Chapter 165: Science and Technology Flow (3)

When it comes to Southwest Bell (SBC), except for Americans, not many people know about this company, but if you mention its parent company, AT&T, it is famous, and its Chinese name is AT&T.

In 1877, Bell, the inventor of the telephone, established the company, and after controlling the U.S. telecommunications industry for nearly 100 years, in 1984, the U.S. Department of Justice split AT&T into eight parts, AT&T specializing in long-distance telephone services and seven small Bells, including Southwest Bell.

After two decades of integration, by the time Huang Xuan learned about Southwest Bell, only three of them remained intact, and its parent company, AT&T, was also underperforming. This is what makes Huang Xuan's heart move.

Based on Lorraine's search from higher similarity planes—which would be much more accurate (what you might call relative similarity) when compared to information from more planes—in a month or so, Southwest Bell would in turn acquire its original parent company, AT&T.

And this will undoubtedly immediately boost the stock price of Southwest Bell.

Of course, if you just make money, there are many ways to choose from, but if you want to continue to make profits, Southwest Bell can solve an almost insurmountable problem for Huang Xuan - patent rights.

Lorraine can naturally find technologies that have no patent rights, but it is difficult to make money for basic "sex" technology, and commercial "sex" technology always has the problem of promotion, how long did it take for Ethernet to start making money? Huang Xuanke couldn't wait that long.

Technologies that can circumvent patent rights are always at the two extremes: first, the technology is very advanced and will bring benefits to more people, and will not suffer from patent problems, but relatively speaking, such technologies will of course consume more energy. Second:Advanced technology,There are few studies by predecessors,But,It is not the only or necessary choice,Just like plasma TV、Or projector to"Liquid"Crystal TV,This is not the mainstream,And there is no one to promote,Therefore,Such technology either makes less money,Or,You need to spend a lot of money to do it yourself。

Huang Xuan didn't want to be so extreme.

He has high requirements for the rate of return, but he is not perverted and harsh, so instead of trying to bypass the patent right, it is better to go deep into the patent right, and under the dominance of this kind of thinking, Huang Xuan set his sights on DVD equipment.

The annual consumption of DVD equipment is about 600-100 billion US dollars, and this big cake has the potential to continue to grow, and Huang Xuan, who holds more than 2 billion US dollars, is naturally full of interest in it.

This is a piece of cake for billionaires.

Speaking of DVDs, let's go back to the issue of patents. At present, it seems that after the DVD Alliance, the next generation of DVD standards will be monopolized by the Blu-ray Alliance and the HD Alliance, the former with Sony as the first standard, and the latter with Toshiba as the initiator, so no matter which alliance Huang Xuan wants to join, it will take a little opportunity, at least for now, there are no Chinese companies in either alliance.

According to Lorraine, at most two years, the HD league will collapse because of the defection of major Hollywood companies, and before that, the two sides were neck-and-neck.

The price of Blu-ray optical drives is very expensive, but the technology is more advanced, and HDThe price is not cheaper, in general, it is now the market cultivation period, and only when one of the optical drives drops from thousands of yuan to hundreds of yuan, will it be interested in the consumer-level market, but Huang Xuan is very confident that this goal will be achieved in a short time.

The premise is that one of the alliances is willing to take him in.

Therefore, when deliberating on this issue, Huang Xuan naturally thought of capital.

If it is a person with a technical background, such as Huang Qunsheng or Tang Yi, they may use technology to invest in shares, or cooperate in development to join one of the alliances, but Huang Xuan will not, he didn't even start high school, and he didn't even know why the blue light was 405nm and why the red light was 650nm, and he didn't understand why the disc with the blue "color" laser could have 3 times higher capacity than the red "color" laser, but these did not affect Huang Xuan's judgment.

As the eldest grandson of the Huang family, Huang Xuan has long been familiar with capital, and the only restriction on capital is only whether the capital is sufficient.

Casually scrutinizing on the table, Zhang Xinyi walked in with two cups of tea, sat down next to Huang Xuan gently, put the tea on the bedside table, and said with a smile: "My son has really grown up, is he thinking about beautiful women, or thinking about money." ”

Huang Xuan's face froze, and he didn't know how to answer, so he lay on the pillow along the head of the bed before he said, "I think I want money." ”

"A stake in SBC?" Zhang Xinyi smiled and said, "I also want to ask you, how did you come up with the idea of acquiring the shares of this company?" ”

"Isn't it true that everyone wants to buy quality stocks?" Huang Xuan said with a sloppy look.

"If it's really more profitable than its own company, then why doesn't the company put away all the shares on its own? There's always a risk. Zhang Xinyi said and picked up a cup of tea, blew and said, "New tea, how about tasting it." ”

"Oh." Huang Xuan half-lay down, took a sip of tea, and said, "Do you particularly want to know what I want to do?" ”

Zhang Xinyi was stunned and said "um".

Huang Xuan sat up against the bed all of a sudden, and said with a smug smile: "I knew you must be interested." As he spoke, he asked Lorraine to turn on the energy screen in case she needed it from time to time.

Everything was fully prepared, Huang Xuan chewed tea and said, "What does my mother think of the DVD market?" ”

"It's hearty." Listening to Huang Xuanxu's matter-of-fact words, Zhang Xinyi also became interested and sat sideways on the bed. Although he is his own son, the son who can earn $3 billion in a year is not something that every mother can meet.

"Tens of billions of dollars a year, and you're not interested in anything?" Huang Xuan shook his head and said.

"Thief head." Zhang Xinyi first criticized Huang Xuan's posture, and then said: "The 6C alliance is already very stable, and now there are so many domestic DVD manufacturers, it is no longer wise to invest in it." ”

Huang Xuan smiled mysteriously and said, "I mean the new generation of DVD technology, Blu-ray and HD." He snapped his fingers and said: "Whether it is Sony or Toshiba, the current technology is not mature, and more manufacturers need to join, if someone is willing to join them now, the resistance must be much smaller than after the technology matures in the future." ”

"But how do you get in?" Zhang Xinyi knew all about these business things, and she smiled and said: "$2 billion in cash is not bad, but for such an alliance, it is too little...... "She reacted and asked, "Southwest Bell has a patent in hand?" ”

"Southwest Bell doesn't." Huang Xuan shook his head and said, "But the American Telegraph and Telephone Company has it." ”

“AT&T？” These world-renowned companies are stars in the business world, Zhang Xinyi said strangely: "I haven't heard that they have Blu-ray technology, and even if they do, it should be Lucent Technology." ”

In 96, the famous Bell Labs broke away from AT&T and established Lucent Technologies, as a laboratory with 25,000 patents, there have been countless world-defining technologies born here, and it is not surprising that Zhang Xinyi, who is not familiar with technology, has any technology here.

Huang Xuan still shook his head and said, "I actually saved the country by curves." He said as he dipped water from his teacup and scratched on the bedside table: "AT&T doesn't have DVD technology in hand, but it has a patent for MPGE-4 (Note 1), and the Blu-ray Alliance definitely needs this technology, without MPGE-4, there is nothing." He said and crossed A with his hand, then pulled to M, and then said: "The Blu-ray Alliance itself will not accept us as its members, but if it is proposed by AT&T, plus some technology and funding, there is a possibility of negotiation." ”

He connected A to S, and continued, "But even if AT&T agrees to my acquisition of the shares with the right to decide, it will have some additional terms, such as MPGE-4, if I don't agree, the ongoing negotiations may take a long time. Then we can't do anything. ”

He finally took A's line to the outside circle and said: "But I got an inside information that Southwest Bell may buy AT&T, and the final offer is about $15 billion, so that after dilution, 3.5% of Southwest Bell's shares can still have 3%, which is enough to affect the board of directors." And since I acquired Southwest Bell first, they naturally could not change the terms of MPGE-4 in advance, so there would be no legal problems. ”

As a company with a market value of more than $70 billion, holding more than 5% of the shares can be counted as a major shareholder, and holding so many shares is often other companies and institutions, so 3% of the shares are already regarded as having the right to speak.

Zhang Xinyi looked at Huang Xuan with a sigh, grabbed his head with two hands and shook it, and said happily: "Okay, son, I originally discussed with your father, if you really can't do anything, we will find two lawyers to manage your living funds, but I didn't expect that when you grow up a little, you will be sensible." ”

Huang Xuan smiled stupidly, these things were indeed his own thoughts, in addition to getting a lot of future consultations.

After sighing, Zhang Xinyi drank the tea beautifully, and said with a relaxed heart: "But there is still a little problem, why choose Blu-ray instead of HD?" Now it seems that Toshiba should need allies more. ”

Huang Xuan couldn't say that because he knew that Toshiba would lose, so joining the HD alliance would consume more energy, so he had to answer lightly: "That's because HD doesn't use MPGE-4, and the patent fees of these guys are very expensive, charging $2 for each DVD, Toshiba wants to save money, so if I join the HD alliance, Southwest Bell's shares will be useless." ”

This is completely reversing cause and effect, Zhang Xinyi glanced at Huang Xuan, and did not say anything, but cared: "Then your money has bought shares, so even if you enter the Blu-ray Alliance, there will be no production funds." ”

"Who knows how long the negotiations will take, and by then, I'll have enough money." Huang Xuan's voice was low, but he was planning to think about what was left before.

Note 1: MPGE-4 can be understood as a video and audio coding format, and its patent is also a complex system, AT&T does not have an exclusive right, but it is an important one.