I’m in Hollywood

California, Richmond, Eric has been here for three days, and in the past few days, he hired a professional team in Silicon Valley to make a detailed investigation of Pixar a.s.sets.

Steve Jobs was eager to complete the transaction, he expressed dissatisfaction with Eric unnecessary move. But he was helpless, Eric didn"t care about his feelings.

Although Steve Jobs talent is undeniable, but his character can"t be praised, he is a man who in order to not pay his illegitimate daughter alimony, publicly declared that he is impotent. As a result, Eric had to do a detailed appraisal of Pixar before completing the transaction.

Three days later, Pixar was located in single-storey office building, Eric was reading a thick a.s.sessment doc.u.ment on the conference table, his fingers gently tapping the desktop, with Steve Jobs sitting opposite him "Steve, I was very sincere about buying Pixar, but unfortunately, I didn"t see your sincerity."

Steve Jobs was not affected by the tone of Eric, he put a helplessness look on his face and said: "Eric, if you have any concerns you can say them, I will seriously answer you. But for you to say that I lack sincerity, that"s an accusation I can"t accept."

Eric sighed in admiration of Steve Jobs psychological quality, regardless of how he feel on the inside the surface didn"t reveal anything. This calmness even for him who lived two lives is hard to achieve.

He was in no mood to play a psychological battle with him, he went straight to the point: "All right Steve, I will say it directly. The reason why I wanted to buy Pixar, is that I value Pixar 3D animation technology. So you have sold the hardware department, which I don"t mind."

Eric said, while looking at the data in his hands: "However, the data we collected shows that the 3D computer graphics software developed by Pixar, some time ago three of the core software"s copyrights were transferred to your computer company NeXT. As for the most important animation software, although the core software didn"t get tampered with, the coloring software copyrights also was transferred. Pixar was able to receive Disney 2D animation outsourcing project, by virtue of that this software can substantially reduce the coloring time. You need to give me an explanation for your actions?"

Steve Jobs really isn"t an honest person, the reason for doing so, is he wanted to swindle Eric this layman. If Pixar new project succeed, the software"s he transferred can sell for millions of dollars. Perhaps some people will wonder how much money a few software"s can be worth, think of how much Microsoft is making from software sales.

But Steve Jobs did not expect is that Eric is this layman, know how things work and handed things to the insiders to do, he specifically invited a professional a.s.sessment team from Silicon Valley. When this team of technology madman get together in the same place, they will turn the place upside down trying to find any schemes, and soon those people found Steve Jobs"s little tricks.

In fact, after Eric made this move, Jobs did not have much hope in mind. With his thick-skin, even if he was p.r.i.c.ked in the face, he certainly will not compromise so easily.

"Eric, Pixar took over four years to build, I put at least 50 million dollars in Pixar, the hardware department sold only for 16 million. And your offer is only 20 million, what am i gonna do about what"s left at pixar."

Eric gave him a mocking smile, folded the folder, put his hands on the table and said to him. "Steve, you don"t seem to want to easily
admit your own failure. Well, I can make it easy for you to understand, you bought Pixar from Lucasfilm"s and you failed. The loser will have to bear the consciousness of failure, and losing is an inevitable thing in life. In order to save your computer company NeXT, you"ll have to sell me the entire Pixar software department at a low price. So, if we get those software"s back, then we can talk about the rest."

Steve Jobs face was transforming between several shades of green, as an extremely conceited person, he was always the one pointing at others failures and laughing at them, but now a kid younger than him by more than 10 years personally denounced him as a loser. Even with his extraordinary psychological quality, it was difficult for him to control himself.

Outside the conference room, John La.s.seter and the others who were supposed to be working actually was putting there ears to the door listening to the talk between the two, after hearing Eric merciless words their hearts couldn"t help but cool down.

Steve Jobs has never been a very amiable boss, every time the main creative employees at Pixar try to do some creative work the result of their hard labor is criticism and being told that there work is useless, then he takes back part of the stocks that they got as a condition for working at Pixar, 

Using these means a few years later, Pixar has completely become Jobs"s personal property, all the shares in the hands of the management staff were taken by him.

Now they finally heard Steve Jobs being scolded. This alone, made the awkwardness of having to work under a teenager vanish into thin air.

In the conference room, Steve Jobs said: "Mr. Williams, you"re buying Pixar should be to make animated movies, right?. And now after several movies of yours have achieved great success, I believe that many people are paying attention to your every act and move, if I let out the news that you are trying to buy Pixar, maybe there will be a lot of people interested in buying Pixar at a higher prices, what do you think?"

Eric right hand ring finger slightly trembled a bit, but fortunately this detail has not been noticed by Steve Jobs.

After forcing himself to not show the worry in his heart, Eric did not hesitate to sneer, and say: "Mr. Jobs, those words are gonna cost you 1 million dollars. I don"t like others threatening me, so I decided to lower the offer to $19 million. Pixar is actually like a camera, under my command, it can shoot movies like 《Home Alone》 and 《Pretty Woman》, but in the hands of other directors, shooting a good movie is hard to say. So, $19 million, for the complete Pixar software department. If you agree, call me before I leave Richmond."

After Eric finished, he picked up his personal belongings and came out of Pixar office. His private lawyer Edward quickly followed him. After a long time, Steve Jobs finally came out of the conference room, trying to look cool, he glanced at the employees pretending to work, and unusually did not lose his temper, he silently left Pixar headquarters.

... ...

Early on the next day, Eric and Steve Jobs again sat in the conference room.

A lot of business negotiations are like this. There are always several rounds of confrontations. Even if they quarreled, or almost got into a fight in the first round, once the second round start, they will put there feelings aside and again start the negotiations.

Today, Steve Jobs clearly had slightly dark circles under his eyes, he started by saying: "Eric, I did not do anything wrong before, everyone will do their best for their own interests, I agree to return the software, but the price will remain unchanged at $20 million. We...... are all rational adults, not because of a few words you end up removing 1 million dollars. That"s what children do."

Eric Didn"t want to put too much pressure on Steve Jobs, if the negotiation break up, he would have to spend too much money on forming a new animation studio, and he will also have to start from scratch in developing a new animation software, and acc.u.mulating enough technology, these things not only need a lot of money but also need several years of time. Although Eric is not short of money, but he does not have enough time to acc.u.mulate technology.

In his past life everyone knows that 3d animated movies can bring huge profits, but Hollywood has always had so few well-known animation studios, that"s because these studios have always been way ahead of other counterparts in technology, and occupying a big share of the market.

It"s hard for other people to try to catch up, and if you wanted to you"ll need few years to catch up, and when you finally reach there level you"ll find that they have widened the technology gape again, In this situation, the latecomers will never be able to keep up with the pace of their predecessors.

In the conference room, the two of theme were arguing back and forth with each other for nearly half an hour, Eric didn"t want to swallow back his words, finally both sides gave a little ground, resulting in a price of $19.5 million.

Getting back the software ownership, Eric once again made sure that there was no mistakes, and after the confirmation they signed the contract. Steve Jobs took his check and looked at the employees who worked for him for the past several years, he felt that there was nothing to say, he nodded at them and turned and left Pixar headquarters.