On December 4, 2003, Sugon Technology announced a news that successfully shocked the world as soon as it came out!
On this day, Sugon Technology officially announced that it had successfully acquired the camera and imaging division of the Japanese company Minolta for US$340 million.
And from now on, Sugon Technology and Minolta will reach a deeper and mutually beneficial cooperation. In the future, at least half of Sugon Technology's chip production will use masks produced by Minolta!
The Minolta Company in this island country had little reputation in its previous life, but in fact, this company's historical performance is not much weaker than that of Nikang and Cani in the island country.
But time is also destiny. Although this company's achievements in history and history are not much weaker than those of Nikang and Cani, its longevity does not mean that it will become the final winner.
When the era shifted from film cameras to digital cameras, Minolta was always slow to respond. The most delicious cakes had already been eaten up by manufacturers such as Nicon, Canon, Soni, Olympus, Fuji and so on. .
Under such circumstances, Minolta was not content with being ordinary, and realized that there was no hope in the field of digital cameras.
They also directly entered the industrial and medical measuring instrument industry and office equipment industry.
As for what office equipment is, this naturally involves making scanners, printers, copiers and other office equipment.
Not to mention that after Minolta entered these two industries, they did quite well in these two sub-industries, and even had a little money to support their camera and imaging division.
But according to history, they actually can't hold on for long.
Because in January 2006, they were completely unable to sustain long-term losses, and finally sold the camera and imaging division to Soni.
This directly strengthened the strength of Soni's SLR cameras and imaging business, making Soni even stronger.
At this time, Sugon Technology spent US$340 million to directly acquire the camera and digital imaging division of this century-old company. The sensation it caused was no less than a bomb dropped in the global camera industry and the media circles of island countries.
Although the current Minonta Company is no longer the Minonda Company of a hundred years ago, or even the Minonda Company of decades ago. The current Minonta Company has become a third-rate camera manufacturer in the world, but this company has a long history. !
For a time, news readers around the world were discussing, surprised and curious about this incident.
Then the media and news readers on the island country were filled with voices of anger, opposition, protest and disagreement.
In this regard, this weird attitude of the island country's media and people has naturally attracted the attention of many foreign netizens. They have discussed on the Internet and are curious about what is happening with the island country's media.
Didn’t Sugon Technology just acquire a world-class third-rate camera manufacturer? Is it necessary for the media and people in the island country to behave so excessively?
Overseas netizens were confused, saying that there was no need for the media and people in the island country to be so extreme.
Didn't Sugon Technology acquire Nikang, Canon, Soni, Fuji and other camera brands? Is it necessary to be so drastic?
In this regard, how do overseas netizens know about the grievances and disputes between Daxia and the island countries?
In the eyes of some people, Sugon Technology's acquisition of Minolta, a century-old camera company in the island country, is an attempt to go online.
However, regardless of whether the island country’s media and people agree or oppose it, Sugon Technology and Minolta have signed an acquisition contract.
Now it is just announcing the news to the outside world, and their opposition and approval have no effect.
At this time, after Sugon Technology acquired Minolta's camera and imaging division, Sugon Technology's hard power in the field of camera lenses was far inferior to that of Nikang, Canon, Soni, Fuji and other brands.
But I have to admit that the US$340 million was well spent, because the US$340 million spent gave Sugon Technology the best possible start!
There are many industries in the world. If Daxia companies have the opportunity to enter this industry, they will definitely make the overseas giants in the industry vomit blood.
But unfortunately, there is something called a patent barrier in this world. Under the blockade of this patent barrier, even if you have the strength to produce and research and develop.
But because you don’t have the authorization for the key technology patent, you just can’t produce that thing and enter the industry.
Take the computer field as an example. In the previous life, Daxia actually had the ability to develop CPU processors that were not inferior to Intel and .D Corporation.
But unfortunately, the licensing of the X86 instruction set is firmly controlled by Intel and .D.
They are unwilling to sell X86 instruction set patent licenses to domestic companies.
This has led to the fact that although Daxia companies have the ability to develop excellent domestic CPU processors, they have no way to enter this field.
This all shows the importance of technology patents and the horror of patent barriers.
When others use patents to form a patent barrier, it is really difficult for you to enter the industry without patent authorization.
At this time, Sugon Technology actually spent US$340 million to buy a camera and imaging division without actually losing money.
Most of the US$340 million purchased were actually used to purchase technology patents, and the value of the factory equipment was not that great.
Therefore, Minengda's technology patents are the most valuable, although Sugon Technology can directly purchase other people's patent licenses.
But is it really possible to buy a full license for all technologies? Even if you can buy it, it is not a complete technical patent authorization.
Because it is impossible for an electronic product to have all its own technologies, it will inevitably use other people’s basic patents.
In this case, in order to avoid patent disputes, global companies will reach compromises with other companies, eventually forming a patent cross-licensing situation.
These cross-licensed patents are usually only used by the manufacturers themselves and cannot sell the technology patents obtained through cross-licensing to third parties.
Therefore, acquisition is the simplest thing. You can directly obtain the technology patents owned by the acquirer itself, and you can also obtain technology patent authorizations obtained through cross-licensing.
This is also the reason why global companies spend more money to acquire companies directly instead of specifically acquiring patent licenses.
Of course, people at this time did not know that one of the patents in the camera and imaging division acquired by Sugon Technology was very valuable, and it could be said to be able to choke other camera and lens manufacturers, making them miserable.
What is this patent?
This patent is the built-in CCD body anti-shake technology developed by Minolta just this year. It officially opened the long debate on whether OIS lens anti-shake or IBIS body anti-shake is better.
That’s right, Minolta is the inventor of IBIS, an anti-shake device, and it was invented this year too! (End of chapter)
