Chapter 1237: Floating Sony

The temperature in Tokyo in November is suitable and relatively dry.

Fang Zhuo was in a very good mood when he came to this city again this time, so he got up early the next morning, took a simple walk around the hotel, and bought a few Japanese newspapers.

Without exception, the front pages of these newspapers were all about the recent turmoil in Japanese companies.

Compared with the enthusiasm and casualness on the Internet, the tone of local media in Tokyo is very serious. Fang Zhuo does not understand Japanese, but he can see the dark-toned logos of Toshiba or Sony quoted on the page.

After the assistant translated, he felt a more solemn and bleak atmosphere.

WikiLeaks' ill intentions are naturally criticized, but now the company heads and CEOs named have also been pulled out one by one for negative comments, such as Takata's Shigehisa Takada, Olympus's Kikukawa Tsuyoshi, Kobe Steel's Kawasaki Hiroshi...

These big men and heads of giant companies who were once highly respected seem to have fallen from grace overnight. They used to give instructions on global industry views when they were interviewed by the media, but now, when they see the media's camera, they want to hide in the company or car.

"Face the reality, there is no point in escaping!"

"They should be punished more severely!"

"We have witnessed the sinking of commercial aircraft carriers!"

In addition to pulling these figures onto the pages, criticizing the system and culture, criticizing this and that, the media tried to find all factors that could explain this fraud incident.

Fang Zhuo carefully observed the reflections of the Japanese media, thinking that he might be able to borrow them for use.

The temporary shareholders' meeting was held in the afternoon, and in the morning was a small meeting to decide the final submission of the list. Participants included some shareholder representatives, board directors and group executives.

Yes, although the meeting is imminent, the board of directors has not yet handed over a complete list of senior executives.

Stringer's voluntary resignation and the fraud scandal of Japanese companies disrupted everything. Coupled with the resignation of external directors during his term, the functions of the board of directors have essentially disappeared.

As of today, there are only two people left to compete for the CEO.

One is the old man Nakabachi Ryoji who once competed with Stringer for the CEO, and the other is Ishida Yoshihisa, one of the "Sony Four Musketeers". As for the other one, Yoshioka Hiroshi, who also has status and qualifications...

In the communication between Fang Zhuo and shareholder representatives, everyone really had no confidence in pushing a person in charge of a business with a loss of at least 2 billion US dollars to the position of CEO, so he was naturally out.

Also noticed by some shareholders was Kazuo Hirai, who has always been well-received, but his appearance was jointly resisted by Nakabachi, Ishida and Yoshioka Hiroshi, and the former's subjective initiative was drowned in the water.

However, Fang Zhuo didn't care much about whether it was Nakabachi Ryoji or Ishida Yoshihisa, but some shareholders and senior executives of Sony were very entangled.

Sony's equity is very dispersed. The largest shareholder now is the American Depository Receipt Company Moxley and Company, which represents the stock trustee of JPMorgan Chase, and did not attend this meeting.

The second largest shareholder is the American BlackRock Group, but it only holds 6.27%, followed by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, which holds 5.7%, and then Nomura Securities, which holds 5.01%.

Below 5%, there are Sony Financial Holdings, Pioneer Investments, Toyota Motor, Sumitomo Insurance, State Street Investments, etc.

Not only Sony, many large companies in Japan have dispersed equity in this way, and they have cross-holdings with each other, resulting in a situation where the management rights belong to the company itself, but if a crisis really occurs, they can work together to ensure the dominant position.

However, this time, Sony... Stringer, who walked away, did leave a mess that caught people off guard.

At present, some media commented that the two British people, Stringer and Woodford, hurt everyone and jointly started the shocking fraud storm led by Sony and Olympus.

Before the meeting in the morning, Fang Zhuo made a long-distance call to chat with Stringer, the head of Sony.

Stringer has told Kazuo Hirai that he has no chance to take the position this time because there are too many objections, and Kazuo Hirai has no choice but to accept it.

"Is it Chubachi or Ishida?" At this time, Stringer couldn't help asking about the final nomination.

"I communicated with people from BlackRock, Vanguard Investments, and State Street Investments last night, but they couldn't make up their minds. The situation in Japan is not very clear either. Maybe they really have to draw lots." Fang Zhuo said the most practical situation.

Sony officially announced that it would hold a shareholders' meeting and reform the company to deal with the crisis. It only sounded orderly in the announcement, but there was still no unified opinion internally. It was a mess before, and now it is probably half a mess.

Stringer was silent for a while: "If I had known, I wouldn't have been so anxious to resign."

"If I had known, you would have just honestly done your job at Sony America, that would have been better than now." Fang Zhuo said.

Stringer sighed, who could have thought of that.

The nomination meeting was not held at Sony headquarters, but in a hotel.

When Fang Zhuo led people into the meeting room, almost everyone had arrived. Judging from the scene alone, the shareholder representatives of foreign investment such as the United States and the local Japanese shareholder representatives were clearly distinguished.

Fang Zhuo nodded to the people who greeted him, then hesitated for a few seconds and pointed to the reserved seat, saying with a smile: "Are you sure I should sit here?"

The seat reserved for shareholder representatives and group executives is the main seat at the long table.

Although Fang Zhuo is not unfamiliar with such a position, this is not Yike, it is Sony.

"Please, Mr. Fang." Nakabachi Ryoji stood up and bowed, inviting Fang Zhuo, an external director of Sony, to take a seat.

Fang Zhuo had no choice. If he continued like this, he would really become the chairman of Sony.

He nodded, sat down directly, and gave the warning he gave that year: "There is not much time left for Sony."

After saying this, Fang Zhuo pointed to his watch: "There are still 5 hours."

Yes, that's what he meant.

The shareholders' meeting is at 3 pm.

Nakabachi Ryoji glanced at Ishida Yoshihisa casually, and Ishida Yoshihisa also looked over.

Fang Zhuo opened the file and used Sony's self-reported financial situation as a starting point: "Mr. Stringer has resigned, Ms. Katsumi Ihara has also resigned, Sony is missing a CEO and CFO, and they have been responsible for Sony's poor situation."

"But when I know the estimated loss figure for Sony this year, I have to think that it is not enough for them to be responsible alone."

Fang Zhuo paused and said: "7.5 billion US dollars."

The meeting room was silent.

Fang Zhuo gave his own evaluation: "Awesome."

In addition to the $2.4 billion deferred tax asset write-down, the TV, computer, consumer electronics and other businesses still lost $5.1 billion.

Hoyle, the senior vice president of BlackRock Group, spoke out on behalf of this time, expressing the feelings of many shareholders: "This is an unacceptable number. I thought I would see someone disemboweling for this."

Fleming, another American Pioneer Investment, laughed and said: "Stringer is not Japanese."

Hoyle glanced at the Japanese executive sitting opposite him with a bad look. Stringer is not, isn't there a group of them here?

Ryoji Nakabachi and Yoshihisa Ishida both felt restless. Hiroshi Yoshioka, who was sitting a little further away, couldn't help swallowing his saliva. His business had the biggest loss at Sony this year...

"Hey, what are you talking about? Sony has reached the bottom. I believe it will rebound after this storm." Fang Zhuo was sitting in the main seat and had the obligation to change the subject. "Stinger has resigned. Whether it's Nakabachi or Ishida, they are Sony people who value the company more than themselves. This time, they are also betting on their personal reputations."

Hoyle looked at the two Japanese, opened his mouth to speak, but took back the impulse. Why do these two seem so ordinary?

He turned to look at Mr. Fang and suggested: "Mr. Fang, why don't you be the CEO?"

When this was said, many people nodded slightly. Mr. Fang might be better than these two Japanese at Sony in two years.

Fang Zhuo smiled and asked Nakabachi Ryoji, "What do you think, Mr. Nakabachi?"

Nakabachi Ryoji was stunned. He didn't really mean that...

"Foreign aid can't save Sony. Facts have proved that it still needs people who understand Sony better to save it." Fang Zhuo smiled, "Mr. Nakabachi, Mr. Ishida, Sony still depends on your unity."

As he said this, he opened two lists of senior executives selected by Nakabachi Ryoji and Ishida Yoshihisa. Both of them wanted to help their own people get on the horse and pull down the other's people. It can be said that they are very united.