American History 1988
Chapter 247 - 240 Shelved

Chapter 247: Chapter 240 Shelved

"Bang!" The confetti sprayed again toward the ceiling of the trading floor as Dean and his fellow Byte Company executives clapped and cheered ecstatically.

Underneath the stock ticker, the giant electronic screen froze Byte Company’s closing price at 47 US dollars.

Unfortunately, it was slightly short of the 50 dollars Valentine had always prayed for, but no one felt any regret.

Because this was already a miracle: an 18-dollar issue price, a 36-dollar opening price, a 47-dollar closing price.

Come on, the situation was splendid.

From nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, Byte Company’s market value had tripled to 2.6 times its original size!

This was what happened in just one day, indeed, IPOs are an exciting and fascinating event.

"Gentlemen!" Durell stood beneath the giant screen, wildly waving his arms, "I declare! Now! Byte Company’s market value is 4.33 billion US dollars!"

"Oh~!"

"Yeah~!"

A beast-like cheer instantly ignited the erupting crowd.

Durell clapped his hands loudly to signal everyone to quiet down while raising his voice to shout.

"Our market value has surpassed Oracle! Following closely behind Microsoft and Lotus, we rank third in the software industry!"

"Oh!" A bigger cheer erupted within the hall.

This was a remarkable achievement that would surely be recorded in Silicon Valley’s history.

Of course, surpassing Oracle on the first day of listing did involve some luck.

Because right now, Oracle was deeply mired in a financial scandal, its stock price had even fallen from last year’s peak of 30 dollars to less than 10 dollars.

The market value had shrunk by nearly two-thirds, providing Byte Company with an opportunity.

But no one cared about that now, Oracle’s failures only made Byte Company’s aura shine brighter.

"OK! OK!" Durell pushed his hands down to quiet the crowd once more to listen to him.

Only when he had everyone’s attention did he again wave his arms like a conductor.

"And let’s congratulate today’s biggest winner! Dean Price!"

"Oh!" Everyone crowded around, grabbing Dean’s head to give it a vigorous scrub or a kiss.

"Congratulations to him for his net worth breaking through 1.5 billion US dollars! In one day!"

"Alright, guys, spare me," Dean pleaded pitifully with the crowd.

But no one paid any attention to that, the nape of a billionaire with 1.5 billion dollars?

That’s not something you can touch whenever you wish!

Dean understood that he had become everyone’s lucky charm at that moment, so he let them handle him without getting angry.

"There are also Marcus, David, Jimmy, George, John..." Durell listed the names of Byte Company’s executives one by one.

"Congratulations to them, they have all become the new millionaires or multimillionaires!!"

The crowd’s cheering grew louder because those people were right there with them.

1.5 billion dollars was too remote, but ten million dollars was close.

Just yesterday these were still their colleagues or bosses, change had only occurred after the ringing of the bell.

Could they also become a member of this ten-million-dollar club in the future?

Perhaps they could, like becoming an executive of Byte Company, or by following that young man.

Byte Company was still young, Dean was young, and all possibilities lay ahead.

Everyone watched Dean with eager eyes, mentally calculating how to maintain a good relationship with him in the future.

"Alright guys, it’s party time now! Tonight, let’s have a blast on Wall Street!"

The exchange had closed, and Richard and his team from Morgan Stanley had already prepared a lavish celebration party.

Spurred on by Dean’s call, everyone cheered and swarmed out onto the streets of New York.

Today, every person here was a winner, as middle managers they all had some stock options.

And if you included the employee shares they had purchased, the earnings from this round were at least around one million dollars.

A million dollars in 1991, that could do so many things.

Wall Street is truly magical; it created over a hundred millionaires for Byte Company in a single day.

Of course, its magic didn’t stop there; the Wall Street party exceeded everyone’s imagination.

Ahem, well, it contained far too much adult content for Dean to describe.

For the entire evening, he only remembered that ever since a group of dancers came in,

there were countless pairs of headlights swinging before his eyes, the unclothed kind.

Eventually, many female office workers joined in too, proudly showing off their figures.

Rather than calling it a celebration party, it might better be described as a wild beast party.

Desire and chaos were everywhere; this was the most authentic portrayal of America’s elite nightlife.

Especially under the stimulus of money, it was easy for things to get out of hand.

But Dean held to his principles; he refused the high drugs and so-called pain pills.

However, he did indulge in playing with the headlights, but that was all.

Dean treasured his little swimmers; he knew many women coveted them.

After all, they were worth fifteen billion dollars; no one could resist such temptation.

Dean had no desire to worry about the next generation so soon, so everything was just for show.

The next day he actually slept in until eight, then he prepared to quietly enjoy an undisturbed breakfast.

But just then, Valentine came hurrying over.

"Dean, maybe RAS CALL won’t be a bother to us anymore."

"I know," Dean nodded calmly. He remembered Hillary mentioning it briefly during a call from yesterday.

"You know about this?" Valentine was shocked.

"Someone had warned me in advance," Dean scooped up a spoonful of pudding and slurped it into his mouth.

"Warned in advance? Warned about what?" Valentine was first shocked, then his eyes took on a fathomless depth.

Dean looked at him oddly, "Is there a problem?"

"Oh, no, no problem." Valentine quietly folded up the newspaper he was holding.

"Come on, stop hiding it. Did Byte Company’s stock price drop?"

Dean snatched the newspaper from Valentine’s hands when he wasn’t looking.

Gauging by his secretive behavior, he probably worried that he couldn’t handle the stress of his fortune shrinking.

But Dean was far more stable than others imagined; he knew that a slight tremor in the stock market meant fluctuations of hundreds of millions.

"New York Herald Tribune reports that on the 25th, in the evening, near Apartment 53 on South Brooklyn Street, someone called the police claiming to have heard gunshots.

Police later confirmed that a twenty-five-year-old young man was found dead from three gunshot wounds to the abdomen.

According to the investigation results, this young man named Brian Wiles likely committed suicide.

Some claim Brian had just gone through a painful breakup, which may have been the motive for his extreme actions."

Clang—the spoon with which Dean was scooping pudding dropped onto the plate, making a crisp sound.

"Shit! This..." Dean’s mind was now preoccupied with the phone call from Hillary the day before.

"Valentine, I haven’t seen this piece of news before... so..."

"I know, I know," Valentine’s head shook like a bobblehead, "I’m old, I didn’t hear anything just now."

"No, I mean I didn’t know about this either."

"Yes, no one knew, I’m quite sure," Valentine almost swore on it in front of him.

"Alright," Dean spread his hands in resignation, "Anyway, it has nothing to do with us. Let’s talk about Byte Company’s stock instead."

"Yeah, we were at the exchange yesterday, and he definitely killed himself."

Dean: ...

...

"Three shots to the abdomen? Suicide?" Gates set down the newspaper, his expression alternating between light and shadow.

"Bill, you’re right. We shouldn’t have called the police, nor should we have gotten involved in this."

Steve, sitting opposite Gates, kept wiping his forehead with a handkerchief.

He should have been on vacation at home, but the newspaper unsettled him.

He had heard everything on the phone that night; it definitely wasn’t suicide!

But now, to think that someone would consider three shots to the abdomen a suicide? Who would be so foolish to choose such a way to kill themselves?

Shouldn’t it have been a simple gunshot to the head? The more Steve thought about it, the more restless he became.

The method of manipulation that made New York’s police conclude it was suicide terrified him.

He was just the manager of a software company; he dealt with business, not lives.

Steve had extensive professional experience, but it didn’t include any of this.

"Bill, what do we do next? Should we continue?"

Steve locked eyes with Gates, making up his mind.

If Gates was determined to push for the development of Microsoft’s own instant messaging software project, then he would resign.

Shit! He was an executive, not a desperado!

Don’t mess with Byte Company! It’s better to mind our own business!

"Let’s put the instant messaging software project on hold for now, concentrate on developing Windows 3.1."

Phew, hearing Gates’s decision, Steve visibly relaxed.

Praise the Lord, that was indeed a wise choice!

"I’m going back to work now." The anxiousness in Steve’s demeanor noticeably lessened.

"Steve, don’t you need a couple more days of rest?" Gates asked in surprise.

"No, I love working on marketing-related to Windows!"

Steve strode out of Bill’s office, as professional and competent as ever, as long as it had nothing to do with Byte Company.

Watching Steve depart, Gates also quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Was that guy Dean so ruthless in his methods?

Gates felt he needed to reassess Dean and put him at the top of his threat list.

He liked to defeat his opponents with business tactics, many of which were vile, even dirty.

But those were just business; what about Dean?

He physically eliminated his competition...

Gates was still young; he had many ambitions yet to fulfill.

For a mere instant messaging software, it wasn’t worth it.

Yes, that’s right, it wasn’t worth it.

Microsoft’s market value was already close to twenty billion US dollars; Byte Company wasn’t even a fraction of its size.

Confidence returned to Gates’s face, but after thinking, he picked up the phone and called his butler.

"Bob, contact some security companies for me, I’ve noticed the homeless loitering near my house lately."

...

Byte Company’s IPO was a great success, and in the following two days, its stock price fluctuated but generally remained stable. It is normal for a new stock to fluctuate.

After dealing with some post-IPO issues for Byte Company, Dean prepared to return to the West Coast.

There, an even bigger celebration was waiting for him.