Chapter 203: Trouble Everywhere

Earlier this year, Intel released its 286 chip. As for the market response, it was just so-so. Intel was still a small player back then, and CPUs weren't their main business.

With so many restrictions from government procurement, the CPU production industry was a mess. There were companies like Siemens from Europe and AMD from the U.S.

Monopoly?

Nah, that wasn't a thing. Even with new architectures, it was no good.

Why was Motorola untouched? Weren't those third-party companies all related enterprises?

Haha, it's just temporary. The Fair Trade Commission had been watching them, determined to take down that market-disrupting jerk.

Gotta say, these guys seemed to have this constant need to meddle, as if not running their companies through the wringer was politically incorrect.

Speaking of CPUs, the gaming consoles industry had been messed up. Motorola didn't refuse orders from other game companies, so how could there be a monopoly?

Prices too high?

Well, shoot, why not just buy more?

Everything had a marked price. A million-unit order couldn't be compared to a few thousand unit orders. Buying in bulk made it cheaper -- everyone in the IT industry understood this rule and none would ignore it.

As for personal PCs, IBM was still the boss. Most compatible machine companies naturally used IBM's specs. Regarding CPUs, it was either Intel or similar factories.

Yes, you read that right. Back then, there wasn't much upgrading, or CPUs just weren't upgraded. They were fixed on the motherboard just like the chipset.

AMD and Siemens both had licenses, so buying from either didn't really matter.

For this situation, William White was extremely speechless. Why did he have to let other companies use the stuff he worked so hard to develop?

What? There's patent fees?

Darn, that pitiful amount of money could never make up for his losses.

"Sir, there's credible information claiming the Department of Commerce will start an antitrust investigation into our chip factory."

"Hmm, just drag it out. Let Ricoh know they can set up a new factory."

William White didn't care about any investigation. His main users weren't PCs; it was the CPUs used in handheld devices that were his target.

Dragging it out was fine, but retaliating was inevitable. Faced with a Department of Commerce investigation, of course, Motorola pushed back hard.

Are you playing favorites here? We were already having a hard time. Intel plus IBM held half the market. Our users were small to medium-sized enterprises. What was your real goal?

The old guys never expected him to be so straightforward. These investigations happened every day -- why make such a fuss?

To be fair, Motorola did have plenty of reason. They weren't industry leaders or anything. Their chip shipment numbers were for home gaming consoles. Personal PCs couldn't compare to Intel, and high-end chipsets were non-existent. You weren't going after the big boys but bullies small people like me. Were you taking kickbacks?

Hmm, maybe not kickbacks. How about influence-bartering?

"Are you trying to squash the little guy? Are you nuts? Let me show you what a media group is." William White felt quite frustrated. He was prepared for his current situation, but these guys were acting unpredictably, which gave him a headache.

The target of his criticism couldn't be Intel directly. Doing so would undermine the media's duty to be neutral.

The one to take the hit was naturally the Telephone and Telegraph Company. Since they were talking antitrust, wasn't the Telephone and Telegraph Company a trust? And that Big Blue -- its market cap was 60 billion, and we weren't even a fraction of that. How was this monopoly?

What? You say it might be a monopoly in the future?

Then you gotta be a fortune-teller or something, maybe switch to fortune telling. With that logic, no company should develop. Not targeting the largest trusts and instead going after small and medium enterprises meant you were actually supporting the trusts.

The media backlash was quite effective. Of course, the Department of Commerce would say they were also investigating those two companies.

In fact, when departments said such things, they were again mocked. How many years had this been going on? Why were those two companies unafraid?

Wearing the hat of targeting small and medium enterprises wasn't good. William White's brilliant move instantly made the concerned departments run in circles, and the two companies that accidentally got caught could only look to the heavens in silence.

...

"What is this guy trying to do?"

"Sir, the Fair Trade Commission was sloppy this time. They submitted a proposal without solid evidence."

"No evidence? Aren't their production workshops together?"

"I don't know how they sliced up the benefits, but those two production lines definitely belonged to the Japanese. And Ricoh is also site-selecting for a new factory."

"What about William White's shares? He's got quite a bit of stock."

"Gone, or rather less than 5% now. He's not on the board of directors anymore; all those shares went to a charity fund. It's a real donation."

"Tsk, so it looks like he has no intention for the chip factory. It's about the gaming console company."

"Yeah, competitors can't get advanced CPUs, research directions aren't clear, and then there's pricing. He could order more than a million units in one go. Competitors couldn't do it; even a hundred thousand would be tough."

"Tsk, he must've seen it too. CPUs are just the appetizer; gaming consoles are his real target."

"Exactly, if he faced setbacks now, messed with his gaming consoles next, wouldn't that be retaliation?"

"Heh, seems some people just can't let it go."

...

Morgan was deeply concerned about their investments. In this current weird situation, they naturally needed to understand clearly.

The so-called official powers were not to be taken seriously. America was a paradise for the rich; such powers had limited real use.

If this were a usual time, there would naturally be a more straightforward way of handling it -- nothing more than an exchange of interests. While openly they fought, behind the scenes, agents were busy.

The money here wasn't about using dollar bills to hit people. Those receiving and giving money would be in trouble.

Well, some people did mess up big time. Not only did they not gain benefits, but instead, they offended a big shot.

Other than his Texas hometown having no change, other regions' stances had changed significantly.

No surprise there. In America, nobody called anyone a traitor. It's no big deal; even Donkey and Elephant politicians could swap places.

Such childish antics seriously ticked off the big wigs in Washington. Thank goodness it wasn't the midterm election season, or it would have caused a big hassle.

When things blew up, there was no point bringing up fairness. The shady dealings in this mess were clear as day to anyone with sense. You mess with your own luck, why drag everyone else down? Best to wrap things up quickly, or you'd become everybody's target.

*****

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