Rebirth of the Tech Madman

He endured his impatience and spoke to each other for a while, until Markkula walked in, "Robert, come to my office to continue the discussion. Don is here too, so let's just be together."

Robert seemed reluctant, but he nodded and agreed. Tang Huan didn't bother to ask anything. As Markula came to the office of the chairman of the board, he found that Jobs, Scott and several other Apple directors were also there.

Before the three of them sat down, Jobs said to Robert with an unhappy expression: "Aren't you related to Wall Street? Hurry up and find another underwriter."

"Morgan Stanley is already the best partner." Robert replied silently.

Upon hearing the content of their conversation, Tang Huan guessed that this was discussing the listing of Apple’s stock, but the atmosphere did not seem to be very harmonious.

It turns out that as a leader in the emerging industry of personal computers, many of Apple’s circumstances are groundbreaking, and the same is true. Not long after contact with the underwriter Morgan Stanley, it was directly on the issue of the issue price. There was a huge disagreement.

The Morgan Stanley group is extremely conservative. After evaluating data such as net assets, they gave a unit price of $12 per share. Even if it provokes dissatisfaction from the founders of the company and the first batch of venture investors , Jobs even jumped out, "Our such a great emerging technology company is so worthless in the eyes of you bankers?"

It is conceivable how the two sides broke up unhappy in the end.

Tang Huan rubbed his eyebrows and murmured to himself that Steve Jobs was really fearless of the ignorant. You are not at all polite to the elites from Wall Street.

In his opinion. Robert is not without reason. At the current stage, Morgan Stanley, which is commonly called "Motorcycle" in the financial world, should be the best partner. It and Goldman Sachs and other companies have a pivotal position on Wall Street.

The history of Morgan Stanley can be traced back to the 1930s, when the United States was turned into a depression by the economic crisis. Most people attribute the economic collapse to the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929.

In order to curb speculation, the US Congress passed the "Glass-Steagall Act" in 1933. That is, the Banking Act of 1933.

One of the regulations is to completely separate commercial banks that are mainly engaged in deposit and loan business from investment banks that rely on securities for profit, forming a mechanism similar to a firewall.

This bill eventually forced j.p. Morgan to abandon its investment banking business and become a single commercial bank.

The reason for this choice was that at that time, compared with investment banking, commercial banks' commercial loan services could bring greater profits.

At the same time, the company's managers believe that the future political environment will eventually change and prompt the cancellation of the "Glass-Steagall Act", when that time comes. As a commercial bank, j.p. Morgan can quickly resume investment banking business. Otherwise, it will be difficult.

So in 1935, J.P. Morgan Company completely shut down the investment banking department.

Partner Henry Morgan, the grandson of the famous John Morgan, and Harold Stanley, led the company’s investment bankers to establish a new securities company, named Morgan Stanley, and in 1941 Became a partner of the New York Stock Exchange in 2016.

This group of elites has a very accurate grasp of the future. The provisions of the "Glass-Steagall Act" are indeed being gradually cancelled and replaced.

For example, allowing the Federal Reserve System to adjust the interest on storage accounts was abolished by the Deregulation and Currency Control Act of 1980.

In the original time and space, the prohibition of bank holding companies from owning other financial companies was also cancelled by the Financial Services Law Modernization Act that took effect in 1999.

It can be said that this change is almost inevitable, because the United States is so isolated, but European countries have not followed suit, and will naturally have a certain advantage in the competition.

But with the popularity of bank holding companies, which are involved in any financial business, like department stores, the potential risks are also increasing. Fortunately, they can be transferred through globalization. The turmoil in the world capital markets that began in the latter part of the first decade may not have nothing to do with this.

Under the leadership of these visionary financial elites, Morgan Stanley's development speed can be imagined.

Apple should be happy to be recognized by such a big boss and have the value of operating the market. How can it casually pat the table for a small problem.

You should know that these financial guys have begun to ignore the so-called demeanor. When they helped the client to implement the acquisition, they would try to attract or persuade the acquired party to agree, and would never openly force a merger, which can be called a civilized norm. However, after entering the 1970s, Bawang made a hostile takeover.

For example, in July 1974, Morgan Stanley, which has the best reputation in the investment banking industry, first launched an attack. On behalf of its Canadian client, Ni-Cr Corporation, it participated in an attempted hostile acquisition of the then largest battery manufacturer in the world, namely, the electric storage battery company. esb action.

There are those who sing white faces, and there are those who sing red faces. In this acquisition, Goldman Sachs participated in the acquisition under the banner of "anti-acquisition consultant".

After learning of Morgan Stanley's hostile intentions, esb quickly called Freemand, who was in charge of the merger and acquisition department of Goldman Sachs at the time, and asked for his help.

At nine o'clock the next morning, Freeman sat in the office of the boss of the esb company in Philadelphia.

When he learned that the bid price was US$20 per share, which was an increase of US$9 from the previous trading day, he suggested that esb use the "white warrior" approach to deal with it, or conduct an antitrust lawsuit.

With the assistance of Goldman Sachs and the White Warriors, they eventually paid a high price of $41, and the stocks in the hands of esb shareholders rose by 100%.

From the beginning of this incident, Morgan Stanley first, and then First Boston, both acted as hostile takeovers, while Goldman Sachs was the backbone of the anti-malicious takeover, and jointly staged a battle between acquisitions and anti-takeovers. .

Morgan Stanley, which participated in hostile mergers and acquisitions, has obtained record-breaking income; Goldman Sachs helps companies that have suffered hostile acquisitions by inviting friendly bidders, the White Warriors, to participate in bidding, raise the purchase price or take antitrust lawsuits to snipe Hostile bidders also earn both fame and fortune.

It is not difficult to see from this that these investment bankers are similar to the lawyers who both the plaintiff and the defendant take all. Whether they are playing the devil or the angel, they still make a lot of money and have great energy.

Apple, which is destined to enter the stock market, must learn to be used to the rules and make good friends with others. You know, in the future, you will be praised by the other party with a market value of 700 billion US dollars, becoming the first company in the history of the United States to exceed this number.

Therefore, whether Morgan Stanley wants you to lie down or on your stomach, you have to put on a smiling face.

If you have a disagreement, you can act like a baby, or you can hook up with one woman and two families.

In Tang Huan's memory, there were two investment banks in charge of Apple's ip0 in his previous life: one was the traditional Wall Street company Morgan Stanley, and the other was Humberquist in San Francisco.

The latter also helped companies such as Genentech, Netscape, Amazon and so on. They succeeded in doing it. It can be said to have achieved remarkable results, and was eventually favored by JPMorgan Chase and was taken into account.

This shows that Humberquist has a more positive understanding of the value of emerging technology companies like Apple.

The quarrel in the office became more intense between Tang Huan thinks and some people even speculated maliciously, "Morgan Stanley gave such a price. It is not because of its strong strength that it underwrites our stocks and transfers it to others. Investment banks, make their fortune from China."

"There is no need to doubt the professionalism of Morgan Stanley so much?" Robert, who matched it, was both depressed and aggrieved. "As for the choice of underwriting or agency distribution, hasn't it been time to discuss."

Hearing this, Tang Huan frowned, saying that even if you cross the river by touching the stones, you don't have to be so slow.

But Morgan Stanley is indeed too conservative, and the price is very inappropriate. You know, in this time and space, I have greatly expanded the application field of Apple's second-generation machine through office software and function expansion cards, which is far from the other types of personal computers that are often used to play games on the market. .

Moreover, there was a clear data reference in the original time and space. On the day of Apple's stock listing, the bankers finally set a stock price of $22 per share. By the end of the day, the stock price had risen to $29.

The gap between the two is too big, UU Reading www. According to Tang Huan’s prediction, uukanshu.com said that the issue price of Apple’s stock would have to be more than $25. Otherwise, my brother had done so much for Apple.

Markkula noticed the change in Tang Huan's expression, raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and asked, "Tang, what do you think about it?"

Tang Huan didn't want to waste time by arguing meaninglessly like this. With this time, he might as well go home and change the diaper for the child, so he did his part to express his thoughts.

"Everyone, I think everyone should calm down first. If Apple succeeds in listing, it will set a precedent for the personal computer industry. Since there is no precedent to follow, Morgan Stanley follows a conservative thinking and gives a traditional Evaluation is not surprising."

Steve Jobs, who was so quarrelsome just now, had already moisturized his throat. He looked at Tang Huan, who hadn't spoken up for a few days, and asked: "Then you want to accept Morgan Stanley's price?" (To be continued. .)

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