convince than Valentine.

"But I have a condition," Durell’s second half of the sentence pulled Dean back to reality.

"A condition?" he looked puzzled at Durell in his crumpled shirt.

"If I invest in AOL, you invest in Byte Company, a 2:1 ratio, that’s my offer."

"Wait a second," Dean’s mind was muddled, "Byte Company? 2:1?"

"Yeah," Durell put down the materials in his hand, he didn’t care about them at all, "I heard you made a big lump of money in the stock market."

Dean was startled; how did everyone seem to know this news?

"Let’s not talk about making money for now, what did you mean by Byte Company and 2:1 just now?"

"Ever heard of laptops?" Durell took out his prepared materials.

"Of course, I’ve bought two of them." Dean had used them to successfully pitch the Teams software to Silicon Graphics.

"No, I’m not talking about the current laptops, I’m talking about the laptops of the future."

Durell gestured quickly with his hands, but without an actual product, he had to use words to describe as best he could.

"It’s a computer the size of an A4 paper, not only convenient and slim but even supports stylus handwriting.

It’s going to be a perfect product, different from all current desktop computers!"

Durell’s pitch was passionate, as if Dean was the waiting customer he was selling to.

"A handwriting computer?" Dean looked skeptically at Durell; this concept seemed too futuristic.

He had seen even more future-oriented products, but a handwriting computer was truly not something from this era.

Forget handwriting computers; even the current laptops were quite bulky, merely more portable than desktops.

Seeing his skeptical look, Durell brought out his own bargaining chip.

"Dean, if you invest 3 million dollars in Byte Company, then I will invest 6 million dollars in AOL."

"Durell," Dean was not only unmoved but more bewildered, "Am I hearing things, or did you say KeyPoint Ventures can invest 6 million dollars in AOL but not 3 million dollars in Byte Company?"

"It’s different, Dean," Durell’s gaze became more profound.