Rebirth of the Tech Madman

Corina Menzelpoulos received an even bigger surprise later on with her attentive attitude. Among the business guests she allowed Tang Huan to entertain, one made her secretly call her generosity worthwhile. ⊙Four ⊙Five ⊙Chinese ⊙The fastest update in Chinese

In fact, Tang Huan called people from Sony and Philips together mainly for this technology.

As for inviting Fritz Philips, the fourth-generation president of Philips, it was just a test. I didn't expect the other party to come from afar despite his 76-year-old age.

The Philips family has a long history as early as the last century. Karl Marx's mother was the aunt of Fritz Philips' grandfather. After Marx was exiled to London, England, his life was difficult, and he often borrowed money from the family's banker relatives to make ends meet.

Fritz Philips' uncle Herald Philips and grandfather Frederick Philips founded Philips in 1891, and Herald Philips became the first president.

Fritz Philips' father Anton Philips joined Philips in 1912, played an important role in its growth, and became the second president from 1922 to 1939.

After graduating from university, Fritz Philips joined Philips and was appointed vice president and member of the board of directors of Philips in 1935.

In 1940, Anton Philips fled to the United States with some of his business capital after knowing for certain that the Nazis would occupy the Netherlands.

At that time, Philips had transferred important production equipment, and the company's top management and other family members had also withdrawn from the Netherlands, while Fritz Philips made the opposite choice and stayed in the Netherlands with more than 10,000 employees of Philips. .

Through the efforts of Fritz Philips, Philips survived the war.

And during the Nazi occupation, he succeeded in convincing the Germans that more than 300 Jews at work were necessary for production. Thus saving their lives.

Due to the workers' strike in 1943,

Fritz Philips was imprisoned in the Fecht concentration camp.

It can be said that Fritz Philips is a very legendary figure, when Tang Huan saw him. Don't mention the curiosity in your heart. After all, it is impossible to record all history in words, and the person concerned is the first information carrier.

For a long time, Philips has been under the control of the Philips family, and Fritz Philips' brother-in-law is the third president. He himself is the fourth president, and the fifth president is Fritz Philips' brother-in-law.

This practice did not begin to change until 1977, when Nico Rodenberg, who accompanied Fritz Philips, took office.

However, the first president from outside the Philips family did not perform well during his tenure. The home appliance industry, such as video recorders, has always been at a disadvantage in the competition with Japanese companies such as Sony.

Wise Decker, another Philips executive who was present, has a very rich resume. Developed business for Philips in the Far East for many years, and returned to the Netherlands to join the board of directors until 1979.

There was an inexplicable smile in Tang Huan's eyes, and he thought that Philips' arrangement, whether it was intentional or unintentional, allowed Nico Rodenberg and Wise Decker to appear together.

You know, according to historical development, the latter will take over the former's position as president next year, and clean up the mess that was wiped out by Japanese companies.

The presence of such a heavyweight as Fritz Philips can definitely be regarded as a veteran team, and immediately suppressed the momentum of Sony's Akio Morita and Norio Ohga.

at the time of invitation. Tang Huan has already explained that the meeting at Château Margaux this time is relatively casual, and everyone doesn't need to be so tightly tied up. Just treat it as my hospitality for you to come and relax.

Therefore, including the Japanese who always insisted on attending official events in formal attire, everyone dressed casually and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Château Margaux while chatting and laughing.

Such a poetic and picturesque arrangement really made the group of business elites, who are always in the eyes of money, very happy, with their eyes, accents, and steps. All became soft and soothing.

In addition to the various wonderful introductions by the manager of the winery, everyone listened with great interest and nodded frequently to express their admiration.

As one of the top five wineries in France, the background of Château Margaux cannot be explained clearly in a few words.

For example, the general manager of the winery, the director of winemaking, etc., all have doctorate degrees, and their professional standards have been recognized on the spot by Tang Huan and other well-informed celebrities.

After cultivating sentiments, Tang Huan, the convener, finally started to talk about the topic, which made both Philips and Sony tense up from the slack just now.

Tang Huan's speed of accumulating wealth proved the precision of his vision.

Now, Tang Huan has taken a fancy to the CD technology jointly developed by the two companies. Philips and Sony are not only delighted by its potential value, but also worried that their original technology will serve as a wedding dress for others.

Driven by such complex emotions, the high-level executives of the two sides attached so much importance to this meeting. The heavyweights worked tirelessly and eagerly went to a small place like Château Margaux to be arty.

In fact, the technology research and development of CD began as early as 1974. The original purpose was to provide a solution for storing digital signals in addition to traditional compact discs that store analog signals. Naming, you can see this application positioning.

Originally, Sony and Philips had made progress in this field, chasing after each other, it was very lively, but the past never forgets the future, and the fierce videotape format war left both sides with lingering fears, thinking that the two companies would merge. Let's hold this field together

Therefore, they joined together in 1979 and jointly established a project team to promote the research and development of technology.

Among them, Philips is the leader, while Sony is led by Toshitada Doi.

Finally in June 1980, the first version of the CD-DA related specifications. Developed and published by Philips.

Because the cover of this specification document is red, it is commonly known as the Red Book.

Its content is very detailed, such as the length of playing time, Philips gave up its original idea of ​​60 minutes. Hearing the opinion of Sony Ohga Norio that the opera cannot be interrupted in the middle of the act, and it needs to be included in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. If it is not a medium acceptable to users, it will be meaningless. According to the longest known performance The 74-minute version conducted by Ford Wangler in 1951. Defined as 74 minutes and 42 seconds.

This standard is not free, users must have a license issued by Philips, and each related order costs $5,000.

The next job for Sony and Philips is to produce a full-fledged commercial CD player, which is naturally difficult for both parties.

And Philips also has a world record company like Polygram under its name. It is completely foreseeable that a new cash cow will grow up.

According to the plan, next year, that is, in 1982, the CD player, and the accompanying music album. It is about to be fully launched to the market.

But now Tang Huan suddenly jumped out and said that I have new ideas in this field, and I definitely don't just sit and enjoy the benefits of picking peaches. Let's sit down and talk about it in detail, how about adding me to play together?

In this regard, Sony and Philips are inevitably a little depressed. You, an upstart like you, want to join in the fun. You really think that personal computers and video game consoles are omnipotent.

Although there was some disdain in their hearts, the two companies did not dare to neglect because of the annual sales of Zheru, Fangyuan Computer, and ea, the three major Silicon Valley companies under Tang Huan's name. Like myself, they are all calculated in units of 100 million U.S. dollars, and they are in the limelight, completely showing the posture of a newborn calf not afraid of tigers.

Compared with Sony, who knows Tang Huan's strength better. Philips can personally experience the kingly spirit from Fangyuan Computer’s style of conquering cities and territories in Western European countries. For example, its own companies are willing to purchase Fangyuan computers on a large scale for office use.

This trend is unstoppable, if you don't follow up. Other peers who use this system will have the advantage of informatization.

Due to the fierce competition from Japan and the United States, Philips has been trying to deal with those departments and subsidiaries that have no hope of turning losses in recent years, so as to control costs, but it did not expect that now there are more procurement costs for Fangyuan Computer and Zheru software.

Everyone said that this system was worth the money, and Philips also found the benefits, so the value of Tang Huan naturally increased in a straight line.

Philips, who is not familiar with Tang Huan, has the same positive attitude as Sony. Apart from recognizing Tang Huan's strength, he is also worried about Sony's unilateral defection. Be very vigilant.

Fritz Philips has always been paying attention to the situation of European companies losing ground in the face of competition from the United States and Japan. When they received the invitation from Tang Huan, a Silicon Valley gold digger who has recently been called the wind and rain, he agreed without hesitation. I came here to see what kind of rookie in the industry has appeared.

As a result, Fritz Philips' first impression of Tang Huan was that this young man was not as superficial as the nouveau riche described by some media, and he had excellent communication skills.

For example, during the chat, Tang Huan mentioned football and scratched Fritz Philips' itchy spot.

You know, in the original time and space, when Fritz Philips lived to be a hundred years old, he still went to watch the home game of his PSV Eindhoven football club.

Tang Huan was very accurate in terms of what he liked, and the two even discussed to find a time for Chelsea to play a friendly match with PSV Eindhoven Football Club.

Fritz Philips also noticed the intimacy between Tang Huan and Norio Ohga when they talked about music.

Obviously, these off-the-job efforts are all preparations for the upcoming negotiations.

Fritz Philips was not very surprised by this kind of long-sleeved dancing and exquisite skills. At the age of 35, when he chose to stay in the Netherlands and deal with the Nazis in Germany in order to preserve the foundation of Philips, he also relied on similar social survival skills. .

Fritz Philips secretly lamented that it was a worthwhile trip to see this controversial figure with such titles as a genius, an upstart, and a marketing master who did not hesitate to go into battle in order to advertise himself.

In 1963, Philips launched the cassette tape, which was a huge success. Later, this tape was used in the telephone answering machine, and the mass storage device of the personal computer in the 1970s, which was a remarkable innovation.

Hearing Tang Huan's praise, Fritz Philips nodded and smiled. The time when the cassette tape came out happened to be during his tenure as president.

Sony's success in videotape is also to maximize the storage capacity of this carrier.

Akio Morita bowed slightly to indicate that he would naturally do his part for Sony's success.

Tang Huan drank the red wine in the crystal glass, then shook it, Just like this glass can hold all kinds of wine, tapes can record music, video, and computer data in an analog way, and provide digital records. Naturally, the CD can do this too. I am interested in these applications, and I want to use the existing architecture with Philips and Sony to jointly promote these standards.

The faces of the Dutch and Japanese present showed sudden expressions. It turned out that this billionaire had this idea.

Akio Morita smiled slightly, Don, may I ask, why are you so keen on CDs?

Because CDs are digital, the computer can directly read and write operations. Tang Huan slid his finger on the wine glass to cooperate with the explanation, Traditional tapes can only be operated sequentially, while CDs provide random read and write. ability.

Read and write? Nico Rodenberg questioned, Did I hear correctly?

Of course. Isn't it normal to provide users with the function of directly writing the data they want to store on the CD, just like tapes? Tang Huan asked rhetorically.

I understand Tang's ambition. Akio Morita nodded, A CD can store 74 minutes of digital music, but I really can't form a specific concept for CDs used to store images and computer data.

The cd-da standard specified in your red book does not provide the function of data error correction and error detection, but it is required when the cd is used for computer storage. Under this premise, the cd should be able to provide a capacity of about 700mb. Two The hard disk used by the Dai Fangyuan computer ultra is 10mb, which is equivalent to 70 hard disks. This cost difference, you must be able to see through it.” (To be continued.) xh118--46720++2799707--\u003e