Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 798 The Giant Negotiation That Shakes the Industry

Of course, Tang Huan has never forgotten his original intention of looking for opportunities to promote Chinese-language films.For example, the representative Hollywood work arranged for another Kung Fu movie star Li Lianjie is already ready.

The richest man who took the time to meet with the other side asked while browsing the documents, "Is "Swordsman II Undefeated in the East" finished?"

"Before I came to the United States, I reshot the last few scenes. It should be released as scheduled during the Lunar New Year." Although Tang Huan lowered his head, Li Lianjie still stood straight when he answered - a multi-tasking boss like this He has long been familiar with his work style. Even if his eyes don't fall on you, it doesn't mean he doesn't pay attention to you.

Tang Huan raised his head and chuckled lightly.He remembered that in "Swordsman II The Unbeaten East", in addition to Li Lianjie and Lin Qingxia playing Linghu Chong and Dongfang Unbeaten respectively, Rosamund Kwan and Li Jiaxin also played Ren Yingying and Yue Lingshan respectively - this big couple The beauties have played a lot of tricks in order to compete for favor in the backyard.

Of course, Li Lianjie didn't know the true meaning of the big boss's smile. He said firmly, "According to your instructions, I have adjusted the schedule."

"Then we can start working." Tang Huan nodded slightly.

The Hollywood masterpiece that Mr. Richest "grafted" Cheng Long was "Die Hard", and the Hollywood masterpiece that "grafted" Jet Li was "The Bourne".

This work is based on the novel of the same name published by the famous American thriller writer Robert Ludlum in 1980.Unlike the TV series of the same name that was launched in 1988, Tang Huan, who holds the right to adapt, has not done anything other than making corresponding adjustments for Li Lianjie, and only recently started filming and operation.

In Tang Huan's view, in the original time and space, "The Bourne Shadow" was not put on the big screen until 911 after "2002". Luckily; but now that it is on the big screen, it still has timeliness, and action scenes are Li Lianjie's strong point.

Anyway, Mr. Richest has blocked Universal Pictures not once or twice, but this time he worked even harder.As for whether the movie can be equally successful in the end, it doesn't matter, he has enough capital to squander.

After chatting for about 15 minutes, Li Lianjie stood up to say goodbye and left Tang Huan's office. He happened to see a beautiful blond girl talking to his secretary.He knew the other person, especially Julia Roberts, who had become rapidly popular in Hollywood in the past two years.

Being able to talk alone with the big boss for such a long time is not the usual preferential treatment. Li Lianjie wanted to go back to digest what he got, so he naturally didn't have the heart to explore the gossip, so he walked away quickly.

……

Smelling the aroma brought by Julia Roberts, the richest man asked without raising his head, "Now it's so convenient to take the California High Speed ​​Rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco. You don't seem to want to come?"

Julia Roberts' breathing became obviously heavy, and it took a long time before she seemed to muster up the courage to answer: "I feel like a 'bitch', so I don't want to Go on."

"So, you feel that I don't respect you, and you think your personality has been insulted?" The richest man finally raised his head, with a half-smile expression on his face.

Julia Roberts did not answer directly, but lowered her head, apparently acquiescing.

"Did you get too involved in filming, and you haven't come out emotionally yet?" Tang Huan asked gently with a gesture.

Julia Roberts' star fortune is not so good at the moment. Following last year's box office hit "Pretty Moon", this year's starring role in "Sleeping_with_the_Enemy" -- "Sleeping with the Enemy" has once again achieved commercial success -- —A filming budget of $1900 million, the box office reached 1 million U.S. dollars; another movie she participated in, directed by Spielberg (Hook)-"Captain Hook" is about to be released, and the success is also worth it expect.

Tang Huan's inquiry refers to the "Sleeping with the Enemy" starring Julia Roberts.In this movie, she plays a wife who escapes her husband's domestic violence and looks for a new life.

"No. I've been thinking about this idea for a long time." Julia Roberts shook her head and refused the steps offered by Mr. Richest Man.

Tang Huan opened the drawer, took out a mirror and looked at himself - in the mirror, he was still handsome, talented, wealthy, and gentle, and Pan Lu and Deng Xiaoxian were not good enough in the last one.

Putting the mirror back, the richest man waved his hand and said calmly: "How could I disrespect a lady? Since you feel uncomfortable, you are free to leave now and recover properly."

"Thank you for being considerate of my feelings." Julia Roberts, who was obviously relieved, had an unusual personality. After saying this, she left without hesitation.

"Interesting!" The richest man shook his head to himself, picked up the documents on the table, and continued to read.

……

Entering November, the news that the IT industry is most concerned about is, of course, the COMDEX Las Vegas Autumn Exhibition, which all companies must do their best to "present their treasures", not to mention that it has just changed its owner unexpectedly.

Since last year became known as the first year of the World Wide Web, the entire computer industry seems to be immersed in an atmosphere of tension that is building up for something.

No matter the size or the length of history, every company is making a deliberate layout and pinching each other tit for tat.

For example, in the software field, companies such as Zheru, Microsoft, Novell, Borland, Lotus, Oracle, etc. are engaged in fierce competition with complex and tangled relationships in operating systems, programming tools, office software, and databases; In the field, IBM-PC compatible machines completely replaced IBM-PS/2 and became the main competitor of Fangyuan personal computer; in the field of workstation servers, new and old players such as Fangyuan, IBM, DEC, SUN, etc., each showed their strengths, and the fierce battle was in full swing. .

In this dizzying situation, people of insight have already sensed that a new opportunity to formulate the rules of the game is beckoning ahead—if anyone can seize the decisive opportunity in the development of the Internet, then Will become the next Apple, Zheru, Fangyuan, Microsoft...

But what everyone doesn't know is that in Las Vegas, where COMDEX is about to open, two giants are engaged in a secret negotiation that is considered sensational in the industry - they are Tang Huan and IBM.

Seeing that John Akers also drove out his administrative assistant Peng Mingsheng according to his own suggestion, Tang Huan joked: "I heard that this is a rising star in IBM, and every month There was an opportunity to have lunch with Thomas Watson, Jr., the former chairman of IBM's board of directors."

"Tang's news is too well-informed. He knows so much about IBM's intelligence." John Akers, who did not deny it, had a hint of irony in his tone.

The current chairman and CEO of IBM is obviously not in a good mood, at least not as relaxed and calm as Tang Huan.

The reason is simple to say. IBM has been "backing" these years, and its stock price has fallen so much that it has withdrawn from the ranks of the top ten companies with the highest market capitalization this year. The forces headed by Frank Cary and John Opel, the two chairman and CEO of IBM, are trying to oust him; Palmisano was transferred to the position of executive assistant to IBM's chairman and CEO the year before last There is inevitably a suspicion that the company's veterans have placed eyeliner.

So here comes the question, is John Akers a mediocre eater in office?

Of course not. How could he be a mediocre and incompetent person who can climb all the way to the position of chairman and CEO of IBM? It’s just that for IBM, which has accumulated malpractices for many years, it has a different angle of approach to solving problems. Before, no one could guarantee that they were absolutely correct.

Compared with Wall Street and the opposition forces of the board of directors who are closely staring at IBM's profits, John Akers put the breakthrough point on how to streamline the bloated organization within the company, combat bureaucracy, and improve work efficiency.

This "big enterprise disease" of IBM can be vividly described by a widely circulated joke, that is, it often takes several months for a box to be moved from the first floor to the second floor.Because it has to go through a step-by-step process, report and concentrate from bottom to top, and then issue instructions to the moving company from top to bottom, and this specific unit that does the hard work may have expired—the matter of moving boxes , to wait step by step!
This rigid system, John Akers wants to reform, is not so easy.

In the era of mainframes, Big Blue's monopoly on the industry reached the point of causing a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice, but the outcome was different from the dismantled AT&T Company. IBM finally compromised in exchange for a settlement.

In all fairness, in the personal computer standard war that ran through almost the entire 1980s, IBM's step-by-step retreat was not unrelated to the lingering fears caused by it.

Of course, this monopoly on the industry has naturally brought a steady stream of huge profits to Big Blue. In turn, employee salaries and benefits are extremely superior, making IBM the best employer that everyone aspires to. The "lifetime employment system" also It has almost become a customary practice.

A major achievement of John Akers' work is to break this "lifetime employment system".By the end of this year, IBM will cut its workforce from 40 to 7000.

There is no doubt that this move has greatly damaged the morale of IBM, which was already in trouble, but in fact, layoffs will happen sooner or later, but it is John Akers' turn to bear the blame.

In this case, let alone the embarrassment of John Akers' situation. There is pressure from the "Senate" on the top to replace him, and there are voices of doubt from the employees below.

The reason why John Akers is still sitting in the position of chairman of the board of directors and CEO of IBM until now is that this old man has a stubborn temper, insists that he has no fault, and refuses to take the initiative to resign, but he is justifiably Obtaining this position is like impeaching the president. Evicting someone from office also needs to go through procedures. What's more, the ensuing problems are also very difficult. Who will replace John Akers?You know, John Akers is already an elite representative cultivated by IBM itself, and no one is available to IBM veterans and Wall Street.

As if he didn't see John Akers' displeasure, Tang Huan continued to show off: "Of course I have a lot of 'respect' for IBM. For example, I also learned that your three-year plan to reorganize the company and improve its operations will expire this year. gone."

John Akers waved his hand impatiently, "Don, it's quiet now, let's go straight to the topic of this meeting, okay?"

"As you wish." Tang Huan nodded, "Just like what I said before, I want to reach a complete settlement of the long-standing patent dispute with IBM."

In the United States, companies apply for patents for two purposes—defense and offense.

In the former, after a company invents something, in order to prevent other individuals and companies from making unreasonable demands in the future, it protects itself by applying for a patent to avoid infringement by the defendant.

This purpose is the easiest for people to think of, and it is also the simplest and purest one.

The latter is not that simple - a company applies for some patents that may be useful in the future, but may not be used by itself, so as to find opportunities to prevent others from infringing, which is the so-called offensive purpose.

Among the many patents owned by IBM, a large part belongs to the offensive category.It also maintains a sizable team of intellectual property lawyers to sue companies that may infringe its patents.

It can be said that this is a very profitable business, and IBM can use it to earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Obviously, in the industry, whoever emerges the fastest is the one who has the most disputes with Big Blue in the field of patents.And time is the fairest. IBM, a veteran company, has an objective first-mover advantage that cannot be ignored.

In Tang Huan's view, the current conflicts between the two parties have accumulated to the point where they must be completely settled. After all, his energy will be mainly focused on the Internet in the future, and he really has no time to argue with IBM anymore.

John Akers snorted, "Don, I can understand that you are taking advantage of others' danger? IBM is not weak enough for you to rob!"

"Of course the transaction needs to be fair." Tang Huan shrugged. "IBM can use this decent step to give up the IBM-PS/2 personal computer business that has been losing money for years, and instead manufacture Fangyuan personal computer compatibles."

(End of this chapter)