San Francisco, Marriott.
Today is the day when the third-generation Firefly player is released, and the hotel's largest banquet hall is packed with guests and reporters from all sides just like last year.
However, after listening to Firefly Electronics CEO Victor McNairy's new product introduction just now, Larry Ellison, who was sitting next to Eric, clapped his hands rather perfunctorily, and came over indifferently and said : "So, is that all, Eric? Larger capacity, longer battery life, and improved sound quality that consumers can hardly feel intuitively? Seriously, if I were you, I would put the The entire team responsible for new product development was fired."
Eric looked at Christina Aguilera who walked onto the stage to start the halftime performance, and said without turning his head: "If I do this, Sony, Philips, and even Microsoft want to enter the field of digital music players." The company must go crazy. Larry, you don't think so, do you?"
Larry Ellison dissatisfied: "You guy, I'm worried about you. So many manufacturers are going to launch digital music players this year, but your team just came up with a generation of mediocre products with no new ideas. You Do you think Firefly Electronics can still maintain its own advantages?"
"Then give it a try," Eric said with a smile on the corner of his mouth, "Speaking of which, we have prepared a litigation fund of 100 million US dollars, and we are waiting to have a lively lawsuit with everyone."
"I think you guys will be outraged," Larry Ellison grinned, and suddenly realized something. He looked at his watch and found that if it ended like this, the time of this press conference would be too short. So he leaned over again and whispered: "Eric, there is a surprise, right?"
Eric shrugged: "What do you think?"
Speaking of which, the just-released third-generation Firefly player is indeed just another software and hardware upgrade based on the previous two generations, and there is nothing that can make people shine. No wonder Larry Ellison will Disappointed, the other journalists and guests at the scene generally felt this way.
However, this is definitely not because the R&D team of Firefly Electronics lacks innovation.
In fact, since Eric, a powerful boss, is watching at all times, it is impossible for the Firefly Electronics R&D team to slack off even if they want to, and they come up with a lot of new product ideas every year.
If necessary, Firefly Electronics can launch a refreshing full touch screen Firefly player or a more compact button-type Firefly player using flash memory storage media at any time.
However, Eric didn't want to expand the product line of Firefly Electronics too eagerly, and produced a lot of digital music players with different styles and prices, but the basic functions were not much different. Because this will only make consumers have difficulty in choosing, and then instinctively tend to lower-priced styles, which will lower the average selling price and overall profit of Firefly electronic products.
Moreover, Eric and the management of Firefly Electronics agreed that the company's most important task at present is to further improve the surrounding ecological services such as digital music stores and user payment systems related to Firefly players. This is to maintain the Firefly player market. The most powerful 'moat' of advantage.
As long as users can obtain music content far more conveniently than similar products, even if Firefly Electronics is forced to further license related patented technologies of MP3 players under anti-monopoly pressure in the future, it will be difficult for competitors to threaten Firefly Electronics market position.
After Christina's performance, Tina Brown stepped onto the stage, and under the doubtful and expectant eyes of the guests, officially began to introduce the mini music store plan jointly promoted by Firefly Electronics and Yahoo.
When the prototype picture of the mini music store appeared on the big screen at the scene, Tina Brown hadn't even officially started the function introduction, and there was already an obvious commotion at the scene.
After all, most people can easily guess the purpose of this machine just based on its appearance.
Subsequently, when Tina Brown began to demonstrate the full touch-screen operation, many sharp-eyed media reporters had already begun to secretly pass on the news.
Larry Ellison briefly listened to Tina Brown's introduction, and once again brought his rough face closer, with a tentative tone in his tone: "Eric, is the operating system of this machine customized by Microsoft? "
Eric was a little surprised. He didn't expect Larry Ellison to grasp the most critical point in such a short period of time, and said again: "What do you think?"
Larry Ellison confirmed his judgment from Eric's expression, grinned and patted him on the shoulder, then gave him a thumbs up: "Good job."
Eric smiled, and didn't deliberately say a few words to cover up.
It is well known that Larry Ellison and Microsoft do not deal with this matter. Seeing a brand new operating system appearing on the Firefly Electronic Mini Music Store, I naturally thought that Eric was planning to challenge the market position of Microsoft's Windows operating system. How not to be excited.
If the time is pushed back five years, Eric may have this idea, but now, with the release of Windows 98, Microsoft's dominance in the field of PC operating systems has been unshakable, and Eric naturally has no intention of doing it. This kind of attempt that is doomed to fail, his eyes have been fixed on the field of mobile operating system in the future.
Firefly Electronic Mini Music Store brought surprises to this conference far more than the third-generation Firefly player that should have received the most attention and the new-generation M-200 music phone released by Nokia at the same time.
After the press conference was over, Internet media and evening papers began to flood the Internet with news about Firefly’s electronic mini-music store. Some media even made the same guesses as Larry Ellison. Afterwards, many people called Firefly The high-level executives of Electronics and Yahoo made a trial, and even Microsoft couldn't sit still. Da Damen endured it until the next day, and then dialed the phone and tried it round and round.
However, the hot discussion about the mini music store did not make Firefly Electronics and Yahoo executives feel too much excitement.
Eric came to San Francisco from Los Angeles at noon. The press conference started at two o'clock in the afternoon and ended at four o'clock. Most of the reporters and guests who would stay were looking forward to tonight's reception. Eric, Firefly Electronics, Yahoo! As well as Nokia and other company executives had to rush to the headquarters of Firefly Electronics to hold a meeting.
"A large number of shareholders and executives in the Seagram Group are already full of doubts about the cooperation between Universal Music and Firefly Electronics. The company's total debt scale of 12 billion US dollars also makes them have to be cautious about the creditor's appeal. Negotiations with us are also reasonable. Now, Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Records have been ruled out, and we only have the last two choices of EMI and BMG Records."
In the conference room, Eric listened to Bill Olson's introduction of the current situation while flipping through the documents in front of him.
A few days ago, Eric was also surprised to hear that Universal Music refused to continue the licensing negotiations. For this reason, he hurried back to Los Angeles from the East Coast, met with Edgar Bronfman again, and increased the loan amount he promised to the Seagram Group to $1.5 billion. This is the highest increase Eric is willing to give, and Edgar Bronfman's original expectation is probably the same. However, Edgar Bronfman still did not let go.
It is conceivable that the capital forces behind the scenes to obstruct the cooperation between Firefly Electronics and Universal Music have already made full preparations.
Warner Records and Sony Records were excluded at the beginning. Now, without Universal Music, the highest quality potential partner, Firefly Electronics is left with EMI and BMG, two major record companies in Europe.
After Bill Olsen finished speaking, Tina Brown said: "The recession of the record industry is still going on. I think whether it is Universal Music, Warner Music or Sony Records, sooner or later they must consider the transition to digital music players. question."
"The point is, we don't have time to wait for them to take the initiative to transform. The company needs to complete the content layout as soon as possible."
"Perhaps, we can target a larger number of small and medium-sized record companies. Although the strength of the five major records is very strong, the content of these small and medium-sized record companies is also very rich."
"The best singers and records are all in the hands of the five major labels. We have collected a hundred records from small companies, but none of them may be worth the influence of one record of the five major singers."
"The Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls of Firefly Records have already brought enough influence to the digital music store. What we need to do now is to give users more choices in terms of content."
"..."
After the audience discussed for a while, Eric raised his head and asked Bill Olson who was sitting diagonally across the conference table: "Bill, what's the reaction of the two companies in Europe, or, what do you think of these two companies? Is it easier for a family to win?"
Bill Olson said with a wry smile: "EMI and BMG's attitude towards digital music sales authorization is even colder than that of Universal before. Moreover, they should have had contact in private. It is obvious that they have formed an offensive and defensive alliance. We can only fight for them at the same time." Both, or give up at the same time."
There was a sudden silence in the conference room.
After a while, Victor McNairy said: "Eric, in fact, the solution to this matter has always been very simple. The major record companies basically just want to get a share of the digital music player. Therefore, you only need to agree to transfer a part of the shares of Firefly Electronics, and the situation we are facing now will be easily resolved."
Eric twirled the pencil between his fingers, shook his head slightly, and said, "Victor, this is not easy at all."
"Eric, I understand that you have great expectations for Firefly Electronics. We do not lack funds, and our performance growth is also very strong. These are our advantages. But we also have to face up to our disadvantages. We need partners. Moreover, even if you think this company will be worth $100 billion or even $200 billion in the future, we must now act according to the valuation and influence of Firefly Electronics at $30 billion, which is the reality.”
"However, everyone should be clear that the products of Firefly Electronics are definitely not just Firefly players."
Jeff Kleber, the vice president of the company who was transferred from Nokia to be in charge of the Firefly electronics supply chain, raised his hand, attracting everyone's attention, then looked at Eric, and said, "Eric, what do you mean? Does it mean that the Firefly player is actually not the most important thing for Firefly Electronics, I remember you have expressed a similar point of view before."
Eric nodded and said: "Although the Firefly player is almost the entire profit source of Firefly Electronics, it is just like the cassette tape recorder and the MD player that will be eliminated before it is fully promoted. In the next five to ten years, it is likely to be replaced by new portable music playback carriers, such as mobile phones."
"So, Eric, I have a solution," Jeff Kleiber said: "We can spin off the Firefly player business, set up a separate subsidiary, and then use the name of this subsidiary to Seek out the partners we need. In this way, other potential business units of Firefly Electronics will not be disturbed. Even, if it is true that the Firefly player is destined to be eliminated as you said, we can even use this at the highest point The business is sold out, of course, if you are willing to sell."
In the conference room, hearing Jeff Kleber's words, everyone's eyes lit up, and Eric stopped turning his pencil fingers.
In fact, as long as the Firefly player can be quickly promoted, Eric does not mind sharing part of the profits with several major record companies. However, Eric was very resistant to the record company's intention to directly invest in Firefly Electronics.
For him who can clearly see the future, the ARM company owned by Firefly Electronics and several technical teams related to tablets and smartphones are the company's most valuable assets. That said, it's more of a transitional product.
Jeff Kleber's suggestion also gave Eric a feeling of enlightenment.
Separating the Firefly player business separately and establishing a subsidiary company can not only solve the current difficulties faced by Firefly Electronics, but also allow the Firefly player to be listed separately.
After all, although what Henry Paulson said at the Hearst family party had no intentions, one thing is true. The executives and employees who hold the shares of Firefly Electronics all hope that the company can be listed to obtain For a more generous return, this kind of appeal is understandable to anyone.
Slowly drew a circle on the information in front of him with a pencil, Eric thought for a moment, then clicked on the center of the circle with a pen, without any sloppiness, looked up at the crowd, and said decisively: "Then, let's do this , Now, let’s discuss how to implement it.”
The banquet hall of the Marriott Hotel.
It was already nine o'clock in the evening. Although the banquet hall was full of people and looked very lively, there was still an inexplicable atmosphere spreading among the crowd.
Because, until now, as the host, several core executives of Firefly Electronics did not show up, and only a manager of the public relations department of Firefly Electronics came forward to preside over the opening of the reception.
In order to entertain guests from all walks of life, this banquet hosted by Firefly Electronics seemed to be very attentive, with impeccable details in all aspects. The guests did not have much dissatisfaction, but their hearts became more and more curious. They all looked towards the entrance of the banquet hall more than once, expecting the appearance of the senior executives of Firefly Electronics.
Some media reporters who attended the party even hid in a corner and began to contact the outside world, trying to find out what happened.
More than half an hour later, at the entrance of the banquet hall, the figures that everyone had been looking forward to finally appeared, and the guests who couldn't hold back gathered around one after another.
Eric lagged behind everyone for a while before entering the banquet hall. At this time, Victor McNairy and others had already attracted the attention of most people. However, when Eric entered the banquet hall, he was immediately attracted by Larry. Ellison caught: "Eric, tell me what happened, I almost call the police if you don't show up?"