hunt hollywood

Still spreading his hands in embarrassment, Larry Probst said: "The point is, Simon, if I, a bad policeman, want to control them, the staff will probably move you, a good policeman, out."

Simon shook his head and said: "Larry, I have never been a boss who indulges employees without restraint. The core of the authority given this time is the dominance of game creation. I hope everyone can have a relaxed game development environment. Besides In addition, if any employee has other violations, it is within the scope of your management. Frankly speaking, I may intervene more in EA's affairs in the past two years, mainly to re-shape the company's corporate culture and operational thinking , finish these, even if you want me to intervene, I don't bother to bother."

This guarantee made Larry Probst mixed, but he did not have any objections. He was not the founder of EA who was very fancy about his own power like Trip Hawkins before. As an excellent professional manager, Larry Probst Probst does not lack his own persistence, but he is also better at implementing the will of the business owner to a large extent.

Simon fired Trip Hawkins for exactly this.

Business founders often have a deep influence on a company, and they inevitably have a strong desire to control.

To transform EA, Simon would have to fundamentally eliminate the founder's influence on the business.

After getting some guarantees from Simon and understanding his boss's mind, Larry Probst stopped worrying about this issue, and instead talked about the "Happy Farm" just now and some projects that EA is developing recently.

In addition to "Warcraft" being developed by Silicon and Synapse Studios, which was acquired some time ago, there are many well-known games under EA that are continuing or in the development stage, such as "Dune Castle", "Sim City", "Need for Speed" ", "Dungeons and Guardians" and so on.

EA's basketball, baseball, rugby and other sports games are iconic brands that other manufacturers in the industry cannot match.

In addition, after initially completing the technical accumulation of 3D game development, Simon also selected a 3D No.1 shooting game from many incubation projects under EA. Elite (CS).

Simon also drafted an e-sports competition plan in private, planning to select EA's PC games with a relatively high penetration rate to hold e-sports competitions to further promote the EA brand.

Chapter 588 Steam (Revision)

Leaving the EA headquarters in Redwood City, Simon rushed to Palo Alto's Eaglet company headquarters to attend a project meeting about splitting the online software store Ystore.

This thing is actually still about video games.

In order to carry out further refined operation, Eaglet online software sales platform Ystore plans to split into two parts in the near future. The original Ystore online software store will continue to provide sales and download services of various paid or free application software, while the game software business will Split out separately and set up a dedicated game sales platform.

According to his long-term personal habits, Simon has already named this website: Steam.

Ystore is the first Igret company project under the charge of Simon’s housekeeper, Alice Ferguson. The housekeeper’s current focus has shifted to the Amazon online store, but she is still in charge of the software store business. She also attended the split meeting .

The purpose of Simon's participation in these meetings is just to have a more intuitive understanding of Eaglet's various business developments. The one-hour meeting was mainly for the team in charge to discuss independently, and he did not express his views too much.

After the meeting was over and the others were dismissed, Simon looked at the housekeeper who subconsciously took a sip of the coffee in hand, and asked, "No rest on weekends?"

Alice Ferguson put down her coffee cup and said, "I went to Chicago on the weekend, about the planning of a new batch of distribution centers."

Simon nodded, he also knew about it.

The Amazon online shopping mall is preparing to build a batch of new large-scale logistics distribution centers. The total investment of all 7 distribution centers will reach 3.5 million U.S. dollars, with an average investment of 5000 million U.S. dollars for each distribution center. It will also support more than 1 new jobs across North America.

After the completion and operation of these logistics distribution centers at the end of this year and the beginning of next year, Amazon will also further increase the types of goods in the online store in addition to books, video tapes and movie peripherals. layout.

Looking at the obvious tiredness on the delicate and beautiful face of the housekeeper, Simon said: "You have to know, I have a very clear product priority in the business of Igret Company. Among the businesses you are in charge of, the online shopping mall is absolutely Even if it fails completely, I will start a second investment. In contrast, if necessary, I will not hesitate to abandon the software store.”

Simon has actually emphasized these more than once.

Alice Ferguson disagreed somewhat, and retorted: "In the past year, the software store has provided us with very considerable revenue and profits."

"But you also need to see the development trend of online software sales," Simon immediately continued: "At this stage, Igrete's Ystore does have unparalleled advantages in terms of technical support, payment tools, website traffic, marketing promotion, etc. Software and game manufacturers who choose to sell their products in software stores can sell 1000 million sets, but they can only sell 100 million sets if they build their own websites. In this way, 30% of the commission is very cost-effective. However, the Internet is A very open platform, not only Microsoft and America Online, but also some other independent Internet companies are also trying to enter this industry. Moreover, with the continuous development of Internet technology, marketing channels, payment tools and their own brand awareness, etc. , Once manufacturers find that building a separate platform to sell products is more profitable than paying a 30% commission for software stores, they will definitely be inclined to do so. At that time, what do you plan to do?"

Alice frowned slightly.

In fact, this trend has already appeared, or has always existed.

Oracle's database software and Microsoft's series of flagship software products have never landed on Ystore from the beginning to the end, because these manufacturers already have their own very mature distribution channels, and can achieve a higher gross profit ratio than the Ystore store.

It's not that the housekeeper didn't consider lowering the share ratio to attract these top software manufacturers to join, but the current network transmission speed is not friendly to large-scale software with a scale of hundreds of megabytes. Instead of spending hours downloading a software, users It's better to drive out and spend ten minutes to buy a set of physical CDs.

After America Online completed the ADSL network upgrade, the network speed of most Internet users in North America has been greatly improved, and Internet data transmission technology and online payment tools have become more mature. When Ystore wanted to facilitate these cooperations, Microsoft had already launched Its own software store recently decisively abandoned Ypay and launched its own online payment tool Microsoft Wallet in cooperation with American Express.

Simon didn't wait for the housekeeper's answer, and didn't ask further questions, and continued: "You must be thinking, maybe you can force them by limiting the exposure of these websites on the Ygritte portal or refusing to provide them with a Ypay payment interface. Putting products on the Ystore platform for sale, but doing so will only make our competitors cheaper. Ypay is also in the first echelon of Eaglet’s product priorities. If a decision is beneficial to the development of Ypay, it will If it hurts Ystore, then this decision should still be passed. You think that those manufacturers will completely escape from Igret, but it is not. Although they have lost the commission of the software store, they still have to use our Ypay tool , and paid for it, without the official promotion of Ystore, they still need to put a lot of online advertisements to promote their own websites, and the Eaglet Portal happens to be an advertising platform that they absolutely cannot bypass. Similarly, the priority of online advertising business It also exceeds Ystore. Online payment and online advertising businesses can easily form the Matthew effect that the stronger gets stronger, which is a characteristic that Ystore does not have, and it is also the key to why their priority exceeds other products.”

Simon said here, tapped his fingers on the conference table a few times, and said: "It seems that we need to hold a serious meeting for this, tomorrow." He said and looked at the girl A next to him: "Arrange it, tomorrow morning at nine At [-]:[-] o'clock, anyone in the Bay Area must be present on time."

Alison nodded in agreement, and took a pen to write down the matter in the memo.

After Simon finished his orders, he looked at the housekeeper opposite, and said to Girl A again: "You don't have to go to Mountain View City with me, take Ellie to a beauty spa or something, anyway, it's all kinds of maintenance for you women , and sent her to my cottage in Woodside."

The housekeeper was about to refuse, but when she heard Simon's last words, she protested with a blushing face, "I still have a job."

"it's gone now."

After Simon stood up, he had to rush to the construction site of Eaglet Park in Mountain View.

Alice sat still, staring at Simon with a stubborn expression, and repeated: "I still have a job."

Simon also stared over: "Be obedient, or I will let you take a forced vacation."

Alice and the man opposite looked at each other for half a second, then dodged for a while, then looked over again, bargaining: "I won't go to your place at night."

"Okay, I'll go to your place."

"..."

After Simon went out and disappeared, Alice's stiff body softened.

Alison, who was left behind by Simon, smiled and said, "Let's go, Allie, you really need to relax."

The housekeeper still had a cold and pretty face, but the client had already left, and she didn't have any stalemate with Alison. The relationship between the two parties was actually not good. The housekeeper still clearly remembered that she was cheated by the four girls of ABCD when they met for the first time in Greenwich. A handful of the past.

The two women walked out of the meeting room, and Simon, who had already left, intentionally left a driver for them.

The current level of the housekeeper has her own full-time driver, but she didn't refuse a guy's kindness. Girl A is not familiar with San Francisco, but she made a call to Girl C, and everything was arranged in less than 5 minutes.

It was almost twelve o'clock noon.

The two women first found a restaurant for lunch, and then rushed to a beauty salon near Atherton, north of Palo Alto, where they spent an entire afternoon doing a complete set of treatments.

Leaving the clubhouse in the evening, Miss C also drove over.

The two women stood at the door of the clubhouse. Seeing Claire get off the car, girl A subconsciously looked into the car and asked with a smile, "Where's the little elf?"

"It's school, I've been very busy studying recently." Claire and Alison hugged each other and said with a smile, "Why don't I call her to come over."

Alison just rolled her eyes.

Claire hugged Alice affectionately again, and praised: "Aili, you seem to be beautiful again, even my heart is moved."

Knowing that Claire was making fun of her sexual orientation, the housekeeper simply rolled her eyes.

After greeting, Claire left her car, and the three girls took a car to a nearby French restaurant, and Miss C had reserved a seat in advance.

"Sony directly refused, and Panasonic asked for 30% of the shares, which is simply extortion. The most annoying thing is Kodak. They would rather their technology rot than cooperate with us. If we want to enter the digital camera project, we can only It's up to me."

On the table.

The topic discussed by the three women with strong careerism is still inseparable from work.

Tinkobel will release the third generation iCam digital camera during Easter this year.

With the further popularization of the Internet and the rise of social networks, more and more users tend to express themselves on the Internet platform, and the demand for digital cameras has also increased significantly.

While established electronics manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic have launched their own digital camera products one after another, iCam, which is not considered high-end, has firmly occupied the digital camera market in the past year due to its advantages in brand, price and network adaptation. 60% of the market shipments, the annual shipments in 1993 reached 276 million units, compared with the annual shipments of 1992 units in 61, an increase of 350%.

Relying on such outstanding sales results, according to preliminary statistics, Tinkber's annual sales reached 13.9 billion US dollars, and the annual net profit was as high as 1.2 million US dollars.

As a supporting electronic product around the Internet, the rise of Tinkber is undoubtedly the most intuitive proof of the explosion of the Internet industry.

Digital cameras have provided Internet platforms with richer picture content, and the explosion of the Internet industry has also greatly increased the public's demand for digital camera products. The two sides complement each other.

While continuing to strengthen its investment in digital cameras, Tinkobel did not stop developing other products.

In addition to the MP3 player iPlayer project that has been perfected in private and the U disk and other products that are planned to be launched together with the promotion of USB technology, Tinkber also plans to start the digital video camera (DV) project in the near future.

Compared with digital cameras, the threshold of digital video cameras is much higher, and it also involves patent barriers.

Many old-fashioned electronics manufacturers around the world have long begun to invest in the research and development of digital cameras. Although most of the manufacturers’ goals are professional-grade commercial products, rather than the mass consumer products that Tinkber mainly focuses on, these old-fashioned manufacturers have no matter whether it is patent layout or The accumulation of technology is beyond the reach of Tinkber.

Cooperating with these established manufacturers can not only launch their own products faster, but also obtain relevant patent authorizations to avoid future patent litigation entanglements.

However, Sony, Panasonic and other manufacturers have given Tinkbel the first opportunity in digital cameras. , Either directly refused, or proposed unacceptable conditions, Ting Kebaier could only rely on his own efforts.

Alison heard Claire talk about this matter, thought for a while, and said: "Actually, I think that the penetration rate of home film cameras is also very high now. Tinkber may consider developing a special machine for converting film to digital. There should be a big market for everyone to convert the videos they shoot on film into digital images.”

Claire shook her head and said, "It's not like you haven't seen Hollywood telecine equipment. A full set of professional equipment costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it's very bulky and heavy. How is it possible to make it a household level?"

Girl A said: "If you can't do it for home use, you can do it for commercial use at the level of a photofinishing shop. Hollywood's equipment is very professional, and of course it is expensive, but you only need to handle super [-]mm film for home use, and you don't need to convert the picture quality." As good as it gets."

Miss C continued to shake her head: "If you are interested, you can try this project."

On the other side, the female housekeeper, who has been talking very little, interjected: "Since digitalization is already an obvious industry trend, the product cycle of developing this kind of machine will definitely not be too long. Perhaps the digital video camera will be popularized before it is promoted in the future." .”

Girl A paused, and wanted to refute that film and digital may coexist for a long time, just like digital cameras and film cameras today.

After thinking about it, I still didn't speak.

There is still a big gap between the popularity of digital cameras and film cameras. However, after the launch of digital cameras, considering the many advantages of this product, perhaps the elimination speed of home film cameras will be faster than film cameras.

Girl C didn't continue this topic, but instead asked about the AlphaBeta company that the girls A and B worked together, and regretted that she should have brought Girl A into her company as a shareholder in the first place, so that she could get Simon through Alison. care.

The three women seemed to have had dinner very harmoniously, and when they left the restaurant, they were immediately divided into two factions.

The driver brought the car over, and Alison held Claire's arm and said to the housekeeper, "C and I are going shopping, so I won't take you. Go back and have an early rest, and remember the meeting tomorrow morning."

The housekeeper stood by the door and didn't get in the car immediately. She hesitated for a while, and said suddenly, "I'm going to Woodside, and you have to open the door for me."

Girl A was a little surprised, but also a little disappointed: "Didn't you say that you want to go home, the boss may also go directly to you."

"I'm going to Woodside."

The housekeeper repeated, and got into the car on her own.

The driver didn't close the door in a hurry, and looked at girl A waiting.

Seeing this situation, Alison asked Claire, "Why don't we go to Woodside tonight and we sleep together?"

Claire glanced at the housekeeper in the carriage, her eyes flickered, and she nodded, "Okay."

Chapter 589 Empty (repair)

At night, at the invitation of Larry Ellison, he attended a gathering in the Silicon Valley business circle, and Simon did not return to his Woodside mountain mansion until after ten o'clock in the evening.

Entering the living room of the villa, the two AC girls who heard the movement came out together.

Simon was not surprised that Girl C appeared here. He greeted with a smile, handed the jacket to Girl A, and asked Claire, "How is the preparation for the new generation of iCam?"

Claire walked in with Simon in a slightly intimate way, and replied: "It's trial production, and the stock will start next month. Boss, are you going to visit my place tomorrow?"

Coming to a living room on the side of the living room, Simon sat down on the sofa and said, "Next time, I'm leaving at noon tomorrow."

Claire nodded, sat down beside Simon casually, and said, "Boss, several Wall Street investment banks have contacted me about the IPO of Tinkerbell. When do you think it is appropriate for us to go public?"

Girl A poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Simon. When she walked away, she couldn't help but glance at Girl C who was leaning slightly beside her boss.

Simon sat in the middle of the couch, Claire occupied one side, and the other was left empty.Alison hesitated for a while, but still did not sit down on the other side of Simon as the two women had privately discussed, but chose a single sofa next to her.Worried about showing some flaws in his expression, after sitting down, he picked up a document on the coffee table and opened it as a cover, occasionally raising his head and using his eyes to echo the two who were chatting.

Simon didn't notice these small details. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "If you are anxious to let others know that you are a little rich woman, of course you can start the IPO as soon as possible."

The sales of the iCam series are very hot. Although Tinkber started several research and development projects at the same time, he is not short of funds.

On the other hand, there is no risk investment in Tinkobel that is eager to go public to cash out. As the largest shareholder with 70% of the shares, Westeros not only has no need to cash out, but can continue to provide funds for this company. There is no need for an IPO.

If it is not for economic considerations, Simon even hopes that all companies in the Westeros system will remain privatized.

Cisco, Nokia, AOL, and Daenerys Entertainment, which will be launched in the middle of the year, are all helpless. As the most important layout of the Westeros system in the consumer electronics industry, the product field that Tinkber is involved in is also It's not sensitive, so it's okay for the company to remain private for a long time.

Claire hated Alison's temporary retreat, and quietly moved closer to her boss.In fact, she didn't have the idea of ​​an IPO for Tinkber, but just picked up a topic at random: "However, the recent stock prices of Cisco and AOL are close to the high of 500 billion U.S. dollars. I see that many analysts believe that technology stocks The sector has peaked and now is the perfect time for an IPO.”

Simon took a sip of coffee, felt the pleasant scent from Miss C, turned his head to look at her, and found that although Claire was wearing a blouse and black trousers that he was very familiar with on weekdays, his neckline was open at this time. You can faintly see the edge of pale pink lace.

Without hiding his gaze, Simon glanced at it with a smile, and joked, "C, you didn't invest in technology stocks secretly. Come here today to talk to me, right?"

Claire tilted her body again, so as to facilitate the man's gaze, and immediately admitted: "I invested 500 million US dollars, all of which are loans. Boss, if I lose money, I can only ask you for help."

Simon asked, "When did you buy it?"

"last year."

"Isn't there more leverage?"

"It's only doubled."

"Ah."

Seeing that Simon nodded noncommittally, Claire carefully grabbed the man's arm and shook it: "Boss, should I sell now?"

"It doesn't matter if you hold it for another year."