Chapter 139： Kodak

Rochester is an industrial city on the shores of Lake Ontario in western New York, United States. Located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, it belongs to Monroe County and is the seat of the county seat. With a population of about 200,000, it is the third largest city in New York State. The city is known as the "World Image Center" and "Flour City". When spring comes, hundreds of flowers bloom, so it has the reputation of "Flower City".

After being a good student for a while, Bao Zixuan started to skip class again. After arranging company affairs, he came to this small American town. He went to Kodak to negotiate the patent licensing of digital cameras.

In fact, digital cameras are the most unpopular products in Kodak, and it is difficult to achieve profitability in a period of time with the current technology. Moreover, the large amount of research and development funds spent every year has been a headache for the board and management for a long time.

1878: Mr. George Eastman foresight foresees the trend of gelatin dry plates replacing the bulky and bulky wet plate photography that was popular at the time. Dry plates can be exposed and processed at the photographer's discretion, while wet plates must be immediately coated, exposed, and processed while wet. Based on this aspect, the Kodak Company was founded.

It was the foresightedness of the first-generation founder that led to Kodak's current brilliance, but who would have thought that the first person to fall in the digital age was this giant who first developed a digital camera!

Kodak responded quickly after receiving the business negotiation intention of Heiyun Group. After learning that the chairman of Heiyun Group came in person, Kodak also sent a negotiation team headed by President Eric Eastman.

After strolling around the Kodak Museum, Bao Zixuan came to the reception room and saw where the Kodak negotiating team was waiting for them. This time, Bao Zixuan learned a lesson and would not go into battle if he had to, after all, he had to eat every time he negotiated. point loss. This time, the negotiating team of lawyers headed by Larry Brown is mainly responsible.

Eric Eastman said: "Hello, Mr. Bao, and welcome to Kodak. I am clear about your purpose this time, and I am not opposed to the licensing or transfer of digital camera technology and patents, but only with the A value that matches him."

Bao Zixuan: "Heiyun always pays attention to win-win in business, and the partners who have an intersection with us will not suffer. This will last a long time. Otherwise, no one or company will cooperate with you after a few times, and the loss will not be any profit. It's that simple."

"Kodak is a great company, and we at Black Cloud still have a lot to learn from you. This is also one of the reasons why I brought the team to negotiate. This time, the cooperation did not succeed, but at least I felt the culture of Kodak, which is Money can’t buy it. This intangible wealth is the most valuable thing in a business.”

Eric Eastman: "I don't know what kind of win-win cooperation plan Heiyun has."

At this time, Larry Brown said: "This is our preliminary plan! After that, we handed over the report formed by Heiyun based on the investigation to the Kodak personnel."

"Currently, the total investment of Kodak in digital cameras is about 10 million US dollars. The first option is that we will buy all technical patents and laboratory equipment at three times the price."

"The second plan is that we will spend 10 million US dollars to purchase technology and patent licenses. In the future, Kodak and Heiyun can each enter the field of digital camera production."

"The third option is that we invest 15 million yuan to account for half of the entire project, that is, Kodak has half of the rights and interests of all patents and technology black clouds obtained in digital cameras. Each year, both parties will pay half of the funds to the digital camera research and development department."

Lawyers are much more professional than Bao Zixuan in this regard. If they don’t come up, they will buy other people’s patents and technologies. List a few directly for you to choose, and accurately estimate the prospects and value of your company's technology.

The Kodak staff did not expect that Heiyun's first offer would be sincere. To be honest, they did not want to keep the digital camera department. At this point in time, let alone digital cameras, they did not want to keep traditional cameras. Kodak itself has a weak optical foundation. Most cameras use German Schneider OEM lenses.

As a result, the cameras produced by them cannot sell the similar German products of RB and RB. Turnover is Kodak's strength and core department, and it is also the main profit point that supports Kodak's progress.

Kodak is a listed company, and it does not respond and make decisions so quickly for many things. The two sides agreed to continue the negotiations tomorrow. Bao Zixuan knew that they were going to have a meeting to discuss it. The Black Cloud Group staff left Kodak and went to the hotel to rest.

In the Kodak conference room, Eric Eastman introduced Black Cloud's plan to the board of directors. Everyone started to discuss.

A director said: "The digital camera department is losing money every year, and it is impossible to achieve profitability without more than 15 years. Why don't we sell the technology and patents as a whole to Heiyun! But there is also a requirement, that is It is Heiyun Group that is not allowed to enter the related industries such as delivery and film. We have one less competitor. They have obtained the technology and personnel of Carl Zeiss in East Germany. It is really simple to enter this industry. Moreover, the labor cost of Xiangjiang is higher than that of RB. They are all cheap, even less than half of ours in the United States. How can we compete at that time. We will be very passive, and this also buys us an insurance.”

Everyone thinks it is very reasonable. In fact, this is also the result of the lawyer team's research, which is the advantage of leaving it to professionals to negotiate. If Bao Zixuan bought it when he saw that the price was right, and if he suffered a little loss for the time being, he would be able to make a profit in the future.

Then another director said: "We can retain the right to use the technology, that is, we sell the patents and technology to the Black Cloud Group, and then Kodak can enter the digital camera whenever it wants to, which is equivalent to the purchase of Black Cloud. The technology is being licensed to Kodak, but Kodak can only manufacture it itself and cannot license it to third parties.”

It is the price that requires the negotiating team to connect with the black cloud, but there is a premise that we must ensure the interests of our Kodak.

The next morning the negotiation continued. Kodak proposed to sell the patents and technology of digital cameras to Heiyun Group, but retained Kodak's independent use rights. Kodak can enter the digital field at any time in the future, but this place cannot be resold or authorized to third parties. The price is 40 million U.S. dollars, and Heiyun Group shall not be engaged in the production and development of related businesses for life.

In the end, lawyers negotiated the price and finally set the price at $34.5 million, and Kodak sold the technology and patents to Black Cloud. What Bao Zixuan has to do now is to bring these people to Boston, after all, it is not very convenient here. Fortunately, Kodak's digital division now has only 34 technicians and is an unwelcome fringe in the company.

Even so, some people still don't want to leave the city of Roschet, and it's hard to part with their family members here for a while. Black Cloud took away 26 engineers from Kodak, which is also impossible, after all, the homeland is hard to leave.

The good news is that the inventor of the digital camera, Steven Cezanne, agreed to join the Black Cloud Group. Bao Zixuan was very happy. With this father of digital camera joining, I believe that Black Cloud digital camera can be successfully developed soon.

Steven Cezanne has always been ahead of this era in the research and development of CCD photoreceptors. After Bao Zixuan communicated with Steven Cézanne, he appointed him as the chief engineer of the black cloud digital camera research and development, so that Hashimoto Hiroshi only needs to ensure the logistics. Just work.

Now all the main components of the black cloud digital camera have been allocated, everyone only needs to perform their own duties; after meeting the design requirements, the whole machine can be assembled. As for the software, Bao Zixuan is still responsible for writing.

The top priority now is to finalize the digital camera. He has already thought about this for a long time. It must be more reliable to find a professional photographer.

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