Chapter 253 264 [Li Jiaxin’s Ambition, Cooperation Standards Formulation]

Sony’s middle and senior management were all shocked by the fact that Li Yishu was the major shareholder behind Pioneer Electronics. How could a famous film director be involved with electronic products?

However, although they were surprised, many people were relieved when they saw that the other party was not a businessman.

Just think of Pioneer Electric as one of Li Yishu’s investment projects, and the other party is a film director, so I don’t think he will focus too much on Pioneer Electric.

Director Mikami said, “Minister Yoshida, the most important MPEG digital compression technology patent for VCD has been bought out by Pioneer Electronics. If Sony wants to develop products as quickly as possible without having to bear any legal responsibility, the best way is to acquire Pioneer Electronics!”

Technology patents are the most important source of income for developed countries, so they will strongly protect the patent rights of technology and will not allow anyone to use it commercially without authorization.

After all, some technologies are not as difficult as imagined. Ordinary people can figure it out on their own once they know the principles. What is really difficult is the patent barrier.

The core technology of VCD is MPEG digital compression technology, so after the VCD was sent to Sony headquarters, it was cracked by Sony’s technical experts in less than an hour.

Moreover, relying on Sony’s technology accumulation and talent training over the years, they can not only set up a VCD factory as quickly as possible, but also improve their technical equipment.

For Director Mikami, as long as they obtain the patent for MPEG digital compression technology, Sony can immediately start producing VCD players with the help of Japan’s powerful electronic industrial system.

Yoshida Kenichiro pondered and said, “Manager Mikami, do you know how many VCDs are sold in China?”

“The exact figures are unclear, but according to our survey, at least 10 units have been sold in the past few months. This is because Pioneer Electronics is still weak in product sales. If it were handed over to us, Sony, at least one million units would be sold in China in the past few months!”

Manager Mikami raised his chin, showing full confidence in Sony Group’s powerful sales channels.

As early as 1975, reform designers had met with Sony founder Akio Morita. After the reform and opening up in 1978, Sony’s professional radio and television products and home appliances began to enter the Chinese market.

Sony cameras, Sony projectors, Sony recording equipment, Sony televisions, Sony radios, Sony refrigerators… and so on.

More than a decade has passed, and although Sony has not yet established a branch in the mainland market, it has offices in Yanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, and its distribution channels are spread all over the country.

Selling one million sets is not an exaggeration by Director Mikami. Although the price of VCD is more than 3,000 yuan, which seems very expensive, but when it is spread out among China’s one billion people, there are really not too many customers who can afford it. At least in the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, there are almost one million potential consumers.

Yoshida Kenichiro thought for a moment and said, “Well, let’s try to acquire him. Li Yishu is not an ordinary person. Mikami, you go and negotiate in person.”

“It’s Minister Yoshida.” Director Mikami nodded.

A photography base somewhere in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA.

“Crack!”

Li Yishu yelled, frowned, and stood up, saying, “Ah Long, what the hell are you doing? I told you not to change it. This scene doesn’t need you to perform monkey tricks!”

When Cheng Long heard this, he was immediately embarrassed: “I’m sorry Director Li, I just do it out of habit.”

“Okay, let’s reshoot. After we finish this segment, we’ll fly directly to Canada.”

Li Yishu shook her head and waved her hands. This scene mainly showed Jackie Chan’s first arrival in the United States. Then they shot some exterior shots at some famous attractions in Los Angeles, and then they could go to Canada to shoot.

The reason why they went to the United States and then Canada to shoot was mainly to save money. In the United States, the salaries of extras are high, and there are also various protection organizations and actors’ unions. If you want to shoot action scenes on the streets, you have to apply to Los Angeles…

Anyway, there are a lot of messy things.

Instead of going through so much trouble, it would be better to go to Canada. Golden Harvest has been operating in Canada for many years, and the management over there is relatively loose regarding filming location shoots, so it would be convenient for Cheng Long to film scenes of stealing airplanes and land motorboats later.

“Director Li!”

Just as Li Yishu sat back in the director’s chair and prepared to reshoot this scene, the crew’s temporary assistant came over and said, “Your cell phone is from General Manager Amy.”

“Amy?” Li Yishu raised her eyebrows and took the phone and said, “Hello, what’s going on, Amy?”

“Boss, Mr. Morishima from Columbia just called and said that someone from Sony Corporation of Japan wants to meet with you.”

“Sony Group?”

Li Yishu was slightly startled, but then quickly reacted and said thoughtfully, “Okay, no problem, but I can’t leave now, ask them to come to the photography base to find me.”

“Good boss.”

After hanging up the phone, Li Yishu threw the phone to her assistant and then asked the crew to resume filming.

Looking at Cheng Long performing there, Li Yishu couldn’t help but start thinking about the Sony visitor.

If nothing unexpected happens, he should be here for the VCD.

As for why he knew that Li Yishu was the behind-the-scenes shareholder, he did not hide it. If Sony wanted to, it would be easy to find out who owned the Hong Kong company behind Pioneer Electric.

What he is considering now is having Sony send someone over. There are two reasons for this: one is to obtain authorization for the technical patents, and the other is to acquire Pioneer Electric.

If Pioneer Electric had not been established in the beginning and only the relevant technology had been developed, Li Yishu would have sold it.

But now Pioneer VCD has been established, and has become a hit in the mainland. From the end of last year to now, it has sold nearly 20 products, which has brought huge profits and also made Pioneer Electric famous.

It wouldn’t be worthwhile to sell the company again.

But licensing technology to the other party is of the same nature.

Compared with Sony’s huge technology patent barriers and its strong R&D capabilities, once it obtains the technology license, I believe it will not take long for it to innovate and develop DVD.

Pioneer Electric alone would certainly not be able to compete with its rivals.

If they neither license the patent nor sell the company, Sony will definitely try every possible way to circumvent the patent.

Moreover, the technology for manufacturing VCDs is not complicated at all. Anyone who understands electronics can make one by purchasing the materials.

After thinking for a long time, Li Yishu still couldn’t come up with a good idea, so he decided to wait until he met the person.

after an hour.

The crew finished filming.

Li Jiaxin immediately came over and insisted on going with Li Yishu.

Originally, Li Yishu wanted to refuse, but she thought that Li Jiaxin was not very cooperative in taking photos. After all, she was the most beautiful Miss Hong Kong and was quite famous in Hong Kong and Taiwan, so it was understandable that she was unwilling to take photos.

Taking this into consideration, Li Yishu took Li Jiaxin to a restaurant near the photography base to meet with Mikami Ueno, the manager sent by Sony.

Thinking of taking her along, all he talks about is big business worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. I guess not only will Li Jiaxin not be able to close her legs, she will also not be able to cooperate when taking photos at night.

“Director Li, I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Mikami Ueno from Sony Group. It’s an honor to meet you.”

As soon as they met, San Shangye gave Li Yishu a big gift.

“You are too polite, Director Mikami. There is no need to be so polite. Please sit down and talk.”

Li Yishu waved her hand.

Misakino glanced at Li Jiaxin and recognized her identity. He smiled and said, “Hello, Miss Li Jiaxin. You are even more beautiful in person than in the movies.”

“Thank you.” Li Jiaxin always looks like a cool goddess outside. She nodded lightly to Mikami Ueno, but she was very surprised in her heart. Why did someone from Sony Group come to see Director Li?

After the greetings, San Shangye went straight to the point and mentioned Pioneer Electric. After praising Li Yishu’s investment vision, he said, “Director Li, our Sony Group is very interested in Pioneer Electric and is interested in acquiring this company.”

“Acquisition?”

Li Yishu said playfully, “Manager Mikami, since you came to me, you must be aware that the VCDs produced by Pioneer Electronics are selling very well in mainland China right now.”

“Yes, selling 100,000 units in a few months is indeed very popular, but…”

“You got the wrong director Mikami. It’s not 10, it’s less than 20.”

“Nani?!”

Misakino was shocked: “I have investigated and the most I have found is only a few hundred thousand. How can there be less than 200,000?”

“Manager Mikami must have overlooked Hong Kong and Taiwan.”

Li Yishu looked at Li Jiaxin with a smile: “You must have listened to Pioneer VCD in Hong Kong, right?”

“Yeah, of course I’ve heard of Director Li.”

Li Jiaxin’s eyes were burning: “Before I came to the United States, I often saw TVB TV station advertising, I didn’t expect that this Pioneer VCD is an industry invested by Director Li.”

Huo Wenxi has always listened to Li Yishu’s advice and did not limit the market to the mainland, but instead expanded to Hong Kong and Taiwan.

This is how we achieved the sales volume of over 20.

“I’m very sorry, Director Li. It was my negligence.” Mikami Ueno quickly stood up and apologized. He didn’t expect that VCDs would become a hit in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“It’s okay, Director Mikami.”

Li Yishu shook her head and said, “In fact, when President Morishima called me, I knew why Director Mikami came to see me. Pioneer Electric will definitely not be sold.”

“Director Li, don’t you want to hear our Sony’s offer?”

“How many?”

“$1 billion!”

Misano raised a finger and said, “We at Sony are prepared to invest $1 million to acquire all of Pioneer Electronics’ shares held by Supervisor Li.”

Hearing this amount, Li Jiaxin took a breath, then suddenly looked at Li Yishu, with a hint of excitement in her eyes.

The reason why she wanted to get close to Li Yishu was that she hoped to be able to star in a movie with a box office of over 100 million US dollars like Gong Li.

Moreover, Li Yishu became famous at a young age, is rich and talented, and can also make herself famous. Li Jiaxin naturally hopes to become his girlfriend to get some benefits.

But now it seems that I still underestimated Li Yishu!
If the shares of an electrical company that has nothing to do with movies can be sold for $1 million, then wouldn’t this film company be more valuable?

At this moment, Li Jiaxin’s breathing began to become a little rapid, and she began to brainstorm intensely.

“I’m sorry, Director Mikami.” Li Yishu smiled and shook her head, “I have no plans to sell it for the time being.”

1 million US dollars to feed a beggar!
Maybe you can consider selling it for $1 billion.

After all, Li Yishu knew very well that although the global VCD market was huge, Pioneer Electric was not qualified to participate in the competition among electronics giants.

In the mainland market, where piracy is rampant, even if a lawsuit is filed, it will take who knows how many years.

These days, the country does not attach much importance to patents. The fundamental reason why many pirated factories can be so rampant and difficult to eliminate is that they provide employment to the local area and pay taxes at the same time.

It can create jobs and bring economic benefits to the local area. In this situation, who would be willing to have their own egg-laying hens banned because of a patent infringement?

It’s fine if you come and sue us. We can just wait a few years and let you win the case. Then others will come back and change their appearance and continue to pirate.

In this case, it would be better to sell the company’s shares and patents and use the $10 billion to do something else. Sony can forget about doing anything in the mainland anyway, and will continue to pirate products as usual.

Sanshinno also saw that Li Yishu was not very willing to sell this cash cow, so he proposed another method: “Since Director Li is unwilling, I wonder if you can license the core patent of VCD to us Sony?”

“Technical authorization…”

Li Yishu pretended to be hesitant and thought for a long time before speaking: “Authorization is fine, but I would rather have further cooperation with Sony.”

“Further cooperation?” Mikami Ueno didn’t quite understand what it meant.

“Yes, further cooperation!”

Li Yishu nodded and said, “Our company is currently developing the next generation product of VCD, Digital Video Disc, abbreviated as DVD. I hope to cooperate with your company to develop DVD and work with you to formulate industry standards for VCD and DVD.”

“this!”

Misaki Ueno was completely shocked. He didn’t expect that Li Yishu had already started developing the next generation of products and even wanted to set industry standards.

Is the other party really just a film director?
“Manager Mikami, I know this matter cannot be settled in a short time, and I don’t really care about the company’s affairs. Why don’t you go back and report to Sony headquarters? If you are interested, I will arrange for Manager Huo Wenxi, who is in charge of Pioneer Electric, to arrange a team to receive you in China.”

After much thought, Li Yishu felt that the best way was to work with Sony to develop future industry standards for VCDs and DVDs, because only in this way could they compete with international electronics giants.

Owning a technical patent does not mean owning everything.

It’s not like there is no piracy abroad.

If he insists on holding on to the patent, those electronics giants, relying on their powerful electronics industry, might start to make trouble behind his back.

Therefore, the best way is to get Sony to work together and set industry standards at the same time, so that Pioneer Electric can get a share of the huge global market. Otherwise, it will be difficult to even go abroad.

Today’s China is not the world’s second largest economy in 30 years, and is not afraid of sanctions from its enemies. Li Yishu is not an idealistic young man who simply thinks that Pioneer VCDs can be sold all over the world with technology and patents.

If others want to hinder you from behind, there are many ways for them to do so.

To give the simplest example, that is to file a transnational lawsuit to deny the legality of Li Yishu’s acquisition of MPEG technology, or to arrange for one or two small companies to come out and claim that Li Yishu infringed on their MPEG technology.

Anyone who pays attention to the Internet knows that foreign capital has no bottom line. Not only do they impose sanctions at every turn, they also like to confuse right and wrong and slander others.

These electronics groups can find out how much profit VCDs can make just by buying one. For the sake of huge profits, they naturally don’t need to care about Pioneer Electric.

So Li Yishu’s idea is to cooperate with Sony and establish a set of standards first. As for how to cooperate, that is not his job. Huo Wenxi will lead people to discuss it.

“Okay, Director Li.”

Mikami knew that this matter was beyond his ability, so he nodded and agreed to contact the Japanese headquarters as soon as possible.

　The shoulder periarthritis happened on a rainy day. Today I only have one update with 4000 words.

　
(End of this chapter)