Morita Shōfu pondered for a moment, deciding to see what Xing Baohua had to say before weighing the options.

So he asked his secretary to find a Chinese translator.

After the translation was completed, I called Xing Baohua back.

Xing Baohua answered the phone, but to her surprise, the other party spoke in broken Chinese.

Fortunately, the person introducing himself was the translator for President Morita.

Xing Baohua didn't care about these things and just asked the translator to tell President Morita: Does Sony have 50 billion US dollars?

After hearing the translator's words, old man Morita was clearly stunned. Why did he ask this right away?

The natural response was: "Nani!"

"Why?" the translator asked Xing Baohua over the phone.

"No reason needed. Just tell him if we have 50 billion US dollars. If we do, prepare to retain our Sony shares. I will launch a hostile takeover bid for all of Sony Group's listed companies."

Xing Baohua stated frankly.

Finally, Morita repeated the same thing: Nani.

If the translation is returned, then why?

"..." Xing Baohua was speechless. Such an obvious threat, and they still asked why?

If you Sony don't mess with me, why would I bother scaring you? If I had the means, I wouldn't need to threaten you over the phone; I would have done it already.

Left with no other option, Xing Baohua could only intimidate the other party with a threatening tone, preventing them from interfering with his acquisition of Columbia Pictures.

If he couldn't scare them, Xing Baohua wouldn't let them acquire the property.

At worst, we can go head-to-head with Sony and force them to allocate funds to market rescue efforts, since we don't have much money left to acquire Columbia.

Morita Shōo feigned ignorance and was unable to communicate.

Then let the middleman step in. Xing Baohua felt there was no need to communicate with Morita anymore, so he hung up the phone and called Mitsui Tousaburo.

Mitsui Fujisaburo received a call from Xing Baohua and learned the whole story during the conversation. Xing Baohua was in the process of acquiring Columbia Pictures, and the contract had just been signed when Sony interfered. Anyone would be anxious in that situation.

After understanding the whole story, Mitsui Fujisaburo said he would help Xing Baohua communicate with Sony Morita as soon as possible.

What level is he? He definitely can't speak to Morita directly; he can only ask an important figure from the Mitsui Group to intervene.

In the afternoon, Morita Shōo received a call from an important figure in the Mitsui Group, who told him: "Xing Baohua's mention of 50 billion US dollars is a full-scale attack on Sony's global business, not a genuine attempt to acquire Sony. Moreover, he is the kind of person who usually does what he says."

"Sony didn't specifically target him; we just quoted a price for Happy Water. It's a normal business offer. Are we going to attack other companies for this? Isn't that too domineering?"

Morita Shōo also expressed his dissatisfaction.

It's fair to say that the most profitable sectors in Japan right now are electronics, especially small personal electronics.

Sony also has too much money to burn, and it's been acquiring companies all over the world.

We don't have 50 billion, but we do have 20 or 30 billion!

A senior executive from the Mitsui Group said to President Morita, "I don't think Sony needs to provoke him. If you really don't want to acquire Columbia, then quickly call Happy Water and explain the misunderstanding. Don't delay Xing's signing the contract the day after tomorrow."

What if it causes a delay?

"Sony will suffer severe retaliation. If you are confident that you can take them down, Mitsui Bank will fully support you financially! But in a battle between two tigers, one will inevitably be injured. I don't think Sony needs to fight for pride right now."