I’m in Hollywood Chapter 896: Not worth it


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Probably what Eric understands, continue to ask: "Which Record Company?"

"Polygold is the Record Company of Headquarters in the Netherlands. I remember that in 1992, Polygold became a shareholder of Working-Title and became the largest shareholder of this Film Studio. Working-Title was a founder at that time. The person, it seems to be called Tim Bevin, because he was dissatisfied with the other partners who made the transaction and left the company, PolyGold had found Eric Feiner as Chairman, and until now, "Barbara Bullock After finishing some of the information he knew, he was curious: "Eric, what do you ask these?"

Eric is a little surprised. Although Firefly Electronics has launched Fireflyer player and has been in contact with major Record Company for online music sales, Eric is not really too concerned about the trends of several major Record Company. He originally thought that Polaroid Jin has been acquired by several other record giants. In memory, after 2000, it seems that he rarely heard the name Polaroid. Listening to Barbara Brockley saying this, obviously this has not happened yet.

Collecting some scattered information in my mind, Eric said: "Just before, just before you came to say hello, Eric · Fener should be suggesting me that Polygold might be sold."

"I haven't heard of it yet," Barbara Brockley shook his head and said: "However, this should be a good opportunity. Drew sent me a Fireflyer player a few days ago, and I also I feel very good, but there are too few songs in the music store. If you want to listen to any songs, you have to buy a CD to copy it. It is very troublesome. If you have PolyGram, the content of the songs in your online music store will definitely increase by a big amount. Cut. "

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

Since Barbara Brockley can see the shortcomings of the Yahoo music store in terms of content, PolyGram is definitely easier to notice this, although it is not clear about the current specific status of PolyGram, but this Obviously, it is the reason why Eric · Fener just said that.

In fact, Eric has always hoped that through the large-scale promotion of MP3 music players, it has forced several major Record Companys to actively seek cooperation with online music stores.

However, the lack of content in the Yahoo music store is indeed a headache. After all, even if you do n’t care about the life and death of the entire record industry, if users cannot buy genuine music through the Internet and are forced to switch to piracy, MP3. The player will definitely be under more and more pressure from the public.

After making up your mind, let people collect some Polygold materials. Eric and Barbara Bullock talked about other topics at will.

It's just that a dance song hasn't ended yet, Eric saw his assistant Peter · Rich holding a mobile phone in his hand and gesturing towards him.

Eric lifted his chin towards Peter · Ritchie and said, "Sorry, Barbara, Peter may have urgent matters to find me."

"Of course it does not matter."

Barbara Brockley smiled and shook her head, releasing Eric, and the two left the dance floor together.

Peter · Rich and other Eric approached, handed over the phone and said: "BOSS, San Francisco's phone is from Mr. McNeilly, you must answer it in person."

Eric nodded and smiled at Barbara Bullock again, took the phone and put it in his ear, and walked towards the banquet hall door.

Although the call was made by Victor McNeil, CEO of Firefly Electronics, it was related to Amazon.

London is almost ten o'clock in the evening, and United States Western Time is only in the afternoon.

Things need to start with the pre-sale of Fireflyer players at Amazon in the morning. At 10:00 in the west of United States, Amazon officially opened pre-sale Fireflyer players to users.

Unexpectedly, in just 52 minutes, sales broke through the 50,000 unit mark. This data far exceeded the expectations of Amazon. Jeff · Bezos felt that something went wrong and suspended the pre-sale decisively.

After investigation, it was found that the Fireflyer player in the physical store is generally 30USD higher than the Amazon platform, and the Fireflyer player price of Amazon is still 299USD after opening the pre-sale, so many of them are obviously from electronic retailers. Users all regard Amazon as a "wholesale" platform for Fireflyer players. Some users even ordered 1,000 units at a time, and orders such as 50 units and 100 units were countless.

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

In fact, before Amazon opened the pre-sale, it did not fail to consider this issue. Prior to the panic buying stage, Amazon stipulated that each user can only purchase up to two units at a time.

However, the management of Amazon generally feels that the market demand for Fireflyer players may not be so tight in the case of a significant increase in Firefly electronic production capacity, and the price of physical retail should gradually decrease to be equivalent to the network platform. Price, so there is no limit to the number of users to buy.

The result of this has led to the situation of being madly 'brushed' after opening the pre-sale. Obviously, the physical retailer has tasted enough sweetness in the sales process of the Fireflyer player in the first few months. When Firefly didn't get enough supplies, it started to find another way.

It is conceivable that in the process of the panic buying activities carried out in the first three months of Amazon, these people must also be full of people, otherwise it is unlikely that 5000 players will be swept away in less than a minute. Empty, after all, grab a Fireflyer player and change hands to earn at least 30USD or more, such a "business" is still very cost-effective.

However, since the error has occurred, Amazon must find a solution.

It is definitely not enough to cancel those large orders. Although this part of the users ’motivations are not there, since Amazon did not limit the number of purchases in advance, they are not considered to be breaking the rules. To impose the enterprise's own mistakes on users, United States has to sue, and it is impossible to win, and it will damage the company's own reputation.

The pre-sale was suspended for one hour. After Amazon added the restriction condition that each user restricted the purchase of two units, the trading page was opened again.

But the 50,000 units that have been sold will definitely affect the continued supply of Amazon, not to mention, even if restrictions are made, it is actually very simple to break this restriction, as long as you have enough patience , Just register more accounts. The key to solving this matter is ultimately on the side of Firefly Electronics. So, Jeff Bezos flew up and down from Seattle to San Francisco to meet with Victor McNeilly, introduced the situation they encountered and hoped that Firefly Electronics will increase the monthly supply of Amazon by at least 50,000 units.

The entire United States electronic product retailer is waiting in line for the supply of Firefly electronic products, and more than 50,000 units of Amazon will be provided. Physical retailers will certainly complain that Victor McNellis naturally disagrees with Jeff · Bezos At the request, Bill Olsen, who was a little impatient, also had a dispute with Jeff Bezos. In the end, Jeff · Bezos proposed to call Eric to let him decide. Seeing that Jeff · Bezos had to rely on the posture not going in San Francisco, Victor McNeilly had to call the Eric side of London.

On the phone, I first learned the ins and outs of the matter. Eric rushed back to his home in Garden Street, Kensington, and held a video conference with Victor McNeil, Jeff Bezos and others who were far away in San Francisco. It was discussed late at night. Under the mediation of Eric, the two parties came up with a compromise solution. The supply of Amazon will be increased by another 25,000 units, and this matter is barely resolved.

In fact, Eric is also helpless.

The technical content of the Fireflyer player is indeed not too high, but after all, it is a brand new electronic product. It is impossible to be like electronic devices such as CD players and mobile phones that have been around for many years. If you need it, just contact the appropriate OEMs can achieve capacity bursts in just a few months. Because it is a brand-new product, Fireflyer player will not only be restricted by the supply of components, the product assembly plant and production line also need to be built from scratch, in addition to various problems such as employee training, want 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 conference, Eric had no idea of ​​staying at London and decided to return to United States in advance. There were indeed too many problems that need to be solved by him personally .

The selection of the hot girl group is impossible to complete in two or three months, then he only needs to come again.

So, the next day, Eric boarded the Boeing 767 that Drew leased from Los AngelesALC.

Being very satisfied with the trip to London, the girl signed a long-term lease contract with ALC and contracted out the Boeing 767. She intends to use it until her Boeing 747 is delivered. Although the monthly rent is as high as 650,000 USD, and does not count the fuel cost per flight, but Eric has no objection, maybe the monthly rent of 650,000 USD is unbearable for ordinary rich people, but this money comes to him It ’s nothing. After all, when several planes purchased in the plan are delivered, and two private airports are built on the east and west coasts, the annual cost for maintenance and maintenance needs tens of millions of USD.

When I left party last night, Eric instructed Peter · Ritchie to collect some Polygold materials. Although the time is tight, Peter · Rich has compiled several documents about Polygram before Eric boarded the plane.

Boeing 767 took off from London Heathrow Airport, after the short discomfort just after lift-off, the plane steadily traveled over the Atlantic Ocean, Eric was sitting next to the window position of the luxury suite in the cabin, turning over Lijin's information.

Just like not expecting that Poly-Gold will be behind Working-TitleFilm Studio, Eric did not expect that Philips in the Netherlands would be Poly-Gold ’s controlling shareholder. His impression of Philips is basically only a razor, it seems that there are DVD players and the like.

But after carefully reading the information, Eric found that Philips at this time is still very large for the Netherlands. This company's business involves medical equipment, lighting equipment, household appliances, entertainment media, etc. It's all a mini General Electric. In 1996, Philips' annual revenue reached 108500 million Guilder, which translates to 37billion USD.

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

Based on the recent share price, Polycom ’s market value has reached 9700 million USD.

Just seeing this number, Eric has already dispelled the idea of ​​buying PolyGold.

The market value is 9700 million USD, and the final transaction amount will definitely not be lower than 10billion USD.

Although Firefly wants to take over and adopt a combination of funds and stocks to trade, it is easy to include this Record Company in the bag, but if it is just for the song copyright in the hands of Polaroid, this is probably the same as the original Sony. Promoting Blu-ray format to buy Metro Goldwyn Mayer is almost the same, Sony bought Metro Goldwyn Mayer within a few years, the streaming media era has come, whether it is Sony Blu-ray or Toshiba HD has become tasteless. Now, with the rise of the Internet, there is no need to wait a few years, the digital music era has already arrived.

Moreover, according to the annual financial report of PolyGram in 1996, this year ’s record giant ’s annual operating income was 3.6 billion USD, but its net profit was only 300 million 37 800,000 USD. Even if the record industry did not decline, it cost 10 billion USD bought this company, and it will take 30 years to recover the investment. (To be continued.)


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