Chapter 141: Handshake and Peace
"How many?"
When Baichuan Feng heard the words "special fund", he immediately became excited.
"One million US dollars." Because they were discussing overseas copyrights, Norio Ohga directly quoted the price in US dollars.
"10 million US dollars!" Shirakawa Feng made a loud request.
When Ohga Norio heard the offer made by Shirakawa Kaede, he almost choked. Are you serious, kid?
Norio Ohga shook his head helplessly and said, "4 million US dollars, Mr. Shirakawa, Sony is sincere, please respect this sincerity."
"Oga-san..." Oozune Yukizo, who was sitting next to him, wanted to speak up to stop him. This price was almost as high as the bid he had just made to acquire Shirakawa Electric.
"Deal!" However, before the other party could finish his words, Baichuan Feng immediately agreed.
Such a straightforward answer stunned not only Norio Ohga but also Kozo Ozone, who wanted to stop him.
"Just as Ohga-san said , for $4 million, Shirakawa Electric will open up the overseas market authorization for Walkman."
If we only consider overseas market authorization, Shirakawa Kaede's initial price in mind would be around 10 million US dollars.
However, Sony also relaxed local patent restrictions and gave away CD technology licenses for free.
All in all, $4 million + local patents + CD technology licensing, this big gift package was exchanged for the license for the overseas market of Walkman.
Baichuan Feng roughly calculated that this deal would definitely be a good one.
In fact, in his opinion, the free license of a CD technology patent is worth it, as this will have a market size equivalent to that of a Walkman in the future.
Although the future of the CD market has not yet been proven and Sony does not know how it will perform, Shirakawa Kaede knows.
The best proof of this is that idol stars will easily sell millions of records in a few years.
So if it was worth the money, why would he hesitate? In his opinion, the $4 million was just a bonus, so there was no need to worry too much.
As for why Baichuan Feng is not a little more ruthless and insists on asking for a sky-high price.
Sony is not a fool. If the cost were too high, it would not sit down and have a good talk like it is now.
Therefore, Baichuan Feng decided to quit while he was ahead and did not intend to get rich by blackmailing others.
He is already very satisfied that this has not only secured a living ground for Shirakawa Electric, but also obtained the authorization for another mainstream audio format in the future.
"Mr. Shirakawa is indeed a straightforward person. If that's the case, then let's leave it at that."
Seeing that Shirakawa Kaede readily agreed, Ohga Norio no longer hesitated over the bid.
"It's a deal." Baichuan Feng smiled and stretched out his right hand.
When Ohga Norio saw Shirakawa Kaede behaving like this, he suddenly laughed. This way of socializing reminded him of the time when he was studying abroad.
"It's a deal," he smiled and held out his hand.
So the two sides shook hands and made peace.
The dispute between Shirakawa Electric and Sony over the Walkman licensing came to a temporary end from this moment on.
Since the negotiations were over, Shirakawa Feng was about to say goodbye and leave, but Ohga Norio stopped him.
"Mr. Shirakawa, your earbud headphones are very creative. Sony really wants to cooperate with Shirakawa Electric in this field. I wonder..."
Shirakawa Feng was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized that Sony wanted patent authorization for in-ear headphones.
Shirakawa Electric's in-ear headphones have registered a patent for their appearance and structure, but the principles of the headphones are all the same and this cannot be a patent.
But the appearance and structure are good. Not only that, Shirakawa Kaede also registered all kinds of headphones in later generations, including in-ear, behind-the-neck, etc.
As for the benefits of registration? Look, it's here, isn't it?
"Shirakawa Electric can license the patent for earbud headphones. The specific fee details will be discussed later through our respective teams."
Baichuan Feng readily agreed to the patent authorization for in-ear headphones because he knew that this patent was not difficult to obtain.
If Sony is pushed into a corner, it is likely to try every possible way to circumvent the issue and then argue with you.
There is no need to do so. It is better to unblock than to block. Why would Baichuan Feng refuse to collect patent ?
Not only Sony, but any company that comes to Shirakawa Electric to discuss licensing in the future, Shirakawa Feng will agree without hesitation.
We need to take a long-term view. As everyone has a stake in the business, it will be easier to do business in the future.
Seeing that Shirakawa Kaede readily agreed, Ohga Norio also nodded with satisfaction.
Neither of them was a stingy person, which gave him a feeling of being heroes who admired each other.
The matter was settled, and Baichuan Feng said goodbye and left.
Looking at the other person's departing back, Ozone Yukizo couldn't help but turn his head to look at Ohga Norio.
"Ohga-san, is this…"
Norio Ohga knew what he wanted to say, “Ozone-san, although Sony paid some price, it was all worth it.
The popularity of Walkman abroad is likely to exceed our imagination, and the board of directors attaches great importance to the overseas market. "
Recently, a foreign company has contacted Sony, wanting to be the agent for the sales of their Walkman.
Compared with the vast overseas market, $4 million is nothing.
Besides, 4 million US dollars is only 1 billion yen, which is much less than the budget for the previous acquisition of Shirakawa Electric, but it also solves the patent problem.
This deal is a good deal no matter how you look at it, especially spending a few hundred million yen more to acquire Shirakawa Electric's assets.
To be honest, Sony really didn't like it. After all, the reason why it wanted to acquire Shirakawa Electric in the first place was for its Walkman patent.
"Then the licensing of CD technology..." Ozone Yukizo didn't understand why Norio Ohga valued CD technology so much, but easily gave its license to Shirakawa Electric.
"Mr. Ozone, we at Sony are not without competitors. CDs are not the only ones competing for the next-generation audio format."
Future generations may only know that CDs were popular for a long time before the millennium, but they don’t know that there was also fierce competition at the beginning of CD development.
At this point, there are more than a dozen Japanese companies competing in the next generation of record standards in their home country alone.
Sony's main rival is JVC, which is also known for producing high-quality consumer .
In terms of market reputation alone, it is not inferior to Sony at all.
JVC engineers are now developing AHD discs. According to the information Norio Ohga has learned, the information density of AHD discs is already higher than that of CDs.
What is more worrying is that many industry experts in the field believe that AHD has better sound quality.
But if that were the case, Sony would not have joined forces with Philips to jointly develop CD technology.
What really forced the two giant companies to unite against JVC, in addition to their consistent research directions, was another reason that could not be ignored: Panasonic also stood on the same front with JVC.
Sony, Philips VS Panasonic, JVC, just think about how fierce the competition is.
Therefore, licensing CD technology to Shirakawa Electric is purely to recruit a younger brother to strengthen the CD Alliance's momentum.
In addition to Shirakawa Electric, Sony also extended invitations to Pioneer and Denon.
However, we can put aside the licensing fees for now, but it is definitely not free.
Norio Ohga is well aware that the more manufacturers participate in the format war, the greater the advantage will be.
Don't worry too much about some immediate benefits.
…
After coming out of the Sony Building, Shirakawa Kaede turned around and looked back. It was finally over.
After more than a month, the complicated patent dispute finally came to an end.
Although there were anxiety, pressure and suffering in the process, fortunately the final result was not bad, and was even somewhat beyond expectations.
CD, another blue ocean is waiting for him.
Who says Sony is domineering? It is obviously the big brother with great righteousness.
"Go back." Baichuan Feng waved his hand, his tone indescribably relaxed.
"Okay," everyone responded loudly, and everyone was smiling.
Shirakawa Electric avoided the fate of being acquired and solved its worries. Compared with a behemoth like Sony, they saw it as a victory.
"Teacher Muto, I'm sorry to have troubled you during this period." With a stone in his heart lifted, Shirakawa Kaede thanked the Meiji University foreign aid team first.
"It's not a bad thing to have such a result. For us, it's just a piece of cake.
Run your company well in the future, and I hope to visit Shirakawa Denki again one day in the future. Not in Ota Ward, but in a building like this one. "
Muto Kiyoshi glanced at the towering Sony Building beside him with an encouraging look.
"I definitely will." Baichuan Feng nodded solemnly. He had no doubt about this.
"Okay, see you later then."
"Take care, seniors."
After seeing off Meiji's predecessors, Shirakawa Feng turned around and smiled, "I'm treating you today, you can't leave until you are drunk!"
"Oh~" The relaxed crowd cheered happily.
They were happy not because the president treated them, but more because the pressure in their hearts was lifted and they got a good result. Everyone urgently needed an excuse to vent.
Looking at their cheerful expressions, Baichuan Feng also smiled happily.
The harvest from this trip was indeed not bad.
To be honest, Shirakawa Kaede doesn't want to fall out with Sony unless it's absolutely necessary.
After all, it is an unwise choice to make enemies with a large enterprise, especially when Shirakawa Electric is still very weak.
And just as he thought, Sony did not ignore the patents held by Shirakawa Electric.
As a result, both sides tacitly agreed to limit the issue to the negotiation table, and even if there were any follow-up tricks, there was no intention to pursue the issue to the death.
After a little probing, they probably weighed the weight of both sides and realized that the issue could not be resolved in a short period of time. So returning to the negotiation table was a natural choice.
It was from that time that Baichuan Feng started to feel resentful about it.
How to negotiate with Sony and what can you get in the end, or what is it that you want most from Sony.
Obviously it is CD technology, but the plan of winning without doing anything was not completed, but it is not a loss to get the license for free.
All obstacles have been resolved and all hidden dangers have been eliminated.
So the next step is for Shirakawa Electric to set sail!
