American History 1988
Chapter 412 - 401: Destruction

Chapter 412: Chapter 401: Destruction

NVIDIA Corporation was hardly worth anything before it launched a successful product and proved itself.

The valuation of any startup will not be too high, even if it may become a renowned giant in a certain field in the future.

But this does not mean that Dean could just spend money to buy a major share of the entire NVIDIA Corporation.

This isn’t about capital but rather that he must adhere to the rules of the venture capital game.

The reason founders put their heart and soul into the development of a startup is that they know they will receive substantial returns if the company succeeds.

This premise requires them to hold a considerable percentage of the company’s shares, usually no less than 30% during the first and second rounds.

Otherwise, before the company goes public, at the dawn of success, capital comes in to pluck the fruits.

If that were the case, why would founders even try to make the company succeed?

If he has the ambition to start a company, he would definitely not be content working for someone else for nothing.

Undoubtedly, Jensen was such a person, so Dean very restrainedly only took a 20% stake.

He has the money, but that does not mean he can arbitrarily acquire someone else’s company.

If Jensen were pushed too hard, he might just walk away and start anew.

At that time, NVIDIA would be left as an empty shell and would become worthless.

Therefore, Dean did not demand an overly large share; he even paid a premium as compensation for Jensen and his team.

Such conscientious capitalists are rare today.

Although Jensen grieved over his shares, to ensure the smooth launch of the RIVA 128, he ultimately agreed to Dean’s terms.

"Jensen, you made a wise decision," Dean said as he rose and patted his shoulder, "My investment credibility is well recognized throughout Silicon Valley."

"I believe today’s collaboration will change the destiny of NVIDIA," Jensen could only comfort himself with that thought at the time.

But Dean’s words were not wrong; his investment credibility was indeed widely renowned, not just limited to Silicon Valley.

Take Palm Inc. for example, Dean’s investment firms held more than 70% of the shares, but he never betrayed Hawkins and his team after crossing the river.

If it were a more ruthless capitalist, they might have sought more shares immediately after Palm sold 1 million units.

Why are many founders ousted when their company shows signs of success?

That’s just the common heartless side of capital; there are countless examples in Silicon Valley.

Dean’s credibility in this regard was indeed splendid, even Hollywood was spreading his renown.

Orion Pictures had still not picked up much in the past two years, barely maintaining a slight profit.

But Dean did not dismiss Prysko; he even let him lead his own biographical movie.

Considering these "bonus points," Jensen willingly accepted the check Dean issued.

"By the way, since NVIDIA’s graphics cards are primarily aimed at video games,

maybe it would be a good idea to collaborate with Byte Corporation; they are developing client-based games."

Dean suddenly remembered, his investment in NVIDIA was not utterly futile for the time being.

At the least, it could provide some help to Byte Corporation’s Consumer Services Division in graphic optimization.

"Client-based games?" Jensen was initially stunned, then nodded agreeably. "We would be very happy to establish a cooperative relationship with Byte Corporation.

If they could add NVIDIA’s logo to the game’s opening animation sequence, that would be even better."

"I think that won’t be a problem," Dean also nodded readily, understanding Jensen’s subtlety.

Byte Corporation’s name was much bigger than NVIDIA’s by now, especially its game business, which was already heating up on the internet.

After two years of exploration, the Consumer Services Division was now venturing into major client-based games.

This had attracted some coverage from computer media; if NVIDIA could strike a strategic alliance with Byte,

it would certainly be a rare opportunity for exposure for the former.

In truth though, while Jensen developed high-quality graphics cards, they were indeed consumer-grade products.

They needed advertising, especially promotion targeted at the computer community.

Of course, Byte games would also benefit from this collaboration, at least the visual performance and graphics optimization would no longer be in the dark.

After discussing NVIDIA’s business, Dean also casually reviewed reports on other startup projects here at Stanford.

Unfortunately, those that interested him or caught his eye were few; most either already had competitors on the market, or were impractical at the current stage.

However, to support his alma mater’s passion for incubating ideas, Dean still picked a few above-average projects and issued several hundred thousand dollars in checks.

Whether they succeeded or not, consider it support for alumni entrepreneurship.

Having settled these matters and scheduled a visit to NVIDIA with Jensen, Dean left Stanford.

Although both were in Silicon Valley, his visits to Stanford were becoming less frequent.

"Boss, here’s today’s news," Anna handed him a newspaper as soon as he got into the car.

Dean glanced over it, and the front page was still debating Microsoft’s anti-trust issues.

However, compared to before, there was a noticeable change - Microsoft and Gates’s reputation were on a steep decline.

It all started with Gates’s testimony at the last court session, which had shattered many people’s illusions about the former wealthiest man.

Yes, the recorded video from that evidence gathering session had, unsurprisingly, topped the Yahoo News homepage again.

"Gates’s responses made the lawyers and judges burst into laughter."

"Gates’ performance had all the earmarks of evading questions intentionally."

"The provocation from Microsoft’s side sent the prosecuting attorney into a rage."

Recently, these headlines had been frequently topping the news media, as Seattle was losing its grip on its public relations front.

However, no one else was to blame, as Dean had been startled after watching the videotape to find Gates reveal such a side of himself.

When facing the judge’s questions, he extensively used evasive phrases like "I am not sure," "I don’t remember," "I don’t know."

This approach only made it appear that he was being evasive, avoiding the issues, and not admitting to any improper conduct by Microsoft.

Even in Gates’ view, Microsoft bundling the browser with its operating system was merely a market competitive move.

The government should not intervene, let alone bring a lawsuit.

While facing the judge’s interrogation, he blatantly stated, "The success in the software industry isn’t driven by government regulation; government regulation only restricts innovation."

Judge Jack Jackson, presiding that day, immediately countered, "Mr. Gates, everyone, no matter how powerful they may be, is not above the law!"

Clearly, Gates’ arrogant and scornful demeanor in court aggravated the conflict between Seattle and the prosecuting attorney.

He was utterly unprepared, uncooperative in attitude, and his logically inconsistent statements further tarnished his public image.

Especially a few classic questions from prosecuting attorney Boies had become the exciting moments frequently played on Yahoo Videos.

As the CEO of Microsoft, he was completely unaware of his own "Microsoft Compute Dictionary."

Furthermore, when asked if he had mentioned destroying Netscape in an internal email, Gates flatly denied it.

Yet, Boies turned around and pulled up screenshots of internal Microsoft emails, which bluntly mentioned leveraging their operating system advantages to eliminate Netscape.

And the language was vulgar, with the email’s sender being Gates, who had just flatly denied it.

Well, that had entirely turned him into a clown.

Those who watched the evidence-gathering video could only think that Gates adopted self-interest as his philosophy in life, deftly using Microsoft’s market advantages against all perceived threats.

Regardless of whether these threats were real, and how soon they might emerge.

He also ignored everyone’s needs, even those of his own users.

All these behaviors had deeply tied him and Microsoft to the antitrust lawsuit.

And then there was the scene now observed by Dean, with the news media’s coverage delivering a fatal blow to Gates and Microsoft.

People no longer saw Gates as innocent, nor did they see him as just or advocating freedom as previously portrayed.

Alas, Gates was still young, how could he personally engage in such issues?

Look at Dean, he acted without talking, even having the CEO of Netscape represent him at the hearings.

The only recent news about him was his donation of 100 million US Dollars to a non-profit medical research hospital for research on tumors and cancer.

Of course, his generous donations to Stanford and Cleveland State University also became hot topics of discussion.

Look, that is how a tycoon should behave. He certainly had a lot of money, but he was also supporting social charitable causes genuinely.

Unlike Gates, who, on Dean’s coattails, also established his own charitable foundation.

But that was just for show, as his annual donations never exceeded 5% of the foundation’s total assets.

To know whether someone is truly philanthropic or not,

just look at whether their foundation’s annual donations exceed 5%.

The Dean Foundation had already committed this year’s 5% of charity funds, and the recent donation of more than 400 million US Dollars was additional spending.

This was true philanthropy, clearly superior to Gates.

Cough~ of course, the invisible benefits brought by these donations go without saying.

Support from the SRI Institute, priority investment rights to Stanford’s business office,

these were the effects of Dean’s network connections, which had nothing to do with his recent donations.

After all, Dean, a great benefactor, was as clean as a white lotus, whereas Gates was a supremely arrogant egoist.

Smack, Dean folded the newspaper. That was that.

...

"Has the court session been scheduled?"

"January 13, about three weeks from now."

Clark was well aware of everything, with no one more concerned about the situation at Netscape.

Upon hearing his response, Dean checked his watch. It was already the end of the year, and tomorrow would be Christmas.

Well, time flies, and the Microsoft antitrust trial was about to commence.

"By the way, Dean, have you heard?" Clark recalled a buzzing topic in Silicon Valley.

"What?" a somewhat distracted Dean snapped back to attention.

"Jobs is returning to Apple," Clark discussed enthusiastically.

Being ousted by his own founded company and coming back after 11 years.

Such a legendary experience, even for Silicon Valley, was enough to make engineers pause their work to chat for a moment.

Well, the trio of the computer world, Bill Gates, Dean Price, and Steve Jobs, were all now in play.

It was an era filled with stars again.

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