American History 1988
Chapter 220 - 214: Surprising Wall Street

Chapter 220: Chapter 214: Surprising Wall Street

Richard Fischer had returned to Wall Street, and this trip to the West Coast couldn’t be called a success, but it wasn’t a failure either.

He had learned of Byte Company’s potential from Arthur Locke and had even seen the beautifully enticing financial statements.

However, his communication with Byte Company founder Dean Price had not gone nearly as smoothly as it had with Arthur Locke.

Richard admitted that the other party was a talented young man, but it was clear he didn’t understand the rules of Wall Street.

Going public wasn’t solely decided by the management team of the company going public; Wall Street was equally an essential part.

Especially in terms of valuation and stock pricing, sometimes the identity of Wall Street was more like that of a "guiding expert."

But with Dean, he didn’t feel that respect.

Richard had ended contact with Byte Company; of course, his excuse was that Morgan Stanley needed to do more research.

But that wasn’t really the point; Richard just wanted to give Dean a little cold shoulder.

He needed to let the other side know that Byte Company might become a unicorn, but with the help of Morgan Stanley.

"Mr. Fischer, we’ve arrived," the driver’s reminder interrupted Richard’s thoughts.

"I know," Richard slightly opened his eyes but still made no move.

At that moment, the driver wearing a wide-brimmed hat quickly got out of the car and respectfully opened the door for him.

The shiny armored wingtip shoes stepped onto the dark gray asphalt road. As he stepped down, the texture of the soft striped suit pants was reflected on the immaculate black car body.

Richard climbed out of the Lincoln, greedily inhaling a breath of fresh air.

He hated the scorching heat of the West Coast and the sea breeze tinged with fishiness. Wall Street might be slightly crowded, but Richard was used to everything here.

Looking up at the soaring Morgan Stanley building before him, Richard breathed a sigh of relief and quickly walked inside.

Forgot to mention, he also hated the low buildings of the West Coast.

Shuttling through the extensive flat houses gave Richard the illusion of being on a Texas farm.

Unicorn companies? No, those were more like obscure little workshops.

Back in his opulent office, Richard hung his coat on a panel carved with patterns.

The clock above the false fireplace pointed to ten in the morning, the writing desk and armchairs were cleaned spotless.

Placing the leather-bound book on the desk, Richard pressed a button at his side.

"Vivian, bring me a cup of coffee, thanks."

He glanced at his wristwatch – it wasn’t quite work time yet.

The first thing Richard had to do was to go through the newspapers organized on his desk, with the latest news about the software industry, as he had asked for, on top.

To fully assess Byte Company, Richard had already begun to understand this area before heading to the West Coast.

"Vision Plan - Byte Company Strategic Assessment Report."

Richard’s brows furrowed slightly; why did that name feel overly familiar?

He looked down at the author’s name, Mary Kmil, a well-known analyst on Wall Street.

"Before hearing this plan, my impression of Byte Company was merely that of a software company with potential.

Their financial report from last year was once enthusiastically received on Wall Street, and many people, including myself, thought this might be another Oracle.

But now, I’ve changed my view, and the reason is that ’Vision Plan.’

First of all, I must declare I haven’t seen this internal white paper in its entirety, but through a reinterpretation by a friend from the West Coast, I got a rough idea of it.

As someone who’s not a software professional, there were many esoteric technical terms that are hard to understand.

But that didn’t stop me from being stunned by the grand vision of this plan.

It almost vividly depicted the future: an intelligent, networked, and digitized office and living scene.

When I first heard about it, I even thought it was a science fiction novel.

But my friend told me that Byte Company had already begun to act; they were secretly developing that kind of product known as collaborative software.

Oh no, to be more precise, this software is called Worktile.

According to what he said, once this product is launched, offices might even achieve paperless operations.

’Paperless office’ is another new concept, but it’s easy to grasp.

I just find it hard to imagine how they can achieve this. To be honest, I’m a bit curious.

So I called the founder of Byte Company, Dean Price.

He didn’t deny the plan and was even very patient in explaining the next office software Byte Company was about to launch.

Oh, my goodness, he is a very charming person. Just like the grandiose ’Vision Plan,’ it’s fascinating.

If the product Byte Company is developing is as planned, it might become another Microsoft.

If there’s a difference, it’s that it has more soul.

This plan almost encompasses all the product categories in the office domain.

Sorry, for a layperson like me, it’s hard to remember those terms.

But what shocked me the most is that many software peers haven’t even proposed similar concepts.

Does this mean Byte Company’s strategy is far ahead of its competitors?"

"Let us now analyze in detail the market prospects of this plan."

The following content is Mary Mikel’s market analysis of Byte Company.

According to her, if the "Vision Plan" could be realized, the market size of just the office sector could potentially reach tens of billions of dollars.

Mary Mikel even categorized the office software market and provided her own valuation for each category.

For instance, instant messaging might have a market size of 5 billion dollars, document software 7 billion, conferencing 3 billion, email 1 billion, and so on.

The reason why document software is the highest is because it is also applicable to individual users, while others are mostly business-oriented.

To Dean, this report seemed quite biased due to the angle it took and even somewhat misleading.

But for Wall Street, it was nothing short of a blockbuster.

Theoretically, office software is just a niche within the software industry—usually, people only think of document software.

For example, Microsoft’s Office and Lotus’s Lotus 1-2-3, among others.

Other software with smaller audiences like financial software or development tools are often overlooked.

Only in the past two years, with the rise of Teams software, has instant messaging gradually entered the public’s field of vision.

But as for its market prospects, there has always been ongoing debate here on Wall Street.

Now, Mary Mikel’s report, with its detailed breakdown of office software categories and valuations far exceeding previous conceptions, was bound to shock Wall Street.

It was almost predictable that people would soon be inquiring about Byte Company.

Putting down the newspaper, Richard’s expression was conflicted, as this seemed somewhat different from what he had expected.

Originally, he thought that apart from Morgan Stanley, no one else on Wall Street would come up with a valuation of 1 billion dollars.

That’s because, compared to its peers, Morgan Stanley is a more progressive investment bank in Manhattan.

They are willing to underwrite newly issued stocks from the West Coast, such as Apple, Silicon Graphics, MITS, Cisco...

Morgan Stanley has played a role in the IPOs of these Silicon Valley companies.

One could say that Morgan Stanley is the most favorable toward Silicon Valley companies on Wall Street, often willing to cooperate with founders to offer higher IPO valuations.

However, Mary Mikel’s report could potentially change this status quo, at least for Byte Company.

Richard was well aware that Mary Mikel, just 30 years old, had a large number of loyal readers.

A significant portion of them are from major investment institutions or funds.

In simple terms, many people would be interested in Byte Company’s stocks.

billion dollars... Richard was considering how much Mary Mikel’s report could potentially increase the value of Byte Company’s stock.

Strangely, while considering this issue, names of office software categories would intermittently pop into Richard’s mind.

Suddenly, it dawned on him that these terms were the content that Arthur Locke had introduced to him when discussing the "Vision Plan."

A corner of Richard’s mouth curled up slightly—Mary Mikel was completely learning and selling on the fly.

But this indeed made him view the plan with new respect because, as far as he knew, what Mary Mikel understood was just a small part of it.

Dean Price... Richard reached for the coffee on his desk, but the cold touch made him pause.

It was then that Richard realized, too engrossed in the newspaper, his coffee had turned cold.

He gave up on the idea to have Vivian send another cup, shifting his fingers to the phone on his desk instead.

However, as his fingers touched it, Richard hesitated, perhaps he should wait a little longer?

His fingers tapped on the landline, but ultimately he put the phone down.

Turning away from the business section, Richard returned to the front page of the newspaper.

Just as he relaxed, a glance at the content made him stop abruptly.

[AT&T’s Big Trouble—IP Telephony (Internet Disruption from Byte Company!)]

Rather than be astonished, Richard quickly scanned the content.

World Link? Byte Company? MCI?

Richard wasn’t very familiar with these; he had no idea when these two companies had come together.

And that wasn’t all, what shocked him most was that in the just concluded April, World Link had secured nearly 40 million dollars in business.

Oh~God, it has only been half a year since its establishment, and this was its first month’s revenue since officially starting operations!

The first month! 40 million dollars!

Damn! Richard, always a gentleman in his actions, now couldn’t help but want to curse.

How is this possible? What kind of magic does IP telephony possess to allow a company, just half a year old, to snatch millions of dollars in market share from AT&T’s hands?

What’s more unbelievable is that this all happened in the southern states, where AT&T’s long-distance telephone business headquarters is located.

Richard quickly flipped back to the business section he’d reviewed earlier, going over Mary Mikel’s report once more.

But there was no mention of IP telephony? To Richard’s recollection, it seemed to have been omitted from the "Vision Plan" as well...

What exactly happened? Richard didn’t linger on the puzzle.

He had more important things to do and picked up the phone as quickly as he could.

Richard regretted his earlier indecision; he should have made a decision sooner.