Chapter 14
William Harrell flipped through the folder of reports his technical adviser had left him, a pleased expression on his face.
His plan was approaching its final stages. Yesterday's strategic alliance announcement had been deemed an enormous success by the press, and in just a few short months the plan's final phase would reach its climax.
He felt at ease and at peace now as he awaited the completion of his original plan. Though he had a real scare when Byron Holmes had called him four months earlier, asking for some of his notes and documentation, his former partner had ultimately assured him that what he and Peter Jones were working on would not become a "real" product anytime soon.
Even so, he still felt more than a little concern for what the two were up to, but after finishing his conversation with Byron, William realized he had initially overreacted to his old friend's new hobby, as Byron himself had referred to it.
And now, with the strategic alliance phase complete, William felt for the first time like he could lift his feet from the pedals and coast through the final stretch as he advanced to the finish line.
With regard to the merger, the FTC would never allow ICP to acquire Wallaby under the two companies' current modes of operation. To counter this regulation, ICP would halt production of its BP portable computer, thereby avoiding a monopoly by pulling its own entry from the market-the Joey line would become ICP's new standard. In doing so, an even greater battle would cease. The clone makers, companies that manufactured computers that operated the same software as ICP's, would be nearly shut down once ICP announced Joey as their new portable computing standard. Unlike the BP, which used a third-party source operating system, the Joey was built upon Wallaby's proprietary hardware and software technologies, and was therefore illegal for other manufacturers to replicate it.
William's desktop now proudly displayed his prototype Joey II system, which he used for all of his office work. He'd had his technical adviser move his "old" BP to a shelf against the wall. As far as he was concerned, he would no longer need it.
The irony of his plan was beginning to hit home. Here he sat, the chairman of the largest computer company in the world, with his "competitor's" product on his desk. William's dream was nearly reality. "I liked the product so much, I bought the company," he quipped to himself as he activated the e-mail program.
The machine's modem dialed the phone and connected to the host computer. There was only one message, and as it was being written to his screen, scrolling quickly from the bottom of the screen to the top, he saw that it was from Matthew Locke. The action was too quick for his eyes, so as he waited for the message to finish downloading, he pulled a tissue from his drawer and cleaned the computer's monitor.