Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

Rochester is an industrial city and lake port on the shores of Lake Ontario in western New York State, United States. Located on the south shore of Lake Ontario, it belongs to Monroe County and is the seat of the county. With a population of about 200,000, it is the third largest city in New York State. The city is known as the "World Image Center" and "Flour City". When spring comes, flowers bloom, so it is also known as the "Flower City".

After being a good student for a while, Bao Zixuan started skipping classes again. After arranging company affairs, he came to this small American town. He was going to Kodak Company to negotiate for the patent licensing of digital cameras.

In fact, digital cameras are currently the most unpopular products among Kodak, and it will be difficult to achieve profitability within a period of time with current technology. Moreover, a large amount of research and development funds are spent every year, which has caused headaches for the board of directors and management for a long time.

1878: Mr. George Eastman foresighted the trend of gelatin dry plates replacing the cumbersome and bulky wet plates popular at the time. Dry plates can be exposed and developed at the photographer's discretion, while wet plates must be applied immediately, exposed, and developed while wet. Based on this aspect, Kodak was founded.

It was the foresight of the first generation of founders that led to Kodak's current glory, but who would have thought that the first to fall in the digital age would be the giant that first developed digital cameras!

Kodak responded quickly after receiving the business negotiation intention from Heiyun Group. After learning that the chairman of Heiyun Group came in person, Kodak also sent a negotiation team headed by President Eric Eastman.

After walking around the Kodak Museum, Bao Zixuan came to the reception room and saw the Kodak negotiation team waiting for them. This time Bao Zixuan learned a lesson and would not go into battle in person unless absolutely necessary. After all, every negotiation has to be done. A little loss. This time, the lawyer negotiation team headed by Larry Brown was mainly responsible.

Eric Eastman said: "Hello, Mr. Bao, welcome to Kodak. I am very clear about your purpose this time, and I am not opposed to licensing or transferring digital camera technology and patents, but you have to get A value that matches him.”

Bao Zixuan: "Heiyun always pays attention to win-win when doing business, and the partners who interact with us will not suffer. This will last long, otherwise no one or company will cooperate with you after a few times, and then the loss will not be a little profit. So simple."

"Kodak is a great company, and we at Heiyun still have a lot to learn from you. This is also one of the reasons why I brought my team here to negotiate. That is, the cooperation did not succeed this time, but at least I felt the culture of Kodak. This is Money can’t buy it. This kind of intangible wealth is the most valuable thing for a company.”

Eric Eastman: “I don’t know what kind of win-win cooperation plan Heiyun has.”

At this time, Larry Brown said: "This is our preliminary plan! After that, Heiyun's report based on the investigation was handed over to the Kodak personnel."

"Currently, Kodak's total investment in digital cameras is around US$10 million. Plan one is that we pay three times the price to purchase all technology patents and laboratory equipment."

"Option two is that we spend US$10 million to purchase technology and patent licensing. In the future, Kodak and Heiyun can each enter the field of producing digital cameras."

"Option three is that we invest 15 million to hold half of the entire project, which means that Kodak has half of all patents and technical black clouds obtained in digital cameras. And each party will bear half of the annual allocation to the digital camera R\u0026D department."

Lawyers are much more professional than Bao Zixuan in this regard, and they don't have to buy other people's patents and technologies. List a few directly for you to choose from, and accurately estimate the prospects and value of your company's technology.

Kodak personnel did not expect Heiyun Company to be sincere in its first offer. To be honest, they really did not want to retain the digital camera department. At this time, they did not want to retain not only digital cameras, but also traditional cameras. Kodak itself has a weak optical foundation. Most cameras use German Schneider OEM lenses.

As a result, the cameras they produce cannot sell similar products in Japan and Germany. Handling is Kodak's strength and core department, and it is also the main profit point that supports Kodak's progress.

Kodak is a listed company and cannot respond and make decisions quickly on many matters. The two parties agreed to continue negotiations tomorrow. Bao Zixuan knew that they would have a meeting to discuss, so the Heiyun Group personnel left Kodak Company and went to the hotel to rest.

In the Kodak conference room, Eric Eastman introduced Heiyun's plan to the board of directors. Everyone started discussing.

A director said: "Now the digital camera department is losing money every year. It will take more than 15 years to achieve profitability. Why don't we package the technology and patents and sell them to Heiyun! But there is also a requirement, that That is, Heiyun Group is not allowed to enter related industries such as paper delivery and film. We have one less competitor. They have obtained the technology and personnel of Carl Zeiss from East Germany. It is really easy to enter this industry. Moreover, the labor cost in Xiangjiang is higher than that in Japan They are all cheap, less than half of what we are in the United States. How will we compete then? We will be very passive, and this also buys us an insurance."

Everyone thinks it makes sense. In fact, this is also the result of a team of lawyers’ research. This is the advantage of leaving the negotiation to professionals. If Bao Zixuan bought it when he saw that the price was right, he would suffer a small loss for the time being. Anyway, he could make back the money doubled in the future.

Next, another director said: "We can retain the right to use the technology, that is, we sell the patents and technology to Heiyun Group, and then Kodak can enter the digital camera business whenever it wants, which is equivalent to Heiyun's purchase. The technology is being licensed to Kodak, but Kodak can only produce it itself and cannot license it to third parties."

As for the price, the negotiation team needs to connect with Heiyun, but there is a premise that our interests at Kodak must be guaranteed.

Negotiations continued the next morning. Kodak proposed that it could sell digital camera patents and technology to Heiyun Group, but retain Kodak's independent use rights. Kodak can enter the digital field at any time in the future, but this quota cannot be resold or licensed to third parties. The price is US$40 million, and Heiyun Group is prohibited from engaging in handover production and development-related businesses for life.

In the end, the lawyers negotiated and finally set the price at US$34.5 million, and Kodak sold the technology and patents to Black Cloud. What Bao Zixuan has to do now is to take these people to Boston. After all, it is not very convenient here. Fortunately, there are only 34 technical staff in Kodak's digital department, and they are unpopular marginalized figures in the company.

Even so, some people still don't want to leave Roscut City. It's hard to let go of their families when they are all here. Heiyun took away 2 things from Kodak, which he couldn't help. After all, it's hard to leave his homeland.

The good news is that the inventor of the digital camera, Steven Cezanne, agreed to join the Black Cloud Group, and Bao Zixuan was very happy. With the father of digital cameras joining us, I believe Heiyun Digital Camera will be successfully developed soon.

Steven Cezanne has always been ahead of the times in the development of CCD photoreceptors. After Bao Zixuan communicated with Steven Cézanne, he appointed him as the chief engineer of the research and development of Heiyun digital cameras. In this way, Hashimoto Hiroshi only had to ensure the logistics. Just work.

Now that all the main components of the Heiyun digital camera have been allocated, everyone just needs to perform their duties; after meeting the design requirements, the whole machine will be assembled. As for the software, Bao Zixuan is still responsible for writing it himself.

The top priority now is to finalize the digital camera. He has already thought about this. It is definitely more reliable to find a professional photographer.