Chapter 826
Facing the aging Nakabachi Ryoji, the young Lu Yiming is obviously much more energetic.
"President Chubachi, I am not an enemy of Sony. You don't have to hate me so much."
"You can fool Howard, but you can't fool me. You are so deliberate in trying to steal our Sony technology. Who would believe you if you said you had no ill intentions?"
It is obvious that Nakabachi Ryoji has already determined that Lu Yiming is a competitor who is here to seize the SONY market.
So he was furious and sent troops to demand accountability.
However, what he got in return was a sneer from Lu Yiming.
This made Chubachi Ryoji extremely unhappy: "What are you laughing at?"
Lu Yiming restrained his smile and said calmly, "President Zhongbo, would you steal the copper coins from a beggar's rice bowl on the street?"
"What do you mean by that!?"
Although Zhongba Ryoji didn't quite understand what he said, seeing Lu Yiming's pointed expression, his self-esteem was severely impacted, and then his eyes turned red: "You said Sony is a beggar!!!"
"Yes, in my eyes, Sony has lost its determination to forge ahead and has become addicted to the game of capital. It is indeed no different from a beggar."
"you!"
Nakabachi Ryoji was extremely angry. Sony was the career he had devoted his entire life to, and he would never allow anyone to belittle his efforts as worthless.
But Lu Yiming had never had a good impression of Sony, so he spoke bluntly: "Am I wrong? Once upon a time, Sony was almost synonymous with advanced technology and the embodiment of innovation and quality. The innovative products it continuously launched, such as radios, televisions, walkmans, digital cameras, etc., were the best among similar companies and constantly impacted the new trends of the times..."
"But now, has Sony launched any epoch-making electronic products in recent years?"
“…”
Faced with Lu Yiming's questioning, Zhongba Ryoji fell into deep silence.
How long has it been since SONY innovated in technology and concepts?
Immersed in the glory of the past, they have been living off their capital and have lost the determination to forge ahead. Now the top management of the entire group is pursuing profits and only gorgeous book data, forgetting that SONY was originally a technology company that rose to prominence through technology and research and development.
Lu Yiming's words were undoubtedly a mockery of Zhongbo Liangzhi.
"President Chubachi, what's the point of being hostile to me? Even if you block this deal, you can't reverse Howard's determination to change Sony's business strategy. Your enemy is not me, but the top executives of Sony's board of directors, the shareholders, and even the financial capitalists on Wall Street. They are the ones who destroyed Sony, but do you dare to yell at them?"
Every word that came out of his mouth was like a knife, stabbing fiercely into Nakabachi Ryoji's heart, making him bleed and feel confused and at a loss.
Yes, even without Lu Yiming, someone else would come and take away SONY’s “property”.
In fact, coming here to meet Lu Yiming this time was purely a test of Lu Yiming by Nakabachi Ryoji. No matter what, he was unwilling to see Sony being "dismembered" and then sold by weight.
Unfortunately, after seeing Lu Yiming being so confident, he had a hunch that he might not be able to stop this.
Zhongba Ryoji didn't understand why all this happened. He stared into Lu Yiming's eyes, trying to see the answer from his gaze: "How did you convince Howard? Although I don't want to admit it, he is indeed very smart. I am curious, what did you use to impress him."
Although he couldn't stop Howard from selling Sony's technology, Ryoji Nakabachi couldn't help but be curious. At least he wanted to know how he lost.
Anyway, the acquisition has been settled, and Lu Yiming doesn't mind giving Zhongbo Liangzhi an answer: "In addition to the high price of 3 billion US dollars, I also gave Howard a bright future."
"A bright future?"
"Yes, President Chubachi, have you ever seen a superhero movie?"
"Although I am not very interested in these young people's stuff, but we at Sony own the copyright of Spider-Man, so I have also seen it."
Hearing what Nakabachi Ryoji said, Lu Yiming smiled and nodded: "Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 were indeed well made."
The two films, released in 2002 and 2004 respectively, saw the former take in $821 million, while the latter also did well, with $784 million.
Even Spider-Man 3 has already started filming and is scheduled to be released in April next year. Its historical box office performance is as high as 890 million US dollars, which is considered a pretty good finale of the trilogy.
Compared with the high investment and low returns of the hardware department, it is obvious that making money by making movies and copying stock prices is more efficient.
Lu Yiming looked at Nakabachi Ryoji with emotion and said to him, "I have planned to work with Sony to create the Marvel Universe series. Except for Spider-Man, the copyrights of the main superheroes in the Marvel Universe are in the hands of Su Qiao Films, so Howard can't refuse my conditions."
"Marvel Universe? Superhero series IP!"
After only knowing part of the plan, Nakabachi Ryoji couldn't help but take a breath and was frightened by Lu Yiming's idea.
As the president of Sony, although entertainment is not his forte, he at least knows the general direction of development. After all, Sony has acquired MGM and entered Hollywood for so many years. As the president, Nakabachi Ryoji still has some experience in the entertainment industry.
Therefore, he could naturally see that Lu Yiming's plan was indeed very attractive.
Especially in recent years, with the rapid advancement of computer technology, science fiction blockbusters have begun to emerge in large numbers. Even the "Spider-Man" trilogy series of films led by S ONY were boosted by this favorable trend.
If one superhero is so popular, how many fans of these comic characters can be attracted if multiple superheroes are linked together? How much box office revenue can be driven?
The more he thought about it, the more desperate Nakabachi became, and he looked quite depressed: "I see..."
He already knew that it was impossible for him to stop Lu Yiming's acquisition plan, but he still couldn't understand the meaning of Lu Yiming doing so.
"Mr. Lu, with your financial resources and connections, can't you do a project like the Marvel Universe yourself? Why use it as a bargaining chip to cooperate with Sony?"
At this time, Nakabachi Ryoji looked at Lu Yiming with a very complicated look. The young man in front of him did things that he couldn't understand.
However, the plan for smartphones is a secret among secrets, so Lu Yiming did not give a direct answer, but smiled and said: "From the success of the Spider-Man series, we can see that Sony is strong in making superhero movies. Moreover, MGM is one of the eight major film studios in Hollywood. Why shouldn't I cooperate?"
In the end, Nakabachi Ryoji still failed to extract any valuable information from Lu Yiming, but he still had a hunch that the young man in front of him, who had so deliberately taken the image sensors and image processing technology from SONY, would definitely become a strong rival of SONY in the future.
After finishing the business in the island country, Lu Yiming did not indulge in the extravagance of Edo Castle, but soon set out on his journey home.
Two and a half hours later, a private plane landed at Xiaoshan Airport. Lu Yiming stepped off the landing gear and took a deep breath: "The air in China is still sweeter."
Shi Qingxue, who came to pick her up at the airport, laughed and said, "The airport is located in the suburbs, so of course the air is fresh."
Lu Yiming walked forward and hugged the pretty girl in front of him. After not seeing each other for a long time, the two of them soon became close to each other, causing Yu Jiayi, a senior who was still single, to suffer tons of criticism.
The next day, Lu Yiming came to Maomao Mobile refreshed and showed Huang Zhang the results of his trip to the island country.
It has to be said that a lean camel is bigger than a horse. SONY's hardware research and development capabilities are still very strong. Even if there are errors in the upper-level strategic thinking, the core technical foundation is still there.
This time, Lu Yiming bought a lot of good things, all of which were Sony's most valuable treasures. If it had been a few years ago, when Howard Stringer had not yet taken power, he would not have been able to buy these things from Sony no matter how much money he spent.
Huang Zhang was naturally knowledgeable, so he looked at the patent list that Lu Yiming brought back and was soon shocked again: "SONY's image sensor and image processing technology! Are these real?"
Then he looked at Lu Yiming with an expression of disbelief: "Boss Lu, don't tell me that you kidnapped the son of President Zhongbo to force this stubborn old man to surrender."
Apart from that, Huang Zhang really couldn't understand why Zhongbo Ryoji would agree to accept such a losing deal.
Three billion dollars may seem like a lot, but asking Sony to directly sell off its own "foundation" is too outrageous no matter how you look at it.
This time, Huang Zhang was once again shocked by the "supernatural powers" displayed by Lu Yiming.
Lu Yiming said: "These things cost me three billion dollars. Let's make good use of them, master the technology, and then integrate them into our cat phone to create a cross-generational product!"
Huang Zhang's face was full of excitement: "Don't worry, Mr. Lu, we won't let you down!"
The mobile phone developed jointly by SONY and Ericsson is still very powerful in this era and is even considered the best "mobile phone camera".
The quality of the photos taken is very high, which is the profound foundation brought by rich technical accumulation.
If Maomao Mobile wants to catch up, it doesn’t know how much money it will have to invest and how much time it will take to have a chance of catching up.
It’s not like now, you can use it right away!
Lu Yiming warned: "I have signed an agreement with SONY. The relevant technology cannot be used to produce digital cameras and other products to compete with SONY."
"ah?"
Huang Zhang was a little puzzled: "But Sony is also producing mobile phones. Should we give up too?"
Lu Yiming shook his head. "How is that possible? The only thing Sony and I promised was not to produce existing competing products like feature phones. Smartphones are not feature phones. Sony can't stop us from producing something they don't have, right? I've already let Yu Jiayi look at the contract. There's no problem. I left a backdoor when I signed the contract, so I'm not afraid of a lawsuit."
It is already January 2006, and time is running out.
In order to speed up the progress, Maomao Mobile has been expanding its recruitment and recruiting people from all over the place.
However, the embarrassing thing is that although there are many companies making mobile phones in China, there are no companies making smart phones, so there is no place to poach some outstanding talents from peers, and Lu Yiming has to find a way to find them himself.
Just when Lu Yiming was having a headache, Li Yiwen called and told him good news: "I found the person you asked me to keep an eye on before."
"oh?"
"Wait, this is his number, write it down... "
Lu Yiming quickly asked Yu Jiayi to take out the banknotes and write down a string of numbers.
Beijing, Microsoft Asia Research Institute.
Lin Bin received a call from his old boss Kai-Fu Lee.
"Lin Bin, I hope you can come to Google to help me build something big together. If you stay at Microsoft, your talent will only be buried."
"this……"
Lin Bin showed a bitter smile on his face. A few years ago, he founded Microsoft Asia Research Institute together with Zhang Hongjiang and Zhang Yaqin. He served as the engineering director, in charge of the establishment and management of the engineering team of Microsoft Asia Research Institute, and helped the institute grow from more than 30 people at its establishment to more than 400 people now.
Not only that, right now, the entire company has a research and development team of more than 100 people under his direct leadership, who are responsible for the research and development of major software projects such as Exchange E12, E13, Windows Vista, IE8, speech recognition and synthesis, and real-time communication.
In the fall of 2004, Lin Bin was also awarded Microsoft's highest contribution "Gold Star" award.
To be honest, he is quite happy working at Microsoft and feels a great sense of accomplishment.
The only problem is that the salary is a bit low?
At least compared to his contribution, the salary Microsoft offered him was not high, let alone any shares.
Kai-Fu Lee himself jumped from Microsoft to Google, and was recently sued by Microsoft because of this incident, accusing Google and former Microsoft global vice president Kai-Fu Lee of violating the non-compete agreement.
Of course, Google and Microsoft reached a settlement half a month ago and the lawsuit ended.
Kai-Fu Lee officially became the head of Google's product R&D center in Xiaguo, and served as Google's global vice president and president of Greater China.
Having upgraded from an employee to a partner, Kai-Fu Lee naturally began to recruit people on a large scale, and Lin Bin, a talented person he discovered when he was at Microsoft, naturally became the first on the list of people to be poached.
Kai-Fu Lee was well aware of the benefits that the joining of top talents like Lin Bin could bring to the entire project team, so the conditions he offered were undoubtedly generous.
He was given money, shares and even gratitude for his mentoring, so Lin Bin didn't know how to refuse.
Finally, Kai-Fu Lee thought that Lin Bin would definitely agree, so he casually asked, "By the way, what project do you plan to work on after you come here? At Google, the search engine is the core of the entire company. If you can make achievements, I can recommend you to the head office."
Lin Bin shook his head and said, "I don't have experience in core search technology. I am better at doing projects that emphasize product user experience and interaction, are interesting and fun, and have strong user demand in China."
Kai-Fu Lee burst out laughing: "Google is planning to develop a social software, I think it's suitable for you, why don't we let you do it?"
"But……"
"Don't say buts. How can I cheat you? Let's just make it a deal. I'll wait for your good news."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Bin smiled bitterly again. As a technical geek, he really didn't know how to refuse a socially adept person like Kai-Fu Lee.
However, Lin Bin was not very opposed to switching to Google's Xiaguo Product R&D Center. After all, although he was doing well in Microsoft, his position in the company was not very high. He was just a tool who worked like a slave, and he did the work after receiving orders from his superiors.
The proposals he submitted several times were all ignored, which made him very uncomfortable. After all, even tech geeks are proud.
"Get it and try Google, isn't it a good idea?"
While Lin Bin was hesitating, his cell phone rang again, and this time the caller was from a number that was unfamiliar to him.
"Hello, who are you?"
"Hello, I'm Lu Yiming."
"!!!"
Half an hour later, in a cafe next to Microsoft Asia Engineering Institute, Lin Bin looked blankly at the richest man in Asia who suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Mr. Lu, is it really you?"
Lin Bin's mind is still buzzing. After all, it was quite sudden for someone to call and say that he was the richest man in Asia.
However, Lu Yiming's face is still very recognizable.
After sitting down, Lin Bin looked at Lu Yiming, who was ten years younger than him. "When I first received your call, Mr. Lu, I thought I was a scammer."
"Me, the richest man, want to send money?"
“Haha, almost.”
Listening to Lu Yiming's words, Lin Bin laughed out loud, and the humorous words quickly made the atmosphere of the conversation a lot more relaxed.
"I wonder why Mr. Lu came to see me?"
"It's nothing serious. I just want to invite you to change the world with me."
"???"
Lin Bin didn't expect this answer. He even thought he was hallucinating: "Changing the world? Isn't that a big deal?"
Looking at Lin Bin who was restrained in his words and actions, Lu Yiming felt deeply moved. If it were not for him, in a few years, Lin Bin would have to follow Lei Jun to play monkeys.
But now that I have cut him off, where will Lei Jun find people when he wants to make a mobile phone in the future?
After learning that Lu Yiming came to poach him, Lin Bin felt a little proud and touched. After all, he was the richest man in Asia, and he came in person to poach him, which showed his sincerity.
But Lin Bin still shook his head: "I'm sorry, Mr. Lu, I have already promised Mr. Li that I plan to join Google's Xiaguo Product R&D Center after I resign."
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "What a coincidence, isn't it? I am a shareholder of Google. Is there any difference between you working for me at Google and joining Maomao Mobile to work for me? So why don't you just consider coming to Maomao Mobile directly?"
“Ah… this…”
For a moment, Lin Bin didn't know how to complain. Could this sound like anything?
