Chapter 602: This is Holding a Grudge

"I say, old Pei! You've had too comfortable a Spring Festival. People with families are the ones who forget to return home, so why are you, a bachelor, moping around at home?"

After the Lantern Festival, Pei Wencong and Luo Runbo finally flew from Hong Kong to the Lighthouse to meet up with Li Ye. As soon as the two met, Li Ye started teasing Pei Wencong about his "older bachelor" status.

Pei Wencong let out a long sigh, put on an expression of having no desire to live, and said: "I've had a miserable fifteen days! Dealing with a bunch of ladies and misses every day, this one wants to marry her daughter to me, that one wants to crawl into my quilt..."

"..."

Li Ye blinked and said with a laugh: "If I had known you had such good things, I wouldn't have urged you to come over. This delayed your lifelong event. Won't your mother complain about you when you get to Hong Kong?"

"Don't mention my mother. She's gone crazy wanting to hold a grandson. I get a headache just hearing it,"

Pei Wencong shook his head with a bitter smile and said: "Let's talk about the investment company! Jeff said you invested in a company called Cisco. It seems the prospects are very good."

"More than just good!"

Li Ye said with a smile: "Just the day before yesterday, Cisco signed a local area network construction agreement with three major universities. Then guess what? Wang Laboratories smelled the scent and made an appointment with Bosack to come tomorrow."

Pei Wencong asked in surprise: "What is Wang Laboratories coming to find us for?"

Li Ye smiled playfully: "They didn't say, but I guess it's nothing more than two demands: first, they want to buy the patent for the multi-protocol router; second, they want to buy shares in Cisco and then sell them exclusively with their company's computers."

Wang Laboratories had always followed a "non-compatible" route. If they took a fancy to Cisco, they would definitely adopt a strategy of "only compatible with me, not with IBM." But Li Ye felt that he was wasting his effort.

Not to mention that this business thinking was completely contrary to the technical philosophy of the Bosack couple, even if he wanted to buy Cisco's shares, he would have to compete with Li Ye.

How much money could Wang Laboratories come up with?

"Then we have to have a good chat with the big boss Wang tomorrow."

Pei Wencong's eyes narrowed, his face full of the mischievous expression of "debts are repaid quickly in June."

At San Francisco Airport, Wang Lie led his team and hurried out of the gate.

After getting into the car, he asked the accompanying John Chambers: "What time is the appointment with the Cisco people?"

Chambers said: "Boss Wang, two o'clock in the afternoon."

Wang Lie nodded: "Okay, this time we are determined to win."

Chambers thought for a moment and said in a low voice: "Boss Wang, I think... it might be a bit difficult."

"Difficult?"

Wang Lie said with a straight face: "John, you were in a hurry to find me the day before yesterday, saying that Cisco's router is a revolutionary technology that can change the computer industry, urging me to make a decision to acquire it immediately, but now you tell me it's difficult?"

Chambers lowered his head slightly and explained patiently: "Boss Wang, I asked friends to inquire. Professor Bosack registered Cisco two years ago, but it has never made any progress until he received an injection of capital not long ago.

And after the capital injection, Cisco immediately formed a powerful public relations team and signed contracts with three universities in half a month, which shows that their public relations expenses are very sufficient, so..."

Chambers glanced at Wang Lie and said: "So I think the bottom line of five million may not be able to take down the 55% equity in Bosack's hands."

In the Lighthouse, there is generally no crime of "bribery" because there are various reasonable and legal "public relations expenses." If you don't do public relations, people won't pay much attention to your salespeople.

So after Bosack developed the multi-protocol router, even the Stanford University where he worked didn't support him in producing it.

But after Li Ye made the decision to inject over a million dollars in capital, Cisco stood up in less than a month.

Once a person stands up, can they still look at small change?

Chambers was in sales. Just based on Cisco's public relations situation, he could guess the minds of Bosack and others eight or nine times out of ten.

A technology company in a period of rapid ascent—Wang Lie only valued them at ten million. How could they sell?

But Wang Lie didn't think so.

"John, a month ago, Cisco wasn't even worth a million. I've already offered ten times the price, and I'm here to talk in person. If I still can't negotiate it, then I have to doubt your ability."

"..."

"Okay, I will try my best."

John Chambers was stunned for a moment and finally lowered his head.

Ever since the old boss Wang retired to the second line, he had slowly gotten used to the "impatience" and "recklessness" of this second-generation successor.

Because of Wang Lie's series of changes, two of the three technical founders of Wang Laboratories had been forced away, which was simply a disaster for a technology company.

But Wang Lie didn't think it was his own problem. He seemed to be using the method of forcing away company veterans to prove his power and status within the company.

Chambers had served as a manager in the Asia region, so he knew a Chinese proverb—a new official applies three fires.

But Chambers, with his Western thinking, didn't understand: it's easy for you to set a fire, but is it easy to put it out?

【I hope today goes smoothly!】

After getting the news about the multi-protocol router, Chambers believed that this was a technology that could help Wang Laboratories reverse the situation. As long as they could take down this technology, it wouldn't be impossible to compete with IBM.

But Chambers was destined not to get his wish, because after entering Cisco's new office, they saw several acquaintances at a glance.

Pei Wencong, Luo Runbo, and the young couple, Li Ye and Wen Leyu.

Wang Lie sat down with a gloomy face and then asked Bosack in a deep voice: "Mr. Bosack, in our previous calls, we didn't say that outsiders needed to be present for today's negotiation."

Bosack said in the unique tone of a science and engineering man: "I can't help it either, because when I accepted the capital injection, I signed an additional clause that any negotiation matters related to patents and equity transfer must have other shareholders present."

"..."

Wang Lie looked at Pei Wencong in surprise and couldn't help but say: "Mr. Pei, do you hold 45% of Cisco's shares?"

Pei Wencong said lightly: "Not that much. I am good friends with Mr. Jeff. He set up an investment company, and I just added a little money and took a small share."

Pei Wencong wasn't lying. He had added a "little" money (hundreds of millions) and held 40% of the shares, with the remaining 5% reserved for the senior executives of the GF company.

Of course, those 5% of shares only had dividend rights.

"Oh, so that's how it is."

Wang Lie felt slightly relieved. He himself was a Chinese person and knew that some Chinese people were very vengeful—the kind who would say, "I'd rather not make money, I'll make you embarrassed."

But Westerners like Jeff were different. They always upheld the principle that "there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests."

Wang Lie nodded toward Chambers, signaling that he could begin.

Chambers smiled at everyone and said: "Our Wang Laboratories is one of the largest computer companies in the Lighthouse, so if we cooperate with Cisco, it will inevitably be a win-win situation..."

"..."

Chambers had a good eloquence and spent five minutes talking about the benefits of cooperation between the two sides in one breath, and he looked like he could talk for another ten minutes.

But Bosack knocked on the table impatiently: "Sorry, please don't waste my time. You can just make an offer directly!"

Chambers was choked and had to say: "Our valuation of Cisco... is ten million."

"..."

After Chambers reported the offer of ten million, Wang Lie's eyelids twitched.

Showing his cards as soon as he came up—this was a naive move.

But Bosack's brows furrowed, and he said very unhappily: "The largest computer company in the Lighthouse only offers ten million?"

"..."

Wang Lie's face turned red, and he asked in a muffled voice: "Mr. Bosack, how much do you think is appropriate?"

Bosack pointed to Jeff opposite: "Mr. Jeff is willing to pay ten million to buy 6% of my shares. You can calculate how much you should offer yourself!"

"..."

Wang Lie's arithmetic was not bad, and he immediately calculated Cisco's valuation.

He felt that this was a joke. How much was his Wang Laboratories computer company worth, a few hundred million?

【Sure enough, this is holding a grudge!】 ===== CHAPTER 603 =====