Reinventing the Millennium

Woodford's launch attracted widespread attention at home and abroad.

Olympus is an industry giant that has been established for 92 years. It can almost be called a century-old company. It has always had an excellent image. This sudden revelation of financial fraud is undoubtedly shocking.

On the second day after the press conference, Olympus's stock price plummeted 9%. Coupled with the previous decline due to the sudden dismissal of the CEO, it has fallen by 13% cumulatively, and its market value has evaporated by US$1.2 billion.

On the afternoon of the next day after the press conference, Olympus's Tokyo headquarters responded, accusing Woodford of tarnishing the company's image because of his dismissal.

An Olympus spokesman completely denied the former CEO's accusations, saying that all mergers and acquisitions were subject to reasonable audits and completed in accordance with a reasonable process, and there were no problems.

As for the reason for firing the CEO, it was once again stated that Woodford's management style conflicted with other senior managers.

This response from Olympus is not convincing to the public, at least not to the overseas media, because the evidence and audit reports presented by Woodford are quite credible, and the third-party audit he hired, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is also a world-renowned accountant. One of the offices.

Two days later, Woodford held his second media conference in New York. Compared with the day before yesterday, the fermented storm brought more than a hundred media and TV stations to broadcast live.

Things have escalated and there must be consequences.

Woodford presented more evidence this time and named senior managers involved in financial fraud, including Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, believing that they should be arrested and punished by law.

Also present at the press conference were representatives of the company’s foreign shareholders, who expressed two demands. One was to clean up the top management, including Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, and the other was to reinstate Woodford to his original position.

In response to such demands, many media outlets have provided analysis and believe that the former may be achievable, because once financial fraud is confirmed, it will be punished, but it is almost impossible to re-serve as CEO.

The Wall Street Journal reported in detail the causes and consequences of the incident, and invited experts to analyze the future of Olympus.

"If Olympus really engaged in such long-term fraud as Woodford said, then the nature of this is extremely bad and it is likely to be forced to be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange."

"Of course, there is also the possibility that Japan will only impose a huge fine. After all, this is a Japanese company, and it may be able to be ignored on the most critical issues."

"Woodford should continue to stay in New York and not return to Tokyo. Let's look at Japan's attitude first."

The New York Times paid attention to the reaction of Japan, including Olympus, prosecutors, police and securities regulators, as well as public attitudes.

"According to some Japanese media reports, some Olympus executives are letting loose and may take legal action against Woodford for violating corporate discipline."

"We have noticed that the Japanese securities regulatory authorities have not made any moves, and they are probably waiting for the incident to cool down."

"The attitude of some Japanese public has become clearer. They believe that Woodford's actions are harming Japanese companies and harming Woodford's stock price, which has already caused losses to them."

"We have counted the Japanese media reports in the past week, and there are almost no headline reports about the 'Olympus fraud incident,' which makes people worry about the final direction of the incident."

The hot discussion in the overseas media did not cause the same enthusiasm in the Japanese media. Instead, there were many voices of opposition in the country. What is even more paradoxical is...

As Olympus's stock price fell further, several Japanese companies came forward to express their support.

A director of Fujifilm revealed to the media that it may cooperate with Olympus in the near future with the intention of expanding the company's medical and health services.

Terumo is Olympus's largest supplier, and its CEO also stated that it will further strengthen cooperation with Olympus.

Also, a vice president of Sony Group, Japan's largest consumer electronics exporter, expressed plans to consider investing in Olympus.

Affected by this, Olympus's stock price actually rebounded.

When Fang Zhuo saw that Sony was still thinking about it, he couldn't help but call Stringer to ask about the situation.

"It was decided by the local side." Stringer learned about his company's statement almost at the same time as Fang Zhuo. After hearing the inquiry, he was quite depressed, "It was probably with the instruction of the Japanese department."

The situation is already clear.

Neither camp is willing to admit defeat easily, especially Olympus chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa.

After Fang Zhuo ended his investigation of Sony, he reposted an analysis of the incident by the American media on Twitter, and simply attached his own evaluation: 20 years of fraud? Hundreds of billions of yen in losses? The Olympus situation is surprising.

However, his remarks were just for fun, and only added a little bit of heat. What really changed the incident was the statement by some overseas investors of Olympus that they would launch a class action lawsuit against company executives including Tsuyoshi Kikukawa. .

At the same time, law enforcement agencies such as the FBI also came out and stated that they would conduct relevant investigation and hearings on this matter.

To this extent, the Japanese media finally turned their attention to domestic sales, and analysis and reports of Olympus-related events appeared on the headlines.

On September 28, Tokyo prosecutors and the Tokyo Stock Exchange sent a letter to Olympus, requesting an explanation for the financial fraud and asking Woodford to return to Tokyo for questioning.

Affected by this official news, Olympus's stock price plummeted 12.8%, hitting a low of 1,467 yen.

It seems that with the launch of the class action lawsuit and the Japanese investigation, the situation of Olympus will gradually become clearer. Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa has never had a better proof, while Woodford continues to present evidence.

In the last two days of September, Olympus' stock price continued to fall. Further news showed that Kikukawa Tsuyoshi and others were about to resign and accept investigations by Tokyo prosecutors and police.

At this time, Fang Zhuo received a call from Stringer and talked about the situation in Olympus.

"Sony will almost invest in Olympus to prevent it from being dragged down by its financial situation." Stringer talked about the news delivered locally, which is what the relevant departments meant.

The situation of Olympus will inevitably continue to deteriorate. Japan does not want it to decline, nor does it want to force it to delist.

"What do you think of Sony..." Fang Zhuo didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Stringer feels the same way: "Who's to say otherwise? If I were the one making the decision, Sony shouldn't be involved in Olympus's bad situation."

However, on the one hand, it is the pressure from Japan, and on the other hand, he has lost his authority within the group.

Fang Zhuo ended the call with the old Jazz and called Kong Yu. Stringer was still the head of Sony, so why couldn't he make decisions?

I originally wanted Sony to be the last gift package, but now that Panasonic has suffered even more serious losses, and Sony wants to intervene in Olympus, then...

On October 1, the famous whistleblowing website WikiLeaks updated a new revelation, claiming to have obtained a batch of U.S. confidential documents, involving fraud by a group of well-known Japanese companies.

“Not only did Olympus commit financial fraud and cover up a loss of US$1.7 billion, but what is even more shocking is that the Sony Group, which has more extensive influence in the world, used various methods to cover up a huge loss of at least US$5 billion last year. "

"This year, Sony has closed 10 factories, and its losses will reach at least US$7 billion."

The revelations listed the ambiguities in Sony's financial report last year and detailed the financial methods involved.

Sony also faked it?

5 billion loss? 7 billion loss?

A figure far higher than Olympus' losses?

true and false?

The Japanese company Olympus’s financial fraud has not subsided. Although WikiLeaks has always confused authenticity and falsehoods, and Sony’s news could not be recognized as true at the first time, it quickly attracted the attention of the media.