He lived an ordinary life, and Xiao Ran didn't have that kind of luck, so he was busy with this and that all day long. The only good thing is that he has a sharper eye now. He can at least identify more than 90% of what movies are going to be popular and which ones are not.
.
Don't think that a good script and a good behind-the-scenes cast will make it a hit. As long as the director makes a mistake, the film has a high chance of being a flop. The most typical example is Adu's "The Big Event", which originally had a lot of success.
It was hoped to be a realistic action drama, but unfortunately the ending was badly shot, so it went silent.
Xiao Ran's new work hasn't been released yet. It's not that he doesn't want to attend, but that the art theaters can't schedule it. There are always many art dramas, experimental and independent films in Hong Kong every year, and they are basically released in these theaters. How can it be so easy?
Release schedule.
However, don't worry that this guy has nothing to do. Sony finally couldn't restrain its yearning for karaoke, which can form an important part of their electronic entertainment empire. After learning that Xiao Ran was currently staying in Hong Kong to be with his children, Akio Morita decided to
Come to Hong Kong to negotiate with Xiao Ran in person.
Wei Dongling personally went to pick up this old guy who was about to be unable to withstand the internal pressure. The Hong Kong media quickly caught wind of the news and held an interview at the airport. Akio Morita obviously liked to face the media. As Wei Dongling watched coldly, the old guy's attitude towards the media was
Tactful means are still worth learning.
"Mr. Morita, it is rumored that Phantom Group is trying to acquire Columbia from Sony. Are you going to discuss this business when you come to Hong Kong this time?" Asia Weekly's reporter stretched out the microphone and asked.
Akio Morita smiled and mumbled something, and the translator clearly told the reporter: "Actually, you can ask Mr. Wei about this. He is one of the protagonists of the rumor. Asking him can get more detailed information."
Answer!"
Facing the extended microphone, Wei Dongling secretly cursed the old fox, and said with a smile on the surface: "Phantom has indeed considered acquiring Columbia, but there are many companies that Phantom wants to acquire. Obviously, the facts tell us that there are many companies that Phantom wants to acquire.
Things can't be done just by thinking about them, Mr. Morita, what do you think?"
Akio Morita was slightly startled. Seeing that Wei Dongling was young, he thought that this kid could be stumped. Unexpectedly, Wei Dongling cleverly pushed him away and then pointed the arrow at him. Still a reporter from Asia Weekly asked: "Phantom Company has been in recent years.
With so many large-scale acquisitions in the past, will it cause a shortage of funds or expand too quickly?"
Wei Dongling gently shook his finger to indicate that it was incorrect, and then smiled and said: "If you had enough spare money, what would you do with it? I don't think you would choose to put it in the bank. Expansion is too big
Soon this problem will no longer exist, and we will have enough power to integrate our own structure."
"So, Mr. Morita, you came to Hong Kong this time not for Colombia, but why?" Another reporter asked: "Colombia has been losing money in recent years. Hasn't Mr. Morita considered rectification?"
"Mainly here for some cooperation matters..." After being stabbed, Morita's face immediately darkened. If he hadn't been calm enough, he might have exploded immediately.
The next day, Xiao Ran started a difficult negotiation with this old guy. Wei Dongling basically did not participate in the negotiation. Don't think they are stupid. As soon as Morita came, Wei Dongling quietly flew to Japan to discuss the acquisition of Universal with Panasonic.
to create pressure on both sides.
On the spacious balcony of Phantom Company, Akio Morita praised as soon as he stepped on the carpet: "This place is really open-minded. It may be a pleasure to be able to negotiate here!"
"It's just maybe, isn't it?" Xiao Ran said with a meaningful side face to this old guy who was so old that even the Lord of Hell didn't like him. When he came to the negotiation table, Akio Morita was stunned. Because in front of him there was only
A table and two chairs, which means there is no room for others to sit.
"I'm so sorry. You know that Phantom spent a lot of money on the acquisition, and we have to reduce administrative expenses. Please sit down!" Xiao Ran smiled and gestured with his hand, and sat down first.
He was just telling lies with his eyes open. Phantom was so poor that he could cut administrative expenses! Morita Akio glanced at the four awkward negotiation assistants on the left and right, and then glanced behind Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran only brought a smiling female secretary. In desperation,
I have no choice but to suffer this loss secretly.
"Stop talking nonsense, we can start negotiating!" Shengtian felt slightly annoyed at Xiao Ran's deliberate behavior, and spoke simply: "First of all, I want to tell Chairman Xiao, the price of Colombia..."
"Wait..." Xiao Ran took the phone from the new female secretary. An Yuxuan married that guy Ge Wenqiu and is now enjoying life in the United States. The current new female secretary is called Huang Ling. She is tall and has great work ability.
Qiang Xiao Ran nodded apologetically and said a few words to the phone.
Morita Zhaofu was even more angry. Xiao Ran did this on purpose. When he thought of this, he thought it was Xiao Ran's plan to anger him, so he immediately calmed down. But Xiao Ran had never thought about it. He was just giving him a blow.
That's it, this call is from Lin Qingxia, saying that Xiao Ling'er was crying just now.
After comforting his wife, Xiao Ran smiled and said: "I'm sorry, it was my wife who called me just now. You know, being a father is not easy. By the way, you just mentioned the value of Colombia, right?
Ling..."
Huang Ling's smiling expression was very much like that of a strong woman. She took out a piece of information and read it: "In the nearly four years that Sony has been in charge of Colombia, Colombia has lost a total of 2.9 billion US dollars, and currently, the losses are still continuing.
Here! The American Anya company’s offer to Sony is US$3.6 billion, and calculations by top US accountants believe that Sony’s current market value is US$3.2 billion.”
Akio Morita didn't show any surprise at all. If Phantom dared to come to negotiate without even getting this information, he would have gone bankrupt long ago. How could he be qualified to talk about negotiations here? Xiao Ran gently touched his beard with his fingers and smiled.
asked: "Mr. Morita, do you think it is necessary to talk to me about the value of Colombia now?"
"No, this is an incorrect number!" Akio Morita was very angry. Xiao Ran maliciously imagined that if he took this old guy to the edge of the balcony and looked down, would he be frightened to death: "Loss.
The US$2.9 billion belongs to Sony, not Colombia. Moreover, we have not considered Anya’s offer at all!”
Sure enough, he had a trick, Xiao Ran secretly praised, this old guy was very smart not to deny these figures, but started with the details, trying to argue that Columbia is definitely more than that price. He smiled: "Since Mr. Morita said that it was Sony's loss, then
I just remembered, this way, we don’t have to pay for Sony, right? I plan to lower the offer by 200 million US dollars, what do you think?”
The reason why Columbia still has an offer of more than 3 billion after several consecutive years of losses is simply because it is an old company. Old companies always have some advantages over emerging forces, especially in movies. Think about it.
You can see that Gao Mei was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 1980s, but it still managed to survive.
Shengtian was shocked and immediately retorted: "Chairman Xiao, please don't forget that it was you who proposed the acquisition to us. It is you who need Columbia, not me. I think you know this better than me!"
Shengtian's name for Xiao Ran also has a lot of origins. Xiao Ran is currently the chairman of the board of directors of Hutchison Whampoa and Power Company. People who are familiar with him naturally call him Brother Ran or Mr. Xiao regardless of age. In a formal occasion like this, he will naturally call him
Chairman Xiao!
"Really?" Xiao Ran's smile suddenly faded, and a look of indifference appeared on his face: "I heard that Mr. Morita is not having a good time at Sony and is facing the threat of abdicating recently. I think if you don't make some decisions, I'm afraid
…”
As soon as this matter was brought up, Morita became angry. The guys on Sony's board of directors didn't even think about how much money he had made for Sony, and now they wanted to drive him out. However, before Xiao Ran could say anything, his expression changed again, and he looked leisurely and contented.
Crossing his legs: "Also, I heard that Sony's directors have been very dissatisfied with Columbia, a money-losing product, in the past year or two, and hope to send it out as soon as possible!"
Akio Morita's face suddenly changed. In fact, it was not unforeseen that the directors would kick him out. The strategies he had formulated for Sony in the past few years had made certain mistakes, which led to considerable losses in some electronic industries.
And Columbia, a money-loser, became the most convincing evidence for the directors to attack him. Originally, because of his wrong decision-making, Sony suddenly became a note worthy of the American business community. However, it was not because of creation.
What a miracle, but because Sony created the largest Japanese-owned loss case in the United States in Colombia.
Nearly three billion U.S. dollars! With today's companies using money to expand, they can afford to lose three billion U.S. dollars. If Sony hadn't had a strong foundation, it might have been dragged into bankruptcy. Don't mention Sony, even
The Phantom flagship, which places the most emphasis on cash reserves, does not have that much cash.
"Chairman Xiao, you are wrong again. You know what an important position Columbia occupies in Sony's electronic entertainment empire, so its value to Sony is immeasurable." Akio Morita is really very calm and confident, as expected.
A veteran of the shopping mall: "And now the reason why I can sit here and negotiate with you on this is already a huge concession!"
Huang Ling snickered on the sidelines. As a part-time translator, of course she knew what Morita said. She just felt that this old guy was very thick-skinned. He actually dared to talk about the entertainment empire in front of Mr. Xiao. Phantom controlled so many media and TV stations.
And the film industry did not say that they came from some entertainment empire.
Of course Xiao Ran didn't care about the literal meaning. Shengtian wanted to put money on his face and let him do as much as he wanted. He knew very well that Shengtian was determined not to sell Columbia. If it weren't for the pressure from the board of directors, he wouldn't have come to discuss this deal at all.
Buy and sell.
Precisely because Sony has created a lot of money-losing industries under the leadership of CEO Morita in the past two years, if it sells Colombia, it can cash in to solve its financial difficulties, and secondly, it can also get rid of this hot potato. It is definitely a best of both worlds.
Beautiful thing.
But Xiao Ran didn't know what kind of pressure Sony's board of directors put on Morita. If it was enough, then the acquisition would not be a problem, and there would only be a dispute over the price. However, he thought Morita would not give in, otherwise if he was willing to sell, then the board of directors would
There will definitely not be such a rush to force this old guy to step down. Historically, Morita stepped down at the end of this year and was replaced by Nobuyuki Dei.
Therefore, Xiao Ran basically has no hope for this deal. Anyway, Panasonic is already talking about it. If nothing unexpected happens, the acquisition of Universal at the original price of about US$6 billion is basically confirmed. Anyway,
Panasonic felt chilled when he saw his classmate Sony smashing the Columbia so hard.
The only dispute with Panasonic was over karaoke. Panasonic initially wanted to buy Phantom with all the equity in karaoke plus cash, but now it has relaxed a lot. To be honest, Xiao Ran has no intention of letting go of the karaoke equity.
Panasonic, otherwise Sony and Panasonic would join forces to suppress it, and they would be able to gain the say.
"Chairman Xiao, since we can't reach an agreement on Colombia, let's talk about DVD-related technology!" Morita didn't want to talk about Colombia at all. His main purpose of coming this time was to win that damn karaoke OK.
Secretly cursing why this Chinese had applied for and registered a patent all over the world first.
Just when the topic changed, Xiao Ran realized Shengtian's real goal. Although he was slightly disappointed, he still smiled: "Okay, but now I have changed my mind. I want to buy it in cash, even the equity of Karaoke
Got it!"
Shengtian was so angry that he almost wanted to slam the table. The person Wei Dongling sent to negotiate the deal had basically agreed on an equity exchange, but there was still a dispute over the price, so the contract was not signed. But now Xiao Ran actually regretted it.
, isn’t this treating him like a monkey?
We can completely understand why Morita is so angry and faces the risk of attacks and unemployment when he gets old. And now Xiao Ran's retort has left the global strategy he formulated missing an important link. This is completely understandable.
At that moment, Shengtian's face darkened: "Chairman Xiao, we had negotiated before and exchanged 30% of the equity. Why are you regretting it now? Are Chinese people always like this?"