The city of Rochester is an industrial city on the shores of Lake Ontario in western New York, United States. Located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, it belongs to Monroe County and is also the seat of the county. With a population of about 200,000, it is the third largest city in New York State. The city is known as the "World Image Center" and "Flour City", and when it comes to spring, a hundred flowers bloom, so it has the reputation of "Flower City".

After being a good student for a while, Bao Zixuan began his career of skipping classes again, and after arranging the company's affairs, he came to this small American city, where he wanted to go to Kodak to negotiate the patent licensing of digital cameras.

In fact, digital cameras are now the most unpopular products in Kodak, and it is difficult to achieve profitability in the current technology period. And it costs a lot of R&D every year, which has been a headache for the board of directors and management for a long time.

1878: Mr. George Eastman foresaw the trend of gelatin dry plates replacing bulky and bulky wet plate photography that was popular at the time. Dry plates can be exposed and developed at the photographer's discretion, while wet plates must be applied, exposed, and rinsed while wet. It is based on this aspect that Kodak was created.

It is precisely because of the foresight of the first generation of founders that Kodak has the glory of today, but who would have thought that the first to fall in the digital age was the giant who first developed a digital camera!

Kodak quickly reacted after receiving the business negotiation intention of the Black Cloud Group, and after learning that the chairman of the Black Cloud Group came in person, Kodak also sent a negotiation team headed by President Eric Eastman.

Bao Zixuan came to the reception room after walking around the Kodak Museum, and saw where the Kodak negotiation team was already waiting for them. This time, it was the lawyer negotiation team led by Larry Brown who was in charge.

Eric Eastman said, "Hello, Mr. Bao, welcome to Kodak. I am very clear about your purpose this time, and I am not opposed to licensing or transferring digital camera technology and patents, but to get the value that matches it. ”

Bao Zixuan: "Heiyun has always paid attention to win-win business, and partners who intersect with us will not suffer." In this way, it can last for a long time, otherwise no one or company will cooperate with you after a few times, and the loss will not be as simple as a little benefit. ”

"Kodak is a great company, and we have a lot to learn from you. This is also one of the purposes for which I brought my team to negotiate, that is, this time the cooperation was not successful, but at least I felt the culture of Kodak, which money cannot buy. This intangible wealth is the most valuable thing of a business. ”

Eric Eastman: "I don't know what kind of win-win cooperation plan Black Cloud has. ”

At this time, Larry Brown said: "This is our preliminary plan!" After that, he handed over the report formed by the black cloud based on the investigation to the Kodak personnel. ”

"At present, the total investment of digital camera Kodak is about 10 million US dollars, and the first option is that we pay three times the price for all the technology patents and equipment in the laboratory. ”

"The second option is that we pay $10 million to buy technology and patent licensing, and then Kodak and Heiyun can each enter the field of producing digital cameras. ”

"The third plan is that we invest 15 million yuan to account for half of the rights and interests of the entire project, that is, Kodak has half of the rights and interests in all the patents and technologies obtained by the digital camera. In addition, the digital camera R&D department is allocated every year, and both parties bear half of it. ”

Lawyers are much more professional than Bao Zixuan in this regard, and they will not come up to buy other people's patents and technologies. Just list a few for you to choose from, and value your company's technology is very accurate.

Kodak personnel did not expect that the first offer of Heiyun Company was full of sincerity, to be honest, they really did not want to keep the digital camera department, not to mention that they did not want to keep digital cameras at this point in time, even they did not want to keep traditional cameras. Kodak itself has a weak optical foundation. Most of the cameras are OEM lenses from Schneider.

As a result, the cameras they produce cannot sell RB and similar products in Germany, and the delivery of reels is Kodak's strength and core department, and it is also the main profit point that supports Kodak's progress.

Kodak is a publicly traded company and is not so quick to respond and make decisions on many things. The two sides agreed to continue negotiations tomorrow, and Bao Zixuan knew that they were going to have a meeting to discuss it, so the personnel of the Black Cloud Group left Kodak Company and went to the hotel to rest.

In the Kodak corporate conference room, Eric Eastman presented the Black Cloud proposal to the board. Everyone started to discuss.

One director said: "The digital camera division is losing money every year, and it is impossible to achieve profitability in more than 15 years. Why don't we sell the technology and patents to Heiyun in a package! But there is also a requirement, that is, the Heiyun Group is not allowed to enter related industries such as reel and film. We have one less competitor, and they have the technology and personnel of Carl Zeiss in East Germany, and it is really easy to get into the industry. Moreover, the labor cost of Xiangjiang is cheaper than RB, and it is not even half of our United States, so how can we compete when the time comes. We will be very passive, which is also to buy us an insurance. ”

Everyone thinks it is very reasonable, in fact, this is also the result of the lawyer's team, which is the benefit of handing over to professionals to negotiate. If Bao Zixuan buys it when he sees that the price is right, he will suffer a little loss for the time being, and he will be able to earn it back twice in the future anyway.

Then another director said: "We can retain the right to use the technology, that is, we sell the patents and technology to the Black Cloud Group, and then Kodak can enter it whenever it wants to enter the digital camera, which is equivalent to the Black Cloud purchasing the technology and licensing it to Kodak, but Kodak can only produce it by itself, and cannot license it to a third party." ”

It is the price that requires the negotiation team to dock with the black cloud, but there is a premise, that is, we must ensure the interests of our Kodak.

The next morning, negotiations continued. Kodak proposed that it could sell the patents and technology of the digital camera to the Black Cloud Group, but retained the independent right to use Kodak. Kodak can enter the digital realm at any time in the future, but this quota cannot be resold or licensed to third parties. The price is 40 million US dollars, and Heiyun Group is not allowed to engage in delivery production and development of related businesses for life.

In the end, the lawyer haggled and finally set the price at $34.5 million, and Kodak sold the technology and patents to Black Cloud. And what Bao Zixuan has to do now is to bring these people to Boston, after all, it is not very convenient here. Fortunately, Kodak Digital now has only 34 technicians, and they are not welcomed on the fringes of the company.

In this way, some people still don't want to leave the city of Rothchet, and it is difficult to let go of their families here for a while. Black Cloud took 26 engineers from Kodak, which is also a helpless thing, after all, it is difficult to leave the homeland.

The good news is that Steven Cézanne, the inventor of the digital camera, has agreed to join the Black Cloud Group, and Bao Zixuan is very happy. With the father of digital cameras joining, I believe that the black cloud digital camera will soon be successfully developed.

Steven Cézanne has always been ahead of this era in the development of CCD sensors, and after communicating with Steven Cézanne, Bao Zixuan appointed him as the chief engineer of the development of the Black Cloud Digital Camera, so that Hiroshi Hashimoto only needs to ensure the logistics.

Now the main components of the black cloud digital camera have been assigned, everyone only needs to do their own duties, and then the whole machine is combined after the design requirements are met, and the software is still written by Bao Zixuan himself.

Now the top priority is to finalize the digital camera, and he has already thought about this part, and it must be more reliable to find a professional photographer.