Extraordinary Genius

Chapter 685 – The fire spread to home Part 2 of 2

The President of Panasonic arrived at work and asked his assistant: “Have the newspapers we control, report about the uproar caused by Sony, Toshiba, and those companies in China?”

“Yes. Not only our papers but many other newspapers had also reported this matter. Also, we have arranged for the afternoon news to broadcast yesterday’s episode of CCTV popular news program. The episode shows all the negative news about Toshiba, Sony and the rest.” The Assistant replied, excitedly.

Panasonic and Sony were competitors, and Panasonic was ahead of those 4 companies once. But now, all 4 companies were doing better than Panasonic. Now, those companies were in trouble, and this was an excellent opportunity for Panasonic.

If the politician behind those 4 companies had not won and gave them special treatments, how can these 4 companies develop so fast?

This incident had blown up. Not only the share prices of those 4 companies will fall, the politician who was backing them will also be implicated. This was the opportunity for Panasonic to rise to the top again and beat Sony, Toshiba, and many other companies.

This was why when Aiwa’s Heitaro Nakajima represented Feng Yu contacted the President of Panasonic and wanted him to target Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies through the media, he was tempted.

Aiwa also told him that they will give them the authorization of a related patent and he agreed immediately.

Just getting Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies into trouble were enough for Panasonic to agree. Also, Panasonic feels that those companies were too much.

It was still acceptable if those companies were to take China’s resources. But to pollute the environment and disregarded the injured workers, it was too much. They had disgrace all Japanese. Those factories could also make money by producing products without damaging the environment. Why must they pollute the environment? Even if they had to destroy the environment, they must not let others find out. Even if they were caught, they must also find a good excuse, like the local authorities gave them permission or other countries’ factories were doing the same.

The other countries’ factories in China did not cause heavy pollution? Yes, they did. But the damages caused by them were not as serious.

Actually, Toshiba and the other factories had covered up this matter thoroughly. They had taken care of the local authorities. But now, they were being exposed, and it was specifically targeting them.

Heitaro Nakajima had not only contacted Panasonic. He had also contacted several big corporations in Japan. Those companies were all members of the DVD Forum. They were promised some benefits in return for them to get the media under their control to spread about this incident.

Those companies got some benefits, and at the same time, they will be able to suppress their competitors and widen the gap between them. DVD alliance and DVD forum were still competing for the industry standards. If the reputation of those 4 companies were affected by this incident, their progress would be delayed.

Profits. What those companies wanted were profits. Brand image or company’s reputations were only some minor reasons for them to help Feng Yu. Their main goal was the profits that will arise from getting Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies into trouble.

All the companies wanted the authorization for DVD technologies. The prospects of the DVD was good, and all of them wanted a slice of the profits.

Although the pie was big, if one less person were sharing, the rest would get bigger slices.

This was why all those companies were willing to join in, and rain blows on Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies. At the same time, the companies were able to increase their brand image. This was a good thing for them, and how can they miss this opportunity?

……

“Panasonic had issued a statement on the pollution caused by Toshiba and some companies in China. No companies should do this in any other countries. Toshiba, Sony, and the other two companies had brought shame to Japan for their actions in China. They should apologize immediately and stop denying their actions.”

“Aiwa’s President Heitaro Nakajima said that Aiwa’s Walkman was able to beat Sony and Aiwa’s CD players were able to catch up with them, is not only because Aiwa’s products are better. It is also because Aiwa’s brand image is better than Sony and had treated every employee as one big family.”

“We can see that after news of Toshiba and the other companies polluting the environment were picked up by many other European and US media, many reporters were sent to contact the companies involved. But the President of Toshiba and the other companies were nowhere to be seen.

“Are they keeping silence to hide their guilt? None of the companies involved have come out to clarify the news reported on China’s media. From the pictures and footages, we can see the logos of those companies.”

…….

By noon, this incident was reported all over Japan’s media. This incident had even overshadowed the news of some politicians.

This incident was blown out of proportion was because of Panasonic and several other companies. Fu Rongqi also used his connections to add fuel to the fire. To suppress a company’s share prices, the simplest way was to let this company lose its credibility and make the shareholders lose confidence with the company. This way, the shareholders will dump all the shares they were holding, and the share prices will plummet.

The Fu Family have many distribution channels in many regions. Because they often had to advertise their products, they had good relationships with the media in that region. With a small sum of money, they could easily get those media to report this incident.

When people start to notice this news, the rest of the media will begin to report on this incident for free. This was because this news will attract views and can bring profits to the media.

Also, many countries hate Japan. This was mainly because the Japanese were arrogant by nature, and Japanese companies were too greedy. This was a chance to discredit Japanese Companies and even tarnish Japan’s image. How can they miss this opportunity?

Late afternoon, there was another piece of news that caused Japan to panic.

Superman Li, the king of seaports, announced that his company’s ports will not do business with Toshiba, Sony and some other companies. The reason given was…… Everyone should know the reason.

This “everyone should know the reason” was the reason given by Superman Li. What’s the real meaning behind this statement? Many people were guessing, but everyone believes that the main reason was that Hong Kong was going to be returned to China, and Superman Li wants to take this opportunity to suck up to the Chinese Government.

But no matter what Superman Li meant by that statement, Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies’ share prices plunged further after this news was released. All the shareholders felt that the transportation cost of these companies will rise and they will lose the vast Chinese market. Also, the factories in China will be shut down, and the production capabilities of those companies will be affected, and their production cost will increase further. This will cause the companies to have reduced profits, and they might even go into the red.

Under such circumstances, who would want to continue holding the shares of these companies?

……

Snapped!

Norio Ohga snapped the pen in his hands. How come things turned out this way?!