……

In fact, as the government and military undertook projects, Tang Huan's companies began to be investigated by intelligence agencies, including the FBI, which is the proper meaning of the question, and there is no fuss.

These investigations were carried out covertly, overtly, consulted with third parties, and even came directly to the door. Tang Huan has been questioned by FBI investigators by telephone, and some of the questions will even be more "interesting", such as whether there is a history of drug use, how many times he has been high, etc.

It was only with the public listing of Fangyuan Computer Company that Tang Huan tried his best to get rid of the responsibilities of the daily management of the enterprise, and this kind of harassment began to disappear.

After drinking the cup of hot milk slowly and methodically, Tang Huan slowly instructed: "In this way, you stay calm and do whatever you need to do; Let Xiaomei temporarily come out from Goldman Sachs to help; In addition, EA has a large business in Japan, which also includes real estate projects such as theme parks, and there is ample room to operate through its subsidiaries to further cover it. ”

Zhuang Menghua, who graduated from Harvard Business School, has had a good experience in the past few years, and is enough to take on important responsibilities.

Tang Huan intends to let himself stand in the open place to further get rid of specific work, and attract the attention of those who have a heart as much as possible, so that the entrusted henchmen can handle the work in the secret more freely.

In fact, he has nothing to be afraid of, businessmen are profit-seeking, and everyone understands that the two brothers Nelson Hunter and William Hunter have scourged the silver futures market to the point of collapse, and there is no prison sentence in the end, which is a major feature of the American ecology.

The point is that as long as you are valuable, you will be welcomed. Mark Ritchie insisted on doing oil business with Iran, violating the U.S. trade embargo and eventually having to flee to Switzerland. But that's all, people in the original time and space are still alive and well in the 21st century, and they are buried in Israel after their deaths.

Tang Huan, who has mastered information asymmetry, sees through the rules, and has already controlled enough resources, is very calm from a high position, which is not something that Tang Wenmao's close subordinates can understand.

After Tang Wenmao left. Tang Huan couldn't go back to sleep anymore, and he started his day's work.

At lunchtime, my little cousin Meng Jing came over. She just went to college this year, and Tang Huan was not worried about this wild girl, so she arranged to go to Stanford University nearby, so that she could take care of her.

"When I go to university, I can finally breathe the air freely." Tang Huan joked that because the management of the high school he studied in was very strict, he complained a lot.

"That's what it is." Meng Jing took a sip of juice. Then he replied indifferently.

The two were chatting about the campus when Spielberg and George Lucas came over with drinks.

"The two, the rare guest, and they all appear at the same time." Tang Huan said with some surprise: "Didn't you come to Cupertino to taste the food in our restaurant?" ”

Tang Huan is really surprised, these two are very busy people, Spielberg is not only supervising this summer's "Back to the Future", but also directing a movie called "Purple"; On George Lucas's side, the endless bickering divorce lawsuit alone was enough to make him anxious.

Speaking of which. George Lucas and his first wife, Marcia Lucas, are like-minded and are film editors. In 1974. With the box office hit "American Painting", he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Editing.

Since then, Marcia Lucas has also served as editorial supervisor for "Taxi Driver", starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, which won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival; George Lucas won the 1977 Academy Award for Best Editing for Star Wars.

It's a pity that the world is unpredictable, and this pair of life partners and career partners are now going to fly together.

"The restaurant here is really not like a staff canteen, and the standard of food is completely comparable to the professional restaurants outside." George Lucas complimented with a smile.

Tang Huan estimated that there must be something wrong with these two people running over. But he didn't rush to ask, just beckoned them to sit down.

It was Spielberg who first explained, "George's cash flow has been tight lately, so he plans to sell some of Lucasfilm's businesses and wants to ask Don if he's interested." ”

George Lucas founded a series of companies. People are probably most familiar with IndustrialLightandMagic, which deals with visual effects, but also SkywalkerSound, which handles sound effects, and LucasArts, which also handles sound effects.

Hearing Spielberg say that George Lucas was going to sell some companies to cash out, Tang Huan immediately guessed that George Lucas was affected by the divorce lawsuit, and the income of "Star Wars" could not be strong forever, which caused his cash flow to be so tight.

It must be pointed out that these celebrities in the United States, if there is no agreement, the cost of divorce is often high.

Take Robert Noyce, one of the founders of Intel, for example, because of an extramarital affair, his original wife filed a divorce lawsuit with him in a California court, and directly divided half of the family property worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

George Lucas is in such an embarrassing situation right now, he must have a net worth, but cash is a different matter.

Tang Huan estimated that George Lucas had not yet reached the point of selling ILM, so he asked curiously, "What divisions or subsidiaries is George going to sell?" ”

"Computer Department." George Lucas replied: "At the moment it has two main components: one team is responsible for developing a custom computer that can digitize the images on live action film and incorporate cool special effects; Another team focuses on computer animation. ”

"I'll go, isn't this the predecessor of Pixar Animation Studios!" Tang Huan reacted immediately, and secretly wondered, "Why hasn't Steve Jobs been on the line with this money-losing goods?" ”

Then it dawned on him that George Lucas was in the grip of a divorce lawsuit, and Jobs was no better, and he was also entangled in lawsuits -- Apple was preparing to sue him for digging his own foothold.

In other words, Mr. Jobs didn't have time to think about anything else.

To be honest, Tang Huan was not very interested in this business. Gain's industry layout in the field currently involved is basically formed. It has also gone through the stage of brutal expansion, and now the focus is on "practicing internal strength".

DigitalDomain - Digital Domain is D2, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it has surpassed Industrial Light and Magic in visual effects and computer animation.

If you have to find a factor that can impress Tang Huan, it may be talent.

But his company has already made a name for itself, and talents in the IT field often come to him on their own initiative; As for the relatively scarce artistic and creative talents. I also solicited quite a few.

For example, John Lasseter, who was fired by Disney, turned around and happily entered the D2 job after being disappointed.

As a result, Lucasfilm's computer department, neither in terms of technology nor talent, could produce the attraction that Tang Huan had to make a move.

You must know that in the original time and space, the Pixar animation studio in Jobs' hands was before the release of "Toy Story". It's always been a money-loser. And the success of "Toy Story" was also a coincidence, as Disney did not intend to release it in theaters at the time.

It is estimated that only Steve Jobs, a paranoid, would throw tens of millions of dollars into his own pocket to stubbornly maintain the survival of Pixar Animation Studios, but that was almost unbearable and sold "Toy Story" before its release.

Seeing that Tang Huan didn't express his position immediately, George Lucas couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, and it was estimated that he was going to run for nothing this time.

Lucasfilm's computer division is not unattended, but willing buyers have been hesitant.

The main reason is this. Under the leadership of Tang Huan, the entry threshold for the rapidly developing computer industry at this stage began to rise. Non-professionals who want to make quick money may plunge into it and disappear. The prospect of a non-mainstream computer like Lucasfilm's computer division is too uncertain.

In this case, George Lucas's highest offer was only $5 million, which was so far off his expectations that Edwin Cartem and Elway Smith, the heads of Lucasfilm's computer division, were planning to buy the company and then bring in a strong investor. I continued to operate.

George Lucas had to raise enough cash flow in a limited amount of time. Seeing that there was not much time left for him to raise, he planned to sell at a loss.

When Spielberg learned about this, he suggested that George Lucas might as well take the initiative to contact Tang Huan, the richest man who has always paid attention to the combination of computer technology and creativity, including art. The sparks that may erupt may lead to Lucasfilm's computer department being able to get into the eyes of others and get a satisfactory offer.

In this way, George Lucas, who had no choice, was moved by the saying and decided to follow the enthusiastic Spielberg to try his luck here with Tang Huan; Judging from the other party's reaction, it seems that there is no play.

Seeing this scene, Spielberg also felt a little embarrassed, and was about to try to lobby side by side, when Meng Jing, who was sitting next to Tang Huan, muttered in Mandarin: "Can you be so slammed on the door?" What the movie "Star Wars" has tested will not be too bad after all. Even if you don't need it, you can't keep it for others, and you're not short of money anyway. ”

"You little loser girl...... Tang Huan was amused by his little cousin, but the sentence "I can't use it and can't keep it for others" made him feel moved.

Sometimes, it has to be admitted that "people make things happen", as Edwin Cartum and Elvie Smith, the current heads of Lucasfilm's computer department, did for Pixar Animation Studios in the original time and space. Although the latter was kicked out because of his conflict with Jobs, and then deliberately erased from the history of Pixar Animation Studios, the credit cannot be erased.

With these two men alone, it was worth buying the computer division of Lucasfilm, while also selling George Lucas and Spielberg's favors.

Now Warner's boss Steve Ross and Universal Pictures president Sid Hinberg are trying to woo Spielberg in various ways, and he can't carelessly give up this connection.

More importantly, controlling the computer department of Lucasfilm under the leadership of Edwin Catum will also be able to cut off the original time and space Pixar Animation Studio's help in the field of animation.

Calculated in this way, the little cousin's joke of "I don't need it myself and can't keep it for others" still contains quite a lot of weight in the game philosophy.

Tang Huan, who changed his mind in an instant, immediately laughed, "Lucasfilm and the following subsidiaries have long admired the innovation of film creativity and computer technology. Now that George has decided to sell Lucasfilm's computer division, I'm going to give you a competitive and satisfying offer. ”

Upon hearing this, both George Lucas and Spielberg breathed a sigh of relief, and the former no longer had to secretly make a fire sale price of $5 million; The latter feels that they live up to their trust and have more face.

George Lucas is also a real person, and specially confessed to Tang Huan and reminded: "Don, you have to be mentally prepared. Compared with the development of computers, people in this department are more concerned and willing to make animated films. ”

Tang Huan smiled faintly and said playfully: "My strength in computer research and development is strong enough, but I don't mind having an extra new force in animation production, so as to make more full use of the hardware and software platform I provide." ”

……

The reason why Tang Huan believes that Edwin Cartum and Elvie Smith have the ability to "do things according to people" is that Guy can be called an accomplished computer scientist and computer graphics scientist.

Originally, Pixar Animation Studio's commendable and capable technical research and development achievements, such as the Reyes rendering architecture, the RenderMan specification, the alpha channel that supports image transparency and translucency, and the depth buffer that processes image depth coordinates in 3D graphics, are inextricably linked to them.

Therefore, after deciding to buy the computer department of Lucasfilm, Tang Huan, who was already very busy, deliberately took time out to go to the Lucas Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, which is connected to the city of San Francisco through the Golden Gate Bridge.

Obviously, the computer division of Lucasfilm, which has a total of about 40 employees, will move out of this remote location after being acquired.

After meeting the person in charge, Edwin Cartham and Elway Smith, Tang Huan immediately noticed the unnaturalness and loss on their faces, after all, these two originally planned to pick up a cheap one to be their own boss, but they didn't expect George Lucas to suddenly find a buyer who couldn't compete with his strength.

"Why, you don't like me as a new employer?" Tang Huan asked with a smile.

? (To be continued.) )