Rebirth of England

"I have been in contact with the management of Marconi, but it seems that their board of directors does not show much enthusiasm for selling the company, even if we increase the acquisition price to 750 million pounds."

Amber Sheehan, who has served as CEO of DS Holdings, told Barron’s:

"Although Marconi's performance has not been good over the years, especially compared with other telecommunications equipment manufacturers, more than half of their revenue still comes from the UK, but at least it is still the largest telecommunications company in the UK. Equipment manufacturers can receive some orders."

After borrowing 4 billion pounds of funds from Northrock Bank, in addition to returning 3 billion pounds of the high-interest financing from Barclays Bank and Goldman Sachs Group, there is still 1 billion pounds of funds left. Next, Barron is preparing Another acquisition was made, this time the target was placed on Marconi Company.

The Marconi Company was originally formed from the merger of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, the British Electric Company and the General Electric Company.

The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company was founded in 1897, formerly known as the Marconi Wireless Telegraph and Signaling Company. It was the first British company to specialize in manufacturing radio equipment. In 1922, it founded the famous British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) - of course, Later, the BBC became independent and became a public institution.

At present, Marconi mainly operates communications and IT business, and has three divisions: Communications Division, which is mainly engaged in communications network and mobile communications business. In addition to its headquarters in England, it has branches in Italy and the United States.

Marconi currently employs 56,000 people. In 2001, their sales were as high as 6.942 billion pounds, of which research and development expenses were 669 million pounds and profits were 807 million pounds. Sales and profits They increased by 21% and 7.6% respectively compared with 2000.

However, since 2001, with the overall downturn in the telecommunications industry and intensified competition, Marconi's business has begun to slump, and its total assets have shrunk severely.

Even in the wake of the belt-tightening, Marconi is considering significant layoffs.

But it seems that even now, they don't want to be acquired.

The main reason why he hopes to acquire this company is that Barron hopes to expand O2 Telecom's business, increase the research and development of communication technology and equipment, and use this to cooperate with Huawei and other companies to develop the next generation 4G network.

But now it seems that compared to the situation when Marconi Company was acquired in the previous life, Marconi Company still has more hope.

In a previous life, Marconi was put up for sale in 2005. Huawei offered £682 million to acquire the company, but was ultimately stopped by Ericsson with £1.3 billion, which was nearly double the price. …

By that time, the Marconi Company was in dire straits and a sale was inevitable.

Although it was once a glorious time as a long-established British communication equipment manufacturer, under the influence of increasingly fierce competition in the global telecommunications industry, Marconi, which lacks economies of scale, has been unable to adapt to the laws of market competition. In recent years, it has been In a bleak business situation, it relies on the local market to survive.

At the beginning of 2005, when British Telecom (BT) announced the list of its "21st Century Network Preferred Supplier" plan and the bidding contract with a total value of US$146.6 billion, Marconi was greatly disappointed because they were It can be said that this tender was completely frustrated!

This not only caused Marconi to lose nearly half of its revenue sources, but more importantly, Marconi lost the significance of continuing to exist as an independent telecommunications equipment supplier.

Under the influence of the collapse of both the global market and the local market, Marconi's financial situation deteriorated sharply. The subsequent financial report released by Marconi showed their continued losses, and they eventually had to sell in order to survive.

So it seems that it is not the right opportunity to acquire Marconi Company now, unless Barron's offers a price that is difficult for them to refuse.

But the value of this company to Barron's is not worth the large premium he paid to acquire it.

Acquisition of companies also depends on the timing. Often when many companies carry out mergers and acquisitions, they will take advantage of the other party's market value to fall into a trough, and it will be a good complement to their own business, or the other party will have a synergistic effect with their own business. of.

When a company is doing well, few people are willing to be acquired. Such acquisitions require paying a very high premium.

But Barron was not in a hurry. He said to Amber:

"Raise the offer to £800 million, and if they still can't accept it, forget it."

Because he knew that there would be another good opportunity soon.

…

As February approaches, Barron once again took the Gulfstream G450 to the United States.

"Hello, Mr. Chen, nice to meet you today."

"His Royal Highness Duke Cavendish, to be honest, I am still very curious about today's meeting. In addition, I have to say that your Chinese is very good."

"Haha, you are not the first person to praise me like this, but I am still very happy. As for the purpose of inviting you here today, it is because I have a position and I think it is very suitable for you..."

In front of Barron is a Chinese with slightly white hair. His name is Hock Tan, and his Chinese name is Chen Fuyang.

From his English name, we can know that Chen Fuyang is from Hu Jian, because Tan is often the English way of writing "Chen" in Hokkien.

In fact, in the West, not only foreigners, but also many Chinese people are easily confused by different translations of the same surname.

Just like the simple surname "Chen", if you speak Mandarin, you will generally use Chen as the English surname; if it is the Cantonese habit of Guangdong Province, it will often be written as Chan, such as Kung Fu superstar Jackie Chan; if it is a translator of Hokkien , will use Tan; in Hakka, it is often Gin...

Chen Fuyang, 51 years old, was born in Penang, Malaysia, where Chinese people gather. Later, when he was 18 years old, he went to study in the United States. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. MBA degree from a university business school.

After graduation, he successively entered senior management positions in traditional American giants such as General Motors and PepsiCo.

Then Chen Fuyang served as managing director of Hume Industrial and Lijiapo Venture Capital Fund Pacven Investment Company.

After leaving Pacven Investment Company, he also joined Commodore International, a home computer manufacturer, where Chen Fuyang served as the company's vice president, mainly responsible for financial operations.

In August 1994, Chen Fuyang joined Integrated Circuit Systems Inc. (ICS), a semiconductor solutions company, and successively served as the company's senior vice president, CFO, COO, president and CEO.

Yes, he is the president and CEO of ICS at this time.

If you know that ICS will be acquired by IDT, a Silicon Valley semiconductor company, for US$1.7 billion more than a year later, you will know that ICS is not small in scale.

It can be said that 51-year-old Chen Fuyang has already achieved success. What he is curious about is, what is the purpose of the young British Duke in front of him to see him this time?

After all, from the current point of view, this young Duke is also very well-known in the United States, and has many industries, but none of them have any intersection with the work he is currently engaged in.