Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 263 Some are happy and some are sad

When Ethan was getting anxious and angry about Philips' sudden attack on the CD project, the Philips North American headquarters building was also in chaos.

All the industry partners who had done business with Philips called them to verify the authenticity of the digital discs and disc players, and asked about the time of listing and the possibility of cooperation. Philips' staunch allies even contacted the company's top management directly, wanting to know more inside information.

And Philips CEO Cornelis van der Krucht...

From the moment he stepped into the office, his phone never stopped ringing.

It seemed as if overnight, all his close friends and co-professors remembered him, and calls for inquiry came one after another. After dealing with those guys, five companions from the Avengers finally got on the phone and expressed high praise for Philips' sudden attack.

Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., said that Philips' press conference was definitely a commercial Normandy! The act of quietly developing and then surprising everyone would definitely catch Ethan Jones off guard! More importantly, Philips did a very good job of keeping secrets!
Jack Tramiel, the boss of Komodor, said that they were relieved by Philips' sudden announcement because they had been living a very frustrating life in the past year!

MGM's chairman Kirk Kerkorian and Walt Disney's actual controller Ron Miller also expressed their surprises to Cornelis, but because they were not very familiar with Philips, they hung up the phone after expressing their joy.

And when Steve Ross, chairman of Warner Communications, called in...

The captain of the Avengers, known as The Undertaker in the circle, immediately laughed and said: "Cone - do you want to know the latest trends of Ethan Jones~~~"

"According to the information I received, he has already rushed to Los Angeles an hour ago~~~"

"Yes! He went to see Robert Hall~~~"

"He's reviewing his investments! Checking his projects!"

“You guys did a great job this time!”

"Hahahaha~~~"

To be honest, although Cornelis is the CEO of Philips North America and a senior executive of Philips Netherlands, he only learned this morning that the group company suddenly attacked Ethan Jones yesterday. Even though he was dissatisfied with the headquarters' unilateral concealment, when people around him kept giving him compliments... that feeling of being flattered was still great!
After exchanging a few pleasantries with the callers and accepting their excited compliments, Cornelis hung up the phone with a sense of relief. He leaned back in the soft boss chair and turned around for a while. The comfort that came naturally made him raise the corners of his mouth involuntarily, "Ethan...Win?"

"Ah--"

"Let me see what you are using to win now!"

To be honest, ever since he came to North America and took the position of CEO of Philips North America, he has been quite exhausted by the small disturbances every three days and the big disturbances every five days.

Even though he already knew that Philips North America was a mess before he took up the new position, he never imagined that the work here would be so difficult to carry out.

He wanted to revive the video game business and finally put together an alliance.

As a result, it was torn apart by Ethan in a few seconds.

He wanted to win over allies and expand the coalition.

As a result, every ally who came to the appointment was beaten to a bloody pulp by Ethan.

Many nights, he wondered, how did his ex persist for so long?

Because he heard that when Ethan launched "Pac-Man" before, the commotion was even bigger than it is now. The act of publicly slapping someone in the face is enough to make people angry.

But now——

Everything is sunny after the rain!
Thinking of this, Cornelis immediately opened the drawer in front of him.

There was an unsmoked cigar lying inside, but he paid no attention to it.

He took out a new one, trimmed it quickly, pressed the metal lighter to slowly light it, and when the reddish spark wrapped around the cigar, wisps of green smoke slowly dissipated from his mouth.

After the rich aroma of tobacco filled his lungs, Cornelis's face showed a look of enjoyment, and just as he was about to savor his hard-earned victory...

"Jingle Bell."

The landline phone rang.

Cornelis frowned slightly, he didn't like this kind of interruption.

But the problem is that the phone ringing now is the internal landline that has to be answered.

He cursed irritably, picked up the phone and answered it.

"Hello?"

Before the polite greeting was finished, an urgent voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Boss, the head office called and asked for you."

"?" This situation made him put aside his dissatisfaction.

In his opinion, it was someone from the group who came to explain the problem to him.

"Please bring it in." He replied lazily. Just as he leaned back in his chair, waiting for someone from the group to give him a reasonable explanation, an old voice woke him up instantly.

That was the voice of the group's CEO, who also served as chairman. After briefly greeting his boss on the other end of the phone, the news from the receiver made him look surprised and tense.

because--

"Cornelis, I'm sorry to call you at this time. The board of directors held an internal meeting the day before yesterday and made a heavy decision regarding the loss of the North American branch last year."

"The board of directors has decided to give you another year. If you can lead the North American branch to turn losses into profits in the coming year, then everything agreed upon before you took office in North America will remain the same. But if you still submit a loss-making financial report to us next year, then I think you should know your fate."

"???" Cornelis couldn't believe his ears.

"Chairman...you are not kidding, right?"

"Today is not April Fools' Day."

“But, but, but——” He was trembling, unable to make a sound.

"You can't accept this decision, can you?"

The chairman of the group on the other end of the phone spoke calmly, "Cornelis, I know the company's situation in North America has nothing to do with you. The acquisition of Milova was not your original intention. It was a decision made by the group. The business policy of electronic games was also a specific plan made by your predecessor. Before you took office, the situation there was already out of control. But the problem is that you are now the leader of the North American branch, so you have to take responsibility for the various problems exposed by the company in North America."

"I know this isn't fair to you, but—"

“There is no fairness in life.”

“……”The sudden words made Cornelis pale.

He didn't understand why things turned out like this!

But he knew that his future was bleak!
"But - isn't our situation very good now?" Cornelis wanted to save himself.

He said anxiously, "The group company just released the CD yesterday! This new technology will definitely change the world! Because according to the information we have collected, Ethan Jones's "Starfield" will be a very large game, and the manufacturing cost of a single copy cannot be less than twenty dollars!"

"The storage chips on the market are too expensive, and the electronic games of Destiny are getting bigger and bigger. As long as we successfully launch a large-capacity storage product, we can strangle Ethan Jones from the technical field! And thus achieve a real counterattack!"

"Isn't that what the group is doing now? So - isn't my current job to stabilize the situation in North America, win over more allies, and wait for the commercialization of optical disks?"

The continuous inquiries revealed Cornelis's urgency and also made the chairman of the head office lose his patience. "Cornelis..." a loud roar came from the receiver, "Do you know why we released the CD without telling you? It's because we want to solve your loss problem for you!"

"Solve the loss problem of the North American branch!"

"In order to help you finish, we have to come up with immature technology! Do you think the CD can save your life? Haha - then do you know that it will not be commercialized in a short time?!!!"

"What?"

This fact made Cornelis jump.

"Why?"

He wanted to know the inside story.

As he continued his questioning, the chairman of Philips of the Netherlands also sighed.

Perhaps because there was no need to keep secrets about the CD from his own people, the chairman of the Philips Group told Cornelis everything over the phone.

When Cornelis learned that the technical staff of the group company had determined that they could not reduce the size of the huge player in a short period of time, his body began to tremble involuntarily. When he heard the chairman say that a lot of the technology for manufacturing CD players was in America...

An ominous premonition also arose. "Chairman... can't we... get authorization?" he asked with a trembling voice.

This question made the old man on the other end of the phone ponder. After a moment, he replied: "If you can get authorization for the company, then I will voluntarily resign from the position of CEO of the headquarters at next year's meeting. This position will be taken by You take over. We now need licenses for three patents, two of which are held by James Russell at the Hanford site in Washington and one by Robert Hall at GE's Los Angeles laboratory. , so... I wish you good luck..."

"pat-"

The chairman of Philips Group on the other end of the phone hung up.

"pat-"

Cornelis' body was shaking, and the cigar he had just lit fell to the ground because his fingers were too weak.

At this moment, his eyes lost their light.

"Robert... Hall? Robert Hall... Robert Hall?"

His lips trembled slightly and he murmured.

After a moment, he suddenly raised his hands and hugged his head, "Oh! My! God!"

“Why is the patent on Ethan Jones’s side???”

“This isn’t fair!!!!!”

When Cornelis, the CEO of Philips North America, was shocked by the news sent from the headquarters and was roaring wildly, after more than an hour of communication, Robert Hall finally walked out of his workshop. Looking at the two children with expectant faces, the old man shrugged.

"Although Philips held a new product launch conference yesterday and introduced its optical disc technology to the world, they did not disclose their technical details and technology sources, so——"

"I haven't found out what technology they used yet."

This fact made Ethan look regretful.

As he sighed, Robert Hall said, "However, there is no need to rush this matter, because according to the normal process, Philips will publish a technical paper in the next three to six months, and then we will know whether they have used our technology."

"Moreover, I personally think that since Philips has a grudge against you and they want to maintain their stock price through new technology and a new future, they will definitely publish a paper in the shortest possible time whenever there is a breakthrough. So, if they don't do this, then there must be something wrong with them."

"My personal opinion is that if we wait for three to five days, we can sleep soundly if they have no news. If they have news, they will not be able to launch new products this year. So as long as we perfect the product this year and launch it to the market next year, we will not be behind."

"Of course, this is my job, and yours..."

"What you should do now is to go to James Russell to get the patent."

"It would be best if we can buy it out, but it doesn't matter if we can't. Getting a long-term contract is also a success."

Ethan thought there was nothing wrong with what Robert Hall said.

When their products are sure to be patented, did Philips use the technology of the big guys?
This question is not important at all.

If it is used, it will naturally be the best result, because patents can be used to block people.

But if it is not used, it doesn’t matter, because their products are at least unique. In this case, the most important thing is to do your best and win the war.

As for opening the champagne?

Popping champagne at halftime is something only villains would do!

Since the subsequent work ideas were clear, Ethan did not hesitate. After saying goodbye to Professor Robert Hall, he flew to Washington State with his sister. Because they had an appointment in advance, they met James Russell, who held the patent for digital optical disc reading, in Fresno, near Hanford.

After a brief greeting, both sides got straight to the point.

Just like Robert Hall, Ethan also wanted to buy out the other party's patent directly, but James Russell had no intention of selling it, or in other words -

"Evelyn, Fred returned to Stanford last year to teach again, right? And he only accepted you? Since you are Fred's people, let's be honest. I'm not young anymore."

“When I first joined GE, my goal was to become an excellent scientist, which I did. Later, I gave up GE’s high salary and came to Hanford because I wanted to study some of the most cutting-edge technologies, which I also did.”

"When I have achieved the two major dreams in my life, what I want to do is to accumulate some wealth for the rest of my life. At the same time, I also want to bring some money to my children so that they can live a rich life. So I am not going to sell my patents."

"To be honest, I was the one who released the news that digital discs are better than laser discs. I just wanted to use this method to attract the attention of some companies and let them study this thing. When they discover the value of digital discs, I can make money from my patents."

"To be honest, I'm very happy to see you, because this proves that what I did was not wrong. And since you have a need for my patent, let's be straightforward. How about 3%?"

"I will license the patent to you and take 3% of the product sales."

"This patent does not refer to the digital disc reading patents I currently hold, but also the patents I am researching and will register in the future. This is a long-term authorization. As long as I still have patents and you still need patents, the contract will be established, and the price will always be inconvenient."

To be honest, the price is not expensive.

When sales were one million, James Russell would only get thirty thousand.

Even if it exceeds 100 million, he can only get 3 million.

Judging from the prices that Philips and American Music set for their laser disc players, the launch price of a digital disc player would be at least one thousand dollars.

After deducting the cost, the profit is about two hundred.

Even if James Russell's commission is taken into account, each machine can still make more than a hundred yuan.

But many times, the accounts are not calculated in this way.

Because this is not a buyout.

When other players can also enter the market by obtaining authorization, the continuous three percent commission will cause a series of problems. For example, after the manufacturing cost of electronic products decreases, merchants who want to gain market share will naturally lower their selling prices. When merchants compete for the market by compressing selling prices in exchange for sales, the fixed three-point commission will make them miserable.

Not only that, in the future, when they want to launch a music player and add optical drives to computers and consoles, the 3%3%3% commission will be very painful for them.

It’s not that the commission is difficult to calculate, you can just set up a company to make CDs, but it’s difficult to reduce the cost.

and so--

"Professor Russell..." Ethan wanted to bargain.

However, before he could open his mouth, James Russell raised his left hand, made a stop gesture, and then smiled and said: "This is an offer for Bob's sake."

"For Fred's sake, I'll quote five points."

“The minimum will not be less than 3.7 points.”

“I can put it in the contract.”

"If I give someone else a price lower than what you get, then you don't have to pay me."

“Deal—” Ethan swallowed all the words he wanted to bargain with.

Now that both parties have reached a consensus, the next step is to sign the contract, which will be handled by the law firm that has been cooperating with Destiny Game.

The problem with the CD was solved quickly and easily, and Ethan returned home feeling very happy about the success. What made him even happier was that after a week of waiting, Philips still had not published its technical paper. This fact was enough to prove that there was something wrong with Philips.

This made Ethan feel more at ease.

Just as Ethan was thinking that the current situation was to compete in speed and R&D, and come up with mature products before Philips, because only in this way could they occupy the market in advance, on March 21, a transatlantic phone call broke his peace. More importantly, it was from Julis Noble.

When Ethan heard the news, his instinctive reaction was that Nintendo was in big trouble, but when he got through the phone, Julis said, "Boss! It's bad! Something happened to Sony!"

"..." Even though he was mentally prepared, Ethan still gasped at this moment.

'Sony did it too? '

"What the hell! This is better than letting Nintendo do the whole thing!"

[Correction]: Philips is in PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands, but I typed it as PSV Eindhoven. Because it is a VIP chapter, I do not have the authority to modify it, so I will make a note here. From now on, it will all be PSV Eindhoven.

Note: ① In reality, the digital disc was indeed promoted by James Russell himself. Just like Edgar Codd mentioned earlier, he also felt that his project was very promising, so he took the initiative to show it to the outside world.

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(End of this chapter)