Chapter 2177: Frustrated Corning

For some well-known reasons, even when the New Year holiday is approaching, Wendell Weeks, the president of Corning who has been in office for nearly two years, is not happy at all.

In fact, compared with the situation faced by his predecessor Horton, Weeks' current situation is much better.

Horton's main task during his term was to exhaust all means to make the company profitable again.

Weeks actually had a direct experience of how difficult that task was. He was the chairman of Corning's management committee at the time.

In Weeks' view, Horton led Corning to achieve that goal in an incredible way.

The current situation of Corning led by Weeks is very optimistic, especially the multimode optical fiber with leading technology developed by them, which has been widely welcomed since its launch in 2005.

Since he took office, Corning's progress in the field of glass has also been quite gratifying, and more than 100 important patents have been applied for.

New products produced based on these new technologies, such as polarized glass and gradient refractive index lenses, are also welcomed by the market.

The success of these new products has enabled Corning's revenue to grow significantly.

However, there are some things that no one can imagine.

Horton's plan to revitalize Corning included selling some seemingly redundant technical patents. At that time, Vickers also agreed to this plan. After all, as a company with a long history, they had a lot of patents that looked good but were actually useless.

It was a very good choice to remove some inapplicable patents in exchange for the funds that Corning urgently needed at the time.

This approach is not without precedent in Corning's history.

But Vickers never expected that some of their seemingly correct and reasonable choices at the time would now bring such a big regret.

Although Apple is still taking various measures to keep the content of their press conference confidential, in fact, for the industry and some people, Apple's press conference will not release Apple TV, but an unprecedented mobile phone.

After all, in today's society, it is a very difficult thing to maintain complete confidentiality, especially the mobile phone that Apple is about to release, which is a product that requires the cooperation of many companies.

Although Apple's people still regret it, many manufacturers of accessories and some manufacturers who have mastered the key technologies required for Apple's mobile phone will always leak some news.

Including the fact that they wanted to put Yahoo Mail, Google Search, and Facebook into their phone, more people in Silicon Valley knew about this.

Especially Cingular and Singular, wireless operators that have reached a cooperation agreement with Apple, launched a music service in the fourth quarter of 2006, where any song and ringtone can be downloaded for $15. At that time, a senior executive of Singular said in an interview that Singular's music and entertainment services will be centered on Apple's products in the future.

This can be said to have further increased everyone's speculation that Apple is developing a mobile phone.

So even though Apple has not yet given up on this issue, as long as you Google it, you will find that the relevant news is overwhelming.

In fact, since the fourth quarter, some Corning employees in Corning have been discussing with great regret that the company missed the opportunity to become a panel supplier for Apple's mysterious new mobile phone because it sold a patent a few years ago, or even completely missed this new business opportunity.

The reason why this is a new business opportunity is that everyone knows that once Apple releases a mobile phone that is different from all existing mobile phones, then just like when Apple released the first personal computer, other manufacturers will definitely follow up quickly.

Originally, with Apple's strict requirements for suppliers, after becoming an Apple supplier, it would be logical for them to become suppliers of other mobile phone manufacturers, but now it seems that this opportunity will be completely out of their reach.

This rumor was actually known to Vickers and some executives in the middle of the year, and it was indeed true.

Because at that time, Apple had implicitly asked them related questions, "Does Corning have technology close to Gorilla Glass now? Or how long will it take to develop a technology close to Gorilla Glass and produce finished products?"

Because whether in terms of cost or supply stability, Apple is naturally unwilling to let an important component be controlled by a supporting supplier.

Unfortunately, Corning itself does not currently have similar technology.

The emergence of Gorilla Glass, like the emergence of penicillin, is a beautiful mistake - now it seems that for Corning, this mistake is not a beautiful one.

So there is no similar product in their product line.

In addition, this kind of glass had no sales at all at that time, otherwise Corning would not have shelved this technology, and naturally did not waste more resources on research and development on such technology that had no sales.

What is even more annoying is that the agreement signed by the lucky Feng with Corning fully took this issue into consideration. The agreement has very strict provisions for Corning to develop similar competing products.

To put it in another way, it is like they designed a very scientific and complete patent solution, which almost blocked Corning's idea of ​​developing similar new technologies based on the results of that technology.

According to Vickers' judgment, Feng Yiping should have paid a very large fee to the law firm that drafted the agreement for that perfect agreement.

For Kang Ning at the time, they interpreted this as Feng Yiping's caution. After all, no one wants to become a fool.

A front-runner bought a patent at a high price, and the back-foot seller immediately came up with a fool who had a similar patent.

Now it seems that Mr. Feng is obviously not only cautious, but also does not want to become a fool after spending tens of millions of dollars to acquire a technology patent. He obviously has a premonition about this, or in other words , he does have unusual good luck.

In short, Corning’s attempt to develop related new products was blocked by Feng Yiping. Because of Feng Yiping’s strength and influence in both China and the United States, even in the face of the temptation to become the most popular supplier in a new field, Feng Yiping It is impossible for Corning to ignore the original agreement.

Because obviously, they will definitely not be able to sue for relevant lawsuits. With Feng Yiping's influence, if Corning dares to do such a thing, then in a very short time, their behavior will be known to the world. Corning's image will be severely negatively affected.

In fact, because of Feng Yiping's influence in China, their business in Greater China may be hit. Although Corning invested in China in the 1990s, Corning's senior management still has such an outdated view of China. know.

That is to say, on this issue, resorting to rogue tactics is obviously unrealistic, so the only feasible way is to hope to cooperate with Feng Yiping.

What is even more difficult for Vickers and others to accept is that it was recently confirmed by Corning's Greater China headquarters: Feng Yiping's optical industrial park in China is indeed relying on Gorilla Glass technology, and the overtime production seems to be larger than the current one. Some have iPod-sized glass.

It must be the glass used for Apple mobile phones.

After learning the news, Vickers immediately instructed Eric Musser, head of Corning Greater China, to contact Jiasheng and Feng Yiping to explore the possibility of the two companies continuing to cooperate on this technology.

Whether it is establishing a joint venture or cooperating on technology, these are options Corning is willing to do.

Especially the latter option, the Vickers are particularly confident.

Because even on a global scale, Corning's accumulation and scientific research strength in this field are unmatched.

But unfortunately, so far, they still have not been able to contact Feng Yiping, not even Jin Ling.

“Relevant departments at the GAIN Capital headquarters have never agreed to our request for a meeting,” Eric Musser reported to Vickers by phone from Corning’s Greater China headquarters in the Jinqiao Export Processing Zone.

"Feng Yiping is so well-known in China, how come there are no reports about his whereabouts?" Vickers said angrily, "Eric, after they successfully supply Apple, if we want to cooperate with them, we will only It’s even harder, don’t you know this yet?”

"After all these years in China, we haven't been able to get Feng Yiping's contact information?"

Eric Musser, who had hit the wall many times in Jiaqiang, couldn't help but reply to Vickers, "In that case, can you tell me the contact information of Bill Gates or Jobs now? Or, Bill Where is Gates now?"

Who is Feng Yiping? He is in China, just like Bill Gates is in the United States. Let alone contact information, if they want to keep it secret, how can the outside world know their whereabouts?

There was a brief silence on the phone.

Soon, the two people said, "Sorry," almost at the same time.

They all understand each other's mood.

Because of the original acquisition of the patent and the well-designed agreement, Feng Yiping did not become a fool, but Corning and the two of them are now on the road to becoming fools.

Let’s not say how much Corning will lose in the future for the original 10 million. Think about it. It is very likely that many people in the United States and China will point at their backs and laugh at them as a fool. , this is really not something that makes them happy.

“I found a way from Apple to help contact Feng Yiping,” Vickers said.

“I’m also looking at other options,” Eric Musser said.

…………

After hanging up the phone, Vickers stood in front of the window, looking at the town that could be said to belong to Corning and the still lush forest outside the town. His mood was still not cheerful at all.

You can act like a hooligan, but you don’t dare. If you want to talk about cooperation in a serious way, people won’t give you a chance.

well!

I don’t know how much discussion about management’s short-sightedness is circulating in town with this breeze just now.

But this cannot be blamed on the company's employees. It is really because of how successful Feng Yiping is now, how failed the senior management headed by him is now.

He thought for a while and made a call to the management committee, "I hope to establish a new committee now. The main work of this committee is to analyze the prospects of all our patents, mainly those that are currently shelved. I The requirements must be specific to each patent,”

"I hope to see the first report after the New Year holiday,"

"Yes, this means that this committee will work during the New Year holiday. Do you think I will still care about this now?" He said angrily.

At Corning's Greater China headquarters, Eric Muser also gave his subordinates a task, "Contact the heads of these investment departments now,"

The last public report they knew about Feng Yiping was his participation in the provincial forum, and Eric Musser asked his men to contact the investment promotion departments of Feng Yiping's provincial capital and Feng Yiping's city.

He believed that if he used investment as an excuse, he would definitely be able to get some information from the investment promotion department.

What they didn't know was that Feng Yiping was also talking about them at this time.

"Mr. Feng," Pan Shimin immediately approached Feng Yiping after the meeting.

"It looks like he is very motivated," Feng Yiping said with a smile.

"You should say, there is a lot of pressure," Pan Shimin said, "I already have a lot of work on hand, okay?"

"How about I find someone to share your worries?" Feng Yiping said.

"Although you, the boss, put some unkind pressure on me, I still want to challenge you," Pan Shimin said immediately.

"But Mr. Feng, I need your support for something. I have contacted the person in charge of the Institute of Optics. His opinion is, if possible, can we recruit experts from Corning? After all, in this field , Corning’s level is first-rate,”

"This is not good," Feng Yiping said. "You know the origin of our technology, so you should also be able to understand Corning's current mood."

Under such circumstances, he felt that poaching people from Kang Ning would be too bullying.