Jerry smiled, although there was still a trace of doubt in his mind, but he was not interested in playing dumb riddles with Aiko Mitsui.

Who knows what the hell this woman is thinking?

She doesn't look like someone who only gives, but doesn't know how to take.

"What a boring guy." Seeing Jerry drinking tea calmly, but not answering her words, Aiko Mitsui pouted rarely, "Since you mentioned the Bank of Bahrain, there is something I want to ask you for." ”

Already waiting here? Jerry raised his glass and motioned for Aiko Mitsui to continue, listening to herself.

"I hope you can convince your mother to let the Tanaka Foundation take over Columbia Pictures."

On September 25, 1989, despite Mitsui's objections, Akio Morita directed Sony to spend $3.2 billion, plus a $1.6 billion loan, to acquire Columbia Pictures, Columbia Teletext, Samsung Pictures, and Samsung's 820 movie theaters in 180 locations across the country (Samsung here is not South Korea's Samsung). At that time, the market price per share in Colombia was $12 at the beginning of the year and $21 at the time of the merger, but Sony offered $27 per share, which was an ultra-high price that showed Akio Morita's determination to win Colombia in one fell swoop. On September 27, Columbia's board of directors successfully passed a resolution to sell the company, and after 20 days of bidding, Sony successfully completed the acquisition process of Columbia Pictures. All of these expenses add up to nearly 700 billion yen, which is equivalent to two-thirds of Sony's annual sales and seven times the operating profit. As a result of the deal, Coca-Cola, which owns 49% of the shares, made a profit of $1.2 billion, of which at least one-fifth of the profits went to JR Investments, which held 23.75% of the shares after Black Monday.

The acquisition of Columbia Records and Columbia Pictures was less than two years apart. The former is the flagship of American music, while the acquisition of the latter marks Sony's official foray into Hollywood. All the time. Hollywood is regarded as a mecca of American culture, and its involvement is bound to provoke a huge backlash and even some hysterical public sentiment. The cover of the October 5, 1989 issue of Newsweek was designed to dress a torch goddess with Columbia Pictures in a Japanese kimono with the headline: "Japanese invade Hollywood!" ”

In an effort to quell the hostility of the Americans, Sony made a specific guarantee that the studio would operate entirely as an American company, in the words of Akio Morita: This is not an invasion of Japanese culture, and we don't want to send Japanese managers to Colombia. And Sony has always had an unwritten rule: hire local talent to manage local operations. This is because local talent is more closely integrated with the local business community. Especially for the film industry, a field that Sony has never set foot in before, I don't know anything about the business environment, the details of Jishu, and the operation process.

Zuihou, Peter Guber and Jean Peters, who had produced the blockbuster film "Batman" for Warner Bros. Studios, became the right people in Sony's eyes. This move took the whole of Hollywood by surprise, because industry insiders know that these two men have no experience and no corresponding qualifications, and their only talent is self-praise. Sony didn't know these details, and Americans were happy to see the jokes. In order to bring the two men under its command, Sony invested $200 million. He bought Peter Coober and Jean Peters' Cooper Acting Company at a price 40% above the market price, and offered them an annual salary of up to $2.75 million, which was three or four times higher than the income of Sony's then-president Norio Oga. Also, if the work is excellent. They will also own 8% of Columbia Pictures' net worth appreciation. And Sony also promised the two that once Columbia Pictures' profits exceed $200 million, they will also receive a commission and a total of $50 million in bonuses over five years.

Unfortunately, the agreement with Peter Couber and Jean Peters has just been signed. Sony was sued by Warner, demanding a $1 billion fine in damages. Because Peter Guber and Jean Peters had signed a five-year exclusive film production contract with Warner before Sony, and the contract has not been terminated. These two were "poached" by Sony. In the end, the negligent Sony had to spend $800 million to end the lawsuit. In addition, Sony has agreed to sell a 50% stake in "Columbia House" to Warner, Sony's largest audiovisual club in the United States; Warner, on the other hand, also asked Sony for exclusive cable television rights to all Columbia Pictures films; Not only that, Sony was also forced to exchange some assets with Warner, which made Warner make a lot of money.

Following on to its commitment to manage Columbia Pictures as an American company, Sony handed over Columbia Pictures to Peter Cooper and Jean Peters, and in the years that followed, Columbia Pictures, with its large number of classics and a large loyal audience, benefited from film rights and film and video sales. However, compared to the increased turnover and profits, Colombia has paid a huge cost.

Since taking over Columbia Pictures, Sony has spared no expense in making blockbuster films. At the same time, the huge increase in the value of stars and the increase in related shooting expenses have made the cost of film production in Hollywood rise year by year. As a result, the operating costs of Sony's motion picture division were much higher than anticipated before the merger. The more serious problem lies with Peter Coober and Jean Peters, two laymen entrusted with important tasks by Sony. From 1989 to the end of 1994, the two "industry players" with no experience in filmmaking not only did not produce a blockbuster film for Sony, but also invested endlessly in renovating and renovating the Califford City studio at a cost of $200 million. and lavishly held lavish banquets and extravagant pleasures, which directly led to Sony's billions of dollars in investment going down the drain.

Sony's headquarters finally decided to spend tens of millions of dollars in severance pay and $200 million in investment to get Peter Guber and Jean Peters out of the way, despite their promises. Sony's quarterly financial report on November 17, 1994 showed that Sony's investment in Columbia Pictures had accumulated a loss of $3.1 billion.

If that's all there is to it, the acquisition of Columbia Pictures would not be a failure for Akio Morita.

One of the main motivations for Akio Morita's acquisition of Columbia Pictures was Sony's fiasco in video specifications: Sony's recording system, Betamax, eventually lost to JVC's VHS system. The acquisition of Columbia Pictures not only contributes to Sony's vast film library, but also adds a chip to Sony's battle to determine the next generation of digital disc formats. That is, the DVD standard developed by Sony, the format and jishu index of single-sided double-layer 12cm (5.25 inches) high-density multimedia CD. However, Sony and Toshiba, two companies that have a relationship with Mitsui, are fighting for the DVD standard. When the influence of DVD was further expanded, Sony was directly played by Scottber and Wanyan Group. One of Chiguoguo told him that we were going to stop our authorization, and the other was Chiguoguo's format and jishu indicators for posting a single-sided double-layer 12cm (5.25-inch) high-density multimedia CD, announcing that Wan Yan had obtained a patent. Sony, Toshiba, Scober, and Wan Yan went directly to court, and the lawsuit has not ended until now.

Not only that, in 1994, the PlayStation launched by Sony was under the impact of Pixar's X-Station due to the lack of support from game content providers. Crumbling, now, it has embarked on the old path of Sega.

Even if the PlayStation is excellent, once there is no content support, no matter how haode the hardware, it is just a decoration.

Capcom and Square Enix, Japan's two largest game content providers, have long been in the hands of JR Investments.

So far, Sony's strategic deployment in content and hardware. Declared a complete failure.

In 1995, Akio Morita was forced to resign.

At this time, Columbia Pictures was like a patient who had just been cut off from a cancer, full of devastation.

Jerry stared at Aiko Mitsui. Her expression didn't look like she was joking, "Akio Morita is willing to give up Columbia?" ”

"What if you can't bear it?" Aiko Mitsui looked at Jerry and said bitterly. "If Tanaka hadn't intervened......

"Even if Tanaka hadn't stepped in, Columbia Pictures would have been a failed merger. Akio Morita is too conceited! ”

"Tell me. Didn't you guys start with Jihua? ”

"Ah~ yes! Don't you know? They all called me the Great Prophet, so we deployed everything from the beginning. ”

Aiko Mitsui gave him a blank look, but he was praised by a group of guys whose minds were full of religion, and he was arrogant like this! "Is it a pity that the great prophet did not predict the fact that he was attacked in the Seine tunnel?"

Jerry smiled, but said, "Didn't you persuade him?" ”

"If my persuasion is useful, I'm already Mitsui's parent." Toshio Tsuchimitsu and Akio Morita are not Gunda Matsuei, and neither of them is a good match.

Although Aiko Mitsui is the heir of the Mitsui family, her age makes it easy to overlook her talents.

What's more, she is a woman after all!

In Toshiba and Sony, where male power is very influential, her opinion can only be a suggestion.

Sometimes, Aiko Mitsui is really envious of Nanako Tanaka, who single-handedly led the rise of the Tanaka Foundation and single-handedly led Japanese women to the road of liberation.

Speaking of which, she is also a member of the New People's Party.

"For the sake of helping JR invest once, help me mention it to your mother!"

"Do you yourself weigh shenme in front of her, tell her?"

Aiko Mitsui shrugged her shoulders, "I'm afraid!" ”

"Why, on this shijie, there will still be people you are afraid of?"

"I'm afraid that she will grab the debt of more than ten trillion dollars and throw me in the face, so heavy, it will be easy to get hurt."

"It's good to get used to it, it's good to get used to it!" Jerry looked at Aiko Mitsui's pretend, and said with a smile, "If the Tanaka Foundation is willing to take over, how much price do we need to pay?"

In Hollywood, JR Investments already has a DreamWorks, with Howard Stringer at the helm, and the iron triangle of Steve Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Jasenberg, if there is anything that DreamWorks lacks, it is the cinema system. Columbia Pictures' theatrical system is the perfect complement. It's just that spending more than $4 billion to buy a film company that is already in ruins? Jerry wasn't that stupid.

"I want to be a partnership, not an acquisition. DreamWorks doesn't have its own independent theatrical system! ”

Aiko Mitsui is not stupid.

Sony has invested more than $7 billion in Columbia Pictures, not including the Blu-ray Jihua built for this purpose, and Mitsui Aiko will definitely not simply sell Columbia Pictures.

Guarding the theater system of 820 theaters, cutting the production department, and selling the studios, even if there are only these 820 theater systems, Columbia Pictures can still survive half-dead. What's more, Columbia Pictures still has that huge library of movie rights! Who knows what the future holds for the DVD lawsuit? Maybe you can keep the clouds open and see the moon. When that time comes, Akio Morita's jihua may be realized. And before the situation becomes clear, selling Columbia Pictures is just a next resort.

"You're so sure Nanako will accept your request?"

"She will. If you open your mouth. Aiko Mitsui smiled brightly.

"What benefits can Tanaka get?"

"Isn't a ready-to-call cinema system enough?"

"Isn't it free?"

"You've got a lot of appetite. Are you going to make Colombia drink the Northwest Wind? ”

"The most preferential theatrical split, plus Columbia Pictures' film rights library."

Aiko Mitsui pondered for a moment, but heard Jerry say again, "Sony has given Warner the exclusive cable TV broadcast rights of all Columbia Pictures movies, and Tanaka wants the film rights in other fields besides Warner. This doesn't conflict with Warners. ”

Aiko Mitsui stared at Jerry's eyes as if she wanted to see him through, and finally said, "Let me think about it." ”

"Okay, give me a minute."

"Huh?" (To be continued......)