America: My Time

Chapter 1160 Slapping Sony in the Face
Chapter 1150 Slapping Sony in the Face
When 7-Eleven abandoned the Southeast Asian market and completely withdrew, selling off all its assets in one go, it not only received the deposit, but also the penalty for breach of contract and the proceeds from the sale. This stunned everyone. The guys in Japan did not expect John to be so decisive, cutting through the mess quickly and leaving directly.

At this time, some in Japan were also tempted. If John could give up the Southeast Asian market, could they also give up the Japanese market? Unfortunately, this time they were rejected. Although they lost the Southeast Asian market, 7-Eleven quickly entered the British Isles, launching a new expansion. They lost the Southeast Asian market but gained the British Isles market. Facing the arrival of 7-Eleven, there was little resistance in Britain. After all, John and they were still in a 'friendly' cooperative period; no one would try to sabotage them and incur their enmity!
Around the time of 7-Eleven's transformation, Momoko Kikuchi returned to Tokyo to oversee the internet cafe alliance. She didn't question Sony, as if everything that had happened before was nonexistent. However, problems arose at this point: ASUS personal computers entered the Japanese market, seizing market share with low prices. Most importantly, everyone suddenly realized that the internet cafe alliance had also begun expanding, investing its deposits and penalties into real estate acquisitions, embarking on a path of self-development and abandoning franchisees.

At this point, Sony began to panic, because they remembered that the Internet Cafe Alliance was originally in ASUS's hands. Now, John's counterattack had begun, and not only personal computers, but also home game consoles and even home appliances were starting to seize market share.

Japan's largest and most important North American market is beginning to face an impact from John's various companies. Home appliances are starting to impact their market, and this is not comparable to the small profits of the Internet Cafe Alliance. Not only is Sony panicking, but the entire Japanese home appliance industry is panicking. The other side is clearly going to start a price war. Who wouldn't want a product that is good quality and cheap!

Although John's current production capacity for home appliances is limited, and his technological reserves are somewhat insufficient, a heavy blow still struck Sony: MP3 players were frantically impacting Sony's Walkman market. This series of combined attacks left Sony completely stunned!

At this time, many people were cursing Sony. If it weren't for their madness, such a huge upheaval wouldn't have happened, especially since the emergence of MP3s directly impacted the record market. Most importantly, there were also music sharing websites within the internet cafe alliance, although most of the shared music was from record companies like Sony, PolyGram, EMI, and Warner. The impact on Universal's own records was minimal, since these music websites were essentially John's doing.

Originally, John hadn't planned to use this as a trump card at this time, but wanted to wait a bit longer. However, he now had no choice but to deliver a fatal blow to Sony, to let Sony know how terrible the consequences of opposing him would be, and to let those old guys know that the Internet age had arrived, injecting more momentum into Silicon Valley.

At the same time, music production software emerged. In short, it was all aimed at Sony's Walkman. The production software could be found in internet cafes. If you said this wasn't targeting Sony, no one would believe it. But no one can say that John's actions were wrong, because John never showed up. And it was all Sony's own doing.

At this point, Sony thought of Riko and Momoko Kikuchi, wanting to back down and try to resolve the attack from ASUS. Unfortunately, they were helpless. All the patents had already been registered, and even if they wanted to sue, it would be useless because ASUS's products were electronic and their designs were different.

John's plan was to preemptively destroy the Walkman market, and he had made extensive preparations for this. When the plan was announced, the record market was immediately affected, and the market value of major record companies began to decline. Just as the MP3 advertisements proclaimed, a new era had arrived—the era of the internet had arrived!

Legendary Entertainment and Phoenix Media both suffered losses, but Sony's losses were even greater, as were those of other record companies. This was because the internet was controlled by John, and most importantly, the major music sharing websites were all established by John, with their target being other record companies, not themselves.

The Olympics had just ended, and the entire record market had changed dramatically. Although the major record companies suffered only minor losses, the arrival of MP3s made many people see the beginning of the destruction of portable music players. Technological advancements accelerated this process, and even if those people wanted to denounce MP3s, it was useless, as music websites had nothing to do with them.

While everyone's attention was focused on Sony, news quickly spread across Southeast Asia. Hotels, shopping malls, and other assets were being sold off. John's strategy was to withdraw from these Southeast Asian markets. The reason was simple: the 7-Eleven incident forced him to make this decision. These assets could be sold as long as the price was right. No one expected John to suddenly withdraw such a large amount of assets from Southeast Asia, and so quickly at that. After all, these were high-quality assets, and selling them shouldn't have been too difficult.

What is John trying to do? This is what many people want to know. These are all high-quality assets, and now they're all being sold. Many people immediately thought John was being too extreme; it's just a 7-Eleven convenience store issue, yet it's escalated to this point—it seems irrational. Regardless of what these people are saying, the businesses are acting according to John's plan, completely ignoring others' opinions.

Opportunity knocks but once. If such a great opportunity is missed, it would be a real shame. John hadn't originally planned to make money in this area, but now he had this idea and this opportunity. As for the previous mortgages, John used the farm and other assets to redeem them. The proceeds from the sale of these assets were not used to repay those banks.

September arrived quickly, and Sony was under increasing pressure. Nobuyuki Idei had no choice but to visit John in person, as he had asked Riko to speak with Momoko Kikuchi more than once, but to no avail. Now he could only go to the capital to see John and lower his stance in hopes of gaining John's understanding.

This guy thought that as long as he bowed his head, the matter would be over. He was mistaken. John didn't target Japan's energy resources, but during this time, John increased supplies to South Korea, opening up many resources from Sakhalin Island to South Korea again. This put pressure on the Japanese. Otherwise, why would Nobuyuki Idei have so quickly bowed his head, admitted his mistake, and begged John's forgiveness? For him, Sony wasn't in danger yet!
“Mr. Idei, I cannot grant your request. Please leave and don’t waste your time on me! You started the war, so you must bear the consequences. Therefore, I will not grant your request!” John showed no mercy to Nobuyuki Idei and refused him cleanly and decisively.

When these bastards were targeting me, did they ever think about how serious the consequences would be? Now that something's happened, they want to bow their heads and admit their mistakes, begging for forgiveness. Who gave them such a big face? It's ridiculous. Do they really think I'm easy to talk to and can forgive them again and again? In the past, John didn't want his public image to be ruined, after all, he had a good 'relationship' with that old guy Akio Morita. But now that relationship is gone, and Sony has taken the initiative to provoke trouble. If I don't take this opportunity to teach them a profound lesson, I'll be letting myself down.

"Mr. John, what do we need to do for you to forgive us and accept our request?" Nobuyuki Idei was still unwilling to give up and wanted to continue to persuade John to forgive him.

“Mr. Idei, I think you’ve misunderstood something. The reason I’m willing to meet with you and hear your explanation is not because you’re qualified to talk to me about this, but because I’m giving Mr. Akio Morita face. I’m giving you this opportunity out of consideration for our past friendship. With your status, you’re not qualified to discuss this matter with me at all!”

John's words were a direct slap in the face to Nobuyuki Idei. Of course, John wasn't wrong in saying that. Idei's status was far inferior to John's; they were not even in the same league. If Sony really wanted to admit his mistake, he shouldn't have had to come forward alone; Norio Ohga should have been there as well. It just shows that this guy's remorse wasn't sincere, and they didn't want to pay too high a price. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

At least on the surface, John paid a heavy price for their provocation. All the blame for Southeast Asia rests on their shoulders. Yet these guys at Sony have no sense of this, foolishly thinking they can get forgiveness without paying a price—it's a ridiculous joke! If everyone could simply apologize and resolve the crisis, John would be in a terrible situation. Countless people would try to use such tactics against him. Even the old guard in the US wouldn't dare target John like this, but Sony does. It only shows their arrogance and greed. Greed has made them forget what respect is, making them reckless. Now they will pay a heavy price for their stupidity!
(End of this chapter)