American History 1988
Chapter 409 - 398 Half

Chapter 409: Chapter 398 Half

David Boies looked at the somewhat wooden man before him, his mind already calculating the next questions.

He wouldn’t think that he could easily manipulate the man just because he came off as a bookworm.

If those titles were taken into account, he believed no prosecuting attorney would underestimate him.

The former richest man in the world, founder of the world’s largest software company, a genius reported by countless media outlets.

David Boies felt a tinge of excitement; he enjoyed pitting himself against these top social elites.

Even without anyone’s prior advice, Boies would bring his utmost energy to today’s investigation and evidence collection.

"OK, Mr. Gates, can we start now?"

"Certainly," Gates, dressed in a gray suit, showed no emotion on his face.

"We all know you are one of the founders of Microsoft, right?"

"Yes."

"When was Microsoft founded? And what was your position in the company at that time?"

"Established in ’75, serving as a partner, board chairman, and chief executive officer."

"What about now?" Boies asked again for precision in the testimony.

"Board chairman and chief executive officer." Gates shrugged.

"So you’re familiar with the ’Microsoft Computer Dictionary’?" Boies took out a manual.

The next questions were related to it, so Boies was prepared.

However, Gates’s response was a straightforward shake of his head.

"Not familiar."

Boies was taken aback, "You’ve never read it?"

"No," Gates answered honestly.

Boies couldn’t help but laugh. You are the CEO of Microsoft, and you’re not at all familiar with your own product?

This ’Microsoft Computer Dictionary’ follows almost every Microsoft product into the hands of each user.

It has been printed hundreds of millions of times; most of the public know about it, but the CEO of Microsoft doesn’t?

Then, an even funnier scene unfolded; upon hearing Boies’s laughter, Gates laughed himself.

And... he laughed quite sheepishly.

Now not only Prosecuting Attorney Boies was laughing, but other members of the court also couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

"OK, let me introduce it, I have a copy of the ’Microsoft Computer Dictionary’ here; it’s the second edition of this year.

It claims to be the official source of computer terms, concepts, abbreviations and definitions, from the most respected software company in the world--Microsoft."

Reading this, Boies couldn’t help but glance at him.

"Now please answer an easy question: Do you think Microsoft is the most respected software company in the world?"

"Some agree, some don’t."

"And what is your opinion?" Boies continued to probe.

"I think we are~" Gates shrugged, "because if you look at the data, we truly are the most respected company in the world."

Gates, sitting at an angle, was unapologetic about his response and took it for granted.

Microsoft’s current market value and sales volume indeed proved his point.

Sure enough, Microsoft is an arrogant company, although Boies internally mocked, his face remained jovially unconcerned.

He glanced at the camera beside him and continued his questioning.

"According to this dictionary, the definition of application software is as follows: A program designed to assist specific tasks, completed efficiently.

Such as word processing, bookkeeping, inventory management... Is this an accurate definition, Mr. Gates?"

Gates pondered and gave a conservative answer, "This definition is too vague."

"Is it an accurate definition for the current situation?"

"I can only say it’s vague but relatively accurate," Gates smirked.

"Here’s another of the key terms we’ll use during the testimony: browser."

Boies turned the pages, "Let me read the dictionary’s definition of it, and you tell me if it’s accurate.

The ’Microsoft Computer Dictionary’ defines a browser as a client application program.

It allows the user to browse HTML documents on the World Wide Web; it’s a computer networking program.

It can follow hyperlinks across the web and transfer files. Is this definition accurate?"

Gates fell silent this time, knowing even with his slow reaction that this question was a trap.

Because once he admitted the dictionary’s definition was correct, it would mean Microsoft’s previous firm assertion that a browser was simply a feature of the system would self-destruct.

But unfortunately, the man sitting before him held in his hands something called the ’Microsoft Computer Dictionary.’

After much consideration, Gates gave another vague answer.

"This definition actually only describes the functions of a browser."

"So is it just an accurate definition of browser functions?" Boies pressed.

"It describes some aspects of browser use," Gates continued to evade the question.

"Then what is your definition of a browser?"

"Umm..." Gates tapped his fingers on the table lightly, "It can help users... usually, a browser can display HTML documents, navigate web pages."

"Is this the definition you use when you talk about browser terms?"

"Web browsing software, in some cases refers to a browser..." Gates began to feel he could not continue improvising.

However, Boies did not press the issue and continued with his own questions.

"Do you agree with the definition of the Navigator browser in the ’Microsoft Computer Dictionary,’ 1996 edition?"

The dictionary defines it as follows: "The Navigator browser was released as a standalone product in October 1995."

"If you’re referring to Unix or Mac, we did indeed complete a series of standalone products,"

Boies nodded, satisfied; he had thought Gates might deny the definition in his own dictionary.

The closed-door deposition had just begun, and there were countless questions they needed to confirm with Gates.

The team from Seattle thought half a day would be sufficient, but it turned out the total time was three times their initial estimate.

For three consecutive days, Gates was summoned by the court until they had clarified all questions regarding the details.

When Gates stepped out of the court again, his expression was hazy and unclear.

"Mr. Gates, what do you think about missing the top spot of the world’s wealthiest this year?"

"What?" Faced with the incessant flashes, Gates instinctively shielded his eyes.

This action, coupled with his current demeanour, made Gates look very much like... a newly detained criminal?

Whoosh—the cameras and flashes of the journalists became even more frenetic.

Without waiting for Gates to respond, his PR team immediately parted the crowd and escorted him away from the courthouse.

"Damn it, what happened?" Gates, sitting in the car, seemed to have just come to his senses.

"They’re talking about this year’s Forbes list," an assistant handed him a magazine.

Looking at the obnoxious silhouette on the cover, Gates suddenly remembered—it was already October.

Without even opening the magazine, he knew who was ranked first this year.

Dean Price, with a net worth of 38 billion US dollars, led a cliff-drop advantage over other competitors, ranking at the top.

And second in the ranking was Gates himself, with Forbes estimating his fortune at 18.5 billion US dollars.

To be honest, Gates himself was surprised when he saw this ranking.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t accept Dean taking away the number one spot, but he was amazed at how much Dean had pulled ahead.

Upon reading the magazine more closely, Gates’ expression immediately became a few shades more complicated.

Unquestionably, the majority of Dean’s wealth came from Bit Company.

Due to successfully transitioning to the consumer sector, the Toktok business had virtually become Bit’s money tree.

With an average of more than 500 million US dollars in revenue each quarter, the total for the year reached 2.1 billion dollars—this was the contribution from the consumer business division.

Although it didn’t match the Office division’s total sales of 3.3 billion, the consumer division had the advantage of higher profits.

Those game top-ups, as well as value-added services based on Toktok itself, were all done through online payments.

There was no need to share revenue through channels, so even though the sales only reached slightly over half of the Office division’s, their profits were almost the same.

For that reason, Wall Street’s rating for Bit Company’s stock had consistently been "buy."

A total of 5.4 billion dollars in annual sales easily pushed Bit Company’s market value to 73.3 billion dollars.

This price-to-sales ratio was clearly too high, but now was the golden age of the Internet boom, when every irrationality seemed rational.

And this had propelled Bit Company to enter the Standard 500’s Top 10 businesses for the first time, even if just in the last spot.

Yes, Bit had now become the tenth most valuable company in America.

It was the fastest company in the history of the United States to achieve this milestone.

And because Dean was Bit’s largest shareholder, the company’s stock contributed 27.1 billion dollars to his net worth.

Unexpectedly, the second most important stock in Dean’s wealth this year came neither from AOL nor Cisco.

The answer was Intel, with the personal computer market booming, Intel’s market value this year reached 107.4 billion dollars, ranking fourth in the Standard 500.

This was Intel’s first entry into the Top 10 list; indeed, it had never been listed before.

Therefore, a conservative estimate suggested that Intel’s market value had at least doubled or tripled this year.

Remember how many shares Dean owned? 4.8 percent!

That equated to 5.15 billion dollars, and it was said that Andy Grove was considering inviting Dean to join the board of directors.

Just Bit and Intel alone accumulated more than 32 billion dollars in wealth for Dean.

Others, such as AOL, Cisco, Yahoo, Intuit, and so on, contributed nearly 6 billion dollars to Dean’s wealth in total.

Especially Cisco, its business growth this year was even more robust than Intel’s, multiplying the market value by more than four times, surpassing 25 billion dollars.

It can be said that all tech stocks soared this year, making it easy for Dean to double his net worth.

Everyone knew he was enthusiastic about the technology sector and had invested heavily in stocks in this area.

This year was his harvest year, a wealth of 38 billion dollars. It was impossible for Gates to read the report and not feel a twinge of envy.

At the same time, Forbes magazine was also enthusiastically promoting Dean’s philanthropic actions.

Just these past two days, Dean announced an unconditional donation of 230 million dollars to Stanford University to support the school’s research in cutting-edge areas such as artificial intelligence.

Additionally, even Cleveland State University, far away in Cleveland, obtained a fund of 1.1 dollars for support.

For an obscure, third-tier institution, this was like an unexpected windfall.

The overjoyed president of Cleveland State University, who almost passed out from excitement, was considering erecting a statue in Dean’s honor.

Of course, that was to come later. At the moment, Gates was feeling very gloomy.

Although Microsoft’s market value this year was a whopping 98.7 billion dollars, following closely behind Intel and leaving trailing Bit far behind,

His own wealth was only 18.5 billion dollars, not even half as much as Dean’s.

Furthermore, with the latter causing trouble for the Navigator browser in the CIX Alliance, Gates’ feelings of frustration and anger grew even more intense.

However, he was unaware that his performance in court would spin Microsoft into a greater maelstrom.

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