Frankly, William White didn't expect this ending. He planned to play the game a little longer -- after all, there was plenty of money to be made.
William White overlooked one issue: it was an election year, and Carter had already fallen hard. Losing was inevitable, and he had to leave something for his successor; otherwise, complete bankruptcy wasn't out of the question.
With the world divided in two, there was no chance the Russians would pass up such an opportunity.
After listening to these individuals describe the situation, even William White was left stunned and speechless.
Resisting the Russians was naturally the mainstream position. Anything else would be foolish.
Since some were willing to compromise, William saw it as wisdom to stop while ahead rather than being unreasonable.
After some wrangling, Marvel was speechless to discover that the U.S. now had another large comic company. Although it still needed to undergo review, that was expected to be a mere formality.
A weekly sale of three million copies -- what an unbelievable figure that was. And this was just the second week. Once they surpassed five million, American comics would become a two-giant landscape.
...
Advertisers began to regret it. The ad pages were entirely populated by their own brands, whether movies or wine, filling full-page spreads.
Those in the know understood that these ad spaces couldn't be sold. Those who didn't know might have thought White Juice was a world-renowned brand, considering how crazily they advertised. But what kind of wasteful expenditures were these?
Of course, some people questioned the excessive amount of advertising. William White was very humble and decided to listen to reader feedback, giving readers the decision-making power. If there were no ads, he couldn't guarantee the number of color pages. If they accepted ads, he'd strive to make all pages colorful.
"Wow, you can do that?"
Everyone knew color pages were more appealing. Ads were ads, after all, and the environmental ads were quite good. Were they public service ads?
A group of petrochemical moguls was left slack-jawed with the ad brochure in hand.
"Bury PVC with you in the ground. Even after you decompose, it remains intact."
In this era, nobody cared about environmental stuff, but such statements made chemical products seem worthless.
"Have you tasted this brand of water?"
"Boss, their factory is still under construction. The earliest it will operate is late this year, and the same goes for that juice; it won't be sold until the end of the year or early next year."
The old guys were perplexed. Without actual products, what sort of ads were these? Were they just squandering money?
"Boss, their ad fees were too high this time, and nobody was willing to buy in, so it ended up like this."
"Go secure two ad slots; we need a positive image."
Darn it, glass bottles can be recycled, and so can PVC. They were quite certain that in the next round, PVC wouldn't be the butt of jokes.
Chemical products were mainstream, and that wouldn't change. William White had no grudge against the almighty dollar, so doing business required professionalism; otherwise, he'd just look like a ruffian.
...
"Boss, this is the Apple II with the 6600 chip installed. After rigorous testing, the efficiency in running the microcomputer database has improved significantly."
"Not bad. Send one to Jobs. Tell him I've modified an Apple machine that's way better than his stuff. But we can't gift it to him; it's fifteen dollars cash, no credit."
Seeing his subordinate leave, William White began gathering the game console department. With the accelerated home console project, his gaming company was also expanding rapidly.
In the beginning, they all used the 6500 chipset. Now that his own chip was out, of course, it was time to upgrade.
Theoretically, this change was clever. The core was still an 8-bit processor, but it used a 16-bit bus, and the core frequency was only 2Hz.
If you think this is rubbish, you'd be sorely mistaken. The Apple II was still under 2Hz, and Europe used it into the 1990s.
The 286 and 386 were all overrated; this thing ended up producing five million units and was only replaced after Windows 95 appeared.
This small change might just boost the second-gen sales. The Lisa project wasn't doing well, and like Jobs' Macintosh, it was just as "flashy yet trashy."
Steve Jobs was actually a marketing genius. He sold sentiments all along. Now, he just lacked experience; when he returned as a king, anything he touched could sell.
The 16-bit CPU was just a transition, offering no big performance leap but a significant price hike. The Lisa's downfall was expected; it was much pricier than the Apple II.
Intel's 8080 series faced similar issues. Without the Big Blue brand advantage, the 286 and 386 would have flopped, too.
...
William White's interference would undoubtedly disrupt the semiconductor industry's landscape; only the Apple II would live a bit longer. IBM would play its game, and he couldn't control it, but he needed to apply some pressure.
Microsoft could soar, but not too high. Bill Gates wasn't a saint but a standard businessman.
His start was just a laughable compiler that was copied, and there was that bug-riddled MSDOS. This cheap stuff was bought for a few hundred thousand dollars and modified beyond recognition. Had it not been for this, the likes of Apple would have been squashed to smithereens long ago.
William White didn't want to be easily absorbed. His bottom line was a strong alliance; if Microsoft could copy a graphical operating system, so could he.
In this era of fierce competition, there was no monopoly to speak of; Big Blue was blocking the way. A market value of billions was a joke compared to hundreds of billions.
...
Comics weren't exactly a hugely profitable industry, and outsiders really couldn't understand the point of such elaborate hype. DC was valued at a hundred million dollars, which was considered substantial in the U.S.
William White knew that comic companies' profit points didn't lie in the comics themselves. To most people, even if you had impressive skills, it was wishful thinking to sell a million comic copies. Anything beyond that was dreaming.
What was the cost of William White's weekly publication? Those in the publishing business knew well. The most laughable part was the headquarters' location. If Australia could buy a few copies a year, it was enough for a joke.
Believe it or not, some folks were just bored. After thorough calculations, it turned out that printing comics in Japan and the U.S. would yield a 10% gross profit. Together with advertising revenue, it seemed like a decent business.
Could it actually make money?
Marvel was very pleased.
Should we acquire it?
Regarding Marvel's acquisition proposal, William White could only shrug. Expanding overseas had nothing to do with him. It would be more appropriate if he were the one buying you; it's just that he was short on cash.
Viking Comics' rejection left DC in a pickle. Warner wanted to sell them, but Marvel had no interest. Stan Lee even said DC was worthless.
Well, the old guy did have the capital to be arrogant. Without this childish joker, Marvel, which had no backing, would have perished long ago.
Marvel, of course, had ulterior motives. They were only interested in those IPs. A group of newcomers meant nothing in their eyes; as soon as the acquisition went through, there would be an immediate overhaul. They already had preliminary plans in the works.
*****
https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.