Mad Worlds Collide Read Free Page A

from investments managed by professionals.
    When Gill’s company, Intrix, licensed the world fastest chip, the IN2010, (thanks to Robert Davichi), Gill took over a struggling chip-making company called Intel. The early years of 2010 to 2020 were years of stumbling companies being devoured by voracious lawyers like Gill. After gaining control of the CPU market, Gill took over a large software behemoth called Microsoft. Microsoft had fallen into legal hassles even greater than normal in 2006. After entering the computer gaming and neural net programming market, controlled by Intel-Intrix, the company’s stock had crashed and burned in 2011.  A merger with Intel-Intrix was the only way to save the original Microsoft.
    The original Seattle office needed a strong partner and Gill was the man.
    The first thing Gill did was put aging President Bill Gates into early retirement. At a private Board Meeting known in the news as "Bill Gates’ Last Gasp", Gill was privately quoted as saying, "Only the strong will survive, and now we have Microsoft. Mr. Gates will now have the resources to finish his degree at Harvard and we’ll finish the job of running a business like it should be run."
    With 5% of MicroIntel and a net worth over 20 billion dollars, nobody felt sorry for Gates.
     Gill had about thirty-five per cent of his billions managed by professionals.  This had a steady and stable return. Gill’s other assets included his MicroIntel stock and money invested in a few other companies. Gill could lose over ninety-nine per cent of this money and still live as a multi-billionaire for the rest of his life. The ups and downs of the firms excited Gill not because of the actual money but because of the game. The idea of staying the richest guy in the world made Gill feel immortal.
    Gill chewed his cereal, and focused on the report on a pharmaceutical company called Ero-X. Suddenly he stopped chewing and the spoon dropped into his bowl. As if hypnotized, Gill stood and looked at the new price. "It’s gone up ten dollars!" The report from the financial analyst said the company had just received FDA approval for a new wonder drug for infertility that allowed the choosing of a child’s gender. China was expected to be a big buyer with its one child policy.
    "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yessssss!"  Gill moved from his chair and knocked over his orange juice and another stool, and, ignoring everything around him, ran toward the Sony GalicitCom Home center screen. Gill looked like a kid in a movie theatre standing too close to the front. Betty had seen this a hundred times. If it weren’t for the guesthouse the size of a four-bedroom ranch she would have gone back to the Philippines a long time ago.
    "Look, it’s still moving up.  I’ve got ten million shares Betty, I just made a hundred million dollars !"
    "It’s an unrealized gain, just paper... unless you sell it of course," said Betty wiping up the orange juice.
    Gill continued to ignore her, and everything around him.
     "It’s predicted to go up fifteen dollars, I’ll make a hundred and fifty million today !"
     Gill only watched the Financial News, Discovery, and the Cartoon channel.
    Owning stock in over a hundred companies made the Financial News Gill’s favorite show. Most workers at MicroIntel had no idea of the scope of Gill’s investments, but Gill liked owning things. Companies were like stamp collections to Gill. The nice thing about companies was that most of them couldn’t manage for shit, so Gill bought them, fixed them and fired the things that couldn’t be fixed. It was also a great way to get rid of lawsuits from competitors: buy enough stock to get on the board, and if that wasn’t enough to juice up the relationship, buy controlling interest.
    "Another orange juice Mr. Applebee?" asked Betty.
    "No thanks Betty, the driver’s been waiting and I’ve got to run. Please tell Cynthia I’ll be home around 11:00 tonight. I have a late meeting."
    "Have a nice day Mr.