Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1019 Same people but different fates

"The news is true. The media has reported that the stargazing video recorder went on sale this year. It is currently only released in the United States. It has sold 320 sets, each priced at US$. It is one of the best-selling electronic products in the United States this year.

Microsoft has also released an announcement. The actual transaction amount may not be as much as 40 billion US dollars. Microsoft has already acquired 60% of the shares of Guanxing. Now it has acquired the remaining % of the shares, spending billion US dollars! "

Yang Xuejun, who is in charge of Changhong's sales, couldn't help but speak with a bit of envy. Changhong works very hard to sell tens of millions of televisions a year, but its profit is less than 3 billion yuan. What Dongling Hi-Tech has earned is equivalent to Changhong's net profit in the past seven years combined!
Boss Ni was silent for a while. He was certainly not unfamiliar with Dongling Hi-Tech. In recent years, Changhong was often compared with Dongling Hi-Tech by the outside world.

But the two companies are taking completely different routes. Changhong is taking the traditional technology route. Ten years ago, televisions were considered a high-end industry in China. Changhong has been focusing on the domestic market in recent years.

But Dongling Hi-Tech is different. It does not follow the usual path at all. As a startup company, it dares to sue Microsoft alone and confront Siemens in old Europe. What’s more, it won both lawsuits!
To be honest, Dongling Hi-Tech is taking an unconventional approach. In fact, the chance of failure is much higher than the chance of success.

Changhong, which is supported by the entire city of Fucheng, cannot take the same risk as Dongling Hi-Tech.

After all, all gifts have prices marked on them. Since Changhong has received so much support from Fucheng, it is destined to be affected by Fucheng, including Changhong's poor performance next year. Under pressure from the Fucheng government, Boss Ni will also have to step down temporarily.

Dongling Hi-Tech is different. When Dongling Hi-Tech made its first pot of gold, it did not have the support of Pingyang and Hanxi. By the time Pingyang began to support Dongling Hi-Tech, Dongling Hi-Tech already had the bargaining chips.

Without being controlled by others or accepting gifts, Dongling Hi-Tech naturally does not have to please others or be told what to do.

Over the years, Changhong has developed at a rapid pace, even astonishingly, becoming the largest TV manufacturer in China and one of the three major companies in the A-share market.

But when I look up, the company that was compared with Changhong by the outside world has now left Changhong far behind...

This made Boss Ni and countless people in the domestic technology industry feel helpless. The development of Dongling Hi-Tech cannot be summarized by ordinary experience.

If any stubborn company follows the path of Dongling Hi-Tech, it will probably lose money and close down due to the electronic pet machine. If you don’t believe me, just ask Bandai of Japan. Has it cleared out the electronic pet machines worth hundreds of millions of dollars it produced a few years ago?

Changhong has also been developing in recent years, but compared with Dongling Hi-Tech, Changhong's speed is much slower. It seems to be standing still and has been engaged in various internal struggles in the TV industry. However, Dongling Hi-Tech has already established itself overseas. The gap between the two has been widening.

When people in China mention Dongling Hi-Tech now, they have unconsciously started to compare it with foreign giants. As for Changhong, it is still placed in the TV industry.

But now, hearing that the stargazing video recorder was sold for 3.5 billion US dollars, Boss Ni felt complicated for a moment. He could not understand this world anymore.

A product that is a supporting product for televisions, not only is its selling price almost as high as that of a color TV, it was also acquired by Microsoft for billions of dollars, but no one is interested in its televisions. This is such a counter-intuitive scene that Boss Ni could only sigh.

“Changhong should be exported!”

After a moment's silence, Boss Ni said in a decisive tone that Dongling Hi-Tech's huge sales overseas had finally made Boss Ni unable to hold back.

Inspired by stargazing and with Changhong facing a serious inventory backlog, Boss Ni prepared to take Changhong overseas to find a way out.

Changhong is not the only domestic technology company that has been stimulated by stargazing. TV manufacturers such as Konka, Hisense, and TCL, which have suffered from internal competition, have also been stimulated.

How much do you make from producing one television? Dongling Hi-Tech makes so much money from developing a stargazing video recorder. How can we not stimulate them?

Not only TV manufacturers, but also VCD, DVD and other manufacturers were stimulated. These two industries were monopolized by Nippon Benz through patents, and domestic manufacturers almost worked for Nippon Benz for free.

Now seeing the huge profits from stargazing, how can they not be tempted?
At almost the same time, countless domestic manufacturers began to inquire about stargazing video recorders, and some even spent a lot of money to purchase them from America, preparing to bring them back for disassembly and research.

These manufacturers are obviously preparing to imitate the stargazing video recorder!
……

In Pingyang, after dealing with a TV line problem at a store, Master Liang returned home on a weather-beaten motorcycle.

Master Liang was a maintenance technician at the town's TV business hall. When he returned home, his wife had already prepared the meal. Master Liang placed the meat he had bought in a bowl and warmed up a pot of wine.

From the food, it can be seen that Master Liang lives a pretty good life. After turning on the TV, Master Liang naturally tuned to Pingyang TV Station.

This is certainly not only because he is an employee of Pingyang TV Station, but also because the quality of Pingyang TV Station's programs has been continuously improving since this year, causing local people to start watching Pingyang TV Station more and more.

This year, Pingyang TV Station has successively introduced the copyrights of Hong Kong dramas such as "The Return of the Condor Heroes" and some movies, and also spent a lot of money to buy the first broadcast rights of "The Secret History of Kangxi", which has continuously increased the ratings of Pingyang TV Station.

The rules of Pingyang TV Station are becoming increasingly strict and standardized. Master Liang sometimes can't help but complain a few words, but relatively speaking, the salaries offered by Pingyang TV Station to its employees are constantly increasing, and the salaries are paid on time without any delay.

Master Liang rushed back this time just in time to watch this TV series after the news. After eating a bite of braised meat and taking a sip of wine, Master Liang let out a long sigh. Originally, Master Liang was not interested in the news, but the news on the TV station attracted his attention.

“Today, our city’s technology company, Dongling Hi-Tech, and the American company Microsoft, have officially reached an agreement to acquire the “Stargazing” video recorder.

According to the agreement, Dongling Hi-Tech will sell all patents, technologies, production lines, etc. of the Stargazing video recorders to Microsoft, but will still retain the brand property rights other than the Stargazing digital TV recorders.

In the future, stargazing video recorders will still be mainly produced in the Dongling High-tech Industrial Park in our city..."

Watching the stargazing news reports on Pingyang TV, Master Liang, holding a wine glass, looked dazed.

He didn't expect to hear news about the Stargazing brand today. He thought this brand had disappeared long ago.

When hearing about stargazing, Master Liang couldn't help but recall that a few years ago when stargazing satellite dishes were selling well, the TV station business hall in his town, which was originally intended to promote closed-circuit television, ended up selling stargazing satellite dishes as well.

Master Liang is responsible for the installation of satellite dishes for stargazing, and he can get a commission of 15 yuan for each one.

For Master Liang, that period was an extremely busy but prosperous time. He was almost crazy busy every day, but he could still earn one or two hundred yuan every day!

At his peak, Master Liang earned 5,500 yuan a month installing satellite dishes for stargazing!
Those were the days that Master Liang remembers most vividly. The motorcycle he rides now and the five large blue brick houses in his home were all earned by selling star-gazing satellite dishes.

Now his family still uses a star-gazing satellite dish to watch TV. This is a very common situation in Pingyang and even countless towns and rural families in Hanxi.

Thinking of that period, a smile appeared on Master Liang's face unconsciously. For him, that period was the best time, no doubt about it!

In less than a year, various brands of satellite dishes suddenly appeared on the market, and Guanxing also announced that it would stop production. This was the most frustrating thing for Master Liang.

As for now, the stargazing satellite dish has of course been discontinued, but the after-sales service continues. Now in the town that Master Liang is in charge of, any user who has installed a stargazing satellite dish will call him if there is any problem with the satellite dish.

If Master Liang goes to perform repairs, Torch Group will provide him with a subsidy of ten yuan. The user will be responsible for the repair materials.

Not only him, many towns and villages adopt this after-sales model, and stargazing satellite dishes have also been providing normal after-sales service over the years.

As far as Master Liang knows, among all the brands that sold satellite dishes back then, only Guanxing provided after-sales service and is still willing to provide after-sales service now...

Glancing at the Stargazing satellite dish in the yard, Master Liang drank the wine in his hand. He didn't know whether the Stargazing brand would appear in front of him again in the future, and in what form it would appear!
……

On the deadly assembly line, as the first piece of material was put into the line, the assembly line started to move. After more than twenty processes, a stargazing video recorder had been preliminarily assembled, and then testing, packaging, etc. began.

This was the scene that appeared in front of Ed Fliess, with Li Dongling and others also present.

As you look around, you can see that this entire workshop has nearly six production lines, all of which are busy producing stargazing recorders for Microsoft.

"At present, the production capacity of Guanxing has begun to increase. If necessary, the production capacity can be further increased, and the annual production capacity can be increased to more than two million units!" Duan Youli, the manager of the Dongling Hi-Tech Industrial Park and the production department of Dongling Hi-Tech, said to Ed Fleiss.

Hearing this, Ed couldn't help but nodded with satisfaction. After buying Stargazing, the biggest problem that troubled Microsoft was insufficient production capacity. If this problem could be solved, Microsoft's performance in the hardware business next year would be quite impressive.

As they walked outside, Ed said to Mr. Li, "Li, you should have heard the rumors. President Bill Gates has officially announced the Microsoft Living Room Project!

Li, I don't know, do you have any suggestions for Microsoft's living room strategy? We are allies, right? "

Ed knew Li Dongling's ability and methods of operation, so naturally he wanted to know what the kind-hearted Li thought.

Li Dongling glanced at Ed and suddenly remembered the classic rumors about Microsoft game consoles in his previous life.

Q: How will Microsoft beat Nintendo and Sony in terms of game consoles?
The most direct and simple answer is to spend 10 billion US dollars, hire American aircraft carriers and soldiers stationed in Japan to surround Japan, and let the Japanese cabinet sell the mainframe businesses of these two companies to Microsoft.

Because, Microsoft spent 10 billion US dollars, but still failed to defeat Nintendo and Sony. In the end, it could not hold on any longer. It would be better for Microsoft to spend 10 billion US dollars on public relations on Capitol Hill to force Nippon Benzene to sell these two companies to Microsoft, just like General Electric's acquisition of Alstom. Maybe it would have won a long time ago...

(End of this chapter)