In the early seventies, Japanese video recorders were just beginning to enter the American market. Among them, the most representative products are the BETA format recorder developed by Sony, and the VHS format recorder of JVC (Victory) Company, which was launched a year later.

Americans love to watch movies, and not everyone has the opportunity to go to theaters during the public release of movies. Many people may miss out on it for a variety of reasons, so there is a huge video rental market in the United States. And video copyright income is also the most important income of American film companies in addition to the box office.

Americans are also particularly fond of watching sports, and if they don't have time to watch live TV when they go out, they usually use the recording function of their home video recorder to record the live game in a blank videotape, and then watch it slowly when they get home. All these reasons have contributed to the fact that the United States has the largest video recorder consumer market in the world.

RCA also learned the lessons of its previous experience in the field of televisions, and decided to directly let Japanese companies help it produce video recorders on an OEM basis from the beginning, so as to offset the advantages of Japanese companies in manufacturing costs. At that time, RCA was the first to find Sony, but Sony thought very highly of itself and rejected RCA's request.

So RCA turned to the alliance with JVC in a fit of rage, and found Panasonic to produce video recorders for JVC under the guidance of JVC. The consequence of Sony's rejection of RCA was that the BETA format recorder had been rigidly suppressed by JVC's VHS format for seven or eight years since it was launched in the United States.

For example, when Sony launched a BETA videotape that can record a one-hour program, the VHS tape can already record two hours. The former was launched on a 2-hour videotape. A videotape in VHS format can already record a full rugby match (4 hours).

But there is no denying Sony's failure in the US VCR market. It is definitely inseparable from RCA's support for the VHS format. Although RCA's share of sales in the TV market has been shrinking under the pressure of Japanese companies. But as a homegrown electronics giant. Since the era of radio and radio, it has been deeply cultivated in the domestic market of the United States.

RCA's 60 years of accumulated influence in sales and promotion cannot be erased by foreign companies overnight. It was under the influence of RCA that took the lead in supporting the VHS format, and the number of hardware manufacturers in the U.S. market that supported both VHS and BETA formats was 22 to 8, and Sony was completely defeated.

It's a pity that in the TV business, Japanese companies don't need to resort to RCA, so it is naturally impossible to produce them OEM. But if other Asian companies can achieve the same production costs as Japanese companies, then RCA will be able to offset the price disadvantage. With the advantage of being a host, he is not afraid to compete with any Japanese company at all.

It took the three of them nearly three and a half hours to play all eighteen holes. Although Li Xuan made a hole-in-one and caught an eagle shortly after the start, he still couldn't rank first in the final total.

But he wasn't at the bottom either, as Bradshaw was worse than him. The president of the RCA is clearly out of form today. Ever since Bradshaw learned that Dongfang Electronics could indeed easily raise enough money to acquire RCA, his mind couldn't be entirely focused on the court. For the first time, he really began to seriously consider the pros and cons of RCA's acquisition by Dongfang Electronics.

Although Bradshaw is the chairman of the board of directors of RCA, he is a professional manager. Except for a portion of RCA shares acquired as equity incentives. He is not a shareholder of RCA himself. Therefore, Bradshaw does not rule out the company being acquired, it is just a change of boss for him, and he values the pros and cons of the acquisition for the future development of the company.

An 18-hole game is not an easy one, although they don't have to go all the way like the pros. Most of the time, you can use the dedicated four-wheeled electric vehicle in the stadium. Li Xuan also had some gains today, such as the fact that he negotiated with Reed that Citibank would provide a comprehensive credit line to Oriental Group.

Compared to mortgages. The comprehensive credit line provided by the bank according to the qualification of the enterprise is more flexible to use. Borrowers can meet their own financial needs. Borrow as you go, so you don't have to go through cumbersome loan approval procedures every time. And the use of credit is not limited to loans. It also includes letters of credit, letters of guarantee and other businesses.

Previously, Dongfang Company was supported by the big cash cow of the game business, and the demand for bank loans was low. So much so that the huge amount of credit provided by the two banks in Hong Kong, HSBC and Standard Chartered, was not used by Oriental Company for most of the time.

But if Dongfang Electronics successfully acquires RCA, then the company's capital chain will be very tight in the next period of time, so Li Xuan needs to take precautions and take the initiative to establish a good relationship with the bank.

The trio took a short break after playing and prepared to stay at the club for lunch. Lunch at the National Golf Course is said to be the most delicious of any golf course in the country. It's a pity that Reed had to apologize to the other two after answering a phone call. He needed to return early to Citibank's headquarters in Manhattan on an urgent business.

However, this also gave Li Xuan and Bradshaw an opportunity to discuss the RCA issue privately.

"I think RCA's current market value is undervalued, and the main reason is the pessimistic view of the US television industry in the capital market, believing that it is dying!"

Li Xuan put down the knife and fork in his hand, gently wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, picked up the wine glass again, took a sip of the wine that accompanied the meal, and then said lightly. The steaks here are so good that the chef doesn't seem to be in vain.

"Thornton, you must know better than I do that the American television industry is still thriving. Although cable television in the United States is rising rapidly in recent years, the three major public television networks, including NBC, have not been affected as much as imagined. According to RCA's past financial statements, the company's revenue in the media business has been growing steadily!

With the booming TV business, there's no reason for TV sales to stagnate. According to the number I got jù. In the first six months of this year, total U.S. TV sales were up 12 percent from the same period last year. The U.S. economy is emerging from a recession. However, the sales of local American brands represented by RCA have not been able to achieve synchronous growth!" Li Xuan said unhurriedly.

Bradshaw was not in a hurry to pick up Li Xuan's words. Instead, he went on to settle his lunch, and the main course he ordered today was roasted lamb chops with rosemary.

"Have you heard of Samsung?" Li Xuan suddenly asked.

Bradshaw finally settled the lunch, and he nodded: "That's a Korean company!"

"That's right, it just replaced Japan's Panasonic Corporation a few years ago to become the world's largest manufacturer of black-and-white televisions! When I was visiting a shopping mall a few days ago, I found that there are two Samsung-branded color televisions that have begun to enter the American market.

Their prices are about 10% lower than the lowest price of similar Japanese brand TVs!" In the past few days, Li Xuan has deliberately taken the time to inspect several electrical appliance sales companies in New York. Unexpectedly, the famous Samsung was found on the shelf.

Samsung in 1983 was nowhere near as glamorous as it was 30 years later, and it was only well-known in South Korea. Even though it has become the largest manufacturer of black-and-white televisions, Samsung's influence in the field of televisions is still weak.

Because the mainstream of the TV industry is now color TV, black and white TV can only be regarded as a backward product on the verge of elimination, and there is still a large market in third world countries. But Samsung started with black-and-white televisions, and in 30 years, it has developed into one of the world's most well-known electronics giants.

"I understand what you mean, if Korean companies do better than Japanese companies in terms of cost control, then Taiwanese and Hong Kong companies can do the same!" Bradlower said with a smile.

"Yes. I've always believed that the future of electronics manufacturing lies in Asia! Japan will win over the United States by virtue of its efficient productivity. And South Korea defeated Japan by equally well-trained workers, and cheaper labor!

For mature electronic products like televisions, the competition is the cost of production, and a very important part of it is the cost of labor! Even the wage costs of workers in South Korea and Hong Kong are skyrocketing. Not to mention Japan.

Like Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung have all begun to build factories in Southeast Asian countries! And Hong Kong's Lu's Electronics Company, which has cooperated with RCA, has moved almost all of his TV production lines from Hong Kong to Chinese mainland!" Li Xuan said.

Although he acquired RCA for a big reason. It values NBC, which is wholly owned by it. However, as the second largest core industry after the media business, the television business occupies a position within RCA. But it's not inferior to NBC at all.

The decision of the Eastern Group to acquire RCA's television business will have a direct impact on RCA's management's attitude towards the merger. The television business represents RCA's illustrious business for the past two or three decades. Although the glory of the past is no longer there, every RCA person wants to rebuild the glory.

If it was according to Li Xuan's true wishes, his first choice would definitely be to sell the TV business. For the Oriental Group, the profits from the TV business are far less lucrative than those from the computer, gaming, software, and semiconductor businesses.

But if Li Xuan's idea is made public, what awaits him will definitely be a wave of opposition within RCA. You must know that Jack Welch, who was later hailed as one of the most outstanding managers of the 20th century, attracted a surging opposition within GE because he sold GE's electric irons, ovens, curling irons and other miscellaneous household appliances last year.

Many veteran employees angrily wrote letters of complaint asking him whether the GE appliances that did not produce irons and ovens were still the same GE appliances.

But Jack Welch withstood the pressure, and Li knew that GE under his leadership had successfully transformed. In another time and space, GE's market capitalization swelled from $13 billion to $480 billion over the next two decades.

In fact, GE and RCA are facing the same problem, that is, the company is too big but not strong, and the profits of many businesses have plummeted due to the competition of Japanese products. If Li Xuan does not buy RCA now, according to the original trajectory, Jack Welch will buy RCA in two years. But he's still focused on sorting out his internal thoughts, and he doesn't have time to spare his hands.

How to avoid competition from Japanese products was a difficult problem facing all the business managers in the United States in the 80s! When the entrepreneurs had no good solution, the US Government had no choice but to take action, and finally used the "Plaza Accord" to force the yen to appreciate, thereby weakening the export competitiveness of Japanese products.

Li Xuan is now proposing a new idea, let Dongfang Electronics, an Asian company, buy RCA, so as to integrate Asia's cheaper production cost advantages and let RCA break through the predicament.

In fact, in another time and space, until the era of flat-panel TVs in the 21st century, the American TV industry finally gave birth to a local brand that can lead the North American sales market - Vizio.

Li Xuan in his previous life also heard of Vizio. Not because he bought this company's TV in his previous life, but because the founder of this company is also a Chinese named Wang Wei. Of course, this Wang Wei is also from Taiwan, like most of the Chinese-American celebrities Li Xuan knew before.

A very important feature of the Vizio company founded by Wang Wei is that all the products are OEM overseas. The well-known (notorious) Foxconn is one of its two most important foundries. And Vizio itself, which has annual sales of more than $2 billion, has just over 100 employees!

"What arrangements are you going to make if Dongfang Electronics acquires RCA?" asked Bradshaw with some sternness.

A smile appeared on Li Xuan's face, and he understood that from now on, Bradshaw's attitude towards Dongfang Electronics' acquisition of RCA had finally changed fundamentally.

"Personally, I think that the current RCA company is too bloated, and the slimming action is inevitable! The slimming plan can be divided into two parts, of which those marginal businesses under RCA that have little to do with the main business should be sold directly. For example, there is no need for blanket factories and insurance companies to keep them.

Among the businesses that need to be retained, all the manufacturing industry will be transferred to Asia, and all factories in North America will be gradually closed! At the same time, the funds withdrawn will be used for the construction of sales channels and investment in technology research and development. I firmly believe in a sentence, there is only sunset technology, there is no sunset industry!

CRT technology is transitioning from curved CRT to flat CRT, and the future trend should be pure flat CRT! And in my opinion, LCD liquid crystal is likely to replace CRT in the near future and become a new development direction of image display technology!"

"Is that why you've been investing heavily in the LCD business since you acquired RCA?" asked Bradshaw with interest. He also has some concerns about the LCD business that RCA previously sold to the Oriental Group, and Li Xuan has been investing heavily in the research and development of LCD technology in the past two years.

"Of course!" Li Xuan nodded confidently. (To be continued......)

PS: I fell asleep writing last night, I don't know what keyboard I pressed, but the computer restarted, and the more than 2,000 words I wrote were not saved! During this time, the weekend update is more scummy than going to work, except for the reason for last week's illness, in fact, I am chasing a girl! Well, I have been rejected, so sad, I am estimated to have a lot of time to write a book next weekend......