Rebirth 1973 - Chapter 29 Atari Developmen

After 10 minutes of struggles, Nolan finally makes a decision.

“I can sell 35% of shares to you, how do you think about it, Mr. Henry ?” After thinking about it a little while, Nolan decided to just leave 10% of his shares just in case Atari really rise….. The rest of 4% of shares is owned by senior Atari management.

Henry grinned while looking at Nolan like a fool. Of course, he did this stealthy but Nolan greedy capitalist nature has shown in this deal. Even if Nolan really like money, he leaves 10% of Atari shares which Henry thinks a little crafty mean. But it did not matter, with 86% shares that Nolan agrees to sell, Henry already can control Atari thoroughly.

10% of Nolan shares can be diluted later in various way by Henry trick. Now the verbal agreement was reached, Nolan quickly goes out of the office to prepare the black and white agreement. Henry just sitting there while thinking about Atari.

With 86% of shares, Atari basically is his now. He feels amused by how Nolan accepted his offer without hesitation. Of course, Nolan does nothing wrong as most company founder will do what Nolan do now if faced with the same situation. But he rather glad about this result as he don’t have do extra work to get the Atari.

After 30 minutes, Nolan comes back with a man in a suit carrying a suitcase.

“Mr. Henry, this is my lawyer Andrew, he will be the witness for this business.” Nolan introduces his lawyer Andrew as Andrew sit then handed a series of paper from his suitcase.

Henry then took the paper and read it carefully. Henry finds nothing wrong and signed the paper consist of Share transfer and related to it. Henry pays $27.5 Million to Nolan for the shares and now Atari officially became company under Henry name.

After the business is done, Nolan then invited Henry to eat as he feels very excited right now. With a huge sum of $27.5 Million, Nolan instantly became a rich man. Henry rejected Nolan invitation as he has a lot to do now. Nolan of course not forcing Henry so he just leaves the office to inform all employees about the changes.

Henry then followed Nolan as this is the perfect time to introduce himself as the new boss of Atari. Nolan then ordering one of the employees to inform all employees of Atari to gather at the hall.

After all the employees gather together in the hall, Nolan starts his speech.

“Greeting everyone, I just want to inform you that I already sell the majority of Atari shares to this young man. Now that I no longer be the boss, so please voice out your welcome to your new boss.”

A piece of shocking information revealed from Norman’s mouth. Every employee here did not expect Nolan would sell the majority of Atari shares to that young man. Even though they did not know the specific shares, but it can already be inferred that Atari is owned by that young man.

Now that Atari has changed hand, every employee here worried about the future as they did not know how the young man run the Atari.

“What do you mean you sell your shares Norman ?” A fat man quickly voices out his opinion in a high tone.

Alan glanced toward the fat people, “You already know why I’ve created Atari, Allan.”

That’s right, the fat people are Allan Alcorn, the designer of PONG. Now that Atari has changed hand, Allan worried about how the new boss would treat the PONG project. Allan has 10% of the profit from every PONG sold due to him being its designer and 1% of Atari shares as its co-founder.

Allan’s face redden, but he can’t retort anything as Nolan action is understandable. He is just a small shareholder of Atari, so he can’t voice out his opinion. So he just chooses silent as he hopes the new boss will be more good…

Everyone silent too in the Hall, but to the majority of the employee here, they don’t care about who is the boss if their money is guaranteed. So seeing everyone silent, Nolan feels this is already enough so he stepped back and let Henry speak.

Henry stepped forward and begin his speech, “Hello everyone, my name is Henry William, I will be your new boss. I know what everyone worried about, its nothing more than the future of Atari. I’m not a big-mouthed person, so to prove how the future of Atari in a direct way, I decided to inject $10 Million to speed up the development of Home PONG.”

Hearing $10 Million of fund, everyone eyes begin to shine especially Allan Alcorn. The development of Home PONG has hindered nothing more because of fund issue. Now that the new boss injected $10 Million fund into the project, the development of Home PONG can already be foreseen.

Everyone start applauding including senior management like Allan Alcorn, Harold Lee and every employee here.

Henry just smiled when he heard everyone applaud, but he still has one more thing.

“I want the Home PONG developed in 3 months, can you all do it?” Henry asked with a loud voice

Allan Alcorn immediately stepped forward and say, “Just give me 2 months at latest and the Home PONG will be ready.” He then immediately patted his chest as he wants to leave a good impression to the new boss.

Henry then patted Allan Alcorn shoulder and say, “I hope you can prove it, if you can do it in 1 month as you said, 5% of Home PONG profit will be yours.”

Everyone begins to jealous as why not them who stepped forward first. Seeing everyone complexion, Henry know what they feel, so he added a sentence, “Not just Alcorn will get the bonus, if Home PONG can be developed in 1 month, everyone salary will receive a triple amount from the original.”

Everyone applauded again as 3x times of salary is very good too. So after receives Henry command, all of the employees begins to work again. After everyone left the hall, there is only Nolan and Henry here.

“Well, your decision is quite bold.” Nolan did not know what to say anymore. $10 Million for just speed up the uncertain Home PONG, Nolan did not know its genius or madman. But anyway, he already got the money so even if Home PONG failed, it’s not his business now.

Henry just laughed as he doesn’t plan to tell anything to Norman. After chatting for 5 minutes, Steve Jobs came to the hall with a box filled with his private stuff. Nolan then excuses himself as he plans to enjoy his life a little after getting the money….

Steve Jobs then surprisedly said, “Wow, you bought Atari? I don’t expect this at all.”

“Well, I believe Atari future is promising, but that’s another matter as you Jobs, will not have any relationship here.” Henry then goes as he wants to bring Steve Jobs to Apple HQ so Jobs can better understand the situation.