American History 1988
Chapter 258 - 250 Trouble_2

Chapter 258: Chapter 250 Trouble_2

It could help people record bank transactions, plan budgets and measure expenses, track investments and their stock price performances.

Of course, the most important thing was it assisted users in tax calculations, with various calculation formulas already integrated within Quicken.

As it turned out, Cook’s judgment was right, financial software had its application market.

After several years of updates, Quicken had entered into household life and even the medical field, and Intuit was gradually showing a trend of growth.

The initial intention of Byte Company to acquire Intuit was to develop tax software for enterprise users.

At the very least, they wanted to add some financial functions to Work title, or make them compatible with each other, even supporting data transfer would suffice.

The office area, that’s Byte Company’s forte.

Intuit was the perfect fit to fill in its deficiencies in that regard, given that financial software has a certain level of speciality.

And to complete this acquisition, Byte Company had previously offered 60 million dollars.

That was full of sincerity because at that time, Intuit was still just a slightly well-known small company.

As a software company that had been established for over eight years and had yet to go public, one can imagine its scale.

Although financial software had few competitors, changing people’s traditional concepts of bookkeeping required a subtle influence from the social environment.

But facing this huge purchase offer, although the other founder, Pruks, and the venture capital firm behind it wanted to sell, Cook had refused.

He believed that Intuit’s rise was imminent, especially after seeing Byte Company go public.

Of course, there might be other reasons, but for now, the progress of the negotiation was not ideal.

Alright, Byte Company’s very existence, on the contrary, was the biggest obstacle to the acquisition.

But fortunately, although Cook refused to be acquired, he was willing to accept Byte Company’s investment.

Now Dean needed to visit them and finalize this deal.

...

The year 1991 was coming to an end, and as the presidential election approached, the media turned their attention more and more to this political event.

In October, Clinton had begun to openly declare, as originally planned, his intention to participate in next year’s election.

At the same time, thanks to Dean’s donation coming through, Clinton began to form his campaign team and shoot election ads.

But the media’s reaction was lukewarm because he was too young and inexperienced.

According to Gallup’s opinion poll, Clinton’s support was less than 9%.

This was more than a double difference from Jerry Brown’s 21% support rate, yes, the former governor of California.

Ironically, as the local favorite, Brown traveled all over California giving speeches and begging for funds, even struggling to raise enough money.

Yet his support rate was the highest among the Democratic Party candidates, causing Dean a bit of awkwardness.

He had written a check for only a few tens of thousands of dollars for Brown but had written 3 million dollars for Clinton.

The incongruence in the poll results now was, to say the least, a dramatic turn of events.

Fortunately, Dean knew who the final winner would be, otherwise he might have switched sides at the last minute.

But this very thing made Clinton grateful to Dean, after all, his odds didn’t look good at the moment.

The media’s lukewarm response to Clinton was not only due to his lack of experience but also international instability, which drew the public’s eye.

All sorts of news were circulating, with rumors that the bear up north seemed to be on its last legs.

Even in Silicon Valley, where people generally weren’t concerned with politics, they would casually chat and make comments over coffee.

Everyone held their breath, silently observing the changes, as the shadow of the Cold War had loomed over the continent for too long.

Everyone was yearning for peace to come, nobody wanted war, especially not in Silicon Valley.

However, Dean didn’t care about these things; his business empire wasn’t in the bear’s territory, he just wanted to grasp the upcoming internet trend.

This was his expertise, and the only thing he was sure of.

Political dealings were sometimes too dark, with too high risks, he didn’t need to muddy the waters.

...

Byte Company’s market value recently soared past 5.5 billion US dollars, and the happiest people, besides its shareholders, were certain initial investors.

Dick Kramlich was one of them; he had stuck to his original resolution.

He never told anyone that he had caught the last train of Byte Company’s third round of financing.

For three months, he had kept silent about it, especially in front of Arthur Locke.

He only allowed himself a modest celebration, which was to silently cheer in his heart while swinging his fists in a manly fashion.

He had made tens of millions of dollars from this investment! That was more than ten times his initial investment!

Today, he got ready and set off with high spirits to meet Dean, then take him to Mountain View for business talks.

In order to get the ticket to board the train last time, Dick had given Dean some of Intuit’s equity shares—

Not much, only about 10%, and the two founders of Intuit were still unaware of this since it was a private deal at the time.

But the deal today was big, and Dean was no longer satisfied with just that small share.

"Dean, I’ve already arranged a meeting with Cook and the others. Don’t worry, they’ll give you a good price,"

Dick drove while enthusiastically touting his role in the transaction. He now hung on Dean’s every word.

"Thank you, Dick. This saves a lot of trouble," Dean responded with a smile, making casual conversation.

"I’m a fan of Byte Company. It’s a wise choice for Intuit to collaborate with them."

Dick was very humble, and he was enthusiastic about anything that could benefit Byte Company.

By the way, the door handles in Dick’s San Francisco home,

one side engraved with the letter "B," and the opposite side with "T," the abbreviation of Byte Company.

Soon they arrived at Intuit, not far from Byte Company. Both were neighbors in Silicon Valley.

The meeting had been scheduled long in advance, so key personnel were present.

"Mr. Price, it’s an honor to meet you," Pruks said, his curiosity evident as he couldn’t stop staring at Dean.

"Just call me Dean," said Dean with a smile, shaking his hand.

Both men were Stanford students, which naturally brought them closer together.

In fact, it was partly for this reason that Pruks was inclined to sell Intuit to Byte Company.

He knew that even if the acquisition was completed, Byte Company would secure a good position for him.

Now seeing him in person, Pruks couldn’t help but wonder what was different about someone worth 2 billion US dollars.

The truth was, Dean was very down-to-earth, that’s how he treated everyone.

"Cook, right? I really like Quicken. It’s a great piece of software."

This young man with eagle-like eyes was also curious, taking a good look at Dean.

billion dollars was enough to keep most people interested in Dean.

Cook muttered to himself, people said Dean Price had a unique vision.

Could this mean Intuit had potential, which is why it caught his interest?

"Mr. Price, Intuit is willing to accept investment from Byte Company.

But you must promise us, you’ll solve a problem for Intuit," Cook stated, adamant about his condition.

"What?" Dean was surprised by his directness, such a straightforward approach was new to him.

"That’s our condition. Without it, Intuit doesn’t need the extra investment," Cook insisted.

"So where’s the problem?" Dean quickly got into the swing of things.

"Microsoft," Cook uttered a single word.

"Microsoft?" Dean paused.

Damn it! Why is Microsoft everywhere?

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