booktalesy Chapter 246 Anti-Bill Gates Alliance
Chapter 246 Anti-Bill Gates Alliance
Chapter 246 Anti-Bill Gates Alliance
As Craig's phone call cut through the afternoon sea breeze of San Diego, Southern California, Ernst was leaning against the wooden railing of the pier, gazing absently at the shimmering waves on the distant horizon.
The sunlight stretched his shadow long, and everything exuded a sense of leisure and comfort.
"1.5 million US dollars?" Ernst raised an eyebrow into the receiver, his tone revealing no surprise whatsoever.
If someone else heard this offer, they would probably be stunned, since $1.5 million is enough to buy several top-tier apartments in Manhattan these days.
But with Ernst, it was the same satisfaction as buying a lobster at a bargain price at the market.
Putting everything else aside, just considering the timber needed, even if you demolish the house and sell the wood twenty years from now, you could still make at least a billion or eighty million.
In his view, the investment of 1.5 million yuan was less about building a residence and more about buying a large item that would appreciate in value.
"No problem, have them send someone to inspect it as soon as possible. I want to see the design drawings by the end of this year." He said decisively, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
After hanging up the phone, Ernst casually put his phone in his pocket and glanced at the two men who were slowly walking towards the yacht moored at the dock.
One of them, dressed in a well-tailored casual suit and with his hair combed up to a shine, was none other than Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle.
The other is the soul of Apple, Steven Jobs.
Ernst's lips curled into a mischievous smile, and he followed with light steps.
"Larry, I admit your estate is fantastic." Ernst strode over to the two of them, deliberately feigning regret, and gently shook his head, his sigh perfectly timed.
"But unfortunately, it probably won't be able to become the most valuable estate in California."
Larry Ellison was chatting with Jobs about his mansion in Woodside, his mind filled with how he would continue to show it off on the yacht later, when he suddenly heard this and froze for a moment, as if he hadn't reacted.
He stopped, turned and stared at Ernst, his brow furrowed so deeply it could trap a fly. "Why?"
In his eyes, his 140-acre Japanese-style manor, which blends Eastern aesthetics, is simply the pinnacle of California luxury homes.
Ernst raised an eyebrow, his tone deliberately arrogant, "Because my estate is also going to be built, and it will not only be larger than yours, but also more luxurious."
Upon hearing this, Larry Ellison reacted as if he had been provoked, and immediately exploded.
He stood there, stunned, his eyes wide open. A few seconds later, a standard American swear word escaped his lips: "FXXK, I won't let you get away with this."
Still not satisfied after berating Larry, he suddenly turned to Steve Jobs beside him, his tone full of grievance and dissatisfaction, "Steven, is this the interesting friend you were talking about? I find him even more annoying than Bill Gates."
Steve Jobs barely managed to suppress a laugh when he heard this.
He glanced at Ernst and saw him looking at Larry with an innocent expression. He couldn't help but think to himself: Who told you to show off your mansion in front of people every day?
A week ago, Jobs suddenly called Ernst, saying he wanted to invite him to dinner and mysteriously said he wanted to introduce him to a good friend.
Ernst was quite curious at the time, but when he arrived at the restaurant, he discovered that the person sitting there was none other than Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, a super-rich man known in Silicon Valley for his high profile and love of comparison.
Ostensibly it was a meal, but in reality, Jobs was building his own group alliance.
Apple makes hardware, Ernst's company focuses on Internet products, and Oracle develops software systems. The three companies together form a small industry chain.
Even more coincidentally, all three of them had significant conflicts with Bill Gates of Microsoft.
The feud between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is almost common knowledge in Silicon Valley. Apple and Microsoft have been locked in legal battles, from operating systems to software patents, causing quite a stir, and their relationship has long since reached a freezing point.
The conflict between Ernst and Bill Gates has recently become known throughout the United States.
First came the browser wars, with Ernst's Google Chrome gaining the largest market share thanks to its simpler interface and faster speed.
Not long after, the two met again in the field of email.
However, when it comes to the degree of dislike for Bill Gates, Larry Ellison is probably second to none.
What is Oracle's core competency? It has to be its database.
Through its database business, Larry Ellison amassed a fortune of hundreds of millions, and Oracle rose to become the second largest software company after Microsoft.
However, while Oracle is second only to Microsoft, its market capitalization is far smaller, at just over $180 billion.
But this does not prevent Larry Ellison from becoming a super-rich man who can rival Bill Gates, as he holds 39% of Oracle's shares.
The conflict between the two stemmed from Bill Gates not only trying to steal Larry Ellison's job, but also sabotaging him.
In 1988, Microsoft, together with Sybase and Aston-Tate, jointly developed the SQL Server database that ran on the OS/2 system.
Turning back to 1989, Microsoft directly released its first commercial version of the database, SQL Server 1.0.
OS/2 officially sounded the horn for entering the database field, which was undoubtedly a move on Oracle's territory.
What angered Larry Ellison even more was that Microsoft, in order to support its own database business, resorted to bundling, requiring manufacturers who installed Windows systems not to use Oracle's databases.
Because of this incident, Larry Ellison even had employees pick up trash at Microsoft every day and bribe Microsoft's cleaning staff, hoping to find clues in the trash.
And believe it or not, he actually found it. So he sued Microsoft in court on antitrust grounds. Otherwise, it's hard to say whether Oracle would still have the market share it has now that surpasses SQL Server.
So Larry Ellison's dislike for Bill Gates reached its peak. I remember later when Bill Gates got married, he specially found a small island to hold the wedding. As a result, Larry Ellison bought the island without saying a word, just to disgust Bill Gates.
He has also publicly boasted more than once that he bought a helicopter so that he could storm into Bill Gates' house if he was ever in a bad mood.
So when Steve Jobs proposed forming an anti-Bill alliance, Larry Ellison agreed almost immediately.
And Ernst? He wasn't really that attached to this league, since Jobs and Larry Ellison actually needed him more.
Apple computers need applications developed by Ernst's subsidiaries to enrich their ecosystem. Without these useful applications, Apple computers would be much less competitive.
As for Oracle, they were eager to develop Ernst's company into a major client and even wanted to form a deep partnership with Ernst's business.
The current database market has a wide variety of products, including Oracle and Microsoft, IBM's DB2, Sweden's MySQL, SAP's Sybase, and many more.
Technically, everyone is pretty much the same. So why does Oracle have a higher market share? Because it has done a better job of commercialization.
It includes Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management, namely ERP and CRM.
However, Ernst's companies did not choose the American company for their databases, but instead chose the Swedish company MySQL.
The reason is simply because they are open source, while the other companies are all closed source.
In Ernst's view, a lower level of commercialization is not a problem. As long as it is open source, companies like Google can carry out secondary development on the basis of MySQL. Even if problems arise in the future, they will not be held hostage by a single company or have their prices arbitrarily increased.
If the Swedish company hadn't refused to sell, Ernst would have acquired it long ago.
Over the years, Oracle's sales team has tried to sell its products to Ernst's companies many times, but each time they have come with high hopes only to leave disappointed.
Taking advantage of Steve Jobs's connections, Larry Ellison brought up the matter again at the dinner table, hoping to get Ernst to agree.
Ernst didn't beat around the bush and stated bluntly, "Unless Oracle can let me take a stake, it's basically impossible."
Although the two had a disagreement over this matter, it wasn't entirely without benefit for Larry Ellison. At least he figured out that Ernst didn't want to use Oracle's products, but rather had other requirements.
After dinner, Larry Ellison probably felt he had lost out in business and wanted to make up for it in other ways, so he took Ernst and Jobs to Woodside to visit the mansion he was building.
Throughout the journey, Larry Ellison kept talking, sometimes praising the estate as an artistic masterpiece that blends Eastern aesthetics, and other times saying that he was an architectural connoisseur whose talents were wasted on technology.
The Ellison Estate is predominantly Japanese in style. According to Larry Ellison, he was captivated by this oriental aesthetic after visiting Japan.
The entire estate covers an area of 140 acres and consists of more than a dozen buildings, including the main house, guest rooms, tea room, and hot spring.
Regardless of whether they are Americans or not, Ernst must correct Larry Ellison's perception that Japanese aesthetics are simply Eastern aesthetics.
Tell him who the originator of Eastern aesthetics is.
In such a small place, what room for maneuver is there? First of all, one's mind is restricted.
Moreover, he does need to build his own private kingdom. In addition to Los Angeles, Silicon Valley will also become his permanent residence in the future. Building a manor is not only for living, but also for increasing its value.
In the long run, it is also a good investment.
Then Craig arrived in the capital. Today was the day the three of them had agreed to go sea fishing. Unexpectedly, before they even boarded the boat, they received some good news.
In response to Larry Ellison's complaints, Steven pouted and said, "I think Ernst made a wise choice."
Even though Larry Ellison and he are good friends, good friends still have their share of complaints.
Larry Ellison is a guy who loves to compare himself to others, which may be related to his background.
He failed to graduate three times and had to drop out of school in the end, but fortunately he succeeded.
So this guy is extremely vain; he wants everyone to see that so what if he dropped out of school? He can still become one of the richest people in America.
And what about you graduates from prestigious universities? Aren't you still working for me?
This kind of thinking made Larry Ellison's mentality somewhat abnormal, and he was willing to show off to everyone.
As a good friend, Steve Jobs heard these kinds of comments from him quite often.
Now Ernst is choosing to confront him head-on and teach him a lesson, which Jobs is happy to see.
Larry Ellison scoffed, "We'll talk when your mansion is finished."
Looking at the yacht he was about to board, he suddenly had an idea: "How about we take a gamble? Let's bet on who catches the biggest fish this time."
"What's the stake?" Ernst retorted.
"All expenses for this trip."
Ernst raised his hand and gave an OK sign, as if to say, "Who's afraid of who?"
>