Near four in the morning, the joint press conference between Sony and Samsung was finally over.

The content of the press conference was very simple. Samsung President Lee Jae-yong and Sony President Kenichiro Yoshida jointly announced that Samsung will acquire Sony's mobile phone camera division for US$2.7 billion in cash.

The acquisition includes Sony's camera module factory in Kumamoto Prefecture, the entire mobile phone camera development and design department, and the global use rights of Sony's camera patents.

As for Sony's camera and camera division, it is not included in the acquisition content.

Luo Jia lit a cigarette.

Sony's optical department is a very large organization. In addition to SLR cameras, professional cameras used by major TV stations, as well as image compilation and acquisition equipment, Sony also occupies the world's first market share.

However, these professional fields are not included in this acquisition.

Just for the mobile phone camera, this small component cost a huge amount of US$2.7 billion. Luo Jia easily concluded that Samsung is now crazy.

Sony's mobile camera department is worth at most one billion US dollars, but Samsung is offering a purchase price of about three times. It would be a fool if he doesn't sell it.

After all, in the field of optics, mobile phone cameras are just a small component, such as SLR cameras, cameras, medical imaging systems, astronomical imaging systems, and those are the ones with higher technical content.

What's more, Sony's patent was not sold, it was just given the right to use Samsung, and the intellectual property rights were still in the hands of Sony.

Although Samsung did not make it clear at the press conference, everyone knows that they will definitely cut off supply to Chinese mobile phone manufacturers in the next step.

In terms of business rules, there have been major changes in the company's operators, and all previously signed commercial contracts need to be re-developed.

Moreover, Sony is an absolutely strong supplier in the market, and the contracts signed are extremely flexible.

In this world where the strong prey on the weak, the so-called high penalty is only effective for disadvantaged suppliers.

If you take out a contract with a high penalty, Sony ignores you because they have the skills, and they are not asking for goods to be sold to you, but asking for goods to be supplied by others. You will sign the contract you will be finished, and there is no room for bargaining.

For example, the semiconductor foundry giant TSMC always takes orders from Apple first. After completing Apple's orders, it will be the turn of HiSilicon Kirin under Huawei.

So, every year when the new mobile phone processor is released, Huawei always lags behind Apple. Who should I ask for?

Samsung can completely end its cooperation with the Chinese manufacturer when it only pays a small amount of liquidated damages, but the Chinese manufacturer can only suffer this silence and go abroad to sue, and there is no hope of winning.

After all, in the world of business, it is also the law of the jungle that preys on the weak.

Luo Jia extinguished the cigarette butt and opened the secret database located in Alibaba Cloud.

This database is specifically used to collect information from mobile phone users around the world. After being processed by the encryption technology of extraterrestrial civilizations, no one except Luo Jia has the ability to access data.

Gradually, Luo Jia smiled and there were 120 top-level cloud servers, containing first-hand big data that was more precious than gold, and was one of Luo Jia's aces.

In addition to industrial design, mobile phone cameras are more important than software and algorithms.

Apple's main camera has only 24 megapixels, and Huawei's IMX600 has 40 megapixels. The gap between the two sides is huge, but when it comes to the DXO scoring stage, it is only a four-point difference.

Why?

It’s not because Apple has more experience in software tuning and can tap into greater potential for hardware.

Optics is a very magical technology. The reason why Huawei spent a lot of money asking German Leica to train their cameras is because Leica, as the overlord of the camera field for many years, has much experience in optical operations than Huawei.

Now, Luo Jia has installed mobile assistant software on more than 1.8 billion mobile phones around the world, and has quietly collected enviable and enviable massive data. This is the first-hand information that other companies can't buy no matter how much they spend.

In this era, any mobile phone manufacturer should boast about AI assistive technology when talking about cameras.

Luo Jia has the performance of the primary artificial intelligence of extra-star civilization, which is undoubtedly far greater than all opponents.

As for industrial design and manufacturing links, Luo Jia has the primary optical sensing technology of extra-star civilization and has intelligent robotic arms that can be accurately manufactured.

With its advantages in hardware and software, as well as big data and artificial intelligence, Luo Jia may be able to take this opportunity to forcibly enter the field of optics and grab a large piece of meat from the mouths of international giants.

Of course, the difficulty is still very high.

Ladies always think that the small parts of the mobile phone camera are a whole.

Actually, it's not the case at all.

A small mobile phone camera module has extremely complex interiors and is divided into seven parts.

Protective film, lens group, focus motor, infrared filter, image sensor, main control chip, line connection substrate, and seven major components are indispensable. They must reach an extremely precise level in order to finally present a perfect image.

The most important component is undoubtedly the image sensor.

Currently, there are three main players in image sensors worldwide, Sony, Samsung, and the United States Howe Technology.

It is worth mentioning that Howe Technology has actually been quietly acquired by my country Weier Co., Ltd. and has become a genuine domestic company.

In the process of technology transfer and acquisition, our country has been working hard, but because these things are very far away from the lives of ordinary people, most people don’t know them.

The reason why the trade war and global encirclement were established is largely because our country is really strong in the technology field. As long as you are willing to sell, I will buy everything. This momentum full-industry chain offensive is quite scary.

For low-end products, no matter what the high-end products on the market, whether they are made by Ofilm or Sunny Optical, if they are separated, most of them are Sony's image sensors.

So the big moves made by Samsung this time have caused a terrifying wave. They were originally the second largest player in image sensors, but now they have acquired Sony, the largest player, which is equivalent to monopolizing the sensor market.

Once they stop supplying, all domestic mid-to-high-end camera modules will be discontinued.

As for the third largest player in sensors, Howie Technology, they are relatively small in size and their technology is a little worse than Samsung and Sony. It is completely impossible for them to supply large quantities in a short period of time.

Luo Jia, who had not smoked at first, was smoking one after another, and his brain was running at an astonishing speed.

The crisis in the eyes of most people is actually an opportunity.

Samsung's supply cut this time has given up a large market share. The key is who can stand up as soon as possible to fill this huge gap.

As the sky gradually became brighter, Luo Jia picked up the phone, called Li Moran, and explained to him the company's decision to enter the field of optics.

On the other end of the phone, Li Moran must have just fallen asleep. When he heard Luo Jia's words in a daze, he was immediately startled and entered the field of optical that he was completely unfamiliar with? Is this too risky?

"At a risk, technology is not a problem, time is the real thing." Luo Jiaxin said that he mastered the technology of extra-star civilization, so he was naturally very confident.

The phone calls came one by one, Li Moran was responsible for presiding over software research and development, Luo Jia was responsible for producing the architecture, writing core modules, and other programmers in the company completed auxiliary work.

The hardware is led by Enron, a double-level doctor who graduated from MIT, and Luo Jia is responsible for the main design, while Enron is responsible for leading the hardware team to improve it.

Sha Zhan and Gu Pengdong were responsible for contacting major universities and urgently recruiting an optical team to come over and handing it over to Anran to manage it, responsible for sensor design. Then Luo Jia made some changes based on the original design, including material applications, imaging analysis, algorithms, etc.

Anyway, the momentum must be great. At that time, it will be said that it is the credit for teamwork. Don’t let all the halos be occupied by Luo Jia himself.

Finally, Luo Jia called Hong Tao.

Hong Tao is from Beijing, and he is full of Beijing movies and is very casual. His social skills are the best among the many science and engineering otakus in the company. He is the most suitable for dealing with the outside world.

Luo Jia found out online that a few days ago, there was a mobile phone module factory located in Wuxi Industrial Park called Yingtai Optics, who was preparing to go bankrupt because he was unable to make ends meet.

Thousands of workers were unemployed and were sitting quietly outside the factory for wages. The labor department and local governments were negotiating with the manufacturers to get their wages owed to workers.

Even though he couldn't even pay his salary, the person in charge of Yingtai Optics should be very anxious. The Luo family asked Hong Tao to talk about it and purchased the factory at a low price as the company's production base.

After the task was arranged, Luo Jia drove to the Wuxi Electronics Market and bought a whole truckload of raw materials and parts. In addition, he also purchased twenty latest models of Huawei MATE series mobile phones.

Then he closed the door and went into the workshop to conduct research.

Almost all the parts in the camera module can be purchased from the market, but Luo Jia needs to make the sensor himself.

The reason why Yingtai Optics went bankrupt is because the sensors are so poor, but their production lines are ready-made. At that time, they can replace them with high-precision robotic arms, and then redesign and raw material improvements, which can greatly improve the sensor performance.

While studying the camera module, Luo Jia also always connects with the company in Shanghai to promote the work of the design department. The key technologies are all in Luo Jia's mind, and it won't work without him.

After three days and nights of tossing, the first batch of camera modules of Xingchen Company were finally released. Each 40 megapixel sensor was created by robots using their dexterous hand-made.
Chapter completed!