Chapter 457: ZeroIntelligence

The conversation with Kazuo Hirai involved not only the robotics team of Sony Corporation and the industrial robot automation factory that William Chen was interested in, but also a huge cooperation plan between the two groups.

Therefore, this meeting will not be completed in one or two days. First, after Sony puts forward a proposal for cooperation, Chen William will give an intention, and then the assistant team will contact the subordinate companies involved. , After listening to the analysis, William Chen finally had a definitive meeting with Kazuo Hirai from Sony.

This process lasted for a full week. In the end, the two parties reached a basic cooperation intention. The remaining specific cooperation agreements will be handed over to the following people for refinement and improvement, and finally a formal agreement is formed.

Kazuo Hirai's first request to William Chen at that time was that he hoped that his entertainment content, including streaming media and music platforms, would be added to Sony's entertainment platform, allowing users to use PS game consoles and Sony mobile phones and other devices. Watch and listen to those audio and video content on their Sony Entertainment platform.

Judging from what Sony has done, their goal is very similar to that of Apple, which is to complete the entire entertainment platform through the device terminal, and provide users with various contents on this platform.

The only difference is that Apple builds this platform based on mobile phone products, supplemented by tablet computers and other devices.

At present, in terms of mobile phones, Sony will definitely not be able to compare with Apple. What they hope for a breakthrough is the current PS3 console and the PS4 console that will be launched next year.

But what needs to be known is that mobile phones are now a necessity for everyone, but game consoles are not. Everyone needs to buy a mobile phone, but not necessarily a PS game console.

This is why Sony wants to buy back the 50% stake in Ericsson in Sony Ericsson and continue to work on mobile phones.

In fact, when it comes to building such a platform, Sony initially had an advantage over Apple. Before the launch of the iPhone, Sony was in the field of consumer electronics, but there were giants. In terms of music, their players were world-famous, game consoles, Mobile phones, televisions, etc. are their traditional strengths.

And they also have strong entertainment content. Sony Music was one of the four major record companies at that time, and Sony Pictures was also one of the top six in Hollywood. In terms of games, the PS game console also has an advantage, and there are countless excellent game companies for it. Make content.

But why haven't they accomplished the success of such a content platform before Apple?

The main reason is that Sony has too much business, so it is very difficult to implement, and there are too many concerns.

The most important thing for a content platform is openness, but Sony's platform needs to consider their content production business. Users cannot freely download other content on their platform through the Internet, because possible piracy needs to be considered. Damage to their content businesses such as music, video, and games.

Therefore, on their platform, they also need to deliberately increase the restrictions on other content downloads, which leads to user dissatisfaction, so they naturally choose a more open platform, which is the main reason why they can't compete with Apple.

It is precisely because of this that William Chen is not very optimistic about Sony's strategy of "consumer electronics + entertainment".

But despite the idea, he did not refuse, but agreed to the invitation of his streaming media and music platform to join the Sony Entertainment platform. Anyway, this agreement is not exclusive, it is nothing more than an additional channel.

As for the robots and automated factories that Chen William is interested in, they signed a contract with Sony for a total of 1 billion US dollars.

This includes the overall purchase of Sony's robotics team and all research results and materials.

There is also the responsibility of Sony to build a fully automatic engineering robot factory in Atlanta for him to make robots.

This project includes not only the equipment and design of the entire plant, but also the full set of technologies involved.

William Chen will set up "Zero Intelligence" on the basis of the original Sony robot team, which is specially used to develop and manufacture various robot products.

Zero Intelligence will be invested by multiple parties. Among them, Siri Company, with its research results of artificial intelligence laboratory and some researchers, joins the company and holds 30% shares of Zero Intelligence; Atlanta Fund helps establish the R&D center in Atlanta Island As well as the manufacturing plant, with a 10% stake.

Southern Cross Holdings bought Sony's technical team, materials, and manufacturing plant technology and equipment for US$1 billion, holding 50% of the shares; South Pacific Industrial Investment Company will invest US$200 million in cash and hold 10% of the shares.

Next, Zero Intelligence will maintain a research and development laboratory in Tokyo to absorb information obtained from Sony, and then the research and development center established in Atlanta will start to design new products that incorporate the results of Siri's artificial intelligence research.

...

While Chen William reached an agreement with Sony, Paris's team also completed negotiations with Shiseido.

On April 10, news from the United States, Leonard Lauder, chairman of the Estee Lauder Company, officially rejected the acquisition of HC Fashion Group on behalf of the Lauder family.

They said that the Lauder family will continue to operate the Estee Lauder Company according to the established strategy and will not accept any external acquisitions. The Estee Lauder Company is currently operating very well, and it is expected that this year’s turnover will increase by at least 25% compared to last year.

Shares in The Estée Lauder Companies rose 3.5% on the day following the news.

But only the next day ~ www.novelhall.com~ Fashion Group and Shiseido Corporation of Japan jointly announced that HC Fashion Group and AT Skin Care, which is controlled by it, will jointly acquire Shiseido Corporation.

Among them, AT skin care company will acquire Shiseido's personal skin care business at a price of 2.5 billion US dollars, including bsp;dePeauBeauté (the key to the skin), a palace-level brand under Shiseido, and Shiseido's $1.7 billion investment on January 16, 2010 The cash acquisition of American natural mineral cosmetics company BareEstuals and other brands.

After that, Shiseido's personal skin care business will be renamed AT Shiseido and become a subsidiary company of AT Skin Care. Some skin care products will add the essence of "Energy Ball", which will be distinguished by the AT logo in the product packaging. fill the mid-market.

The HC fashion group, at a price of 5 billion US dollars, acquired 80% of Shiseido's remaining color cosmetics and hairdressing business, becoming the holding parent company of Shiseido.

From now on, the Shiseido brand will be the same as ParisHilton and Hermes and other brands, as a brand under the HC Fashion Group.

After the news came out, the share price of Shiseido rose by more than 15% that day, while the share price of Estee Lauder, which rose yesterday, fell by more than 10%...

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