Chapter 922: Morgan's General Electric Company

"Jonathan, have you calculated the reserves?'

A group of people gathered around Jonathan, and when they saw him stop his pen, George W. Bush hurriedly asked.

Jonathan said with a look of excitement: 'Chairman, after a rough calculation, there is a 95% chance that the oil reserves in this oil field exceed 9 million barrels, and there is a high probability that they will reach 10 million barrels!'

'And it also has more than 50 million cubic metres of natural gas reserves!'

'Wow!'

'Finally, oil has been found. After two years, we have finally succeeded!'

Old Jack and the other workers immediately cheered, and Bush, Jr. laughed excitedly.

After all, he had only graduated three years ago. Except for the first year when Bush Energy was idle, he had worked for two years without any results. How could he not feel the immense pressure?

Now that he had suddenly achieved success, he was completely released from the pressure that had built up over the past two years. He couldn't help but laugh out loud and cheer with the employees.

While he was excited, he once again recalled Xia Yu's estimate of the oil field in the afternoon, which was exactly the same as the result calculated by Jonathan. This was nothing short of a miracle!

Subconsciously glancing at Xia Yu, who was wearing a faint smile, Bush Jr. once again strengthened his resolve to firmly cooperate with Xia Yu.

It was already so late, and of course so many people could not spend the night in the wilderness, so the group immediately set off to return.

Since the land had already been rented, no one could take away the oil field, and they would come back tomorrow to continue the exploration.

The next morning, after breakfast, George W. Bush repeatedly invited Xia Yu to stay, but Xia Yu flatly refused, saying that he would be going home as soon as possible after finishing up things for the Chinese New Year.

Reluctantly, George W. Bush saw Xia Yu off to the airport, repeatedly asking him to contact him when he came to the United States and to keep in touch.

Xia Yu knew that George W. Bush had tasted the sweetness of success and wanted to drag him along to continue the search for oil.

But Xia Yu would not let Bush have his way!

Xia Yu remembered that the Bush family's oil company had found quite a few oil fields in Texas in the future, but he was not going to give half of it to Bush in one go. He had to slowly dangle it in front of him to maximise the benefits.

'As the saying goes, the more difficult it is to get, the more you will cherish it!'

Anyway, it was all bluffing, and it was all up to his mouth, just finding a suitable reason to turn it down.

And he could also wait until the oil industry was in a downturn and then buy an oil company, so that he could go mining himself and pocket all the profits.

After seeing Xia Yu enter the boarding passageway after the inspection, Bush let out a disappointed sigh.

'The geomancer still has a compass... I have to find a way to find it. Didn't he say there were hundreds of them in the East...'

A future American president who was superstitious about Chinese geomancy was born.

...

This time Xia Yu was flying to Houston, where he would transfer to a flight to Washington State.

Before leaving the United States, he planned to visit Seattle to check on the business of his Seattle Computer Products company.

Xia Yu had already heard that IBM would hold a product launch on 1 February to release IBM's first microcomputer.

As soon as the news spread, Apple's stock price fell, showing the capital's worried mentality.

According to the original historical trajectory, IBM would not be able to release the finished product until April, but with Xia Yu's intervention, IBM solved the computer system problem a few months in advance, so IBM was able to hold the new product launch conference more than two months in advance.

Xia Yu had no intention of going to the IBM new product launch conference to join the fun.

However, he knew that with the hot sales of IBM's microcomputer, Seattle Computer Products' * * *-DOS operating system would also be released to the market, and he needed to go and give Bill Daniel another reminder.

Not only that, but in addition to the ***-DOS system and its future versions, Seattle Computer Products also needs to develop other products to improve the company's overall strength and ability to withstand risks. He needs to go and give some pointers.

Anyone with foresight would make good use of the company's development strategy, unless they were out of their mind!

At around 3:00 p.m. on January 29, Xia Yu finally arrived at Seattle Computer Products.

As soon as he entered, Xia Yu noticed that Seattle Computer Products had changed quite a bit. The most obvious change was that there were many unfamiliar employees, apparently hired in recent months.

Fortunately, there were still many old employees. After greeting Xia Yu, they told him that the president, Buck Daniels, was in the programming department office.

'Boss, welcome to the company!'

'Buck, long time no see.'

...

After a few brief greetings, Xia Yu asked about the ***-DOS system.

'Buck, IBM is about to release a microcomputer. Have we continued developing our system, and to what extent have we built up our technical reserves?'

Buck Daniels led Xia Yu to a large, white computer with a big butt and said to him, 'Boss, this is IBM's upcoming new product. Our company is one of their first customers. You can see that the system for this computer was actually finalized on December 2 last year. Now, after nearly two months of research, we have optimized the system to a certain extent based on the original system.'

'The one next to it has the latest system we installed.'

'So far, the company has applied for a total of 97 patents, including 29 core patents, and 36 have been approved...'

Xia Yu nodded with satisfaction and commented: 'Well done. Apply for a patent as soon as you develop a technology. Our system needs enough technical patent barriers to maintain an advantage.'

After saying this, he sat down in front of the first computer, and after a brief period of fumbling, he started to operate it, experimenting with the functions of IBM's first-generation microcomputer and experiencing the performance of the DOS system.

As for the second computer, which had the latest system installed, Xia Yu did not touch it.

Buck Daniel stood next to Xia Yu, quietly watching Xia Yu operate, also observing the performance of the system.

After a long while, Xia Yu stopped moving and turned to Buck Daniel and said, 'Yes, our operating system is more stable and smoother than the Apple computer's system, and it is more complete in terms of functionality. It is a mature operating system for the current market.'

'However, our system is an open platform. With the continuous development of technology, there will definitely be various undiscovered problems. You must arrange for people to collect feedback in a timely manner and coordinate with IBM to apply patches in a timely manner.'

'Boss, I have already made arrangements in this regard,' Buck Daniel said.

Xia Yu nodded slightly and then said after thinking for a moment: 'There is one more thing. After IBM releases its microcomputer, other computer companies such as Texas Instruments will definitely follow suit and develop microcomputers. You must reach a partnership with them as soon as possible so that our system can become the mainstream in the market as soon as possible.'

'Okay!'

...

Just as Xia Yu was about to ask Buck Daniel to introduce him to the company's other projects, a person suddenly walked in, and it was none other than Michael Bloomberg.

Michael Bloomberg was clearly taken aback to see Xia Yu here, and quickly said hello to him: 'Boss, I didn't expect to see you here too. Good afternoon!'

'Michael, good afternoon,'

Xia Yu responded with a smile, and then asked, "Are you here about the financial information service terminal?'

Apart from this matter, Xia Yu couldn't think of anything else that Michael Bloomberg would be here for.

Michael Bloomberg immediately nodded and said, "Yes.'

'What stage of development is it at?'

'The complete financial information service terminal has been designed, but the system is not yet perfect. There are still some bugs that need to be fixed and further optimised.'

'When do you expect to be able to launch it on the market?'

As soon as Xia Yu asked this question, Michael Bloomberg was at a loss for words and subconsciously looked at Barker Daniel.

After all, the news agency he ran had only just been established not long ago, so how could its technical capabilities possibly compare to an established software company like Seattle Computer Products?

After obtaining Xia Yu's permission, he recruited computer talent while also signing an agreement with Seattle Computer Products to commission them to customise a specialised service system for their news agency. Buck Daniel knew better than anyone how the project was progressing.

Seeing his boss Xia Yu looking at him, Buck Daniel immediately said, 'Boss, the financial information service terminal is in another office and is being handled by a dedicated team. There are indeed some bugs, because this is a complete system and it is relatively difficult to develop. It is still being worked on.'

Afterwards, Barker Daniel led Xia Yu and the others to another office, where he asked someone to demonstrate the product to Xia Yu and explain the difficulties at the same time.

The core of the current Pang terminal is actually the computer system of 'Pang Professional Services'. According to the functional design, users can access and analyse real-time financial market data and conduct financial transactions through 'Pang Professional Services'.

Not only that, the Pang terminal also has a dedicated news push service that pushes the latest news and real-time exchange quotes in real time.

It can be said that the Pang Pang terminal combines the operational and trading aspects that financial market practitioners need most with the information aspect, which can greatly improve the efficiency of the financial market. This is the perfect work that Wall Street urgently needs as it enters a prosperous era.

However, because the 'Pang Pang Professional Services' computer system is not yet stable, this otherwise perfect tool is not perfect.

'I know what's wrong. You guys have a problem with your thinking, and you don't understand the financial market deeply enough.'

With that, Xia Yu directly told the employees to move aside, then opened the programming interface and quickly began to make changes.

Seeing Xia Yu typing rapidly, his fingers almost leaving afterimages, and the lines of code on the computer desktop jumping, Michael Bloomberg's eyes widened, and he subconsciously looked at Barker Daniel.

It seemed that boss Xia Yu was very proficient in computers, something he had not known before.

Seeing Michael Bloomberg's surprise, Barker Daniel smiled instead. His reaction at the time was no less than Michael Bloomberg's, but as he had seen Xia Yu's strength, he had long since become numb and was convinced of his boss's abilities.

He leaned over Michael Bloomberg's ear and whispered, 'Michael, the truth is what you see. The boss is very proficient with computers, he is much better than me.'

'I didn't expect the boss to come to the company today either, he hasn't been here in a few months.'

'You're lucky, since the boss has taken action, these bugs that have been troubling you for a long time can be solved.'

Michael Bloomberg subconsciously nodded, feeling very uncomfortable.

He had been proud of his mastery of finance and his understanding of computers, but now he realised that his boss had cleaned up his old company in the financial markets and was now showing off his formidable skills in the computer field.

He had been crushed by his boss Xia Yu in both areas, and it hurt!

At that moment, Michael Bloomberg put aside his last vestiges of arrogance and was convinced by his boss. He had only one thought in his mind: to run the news agency well and not let his boss down.

Time passed slowly...

'Okay!'

As Xia Yu pressed the run button, the Puxing service terminal system began to run a trial operation. An interface popped up on the computer desktop, with a K-line chart on it. Every fixed period of time, the chart jumped a bit, and a gradually complete K-line chart was smoothly drawn.

Not only that, but at the top of the interface, news was broadcast in red letters.

Of course, the news and K-line chart data had all been set up by Xia Yu beforehand. After all, there was no data connection to the stock exchange at the moment.

'Pop, pop, pop...'

Michael Bloomberg and the others could only express their inner feelings with warm applause at seeing this result.

Xia Yu looked indifferent and said to Michael Bloomberg, 'Michael, the key problems have been solved, and some minor flaws remain to be optimised, but they can be solved in a short time.'

'You need to do a good job of production and promotion.'

'After the finished product is made, I will let six or seven companies purchase it directly to solve the initial promotion problem. It is estimated that one hundred units will be needed.'

Of course Xia Yu would like to use this good stuff himself first. Polaris Capital, Jiuding Securities New York Branch, Philip Solomon, and so on all need it, as does the Bright Foundation in the UK, Jiuding Securities, Jiuding Bank, and Jiuding Securities in the island country.

Once these companies have installed it and the benefits spread, I believe that soon the Surging Terminal will be able to open up the markets in the UK, the island country, Hong Kong, and the United States.

'Good boss, I will make adequate preparations in advance!'

Michael Bloomberg said in a high-spirited mood:

'It's almost six o'clock, let's go have dinner together. After this, I have to leave the United States, and I don't know when I'll be back.'

He looked at his watch and said with a smile to the two men: 'It's already 5:52 pm.'

Naturally, the boss had to be honoured when he invited them to dinner, and the two men immediately agreed.

Buck Daniel recommended a luxury restaurant, and everyone had a delicious meal. Before leaving, Xia Yu once again gave the two men some advice.

Early the next morning, Xia Yu flew to New York and secretly met with Julian Robertson of Tiger Fund and Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Fund.

After that, he went to the New York branch of Jiuding Securities.

He happened to remember something that he needed to arrange with Toby Moulton before leaving.

The first was investing in General Electric stock.

General Electric was the core company of the Morgan consortium. The company, formed in 1892 by the merger of Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Light Company and the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, was a manufacturing giant that not only produced consumer and industrial electrical equipment, but was also a huge arms contractor, producing everything from aeronautical instruments to radar.

However, as with all old companies, there was a strong bureaucratic atmosphere, and as a result, General Electric had reached a bottleneck. Its market value was not high, just 13 billion US dollars.

Xia Yu knew very well that in just a few months this year, Jack Welch, who would later be known as the world's number one CEO, would leap from vice chairman to CEO and chairman of General Electric, leading the company on the path of reform and strengthening. In twenty years, he would take General Electric from 13 billion US dollars to 480 billion US dollars, creating a miracle that attracted worldwide attention.

Although he could not take over General Electric because it was the core enterprise of the Morgan consortium, buying some stocks and waiting for their value to appreciate was still a good idea.

Jiuding Securities New York Branch really needed to invest in a few super large enterprises to gain a foothold on Wall Street, and to use the platforms of those super large enterprises to expand its popularity and influence. General Electric was just the right fit.

In addition to General Electric, Xia Yu also instructed Toby Moulton to find a way to buy Coca-Cola shares, and it would be even better if he could take over the shares held by the Morgan and Chicago consortia.

After the Rockefeller consortium's New York Chemical Bank transferred its shares, the atmosphere of competition above Coca-Cola had dissipated quite a bit. As long as Toby Moulton was willing to work hard, he would be able to achieve results in the long run.

In order to facilitate Tobie Moulton's actions, Xia Yu also injected one billion US dollars into the company's account with Wells Fargo.

After finishing up in New York, Xia Yu flew to San Francisco, where he would catch a flight back to Hong Kong.

Before leaving, he made a special trip to Polaris Capital to learn from Peter Lynch about the progress of the acquisition of North American cinemas.

North Star Capital had acquired one medium-sized cinema chain each from the western, southern, northern and eastern United States, and after integration, it had acquired eleven small cinema chains and a number of independent cinemas, integrating them into a large cinema chain barely covering major cities across the United States. The chain had 215 cinemas and 257 screens, accounting for 1.87% of the total number of cinemas in the United States and ranking tenth in the country's cinema market.

However, these cinemas were all in cities and had much stronger revenue-generating capabilities than those in the countryside.

The only fly in the ointment is that these cinemas are not sufficiently multi-screen. Generally, there is only one large screen in a cinema, which is a waste of resources. Xia Yu immediately asked Peter Lynch to arrange for the cinema renovations after he left.

It is worth mentioning that this cinema chain is also called Universal Cinema Circuit, because in terms of equity, it is affiliated with Xiangjiang Universal Cinema Circuit Company, so it is also the American branch of Universal Cinema Circuit, although Jiang Zhiqiang does not know this yet.

North Star Capital owns MGM Studios, and if it also owns the cinema chain, it will face sanctions under US law.

Finally, Xia Yu asked Peter Lynch to continue to assist Universal Cinema in its expansion, with the goal of becoming one of the top three cinema chains in the United States, and looking forward to becoming number one in the US cinema market!

On the afternoon of January 31, Xia Yu boarded a plane to Hong Kong.