The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 221 You just say whether to vote or not

The listing of Baidu is one of the landmark events of the recovery of the US stock market. After entering the new year, American has gradually come out of the haze of last year, and the capital market has become active again.

Baidu went public because there were many executives from financial institutions. For Zhou Xin, this was also a rare social occasion.

If you only consider him personally, Zhou Xin does not need to please or engage in any unnecessary social interaction, but from the corporate level, Xinxin Technology needs the power of Wall Street in many aspects.

"Jarrell, long time no see. Are you in charge of Baidu's listing again?" Zhou Xin asked.

Jerrell is the vice president of Goldman Sachs. Of course, Goldman Sachs has hundreds of vice presidents, and he is considered a relatively high-ranking vice president among them. Otherwise, he would not have been the person in charge of the listing of Riot Games before.

Jarrell said flatteringly, "Yeah, we haven't seen each other in about a year.

The last time we met was when NewPay was raising money for the second time. A year has passed in the blink of an eye. NewPay has grown faster than any of us imagined. It is a genius idea to scan codes and collect patterns to share tens of millions of dollars equally.

After getting used to QR code payment, I can no longer leave my Mphone in my daily life. Even if I forget to bring my Mphone when I go out, I will feel as uncomfortable as suffering from anxiety.

The only disadvantage of the Mphone is that the battery capacity is insufficient. The first thing I do after I arrive at the company every day is not even to turn on the computer to check emails, but to check emails directly on the M-mail of the Mphone and reply directly on the Mphone.

The development of science and technology is too fast, how does Mphone make the effect of the mobile phone keyboard better than that of the computer keyboard.Nokia also gave me an iphone. The experience of using the iphone is completely incomparable with that of the Mphone. "

Sometimes you must not only praise the other party for their merits, because it would be a bit fake to praise the other party. Jarrell understands this truth well.

After Zhou Xin listened to it, he really felt proud, because the Mphone was completed from the perspective of the future, but there are many things in it that need to be compromised and modified. After all, it is not a complete screen, and it is very challenging to operate. The power of product design.

Being able to become popular all over the world, Zhou Xin feels that this can also prove that he has a little talent in product design, at least with the blessing of 20 years of world-leading vision, he can create good products.

"We have been investing R&D funds in the battery field, and we signed a five-year R&D cooperation agreement with Panasonic before the launch of the Mphone.

We and Panasonic invest [-] million US dollars in battery research and development every year. Both parties share patents, hoping to make the battery life longer.

In fact, more than half of the volume under the Mphone screen is the battery, which has seriously affected us to make the mobile phone more design and futuristic. "

Panasonic has an 80-year history of development in the battery field, and has always been an important player in the battery field, including Panasonic batteries, which Tesla first chose.

Jarrell applauded after listening, because Robin was still on stage talking about the importance of Baidu's listing and its significance to himself. Applause for him.

"This is the best news I've heard today. Companies that use technology as their selling point will inevitably continue to invest in R&D during their operations. If the company's cash flow is not good enough, it is easy to fall into the trap before R&D achieves a breakthrough. Dilemma.

I believe that with your strength, Newman, it is impossible for Matrix to encounter such a time. In addition, Mphone is very popular around the world. It sold more than 500 million units last year. With the fermentation of word of mouth and the popularity in Europe and Asia It is estimated that the sales volume of Mphone this year can break through [-] million.

Coupled with the high pricing of Mphone itself, Matrix does not need to worry about cash flow at all.So in reality, we will always encounter such a dilemma. Excellent companies are not short of money, and top investment targets like Matrix are not short of money at all. We cannot find room to intervene in Matrix.

Like the companies I just mentioned that are short of money, Goldman Sachs may have invested in dozens of companies, and only one of them received Goldman Sachs funds and developed patents that allowed Goldman Sachs to enjoy excess profits.

It’s really hard to choose between them, but if Newman is short of money or needs external financing, he can tell me at any time that Goldman Sachs is still willing to accept the A/B share structure. We only need income and no voting rights.

Our internal decision-making committee has discussed that if Matrix is ​​open for investment, Goldman Sachs is willing to give you all the voting rights of Goldman Sachs when signing the investment agreement. "

On the left of Zhou Xin sits Jerry, Li Jingyi sits on the right, and on the left of Jarrell sits JPMorgan executive James Dimon, who will become the CEO of JPMorgan in 2005.

Although Jarrell's voice is very low, James can still hear it clearly. Of course, everyone is engaged in the financial industry and is familiar with this trick of touting entrepreneurs, but he did not expect Goldman Sachs to invest in Matrix. He was actually willing to hand over all the voting rights to Zhou Xin through an agreement.

This is a completely different concept, and it can even be said to be off the charts. It is equivalent to the stocks that Goldman Sachs acquired after investing in stocks with zero voting rights, which is very rare in the century-long history of Wall Street.

Whether it is the A/B share structure adopted by Facebook after it became popular in the United States in the early days, or the lakeside partner structure that Alibaba developed in 2010, it cannot be compared with Goldman Sachs.

The only thing that can compete with this idea is that when Snapchat (the app that burns after reading) went public, it issued non-voting shares to the public, which was the first time in the history of Nasdaq.

After thinking about it, James felt that Goldman Sachs' strategy was reasonable to a certain extent, because anyone with discernment could see that Matrix was a long-term business, and the founder of Matrix, Zhou Xin, was too young. As long as Goldman Sachs invested in this business, In the future, there will be countless opportunities to realize the sky-high price of the shares in hand.

Everyone is just doing business, and they are not obsessed with pursuing the control of the company. This is not what venture capital institutions should do.

Zhou Xin said: "Matrix is ​​indeed not short of money for the time being, but I have another investment project, let's see if you have any interest."

Before Jarrell could say anything, James, who was sitting across the seat from Zhou Xin, poked his head out: "Newman, JPMorgan Chase will serve you wholeheartedly."

Jarrell froze for an instant, and his face changed several times in an instant. Fortunately, the auditorium under the stage was not lit, otherwise he was afraid that his expression management would fail.

Jarrell turned to James and said, "Dimon, we need to be divided into first-come-first-served ones. Now Goldman Sachs is negotiating cooperation with Newman. If JP Morgan Chase wants to cooperate with Newman, they can talk to Newman at another time.

There is a queue here. "

James Dimon pretended to be exaggerated: "Isn't Baidu going public today? When did it become a business meeting for Goldman Sachs?"

Zhou Xin was afraid that the two of them would be too loud to each other, so he would ruin Robin's place, so he quickly stopped him and said, "We can come down and talk slowly. I need a lot of money, and many institutions will be involved."

"I believe this business cannot be undertaken by a certain institution."

Both of them became interested. The larger the amount of investment needed, the more promising the project was. Zhou Xin was very reputable on Wall Street, and the venture capital institutions he worked with had no losses.

This is such a rare thing. Whether it is Riot Games or NewPay, it is no exaggeration to describe Goldman Sachs who participated in it with a lot of money.

Therefore, these venture capital institutions have a strong desire to invest in projects led by Zhou Xin. Even for projects like Xinxin Technology, which do not seem profitable at first glance, many people are willing to invest.

"Newman, you can simply talk about it. Using a Chinese proverb to describe it, it is better to hit the sun than to choose the day. We have a preliminary understanding of this project today, and we can start to do feasibility analysis when we go back later. We can put this project as soon as possible. Start it." Jarrell said hastily.

James added: "Yes, we are all very interested in your project.

Do you know how much impact Mphone has had on us?
What Jarrell didn't finish just now is that other mobile phones are at their peak when they are released, and as the first half year of their release passes, sales will plummet. Mobile phone manufacturers no longer invest in marketing and leave the specific marketing rights to the dealers themselves, because Mobile phones alone don't have the ability to sustainably appeal to consumers.

But Mphone is different. The essence of Mphone is still to sell content. With the launch of the Mphone store, Mphone not only sells content but also sells services.

The content is provided by consumers, and the content they accumulate on Weibo and Quora will only increase. The services are provided by Internet companies. There are free and paid services, but there will be more and more without affecting the service. .

With the increase of services and content, Mphone will only become more and more attractive. I think the sales volume of Mphone in the American area this year will exceed that of last year. At present, only Mphone is in this form on the market.Really amazing design. "

JPMorgan Chase's awareness of Mphone is obviously higher than that of Goldman Sachs, and it is also possible that James Dimon's awareness of Mphone is higher than Jerry's.

After James finished speaking, Zhou Xin simply said that Xinxin Technology will build a factory in Huaguo, and then it needs external financing. He himself will pay 20.00%, and then need to raise 80.00% from outside.

After speaking, both James and Jarrell were silent, because this project would not make any money as soon as they heard about it.

It makes sense to engage in chip design in Huaguo, because chip design is essentially research, and only needs to cultivate talents, and the scope to consider is relatively narrow.

But chip manufacturing, if there is no Wassenaar Agreement, they think it will be a problem.

With the restrictions of the Wassenaar Agreement, this is an investment with far higher risks than returns.

Zhou Xin saw that the two fell silent, and said: "I understand your concerns, it is estimated to raise 40 billion US dollars, and I will contribute 10 billion US dollars myself.

But this is not a one-time investment. It will be invested gradually. Only when the operation is good and the profit meets expectations will it continue to invest.

It is expected to raise 10 billion US dollars for the first time, and I will invest 5 million US dollars myself to purchase three chip production lines. "

Jarrell sighed in his heart. He wanted to eat meat, but someone else brought out the bones. There was still no meat but only smelly bones. In view of the previous cooperation between Goldman Sachs and Zhou Xin, they both needed to express themselves on this project:

"Newman, I know what you mean, we will study carefully when we go back, and decide whether to invest after internal research and judgment.

From a personal point of view, I am not optimistic about this project, because the overall integrated circuit manufacturing environment is not optimistic. The price of memory chips is falling, and Samsung is expanding production counter-cyclically under the premise of price reduction. No matter whether Xinxin Technology is compared with Samsung Still, it has no advantage compared with Neon's Elpida.

But I still believe that you have magical powers and can succeed. "

James went on to say: "Newman, we at JPMorgan Chase will also seriously consider your proposal. Out of trust and support for you, we should invest some, but the total amount of 40 billion US dollars raised really depends on JPMorgan Chase or Goldman Sachs. The two companies cannot survive.

You may need to find more investment institutions to participate.

I don't think chip manufacturing in Huaguo will definitely fail. Huaguo still has its unique advantages.

After joining the WTO and enjoying the most-favored-nation treatment of many developed countries, Huaguo's chips have a cost advantage at the export level.Coupled with the relatively low labor costs in Huaguo, and the large number of people who have received higher education, the advantages in this regard are obvious.

Moreover, the water and stable electricity needed for chip manufacturing are not lacking in these Chinese countries.

The only two factors restricting Huaguo's chip manufacturing industry are the bad environment and the lack of demand, which will make it difficult to sell your chips even if they have a cost advantage.

The second is the Wassenaar Agreement. The Wassenaar Agreement determines that Huaguo can only produce mid-to-low-end products in the field of chip manufacturing. Enjoy excess profits that way.

So this is a high-risk, medium-to-low-revenue project, but it is different with Newman. Maybe you can solve the consumer-side problems by yourself.

Just like Mphone, Mphone’s revenue of 30 billion US dollars last year alone, part of the chip production is handed over to the chip manufacturer of Xinxin Technology, and some electronic products will be developed in the future. The consumer side does not need to worry too much.

So Newman, with your support, I think this is a low-risk and low-return project, and JPMorgan Chase will be willing to participate. "

For example, Shougang wanted to engage in chip transformation at the beginning of the millennium, and gradually shifted from the steel field to the chip field. At that time, American Capital was willing to invest, because the overall environment of the integrated circuit industry was very good at that time, even if it only made low-to-medium End-to-end chip manufacturing can also make money.

As a result, the situation took a turn for the worse in the first quarter of 2000, and the demand for chips shrank rapidly. Shougang took the land to build a base, and American Capital withdrew its capital. Half of the equipment was discussed, but it was abandoned directly and turned to real estate.

"In March, SMIC obtained the proprietary technology transfer of 3 micron DRAM trench technology and 0.11mm products from Deutsche Infineon; Xiyue Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. was established; in June, Shenhai SJ District Government signed an investment agreement with TSMC to establish TSMC (Shenhai) Co., Ltd. to engage in the production of 300-inch chips; in July, Gusu Hejian Technology was officially put into production”

(End of this chapter)