It's worth buying if the price is low, but it's not worth it if the price is too high.

Han Chudong had money and knew which direction the company should develop in the future. Apart from some necessary patented technologies, such as the mouse, graphical desktop operating system, etc., he did not attach too much importance to the Otto product itself.

The operating system and programming language used by Otto are too niche and will most likely be eliminated soon. Instead of wasting money to take over, it is better to spend money to recruit people to form a team and redevelop it according to your own ideas.

It would be better to create a closed system and then an open system, directly seize the opportunities that should belong to Apple and Microsoft, and try to become an "operating system tycoon."

After a happy dream, Han Chudong stood up from the computer and said, "It's a very interesting product. If we design a few more games, add a cassette port and a special game controller, we may be able to attract a large number of video game enthusiasts, just like Atari's street game console Ping Pong."

An engineer felt aggrieved when he heard Han Chudong compare Otto with the "Ping Pong" coin-operated game machines that can be seen everywhere on the streets today.

Just as he was about to tell them that the Otto was more advanced and professional, and was the best microcomputer on the market, his supervisor, Marilyn Turner, said, "It's great to use it to play games! Our engineers can tailor-make more interesting games for it. I've thought about this before, but unfortunately I have no experience in running an electronic game business."

Seeing that Director Marilyn Turner was continuing with his topic, Han Chudong could not help but guess that she was trying to fool him. He spread his hands and replied, "I have also been visiting other companies recently. The cost of producing an Otto microcomputer should be quite high. If the price is too high, I will definitely not be able to open up the market, especially since the home game console product I invested in is about to be launched."

As a businessman, you have to know when to be smart and when to be dumb.

In situations like this, Han Chudong had to behave smartly, otherwise he would be treated like a fat pig and slaughtered. So when the middle-aged female supervisor in front of him just praised the product, he poured cold water on her and asked about the cost.

Marilyn Turner did not continue to speak in public. After taking Han Chudong back to her office, she said, "Otto's current production cost is relatively high, but if it is mass-produced, the cost may be reduced by 20% or even 30%, depending on the quantity you purchase. The factory is not actually under my management, but if you purchase more than 500 units, I guarantee to get you the lowest price."

"Buy? No, no, no, I think you misunderstood me, Ms. Turner. The reason I visited your microcomputer manufacturing companies is because I want to acquire a ready-made R&D team and ready-made technology."

"...You mean, you want to buy out this place? All of it?!"

Han Chudong shook his head and continued, "I haven't thought about it yet. I'm just in the stage of selecting acquisition targets. To be honest, I admit that Otto is more convenient to use, but... it's useless, isn't it? I can't even think of what people can do with it after buying it. Probably only researchers will be interested in it."

Just like buying something at a street stall and picking and choosing in an attempt to get a lower price, he was openly devaluing the product.

Finally, he added: "However, if it is turned into a game machine, it should be very attractive to some young players. Judging from the sales of the Ping Pong arcade machine, if the project is lucky enough to succeed, it may be quite good. Perhaps Ms. Turner, you can make a phone call now and ask the board members who can really make the decision to see how much money I need to pay before they will sell this research center to me."

Han Chudong mentioned the game console so many times that Marilyn Turner actually believed that he wanted to use Otto as a game console.

I feel a little resistant because the project that I have worked so hard to manage may be packaged up and resold like garbage.

However, people at her level cannot participate in decision-making. Since Han Chudong has made a request, the news must be made known to the senior management. Ms. Turner nodded and replied, "Please wait a few minutes. I will call the CEO of Xerox and ask someone to take you on a tour of the company."

"Don't bother anyone, I'll just look around by myself, OK?"

"Of course, feel free to..."

After Han Chudong left, Marilyn Turner immediately picked up the phone and called Xerox Corporation, which was headquartered in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and asked her secretary to transfer the call to the CEO's office, specifically instructing her that there was an extremely urgent matter.

The fact that Xerox easily spent tens of millions of dollars to develop and produce microcomputers that had little to do with the company's main products, and gave them away everywhere, is enough to show how wealthy this listed company that made its fortune from copiers is. It almost monopolized the mid-to-high-end copier market and has a technological advantage.

Speaking of the Alto computer, its design shows that its original intention was to improve the way of working, promote the development of a new printer industry, and thus increase Xerox's profits. It is a part of the supporting products, and it is intended to allow people to process text and pictures on the computer and then print them directly on paper.

The idea was good, but the designed Otto microcomputer was very useless, and the so-called inkjet printing technology was still on the laboratory drawings.

This led to Xerox CEO Bob Sr. feeling both excited and embarrassed when he heard that Han Chudong wanted to acquire the entire project.

Currently many companies are competing for the printer market. In old Bob's opinion, Otto is useless now, but what if it develops in the future? The laboratory has already used IBM's commercial computers to connect to the printer and started to print some documents.

There is no wrong version in the 1619 book forum!

After a brief hesitation, in order to make up for the losses, I came up with a compromise.

Old Bob's voice sounded full of energy. He said, "Marilyn, go ask that little guy named Mason Han and tell him that we can license all the technology, but we don't plan to sell the entire project. We will decide the price after we have discussed it. Try to test him to see if he agrees first, so as not to waste time. Remember not to refuse outright. I need to discuss this matter with the chairman."

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With the instructions from the big boss, Ms. Marilyn Turner asked her assistant to bring Han Chudong back.

After hearing the end from her, Han Chudong raised his eyebrows slightly, thinking that it turned out to be a good thing that fell from the sky. He did not ask for technology authorization, but the other party was willing to open up all the technology patents first...