Eric probably understood something, and continued to ask, "Which record company?" ”

"Polygram is the record company based in the Netherlands. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoI think it was around 1992 when PolyGram became the largest shareholder of the film company when it became a shareholder of working-title. At that time, one of the founders of working-title, it seems that his name was Tim Bevan, and he left the company because he was dissatisfied with the other partners making the deal, so PolyGram hired Eric Feener as president, and has been until now," Barbara Blockley said curiously, "Eric, what are you asking for?" ”

Eric was a little surprised, although Firefly Electronics has launched a Fireflyer player, and has been in contact with major record companies for online music sales, but Eric actually doesn't pay much attention to the movements of several major record companies, he originally thought that PolyGene has been acquired by several other major record giants, and in his memory, after 2000, it seems that he rarely hears the name Polygram again. Hearing Barbara Brookley say that, it is clear that this has not happened yet.

Sorting out some scattered information in his mind, Eric said, "Just now, just before you came over to say hello, Eric Fenner should have hinted to me that PolyGram might be going to be sold." ”

"I haven't heard of that yet," Barbara Brookley said, shaking her head, "but it should be a good opportunity." Drew gave me a Fireflyer player a few days ago, and I think it's very good, but there are too few songs in the music store, and if you want to listen to any songs, you have to buy a CD to copy them, which is very troublesome. If you have PolyGram, you can definitely add a lot of songs to your online music store. ”

Eric nodded and smiled, but his heart was even more clear.

Since Barbara Block can see the shortcomings of the Yahoo Music Store in terms of content, PolyGram must be more likely to notice this, although it is not clear what the current situation of Polygram is, but this is obviously the reason for Eric Feiner's words just now.

In fact, Eric has always hoped that through the large-scale promotion of MP3 music players, several major record companies will actively seek cooperation with online music stores.

However, the lack of content in the Yahoo Music Store is indeed a bit of a headache at the moment, after all, even if you don't care about the life or death of the entire record industry, if users can't buy genuine music through the Internet and are forced to turn to piracy in large numbers, MP3 players will definitely be under more and more pressure from public opinion.

Having decided to have someone gather some information about Polygram first, Eric and Barbara Brookley casually chatted about other topics.

However, before the dance music was over, Eric saw his assistant Peter Ritchie gesturing to him with a mobile phone in his hand.

Eric lifted his chin at Peter Ridge and said, "I'm sorry, Barbara, Peter may have something urgent to look for me." ”

"Of course it doesn't matter."

Barbara Brockley smiled and shook her head, letting go of Eric, and the two of them left the dance floor together.

Peter Ritchie waited for Eric to approach, handed over the phone, and said, "Boss, the call from San Francisco is from Mr. McNairy, and you must answer it yourself." ”

Eric nodded, smiled at Barbara Brookley again, took his phone to his ear, and walked towards the ballroom door.

Although the call was from Victor McNelli, CEO of Firefly Electronics, it was related to Amazon.

It's almost ten o'clock in the evening in London, and it's only afternoon in Western time.

Things have to start with the pre-sale of Amazon's fireflyer player in the morning, and at ten o'clock in the morning in the western United States, Amazon officially opened the pre-sale of the fireflyer player to users.

Unexpectedly, in just 52 minutes, the sales broke through the 50,000 mark, which far exceeded Amazon's expectations, and Jeff Bezos, who felt that something was wrong, decisively suspended the pre-sale.

After investigation, it was found that because the fireflyer player in the physical store is generally 30 US dollars higher than the Amazon platform, and the price of Amazon's fireflyer player is still 299 US dollars after the open pre-sale, therefore, many users who are obviously e-tailers regard Amazon as a 'wholesale' platform for fireflyer players, and some users even order 1000 units at one time in frenzy, and orders such as 50 units and 100 units are countless.

According to the final statistics, of the 50,000 units sold in pre-sales, there were probably less than 7,000 orders from ordinary customers, and all the others were large orders.

In fact, Amazon did not consider this problem before opening pre-sale, and in the previous rush stage, Amazon stipulated that each user could only buy a maximum of two units at a time.

However, Amazon's management generally feels that in the case of a significant increase in the production capacity of Firefly Electronics, the market demand for Fireflyer players may not be so tight, and the price of physical retail should gradually be reduced to the same price as the online platform, so there is no limit on the number of users who can buy.

Obviously, brick-and-mortar retailers have tasted enough sweetness in the sales process of Fireflyer players in the first few months, and when they can't get enough supplies from Firefly Electronics, they start to find another way.

It is conceivable that in the process of Amazon's panic buying activities in the first three months, these people must have been filled, otherwise it is unlikely that 5000 players will be swept away in less than a minute, after all, grab a fireflyer player, you can earn at least $30 or more from changing hands, such a 'business' is still very cost-effective.

However, now that the mistake has occurred, Amazon must find a way to fix it.

Canceling those large orders is definitely not okay, although the motivation of this part of the user is somewhat unexistent, but since Amazon did not limit the number of purchases in advance, they are not considered to be breaking the rules. Imposing the company's own mistakes on users will lead to lawsuits in the United States, and it is impossible to win, and it will damage the company's own credibility.

The pre-sale was paused for an hour, and Amazon added a limit of two units per user before the transaction page opened again.

But the 50,000 units that have been sold will definitely have an impact on Amazon's continuous supply, not to mention, even if restrictions are made, it is actually very simple to break this restriction, as long as you have enough patience and register more accounts. The key to solving this problem is ultimately on the side of Firefly Electronics, so Jeff Bezos flew from Seattle to San Francisco to meet with Victor McNelli, explained his own situation, and hoped that Firefly Electronics would increase its supply to Amazon by at least 50,000 units per month.

Electronics retailers throughout the United States are lining up for Firefly Electronics to supply an extra 50,000 units to Amazon, and brick-and-mortar retailers will certainly complain, Victor McNelly naturally disagrees with Jeff Bezos's request, and the somewhat impatient Bill Olsen has an argument with Jeff Bezos. In the end, Jeff Bezos suggested calling Eric to make a decision, and seeing that Jeff Bezos was not going to leave in San Francisco, Victor McNairy had to call Eric in London.

After a preliminary understanding of the ins and outs of the matter on the phone, Eric rushed back to his residence on Kensington Garden Street, and held a video conference with Victor McNelli, Jeff Bezos and others in San Francisco, and discussed until late at night.

In fact, Eric was also helpless in his heart.

The technical content of the FireFlyer player is indeed not too high, but after all, it is a brand new electronic product, and it is impossible to be like CD players, mobile phones and other electronic devices that have appeared for many years. Because it is a new product, the Fireflyer player will not only be limited by the supply of components, but also the assembly plant and production line of the product will need to be built from scratch, in addition to various problems such as employee training, and the production capacity will be exploded, and the cycle time is several times that of traditional electronic products.

Although the problem between Firefly Electronics and Amazon was temporarily solved through remote video conferencing, Eric did not have the heart to stay in London and decided to return to the United States early, where there were indeed too many problems that he needed to solve personally.

The selection of the hot girl group is impossible to complete without two or three months, and he only needs to come over again when the time comes.

So, the next day, Eric boarded the Boeing 767 that Drew had leased from ALC in Los Angeles.

Satisfied with the trip to London, the girl signed a long-term lease with ALC and bought the Boeing 767, intending to use it until her Boeing 747 was delivered. Although the monthly rent is as high as $650,000, not counting the fuel and other expenses for each flight, Eric has no objection, maybe the rent of $650,000 a month is unaffordable for the average rich man, but this money is nothing to him. After all, by the time the planned aircraft are delivered and two private airports are built on the east and west coasts, it will cost tens of millions of dollars a year to spend on maintenance and other things.

When he left the party last night, Eric instructed Peter Rich to gather some information about Polygram. Despite the tight schedule, Peter Ritchie sorted out a few documents about PolyGram before Eric got on the plane.

The Boeing 767 took off from London Heathrow, after a brief period of discomfort just after liftoff, and the plane smoothly crossed the Atlantic, Eric sat next to the window of the cabin luxury suite, looking through PolyGram's information.

Just as he didn't expect that Working-Title Film Company would be backed by Polygram Records, Eric didn't expect that Philips in the Netherlands would be the controlling shareholder of Polygram. His impression of Philips is basically only razors, and it seems that there are DVD players and so on.

But after reading the information carefully, Eric found that Philips at this time was still very large for the Netherlands, and the company's business involved medical equipment, lighting equipment, household appliances, entertainment media and other aspects, and it was completely a mini General Electric. In 1996, Philips' annual revenue reached 108.5 billion guilders, which translates to nearly $37 billion.

Philips' purpose in getting involved in the record industry is the same as that of Sony in Japan, which is to promote its own music player products. In the early 80s, PolyGram was jointly owned by Philips and Siemens, and then Philips bought all the shares of PolyGram in the late 80s and listed it on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in the Netherlands. At present, Philips still owns 75% of PolyGram's shares, and the other 15% of the shares are outstanding.

At recent stock prices, PolyGram's market capitalization reached $9.7 billion.

Just seeing this number, Eric had already dispelled the idea of buying Polygram, not that he couldn't afford it, but that it was not worth it at all.

The market capitalization is $9.7 billion, and the final transaction value will certainly not be less than $10 billion.

Although Firefly can easily pocket this record company if it wants to take over and take a combination of capital and stock trading, if it is just for the song copyright in PolyGram's hands, it is probably similar to Sony buying MGM in the original time and space in order to promote the Blu-ray format, and within a few years of Sony buying MGM, the era of streaming media has come, whether it is Sony's Blu-ray or Toshiba's HD, it has become chicken ribs. And now, with the rise of the internet, it doesn't have to wait a few more years for the era of digital music to arrive.

Moreover, according to PolyGram's 1996 annual financial report, last year, the record giant's annual operating income was $3.6 billion, but its net profit was only $337.8 million, even if the record industry does not decline, it will take 30 years to pay $10 billion to buy the company. (To be continued.) )