"It is true that even though the development speed of the information industry in recent years has amazed everyone, we cannot deny that the development of this industry is still in a very fragile seedling stage. The investment is huge, but the output is very small. Many people therefore Extremely pessimistic about the prospects of the new technology industry.”
"However, if we go back a hundred years, we will find that when generators and internal combustion engines first appeared, not many people expected that electricity would become one of the most important energy sources for modern people's lives, and no one could expect a In a hundred years, the number of cars in the world will reach 500 million, which is almost equivalent to one car for every ten people in the world. Therefore, in this era of technological development and promotion far faster than a hundred years ago, we have reason to believe that In the not-too-distant future, all fields related to the information industry will become an indispensable part of ordinary people's life like basic necessities of life. Therefore, the development of the firefly system may have reached an extreme in the eyes of outsiders, but in my opinion It appears that this is just the beginning.”
In the large meeting room of the Firefly Burbank headquarters, under the gaze of everyone, Eric looked around, with a confident smile on his face, and continued: "Perhaps, some people will have doubts in their hearts, Eric, you put Don’t you worry that someone will copy your plans for the future of the Firefly system so completely and without reservation?”
Amid everyone's chuckles, Eric shook his head quickly and said, "To be honest, I'm not worried at all, because Yahoo, Cisco, Nokia and other Firefly system companies have laid a very solid foundation for our future. , many of our competitors are still in a state of confusion. Moreover, in this world, business planning is actually a very cheap thing. I think everyone sitting here can easily make a Described more reasonable and detailed ideas for enterprise development."
"However, to turn a business plan into reality requires too much investment. During this process, a company is often limited by technology, disturbed by capital, and constrained by insufficient execution of the team. Each of these factors can lead to the death of a creative company. But at Firefly, as long as we share the same vision and goals, then you can use your talents to the fullest, and I will do my best to help you solve All the worries. Over the years, I believe I've proven that to everyone."
"Finally," Eric said with a more solemn expression, stepped back a little, looked at everyone, and said, "Although there is no wine, we can't toast, but I still hope that we can go on together."
huh huh huh.
Whether in the conference room or the speakers of the remote display screen, warm applause rang out in unison in an instant.
After Eric's speech, the executives of the Firefly system began to summarize the development status of the company they were in charge of this year, followed by discussions on various future development issues of the Firefly system.
The meeting started at ten o'clock in the morning, Western Los Angeles time, and continued until eight o'clock in the evening due to too much concentration. During the whole process, no one mentioned lunch or break.
It wasn't until the night fell completely that the last discussion on the mobile communication network ended, and Eric concluded in a state where everyone was still unsatisfied: "Although it is a bit hasty and short, I have to announce that today's meeting is over. I believe that everyone has gained their own insights and gains, and I will ask someone to sort out today’s detailed meeting minutes and send them to you as soon as possible. Then, finally, there is one more small matter, and I hope everyone can cooperate.”
…
Firefly did not conceal the news of the high-level gathering in the system. However, before the media had time to dig out the details of the gathering, a series of sensational news inside and outside Hollywood came out from various companies in the Firefly system.
First of all, on the second day of the meeting, Qualcomm's management held a press conference, announcing that it would withdraw capital from the CDMA mobile phone manufacturing plant jointly established by the company and Sony Group in the near future, and that the two parties would no longer cooperate in the future.
Although the reason given by Qualcomm is that the company intends to abandon terminal products and focus on technology development and chip manufacturing, however, considering the "Pirates of the Caribbean" script incident that just happened, everyone is sensitive to a hint of obvious pertinence breath.
As we all know, as one of the giants in the world-class electronics industry, Sony has never given up its plan to enter the mobile phone field since the beginning of the digital age. Even later, when Sony's mobile phone business failed after many attempts, it was still one of the most important suppliers of high-end mobile phone components in the world by virtue of its technological advantages.
The cooperation between Qualcomm and Sony in mobile phone manufacturing was even before Firefly Investment became the largest shareholder of Qualcomm.
After that, due to the fact that they both belong to the Firefly system, the connection between Qualcomm and Nokia has gradually deepened, and the cooperative relationship with Sony has also been continuously weakened.
At this moment, at a critical moment when all electronic manufacturers in the world are sparing no effort to expand their mobile phone business, Qualcomm, which has almost monopolized the CDMA technology patent, completely kicked Sony away. This is undoubtedly a very serious blow to Sony's plan to enter the field of mobile phone manufacturing. .
If Qualcomm's cessation of cooperation with Sony in the mobile phone business is just a warning, then a series of news that spread quickly in the group's Hollywood will be even more earth-shattering.
In the next few days, several news came out from within the Firefly Group.
According to rumors, the Firefly Group executives personally stated that after Sony Pictures acquired the "Pirates of the Caribbean" script, all media platforms of the Firefly system, including all channels such as public television networks, cable TV, radio stations, and online portals, will no longer be available. Accept any advertising orders from any movie produced by Sony Pictures.
The seriousness of the impact of this news on Sony Pictures can be seen from the composition of the marketing budget of Hollywood movies. In Hollywood, only 20% of a movie’s advertising and marketing budget is spent on outdoor billboards, movie theater advertisements, etc. In the field of non-media channels, the remaining 80% is spent on media channels such as public television networks, cable TV, newspapers, and radio stations.
It can be said that once the news is true, even if it is not to the point of being blocked by the media, Sony Pictures will definitely become difficult in terms of film distribution in the future.
Moreover, this is not over yet. Not long after the news came out, the major Hollywood brokerage companies have been notified one after another. It is still the day after Sony Pictures acquired the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean". Directors, actors, producers and other main creators, and the major film companies under the Firefly system will no longer cooperate with each other in any form within five years.
This news undoubtedly shocked the entire Hollywood more directly and strongly.
In recent years, the strength of the Firefly system in the film business also means that the Firefly system has the best high-quality opportunities for Hollywood filmmakers.
If because of the cooperation with Sony Pictures, there will be no chance to direct or participate in any Firefly Film Company within the next five years, and the Firefly System will block Sony Pictures in terms of media marketing, it is conceivable , Many promising filmmakers will be silenced because of this.
Therefore, as soon as these two pieces of news came out, the whole of Hollywood was boiling.
For a while, in order to verify the authenticity of these two pieces of news, all the executives of Firefly Group, MGM Group, and Fox Group became the targets of the media's frantic pursuit. The media in North America, Europe and even the Far East are also closely following the development of the situation.
Although no one expected that the Firefly Group would have such a violent reaction because a script was robbed, but not many people dared to personally take the risk of verifying the authenticity of these two pieces of news.
In just a few days, all the film projects of Sony Pictures that were in the preparatory stage came to a standstill, and the directors and actors who were originally looking for announced their withdrawal.
The state of the film that is in the production stage is even worse. Most of the crew from top to bottom, whether it is the director or the actors, hardly have any thoughts on the film. The protagonists of many projects have begun to discuss whether they can still be released from Sony Pictures. Without contract, those insignificant supporting actors have no scruples, looking for various reasons to quit the crew, and they do not hesitate to offer compensation, and also hope to delete the scenes they have already filmed from the film.
Faced with such a bad situation, after a short period of being in the circle, Sony's internal affairs became chaotic for a while.
Howard Stringer, who could hardly believe the facts in front of him, jumped out at the first time, angrily accused the Firefly Group of engaging in unfair and vicious competition, and claimed that Sony Pictures would do whatever it takes to protect the Firefly Group. This monopolistic behavior is litigated.
However, this level of threat naturally has no effect.
Although the firefly group's blocking methods are fierce, it is definitely not an easy task to file a lawsuit because of this. The most obvious loophole is that Firefly Group has never confirmed the authenticity of these two news through official channels.
What's more, if a lawsuit is really filed, such a wrangling lawsuit will last for three to five years, and under the ban of Firefly Group, it may become an unknown whether Sony Pictures will still exist by then.
In the case that Sony's American executives frantically wanted to provoke a war of words but could not get any response, in just one week, Sony RB headquarters finally couldn't sit still anymore.
Because, after Qualcomm announced that it would stop cooperating with Sony in mobile phone production, Firefly Group also stopped negotiating with Sony on the purchase contract of 4,000 sets of 3D projectors, which was another very strong blow to Sony.
The 3D dual-camera projection system developed by RealD, a subsidiary of Firefly, originally planned to purchase the two main projectors from Sony.
Sony's projector equipment, like other electronic products, follows the high-end route, and the high price naturally means that Sony's projectors have a very low market share.
If you can get the order from Firefly Group, based on the total number of movie screens in North America at present, there are only more than 30,000, only 2,000 sets, or 4,000 projectors in North America, can directly increase the market share of Sony projectors by more than 10 percentage points. ,
Moreover, once Firefly Group's '4200' plan succeeds and 3D projection becomes popular, as the main equipment supplier of RealD system, Sony's projector market share will undoubtedly be further improved.
Now, just because Sony Pictures has snatched a script from the Firefly Group, not only has Sony’s layout in the mobile phone industry suffered a huge setback, but Sony’s projector equipment will also miss a great opportunity to turn around, let alone Sony Pictures North America. The mess of the situation, the senior management of Sony headquarters can no longer calm down.
Playa Vista.
In the restaurant on the big ship of Firefly Studios.
Kapoor Sheed ordered a lunch from the waiter, then looked at Eric opposite, and said, "Is it really necessary to make such a big commotion just for a script?"
Eric handed the menu to the beautiful blond waiter beside him, and when he left, he said with a smile: "Are you also entrusted by someone to be a lobbyist?"
Kapoor shook his head and said, "Of course not. I know you must have been annoyed a lot recently. I just take care of my own jobs for the actors in my hands. So, I really can't cooperate with Sony Pictures in the future?"
"Not for now," Eric still said with a smile: "You can't let me down in public, it will be resolved after a while."
"after a while?"
Eric shrugged and said: "It's not good for me to kill Sony Pictures, you know, Firefly Investment just got a lot of cash, if you can spend some quickly, you can pay less A lot of taxes."
Although he had already guessed seven or eight out of ten, Kapoor was still surprised: "Are you going to buy Sony Pictures?"
"It's not Sony Pictures, it's Columbia Pictures."
"Tsk tsk, in this way, you will be able to control four of the Seven Greats," Kapoor shook his head with emotion, and said again: "So, these recent things are all bluffing?"
"Of course not, it's true that Qualcomm stopped cooperating with Sony," Eric said, "If you don't beat Sony first, how can you make the Japanese obediently submit? Stick, speaking of it, Sony and my company really have a lot of cooperation projects.”
Kapoor suddenly realized that he didn't know how to comment, so he said: "Then you'd better be careful, it's best not to lose more than you gain in the end."
"It's definitely not going to happen," Eric shook his head confidently. Take Qualcomm as an example. Both Eric himself and Qualcomm's management team originally hoped that Qualcomm's future would take the path of technology licensing and chip development. . At this time, it is in line with Qualcomm's established development plan to get rid of the cooperation with Sony on terminal mobile phone devices, although it is a bit ahead of schedule. In comparison, this incident is tantamount to a sap for Sony, which wants to enter the mobile phone industry.