The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 360 From chess piece to chess player
Strict supervision and lack of punishment are not inconsistent.

There are many regulations that tell you what you cannot do and what you cannot do, but bans cannot be comprehensive, and supervision is also a patch made after a vicious incident occurs. You can always find loopholes in the layers of rules.

After the 08 financial crisis, the powers of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department became much stronger. Many compliance operations before 08 may not only be non-compliant, but also illegal after 08.

“In addition, I believe that corporate functions should be strengthened and administrative intervention should be reduced as much as possible.

For example, the China Development Bank can transform from a policy bank into a financial institution to fulfill its functions.

I believe that it is more conducive to our financial health to transform financial functional institutions into enterprises as much as possible and participate in market competition. "

Zhou Xin put forward a lot of constructive suggestions at the closed-door financial meeting held in Yanjing, many of which were remedial measures after detours were made.

Of course, Zhou Xin's speech at the closed-door meeting was considered too radical by many people, especially those in the financial sector.

In fact, public servants are okay because they can't personally end the situation, but for those in financial central state-owned enterprises, Zhou Xin's proposal will seriously affect their interests.

Those working in central state-owned enterprises in the financial sector have the most dual standards. Their remuneration must be in line with that of foreign-funded enterprises, their stability must be on par with public servants, and their work intensity must be consistent with that of Yanjing's financial institutions.

They enjoy the stability, work intensity and high salary.

As for why Yanjing agreed to their request, to put it bluntly, everyone is their own people.

Shortly after the closed-door financial meeting, details of China's ten measures to stimulate the economy were announced. Among them, the establishment of the stock exchange and the transformation of the China Development Bank from a policy bank to a market-oriented financial institution were all reflections of Zhou Xin's opinions.

Moreover, Huaguo NewPay has become one of the shareholders of the stock exchange. Although it occupies a small share, it is of great symbolic significance. Yanjing hopes to give full play to NewPay’s advantageous position in the technology field so that the stock exchange can better utilize information technology. Supervise the acceptance of bills.

As for Zhou Xin's suggestions on the securities market, relevant parties said they are still studying it and that the domestic securities market still needs time to grow.

Zhou Xin was not disappointed when he found out. He did not expect all his suggestions to be accepted. How could the real registration system be implemented so quickly? Let alone 2008, even if it were to be implemented now in 2018, there would still be countless people. The resistance is there.

"NewPay will complete the acquisition of the entire equity capital of Merrill Lynch at a price of US$32 per share. This transaction involves a three-party transaction, jointly completed by NewPay, Merrill Lynch and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

First, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation participated in NewPay's targeted financing and became NewPay's largest institutional shareholder, and then NewPay completed the acquisition of Merrill Lynch."

NewPay's successful acquisition of Merrill Lynch has had a nuclear bomb-like impact on the capital market. The pace of mergers and acquisitions among large financial institutions is accelerating. Wells Fargo defeated Citigroup to acquire Wachovia Bank, and Bank of America turned its target to Americen International Group, etc.

The biggest winner after this merger is definitely NewPay. It has completed the acquisitions of Douglas Bank and Merrill Lynch, making NewPay a comprehensive financial institution. Its business will cover commercial banking, credit cards, brokerage business, investment banking, and wealth management. .

With the support of NewPay's huge traffic, these businesses will usher in the effect of one plus one being greater than two.

Merrill Lynch prefers NewPay for many reasons. First of all, Federal believes that NewPay is a good company. Compared with NewPay, which operates around the world, Bank of America has limited appeal. Federal wants to take advantage of this opportunity to become an important shareholder of NewPay.

For Merrill Lynch's board members and executives, merging with NewPay will protect everyone's interests to the greatest extent, and merging with Bank of America will most likely leave no one behind.

But what they didn't expect was that NewPay was not a good candidate. After the acquisition was officially completed with approval from the Federal Reserve, Peter Thiel announced a layoff plan of a total of 1.1 people.

NewPay acquired Merrill Lynch for US$550 billion, of which US$500 billion was paid by the Federal Reserve. After the acquisition was completed, Zhou Xin's shareholding in NewPay dropped to less than 15%.

But Zhou Xin still has control over NewPay through a unique equity structure. When the Federal Reserve made the transaction, it hoped to abolish the A/B share structure. With Zhou Xin’s insistence and Paulson’s compromise, the A/B share structure remained In maintenance.

"We are very happy to successfully complete this incredible transaction." Peter Thiel was radiant at the press conference after the signing, completely unable to hide his inner smile. Warren Johnson looked at him so proudly in the audience. The feeling of jealousy kept boiling inside.

Obviously the earliest CEO of NewPay was me.

NewPay, which successfully acquired Merrill Lynch, may not be comparable to the top companies in terms of asset size, but it can definitely be regarded as one of the top financial institutions on Wall Street.

"Mr. Thiel, after NewPay acquired Merrill Lynch, it immediately launched the largest layoff plan in Merrill Lynch's history. Does this mean that NewPay is dissatisfied with the current situation of Merrill Lynch?" Reporters are always afraid of chaos.

Peter Thiel did not shy away from it at all: “Yes, if Merrill Lynch had not been mismanaged, it would not have been NewPay’s turn to acquire it.

It was Merrill Lynch's chaotic management, arrogant management, and lax risk control in the past that jointly led to Merrill Lynch's current situation. Merrill Lynch's financial situation is very bad. After NewPay acquired Merrill Lynch, we need to Carry out profound, bottom-up reforms. "

The reporters present were in an uproar, and John Thain, who was sitting next to Peter Thiel, looked very unhappy.

Merrill Lynch's former CEO O'Neill has been ousted and is now replaced by NYSE Euronext CEO John Thain.

NYSE Euronext is the result of the merger of NYSE Euronext and NYSE Euronext, and is the result of the integration of Americen and European stock market trading.

John came to Merrill Lynch to put out fires, and NYSE Euronext was even better than Merrill Lynch.

As a result, Merrill Lynch was acquired not long after it arrived, and he even signed the deal himself. After signing, he was humiliated by the CEO of NewPay opposite, which made John a little unable to hold himself back.

The reporters in the audience were all excited. It is rare for someone to be so disrespectful after an acquisition. Usually, they will say a little bit after the acquisition.

"Mr. Thiel, you are dissatisfied with Merrill Lynch's business strategy, so why is NewPay still acquiring NewPay? And after the next acquisition is completed, how does NewPay plan to operate Merrill Lynch?" asked the Wall Street Journal reporter who grabbed the right to interview.

Peter Thiel said: "I am dissatisfied with the current situation of Merrill Lynch. The current situation is the result, and Merrill Lynch's past business strategy is the cause.

From the second half of last year to the first half of this year, Merrill Lynch's losses in the mortgage business alone exceeded US$200 billion. Merrill Lynch sold risky assets at low prices to fill the hole, which brought new potential losses. .This is a major mistake in business strategy.

In the future, NewPay will start layoffs in technology, logistics and risk control departments, and then global wealth advisors will also need to streamline. We will complete the streamlining plan for wealth advisors in the next three years. We will transform Merrill Lynch through technological means to make it a A true financial technology company. "

Reporters saw that Peter had a tough attitude. Although his words were not condescending, they were very reasonable. They turned to the CEO of Merrill Lynch: "Mr. Thain, what do you think of Mr. Thiel's plan for Merrill Lynch?"
And do you think it is reasonable to carry out such large-scale layoffs immediately after the acquisition is completed? "

John Thain is obviously not that crazy: "Bank of America plans to lay off 2.5 people, Wells Fargo plans to lay off 1.1 people, Bear Stearns is bankrupt, Lehman Brothers is bankrupt, financial institutions are in trouble, and appropriate contraction is necessary. .

Judging from NewPay's past performance in risk supervision, I believe they can bring a different look to Merrill Lynch.

Merrill Lynch itself will accept NewPay's acquisition, largely because of NewPay's rich experience in risk control, which will help Merrill Lynch's long-term stability and asset health in the future. "

NewPay's acquisition of Merrill Lynch can be called a "strong wave" in this round of Wall Street earthquakes, and is regarded by Silicon Valley's Internet companies as Silicon Valley's victory over Wall Street.

"A Silicon Valley company that has been established for 10 years can acquire a Wall Street aristocrat with a century-old history. The Internet has endless possibilities!"

"This is the charm of Newman. No one else can do it."

"Newman's sound business strategy has caused other electronic payment software to lose consumer trust. NewPay can not only occupy an absolute leading position in the electronic payment field, but also acquire financial giants such as Merrill Lynch."

"This is the difference. In the first two years, everyone thought that Baidu Pay was gradually catching up with NewPay. As a result, Baidu Pay dragged Baidu down, and Baidu was split into Baidu and Google. Both Baidu and Google announced their withdrawal from the payment business, while NewPay's status did not If we are not shaken at all, there is no possibility of being shaken in the future.”

"It's unbelievable. Who would have thought a year ago that NewPay would acquire Merrill Lynch?"

IT elites in Silicon Valley expressed their views on this matter on Weibo. Everyone was proud of NewPay's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

The Wall Street media also devoted a lot of time to interpret the significance of NewPay’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

“The first time I noticed Newman was in 1999. At that time, under the leadership of Goldman Sachs, Time Warner acquired Quora, a company that was well-known in the Internet field but not well-known in the outside world. Because of the huge transaction amount, this The acquisition was later hailed as the deal of the century.

It was this deal of the century that made Newman the focus of national attention. No one thought that in less than ten years, a new deal of the century would be completed under the leadership of Newman, and Newman would transform from a chess piece to a chess player. .

The significance of NewPay's acquisition of Merrill Lynch is definitely no less than Time Warner's acquisition of Quora. When we talk about it in the future, it will be regarded as a landmark event in the financial crisis. After the completion of this transaction, NewPay founded by Newman, Become a financial institution comparable to Goldman Sachs.

This is a development trend that I would have never imagined ten years ago. I originally thought that Newman would be like other Silicon Valley tycoons, such as Bill Gates, Elson, and Jerry Yang. After completing their initial wealth accumulation, they would focus most of their energy on enjoying life. , lack of new enterprising spirit for career.

It is always difficult to surpass one's peak in life. After I saw the news about Time Warner's deal of the century, I sincerely envy this young Chinese man. He can enjoy his future life to the fullest. As a result, Newman not only did not stop, but even continued to move forward. Write legends in many fields. NewPay's acquisition of Merrill Lynch is the result of Newman's long-term efforts, and it is also the perfect embodiment of Amerikan's dream."

Time magazine used Zhou Xin's profile picture and the NewPay logo as the cover of their new issue. The Wall Street Journal was detailing the glorious history of Merrill Lynch and expressing the decline of a generation of legendary securities firms. The Chinese media focused on the completion of this transaction. How much money does Zhou Xin have?

Financial institutions in trouble on Wall Street are trying their best to contact NewPay, hoping that a white knight will come forward to save them from the fire.

2008 was an unforgettable year for China. All kinds of major events happened in this year, from the snowstorm at the beginning of the year to the earthquake in the middle of the year, to the Olympics and the increasingly serious global financial crisis.

Zhou Xin donated 5000 million yuan during the snowstorm and 5 million yuan worth of materials during the earthquake. Although there were many voices saying that Zhou Xin should donate more, these voices failed to form a climate.

After the end of 2008, Zhou Xinneng realized that the previous cooperation with American had entered a new stage. ASML's EUV prototype had been built, but the new core lithography machine, which should obviously be faster, was blocked by some key technology nodes. Living.

Zhou Xin had a hunch that the cooperative relationship between them and EUV LLC was likely to end, and EUV LLC's cooperation level had dropped significantly.

Of course, he is not afraid of challenges. DUV has developed enough to reach 7nm. Under the leadership of Xinxin, China's EUV technology progress is not slow. Hurry up and slow down. Sooner or later, it will be conquered. It is not a Zenith star technology.

Zhou Xin is now confident enough that Amerikan’s chip restriction strategy will most likely fail.

"Newman, there is news from Xinxin Neon that Elpida intends to sell shares or production lines to Xinxin to take over." Hu Zhengming said.

This is not beyond their expectation. Elpida is often mentioned in Xinxin’s internal high-level meetings, and memory chips are Xinxin’s weak link.

However, Matrix and Xiaomi’s huge smartphone shipments every year have a huge demand for memory chips.

In the end, these demands have to be handed over to Samsung and Hynix. The price of Samsung and Hynix is ​​lower than that of Bierpida, and the yield rate is higher. They have no reason not to choose Samsung and Hynix.

When Xinxin has developed to this point, there have been internal voices saying that it wants to make its own memory chips.

Zhou Xin is not in a hurry, because he knows that sooner or later Elpida will not be able to handle it, so it is better to take over Elpida directly instead of starting a new one.

"Elpida finally couldn't bear it anymore," Guan Jianying said.

Liang Mengsong, who came back to report on his work, said: "They have been losing money for eight consecutive quarters. In the first quarter of this year, they are estimated to have lost at least US$8 million, which is the same level as the same period last year.

It’s strange that it can withstand it. Samsung expanded production last year and will expand production this year. Then it will cut prices again. Hynix will also reduce prices. Elpida will be killed by Samsung and Hynix. "

The semiconductor companies in Korea are all about killing you, and I will make more money. Before I kill you, making money is not important. I also learned this trick from the neon manufacturers, and they are better than the blue ones, and they can play better than the neon manufacturers. Be skillful.

(End of this chapter)