Chapter 963 Changes

Fang Zhuo was surprised that Infineon intended to sell the wireless solutions department WLS as a whole.

Although you can feel a little helpless from Bauer's tone, and maybe WLS is really useless to Infineon, in fact, from the perspective of the entire industry, Infineon's WLS is quite famous.

One of the most important ones is WLS baseband chip technology.

The baseband chip is a highly integrated SOC (system-on-chip). Mobile phone manufacturers are very cautious when selecting baseband chips. Not only do they have to carry out a lot of debugging and verification work on the chips, but they also generally tend to choose well-known basebands in the industry. supplier.

As far as Fang Zhuo knows, Apple is now equipped with Infineon's baseband chip.

Infineon's technology is not leading. Apple chose this because its CPU comes from Samsung. Samsung itself is a customer of Infineon, so it is familiar with using the same solution.

Fang Zhuo has a small judgment here.

Currently, the CPU chips jointly researched by Samsung, Yike Hummingbird, and Apple still do not have the ability to integrate baseband technology like Qualcomm. This also means that even if the CPUs of the three companies are successfully developed, they still need to solve the baseband problem.

Either do your own research or choose a supplier.

The latter is easy to choose. Qualcomm is the best in this field. The former is high investment and high risk, and cannot be done by non-big manufacturers.

However, whether it can be "good" is also a problem for major manufacturers. The technical and patent barriers for mobile phone baseband chips are extremely high. This is not the first time Fang Zhuo has heard about the overall sale.

When the financial crisis first broke out last year, he heard its CEO Richard talk about the overall sale of the wireless chip department at TI, a very important part of which was the baseband chip.

Fang Zhuo has a good memory. At that time, Richard offered a package price of US$2.8 billion, and he counter-offered US$800 million, and then the two parties stopped talking.

Also present that day was Hamilton, who later joined the Yike R&D Center. The team he led was responsible for EDGE baseband design.

Neither TI nor Infineon can compete with the market, which is enough to show the difficulty of this field.

Although Fang Zhuo is keen on enhancing the company's technical strength, he does not want to push back on everything. He still needs to measure future prospects.

However, objectively speaking, major mobile phone manufacturers in the smartphone era are increasingly able to exert economies of scale in the technical field, and the entire market is increasingly experiencing the Matthew Effect. Now that we are under the influence of the economic crisis, it is easy to negotiate terms that were originally difficult to negotiate. a lot of.

Fang Zhuo has no preset position on the overall sale of Infineon's division. However, if the company's technical team thinks it can be negotiated, he feels that he may continue to seek technical supplements from TI.

TI announced in October last year that it was looking for a buyer for its wireless chip division, but no more specific news came out until January this year.

Four months is not a short time, but in the cold winter, there is no enthusiasm for large-scale transactions, and wireless chips require strong players to be interested. I am afraid that the sale of TI will continue to receive a cold reception in the market.

Infineon alone is not enough. If we add TI's technology, along with Samsung or Apple, following the old example of cooperative research and development of Hummingbird chips, I wonder if it can promote Yike's progress in this field.

Fang Zhuo thought so, but when he arranged to go to Germany for high-level meetings in February, he didn't mention his thoughts for the time being. He just wanted to hear an uninterrupted evaluation from the technical level.

The final candidate was Yu Hong, who took a detour to Germany when she returned to the United States. Together with Pan Ben, President of Yike Europe, and Hamilton, the former Texas Instruments baseband chip expert, led the technical team, they conducted a round of contact with Infineon.

As for this psychological price.

Fang Zhuo and Yu Hong spoke their minds: "In principle, Infineon's wireless solutions department is indeed a good thing. Bauer's direct cut from 2 billion to 1.5 billion in one breath squeezed a lot of water, but it is relatively useless. There aren’t many real buyers in the market, so just talk about it at a 20% discount.”

20% off, which is 1.2 billion euros.

Fang Zhuo estimated that the price was affordable.

Yu Hong was mentally prepared for the price, so she talked about her ideas for a while, and all of them thought of the company's ongoing cooperation with the Hummingbird chip for baseband chips: "Qualcomm's chip integration strategy is very successful. If we can use the Hummingbird chip's baseband integration In the name of continuing to cooperate with Samsung and Apple, this may really be able to check Qualcomm in the future.”

"If the Hummingbird chip is successful, I'm afraid this cooperation will have to be disbanded immediately. If you want to continue the research, it depends on how the situation changes." Fang Zhuo said calmly, "Cooperation in competition is not that easy, and you have to be prepared to be betrayed at any time. You should talk about the preparations for stabbing or backstabbing others first this time. It is not just about identifying them. It is best to stimulate the progress of my ice core's patent authorization. "

"Understood, Ice Core is number one." Yu Hong understood the boss's intention and paused, "The one who can make money can build a global brand, Yike is number two."

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "Wake up, wake up, Xiao Yu, the ice core is ready, it will make it easier for your Yike to make money in the future."

Yu Hong sighed: "Mr. Fang will always have big cakes. New year brings new big cakes. The Year of the Ox is more auspicious. Yike America wishes to send New Year greetings to Mr. Fang."

Fang Zhuo ended the call with Xiao Yu with a smile.

On the night of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the hustle and bustle of the New Year has subsided a little, and the company's matters are not so densely placed in front of me.

It was rare for Fang Zhuo to spend a lot of time sitting in his study, admiring and copying Wen Zhengming's original "Nanhua Sutra" which he bought in Hong Kong last year.

After writing so happily, he put down his brush when he saw Su Wei come in, and said regretfully: "Now I regret more and more that I didn't buy back the painting "The Virgin Mary of Lintang Huaisu" in Xiangjiang."

"Didn't you say that it's okay if you're addicted to it?" Su Wei had heard this man's chat retelling.

"It wasn't that I didn't have money at that time, but now that I have money, I'm greedy again." Fang Zhuo sighed.

Su Wei smiled slightly: "Then you can go to Xiangjiang when you have time. If you have a good relationship with the Huo family and the price is right, you can always give it up."

"It wasn't bought by the Huo family. It was taken by a friend of the Huo family. I heard that he also couldn't put it down for the original work of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty." Fang Zhuo shook his head, "Besides, there are two characters on the left and right. Aren't I too coquettish? ?”

Su Wei laughed, which was indeed a rare shyness.

She came up with an idea: "You buy a replica and hang it up. Anyone who asks will laugh and say nothing. Everyone will definitely think it is the original. Over time, you may even be able to deceive yourself."

Fang Zhuo pouted, he was the worst at lying to himself.

Su Wei chatted for a while and asked casually: "How much did you say last time about the authentic work of Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty? I remember it was quite expensive."

"128 million is expensive." Fang Zhuo said.

Su Wei nodded: "It's indeed expensive."

But it's okay, I can take action. The richest man can't save face, so he can do it himself.

It's rare to see this man show such affection. It can be used as a birthday or holiday gift.

Su Wei had an idea in mind, so she changed her mind and started talking about the little things and gossip she had heard during the past two days during the New Year.

Fang Zhuo glanced at Xiao Su, and the hand holding the pen suddenly became happy again.

While listening to these smoky things, he wrote a "Bureau Affairs Note" with sharp strokes.

"Keke, that child is really interesting. I think Yu Lanyu can't control her anymore. She's running around with her little legs and looking very arrogant." Su Wei mentioned Zhou Xin's daughter with a smile, holding hot tea in her hand.

"Really? I think Zhou Keke is very honest." Fang Zhuo was a little surprised.

Su Wei couldn't help laughing: "That was in front of you. Who is dishonest in front of you?"

Fang Zhuo glanced at Xiao Su again.

Su Wei read and understood and replied: "Be honest with your eyes."

Fang Zhuo shrugged, wanting to accuse him.

"I just heard President Fangda lamenting that he has money. It just so happens that our e-commerce company is short of money recently. You have actually allocated funds for your cloud computing, and it is time to reimburse it at the beginning of this year." Su Wei said one thing Down to business, "If we continue to invest another 2 billion yuan, Tesco cannot afford it. If you have the articles of association, you should confirm them as soon as possible."

Fang Zhuo said cheerfully: "No problem, I have money, I do have money. The first thing before me now is how to spend money. Let's give everyone a few more days off. Tesco will hold a board meeting. Get some money from abroad.”

What he said was the truest emotion, money is not so easy to spend.

Only a small portion of the money earned from short selling has been spent so far.

Yike took advantage of the financial turmoil to make several acquisitions for technology reserves, but the acquisitions were not large, and poaching people from major companies was within its scope. It is a listed company, with eye-catching accounts and repayments from hot-selling mobile phones. It’s fast, and the money earned from short selling is not used.

Ice cores really cost money, but whether it is Lin'an No. 2 Factory's patent claim or Germany's investment in building a factory, this is all in the future tense and has not been used yet.

The real money spent is the service alliance, which has already spent US$800 million. The follow-up will depend on the trends of domestic industry funds, depending on the situation.

And again...and again...

Fang Zhuo held the beautiful knife in his hand and calculated like this, but found that he could not find his whereabouts for a while.

Who can let me spend money? X3.

Teacher Xiao Su is still the most considerate and can stand up at this time.

"Yigou Rong, and quickly give Bing Xinrong another R&D budget to increase this year." Fang Zhuo sighed, "Xiao Su, Mr. Su, Alibaba is ready to make a move this year, right? Don't be afraid, we are just afraid that there will be no rivals. "

"It turns out that money is not so easy to spend." Su Wei smiled.

Fang Zhuo touched his palm: "Who says it's not the case?"

…

The Lunar New Year is a festival celebrated by Chinese people all over the world.

This is especially true for Zhang Zhongyan, who was 78 at the time.

This year, he spent the Spring Festival in the United States, which was another year older. He soon missed the atmosphere of the treasure island and flew back.

The semiconductor industry is in a slump, but this is dragged down by the overall economy. Zhang Zhongmo has seen big storms and is not very worried about the situation of Taiwan reporters.

However, even though he is no longer in charge of front-line reporters, he is still habitually paying attention to global industry changes, such as Freescale layoffs, TI layoffs, Qimonda bankruptcy, Infineon layoffs, AMD layoffs...

A series of negative information all shows the decline of the economy.

Even if there is a policy boost from the United States, the response of semiconductors will still take time and observation.

"Many companies are laying off employees, but Yike Company is actively recruiting people. It's really scary." When Zhang Zhongtou arrived in Baodao, a friend came to visit him. He talked about the different bright colors in the economic situation in good spirits, "Yike Company's Smartphones are really growing against the trend, and Nokia is really facing a strong challenge this time.”

"Although Yike Company and the mainland ice core are not integrated, they are really similar to Samsung's vertical integration." A friend expressed his opinion.

Zhang Zhongtong agreed with this and said: "I heard that Liang Mengsong did a good job in ice cores. It's a pity."

He actually had high hopes for Liang Mengsong's technical strength, and did not think that it was a cold bench to let him take charge of Advanced Moore's work. Unexpectedly, Liang Mengsong chose to resign and leave directly. There was no news for a while, and the next time he appeared was to go to Bingxin in the mainland.

"The mainland has made an industrial investment this time, providing support to the semiconductor industry in terms of policies and funds. This is very worthy of attention. After all, the mainland market is too large, and Bingxin has mastered the 65nm process."

Zhang Zhongmou talked about the mainland news he saw, and there was vitality in this faint decline.

As they were chatting, the family took all the letters in the mailbox, most of which were sent to Zhang Zhongmou.

Zhang Zhongmou has the habit of writing and reading letters. While talking about the changes in the mainland, he opened the letters and read them.

The consecutive letters were all New Year's greetings, but the latest letter stopped him.

A farewell letter from Zheng Dexing, a laid-off employee.

Zhang Zhongmou's face became more and more serious.

Why didn't anyone report this to him?

Layoffs?

At the beginning, I said that layoffs were not allowed, and that if it was related to layoffs, I had to tell myself.

Why didn't Taiji give any notice?

Zhang Zhongmou resigned as CEO of Taiji, but he is still the chairman.

He clearly knew that Taiji's previous 5% bottom evaluation was set up to improve the quality of employees, not to eliminate or lay off employees. Moreover, just like Zheng Dexing who wrote this letter...

Zhang Zhongmou had an impression of Zheng Dexing and knew that he was a very good engineer. He was once the top 10% reward recipient and was responsible for researching advanced materials.

How could he become an eliminated bottom employee in just one year?

Zhang Zhongmou put down the letter with a gloomy face and took out his phone to verify.

The first thing was Zheng Dexing's personal situation.

As a result, Zheng Dexing's score was indeed behind, but this was because his family was sick and he had to take leave to take care of his family, which delayed his work.

The second thing was the layoffs at Taiji.

They were really laying off employees!

They were still laying off employees!

The laid-off employees even went outside their own residence to seek an explanation!

Two phone calls, ten minutes.

Zhang Zhongmou made the call, and the situation became clear.

"Alian, you will be responsible for investigating the layoffs, and then ask Rick why he made such a decision." Zhang Zhongmou mentioned the name of the current CEO Cai Lixing, then slowly picked up the letter, read it again, and fell into thought.

Is this a mistake or an error? The former can be corrected, but the latter will cost you.