Rebirth of America, this is my time

An hour later, Ethan met Norio Ohga in the company's reception room.

In Ethan's previous life, Norio Ohga was one of Sony's troika along with Ibuka and Akio Morita. Known as the father of CD, he was the soul of Sony's entertainment field. He sold global products for Sony. The first CD led the acquisition of Columbia Records and Columbia Pictures, and led Sony to actively embrace video games, which allowed Sony to still have the capital to turn around when it sold the building at a loss.

But at this moment, this 'young man', who is not yet fifty years old and has not yet reached the peak of his life, behaves a little reserved in front of Ethan. Even though he has managed Columbia Sony Records, a joint venture between Sony and Columbia Music, into the largest music company in the country in the past ten years, compared with the fact that Destiny Game made hundreds of millions of profits that year, his personal qualifications are still a bit unsatisfactory. .

Ah, no...

To be precise, the size of the Destiny game is equivalent to that of Sony as a whole.

After all, Sony's comprehensive net profit last year was only 1.3 billion US dollars.

To be honest, when Norio Ohga learned that a guy of similar size to Sony was also making optical discs, he just felt his eyes darken; waiting for him to know that this guy had completed Sony's thirty years in just four years. After the guy who was responsible for the development process actually held the patent for digital optical discs in advance, he, who has been promoting the development of optical discs in the past few years, can no longer express his shock in words.

He doesn't understand!

Why would a guy who makes video games cross the border and develop discs?

He just couldn't figure it out!

Why was he targeted by his peers when he debuted? In the first year after he founded the company, he was targeted by two Fortune 500 companies. In the second year, he fell out with his overseas partners. In the third year, he even faced off against the largest arms contractor in North America. How can a guy with a long-established trading company, who has become an enemy of most of the North American entertainment industry in his fourth year, still have time to secretly invest in a technology that has nothing to do with video games?

More importantly, in addition to CDs, he also made computers? Made a chip? Made a movie? And it is said that you also invested in the most popular micro software company at the moment?

no--

Where do you, a twenty-three-year-old guy, get so much energy?

When countless questions filled Norio Ohga's body, the look in Ethan's eyes suddenly became extremely complicated, and Ethan, who was sitting opposite him, also saw something unnatural about him after examining Norio Ohga. .

Ever since, Ethan took the initiative and said, "Mr. Dahe, although this is our first meeting, I have heard of your name a long time ago. Sony is a very large group. Your Trinitron TV is in our You can see them everywhere here, like the one I use in my office, it’s your TV.”

"Oh, Mr. Jones, thank you for your choice." Ethan's words brought Norio Ohga back to his senses.

Knowing that he was being rude, he quickly said: "Sorry, Mr. Jones, although I have heard your name in the business world in the past few years and know your age, I was still shocked when we first met."

"Because your age makes your deeds extremely legendary."

"So, I may have been a little distracted just now, please forgive me."

"It doesn't matter." Ethan waved his hand, indicating that he didn't care.

At the same time, he also said: "Then let's get straight to the point?"

"Okay." Norio Ohga's vigorous and resolute manner made Norio Ohga nod quickly and said: "Mr. Jones, I have only one purpose for visiting your company today, and that is to discuss cooperation with your company on behalf of Sony."

"And this cooperation..."

"It has to do with digital discs."

Norio Ohga's purpose is very simple, that is, Sony wants to set up a digital disc research and development team, hoping that Destiny Games can join, and in addition to them, Philips will also be a member.

In the words of Norio Ohga, Sony is definitely the world leader in the field of disc burning and reading correction, and Philips has done a very good job in miniaturizing optical discs.

Although Destiny Games has not disclosed its technical progress so far, the patent authorization in hand alone can make them a member of the cooperation team, not to mention that the client of the optical storage project undertaking Destiny Games is still A big boss in the field of optics.

Norio Ohga believes that with the concerted efforts of the three companies, digital optical discs, an epoch-making product, will definitely be introduced to the world in the shortest possible time. By then, they will be the usher in a new era of storage.

This will leave their name in history.

When Ethan finished hearing Norio Ohga's plan, the corners of his mouth suddenly twitched.

Although he had thought before that Norio Ohga's visit might have the purpose of prostitution for himself, he never expected that this guy could be so whimsical.

Does he think Sony's correction technology leads the world?

Fuck your horse!

Robert Hall solved this problem long ago!

He said that Philips has done a very good job in miniaturizing optical discs?

I go to grandma's legs!

The disc Robert Hall showed him before was the size of a palm! It’s just that the player carries too many transcoding devices and reading devices, so it needs to find ways to slim down!

more importantly--

Are you short-sighted?

Philips is my enemy!

Let's work together?

ha--

Whimsical!

Thinking of this, Ethan took a deep breath and said: "Mr. Dahe, I meet you with curiosity and sincerity, so please be more frank and sincere, okay?"

"The conflict between Philips and I is not only known to the whole world, but at least for companies that want to discuss cooperation, this should be public information that can be collected, right?"

"In this case, you want us to work together?"

"Is there something wrong with this?"

Ethan looked at Norio Ohga with a smile.

He felt that his words and actions were restrained enough.

If the guy sitting opposite him at this moment was Hiroshi Yamauchi, he would definitely chuckle and ask: "Do you think you are worthy of mediating the war between me and Philips?"

Hiroshi Yamauchi is not worthy!

so--

Norio Ohga is even less worthy!

But even though Ethan had restrained his words and deeds, Norio Ohga still smelled the dissatisfaction filling the air, so he wanted to promote cooperation and said quickly:

"Mr. Jones, I do come here with sincerity."

"To tell you the truth, I only learned in the past few days that your company is also researching digital optical discs."

"So, before coming here, I went to Philips and communicated with them."

"Even though we have had many years of conflicts over the TV business and the tape business, we have still reached a consensus on cooperation. We all feel that cooperative research and development may be a shortcut to success."

"But what does this have to do with me?"

Ethan leaned back and said with a smile: "Mr. Dahe, I know you are an artist. You artists may have an idealism that allows you to communicate with each other if you have the same ideas, but I am not."

"I, Ethan Jones, only follow one principle in doing business - the enemy will always be the enemy, so when facing the enemy, fists are the best way to communicate!"

Hearing the murderous words, Oga Norio was stunned.

The next second he came back to his senses, his face was full of embarrassment.

His mouth opened slightly, wanting to retort.

But Ethan Jones's tyrant deeds left him at a loss for words.

At the same time, he also remembered what he saw in Eindhoven, the Netherlands a few days ago.

When he and Philips' executives reached a consensus on cooperation, he was very happy, because it meant that their Sony digital disc project could be advanced at a high speed. But unexpectedly, when he said that the two parties could sign a memorandum of cooperation, and subsequent negotiations and cooperation could be carried out according to the provisions of the memorandum, the senior management of Philips in the Netherlands told him not to get excited too early, because there were still people in the world studying optical discs. And that person is Ethan Jones of North America.

"Although he has not disclosed his research and development progress so far, it does not mean that he has no clue about the research on optical discs, because according to his habit, he will only provide information when the product has been perfected and can be mass-produced. The world brings its own shocks, so—"

"Whether our alliance will be effective remains to be seen."

This news surprised Norio Ohga, but after he calmed down, he felt that there was no problem.

Because he is willing to come forward and bring Destiny Game into cooperation.

However, his initiative did not win the appreciation of Philips senior management. What he heard was a helpless sigh.

"You want to work with Ethan Jones?"

"impossible."

"Why?" Norio Ohga was puzzled, "Don't he have many allies in North America?"

"He has also collaborated with others!"

"If you want to say that you have had conflicts and struggles with him, that can be resolved!"

"After all, I still know about Nintendo. Hiroshi Yamauchi betrayed you and Ethan Jones, but Nintendo is still the agent of Destiny Games."

These words made the senior management of Philips laugh and said: "Oh Dahe, you may not know Ethan Jones. The word reconciliation does not exist in his dictionary at all."

"Since everyone has become enemies, there are only two possibilities."

"Either the enemy dies."

"Either he wins big."

"?" Norio Ohga was confused.

At that time, he did not understand the difference between the two possibilities mentioned by Philips.

Perhaps because they saw his disbelief in evil, Philips executives told him about the patents that digital optical discs might involve in North America and asked him to ask first.

If Ethan Jones holds them all, then he must reject all forms of outside cooperation.

If Norio Ohga doesn't believe it, he can give it a try.

Norio Ohga really didn't believe it, so he ran a lap himself according to Philips' statement.

And now...

He truly felt that the people in the world who knew him best were his enemies.

Norio Ohga's daze also made Ethan lose his patience. He forced out a polite smile and asked: "Mr. Ohga, are you okay?"

"If not, then I'll get busy first."

Seeing Ethan wanting to see off the guests, Norio Ohga quickly said: "Mr. Jones, please give me a few more minutes. I want to tell you the true meaning of cooperation!"

"You may think that in our cooperation, you are the one who suffers, so you are unwilling to cooperate with us, but I want to say that our cooperation is not only about technical exchanges, but also about R\u0026D directions. Or in other words, it’s the setting of certain standards!”

Norio Ohga raised his voice and said: "The digital disc is a product that has never appeared before, so everything related to it has no standards. How many bits is its encoding? How many channels are there? Audio What is the sampling rate? I believe each of our companies studies these things differently!"

"So, I personally think that our companies that develop optical discs should sit down and discuss everything clearly before the product is launched, because this can help the optical disc develop better!"

"If we don't discuss these things now, then when the product is launched, discs with different specifications will definitely cause great trouble to the public!"

"For example, the optical disc that Philips is working on is 11.5 centimeters, which is about 4.53 inches. The optical disc that Sony is working on is 12 centimeters, which is almost 4.725 inches. When it appears on the market How do people choose when they have CDs of different sizes?"

"It's impossible for them to buy several optical disc players at the same time, right? They won't accept the fact that after buying one optical disc player, they can only listen to some of the music and movies negotiated by this company, right?"

“And the merchants don’t know how to choose!”

"Because it's impossible for them to reach cooperation with every company and release CDs for every model, right?"

"When this kind of problem arises, the promotion of optical discs will reach a deadlock!"

"so--"

"Mr. Jones, I sincerely invite you to cooperate with us to develop standards for digital optical discs."

"Even if..."

"If you don't want to show off your skills, that's no problem!"

Norio Ohga gritted his teeth and made an offer that ordinary people could not refuse.

And his words also made Ethan a little confused, because the standard this guy talked about was actually the root of the wars fought by various companies in his previous life to promote their own technologies.

All companies hope that their competitors will adapt to their format.

Because some patents will be involved.

And that means money.

If Philips and Sony are free to sell products, then Ethan Jones will definitely accept Norio Ohga's invitation to join the digital disc standard development group.

But now——

He, Ethan Jones, has the advantage!

So, why should he take care of the feelings of these underachievers?

"Mr. Dahe, I understand what you mean."

Ethan smiled and said: "But what does all this you said have to do with me?"

"If you just want to know about our data format in optical discs, then I can ask Professor Robert Hall to tell you what the capacity is and the laser wavelength to be read."

"Then you just modify your product according to our format."

"Pa—" Ethan clapped his hands and said, "Problem solved."

Norio Ohga was stunned when he heard such casual words, and the crisp high-five made him frown and said: "Mr. Jones! This is not how the standards of any industry are set!"

"If I remember correctly, your country is a country that values ​​freedom, right?"

"Everyone has the right to speak out, right?"

"so--"

"Shall we sit down and talk?"

"Tell me about the advantages of your product?"

“Absorbing the advantages of other technologies?”

“This way our products can be the best they can be.”

Norio Ohga looked pleading.

Ethan Jones, on the other hand, sighed and stood up slowly.

"Mr. Dahe, you seem to have understood something wrong."

"Freedom is never spoken with words, but struck with fists."

Ethan looked at the other party with a smile and asked: "So - what is freedom?"

"Now, my will, that is your freedom."

"uh-huh?"

Ethan raised his eyebrows at Norio Ohga.

He shook his head with a smile and left with regret.

To be honest, when Ballmer told him that Norio Ohga wanted to see him, he really thought that Norio Ohga would bring him some surprise! The result—that’s it?

Your technology is imperfect and you don’t have patents, and then you want me to sit down and discuss standards with you?

Why?

I’m not used to those veteran capitalists in North America!

You, a foreign monk, want me to chant sutras with you?

What a big face!

Note: ① Sony’s net profit in 1978 comes from the historical financial report on Sony’s official website. A net profit of RMB 100 million a year was already a very impressive company in that era. I really didn’t overwhelm the protagonist in terms of career, but it was just because of the times that the money didn’t seem to be that much. ②The initial formulation of the optical disc standard was actually about the most basic things such as band, disc size, sound channel, etc., and this involved patent issues. For example, Sony's digital audio signal correction technology, although in 1979 When Philips and Sony reached a cooperation in 2006, the two parties exchanged all optical disc patents, but after the standard was established, everything that followed was another matter. To put it most simply, standards are actually money. You can refer to Qualcomm's CDMA.