American History 1988
Chapter 319 - 309 Java

Chapter 319: Chapter 309 Java

"A completely new programming language?" Dean asked, feeling a bit confused while walking toward his garage, continuing the phone call.

He was originally preparing to have a meeting with his finance team, but Clark’s urgent call interrupted everything.

"Dean, believe me, even though this language hasn’t been applied yet,

I feel it’s suitable for the internet, especially as a web plugin. It can accomplish many incredible functionalities."

Clark didn’t even want to waste a single second. After having an in-depth conversation with James, he immediately called Dean.

"OK, I’m on my way now." Dean tossed his phone onto the passenger seat and started his car without delay.

It was already December, with only a few days left until Christmas.

Poor Dean, even with his billions, he could never find a moment of leisure, and was even busier than an average office worker.

He hadn’t taken a holiday in a long time, and he couldn’t be with Miranda and Jennifer’s children all the time either.

For Christmas, he planned to bring both kids together to his estate in San Francisco.

Old man Peter had been talking about it for a long time, and Dean hoped to give him a joyful family reunion.

Well, he thought, let’s deal with the matter at hand first.

Sun Microsystems was not far from Dean’s residence in Silicon Valley, just a ten-minute drive away.

He had been staying here for a few days due to being busy with company matters.

With the sound of tires friction against the pavement,

a dark green Lotus sports car came to a steady stop at the edge of Sun Microsystems’ lawn.

As soon as Dean got out of the car, he saw Jim Clark waiting at the entrance.

"Did you buy a new car?" Clark was drawn to the green beauty.

"New toy, want to give it a try?" Dean tossed the car keys to him.

"Oh~" Clark quickly caught them, "I’ll take it for a spin on Route 101 later."

No man can refuse a sports car, and Clark was no exception.

"Don’t go too crazy, I saw the cops on my way here."

Dean waved his hand indifferently, as he had several such ’toys’.

"Shit, when can I start treating sports cars like toys?"

After muttering to himself, Clark quickly followed Dean into Sun Microsystems.

Dean knew his way around because he and Andy, Scott, and the others were friends.

Especially Scott, who loved students from Stanford. As long as they applied to Sun Microsystems, they were almost guaranteed to be hired.

By the way, Sun Microsystems’ name was an acronym of the initials of Stanford University’s campus network.

This goes to show the founders’ favoritism towards Stanford.

"Hey~, Andy, Scott," Dean greeted them warmly with hugs all around.

"When are we going hiking together again?" Scott said with a laugh, patting his back.

"Spring next year would be a good time," Dean promised.

They often went hiking behind Stanford or set out from Half Moon Bay for deep-sea fishing.

"Don’t forget to invite me when you buy a yacht someday," Andy joined in the banter.

"No problem, I’m actually planning on it," Dean said as they walked towards the meeting room together.

The meeting room was right next to the office where James and the others worked; this whole area belonged to the Green Project Team.

"Green" was the code name Sun Microsystems had given to the "Oak" project, signifying a vision of energy-saving intelligence.

Since Clark had already learned about this project in detail, Dean did not dwell on the specifics of "Oak" anymore.

After James Gosling gave a brief introduction, Dean got straight to the point.

"Scott, Andy, and Bill," Dean looked at the three founders, "FristPerson is having trouble right now, isn’t it?"

The men exchanged looks, then Scott, acting as CEO, shrugged.

"There’s no point in hiding it, we’re planning on integrating FristPerson into Sun."

Even though the development of the Oak language was going smoothly, its commercialization process was not.

From microwave ovens to set-top boxes, all tenders had failed, forcing Sun Microsystems to consider closing it down to conserve resources.

"Alright, then let me be blunt.

We need it, but not for the household appliance sector. We want to incorporate it into the internet.

So, if I want to continue the Oak project, what do I need to do?"

Dean looked at them honestly, "Can I buy out FristPerson? Or can I invest in it?"

Scott and the others looked at each other, indeed worthy of the richest man in Silicon Valley, discussing the purchase of a company so simply and easily.

"Dean, we’re glad that you’re willing to continue supporting Oak’s development.

However, Sun has put a lot of effort into this, it’s the culmination of years of labor from the entire project team.

Thus, FristPerson is not for sale, but we are open to your investment."

Sun Microsystems itself had the strength to develop both software and hardware, and Scott himself was technically savvy.

He was well aware of the importance of a high-level programming language that crossed hardware boundaries, even though Oak had not yet yielded any commercial success.

But Scott did not plan to give up on it. Sun had just decided to merge FristPerson into the parent company, rather than closing the project down completely.

Hearing this, Dean was not surprised.

After all, when it came to system language development, Sun Microsystems was much more professional than he was.

"OK, then let’s talk about the investment issue.

If we want to see the Oak project through to the end, how much longer will it take, or rather, how much more budget is needed?"

Scott’s gaze shifted to James, who began rapidly calculating in his mind.

The project’s development was actually nearing completion; they just had not found a way to profit from it yet.

Now that a super wealthy man was sitting in front of them, ready to write a check at any moment,

James didn’t hold back. He glanced around and then, tentatively, held up three fingers.

"Thirty million dollars?" Dean frowned slightly.

Scott and Andy clenched their fists subconsciously. Okay, James’s asking price even took them by surprise.

They had actually already discussed it internally beforehand.

If they could raise ten million US Dollars for the Oak project, that would be enough to sustain them for another two years.

But James raised the price at the last minute, and not by just a little bit.

"I can pay thirty million US Dollars, but I must get half of FristPerson’s stock,"

Scott and the others took a sharp breath, not because they were startled by Dean’s steep demand.

They were shocked by Dean’s bold tone, as this was a cash deal for thirty million US Dollars.

As everyone knows, net worth and cash assets are two different things, and there were not many in Silicon Valley who could come up with this amount of money.

The people from Sun Microsystems discussed briefly and then agreed to Dean’s request.

FristPerson had been established for nearly three years, and up until now, they had not made a penny in revenue, but it was already valued at sixty million US Dollars.

Scott and his team had nothing to be dissatisfied about, as for whether half the shares would cause future management disputes.

Actually, including Dean, they were not worried because FristPerson’s core product was a programming language system.

It was more like an intellectual property company, and its future profits were likely to come from various licenses.

To put it plainly, it specialized in collecting licensing fees without having to produce any specific products.

Such a company is very pure; it doesn’t have to worry about marketing and the like, they just need to focus on the subsequent development of the language.

And FristPerson was unlikely to go public later on, just like ARM that came after.

Of course, the latter eventually did hit Nasdaq, but they pushed that event back almost thirty years.

"Okay, now let’s talk about the Web server you want.

So what do you need Sun to do? Hardware development or system development?"

With a significant capital infusion from Dean, Scott and his team no longer had to struggle with the retention issues of FristPerson.

With this money, it was as though Sun Microsystems’ investment costs in the Oak project had all been recovered, even with surplus.

This was like using Dean’s money for R&D, and in the end, they still got half of the intellectual property rights.

This deal was very cost-effective, wasn’t it?

"We can handle the software system of the Web server ourselves, but this will require Sun Microsystems’ help,"

Dean trusted in Clark’s technical vision, and he had also glanced at Oak’s language library.

Just as the former had said, it was very suitable for the internet and could serve as middleware connecting all platforms.

Based on this alone, it was worth the thirty million US Dollars check from Dean.

"If it’s based on Oak and we adapt it logically, I think I can handle it,"

James Gosling had already discussed with Clark before, and he roughly knew what Dean and his team wanted.

"Great, additionally, I would like you to help introduce some reliable programmers.

You know, we’re ready to start developing this kind of Web server software right away,"

"No problem, what else?" Scott was more interested in the Web server hardware that Dean had just mentioned.

This was the core business of Sun Microsystems at the moment; they could make a lot of money from it.

And this was exactly why Dean had approached Sun Microsystems, "Ever heard of Price’s List?"

"Of course, we’ve all registered accounts there,"

Scott and the others laughed. They all knew that Price’s List was a website created by Dean’s efforts.

This was no secret in Silicon Valley; after all, the name was a giveaway.

"The Web server is to specifically serve such websites; we need a professional server that’s more efficient at processing data and has stronger capabilities.

Considering the adaptation with hypertext languages, we’ll develop the software systems.

For hardware, we entrust you with the task. Believe me, Web servers will definitely have a vast market in the future,"

Developing a completely new server meant a considerable input of costs.

Especially this kind of professional server, it totally depended on the market prospects of the corresponding industry.

Honestly, whether a website could turn into a business, nobody knew except for Dean.

So it was natural for Scott and his team to hesitate about investing in the development of such servers.

"Guys, Price’s List has millions of users, there’s no doubt about that.

If you’re concerned about the R&D costs, Price’s List can place an order first,"

It wasn’t yet 1994, and no internet company had been established.

Therefore, it was normal for Scott and his team to be skeptical about the market for Web servers, but Dean couldn’t wait.

In order to accelerate the development of the Web server, he placed an advance order in the name of Price’s List.

Sure enough, with potential contracts, Scott immediately softened his stance.

"After your server software is developed, Sun will follow up in sync,"

Scott did not plan to do both the Web server’s software and hardware despite Sun’s capability.

Because he had always positioned Sun as a hardware company, and they were very profitable.

Take workstations for example, Sun sold each for tens of thousands of US Dollars, and professional servers started at a hundred thousand US Dollars.

But this was still much cheaper than DEC’s minicomputers and IBM’s mainframes, so they were incredibly popular.

By selling these hardware devices, Sun Microsystems maintained an annual growth rate of around 40%.

By this year, their sales had even exceeded two billion US Dollars, making them one of the few hardware giants in Silicon Valley.

Sun naturally developed systems for the corresponding workstations; they were a package deal.

But the profits from the systems were far lower than from the hardware, so Scott had always focused on hardware in Sun’s positioning.

With this in mind, he agreed to the partnership request from Dean to develop the Web server software.

Because he knew that even if Web servers became popular, Sun would ultimately be the one making the bulk of the profits.

"OK, if that’s the case, pleased to cooperate." Dean was also very satisfied, planning to arrange this after the New Year.

But Christmas was coming soon, and he wanted to take a break for himself first.

"By the way, since we can’t use the name Oak anymore, I’m thinking of renaming this programming language,"

Suddenly, James Gosling made another proposal.

"What do you plan to call it?" Dean asked casually.

"Java," James pointed to the coffee cup in his hand.

"Oh~!" Dean’s eyes slowly widened.

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