American History 1988
Chapter 250 - 243: Plagiarism Prevails

Chapter 250: Chapter 243: Plagiarism Prevails

If Dean remembered correctly, Go Company had just completed its third round of financing in October last year.

Back then, he had even agreed to act as a middleman for Durell, helping AOL to find venture capital.

Dean vividly recalled that there were about seven or eight investors who showed great interest in Go Company’s handwritten computer.

According to the promises made by the three founders of Go Company, including Kapur,

with an additional four to five million US dollars, Go Company could manufacture its first batch of prototypes.

At that time, they had received the money, and Dean was present at the scene.

But now Durell was telling him that Go Company was facing a crisis?

"Durell, I remember Kapur and the others saying that the development of the Penpoint system was going smoothly," Dean said.

If the system issues were resolved, then the development work on this handwritten computer was essentially more than halfway done.

"You could say that," Durell poured himself another drink, "in March, we launched the developer version of Penpoint.

It was well-received by many software developers, and it earned a lot of cheers and praise."

"So where’s the problem?" Dean still hadn’t heard of any product being born out of Go Company, including the so-called Penpoint system.

"You know, Dean, Go Company was only responsible for the system development; we outsourced the hardware to external companies," Durell said.

This was a normal practice for a startup, since the cost of hardware investment was too high.

Should it fail, not only the founders but also the venture capitalists would lose their entire investment.

Dean understood this point and guessed that the problem lay with the hardware.

"So who did you entrust your hardware development to?" he asked.

Drumming his fingers against the glass, Durell said, "IBM, we reached an agreement with them.

After IBM finished the hardware development, their handwritten computers were supposed to be equipped with the Penpoint system."

Dean nodded, signaling his understanding, "If I’m not mistaken, the handwritten computer by Go Company was to be co-developed with IBM.

You’ve completed the system development, but this product hasn’t made its appearance yet.

Therefore, the issue must be on IBM’s side, but IBM’s technical capabilities are certainly up to the task of hardware development.

So the problem must be with your partnership, maybe IBM had its own ideas?"

Even though IBM’s presence in the personal computer field was steadily diminishing, their technical strength was unquestionable.

Perhaps after seeing Go Company’s concept, they figured they could go at it alone.

The Blue Giant had a wide range of business interests, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they eyed the handwritten computer market."

"Dean, perhaps I should have invited you to invest in Go Company from the beginning.

Then maybe we could have identified IBM’s contract traps earlier, and Go Company wouldn’t have ended up in the situation it’s in today."

Even though his own investment was at risk of failure, Durell looked at Dean with great admiration.

He admired Dean’s keen instincts and clear logic.

See, this was why Byte Company could go public, while Go was stuck in a dilemma.

Although Kapur had been involved in the founding of Lotus Software, he lacked Dean’s sense of cost control and crisis awareness.

"We had signed a licensing agreement with IBM initially, but it had stringent and punitive terms.

Kapur and the others were somewhat blindly optimistic about the development progress, and then things turned out like you saw last time.

Go Company fell behind the development timeline set in the agreement with IBM due to funding issues.

Now, as far as we know, IBM plans to introduce their own handwritten computer, the Thinkpad, next month, in October.

The system it runs on was also developed by IBM, named Pen OS/2. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?"

Facing Durell’s self-deprecating smile, Dean nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes, just like you’re thinking, we’ve been kicked out of the game," Durell said, slapping his glass on the table, anger in his eyes.

"Their Pen OS/2 system is a rip-off of Go Company’s Penpoint, IBM has betrayed us!"

"Sounds like the situation is indeed quite dire."

With IBM kicking Go Company out of the game, Penpoint was left in an awkward position.

Kapur and his team had invested a lot of time and money, and now they found themselves unable to monetize their achievements.

Go Company couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, and Durell couldn’t keep funding it indefinitely.

"That’s why I sought you out, Dean, I want to hear your opinion."

"I’m a bit curious," Dean didn’t immediately offer his opinion, "why did your partnership with IBM come to such a pass?"

he market usually shows a lot of leniency towards startups, even if the development cycle is delayed, it doesn’t typically lead to a complete fallout.

"Well, I admit there was a problem with that contract, and we shouldn’t have taken out a loan from IBM.

But the fact that IBM betrayed us is true; they’re eager to break into new markets and then change Wall Street analysts’ perception of their stock," Durell said.

Truth be told, since the 90s began, America’s overall economy was on the downswing.

The villa Dean bought last year in Silicon Valley had already depreciated by nearly 100,000 US dollars, a real-life testament to the economic downturn.

IBM too felt the chill, and worst of all, its mainframe business was also continuously losing market share.

Myopic executives did not focus on the personal computer market, and now IBM could only watch as Dell and Compaq made profits.

Everyone knew that personal computers were a growth market for the future, which is why Wall Street analysts were not optimistic about IBM’s stock prospects.

Under the influence of all these factors, IBM’s market value had already shrunk to 50 billion US dollars this year.

Last year, that figure was 64 billion, ranking it first in America.

Such a significant drop in market value had caused IBM to fall from the number one spot to eighth.

Pressured by the board and the stock market, IBM had no choice but to hastily initiate multiple new projects.

Their collaboration with Go Company was one of them, but IBM was not content to remain merely a hardware supplier.

The concept of a handwriting notebook is great, and if handled well, it could possibly boost IBM’s market value.

After hearing Durell’s explanation, Dean finally understood the general reason.

However, he hadn’t expected that Go Company would have actually loaned money to IBM.

As if knowing what he was thinking, Durell shrugged, "It was part of the contract, but it’s not important now."

With the cooperation between the two sides having fallen through, those contracts had already lost their significance.

After all, that loan was originally allocated to IBM itself to develop hardware.

Quite a move to make money out of nothing, Dean raised an eyebrow.

"Is this what you referred to earlier as Go’s competitor?"

"No, our competitors are not just IBM’s ThinkPad."

Dean was startled, "Isn’t Go the company that first came up with this idea?"

"Perhaps, but now we are indeed facing more challenges.

For example, Apple’s Newton personal digital assistant—they’re planning to launch this product next year.

And then there’s Microsoft, remember I told you that Microsoft stole our ideas?"

"Wow~" Dean spread his hands, "So they’re also preparing to release their own handwriting computer?"

"Pen Windows," Durell had an expression that confirmed exactly that, "That’s their competitive product."

"Since when did handwriting computers become so popular?" Dean fretted, searching his memory.

Had he been so focused on Byte Company’s IPO lately that he neglected market trends?

"Apple’s Newton was an idea John Sculley came up with in an attempt to replace Jobs, ordering his team to come up with the innovation.

It’s said that they proposed the concept of a digital assistant around 1986, but they didn’t start formal development until 1989."

In 1989, as Apple’s computer sales slowed down, that’s why Sculley desperately tried to shift Apple’s strategy.

It was then that the handwriting device Newton became Apple’s next strategic product.

With continuous investment over the years, it seems that Apple is about to complete the development of this product.

"However, Newton is not the main competitor for Go; as far as I know, they’ve also encountered some problems."

Go had once hired Coleman, a former employee of Apple, who was one of the lead developers of the Newton.

However, because he did not want to help develop a competitive product similar to Apple’s for Go, he resigned soon thereafter.

But Go did learn through him that the development progress of Apple’s Newton was far behind external expectations.

"Go’s real competitor is Microsoft." When it came to this name, Durell felt a deep sense of distaste.

"They stole our ideas and used the licensing of Penpoint’s API to imitate Pen Windows.

The truly shameless thing Gates did was to pressure other developers, forbidding them from developing applications for the Penpoint system.

Yes, those developers could only work on Microsoft’s Pen Windows."

"Wait, you’re saying Go licensed the Penpoint system’s API to Microsoft?" Dean’s eyes widened.

"Yes, that was in the early stages of our collaboration. You know, Gates is best at disguising himself.

He initially promised to obtain the API license to develop applications for Go, but actually, they just wanted to be a thief!"

"That really is a bad move," Dean criticized without mincing words.

Licensing APIs is something you should do only with trusted partners, or under legally binding contracts.

Otherwise, it’s best not to hand it out lightly, especially to a company like Microsoft with a history of such behavior.

"Go’s team is still immature, so it’s always going to have various problems."

This is why startups seek venture capital, which can help them avoid a lot of business pitfalls, though not on the technical side.

"Honestly Durell, Go’s situation sounds like a mess.

You’ve managed to create two competitors out of thin air and even got kicked out of your own game."

To Dean, this was inconceivable; what kind of brilliant entrepreneurial team would corner themselves into such a situation?

"That’s entrepreneurship for you, you need to face an endless array of blatant challenges.

Trouble is like a pitching machine, throwing at you non-stop.

The key is knowing when to swing, and when to dodge."

Durell crossed his legs and didn’t seem to have a care in the world, "So Dean, what is your opinion?

Also, if you’re interested, I can make sure to give you a satisfying price."

"Why come to me? I don’t even have similar experience," Dean said leisurely, enjoying his own pastry.

"Come on, you’re a billionaire; they all trust your judgment."

"Who?"

"The shareholders of Go."

Dean was taken aback.

Durell shrugged, "Including myself, of course."

"Wow, that’s unexpected." Dean clapped his hands, flicking away the crumbs in his palm.

"With an achievement like Byte’s under your belt, no one would question what you say."

For Durell, this was not surprising; the rules of the game in capital are simple.

Whoever can lead everyone to make money, has their words taken as gospel.

"Alright, but let’s be clear, this is just my suggestion, I take no responsibility for it."

Durell’s eyes lit up, seeing a chance.

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