America's Road to Fame

Chapter 458 Zero Intelligence
The conversation with Kazuo Hirai involved not only the Sony robotics team and the industrial robot automation factory that William Chen was interested in, but also a huge cooperation plan between the two groups.

Therefore, this meeting will not be completed in a day or two. First, after Sony puts forward a proposal for cooperation, Chen William will give his intention, and then the assistant team will contact the involved companies After listening to the analysis opinions, William Chen finally had a definitive meeting with Kazuo Hirai of Sony Corporation.

This process lasted for a full week, and finally the two parties reached a basic cooperation intention. The rest of the specific cooperation agreement will be handed over to the following people for refinement and improvement, and finally a formal agreement will be formed.

Kazuo Hirai’s first request to William Chen was that he hoped that his entertainment content, including streaming media and music platforms, would be added to Sony’s entertainment platform, allowing users to use PS game consoles, Sony mobile phones and other devices to play in the entertainment industry. Watch and listen to those audiovisual content on their Sony Entertainment platform.

Judging from what Sony has done, their goal is very similar to that of Apple, which is to complete the entire entertainment platform through device terminals, and provide users with various content on this platform.

The only difference is that Apple has built this platform with mobile phone products as its main products, supplemented by tablets and other devices.

At present, in terms of mobile phones, Sony is definitely not comparable to Apple. What they hope to make a breakthrough is the current PS3 console and the PS4 console that will be launched next year.

But what you need to know is that mobile phones are a necessity for everyone now, but game consoles are not. Everyone needs to buy a mobile phone, but not necessarily a PS game console.

This is why Sony wants to buy back the 50% stake in Ericsson in Sony Ericsson and continue to make efforts in mobile phones.

In fact, if we talk about building such a platform, Sony initially had an advantage over Apple. Before the launch of the iPhone, Sony was a giant in the field of consumer electronics. In terms of music, their players are world-renowned, game consoles, Mobile phones, televisions, etc. are their traditional strengths.

Moreover, they also had powerful entertainment content. Sony Music was one of the four major record companies at that time, and Sony Pictures was also one of the six major Hollywood companies. In terms of games, PS game consoles also had an advantage, and there were countless excellent game companies on it. Create content.

But why didn't they complete the success of such a content platform before Apple?
The main reason is that Sony has too many businesses, so it is very difficult to implement and has too many concerns.

The most important thing about a content platform is openness, but Sony’s platform needs to consider their content production business. Users are not allowed to download other content through the Internet on their platform at will, because possible piracy needs to be considered. The damage to their content business such as music, film and television, and games.

Therefore, on their platform, it is necessary to deliberately increase restrictions on downloading other content, which leads to dissatisfaction among users, so they naturally choose a more open platform, which is the main reason why they cannot compete with Apple.

It is precisely because of this that William Chen is not very optimistic about Sony's "consumer electronics + entertainment" strategy.

But even though he thought so, he did not refuse, but agreed to the invitation of his streaming media and music platform to join Sony Entertainment Platform. Anyway, this agreement is not exclusive, it is nothing more than an additional channel.

As for the robots and automated factories that William Chen is interested in, they signed a contract with Sony for a total of 10 billion US dollars.

This includes the overall purchase of Sony's robot team and all research results and materials.

In addition, Sony is in charge of building a fully automatic engineering robot factory in Atlanta for him to make robots.

This project includes not only the equipment and design of the entire factory, but also the complete set of technologies involved.

William Chen will establish "Zero Intelligence" on the basis of the former Sony Robotics Team, which is dedicated to the development and manufacture of various robotic products.

Zero Intelligence will be invested by multiple parties. Among them, Siri will join the company with the research results of its artificial intelligence laboratory and some researchers, holding a 30% stake in Zero Intelligence; the Atlanta Fund will help establish the R&D center in Atlanta Island and the manufacturing plant, holding a 10% stake.

Southern Cross Holdings bought Sony's technical team, materials, and manufacturing plant technology and equipment for US$10 billion, holding 50% of the shares; South Pacific Industrial Investment Corporation will invest US$2 million in cash and hold 10% of the shares.

Next, Zero Intelligence will retain a research and development laboratory in Tokyo to absorb the information obtained from Sony, and then the research and development center established in Atlanta Island will begin to design new products that combine Siri's artificial intelligence research results.

……

While William Chen reached an agreement with Sony, Paris' team also completed negotiations with Shiseido.

On April 4, according to news from the United States, Leonard Lauder, chairman of the Estee Lauder Companies, officially rejected the acquisition of HC Fashion Group on behalf of the Lauder family.

They said that the Lauder family will continue to operate the Estee Lauder Company according to the established strategy and will not accept any external acquisitions. The current operating conditions of the Estee Lauder Company are very good, and it is expected that this year's turnover will increase by at least 25% compared with last year.

After the news came out, shares of Estee Lauder Companies rose 3.5% that day.

However, only the next day, HC Fashion Group and Japan's Shiseido jointly announced that HC Fashion Group and its subsidiary AT Skin Care will jointly acquire Shiseido.

Among them, AT skin care company will acquire Shiseido's personal skin care business at a price of 25 billion US dollars, including Clé de Peau Beauté (the key to skin), a hall-level brand under Shiseido, and Shiseido's 2010 billion investment on January 1, 16. Brands such as Bare Escentuals, an American natural mineral cosmetics company, acquired in US dollars in cash.

Later, Shiseido's personal skin care business will be renamed AT Shiseido and become a subsidiary company of AT Skin Care Company. Some skin care products will add the essence of "Vitality Ball", and the AT logo will be used as a distinction in the product packaging. Fills the mid-market.

HC Fashion Group, on the other hand, acquired 50% of Shiseido's remaining cosmetics and hairdressing businesses at a price of US$80 billion, becoming Shiseido's holding parent company.

From then on, the Shiseido brand will become a brand of HC Fashion Group, like brands such as Paris Hilton and Hermes.

After the news came out, the stock price of Shiseido Company rose by more than 15% that day, while the share price of Estee Lauder Company, which had risen yesterday, fell by more than 10% in response...

(End of this chapter)