American History 1988
Chapter 381 - 370: Confronting Someone

Chapter 381: Chapter 370: Confronting Someone

There was a particular statement at Microsoft’s press conference that drew notable attention.

Microsoft announced that its browser and all components were completely free, and future versions of the browser would be bundled with Microsoft’s operating system.

The browser would just be a feature of the new system, rather than being sold as an independent application within Microsoft’s product lineup.

First and foremost, this statement ensured that all Windows operating system users would naturally become users of the Navigator browser.

In less than four months, Windows 95 had already sold 15 million copies worldwide.

Without a doubt, with the platform’s advantage, they were all potential users of Navigator in the future.

Secondly, Microsoft had followed suit with a plugin feature after Netscape updated the popup alert that locked the default browser with one click.

And now, Windows users would often encounter this situation whenever they clicked on an external hyperlink.

Microsoft’s pop-up would appear at the same time as Netscape’s, the former asking the user if they wanted to open the hyperlink with the Navigator browser and set it as the default browser.

Netscape’s pop-up would warn the user that an unknown operation was trying to change the default browser, asking for confirmation to keep the current settings.

Confused users sometimes had no idea what was happening.

But this still did not stop the two companies from outwitting each other at the programming level.

Whose pop-up was more timely, whose operation was simpler—that company would win the final victory.

This seemed to be a competition among the technicians; of course, whichever it was, the user’s manual settings had the highest authority.

As long as the user manually changed their default browser, both companies would stop the pop-ups.

Roguish as they were, in America, neither Netscape nor Microsoft dared to challenge the users’ autonomy.

Otherwise, they could face a collective lawsuit from a group of attorneys, and many ambulance chasers were willing to do so.

If the clients signed a compensation division agreement with the lawyers, they didn’t mind peeling a layer off Netscape and Microsoft.

Given the current market, Netscape was still undeniably the dominant force in the browser market.

Navigator 2.0 was lagging far behind in functionality, but this press conference still played a key role.

That was, the public and Wall Street finally had no more doubts about Microsoft’s commitment and promises to the Internet.

Before this, Microsoft had never made a public statement. After this press conference, its stock immediately began to rebound.

Everyone thought that with Microsoft’s scale, it was certainly capable of making a mark in the internet field.

Logically speaking, facing a strong competitor like Microsoft, Netscape’s stock price should have fallen.

But oddly, this didn’t happen, and Netscape’s stocks remained steady and on the rise.

The reason for it was that everyone knew behind Netscape stood another giant in the tech industry.

The influence of the name Dean Price was no less than that of Bill Gates.

Especially because of the lag in Forbes’ ranking, people reviewed the rise of this Silicon Valley giant again.

His success and fame were not like that of Gates, coming from a single company like Microsoft.

He not only founded the second-largest software company in the world after Microsoft, but also opened the window to the Internet for people through his browser.

Fortune magazine described him as the opener of the Internet wave, while Wall Street considered him the most successful investor in the world today.

AOL’s market value had already exceeded 11 billion, and Cisco’s market value had doubled to 6 billion US dollars this year.

Other companies like UUNET and Intuit also had market values between 2 and 5 billion US dollars.

Oh, and there was Intel, which he had once singled out, and whose market value had also been visibly rising in recent years.

He was a successful entrepreneur, a visionary investor, and a trendsetter of the era.

The name Dean Price, in America, had even surpassed the influence of Gates.

He was a true example of self-made success, not one like Gates who relied on his distinguished family background to lay the foundation for success.

So no one underestimated Netscape, even with Microsoft’s very serious statement coming out of Seattle.

Now everyone was waiting for a good show, for the head-to-head competition between Netscape and Microsoft.

Until the situation became clear, Netscape’s stock wouldn’t fall; in fact, a rise was expected.

After all, at this point, it seemed all the advantages were on Netscape’s side, as its app store model had attracted a large number of developers, gathering under the Explorer browser platform.

Amidst such turmoil, Dean returned from a farm in Tennessee to Silicon Valley in California.

The reporters who got the news came to block the doors of both Bit and Netscape immediately, knowing that these two companies were of deep concern to Dean.

In fact, Dean was not intentionally avoiding them, and in the face of the reporters’ excited expressions, he also remained very calm.

"Mr. Price, what do you think of Microsoft’s Seattle statement? Gates has compared Netscape to a sneak-attack neon fleet."

"I think Mr. Gates has got the order wrong; it’s Microsoft that’s sneaking attacks on Netscape’s business, and the whole world knows it.

Of course, according to his robber’s logic, this isn’t surprising since Microsoft has developed in this way."

Wow~ The crowd of journalists buzzed.

They hadn’t expected Dean to speak the harshest words with the calmest face.

Then, they were excited!

"Mr. Price, did you just call Mr. Gates a robber?"

Click, click... the sound of flashing cameras was endless.

How could the journalists not be excited to hear such words from Dean, who is always rational?

"If Microsoft really thinks the Internet is their backyard, then I can only say that’s contempt for all the other internet companies.

They underestimate all the enterprising internet pioneers, and it’s everyone’s participation that has made the network as colorful and diverse as it is today.

When the browser was born and difficult to promote, what was Microsoft doing?

Nothing!

When countless developers were creating various functional plugins for the internet, what was Microsoft doing?

Nothing!

When internet companies within the industry cooperated with each other for the network ecosystem, what was Microsoft doing?

Nothing!

"This is Microsoft, they always want to reap the benefits in the last moment and then declare that Microsoft has put in the effort,"

Bullshit! Dean’s statement made every journalist present tremble!

It was too exciting! They had not expected such big news today.

"Mr. Price..."

However, before the reporter could continue the question, Dean had already turned and left the place.

"Mr. Price, do you have anything to say to Gates?" a reporter shouted from behind.

Dean stopped, turned around, and said, "Let him bring it on, Netscape is not afraid of any fair competition, and imitating others will not make you a leader on the Internet."

Shit! This was almost like cursing at Microsoft’s face, damn thrilling!

Dean didn’t bother with the reporters behind him anymore; he had other matters to attend to.

As for why Dean changed his usual gentleness and began to harshly criticize Microsoft.

That was because Gates, the old boy, was unethical to begin with; he actually compared Netscape to a sneak-attack ’little sun’?

Doesn’t he know this is the ultimate insult to an Asian soul?

If you’re going to confront, it’s nothing unusual in America to do so.

Even presidential campaigns are about who can trash-talk better.

Tsk, such are the conditions of my great America.

Dean walked into the Netscape office feeling exhilarated.

Clap clap clap! Right as he entered, a round of applause erupted.

Dean looked up to see Clark, Anderson, and others clapping and cheering.

"Well done, Dean! The Seattle pirates are too arrogant," Clark laughed heartily, finding Dean’s previous statement extremely satisfying.

Lately, Microsoft’s blatant plagiarism was really irritating Netscape.

"It’s rare to see you fired up like this, very powerful!" Durell also felt a great sense of satisfaction.

He was at the forefront against Microsoft, as their meddling had ruined several of his investment projects.

"I’m just shocked by his shamelessness," Dean said innocently, shrugging, "It almost breaks the bottom line of morality."

"Haha~" Laughter rang out once again in the office.

"Alright, gentlemen. Let’s talk about this issue, if I’m not mistaken it’s related to Microsoft again?" Dean clapped his hands and signaled everyone to sit down.

"You guessed right, Microsoft heard about our interest in Vemeer and joined the negotiations, beginning to offer their price to them."

The Vemeer Company Clark mentioned was a software business founded in Massachusetts.

It was established in ’94, originally providing virtual server software for Web pages.

But just this October, Vemeer launched the FrontPage tool.

This was a kind of HTML editor and website management tool; this was not surprising because Netscape also had similar tools.

What’s magical is that FrontPage has an extremely low barrier to use, allowing novices to easily create various websites and pages.

The built-in templates can help developers directly select the layout of the webpage, and the code view even supports a preview function.

Netscape’s development tools couldn’t do this; FrontPage was like a nanny for beginners.

This immediately caught Netscape’s attention because Barksdale and his team consistently felt that FrontPage was of significant importance to the Explorer browser.

Its advent could attract a large number of tech enthusiasts to create their own web pages on the Explorer browser.

These low-threshold development tools would undoubtedly foster the ecosystem of the Netscape browser.

However, Seattle’s current level of interest in Netscape was astonishingly high; no sooner had Netscape started negotiations with Vemeer than they came meddling right behind.

Now, the two companies were discreetly vying for Vemeer.

"What’s the progress on the negotiations? How much did Microsoft offer?" Dean went straight to the point.

"We initially offered 30 million, and Vemeer’s management even gave a verbal agreement.

But Microsoft raised their offer to 50 million dollars, cutting in to snatch the target from us.

To secure FrontPage, we had to increase our offer as well, and it’s now at 70 million dollars.

But I heard that Seattle came up with a new round of offers, roughly around 100 million dollars.

If nothing unexpected happens, Vemeer will reject our acquisition."

Clark was both angry and helpless; he highly suspected the well-endowed Microsoft was deliberately making Netscape’s life difficult.

Because in the short term, Microsoft’s Navigator browser didn’t even need FrontPage; they didn’t even have third-party developers.

"Is this company that important?" Dean asked, stroking his chin.

"Of course, Vemeer initially developed this tool based on Explorer.

For Netscape, we could use it right away," Barksdale gave a definite answer.

"Call them and tell them Netscape’s new offer is 200 million dollars," Dean decided on the spot.

"200 million dollars?!" Barksdale was shocked; this was way beyond their budget.

"If it’s important for Netscape, then don’t hesitate, and don’t play the bidding game with Microsoft."

Dean’s decisiveness left Clark and the others exchanging glances.

"What if Microsoft continues to raise their price?" Barksdale asked instinctively.

"Then let them have it, and we’ll design a similar tool based on their idea,"

Dean smiled mysteriously, implying that it can’t always be them copying us while we remain passive.

Actually, as long as Gates remains sane, he wouldn’t continue raising the price.

Spending a few hundred million dollars on something temporarily unneeded doesn’t seem like a prudent investment.

"Okay, gentlemen, that’s it for today’s meeting."

With the issue resolved, Dean had another company to visit.

He had long wanted to create a truly great product, and now was finally the time to see results.

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