American History 1988
Chapter 208 - 202: As Desired

Chapter 208: Chapter 202: As Desired

Dean looked with a peculiar gaze at the founder of Enyi Investment sitting before him, sporting an honest-looking face.

In line with his recent experiences, that naive face now carried an added sense of grievance. Strangely mixed together, they had a rather comic effect.

"Sorry, I can’t help you, Mr. Kramlich," Dean said, spreading his hands in regret.

He had anticipated that Byte Company’s stock would be in high demand, but the blatant grabbing by investment institutions still caught him by surprise.

"Dean..." Dick Kramlich pleaded near desperation, "Enyi Investment was the first venture capital firm to support this round of financing for Byte Company. We didn’t even bargain..."

"I know, and I’m truly grateful for Enyi Investment’s generosity. But..." Dean shrugged helplessly, "we’ve already given our return.

Enyi Investment took a 1% share in this round of financing, which is enough to rank in the top five among the twenty or so venture firms we’re working with.

We can’t compensate Enyi Investment further just because you lost the investment share, that would be against the rules."

Dean had been through this kind of situation before, and even Jim Clark, with whom he had a particularly close relationship, was no exception, let alone the relatively distant Dick.

Besides, Byte Company’s financing list had been finalized, and it wouldn’t have any more changes.

One week later, at the beginning of March, the financing process would officially start.

"Oh, my God~" Dick held his head in agony, sensing that Enyi Investment was about to miss an excellent opportunity.

"Damn Arthur!" Dick now blamed everything on Arthur Locke and even felt the impulse to send the old man to meet God with a bullet.

"Dean," Dick racked his brain for a last-ditch struggle, "these past two years, Enyi Investment has also funded a lot of seed companies.

Like Bay Networks, a company focused on multiprotocol inter-networking. APPlix, a company based on Unix software.

And Intuit, a company specializing in financial software development...

If you can let Enyi Investment back into the game, we can privately exchange shares in the aforementioned seed companies."

In Dick Kramlich’s mind, all these cats and dogs combined weren’t worth a Byte Company.

Because the latter was about to go IPO, while they were still teetering on the brink of profit and loss, with the risk of bankruptcy at any moment.

Rather than letting them struggle on their own, it was better to use them as bargaining chips right now.

As Dean listed to a long string of company names from Dick, he was both surprised and a bit dazzled.

He had never heard of most of them, but one name sounded somewhat familiar.

"Intuit?" Dean tried recalling information about it, but his memory was blurred due to the long time passed.

"Yes, Intuit!" Seeing Dean’s interest, Dick’s eyes lit up.

"Their Quicken software, focused on financial management, is quite popular with some home users.

Of course, Intuit plans to promote it to the office domain this year, and I think they might spark some fireworks with Teams?"

"That’s a nice idea, but I’m still powerless in this matter.

We’re about to hold a board meeting, Mr. Kramlich."

Dean expressed his regret; although he was familiar with Intuit, that wasn’t a reason for him to concede.

Byte Company’s current stocks were worth far more than those of these obscure companies; it made no sense for him to make a losing deal.

"Dean..."

Knock, knock, knock, a knocking sound interrupted their conversation.

Jimmy, who had been sitting in the corner serving as a backdrop, scurried over to open the door.

He really couldn’t stand the embarrassment. Dick had come begging to him, so he had no choice but to shamelessly call Dean.

Jimmy was resolved that from now on, he must never get involved again in deals concerning personal favors; it was just too awkward for him.

When he opened the door, there stood a person very familiar to Jimmy.

"Fero?"

David Fero, one of the founders of Byte Company.

"Is Dean here?"

"Yes, the Boss is..." Jimmy turned his head to look.

Hearing the noise, Dean gestured for Dick to wait a moment and then went over.

"What’s up, David?"

"I heard someone wants to buy shares in the company..."

"OK," Dean patted David on the shoulder, stopping him from continuing, "Let’s talk outside."

They left the office and went into the hallway outside. Dean looked at David in astonishment, "You want to sell your shares?"

David nodded with a sheepish look, but then quickly shook his head, "I’m only selling a little bit."

"What happened, can you tell me?" Dean believed David was smart.

The Byte founders knew best whether Byte Company’s shares were valuable or not.

They could go public as early as the second half of the year – who would be foolish enough to sell their shares at this time, when even Dick, as the founder of Enyi Investment, was seeking them out?

"I want to buy a house in San Francisco," David gave an answer that startled Dean even more.

"Wait a minute," Dean looked at him confusedly, "If I remember correctly, just before Christmas you and Marcus had just split a dividend of 1.68 million US dollars.

So what kind of house is it that makes a millionaire like you need to cash out shares to pay for it?"

David scratched his head awkwardly, "I donated that money."

"What?!" Dean doubted if he had misheard, "You donated it?!"

"I donated some to the school, and the rest went to the children’s foundation."

"David," Dean looked at him speechlessly, "Stanford is so rich it only has money left.

I can’t even sleep at night because I’m tossing and turning over not having taken more money from the school.

Look at you, so noble, while I’m so vile, and you’re thinking about giving it money?!"

"No, I donated to my alma mater, Tulane University in Louisiana."

David grinned sheepishly, reminiscing about his days at Tulane.

"Okay," Dean actually felt relieved after hearing it was not Stanford he had donated to.

Stanford is the last place in need of money; they own a large swath of land in Silicon Valley.

If Dean ever donated to Stanford, it would certainly be for a greater return.

"Since you’re willing to donate all your money, why are you now thinking of buying a house for yourself?

Sorry, David, I’m not doubting your character. It’s just that your nobility confuses me."

"Because Angela wants to have her own house; she hates moving, preferably in San Francisco."

"Angela?" Dean was puzzled at first, but then his eyes showed realization, "Your girlfriend?"

David’s face turned visibly red.

"Aha~" Dean chuckled, teasingly scratching under his shoulder and ribs, "Look at that, our David finally got a girlfriend!"

David dodged while laughing merrily.

"Alright, this is a big event in your life." Dean had known David for so long and had witnessed him shake off his perpetual singleness.

That was even harder than Byte Company going public, so Dean respected David’s choices.

"How much does that house cost?"

"About 800,000 US dollars, nearly a million with renovations."

Angela really liked the balcony of that house, so David grew fond of it too.

"So you want to sell an equivalent of a million US dollars in stock?" Dean guessed his intention.

"Yeah," David nodded earnestly.

After a moment of thought, Dean clapped him on the shoulder seriously, "David, I owe you a favor."

"Come on," Dean wrapped his arm around him and returned to the office.

"Dick, today’s your lucky day!"

Dick Kramlich sprung up from his chair with a jolt.

His eyes, filled with eager anticipation, looked towards Dean, yet he feared it was a joke and dared not speak.

"Same valuation as before, a million dollars in stock, any problem with that?"

"Oh! Thank God!" Dick Kramlich was ecstatic.

"In exchange, we’ll discuss the Intuit investment later." Dean never left a deal empty-handed.

"No problem! I’ll offer you a satisfactory price." Right now, Dick Kramlich had eyes only for Byte Company’s shares.

The value of the former was not even a fraction of what was before him.

"This is the last time; now the train has completed its checks and is ready to depart!" That was Dean’s warning to him.

"No one will take it away from me; I swear!" Dick Kramlich wished he could guard this secret until he lay in his coffin.

After stepping out of Byte Company’s doors, Dick struggled to contain his urge to cheer, quickly getting into his car.

"Dick, how did it go?" Regis, who had been waiting in the passenger seat, couldn’t wait to ask.

"You’ll get your share, but I won’t answer any questions before the contract is signed!"

Dick had learned his lesson this time; no more throwing parties or bragging about his connections everywhere.

Arthur Locke gave him a harsh lesson, and he decided to keep this secret closely guarded.

The $4 million stake in Intuit was split into many parts, and buyers were even lined up.

These were all clients Dick valued, but they had been snatched away.

This not only caused Intuit to lose a significant amount of profit but also made Dick offend many important clients.

He despised Arthur, who almost made him end up like the pitiful Glenn.

...

In mid-March, amidst the undercurrents churning in Silicon Valley, Byte Company officially held its third round of fundraising board meetings.

Although there was fierce competition on the outside for this round of funding,

the final list of investors that appeared only had about twenty names.

Many individual investors either affiliated themselves under existing funds or had their names concealed.

Byte Company wasn’t public yet; it didn’t need to disclose these details.

And the directors participating in this meeting were no longer the previous seven seats; the size had now expanded to fifteen.

There were no objections to Byte’s valuation of $400 million this time around.

The reason for calling this meeting, apart from signing the formal contracts, was to discuss Byte Company’s next operational strategy.

Of course, setting the stock pricing and preparing for the upcoming IPO were also implied.