Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 622 The signal to let the richest man dove
"Of course not." Facing Tang Huan's gentle but sharp gaze, Edwin Catmull hurriedly said with a smile: "After receiving the news of the acquisition, we are all very optimistic, and we will never have to make animated films in the future." Worrying about resources."

"Don't worry, everyone, I will be a good boss." Tang Huan patted the other party's shoulder with a smile, "I won't stay here for too long, take me around quickly to see what kind of family background I have. You know, I'm paying George Lucas $750 million in one lump sum, and I'm going to have to add an additional sum to run the company."

This is what the title should mean. Edwin Catmull and Elvie Smith had been prepared for a long time, and hurriedly tried their best to donate treasures. Gein's status in the eyes of the boss in the future may depend on today's First impressions made.

The intellectual assets of Lucasfilm's computer department are mainly divided into two categories, one is the PixarImagesComputer on the hardware - the Pixar Image Computer, and the other is the research results at the software level with greater weight.

Edwin Catmull and Elvie Smith try to showcase their side in computer graphics with the special effects they did for Paramount Pictures' 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan uniqueness.

Unexpectedly, Tang Huan's professional level far exceeded their imagination. He not only knew all kinds of technical terms and concepts including "alpha channel", "rendering", "particle effects", and "coloring", but also understood them. Very deep, let alone showing off, this group of people struggled even to respond to the big boss's reverse question, and they were immediately hit hard enough.

After calmly and quietly lecturing the somewhat rebellious new subordinates, Tang Huan began to announce his series of decisions.

"You can't stay at the Lucas Skywalker Ranch in Marin County anymore, prepare to move." Tang Huan murmured and said the first point, "Go to the EA campus in Redwood City, San Francisco Bay. The office environment there , transportation conditions, creative atmosphere, etc. are all very good, and maybe you can also receive some orders such as game animations in a short time. "

Naturally, everyone had no objection to this instruction, and all the belongings were sold to Tang Huan, so it was not easy to stay on George Lucas' territory.Besides, Lucas Skywalker Ranch has nothing else to offer, only one feature, close to nature, very secluded, everyone's life has long since faded away, and they wish to change to a more modern environment.

"The company's future business direction does not include computer hardware." Tang Huan pointed to the Pixar image computer used as a display and said: "It is obviously inferior in terms of performance, programming interface, hardware scalability, and future product upgrades. For Fangyuan Graphics Workstation, it’s time to retire from the army. Let Pixar be the name of the new company, and it’s a commemoration of the previous products.”

Edwin Catmull nodded and said: "That's good, we can concentrate more on animation production. It's just that it will take a while to transfer the entire creation platform to the Fangyuan graphics workstation."

"I still have this patience." Tang Huan agreed casually, while recalling George Lucas' previous reminder that "Edwin Catmull, Elvie Smith and others are not interested in developing computer hardware" , it seems that George Lucas, the former boss, still knows his subordinates very well, and he also saw some clues from it by the way.

As the leaders of the team in front of them, Edwin Catmull and Elvy Smith, two Ph.D.s who are over [-] years old, still have a very high career starting point.

Edwin Catmull served as the director of the Computer Graphics Laboratory of the New York Institute of Technology as early as 1974. This research institution was at the top of the industry at the time; Elvy Smith, who contributed a lot to XeroxPARC, joined the New York Institute of Technology's Computer Graphics Laboratory the following year.

However, with the unsatisfactory application of the research results of the computer graphics laboratory of the New York Institute of Technology, coupled with the vigorous recruitment of important Hollywood figures such as George Lucas, and his own optimism about the prospect of combining computer animation and film, AI Devin Catmull and Elvie Smith left the struggling New York Institute of Technology's Computer Graphics Lab to join Lucasfilm.

Judging from the achievements of Edwin Catmull and Elvie Smith in the professional field over the years, and their attempt to acquire Lucasfilm's computer department to go it alone, they can be described as ambitious in their bones.

It really takes a little skill to appease such a person.

Tang Huan asked his assistant to bring over the documents and handed them over to Edwin Catmull and Elvy Smith, explaining at the same time: "I will hold 80.00% of Pixar's shares, and the rest will be reserved for your management. In addition, I will continue to Investing $750 million to help Pixar, a self-contained company, get off the ground."

Speaking of this, Tang Huan looked around at the crowd, and said slowly: "I only focus on finance and strategy, and you are responsible for the specific daily operations. Maybe you know that I also have a computer special effects and computer program called D2 under my banner. Animation company, I hope you can catch up with its performance."

Tang Huan further emphasized: "I will not limit the freedom of Pixar in terms of business cooperation. You can continue to maintain contacts with companies such as Disney, but major projects must obtain my approval."

Edwin Catmull and Elvie Smith felt their necks tense at the same time, and after looking at each other, they solemnly nodded their heads in agreement.

"Then prepare to move quickly." Tang Huan stood up, "I still have something to do, so I won't stop here any longer. I invite everyone to have dinner another day."

……

As the haze of the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash gradually dissipated, the Japanese elite began to have fun again, and the number of Japanese at the Pebble Beach Golf Course also increased significantly.

Even the Japanese Minister of Finance, Noboru Takeshita, is planning to come to Pebble Beach Golf Course to relax on Sunday, September 9.

Looking at the fax, Tang Huan couldn't stop laughing, making Tang Wenmao and Zhuang Menghua next to him feel creepy.

"Why are you crazy?" Zhuang Menghua asked angrily.

"The chrysanthemums are broken, the ground is wounded, your smile has turned yellow, the flowers are heartbroken, and I lie down quietly with my thoughts." After humming a few words happily, Tang Huan ordered solemnly: "The Japanese Minister of Finance Takeshita Tona But an honored guest, you must prepare for the reception. Inform Masako Wada from Japan and come with her. Also, the Chrysanthemum Project can begin.”

"Look at your excitement, it's weird." Zhuang Menghua, who didn't know why, rolled his eyes and went to get busy.

……

September 9nd is Sunday, and the next day, September 22rd, is a public holiday in Japan - the day of the autumnal equinox, so it is a rare small holiday to get together, and the whole country of Japan is filled with a relaxed atmosphere .

The bigwigs in the political arena are also on vacation, and Noboru Takeshita released the rumor early that he wants to take advantage of the rare vacation to play golf.Therefore, his trip did not attract too much media attention.

However, Takeshita released the pigeon of the richest man. On September 9, he did not go to California on the west coast, but went to New York on the east coast for "temporary business". The news was still pulled all the way to Hotan in New York. Masako passed it on, and at this time Tang Huan and his party had been waiting at the airport for a long time.

Being rejected by someone, the mood is unavoidably depressed, and the subordinates all hugged their boss, "It's really rude for this little Japanese to keep his identity."

Tang Huan was not displeased at all. With a playful smile on his face, he said to Tang Wenmao in a low voice before getting into the car: "It's actually a good thing to let me dove, because it means a signal. Tell my little sister immediately, Chrysanthemum The plan is moving into a second phase."

……

Since the beginning of this year, the "twin deficits" of the U.S. economy -- the foreign trade deficit and the government budget deficit -- have become more and more serious.

The former, in particular, worries the American business community even more.Last year, that is, in 1984, the annual foreign trade deficit was as high as 1600 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 3.6% of Gross National Product—Gross National Product or GNP.

Under such circumstances, established companies felt the most pressure, so they lobbied the Reagan administration to take measures to improve the export competitiveness of US goods, including food exporters, automakers, and companies like Caterpillar. heavy industrial equipment manufacturing companies, and even IBM and Motorola in the high-tech field.

The Reagan administration, which pursues "small government, big market", cannot ignore these voices, and must respond to demands and take corresponding measures. Compared with this, the US-Japan semiconductor negotiations can only be said to be nothing. .

The most effective and most appropriate measure is undoubtedly the depreciation of the dollar.The heavyweights in the American financial circles have made verbal blowouts on various occasions early on to prepare for the depreciation of the dollar, but they just do nothing without thunder and see no substantive concrete actions.

"Wolf is coming" is shouted more times, and the audience becomes numb and unresponsive.

No one would have thought that on an ordinary Sunday, September 9, an extremely important meeting was going on quietly.

U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker, Japanese Finance Minister Akira Takeshita, Federal German Finance Minister Gerhard Stodenberg, French Finance Minister Pierre Bergberg, and British Finance Minister Nigel Lawson, the five The finance ministers of the most developed industrial countries and the governors of the central banks of the five countries gathered at the Plaza Hotel, a luxury hotel next to the Grand Army Plaza at the intersection of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York, USA, to reach an agreement between the governments of the five countries An agreement to intervene in foreign exchange markets to bring the dollar down against major currencies in an orderly manner to address the large U.S. trade deficit.

When the Plaza Accord reached at an incredible speed was announced to the public, people who got the news suddenly realized: what was coming has finally come, but this time has been hidden so deeply by the G5 governments that it is elusive.Japan’s Tibetan Minister Noboru Takeshita did so many tricks to cover up his affairs, and even did not hesitate to let the richest man’s pigeons go to hide his actual itinerary. This shows his good intentions.

It has always been a practice for governments of all countries to choose weekends to announce major news at the policy level.Because this happens to be able to catch up with the closing of the financial market, announcing news at this time can give sensitive markets a sufficient reaction buffer.

The introduction of the Plaza Accord also followed this practice.No matter how much investors talk about the appreciation of the yen and West Deutsche Mark against the dollar, they can't take action, because the global financial markets are currently closed.

Perhaps, only Tang Huan, and a few speculators who were discerning and dared to take risks, caught up with this time difference ahead of time.

It is entirely expected that the exchange rate, which originally fluctuated up and down from 1 dollar to 250 yen, will fluctuate violently after the global trading hours restart.

Undoubtedly, Japanese Minister of Finance Noboru Takeshita was the most watched figure both at the G5 meeting where the Plaza Accord was finalized and at the press conference where the Plaza Accord was announced.

This is determined by the strong position of the Japanese economy at this stage. The media, in addition to the "G5", separately refer to the United States and Japan as "G2", which is the best description and annotation.

When the reporter raised the question "Why does Japan, an export-oriented economy, tolerate the appreciation of the yen", the high-spirited Takeshita Noboshi replied humorously: "Because my name is 'Teng'."

In essence, Nobori Takeshita used the coincidence of the homophony of "deng" and "sheng" in Japanese to express a meaning: now Japan can do more and better in international affairs, and participate in the formulation of international currency exchange rates. in this way.

"Everyone is red-faced, but why does Gerhard Stodenberg, the Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany, have a dark face? Could it be that as the party with the second largest currency appreciation rate, he is dissatisfied that his limelight has been taken away by the Japanese? " Tang Wenmao stared at the picture on the TV and joked.

"Tomorrow is Monday, and the global financial market reopens. It was supposed to be Tokyo's foreign exchange market located in the East Ninth Ward. It was the first to face the Plaza Accord, but the whole of Japan is on holiday, so West Germany became the first market to open. It’s not easy to be the leader, so I guess he’s come to his senses. He thinks he’s fallen into a trap laid by the Japanese beforehand, so he’s not in the mood to be happy.” Tang Huan crossed his legs and analyzed slowly.

"The Japanese are indeed very cunning." Tang Wenmao nodded suddenly.

Zhuang Menghua glanced at Tang Huan, "When it comes to cunning, the Japanese have to be at the back."

"Who told them to let me go." Tang Huan shrugged indifferently.

At this time, Noboru Takeshita in the live broadcast of CNN was about to leave the stage, and avoided the reporter's questions. Gu Youyou said with a smile: "I planned to play golf with my friends, but I missed the appointment, so I have to hurry over Say sorry to your face."

(End of this chapter)