Chapter 896： not worth

What Eric probably understood, continued to ask: "Which record company?"

"Polykin, the record company based in the Netherlands. △ I remember probably in 1992, PolyGold invested in ort-tit1e, became the largest shareholder of this film company. At the time of orking-tit1e a founding People, it seems to be Tim Bevan, because they are dissatisfied with other partners to leave the company after the transaction, Polaroid has found Eric Fener as president, until now," Barbara Brockley said some information he knew, curious: "Eric, what do you ask for?"

Eric has some surprises. Although Firefly Electronics has launched the fire1yer player and has been in contact with major record companies for online music sales, Eric is not really concerned about the movements of several major record companies. He originally returned I think that Polaroid has been acquired by several other record giants. In memory, after 2ooo years, it seems that the name of Polaroid is rarely heard. Listening to Barbara Brockley, this is obviously not alive.

Sorting up some scattered information in my mind, Eric said: "Just before you came over and say hello, Eric Fener should be suggesting that Po Li Jin may be selling."

"I haven't heard of this yet," Barbara Brockley shook his head and said, "But this should be a good opportunity. Drew sent me a fire1yer player a few days ago, and I feel very good. Yes, there are only too few songs in the music store. If you want to listen to songs, you have to buy d to copy them. It is very troublesome. If you have Polaroid, the song content in your online music store will definitely increase. ”

Eric nodded and smiled, but his heart was even more clear.

Since Barbara Brockley can see the shortcomings of Yahoo Music Store's content, Polaroid is definitely more likely to notice this. Although it is not clear about the current situation of PolyGram, it is obviously also Ai. The reason why Rick Fener had just said that.

In fact, Eric has always hoped that through the extensive promotion of mp3 music players, it will force several major record companies to actively seek cooperation with online music stores.

However, the lack of content at the Yahoo Music Store is really a headache. After all, even if you don’t care about the entire record industry, if users can’t buy genuine music through the Internet, they will be forced to turn to piracy. The mp3 player is definitely Will be subject to more and more pressure from the public.

I made up my mind to collect some of Polaroid's information first, and Eric and Barbara Brockley chatted freely about other topics.

However, a dance music is not over yet, and Eric saw his assistant Peter Ritchie gesture to him with a mobile phone in his hand.

Eric lifted his chin towards Peter Ritch and said, "Sorry, Barbara, Peter may be in a hurry to find me."

"Of course it doesn't matter."

Barbara Brockley smiled and shook his head, loosening Eric, and the two left the dance floor together.

Peter Ritchie and other Eric approached and handed over the mobile phone and said: "Boss, the phone in San Francisco, was called by Mr. McNally, and you must answer it yourself."

Eric nodded and smiled at Barbara Brockley. He took the phone and put it in his ear and walked toward the gate of the banquet hall.

Although the phone was made by Firefly Electronics' eo Victor McNealy, it was related to Amazon.

London is almost ten o'clock in the evening, and the western time is only afternoon.

Things have to start from the open pre-sale of Amazon's fire1yer player in the morning, at 10 am in the western United States, Amazon officially opened the pre-sale fire1yer player to users.

Unexpectedly, in just 52 minutes, the sales volume broke through the 50,000 mark. This data far exceeded Amazon's expectations. Jeff Bezos, who felt the problem, decisively suspended the pre-sale.

After the investigation, it turns out that because the fire1yer player in the physical store is generally higher than the Amazon platform, and Amazon's fire1yer player is still 299 dollars after the open pre-sale, so many users are obviously e-retailers. Using Amazon as the 'batch' platform for the fire1yer player, some users even ordered 1ooo stations at once, and orders such as 5o 1oo are even more numerous.

As a result of the final statistics, among the 50,000 units of pre-sale sales, orders from ordinary customers are probably less than 7,000, and all others are large orders.

In fact, Amazon did not consider this issue before opening the pre-sale. In the previous stage of buying, Amazon stipulated that each user could only buy at most two at a time.

However, Amazon's management generally feels that the market demand for fire1yer players may not be so tight in the case of a large increase in firefly electronics production capacity, and the price of physical retail sales should gradually decrease to a price comparable to that of online platforms. Therefore, there is no restriction on the number of users purchased.

The result of this has led to the situation of being madly 'sweeped' after the opening of the pre-sale. Obviously, the physical retailer has tasted enough sweetness during the sales of the fire1yer player a few months ago, taking it from Firefly Electronics. If there is not enough supply, start a different path.

It is conceivable that in the process of the panic buying activities carried out in the first three months of Amazon, it is certainly full of these people. Otherwise, it is unlikely that the 5ooo players will be swept away in less than a minute. After all, If you grab a fire1yer player, you can earn at least a dollar or more by changing hands. This kind of 'business' is still very cost-effective.

However, since the mistakes have been made, Amazon must find a solution.

It is certainly not acceptable to cancel those large orders. Although the motives of these users are not saved, since Amazon does not limit the number of purchases in advance, they are not a violation of the rules. The company's own mistakes are imposed on the users. In the United States, it is necessary to have a lawsuit, and it is impossible to win, and it will damage the company's own reputation.

The pre-sale was suspended for an hour, and Amazon added the restrictions for each user to purchase two more, and the trading page was opened again.

But the 50,000 units that have been sold will definitely affect Amazon's continued supply. Moreover, even if restrictions are imposed, it is actually very simple to break this restriction. As long as you have enough patience, register more. Some accounts will do. The key to solving this problem is still on the side of Firefly Electronics. So, Jeff Bezos flew from Seattle to San Francisco to meet with Victor McNealy, introducing his own situation and hopes. Firefly Electronics will increase its supply to Amazon by at least 50,000 units per month.

The entire US electronics retailers are waiting in line for the supply of fireflies, giving Amazon 50,000 more, and physical retailers will certainly complain, Victor McNealy naturally disagrees with Jeff Bezos’ request. Bill Olsen, who is a little impatient, has a dispute with Jeff Bezos. In the end, Jeff Bezos proposed to call Eric to let him decide. Seeing that Jeff Bezos relied on San Francisco, Victor McNealy had to call the phone to London. Rick is here.

On the phone, I got a glimpse of the ins and outs of the matter. Eric rushed back to the residence of Kensington Garden Street and held a video conference with Victor McNealy and Jeff Bezos in San Francisco. After discussion in the middle of the night, under the mediation of Eric, the two sides came up with a compromise plan, and Amazon’s supply will increase by 25,000. This is a reluctance to resolve.

In fact, Eric is helpless in his heart.

The technical content of the fire1yer player is really not too high, but after all, it is a brand new electronic product. It is impossible to have many years of electronic equipment like d player and mobile phone. If necessary, just contact the appropriate foundry. Manufacturers can achieve capacity bursts in just a few months. Because it is a brand new product, the fire1yer player will not only be limited by the supply of components, but also the assembly plant and production line of the product need to be built from scratch. In addition, there are various problems such as employee training, and it is necessary to achieve capacity explosion. The cycle is several times that of traditional electronic products.

Although the problem between Firefly Electronics and Amazon was temporarily solved through remote video conferencing, Eric did not have the thought of staying in London and decided to return to the United States in advance. There were indeed too many problems that he had to solve personally.

It is impossible to complete the selection of the hot girl combination in two or three months. By then, he can just come over again.

So, the next day, Eric boarded the Boeing 767 that Drew rented from Los Angeles.

Because of his satisfaction with the trip to London, Shantou signed a long-term lease contract with Al, which packaged the Boeing 767 and intended to use its own Boeing 747. Although the monthly rent is as high as 650,000 US dollars, and it is not the cost of fuel for each flight, Eric has no objection. Perhaps the monthly rent of 650,000 US dollars is unbearable for the ordinary rich, but The money is nothing to him. After all, when the planes purchased in the plan are delivered and two private airports are built on the east and west coasts, the annual cost of maintenance and repairs can be tens of millions of dollars.

When he left the party last night, Eric told Peter Ritchie to collect some of the information on Polykin. Although the time was tight, Peter Ritchie sorted out several documents about PolyGram before Eric boarded the plane.

The Boeing 767 took off from London Heathrow Airport and spent the short discomfort just after the lift. The plane ran smoothly over the Atlantic Ocean. Eric sat next to the window of the cabin luxury suite and looked at Polaroid. Gold information.

Just as it wasn’t expected that the orking-tit1e film company would be a Polaroid record, Eric did not expect that the Philips company in the Netherlands would be the controlling shareholder of PolyGram. His impression of Philips is basically only a razor, and there seems to be a dvd player.

But after reading the information carefully, Eric is now. At this time, Philips is still very large for the Netherlands. The company's business involves medical equipment, lighting equipment, household appliances, entertainment media and other aspects. All is a mini universal electric. In 1996, Philips' annual revenue reached 175 billion Dutch guilders, which was converted to nearly $3.7 billion.

Philips's involvement in the record industry is the same as that of Sony in Japan, in order to promote its own music player products. In the early 1980s, PolyGram was jointly owned by Philips and Siemens in Germany. Subsequently, in the late 1980s, Philips bought all the PolyGold shares in Siemens and listed them on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in the Netherlands. At present, Philips still owns 75% of the shares of PolyGram, and the other 15% of the shares are tradable shares.

Based on recent stock prices, PolyGram has a market capitalization of $9.7 billion.

Just seeing this number, Eric has already dispelled the idea of ​​buying PolyGram, not affordable, but not worth it.

With a market value of 9.7 billion US dollars, the final transaction amount will certainly not be less than 1 billion US dollars.

Although the fireflies want to take over, take the combination of funds and stocks, it is easy to get the record company, but if it is only for the copyright of the songs in the hands of PolyGold, this will probably be the same as the original Sony In order to promote the Blu-ray format to buy MGM almost, Sony bought MGM for a few years, the streaming media era is coming, whether it is Sony's Blu-ray or Toshiba's hd has become a chicken. Now, with the rise of the Internet, there is no need to wait a few more years, and the digital music era has arrived.

Moreover, according to the annual financial report of PolyGram in 1996, the record giant’s operating income for the whole year was 3.6 billion U.S. dollars, and its net profit was only 368 million U.S. dollars. Even if the record industry does not decline, it will cost 1 billion U.S. dollars. It takes 30 years to buy back the investment in this company. (To be continued.) 8