Rebirth 1984: Starting from the development of Hanka

Chapter 96 Acquisition
G-line photoresist is the current mainstream photoresist, and this kind of photoresist is not difficult to develop.

There are many companies in the market capable of producing g-line photoresists.

Of course, Zhao Ye believes that Academician Li Yiming can lead the team to develop photoresist, but he has to be prepared for everything.

"Immediately investigate which company is capable of producing photoresist and has the possibility of selling the company. We will buy the company directly!!!" After the meeting, Zhao Ye approached Ni Annan.

The photoresist market is very small, less than US$10 billion in total, and most of the market share is occupied by Japanese and American companies, and other companies do not make much money at all.

For example, there are also photoresist companies in Europe, but the scale is relatively small.

Instead of buying photoresist from other companies at a high price, it is better to go directly to Europe to buy a company that can produce photoresist. In this way, not only can you buy the photoresist formula patent, but you can also own a g-line photoresist production line , and then just expand the capacity.

It is worth mentioning that China and the United States are currently in a honeymoon period.

Hearing this, Ni Annan couldn't help but praised: "Boss, your idea is good, I'll send someone to investigate immediately!"

Zhao Ye reminded: "This time it will be done in secret, we can't let the RB people notice, otherwise they will definitely destroy it!"

RB is a good player in commercial espionage.

Zhao Ye remembered that he had read a report of Stone Company before and mentioned RB commercial spies. When Stone Company was developing Chinese typewriters, he encountered RB commercial spies spying on the development of Stone Chinese typewriters many times. progress and technology.

Stone Company then secretly transferred the development team to Hong Kong to avoid the prying eyes of RB commercial spies.Later, the Sitong Chinese typewriter was born, directly overthrowing the RB typewriter brand, occupying more than 80% of the domestic market share.

Zhao Ye couldn't help suspecting that Canon and Nikon had been keeping an eye on Wujiang Microelectronics' activities. Some people were not strong enough to keep secrets, and commercial spies might take advantage of them to detect certain information.

Playing dirty tricks, Zhao Ye really can't compare to those old silver coins of RB.

Others have rich historical experience. Many RB consortiums have existed for a hundred years. Sending commercial spies is just a routine operation. It is unknown how much technology has been "stealed" lurking in China.

Ni Annan was stunned when he heard the words, but felt that what Zhao Ye said was reasonable, the acquisition of the photoresist company must be done in secret!

"Well, I see, don't worry, I will send someone to do this secretly, and we can even register an overseas offshore company to acquire the photoresist company. In this way, no one will know the reason for the acquisition of the photoresist company. The people behind the scenes are our Wujiang Group!" Ni Annan said.

Zhao Ye couldn't help but his eyes lit up when he heard the words, and he nodded immediately and said, "Well, just as you said, we don't go out on our own, but register an overseas offshore company to buy a photoresist company in Europe!"

……

With the help of an intermediary company in Hong Kong, an overseas offshore company named Alphabet was soon registered in Bermuda.

After the registration of the company was completed, several employees were sent to Inpex in the UK to negotiate the acquisition.

Inpex develops high-performance photoresist materials in the UK, and its products occupy a certain share in the European market.

Alphabet's negotiators are all white, and people of yellow race are easily reminiscent of Wujiang Microelectronics.

The person in charge of the negotiation is Rex Eden, 37 years old, who used to work for Goldman Sachs Group, but was hired by Wujiang Group with a high salary.

RB cut off the supply of photoresist to Wujiang Microelectronics Company. The situation is serious. Rex Eden is very clear about his mission. In order to get a high salary and bonus, he must acquire the British company Inpex this time.

Before coming to the UK, Rex Eden had already made sufficient preparations and had a detailed understanding of the information of the British company Inpex.

On the second day after arriving in the UK, Rex Eden started the first round of negotiations with the British company Inpex to test whether the other party intends to sell the company.

Rex Eden offered a purchase price of US$1500 million based on the size of Inpex in the UK.

Inpex is small and sophisticated, and its scale is not large, but this is exactly what Wujiang photoresist company needs.

At this time, Philip Bulwell, the president of Inpex, was very surprised by the intention of Rex Eden and others.

"Mr. Aiden, I didn't expect your company to plan to acquire Inpex. I'm afraid this matter needs to be discussed with the board of directors!"

"Of course, please tell the board members that Alphabet is very sincere in acquiring Inpex!"

"Okay, Mr. Eden, I'll let them know."

……

……

Plans for a secret acquisition of a European photoresist company have already begun.

There are only a few people who know about it at this stage.

Zhao Ye pretended not to know, and went to Wujiang Photoresist Company every day to cheer everyone on. The morale of the company was high, and it was normal to work overtime and stay up until 12 o'clock in the middle of the night.

Zhao Ye’s plan to acquire British Inpex is just for an extra set of insurance. It’s not that he doesn’t value the technology development of Li Yiming and others. Buying Inpex will only help the development team more. The g-line (436nm) photoresist is only a low-end photoresist. , Zhao Ye needs Li Yiming's team to develop i-line (365nm), KrF (248nm), ArF (193nm) and EUV photoresist.

As the saying goes, "a fire at the city gate will bring disaster to the fish in the pond." At this time, the price of photoresist in the world has skyrocketed, and many chip companies have also suffered unwarranted disasters.

Many chip companies expressed dissatisfaction with Tokyo Ohka, JSR, Sumitomo Chemical, and Fujifilm.

If you want to suppress Wujiang Microelectronics, you will suppress it, but you are still looking for an excuse to deliberately create a shortage of g-line photoresist and drive up prices.Do you want to suppress Wujiang Microelectronics and at the same time make a fortune from us?
Many chip companies are resentful and dissatisfied, which has planted the seeds of disaster for the four major RB photoresist companies.

As the old saying goes, "The world has been suffering for a long time", who will destroy the fate of the four major RB photoresist companies?
……

United Kingdom.

Rex Eden will soon be at Inpex again.

Most of the inpex companies agree with whether to accept the acquisition.

Right now, the price of photoresist is soaring, and the company's valuation will naturally skyrocket accordingly.But "the tide recedes", the price of photoresist returns to rationality, and Inpex becomes less valuable.

Therefore, the board of directors of Inpex company wanted to take this opportunity to sell the company and make a lot of money.

Of course, they weren't happy with Rex Eden's $1500 million offer.

In the second round of negotiations, the Lions opened their mouths and asked for $3000 million.

Of course Rex Aiden disagreed, this price has far exceeded the value of Inpex.

And Wujiang Microelectronics can still find a way to get some photoresist, and can continue to produce for three or four months, or even longer.Of course, the premise is to maintain the current production capacity.

Inpex also knows that its asking price is a bit high, isn't this just to make the other party want to bargain?

Inpex's expected purchase price is actually around $2000 million.

The second round of negotiations went nowhere.

The third round of negotiations will take place two days later.

Time passes day by day.

Seeing that Wujiang Microelectronics has not been defeated, the price of g-line photoresist began to drop.

However, it is still not easy for Wujiang Microelectronics to buy cheap g-line photoresists.

The major manufacturers of RB are strictly guarding against Wujiang Microelectronics, and they are watching very closely.

Rex Eden started the third and fourth rounds of negotiations with Inpex one after another. Finally, at the beginning of 1986, Zhao Ye received good news from Rex Eden...

(End of this chapter)