Chapter 127: The Formidable 6600

To be honest, William White had not anticipated this outcome; he had intended to keep playing for a while longer, as the money was rolling in quite nicely.

William White had overlooked one problem: it was an election year. Carter was already performing miserably, and his defeat was a foregone conclusion. He needed to leave some assets for his successor, or he risked losing everything.

We were in a bipolar world, and the Soviets would never pass up such an opportunity.

After listening to the descriptions from these folks, not to mention the others, even William White was left dumbfounded. Opposing the Soviets was naturally the mainstream position; to do otherwise would be idiomatic of an idiot. Since some were willing to compromise, being relentless would only make one look dim-witted—knowing when to quit while ahead was the true path to wisdom.

After all the commotion, Marvel was speechless to discover that yet another large comic book company had emerged in the United States. Although it still needed to pass reviews, that was likely just a matter of time.

Three million copies in weekly sales—what an astonishing figure. This was only the second week. Once it surpassed the five-million mark, the U.S. comic book industry would become a duopoly.

Advertisers began to regret their hesitation. The advertising pages were filled with White’s own brands—whether it was movies or red wine, they were all full-page ads. Those in the know understood that this was because the ad slots hadn't sold, but those who didn't thought White Juice was a world-famous brand. What kind of insane person advertises like this? How much money could one possibly have to waste?

Of course, some questioned the sheer volume of ads. William White, ever humble, decided to listen to the readers and let them have the final say: if they stopped the ads, they couldn't guarantee the number of color pages. If they accepted the ads, he would strive to use color pages throughout.

Damn, you can play it like that? Everyone knew color pages looked better. Ads? Fine, let them be ads. Besides, the environmental ads were actually quite good—were these public service announcements?

A group of petrochemical magnates stared blankly at the promotional pages. "Bury PVC in the ground with you; you’ll rot, but it will remain perfectly intact." In this era, no one really cared about the environment, but now that it was being brought up like this, chemical products seemed to be good for nothing.

"Have you guys tasted this brand of water?"
"Boss, his factory is still under construction; the earliest will be the second half of the year. The juice is the same—it won't be on sale until the end of the year or early next year."

The old men were bewildered. There was no product yet, so what on earth were they advertising? Did he just have too much money to burn?

"Boss, their ad rates were too expensive this time, and no one was willing to buy, so it ended up like this."
"Go buy two ad slots. We need a positive image."

Damn it. Glass bottles could be recycled, and so could PVC. They were certain of one thing: the next issue’s ads wouldn't mock PVC. This was the unwritten rule among the wealthy. Chemical products were the mainstream, and that wouldn't change. William White had no grudge against the dollar; he would do the work if he was paid, otherwise, he’d just be a common thug.

"Boss, this is the Apple II machine equipped with the 6600 chip. After rigorous testing, the efficiency of the microcomputer database has significantly increased."
"Not bad. Have someone send one to Master Jobs. Tell him I modified an Apple machine and it's much better than his stuff. Don't give it to him for free; fifteen dollars cash, no credit."

Watching his subordinate leave, William White began calling for the video game department. With the acceleration of the home console project, his game company was expanding rapidly. Initially, these guys were all using the 6500 chipset, but since his own chips were now out, it was time to upgrade.

Theoretically, this change was quite clever. The core was still an 8-bit processor, but it utilized a 16-bit channel, and the core frequency was only 2 MHz. If you thought this was junk, you were dead wrong. The Apple II didn't even reach 2 MHz, and it was used in Europe well into the nineties. The 286 and 386 were just fleeting clouds; this thing eventually sold five million units and wasn't phased out until Windows 95 appeared.

This small change might just increase the sales of the second-generation machines. The Lisa project wasn't much better; like Master Jobs' Macintosh, it was just flashy, impractical junk. Jobs was actually a marketing expert who had always been selling "sentiment." He just lacked the seasoning; when he returned as a king, he could sell anything he touched.

The 16-bit CPU was just a transition. Performance didn't increase much, but the price was significantly higher, which explained why the Lisa computer flopped—it was much more expensive than the Apple II. Intel’s 8080 series faced the same situation; if not for the brand advantage of the "Blue Giant" (IBM), the 286 and 386 would have flopped too.

William White's sudden entry would definitely disrupt the semiconductor industry's landscape. The Apple II would live a little longer, and while he couldn't control how the Blue Giant system played, he had to apply some pressure.

Microsoft could take off, but it couldn't fly too high. Bill Gates was no saint; he was a standard businessman. His start was nothing more than a laughable compiler—which, damn it, was copied—plus that bug-ridden MS-DOS. That was a cheap piece of junk bought for a few hundred thousand dollars, which they then changed beyond recognition. If not for that, the likes of Apple would have been crushed into dust long ago. Even if his start was unimpressive, he grew larger and larger, covering almost every software discipline. If it weren't for the Department of Justice's antitrust investigation, other software companies would have ceased to exist.

William White didn't want to be easily absorbed; a strong alliance was his bottom line. If Microsoft could copy a graphical operating system, so could he. This was an era of fierce competition, far from anything resembling a monopoly. Besides, with the Blue Giant blocking the way, a market cap of tens of billions was fine; a market cap of a few hundred million was just a joke.

Comic books were not a high-profit industry. Outsiders couldn't understand the point of such elaborate hype. DC’s valuation was one hundred million dollars, which made it a large company in the U.S. William White knew the profit of a comic book company didn't lie in the comics themselves. In most people's eyes, even if you had incredible talent, reaching ten million in weekly sales was the absolute limit. Having any other ideas was just dreaming.

What were the costs of William White’s weekly? Anyone who had worked in publishing knew that the most ridiculous thing was the choice of headquarters location. You only sell a few copies in Australia a year—it’s embarrassing. And yet, some people were just bored out of their minds. After careful calculation, if the comics were printed in Japan and the U.S., there would actually be a 10% gross margin. If you added advertising revenue, it seemed like a decent business after all.

It could actually make money? Marvel seemed very happy. "Should we acquire them?" Regarding Marvel’s acquisition offer, William White could only remain speechless. You want to expand overseas? That has nothing to do with me. I should be the one acquiring you, it's just that I’m a bit short on cash right now. You really think of yourself as the boss.

The Viking’s rejection left DC very embarrassed. Warner intended to sell them off, but Marvel didn't care for them at all; Stan Lee even called them worthless. Well, the old man certainly had the capital to be arrogant. Without that old prankster, Marvel, having no backing, would have been finished long ago.

Marvel certainly didn't have good intentions. They only had their eyes on those IPs. The group of newcomers meant nothing to them; as soon as the acquisition was complete, there would be a massive purge. They even had a preliminary plan already in place.