"Brother-in-law, why did you sell Jiangnan Optoelectronics again?" Cold Zhimeng said unhappily after returning from Sony Corporation, having learned about the negotiation process from Boss Huang.
Indeed, after giving Nintendo a forty percent discount, they then gave Sony a forty percent discount. Setting Nintendo aside, who had no prior business cooperation with Jiangnan Optoelectronics, Sony was a company that held nearly ten percent of Jiangnan Optoelectronics' market share. If this was the case, Jiangnan Optoelectronics would suffer immense profit losses for the year.
"Selling one thing is naturally for the sake of obtaining another," Boss Huang chuckled. "Besides, we didn't actually lose out. Last month, Jiangnan Optoelectronics already launched two brand new production lines. These two production lines are specifically for the development of Black Gold, capable of reducing Black Gold's production costs by sixty percent. Coupled with the two imported chip packaging production lines, the cost of storage chips in the future can be reduced by more than eighty percent."
"So even if I gave them a forty percent discount, I still have more than double the profit!" Huang He laughed. "Furthermore, in at most one to two years, once the immersion lithography machines are fully operational, traditional storage chip technology will experience a complete breakthrough. At that time, all current storage chips will become as cheap as cabbage. Their future price may be less than twenty percent of the current price. I'm simply preemptively lowering prices!"
"But we're also earning two years less money, aren't we? Those IPs from Sony aren't worth that much. These IPs can at most enter our blind box business, bit by bit, and simply won't recoup the profits we've given up!" Cold Zhimeng said indignantly.
"Five days ago, Netflix, which I acquired in the United States, has officially completed its asset restructuring and become a subsidiary of US Jiangnan! And US Jiangnan is a subsidiary of our Jiangnan Group!" Boss Huang said lightly. "This news was announced to the public yesterday, specifically to the US market, and the procedures were handled in the US. Therefore, I think Sony won't know about this news for a short while! But Netflix has indeed become a subsidiary of Jiangnan Group."
"Netflix? You mean the one that rents out discs!" Cold Zhimeng's eyes widened. "So, from now on, Netflix can freely sell film and television copyright works under Sony without paying any copyright fees!"
"That indeed can earn a lot of money!" Cold Zhimeng felt she was beginning to understand her brother-in-law's idea, which was to use these copyrights to profit in the film and television industry.
It's important to note that according to the agreement that Jiangnan Group was about to sign with Sony, similar to the one with Nintendo, as long as it was a company under Jiangnan Group, they could freely use Sony's IPs and copyright licenses.
Therefore, as a company under Jiangnan Group, Netflix could freely use all Sony movies and rent them out to users, thus saving considerable copyright costs.
And if Netflix could grow strong and become the largest disc rental company in the entire United States, then a return on investment would seem highly probable.
"But we're still losing money!" Cold Zhimeng still felt a little unsatisfied.
"Last month, I injected another billion US dollars into Netflix. Out of this, eight hundred million US dollars was used to acquire a controlling stake of over fifty percent, and two hundred million US dollars was used to develop and invest in a new website!" Huang He added.
"What website?" Cold Zhimeng was stunned for a moment, then blinked and asked.
"A website specifically for playing videos!" Boss Huang said lightly, without elaborating further. However, Cold Zhimeng instinctively felt that this website might become very powerful in the future.
"However, these are all incidental things, not my real objective!" Boss Huang said with a smile, while patting Cold Zhimeng's head.
"The real objective?" Cold Zhimeng slapped away Boss Huang's hand and pondered for a moment, then shook her head. "Brother-in-law, stop beating around the bush and tell me quickly, what is your real objective!"
"Alas! Let me ask you, have you seen Sony's financial reports?" Boss Huang retorted.
"No..." Cold Zhimeng shook her head.
"I haven't seen them either..." Boss Huang chuckled. "But I know that currently, Jiangnan Optoelectronics only holds twelve percent of the global storage chip market share. However, Sony's storage chips occupy thirteen percent of the entire market share, which is one percent more than our market share!"
"..." Cold Zhimeng was stunned for a moment, then wore an expression of sudden realization. "Brother-in-law, so you want to completely destroy a competitor!"
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The next morning, when Kutaragi Ken returned to the company and it was nearing lunchtime for the break, he received a notification to go to the chairman's office, where he met the current chairman of Sony, Nobuyuki Idei.
Accompanying Nobuyuki Idei were his former superior, the CEO of Sony Entertainment, Kazuo Hirai, and the head of the electronic division, Ooguchi Masaru. What surprised Kutaragi Ken was that when he entered the office, Ooguchi Masaru was extremely furious, his eyes glaring at Kutaragi Ken as if he wanted to devour him, making him feel an urge to flee.
"Mr. Chairman, please withdraw your decision! This decision will ruin our entire electronic division!" Ooguchi Masaru said excitedly, almost slamming his fist on Nobuyuki Idei's desk.
"There's no use telling me this. This is the board's decision!" Nobuyuki Idei was unfazed by Ooguchi Masaru's anger. "I'm merely informing you of the outcome and asking you not to spread alarmist rumors here. Storage chips only account for less than two percent of the electronic division's sales performance. I don't believe that destroying these two percent will ruin the entire electronic division!"
"On the contrary, with these higher quality and cheaper chips, the production costs of all products in the electronic division will decrease in the future. This way, products that already hold a dominant market position will achieve higher profits. And products that do not hold a dominant market position can defeat our competitors with lower prices!"
"Furthermore, the board hasn't said to suspend the production of storage chips. It's just that our group will no longer procure them internally, but we can still sell them externally. This will not have a significant impact on the storage chip business!"
"I believe the electronic division's profits will increase by at least eight percent this year due to this policy. You should be smiling in your dreams, not throwing a tantrum at me!" Nobuyuki Idei said with a cold smile.
"Hahaha!" Seeing Nobuyuki Idei's smile, Ooguchi Masaru actually burst into laughter. "Nobuyuki Idei, you actually think this is a good thing! Don't you know that once this cooperation is signed, the board will definitely not approve any more R&D funds for our storage chip technology? Then we will only be pulled further and further away by Jiangnan Group, forever losing the possibility of catching up with competitors in storage chip technology. Our business will inevitably be ruined!"
"And this is just the beginning. If storage chips are finished, then the next will be various other types of chips. Eventually, Sony's entire chip business will be completely destroyed. You will be the number one culprit in Sony's destruction. Entrusting Sony to you is truly the biggest mistake in Sony's history!"
"Enough! Get out!" Even the good-natured Nobuyuki Idei couldn't hold back at this moment. He slammed the table forcefully and shouted.
"As you wish!" Then Ooguchi Masaru obediently walked out. Only Hirai Kazuo and Kutaragi Ken, who were hiding to the side with their heads bowed, remained, not daring to speak.
"Hirai, I'm tired. You explain things to Kutaragi Ken. I need to rest for a while!" Nobuyuki Idei touched his forehead and left the office in extreme distress, leaving Kutaragi Ken standing there sighing.
"Senior, what on earth happened?" Kutaragi Ken was promoted by Hirai Kazuo and can be considered his former subordinate, so his attitude was quite familiar.
"This is all because of you!" Nobuyuki Idei glared at Kutaragi Ken and then explained the whole story.
Sony's board of directors ultimately made the expected decision: to cooperate with Jiangnan Group, purchase Jiangnan Group's storage chips at a low price, and exchange IP for cost savings.
Naturally, because Jiangnan Group's chips were so good and so cheap, costing more than a third less than Sony's own manufactured chips, the board of directors decisively issued a new order for all Sony's internal electronic products to use storage chips manufactured by Jiangnan Group instead of the storage chips originally developed by Sony.
Just now, President Nobuyuki Idei was conveying the board's order to Hirai Kazuo and Ooguchi Masaru, the heads of the two relevant departments.
Then Ooguchi Masaru completely lost it, stating that this order was one that would ruin the entire Sony. He explained that Sony's own storage chips were already relatively expensive. If it weren't for Sony's brand name, they would have no market sales and certainly wouldn't hold a thirteen percent market share.
But now, if Sony's internal divisions no longer use Sony's own manufactured chips, it's conceivable that even if there isn't a significant fluctuation in the external market, Sony itself will likely stop allocating funds to storage chip technology, and the storage chip business will surely be completely ruined.
Then Ooguchi Masaru exploded, leading to the scene above.
"The Chairman's actions are indeed short-sighted. This will truly ruin the electronic division!" Kutaragi Ken shrugged his shoulders and said.
"Heh, do you know how bad the Chairman has been these days? The company has been losing money for two consecutive years under his leadership, and the financial reports are getting worse each year. The board has already signaled their intention to dismiss him and replace him with a new president. However, they haven't found a successor yet, so they've just left him there."
"Now Nobuyuki Idei wants to salvage his situation, and his only chance is to make Sony profitable immediately. As long as Sony can be profitable, then everything else is not a problem."
"Actually, Sony only lost less than two hundred million US dollars this year. If this two hundred million US dollars can be recovered through production cost savings, then Nobuyuki Idei will achieve his profit target for the year, and he will be able to improve his image with the board!"
"Therefore, this contract will definitely be finalized. Even if it ruins the entire electronic division in the future, for the Chairman, as long as this year's financial report is positive, that's enough!"