American History 1988
Chapter 325 - 315 Threading a Needle

Chapter 325: Chapter 315 Threading a Needle

Every year in February and March, Byte Company holds its annual directors’ meeting.

Today was no exception, and after two months of consolidation, the financial report for the previous year had been completed.

Compared to 1992, Byte Company’s sales in 1993 experienced a significant growth once again.

The final figure Dean received was 2.2 billion US dollars, an increase of over 260% compared to the year before.

The reason for such a leap in this year’s sales figures was largely due to the substantial amount of orders Byte received from the federal government and the military.

All the video networking systems currently in use in America are essentially based on Byte Company’s technology.

And this was just the beginning; what was accomplished last year was merely the first batch of orders.

Following that, there would be a continuous stream of demand coming Byte’s way.

You see, Dean’s previous substantial political contributions had taken effect.

Although the Clinton administration couldn’t directly mandate these purchases through Capitol Hill, it could certainly exert influence.

Besides, Dean maintained other relationships in Washington; he certainly had more than just Clinton as an ally.

Those senators who made five to six times their investment when Byte Company went public were all indebted to him.

Including last year’s Intuit, Dean had already made them riches more than once.

In return, they had to support Byte in securing orders from the federal government and the military.

Especially if they wanted to continue getting a slice of the pie from Dean’s various investments.

The trade-off between money and power is the rule of the game in the corridors of power in Washington.

This game had never changed over the years; only the players involved had.

Also, due to the Clinton administration, a series of tax reduction policies targeted at high-tech companies were introduced at the beginning of last year.

Byte’s profit margin this year soared to 26%, the highest in the company’s history.

And this wasn’t just the case for Byte; the entire Silicon Valley was experiencing the same.

According to the new regulations from the federal government, tech companies could deduct a significant portion of their R&D expenses from their corporate taxes.

The more invested in R&D, the higher the tax relief.

Byte even established its research institute to capitalize on this windfall.

The Byte Research Institute, independent from Byte Company, has its laboratory located in Stanford University’s Industrial Park.

The institute employed scientists from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, tackling extremely advanced subjects.

The topics they researched were artificial intelligence, computer algorithms, encryption science, and other fields with very high professional thresholds.

Clearly, there wouldn’t be any commercial outcomes from the institute in the short term.

Yet Dean still approved the budget, as, after all, this money was tax savings for Byte Company.

Instead of handing it over to the federal government, it was better for Byte to keep it and conduct its research.

In addition, the federal government also provided some subsidies for R&D expenditures.

So, despite the additional R&D budget, Byte’s profit margin remained historically high this year, thanks to policy dividends.

Silicon Valley initially rooted for Clinton, and now it was finally time to reap the benefits.

A 26% profit margin brought Byte Company a net profit of 570 million US dollars after taxes.

Wall Street, already privy to the news, was currently buying Byte Company stocks in large volumes.

In fact, this move had already begun, as the financial reports of Byte Company each quarter couldn’t be falsified.

According to Wall Street analysts’ estimates, Byte’s market value would at least double compared to last year.

The current surge in stock price was just a return to its rightful level.

The profits of 570 million US dollars over four quarters had been progressively disbursed as dividends.

As per tradition, 60% of it was distributed to the shareholders.

As the largest stakeholder, Dean took nearly 130 million US dollars in dividends from Byte Company last year.

Other stakeholders, even retail investors, similarly reaped substantial rewards.

Because of such dividend security, along with encouraging policies from the federal government.

Captains of finance in the US stock market were generally willing to hold shares long-term, especially those from financially healthy companies.

Finally, under market forces, stocks of consistently profitable companies would be pushed even higher—Byte Company was no exception.

Of course, compared to stock prices that only existed on paper, Dean cared more about the tangible hard cash he could hold in his hands.

The change from the 130 million US dollars was used to acquire half of FirstPerson’s shares.

The new SourceCode also needed an initial injection of over 6 million US dollars for the development of the Web server system.

As per the agreement between Dean and Clark, Dean held 67% of SourceCode’s shares based on his investment.

Clark got 13%, and the remaining 20% was set aside for an employee stock option pool.

The reason this time’s stock option pool reached an exaggerated 20% was that it was necessary to do so.

The development of the Web server system required the most top-notch tech wizards in the IT industry.

For instance, Michael Sheridan, the newly recruited technical director of SourceCode, immediately received 6% of the options when he joined the company.

He didn’t need to pay an extra cent for it; all he needed to bring to the table was his expertise in system architecture.

Michael Sheridan had been the second in command in the Java project team, and it was after negotiation with Sun Microsystems that Dean was able to lure him away.

For such top talent, offering less than 5% in stock options would be an insult.

And SourceCode needed to hire at least one more person of such caliber.

Clark had already targeted someone; he aimed for a technical leader at Novell Company.

Novell’s core technology was in network systems, which overlapped with what SourceCode wanted to do.

To impress that chief technologist, more than 5% in stock options was a must.

Otherwise, how could they persuade him to move from the distant state of Utah to California on the West Coast?

Look, two top talents had already split about half of the option pool, and the remaining portion had to take other technicians into account.

Dean couldn’t even guarantee that the 20% option pool would cover most of the employees involved with the source code.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that these tech moguls were somewhat Dean’s partners.

Although they hadn’t put in any hard cash, their names were destined to be among the founders of the source code.

Clark had already found an office, and the basic framework of the source code was also completed.

Michael Sheridan and James Gosling were developing a new programming environment for hypertext languages based on Java.

Meanwhile, Netscape and Price’s List were also assisting in the development of the software system for Web servers.

Netscape was responsible for the adaptation and compatibility issues of browsers and servers, while Price’s List was in charge of requirements and testing.

From FristPerson to source code, to Netscape and Price’s List, when looking at the cooperation of several companies.

Perhaps only Dean could integrate them together, thanks to his early layout in the internet field.

Of course, in order to coordinate the operation of the entire industrial chain, he had also given up a lot, such as favors and capital.

After another call with Clark, Dean returned his attention to the matter at hand.

The Toktok project, after more than half a year of development, had barely come out with its first version.

At this moment, Dean was checking the results of the Consumer Division’s work over the past six months.

"Thomas, the functionality of Toktok seems okay," Dean typed a few keys on the keyboard casually.

Ding ding, a prompt tone quickly sounded from another computer.

He clicked to take a look, and all the information was fully displayed with almost no delay.

Seeing Dean’s approval, a look of relief appeared on Thomas’s face.

"But..."

A turn in Dean’s voice suddenly made his heart lift.

"But this UI design..." Dean shook his head, "it’s pretty much just a color change compared to Teams."

Teams mainly used blue and gray colors, while Toktok turned into orange and white.

Other aspects, such as layout, hadn’t changed much, if you had to point out a difference.

The only real difference might be that Toktok’s borders had been rounded off more, like the corner guards on children’s furniture.

The fact was Thomas’s inspiration came from his daughter’s little table, as he thought it would make Toktok’s interface look a bit cuter.

Well, leaving these tech guys in charge of the design aesthetics was a tough ask.

Seeing Thomas’s puzzled and embarrassed expression, Dean shook his head.

"How about this, go to a graphic design firm and hire some professionals to take care of the artwork.

We need to at least make our Toktok look more approachable; it’s too rigid right now."

Because Byte Company had previously catered to enterprise users, the design of the software wasn’t particularly focused on aesthetics, but rather reliability was first and foremost.

But now with a Consumer Division, aesthetics might even take precedence over reliability.

"And about the avatar design I told you about," Dean pointed to the screen with a look of horror, "it’s too abstract."

At past development meetings, Dean had requested that Toktok come preloaded with several different styles of system avatars.

They could be cartoon drawings of men and women, or landscapes, buildings, etc.

So what did they come up with? If you told Dean they were characters from ’One Piece’, he’d believe it.

None of them looked human: some had mouths bigger than their heads, or noses longer than their legs.

Forget the appearance, Dean couldn’t even distinguish between genders.

Comic book art in America is very realistic, so why did it become so abstract when it came to them?

Thomas struggled to find words, not knowing how to explain that these were just scribbles from the programmers.

"Boss, do we need an artist to redesign them?" Thomas asked cautiously.

"Yes, go ahead and handle it. It’s best for the Consumer Division to establish a separate art department."

Dean continued to scroll through the screen, "Also, the design of the personal profile cards, you’d better prepare several templates.

That way, users can easily design their own card displays according to their preferences.

The contact list and grouping functions are good; they’re very clear on the main interface."

After a full check, Dean found there were no issues with Toktok’s functional design.

The requirements he had previously put forward had been almost 100% implemented.

The only problem was the UI aesthetics were too terrible and needed to be redone.

Once these were addressed, perhaps Toktok could be tried out on the market.

"The goal is to launch the first test version of Toktok in the second half of this year," Dean said.

"No problem, Boss," Thomas assured him.

The stock price of Byte Company was soaring, but the Consumer Division had virtually no presence.

He desperately needed to prove the validity of his department’s existence; most of his bonuses were tied to it.

Dean had just reviewed the issues with Toktok with Thomas when Steve Case’s call came through.

"Dean, tell me you can be in Washington today."

"Oh, sorry Steve~" Dean looked at his watch, "Actually, I can still make it over if I fly now."

His private plane was much faster than a commercial airliner.