Extraordinary Genius

Why was Feng Yu so calm? It was not because he feels thatthese representatives will beg him to be a member of this organization after hetold them about these conditions. It was because he had planted an actor amongthe representatives!

These actors were important at critical times. If they getthe timing right, they would be able to affect the crowd.

“Mr. Feng, we, Microsoft, will join this organization!”

Huh?

All the representatives were shocked to see an Americanclaiming to represent Microsoft wanting to join this organization.

Stop joking with me! Microsoft was a software company. Whatdoes software get to do with DVD? Why are you here in the first place?

Feng Yu purposely asked with a ‘shock’ expression: “Are youVice President James? You want to represent Microsoft to join the DVD Forum?”

“Yes. I am authorized by the Microsoft board of directors torepresent Microsoft to take part in the DVD Forum. We will work together witheveryone else to develop and implement Wind and Rain Philips industrystandards.” James replied loudly.

“Since when Microsoft is involved in DVD?” Panasonic’s VicePresident asked in doubt. Although he knows that Feng Yu would not get someoneto impersonate someone from Microsoft to get everyone join the forum. Duringthe signing of the agreement, the company and representative will be stated,and it will be legally binding.

“We are not going to manufacture DVD players. But we areinterested in DVD encoding technology.” James replied.

This James from Microsoft was there because Feng Yu hadcalled and convinced Bill Gates. Feng Yu was the third shareholder ofMicrosoft. Although he had no say in Microsoft, Feng Yu had shown Bill Gateshis financial power.

Furthermore, Feng Yu told Bill Gates that once the DVD opticdrives were developed, he will tie up with Microsoft operating system. Thisway, every PC will have to use their operating system and optical drives.Everything will be bundled together, and they will get higher profits.

It should be the profits from this cooperation that hadconvinced Bill Gates rather than Feng Yu. There was no reason why Bill Gateswould reject this opportunity to make more money.

So, James appeared in this meeting. James was aware thatFeng Yu was Microsoft’s third-biggest shareholder, and naturally, he has noqualms to be the first to express his desire to join this DVD Forumorganization.

After Microsoft voiced out, the other companies’representatives were deep in thoughts. Microsoft was already the leader in the PCoperating system. Their shares value had increased by several folds in the pasttwo years. It was the fastest growing company in recent years. Many people hadpredicted Microsoft will become the world’s biggest company in the future. Fora company of this scale to partic.i.p.ate, the other companies had to think twiceif they were to opt out.

At this time, a representative from a second company stoodup: “I represent Thompson to join this organization as a member.”

Huh? Thompson also wants to be part of this organization?This was a French state-owned enterprise. This company owned the biggest marketshare in the US and was Europe’s second-biggest electronics company. It washighly regarded in the consumer electronics industry. Even they agree to jointhis forum?

But Thompson was one of the world’s top manufacturer of TVand Video players. It’s normal for them to be interested in these DVD players.

After that, Taiwan’s BenQ and many other companies expressedtheir willingness to join the Forum. Some other big European companies alsoagreed to partic.i.p.ate.

The j.a.panese companies had wanted to cooperate to bargainfor better benefits. But now, if they did not join this Forum, they would beleft out.

“Panasonic will join.”

“JVC will also join this Forum.”

“We, NEC, agree to join.”

“I represent Mitsubishi to be a part of this Forum.”

“Samsung agrees to join this organization.”

“We, Hitachi, will join this Forum.”

……

More than 30 representatives from various companies agree tojoin this DVD Forum. All the companies that were present agreed. Even the topcompanies had decided to partic.i.p.ate, there was no reason for the smallercompanies to object.

Feng Yu smiles as he looked at the representatives. This wa.s.so simple. I invited Microsoft, and Philips asked Thompson to help them. FuGuangzheng had also spoken to some Taiwanese companies. How could this DVDForum fail?

Now, almost half of the world’s consumer electronicscompanies had joined DVD Forum. The rest were either not involved in the DVDbusinesses, or related to Toshiba, Sony, Pioneer, etc.

That means from this moment onwards, the DVD industry willonly have two alliances. But Feng Yu’s DVD Forum was more powerful as they hada uniformed standard.

The formats and standards introduced by Toshiba and Pioneerwere different. Even if they were to cooperate now, both of them would not giveup on the format they developed halfway.

Things were proceeding smoothly, and all the representativessigned an agreement to state that they will abide by the format and standardset by the DVD Forum. If any company were to violate the terms of theagreement, that company would have to compensate all the members of the DVDForum and the compensation for each company will not be lesser than 10 millionUSD.

Although 10 million USD might seem a lot, for those bigcompanies, it was not a big deal. But if this amount was to multiply by morethan 30 times, it will be more than 300 million USD. 300 million USD was a vastamount, and all the companies had to think of this consequence if they decidedto betray the Forum.

Wind and Rain Electronics, Aiwa Electronics, Philips, AIWA,Microsoft, Thompson, Samsung, Panasonic, and Tata group, were the 9 committeemembers of the Forum.

After the committee members were selected, Aiwa Electronicsimmediately states that the DVD industry standards should be Wind and RainPhilips Standards. Those that agree had to raise their hand.

The representatives from Wind and Rain Electronics, AiwaElectronics, Philips, AIWA, Microsoft, and Thompson immediately raise their hands.The other 3 companies’ representatives looked at each other. They knew thatthis would be approved even if they did not raise their hands. Rather thanopposing, they might as well show their support. They also raise their hands,and that means all the companies under the DVD Forum will have to use Wind andRain Philips DVD standards.

The members of the DVD Forum thought there was nothing essentialto discuss after the DVD standards were set. Everyone was waiting for Feng Yuto give them some benefits. The agreement had stated that after joining the DVDForum, the authorization fees for the VCD patents will be lowered.

But AIWA raised another topic to discuss. It was about thestandards for optic drives. To be more precise, DVD optic drive.

There was already optic drives now, but most of it was CDoptical drives. The only VCD optic drive in the market belongs to Wind and RainElectronics, and Lenovo had the authorization to use this technology in theirnewest PC.

But the VCD optic drive was only a pa.s.sing product. In thefuture, DVD optical drives will be the mainstream and will be used for a longtime. Wind and Rain Electronics specialized in this technology and was wayahead of the other companies.

The standard was suggested, and no surprises. It was agreedby the committee. Feng Yu had finally gotten everything he wanted.

Translator’snotes:

I rememberseeing Thompson TVs when I was young. But it seems that this brand haddisappeared from the consumer electronics industry.

ThompsonConsumer Electronics

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