The success of "Insect Master" has finally eased Pokeni's financial situation.

Otherwise, when the bullet is completely empty, Qing Zhiyuan really doesn't know how to face the upcoming host war next year.

Every penny counts right now.

……

At the same time, Sony's side is also in full swing to stage various dramas.

Nobuyuki Idei, the successor who did not seem to be good-looking and was even not favored by the outside world for a time, immediately began a drastic reform after becoming the president of the company.

In his early years, when Idei was sent to Europe by Sony, he was influenced by the French New Wave film director Jean-Luc Godard, and he was full of enthusiasm for innovation.

Because of this, he foresaw the arrival of the Internet wave early.

Since Nobu Idei took office, he has spent almost every few days going to have dinner and chat with Chairman Norio Ohga, and brag to him about various things.

The legendary fan of the wind in the ears.

Nobuyuki Idei used the analogy of "meteorites and dinosaurs extinction" to emphasize that the Internet is the meteorite that smashed into Sony and changed Sony, and it is necessary to prepare for the high growth of hardware.

In other words, to find Sony's second growth curve.

Over time, we have seen the rising Internet industry, including the growing business of various portals, especially the rapid growth of Internet companies on the Pokeni side, and the development trend of the Internet on the United States side......

Norio Oga also slowly believed Nobuyuki Idei's judgment.

Being able to support Nobuyuki Idei to the position of president shows that Norio Oga trusts him, and Nobuyuki Idei represents Noriyuki Oga to a certain extent.

So the relationship between these two people was very good in private before, and after Izui took the position, Norio Ohga naturally endorsed him.

"If you want to do something, just do it boldly."

Norio Ohga smiled and encouraged.

"Okay chairman." Nobuyuki Idei wanted this from him.

……

When Nobuyuki Idei first became president, Sony's executives were all neon people, like a small circle.

As soon as this guy came to power, he laid off a large part of the senior management team and replaced it with a group of foreigners with a very international vision as the senior management team.

After taking office, the first thing I did was to challenge one of Neon's authority - the lifetime employment system.

Subsequently, Idei applied the advanced management methods he had learned in Europe to Sony, reshuffling the board of directors and transferring 30 senior directors to draw a clear line between decision-making and execution.

He explained: "If we want someone as good as Welch to work for us, we have to have a board that satisfies him." ”

Jack Welch, chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE), is a very rare genius manager in the history of the United States.

The phrase Izui is just an analogy, and it clearly shows that if you need to recruit talent, you must first reform and adjust.

In addition, he picks young department presidents who replace seniority pay with performance-based pay, which is not common in highly hierarchical Japanese companies.

Someone outside commented that he was "the least neon man entrepreneur".

Faced with Sony's high debt at the time, Izui had no choice but to implement strict performance appraisals to cut costs, and put the battery technology and robotics business, which were too expensive, to the margins.

The voice of engineers who used to be in high positions at Sony is also slowly disappearing, and the cost of trial and error has become high.

Kozo Osone, the "father of Sony's Walkman", said that under the oppression of performanceism, people at Sony are "bent over to work", and the atmosphere of innovation has gradually faded.

……

In less than half a year after Nobuyuki Idei took office, more than 30 members of Sony's board of directors were eliminated, departments were reorganized, the company's internal system was greatly adjusted, and many old members were dismissed.

For this reason, almost every day, Norio Oga hears complaints from people, even the dissatisfaction of the company's executives and colleagues.

"This guy from Izui is just too nonsense! It's all about bringing Sony down! ”

"He did this, nominally to innovate and change, but in fact he ignored the national conditions, neon enterprises and enterprises in the United States in terms of cultural atmosphere, in the foundation is different, he has to do this.

Now the members of each department are mourning, and everyone has no passion for work.

Completely oppressed by performance, I can't breathe.

Izumi is completely untreated as human beings.

If this continues, Sony will be ruined in his hands sooner or later. ”

“……”

In short, Norio Ohga originally wanted to be quiet and quiet before handing over all the company's affairs to Nobuyuki Idei, but now he was annoyed by various things.

At first, I was able to press it, but then more and more people came to the door every day, and the weight of personnel became heavier and heavier.

Under such circumstances, Norio Ohga himself couldn't help but be a little suspicious.

He simply called Nobuyuki Idei over.

"Out of the well, can you be gentle? Do you know how many complaints I receive every day? The company's veterans felt that it was too much.

They thought I had a problem with my vision and chose you to be the president of the company.

Now the company is in shambles. ”

"President, how can reform be without labor pains?" Nobuyuki Idei explains, "The group's business is really bloated right now. ”

Yes, Nobuyuki Idei uses words like "bloated".

"If we don't carry out reforms, reduce costs and increase efficiency, the group will easily have problems in the future.

For example, if a patient with cancer does not remove the lesion at the beginning and completely kills the cancer cells, it will only become more difficult to deal with in the future.

When he was in the late stage and was terminally ill, he would never be able to return to heaven. ”

Norio Oga frowned In fact, he knew more about the company's affairs than Nobuyuki Idei, and it was precisely for these reasons that he let Idei do it.

Sometimes substitutions just require a manager who can move the knife and can be ruthless.

Now it seems that Nobuyuki Idei is actually quite in line with his expectations.

"Can you hurry up, then? It's been a long time, and I can't bear the pressure. ”

"Okay, Chairman."

……

The company's internal reform and grand strategic adjustment were all completed after Izumi took office.

These initiatives seem insane to members of the company.

A neon company has to be an Omi company, and it doesn't matter if it's suitable or not.

And a large number of layoffs, reducing departments.

When Nobuyuki Idei was doing these things, many people remembered another guy in their minds-

Qing Zhiyuan.

To some extent, the two of them are quite similar, both of them have carried out drastic reforms of the company with thunderous wrists.

It's just that the magnitude of Qingzhiyuan's changes is smaller, because Sega's volume is not as large as Sony's.

Nobuyuki Idei's situation and the resources he holds in his hands are very different from Qing Zhiyuan.

Qing Zhiyuan is the chairman of the board of directors and has absolute power, and he can change it as he wants.

But Nobuyuki Idei is only a CEO, and many things have to be voted on by the board of directors, and if it weren't for the desperate support of Chairman Norio Ohga, he would have been kicked out of the board of directors with such a reform, and I don't know how many people's cakes and interests have been moved.

Not to mention being the president, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep the position.

But Norio Ohga just believes in him unconditionally, which allows Nobuyuki Idei to complete his ideas.

……

After July, Sony carried out a series of department consolidation and reduction, and at the same time shifted the focus of the business, slowly shifting the original products from electronic hardware to [content output].

In other words, Sony is not only going to make electronic products and make PS game consoles, but also games, and make many, many games.

I also want to do film and television and music...... Do a lot of entertaining content.

Idei proposed a DDK (Digital-Dream-Kids) program, which is "Digital Dream Makers".

On July 10, Nobuyuki Idei said this when facing reporters:

"Mr. Ibuka is a transistor trender, Mr. Akio Morita is a walkman and a trendyman, Mr. Norio Ohga is a CD trendsetter, and we must be a digital dream trendsetter."

He believes that hardware will not always maintain high growth, and that Sony will have to develop software and entertainment content if it wants to survive.

……

When he saw the news media report, Qing Zhiyuan chuckled in his heart.

Sony's new president seems to be a little more capable than he thought.

It is remarkable that he was able to perfectly foresee the future of digitalization, and that he was able to carry out a comprehensive and drastic reform of Sony's internal system, which is truly rare in the world.

You must know that Qing Zhiyuan, as a time-traveler from the future, naturally knows the development direction of the times, and can easily make judgments about the big era.

And Nobuyuki Idei is obviously just a decision based on his own experience, market analysis, and a keen sense of the future.

That's pretty remarkable.

The guy who can predict the future can basically succeed, and the key is that this person also has super strong execution.

In less than half a year in office, Sony has been transformed into what it is now.

Seriously,

For the first time, Qing Zhiyuan had a deep sense of crisis.

It's like seeing another traverser.

Time is running out for pokeni.

……

In fact, Qing Zhiyuan's hunch was right.

In July, Nobuyuki Idei, who was worried about having no way to attack the president of Beimi, finally seized the opportunity.

On July 17, 1998, Sony announced in its quarterly financial report:

Seventeen of the 26 films released in Colombia lost money, with a total loss of $150 million.

The company's investment assets decreased by $2.7 billion in book and $510 million in operating losses on "handling pending lawsuits and contract compensation", bringing the cumulative loss to $3.2 billion.

This figure shocked Hollywood and Wall Street, and the media even asserted that Sony's acquisition of Colombia had suffered a complete failure.

Prior to this, although Nobuyuki Idei was the president of the group, it had always been Schulhoff who had the final say on the North Side side, and this person, along with the two producers of Sony Pictures below, was basically a master of spending money.

Because Sony executives don't know anything about the film and television industry, they spent a lot of money to poach Peter Cooper, the producer of "Batman" and "Rain Man", and his partner Jon Peters, from Warners after acquiring Columbia.

Cooper and Peters are the kind of playboys that exist everywhere in Hollywood, and they are very particular about life pleasures and office decoration, while Sony's parent company has always been hindered by the pressure of public opinion and the lack of good at the film business, so it does not dare to interfere too much in the daily business of the two;

The Los Angeles Times even accused Sony's top management of ignorance and negligence in film and television production, and the managers squandered and fooled their investors in the form of a cover article.

This was the case during the previous period of Norio Oga, but Norio Oga did not deal with it, but left these [black sheep] to Nobuyuki Idei.

Now I finally got my chance.

So Nobuyuki Idei applied directly to the board of directors to remove North Mi President Schulhoff and fire Peter Cooper and Jon Peters.

……

When he received the news, Schulhoff was furious and scolded Nobuyuki Idei for not knowing what film and television production was, and sentenced Sony Pictures to death from some cold figures from a layman's eye.

This is completely unfair, Nobuyuki Idei is obviously premeditated, just to kill me!

The infighting on Sony's side has become white-hot.

Schulhoff joined many board members in impeaching Nobuyuki Izui for abusing his power and trying to bring down Sony, and expressing concern about Sony's future.

Nobuyuki Idei proposed to reorganize Schulhoff and the two playboy producers on the grounds that the company was messing around and spending extravagantly, causing huge losses to the company......

The two sides are tense, either you die or I die...... Sony's situation has become complicated.

……

But for Pokeni, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The war between Nobuyuki Idei and Shulhoff was actually foreseen in the strategic plan formulated by Satoshi Iwata before.

The fact that Norio Oga gave the position of president to the bottom of the board of directors like Idei meant that a war would inevitably break out between him and the board members.

Schulhoff is the litmus test for the well given by Norio Ohga, and Idei is naturally well aware of this.

So the long pain is better than the short pain, rather than waiting until the future to fight, it is better to take advantage of the present to clean up the other party in one go.

Sony's internal war is like a bomb, and when it is detonated, it has a series of knock-on effects.

First of all, North Missoni's side was originally going to buy Marvel, with an offer of up to $400 million, and the board of directors rejected the proposal.

Nobuyuki Idei's reason is also very simple, if you want to buy it now, you Shulhoff poked out such a big basket, and you don't look at what your financial report looks like, and you still want to buy and buy?

It was already criticized for buying Columbia Pictures back then, and now it costs a lot of money to buy Marvel?

Let's wipe my ass clean first.

……

So in the case of Sony's infighting, Marvel also had a sense of crisis, took the initiative to interrupt the acquisition plan with Sony, and quickly threw itself into the arms of Pokeni.

In the end, under the mediation of Satoshi Iwata, Pokeni successfully acquired Marvel for $400 million.

When he saw the news, Qing Zhiyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After confirming the copyright, Spider and Iron Man are still there.

It's just amazing!

The key is that not only does Pokeni want to buy Marvel, but Marvel is also in need of money due to its financial crisis, and it is also a helpless move to be forced to acquire.

As the chairman and publisher of Marvel nowadays, Stan Lee actually hopes that the dream intelligence company in his heart is Sony rather than Pokeni.

It's just a way to make compromises, and he also expressed his unusually helplessness.

So at the press conference, Stan Lee, who is already 66 years old, smiled bitterly the whole time, and the smile on his face was as ugly as it was.

However, Stan Lee also has a little acting talent in his body, and when facing questions from reporters, he still tries to take care of Pokeni's face.

"It's really nice to be working with a company like Pokeni that has so many talented people and world-class technology.

I believe that with our joint efforts in the future, Marvel can do better. ”

Taking care of Pokeni's face is taking care of Marvel's face.

That is, to take care of Stan Lee's face.

Satoshi Iwata's statement was much more conscientious, "Many people may be skeptical and controversial about Pokeni's acquisition of Marvel, but I think that for the sake of the company's strategy, the acquisition of Marvel is undoubtedly a win-win choice."

For us, Pokeni is the world's premier game maker.

We can turn something that was previously only seen in manga into an immersive game that can be experienced, operated, and immersive.

For example, can you imagine using Spider-Man to jump back and forth in the city?

Can you imagine using Iron Man to fly in the sky in the game?

I'm sure everyone has had the same dream in their lives.

I've dreamed of being a superhero.

Dream of saving the world by yourself.

For the neon boys, in the dream, we are Astro Boy, we are the Super Saiyans in Dragon Ball, and we are Nobita with Doraemon.

For the children of the United States, their dreams are Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, or Hulk.

But whoever we are, wherever we are, and who we are citizens of, we all share our truest and best aspirations for humanity.

We all want to save the world and dedicate ourselves for world peace.

It's the same with game people, we transform the world through games, so that children's dreams can be realized and continued in games......

So I believe that the cooperation between Pokeni and Marvel must be the beginning of a beautiful dream.

I also believe that in the future, everyone will see the day when Pokeni will make the dreams of players come true. ”

At the press conference, after hearing Satoshi Iwata's speech, Stan Lee, who was sitting next to him, was stunned.

Iwata's words seemed to awaken some of the dreams and throbbing that were buried in his heart.

What a great thing it is to be able to keep children's dreams going, how can the other party deny this just because it is a company that has never done decent well-known film and television?

……

At the end of Satoshi Iwata's speech, there was thunderous applause at the press conference.

The reporters were encouraged by his words, but they ......

Is it really possible?

What will the combination of Pokeni and Marvel look like in the future?

……

————————————————————————

There is one more chapter in the evening

(End of chapter)