"Judging from the current situation, it is unlikely that any other buyer will be willing to take over our film company in the short term," Nobuyuki Idei shook his head and rejected Howard Stringer's proposal, "What's more, if you do this, the contradiction between Sony and Firefly will be completely irreconcilable." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

Howard Stringer fell silent.

During this time, a series of counterattacks by the Firefly system made Howard Stringer fully aware of the strength of the other party.

Not only is the media business powerless in the face of Firefly, but in the group's fundamental electronics industry, although Sony itself has a very strong technical accumulation, in the field of portable music players that it urgently needs to consolidate, and in the field of mobile phone manufacturing, which has been trying to expand, the Firefly system companies have shown a suppressive posture towards Sony.

In addition, although Firefly Group only released a rumor to block Sony Pictures' films on marketing channels, Sony Group's electronic products want to be well promoted in North America, and they are also inseparable from a large number of advertising. The Firefly system has mastered nearly half of the TV network media resources in North America, which is also what Sony needs to worry about and fear, after all, it is impossible for any multinational group to ignore the huge market in North America.

Remembering that the last time he received that call from Eric Williams, he still felt that the other party was too young and frivolous to be self-conscious, and Howard Stringer felt a burst of self-deprecation and regret in his heart.

If he could turn back the clock, he would never offend Eric Williams again for a single script.

Now, in order to avoid a full-blown deterioration in the relationship between the two parties, it is almost inevitable that Sony will compromise with Firefly, and after a week of discussions, Sony's board of directors has basically made the decision to abandon the film business. But there must be someone to take responsibility for this, and there is no doubt at all about who this person is.

Noticing Howard Stringer's dejected expression, Shinyuki Idei sighed.

Because the two sides have a very compatible business management philosophy, he has always admired Howard Stringer very much, and even hopes that the other party can become his successor in the future.

However, there is certainly no way to talk about this now.

After a moment of silence, Nobuyuki Idei still said to the assistant waiting for instructions beside him: "Tell Eric Williams, it's set for Saturday noon, I'll invite him to dinner in Los Angeles, and you guys will prepare in advance over there." ”

……

The time has entered September, the summer file has begun to end, and the autumn file of the TV series is coming.

At the same time, the films that the major studios have determined to schedule at the end of the year have basically been completed during this time period, and they are about to start a promotional offensive one after another.

Early Saturday morning, Eric, Katzenberg and other Firefly executives gathered in a screening room at Firefly Studios to watch the finished film of "Teddy Bear".

The 3D animation and live-action film using motion capture technology has been set for Thanksgiving at the end of the year, and the release time is November 13, a week earlier than MGM's "Mission Impossible 3".

As a long-established plush toy, teddy bears have been around for more than a hundred years. In other words, even the forty or fifty-year-old executives present at the scene may have a childhood memory of teddy bears. Therefore, although I have already read the script, when everyone watches a certain stuffed bear unscrupulously drop the festival through the big screen, it is inevitable that there will be various feelings of collapse.

After the ninety-minute film was played, the lights came on, and several other company executives in the screening room, except for Eric, had strange expressions on their faces, obviously holding back a smile, probably because they felt that this kind of occasion was not suitable for being too presumptuous.

Eric was very happy with the finished film, and compared to the original version, he made some adjustments to some of the overly local details of the script, so that it could appear more friendly to overseas audiences.

Relaxed and cross-legged, Eric looked at the other people in the screening room and smiled, "So, what do you think?" ”

The crowd did not speak for a moment.

In the end, Robert Thompson, president of the Firefly distribution department in charge of Bowei International Distribution Group, was the first to speak: "Eric, is the scale of this movie a little too big?" ”

"R-rated shouldn't be a problem, right?" Eric asked with a smile and added, "Moreover, the theme of this film is generally positive. ”

"I mean," says Robert Thompson, "it seems that the image of a teddy bear is too damaging for the audience to accept, after all, it's a very popular stuffed animal." ”

Eric said: "Bob, you should be saying that the film may have a bad effect on children, but in reality, the audience for this film is not children, but adults. Therefore, as long as the content and positioning of the film are clearly explained in the promotion stage, we do not need to consider this aspect. As for some of the criticisms that may be faced, in all fairness, this can just raise the topicality of the film. ”

On the other side, Frank Wells nodded slightly, but immediately added: "Eric, we must not let this film be associated with the Disney brand." ”

Eric agrees: "That's for sure. ”

After a careful discussion and a rough decision on a distribution plan, everyone left the screening hall one after another, and today was the weekend, and most of them went straight home to rest.

Eric and Katzenberg left the screening room at the end, leaving the office building together and walking side by side on the tree-lined concrete roadway of the park.

After casually chatting about some recent company affairs, Eric said, "Jeffrey, I have already made an appointment with Nobuyuki Idei for lunch, and I will probably get Columbia Pictures this time." However, my idea is that this acquisition will be funded by Firefly Investment, and Columbia Pictures will maintain a solo operation strategy in the future. ”

Katzenberg's expression flashed a little disappointed when he heard this, but this was actually what he expected, the Firefly Group itself is large enough, if Columbia Pictures is integrated into the group's system, it will definitely need to carry out relevant business integration, which will only lose the little vitality that Columbia Pictures has left, and even become a dispensable part of the Firefly Group.

By staying on its own, Columbia Pictures will be able to maintain its position as one of Hollywood's seven major studios and have a chance to re-emerge like MGM.

"That's not bad, but if we add another Colombia to our side, it's going to get bloated. Maintaining independent operations will allow the Firefly system to gain more market share as a whole. ”

"If only you understood," Eric smiled and nodded.

Although he relies heavily on Katzenberg, he will not allow his executives to concentrate too much, which is not beneficial to either side.

The two chatted and came to the office park in the digital field together, although it was a weekend, there were still many employees working overtime in the office LOFT in the digital field.

After spending about an hour in the digital office and checking out some of the Iron Man's post-production special effects progress, Eric said goodbye to Katzenberg and left Firefly Studios for a car ride to Culver City.

Half an hour later, outside the door of a fancy restaurant in Culver City.

Although he was very angry, when he saw Eric get out of the car, Howard Stringer still squeezed out a smile and quickly greeted him: "Eric, good afternoon." ”

"Hello, Howard," Eric politely shook his hand, then looked at Bill Michanick next to Howard Stringer, and took the initiative to greet, "Hello, Bill." ”

Bill Michanik's tone was a little respectful, and he reached out to shake Eric's hand, and said, "Hello, Mr. Williams. ”

Howard Stringer waited for the two to say hello and made a gesture of invitation to Eric: "Let's go in, Izumi is already waiting for you." ”

Eric didn't care about Nobuyuki Idei's pretentious gesture, and walked into the restaurant with Howard Stringer.

Walking into a private room in the restaurant, it was naturally a polite greeting.

Eric had hoped that Chris would come over today, but Morgan Stanley's U.S. online stock distribution program has reached a critical juncture.

Next Monday, the 15% AOL stock that Firefly handed over to Morgan Stanley for distribution will officially start selling, although this batch of shares has been basically subscribed before that, but Chris still has a lot of details to negotiate with Morgan Stanley this weekend, so he can't make it to Los Angeles.

After ordering lunch, he sent the waiters away, and only four Eric were left in the box.

Nobuyuki Idei just specially instructed the waiter to serve the meal later, and when the other party left, he got straight to the point: "Eric, Sony is willing to transfer the film company in his hand, but the offer you gave is definitely not good, according to the current market value of Sony Pictures, Firefly needs to pay at least $5 billion, and you must also bear the existing debts of Sony Pictures." ”

Eric smiled, and instead of responding to Nobuyuki Idei's topic, he changed his words and said, "Idei, if the news I get is correct, Sony should be about to launch a purely digital MD player, right?" ”

Nobuyuki Idei was stunned, but nodded truthfully, since Eric said it at this time, there was no need to hide it.

Since the release of the Fireflyer generation, Sony has actually started the research and development of digital music players internally, and with Sony's technical strength, it will not even take half a year to develop a similar digital music player.

So far, the global monthly shipments of Fireflyer's second-generation player have remained stable at more than 2 million units, and the shipments even exceeded 2.5 million units last month. While the Big Five have been trying to curb the proliferation of digital pirated music in recent months, it's clear to everyone that the digitization of music has become an inevitable trend.

Therefore, Sony has decided to release its own digital music player as soon as possible, which is what Eric calls the MD player. This player originally used a mini disk playback medium, because it also specializes in the micro player market, Sony did not plan to use a new name, but let its own digital music player continue to use the same name.

In contrast to Fireflyer's Fireflyer player, Sony's MD will use the exclusive ATRAC audio format, which not only has very strict anti-piracy restrictions, but is also exclusive to Sony Pictures.

Receiving Nobuyuki Idei's confirmation, Eric still had a smile on his face and continued: "Idei, you must know that Firefly Electronics has applied for a full set of patents related to digital music players a long time ago. Although your MD player uses only audio formats, it can circumvent some of Firefly Electronics' patents in audio decoding. But for other parts, such as system control chips, microdisk storage technology, software operating systems, etc., Sony wants to bypass the patent barriers of Firefly Electronics to achieve the functions that digital music players should have, which is simply impossible. As long as Firefly Electronics is willing, through patent litigation, we can completely prevent MD from entering the North American and even European markets. ”

Before Nobuyuki Idei could speak, Howard Stringer couldn't help but say, "Eric, you guys have a monopoly, this is illegal. ”

Eric ignored Howard Stringer's words and kept his eyes on Nobuyuki Idei.

Nobuyuki Idei was obviously much calmer than Howard Stringer, and said, "Eric, since you mentioned this, does it mean that Firefly is willing to license this part of the patent to Sony?" ”

Eric leaned back in the chair behind him, nodded slightly, and said, "As long as Sony can offer a sufficient price, of course it can." ”

Howard Stringer, who had an angry look on his face just now, heard Eric's words, and his face suddenly showed an expression of thinking that he had misheard, Firefly Electronics was willing to transfer the patent of the digital music player?

Nobuyuki Idei's eyes also began to wander a little.

It has been more than a year since Firefly Electronics released the Fireflyer player last year, as an electronic product with low technical content, if it were not for the strict patent technology restrictions, in the face of such a rapid development of the MP3 player market, major electronics manufacturers have long been eager to launch their own products.

However, because the Firefly system firmly holds the full set of technical patents for MP3 players, except for Nokia, no other company has obtained relevant patent authorizations, so the current Fireflyer player is almost exclusive to the market.

Sony's MD digital player is indeed as Eric said, and it simply cannot avoid the patent barrier of Firefly Electronics.

Originally, Sony was even ready to fight a lawsuit with Firefly Electronics, just like the lawsuit between Apple and Samsung on smartphones in the original time and space, although in the end Samsung mobile phones barely escaped the fate of being blocked by the American market. But in fact, before Samsung, HTC Android mobile phones, which rose earlier, were excluded from the North American market because of infringement of Apple's smartphone patents, and were bombarded by the other party's lawsuits, which eventually led to the rapid decline of HTC mobile phones, which had even surpassed Apple in market share, and finally could only become a third-rate mobile phone manufacturer.

Therefore, in a lawsuit with Firefly Electronics, Sony is actually very likely to lose the lawsuit.

At this time, hearing that he could get the patent for a digital music player from Firefly Electronics, Nobuyuki Idei couldn't calm down anymore no matter what.

You know, just now Fireflyer2's monthly shipments of 2.5 million units can bring more than $800 million in sales revenue to Firefly Electronics every month, and it is conceivable that in the next few years, the annual market size of digital music players will easily reach more than tens of billions of dollars, which is a market that any electronics manufacturer will covet.