Chapter 184

Yet for such a century-old company, Lin Yi had no clear plan.

Moreover, as far as he knew, although Panasonic had been declining in recent years,

and its market share in Longguo had been sliding, it still maintained numerous production bases there.

Its industries involved flat-screen TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, and more.

At least tens of thousands of Longguo people relied on this enterprise for their livelihood.

Therefore, if Lin Yi intended to retaliate against Panasonic, he had best avoid affecting these people's livelihoods.

"Investigate first before acting!"

Lin Yi thought thus.

However, as the market recovered, Fengyi Technology's production lines became busy once again.

Yet soon, the people of Longguo noticed that while they could previously purchase Chaoba batteries on Alibaba's Taobao, Tmall, and other platforms,

now that Alibaba's platforms had delisted Chaoba batteries, they had not been relisted.

What did Alibaba mean by this? Were they preparing to oppose the state media?

However, soon Fengyi Technology issued a statement on its official website,

declaring that none of its future products would be listed on any Alibaba-affiliated platforms.

If any Fengyi products appeared on Alibaba-affiliated platforms,

Fengyi Technology would have reason to believe their distribution channels were illegal,

and in such cases, Fengyi Company would cancel all after-sales services, including the "three guarantees," for those products.

With the issuance of this statement,

Fengyi Technology also filed a lawsuit with the Songjiang District Court in Modu,

alleging that Alibaba had arbitrarily delisted Fengyi Technology's products without investigation or prior notice,

severely damaging the company's reputation and causing enormous losses.

Fengyi's demands were that Alibaba must issue a formal apology to the company

and compensate for losses amounting to 100 million yuan.

Upon receiving this lawsuit, the Songjiang District Court in Modu immediately accepted the case,

and on the same day, served a summons to Alibaba's headquarters in Hangcheng.

When Alibaba received the summons, they were stunned; they had never expected a battery company like Fengyi Technology to be so unyielding.

They had directly filed a lawsuit against Alibaba itself.

In fact, after the state media, especially the military, intervened, Alibaba immediately realized the opponent was not to be trifled with,

and promptly quietly relisted all of Fengyi Technology's products.

Who could have expected that the other party would simply close their store and walk away?

Furthermore, their official statement declared they would never cooperate with Alibaba again.

It was only then that Alibaba realized the gravity of the situation.

As this lawsuit made headlines, the news reached Old Ma,

and this man, whose face resembled an alien's, flew into a rage on the spot.

"Who did this? Who authorized you to do this!"

Jack Ma demanded of his senior executives.

Previously, Jack Ma might not have cared much about an emerging battery enterprise like Fengyi Technology,

after all, its influence was limited; so what if Fengyi Technology's products were no longer sold on Taobao?

But now, with the news emerging that Fengyi Technology was a Longguo equipment manufacturer,

the implications were entirely different.

Alibaba might not fear Fengyi, but did they not need to worry about the military behind them?

Did they believe that if Jack Ma provoked the military,

the military would dare to directly seal up Alibaba the very next day?

And they could guarantee that even the Hangcheng government would not dare to interfere.

Ultimately, matters concerning the defense industry outweigh everything else; regardless of anything else, all must yield to this.

Of course, this was the most extreme scenario; under normal circumstances, the military would not seal up Alibaba.

However, the fact remained that Alibaba had provoked Fengyi Technology.

Since Fengyi Technology was a partner of the military, this equated to Alibaba indirectly provoking the military.

No wonder Jack Ma was flying into a rage.

As a result, an Alibaba vice president responsible for the matter stated:

"This was done on behalf of Mr. Sun!?"

"On behalf of Mr. Sun!!"

Jack Ma naturally knew who this Mr. Sun referred to;

undoubtedly, it was Sun Sun Zhenyi, Alibaba's major shareholder,

except he was a Korean-Japanese individual.

However, the representative he had dispatched to Alibaba was a genuine Japanese person.

Well! Jack Ma roughly understood what was happening.

After all, rumors were rampant online that this matter was orchestrated by the Japanese multinational corporation Panasonic.

Given Panasonic's status in Japan and within the electrical industry,

getting a Japanese person to obey their orders was extremely simple.

Thus, Jack Ma immediately reported the matter to Sun Sun Zhenyi and simultaneously dismissed that vice president from their post.

In response, Sun Sun Zhenyi expressed great shock.

He immediately recalled his representative in Dragon Country back domestically; as for whether any punishment followed, that remained unknown.

Meanwhile, Jack Ma now faced a heap of messes to clean up.

With the news released on Fengyi Technology's official website and the summons issued by the Songjiang Court in Magic City,

many netizens and media outlets instantly became excited.

Fengyi Technology was clearly preparing to go to war with Alibaba!

On Alibaba's side, they promptly held a press conference to explain:

"This incident resulted from the negligence of certain staff members; our company has already relieved that staff member of their duties,

and for this, we express our apologies to Fengyi Technology for what they have endured!"

However, the reporters, well-informed as they were, had no interest in hearing such statements and immediately asked:

"I heard this was demanded by Alibaba's Japanese shareholders; is there any truth to that?"

"No, this was merely a mistake by an Alibaba employee!"

"I heard this matter originated with Japan's Panasonic; does Alibaba have any comment on this...?"

"No comment; we at Alibaba are unaware of these matters; please refrain from baseless speculation..."

But the netizens would not accept this.

They unanimously condemned Alibaba for colluding with Japan to suppress an outstanding Dragon Country enterprise.

Were they preparing to become Japan's lapdogs?

Jack Ma deeply understood the impact of this affair; one misstep, and both he and Alibaba would be branded traitors.

Thus, he asked someone to find Lin Yi's contact number.

"Mr. Lin, for the sake of my, Old Ma's, reputation, please withdraw the lawsuit; there is no need to escalate matters so greatly!"

Hearing Jack Ma's words,

if in the past Lin Yi had held some admiration for this Jack Ma, since at that time he had not yet fallen from grace,

being regarded as an entrepreneurial idol among the people of Dragon Country.

But ever since the incident where Alibaba delisted Fengyi Technology's products occurred,

Lin Yi felt not a shred of goodwill toward him.

Even though Alibaba's market capitalization stood at 180 billion US dollars, in terms of actual personal wealth,

Lin Yi was actually not much worse off than Old Ma.

In 2015, Old Ma's net worth was 22.7 billion US dollars.

Even though Alibaba's market capitalization had risen considerably this year,