Chapter 456： Kando Robot

Among them, the importance of smartphones is even higher than that of PS game consoles. Even among Sony's products, PS game consoles have better sales and better visibility.

You must know that for users, PS game consoles are not a necessity, but smartphones are, so many people can not buy PS game consoles, but smartphones must be bought.

Therefore, in Sony's "consumer electronics + entertainment" strategy, the importance of the mobile phone business is very high, and it can even be said to be the core business, and it will not be sold so easily.

But the robotics project that William Chen is interested in is different from the technology of the automated industrial robot factory.

The former is a project that Sony has already abolished, and even the team has been dispersed to other departments; as for the latter, it is not a technology unique to Sony. The industrial robots they use themselves are still Mitsubishi products.

Therefore, judging from the measures taken by Kazuo Hirai, the new head of Sony, after he took office - "cutting people", "cutting departments" and "cutting business", Chen William's requirements are very feasible.

And by selling these, not only can valuable funds be obtained, but also in the field of consumer electronics, it is also possible to cooperate with Eurasian Semiconductor Group, which is probably the result that Sony hopes.

Sure enough, after Sun Zhengyi helped to contact Sony, the other party was very positive about this. Not only did they pull out the robot samples and data equipment that were eating ashes in the warehouse, but also the previous robot R&D team, also from various Temporary recall in scattered projects.

But before William Chen went to Sony, Paris was first invited to Shiseido.

Shiseido expected that HC Fashion Group would buy shares in them in exchange for their support, but what Paris proposed was to acquire Shiseido directly.

In 1872, Shiseido established the first Western-style dispensing pharmacy in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan.

Since then, Shiseido's main business has been research on skin and hair, and has developed many innovative products and beauty methods.

Up to now, Shiseido's products have been sold in 85 countries around the world, making it the No. 1 cosmetics group in Asia.

This is also the reason why Paris will target Shiseido for the acquisition. In fact, according to their analysis, HC Fashion Group's intention to acquire Estee Lauder is difficult to succeed, because from the feedback, the Lauder family is very concerned about their Takeover bid, the response is very cold.

The current chairman of Estee Lauder, the son of the founder Mrs. Lauder, Leonard Lauder once said in an interview that Estee Lauder has no plans to sell.

Originally, this acquisition of Estee Lauder was just an attempt by them.

In the current plan, acquisition is inevitable, but which company to choose, you need to continue to talk. Anyway, the acquisition of Estee Lauder was a smoke bomb, mainly to put pressure on other companies.

Either wait for HC Fashion Group to acquire other brands and face competition, or be acquired by HC Fashion Group and get the support of "Energy Ball" resources.

It was under such circumstances that Paris began negotiations with Shiseido.

And Chen William brought the team to the Sony headquarters.

This Sony headquarters building is still quite impressive, but this time the newly appointed Sony President and CEO Hirai Kazuo is also very courageous. US dollar price to sell.

However, this kind of concept of his is also what Chen William is happy to see, which can also allow him to get what he wants smoothly.

Kazuo Hirai personally received William Chen with great enthusiasm, and first of all, he showed him the newly rebuilt robotics laboratory.

At the height of its glory, Sony's robot R&D team consisted of more than 200 people. However, after being abolished and disbanded, after so many years, the team members who can still be found are less than 150 people in front of Chen William. .

Place

In addition to the robot dog AIBO and the biped robot that were once publicly released, the robot for demonstration was a semi-finished product under development before the robot team was abolished. This robot named "Kando" also represented the then The ambitions of the Sony Robotics team. .

Kando means "deeply moved" in Japanese. Named after this name, the original Sony robot team hoped to add an emotional system to the robot based on the biped robot, making it more similar to "human" .

It's just that because the team was later dismissed, this model of robot has only completed the preliminary body design and produced the first experimental model, and the software including the so-called "emotional" system only exists in the imagination. middle.

Chen William has seen the demonstration of this Kando robot, and can clearly feel that in terms of body structure and manipulation, Kando has made great progress compared to it, and this is only a semi-finished product.

I have to say that the former Japanese company did have its own uniqueness in terms of robot architecture and manufacturing process. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is leading the world.

Next, Kazuo Hirai accompanied Chen William to visit other departments, and finally even took time to take him to visit the Sony PS manufacturing plant in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture.

Seeing the automated manufacturing process of engineering robots in this factory is still very shocking. Seeing the expressions of Chen William and his party, people from Sony couldn't help showing proud expressions.

Although Sony's current situation is not good, in terms of market value, even compared with the Meta Group controlled by William Chen, it is still far behind.

But as old-fashioned consumer electronics giants, they still have deep accumulation in technology after so many years of accumulation.

This time, when I came to Sony, all three of Chen William's personal assistants accompanied him, but the one who needed to be the assistant was Cheng Biru, who was in charge of the entertainment business.

On the one hand, Sony's own strategy at this time is "consumer electronics + entertainment", and the cooperation between the two parties will mainly involve this aspect.

On the other hand, Cheng Biru once studied in Japan and lived here. She is very fluent in Japanese. Although Chen William is proficient in Japanese and does not need her as a translator, she still needs to play a big role in the connection and communication with Sony. effect.

After these previous visits, Chen William, accompanied by Sony personnel headed by Kazuo Hirai, returned to the Sony headquarters in Tokyo, and then started a separate meeting with Kazuo Hirai.