Ryuji Okuda has not been having a very good life these past few years.
Because Changtian Technology is Sharp's life-saving straw, if it cannot conduct normal business dealings with Changtian Technology, Sharp may slowly suffocate to death.
The reason for relying so much on Changtian Technology is that TV sets are hard to sell.
Sharp, founded in 1912, has experienced three waves of good luck.
The first wave was a period of expansion in Japan. The active mechanical pencils and mineral radios sold by Sharp were very popular in Japan.
At that time, the country of Xia was raging at war, and the people were in dire straits. There was not even a relatively mature national industry, let alone an industrial company capable of producing radios.
The second wave is the postwar Japanese practice of self-cultivation.
Sharp mass-produced Japan's first batch of domestic TVs and also ventured into microwave ovens, refrigerators and other household appliances.
The third wave is the industrial transfer in the United States.
Sharp began to rapidly move closer to new electronics business. High-tech products such as LED were put on the research and development agenda and achieved good results.
Until 2010, Sharp was the world's most famous LCD TV manufacturer and LCD panel seller.
But no company has smooth sailing.
Sharp has also faced strong competition in recent years.
In Japan, brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Fuji, and Sanyo have been continuously impacting the LCD TV market.
Among them, Sony's share in the high-end market is far ahead of Sharp's.
Moreover, in the international market, with the rise of South Korean brands such as Samsung and LG, Xia Guo’s cheap LCD TVs are chasing after them.
Sharp felt the cold winter.
Since 2013, Sharp's business has shrunk extremely. After all, TV sales have suffered a waterloo and it has encountered economic difficulties.
This difficulty is actually a reflection of the Japanese economy. Economic growth has encountered a bottleneck and cannot rise.
Sharp even sold its headquarters building in the hope of generating more cash flow so that the company could tide over the difficulties.
In the 1990s, Japan's economy began to decline, so the entire Japan market was not doing well.
If Sharp's products cannot be sold abroad and rely only on the Japanese market, then even if Sharp sells its headquarters, it will not be able to survive the difficulties.
Just when Sharp was in the most critical situation, Changtian Technology extended an olive branch to Sharp.
Changtian Technology placed an order with Sharp and purchased LED screens on a large scale at a price that was absolutely higher than the market price.
In the past, companies such as Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc. needed to use mobile phone screens, and most of them used Samsung or LG screens.
In terms of mobile phone screen technology, Sharp, Samsung, and LG have their own advantages.
But because Samsung and LG have a very broad industrial chain, they have very obvious price advantages, and they are inextricably linked to many American semiconductor companies.
Therefore, companies such as Apple usually use Samsung screens directly instead of buying screens from Sharp.
Not to mention Samsung’s mobile phones. Isn’t it good to use their own screens? It can’t be other brands.
Changtian Technology purchases screens from Sharp at a price higher than the market price, which is a timely help for Sharp.
Of course Sharp takes it very seriously.
Without saying a word, Okuda Takashi immediately signed a cooperation agreement with Hanhai Technology, a subsidiary of Changtian Technology, to supply Hanhai mobile phones on a long-term basis.
The cooperation between the two parties was very pleasant.
If there are no surprises, Sharp's financial report at the end of this year will be very good.
Although it cannot make up for the holes in previous years, the profits of its main business are growing. If it can ensure stable cooperation with Changtian Technology, it is not impossible for Sharp to turn losses into profits in a few years.
It is precisely because of its good cooperation with Changtian Technology on mobile phone screens that Sharp is even preparing to cut off its extremely loss-making TV business and use more production capacity to supply Changtian Technology.
However, warnings from the U.S. capital industry brought an emergency halt to all Sharp's plans.
Sharp's industry is divided into two parts.
One part is the real industry, and the other part is the financial industry.
If the real industry still has a voice, then the financial industry has completely placed its lifeblood in the hands of Wall Street.
Therefore, Sharp had to think carefully about what his American father said.
Sharp's headquarters in Osaka.
Okuda Takashi held an emergency meeting.
The atmosphere in the conference room was very depressing, and Sharp's senior management had no way to solve this problem.
Okuda Ryuji even said with some self-deprecation: "If we follow Wall Street's advice (threat), immediately cut off cooperation with Hanhai Technology, and no longer supply Hanhai mobile phones, then Sharp, which has lost its main income, will definitely go bankrupt, but
This time period may be longer.”
"But if we refuse to implement the requirements of the Americans and continue to cooperate with Hanhai Technology and supply Hanhai mobile phones, Sharp will die immediately in the financial market on Wall Street, and we will not receive loan support from American financial institutions, and we will have to immediately
Bankruptcy is an option."
Both options are death, but one is to die early and the other is to die late.
Okuda Ryuji just felt a little sad.
It is easier said than done to make the company operate autonomously and independently, but it is really difficult to do.
Especially in a country like Japan that does not have full sovereignty, every company is actually a bargaining chip and tool for big countries and the capital transactions behind them.
After a heated discussion.
Sharp finally decided to stop supplying mobile phones to Hanhai, but they had to make demands on Wall Street and ask Wall Street to provide Sharp with enough loans at low and low interest rates to help Sharp tide over the difficulties.
This is actually just the first step in Sharp's survival.
Even with the money it gets, Sharp is completely uncompetitive in the home appliance industry and will eventually die, so Sharp needs to find the latest industry as soon as possible.
After making this decision.
Okuda Ryuji took a deep breath and said helplessly: "But before cutting off the supply, we need to explain the situation to Changtian Technology."
Okuda Ryuji actually still has a little hope in his heart. He hopes that Changtian Technology will have a good way to help Sharp solve the problem.
It’s not that Okuda Ryuji is very pro-China or that he loves Xia Guo.
All of his decisions are motivated by interests.
Without exception, Asians are egoists.
The United States gave the Japanese government three days, and the Japanese government gave Sharp 24 hours.
Before Sharp decided to announce that it would no longer supply mobile phone screens to Hanhai Technology, Okuda Ryuji personally made an international call to Wang Xiang and explained to Wang Xiang in detail Sharp's current predicament and helpless options.
Okuda Takashi also said that Sharp will immediately package up all the mobile phone screens it has in stock and send them to Xia Guo.
Sharp currently has only about 200,000 mobile phone screens in stock, which is not even enough to sell Hanhai mobile phones in one month.
And now the time has come to the middle of the year, it will be September soon.
According to Changtian Technology’s plan, a new generation of Hanhai mobile phones will be released in September.
Now is the time to purchase and stock up on mobile phone screens on a large scale.
Sharp's sudden supply cutoff will definitely have a serious impact on the production of the new generation of Hanhai mobile phones.
Amidst Okuda Ryuji's constant apologies, Wang Xiang hung up the phone.
The news that Sharp would stop supplying mobile phone screens did not surprise Wang Xiang.
Because during this period, Wang Xiang and Chen Xiao were analyzing how American capital would react after two major explosions of Hanhai Mobile disrupted mobile phone companies around the world.
Because Chen Xiao was reborn, the first thing that came to his mind was to cut off his confession.
This painful experience left Chen Xiao with a deep memory.
Before Chen Xiao was reborn, Xia State wasted too much time and did not develop the chip industry. Therefore, the entire industry chain of the chip industry, from design to research and development to production, was all in the hands of the Americans.
As long as you touch the interests of American people, the United States will immediately cut off your chip supply chain.
In addition to prohibiting the sale of chips, he can also think of ways to sanction you, including chip talents who develop production technology and even production tools.
This cut in supply caused Xia State's related industrial chains to pay a heavy price, with costs increasing several times.
So after Chen Xiao was reborn, 10 years ago, the first technical bottleneck to be overcome was the chip.
Fortunately, Changtian Technology has developed carbon crystal semiconductors, which is completely different from the American semiconductor structure.
From the design of carbon crystal chips to the production and manufacturing of equipment and the production and manufacturing of chips, the entire industrial chain is in the hands of Changtian Technology.
This leaves the United States with nothing to do, and is also the basis for Hanhai mobile phones to gain hot sales in both the Xiaguo market and the European market.
So the only weak point is the screen.
Wang Xiang immediately reported the situation on Sharp to Chen Xiao.
Chen Xiao lives in the office, typing with her hands on the desk.
There is really nothing we can do about the screen.
The production chain of mobile phones is really too long.
Behind every component there is a long industrial chain.
It is precisely for this reason that the emergence of smartphones has led to a new round of take-off in the global economy.
Otherwise, the capitalist market would have experienced an economic crisis around 2000.
It is because smartphones and the mobile Internet applications behind them can drive so many industries and have so great market value that they have delayed the global economic crisis by about 15 years.
But it is precisely because the industry chain is too long that Changtian Technology cannot swallow up the entire mobile phone industry chain, so it has removed a series of less important components such as mobile phone casings, motherboards, basebands, screens, speakers, intercoms, etc.
Components are distributed to other companies around the world.
This can shorten the front line of Changtian Technology, allowing Changtian Technology to go into battle lightly and obtain finished products as quickly as possible.
Chen Xiao also considered the risk factors involved. When purchasing the screen, he did not choose Samsung, which has the best display effect, but chose Toyo's Sharp.
Sharp, an old company, is one step away from bankruptcy and has a staggering amount of debt.
In terms of its size and economic structure, Western capital should not be interested in it, and Changtian Technology should be relatively safe.
Chen Xiao's assessment is absolutely correct. Hanhai Technology's screen supply chain has not had any problems in the past few years.
How do you know that Westerners don't respect martial ethics and don't even lose face when they are mean?
Directly put pressure on the Japanese government and ask the Japanese government to put pressure on Sharp without using any excuses.
This kind of strong measure does not even care about the life or death of the company.
Chen Xiao immediately asked Jobs and Wenqi to come over for a meeting.
Simpson participated in the remote meeting via video because he was in Europe.
The theme of Chen Xiao’s meeting this time is what to do with the mobile phone screen?
At present, there are still many materials for mobile phone screens, such as LED, IPS, Oled, etc.
The former has a longer lifespan and the latter has a wider color gamut. Oled is actually an upgraded version of LED that can emit light by itself, but it has a serious stroboscopic problem and the current technology is not very mature yet.
And whether it is IPS or OLED technology, the most advanced technology is still in the hands of South Korea and Japan.
For example, Xiaomi 4 also uses a Sharp screen.
Chen Xiao smiled and said: "This matter is a bit troublesome, Wen Qi, how much screen inventory do we still have?"
Wen Qi has statistics in hand: "Currently we have 2.2 million mobile phone screens in stock, 700,000 of which are supplied to Nokia and Bird, and the rest are from Hanhai Mobile Phones, and we have to reserve 10 of them.
% as maintenance, what’s left is not much.”
Chen Xiao nodded. In fact, such screen inventory is within the ideal range.
But the other party suddenly cuts off the supply, which is an unexpected risk.
Jobs looked a little unhappy.
He himself is a very picky person.
Therefore, after constant weighing, the screen of Hanhai mobile phone was selected to be supplied by Sharp, and it is Sharp's high-end screen.
Now there is a problem with Sharp's supply. When it comes to high-end screen choices, only Samsung screens are left.
Some domestic companies do have the ability to produce LED screens, but the quality and color expression of the screens are far behind those of overseas companies.
Of course, there is a helpless choice, to find Wanwan Company - AUO.
Jobs gave his own advice.
"Although AUO's screen and quality are worse than Sharp's, they are barely usable." Jobs said: "But personally, I don't really want to use AUO's screen, because this low-end screen can only
If used on mid-to-low-end mobile phones, if used on Hanhai mobile phones, it will definitely lower the reputation of Hanhai mobile phones and cause a bad impact."
Wang Xiang has dealt with companies in the Wanwan area. He had several rounds of back and forth with TiMC, and he is very clear about the moral character of these companies.
Compared to Japanese companies, their bones are softer.
Wang Xiang had some bad premonitions: "I'm worried that AUO will also cut off supply to us."
"There are several screen suppliers in China, but we have inspected them and found that the technology is indeed not up to standard and the quality is too poor."
"Even if we inject capital now, investing in these screen manufacturers to purchase equipment and develop technology will take a very long time."
Everyone looked at Chen Xiao, waiting for Chen Xiao's decision.
Chen Xiao said: "Actually, we have three options to choose from."
"The first one is to acquire a domestic screen production company and reach a technology transfer agreement with Sharp. We can provide Sharp with enough funds to let him share the technology with us, and we promise that the technology will only be used for the screens of Hanhai Technology series mobile phones.
Production depends on whether Sharp is willing, and of course it also depends on how much pressure the United States puts on Sharp."
"Second, we need AUO to increase supply. The screen gap is a little bit worse, but we can survive for a while. We can make up for it to consumers through other ways. But AUO is also an uncertain factor."