Reinventing the Millennium

Fang Zhuo made a series of guesses and judgments under Ni Runfeng's gaze.

As the saying goes, acquaintances are shallow but deep are not deep. The head of Changhong would not ask someone he met for the first time about running away.

However, if the dog jumps over the wall and the situation is critical, it may catch whatever it encounters.

However, Ni Runfeng's mental state during the chat just now was very stable, not like he was at the end of his rope.

But then I thought about it, I can act in any state or state, and I am somewhat accomplished in this aspect.

After such a series of seemingly long and short brain circuits ended, Fang Zhuo chuckled softly: "Mr. Ni, do you want to expand overseas markets?"

Without waiting for Ni Runfeng's answer, he continued: "If it comes to other matters, we at Yike have a long-term cooperative law firm called Cadwalader, which is very professional and capable. I can introduce it to you. The lawyers there have played an important role in many of our lawsuits at Yike." played a big role.”

Ni Runfeng didn't know that a brainstorm had just happened in front of him. He sighed and briefly explained the whole story - last year he opened up the US market and cooperated with APEX, but now he is more worried about APEX's ability and willingness to collect money.

Fang Zhuo felt really weird when he heard that these words were somewhat untrue and mixed with emotions that seemed to be addressed to himself.

He pondered for a while, thinking about the difficulty of raising funds, and he felt a little bit the same way. It is indeed not easy to run a business.

"Mr. Ni, this is the contact number of Lawyer Martin from Cadwalader Law Firm in New York. According to what you said, if that APEX company has the possibility of breach of contract, you must find a reliable law firm and lawyer in this foreign country." Fang Zhuo himself I am also worried about the project, and there is nothing I can do to help the head of Changhong. I can only provide a reliable suggestion.

Ni Runfeng actually took down the phone number, asked a few questions about Yike's previous lawsuits, thanked the young president, and then curiously asked about the tens of billions of investments in semiconductors rumored in the media.

When he first saw this report, he thought it was ridiculous and thought it was false news. But as more and more reports proved that it was true, he became very curious.

The biggest curiosity is how Fang Zhuo was able to raise so much money.

For a company as big as Changhong, its annual revenue last year was only 12.59 billion. Fang Zhuo is quietly planning to make an investment of tens of billions!

"Actually, it's nothing. Yike's overseas market is doing well. There are several international venture capital investors who trust me. I don't understand technology. There is a vice president of SMIC who is willing to come and work on projects together. The venture capital investors feel that It was very reliable, so I voted." Fang Zhuo said lightly.

Ni Runfeng looked at the young president in surprise and said with a smile: "I admire him."

He probably knew what the wafer factory was doing, and said: "I hope that in the future we at Changhong can use the chips from the Shangfang main factory."

Fang Zhuo had been wary of Ni Runfeng's sudden mention of New York. At this moment, his heart moved and he asked, "Mr. Ni, what kind of chip is used in color TVs?"

"Mainly SOC, DDI, TCON." Ni Runfeng replied.

Fang Zhuo blinked: "Three chips? What was Changhong's sales volume last year?"

"We sold more than 11 million units last year." Ni Runfeng smiled.

"Then which chip manufacturer does your color TV purchase?" Fang Zhuo's interest was aroused. 1100*3=33 million. Changhong purchased more than 33 million chips last year.

"We use Philips' SOC solution. Others include those from South Korea and the United States, which are divided into different models." Ni Runfeng replied.

Fang Zhuo nodded and thought deeply.

Changhong Design has not developed well, and will decline in a few years. Not to mention that it cannot match the industry leader status in the 1990s, it will certainly not even be as powerful as the past two years.

Generally speaking, wafer foundries like Bingxin connect with upstream IC design manufacturers such as Philips, but not end customers like Changhong.

Because, Ice Core does not involve IC design, nor does it involve IC packaging.

This process is that Philips designs a solution suitable for the product function, produces it in the wafer factory, and then sends it for testing and packaging, and finally the chip meets the requirements.

Fang Zhuo has been busy raising funds during this period, but he also learned about the current market situation with Qiu Ciyun.

Take SMIC as an example. 90% of its sales last year were overseas, and it contacted major foreign manufacturers. Because there are few IC designers in the mainland, it cannot provide customers with excellent solutions.

The reason why the wafer factory is a technology-intensive industry is that in addition to its high technical production threshold, the first factor that determines product profits is technology.

If the technical process is passed, every 1% increase in yield will be a competitive advantage.

The surface area of ​​a 12-inch wafer is approximately 70,659 square millimeters. If you make a chip with an area of ​​100 millimeters and remove the leftover materials, approximately 640 chips can be made.

In actual production, if the foundry's yield rate is 85%, then 544 chips can be produced. If the yield rate is 90%, this number will be 576 chips, and if it is 95%, it will be 608 chips.

For the same wafer, House A produces 544 wafers and House C produces 608 wafers. This is not a market competition of the same magnitude.

The level of process technology is so intuitively reflected in product cost, and further determines the life and death of the foundry.

Intel also used to make memory products, but because the yield rate was 10-15% lower than that of Japanese manufacturers, it had no choice but to abandon this market and devote itself entirely to the processor business. At that time, memory was still Intel's business with the highest revenue share. .

Because wafer yield is so important, it is regarded as the top secret of the company, and the published data is often not the true total yield.

After knowing this, Fang Zhuo was suddenly able to further understand the anger and anger of SMIC President Zhang Rujing, because... Qiu Ciyun really knew SMIC well.

From this point of view, Fang Zhuo will occasionally review his own style of doing things, but limited by the established spirit of imitating others, he can only hope to make TSMC President Zhang Zhongmou angry and angry in the future.

You have to be fair in everything you do.

However, aside from the yield factor, Fang Zhuoyou is considering whether the needs of end customers in the market can also affect upstream orders.

He didn't know how far the ice core yield rate led by Qiu Ciyun could be achieved, but if it failed to provide enough competitiveness, he couldn't immediately declare bankruptcy and quit the business. It was better to die than live, and maybe he could be alive. Invite talents with more advanced technology.

Therefore, the Changhong Ni Runfeng in front of him suddenly became cute in Fang Zhuo's eyes.

Well, Changhong is in some trouble, isn't it? The company that might default on payment is also operating in New York, isn't it? There may not be any other way. It's a bit easy to bully someone like a law firm.

"Mr. Ni's Changhong purchases a large number of chips every year. I really hope that after our production line is completed, we can OEM chips for Changhong." Fang Zhuo did not hide his desire and continued, "I wonder how many days Mr. Ni will stay in the capital? Counting. , I can still be half a landlord in the capital, and I have to go to Sina for a few meetings on this trip."

Ni Runfeng was startled, oh yes, the person in front of him was the CEO of Sina.

"Fang always reports to the leader, and I also report to the leader. We may have three or four days in the capital. We will definitely make a game when we have time."

Fang Zhuo said very sincerely this time: "Yes, I have always liked to listen to the development experience of my seniors, and I also hope that my seniors can give advice on our overseas development strategy of Yike. Like Mr. Ni said before, New York is almost Our base camp in the United States is Yike.”

New York? Base camp?

Ni Runfeng felt that the young man in front of him seemed to be hinting at something. After looking at his peaceful expression, he felt that he might be overthinking it.

"The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves ahead. We dare not give any advice. On the contrary, Changhong should learn from Yike's overseas development. It is indeed amazing."

The two of them were polite.

After chatting like this for a long time, as the passenger plane encountered airflow and became stable again, the air journey was coming to an end.

Fang Zhuo shook hands with the head of Changhong and said goodbye. After watching the other person get into the car, he thoughtfully told his assistant: "Check Changhong's annual report last year and the operating results disclosed this year, and then check the APEX company in the United States. Let’s see what’s going on.”

The assistant responded immediately and made the call before getting in the car.

Fang Zhuo always felt that what Ni Runfeng encountered was not a small problem, and it was not the level of inquiry and help he showed.

As for the ice core production line that has not yet been built, now considering its future market performance, whether it is long-term or short-term, it can be regarded as a casual move based on the current situation. After all, we still don’t know the ins and outs of Changhong and APEX.

In the afternoon, Fang Zhuo led his team to stay at the hotel. He first contacted the secretary of the department and made an appointment to report to the leadership the next morning.

Maybe it was because the leader had seen too much, but even though the level was quite high this time, he didn't feel nervous at all.

In the evening, after Fang Zhuo sorted out the semiconductor project information in his hands, he first got some information from Changhong.

Regarding Changhong's overseas business, it announced the success of its overseas strategy in a very high-profile manner last year. Its color TV exports were US$760 million, of which US$700 million was represented by APEX, which is the distributor of Changhong's color TV exports.

However, APEX, a company founded by Chinese people, had some defaults in its DVD player business when it started its business, and its reputation was not very good.

Under such circumstances, it seems a bit paradoxical that Changhong still chooses to cooperate with APEX for export.

"Well, this APEX company is interesting."

Fang Zhuo looked through the information sent from New York and found that APEX started out by using Wal-Mart's channel, which allowed domestic low-priced DVD players to appear in the eyes of American consumers.

The victim of this low price is Sony.

In just one year, APEX surpassed Sony and became the largest supplier of DVD players in the United States.

"Sony, hey, it's Sony again."

Dong-dong-dong, there was a knock on the door outside the room.

Fang Zhuo took the information and opened the door. Biographer Liang Mu came. He had previously gone to see Yike's supply chain. This time he came to the capital with the team, intending to record Mr. Fang's efforts to fight for policies from the leaders. knowledge.

"Mr. Fang, are you confident in the leadership report tomorrow?" Liang Mu asked about business.

"Yes, of course there is." Fang Zhuo smiled, "Even if it doesn't happen, you have to pretend to have it. Well, let me show you something interesting."

He handed over the information of Changhong and the American distributor APEX.

While Liang Mu was reading the information, Fang Zhuo smoked a cigarette.

"Mr. Fang, as far as I know, when Yike started selling music players, it also entered the supermarket channel, right?" Liang Mu put down the information and asked.

Fang Zhuo smiled slightly, nodded and admitted: "Yes, we also wanted to enter Wal-Mart at that time, but we only found Kroger. We relied on Kroger's sales to initially gain a foothold, and then continued to invest in Wal-Mart and other chain supermarkets, and then Taking into account both the layout of secondary channels and online channels, Yike’s current overseas sales are achieved.”

Liang Mu thought deeply: "Can this mean that heroes think alike?"

"APEX sells DVDs and we sell M1s. There is actually no difference. The most important thing is to rely on low-price strategies relative to products in the US market to compete. Coincidentally, Sony is both a victim." Fang Zhuo couldn't help but laugh, " But it will be different in the future. Our players and online music are combined to form a very good moat. If APEX is not good, it is still just a distribution role."

"Moreover, for the sake of profit, it is still trying to get away with nothing. It first takes goods in small quantities to gain domestic trust, and then takes goods in large quantities and defaults on payment."

Liang Mu asked: "Did Changhong encounter this kind of scam?"

"Changhong." Fang Zhuo considered it for a moment and said meaningfully, "Defrauding 700 million US dollars in one fell swoop doesn't look like a scam."

Liang Mu held up his pen honestly, like a student listening to a teacher's lecture.

"You are such a big company. If you send 100 million yuan of goods, the money will not be returned or the payment will be less. If you send 200 million yuan and there is no return, you can still send 500 million yuan later?" Fang Zhuo analyzed, "This It's a bit like Zhou Yu trying to slap Huang Gai."

"Why? Is there any benefit transfer?" Liang Mu was puzzled, "Is this necessary for Ni Runfeng? Isn't this method of benefit transfer too direct?"

"Such a move may cause so many bad debts. Changhong is a listed company, and Ni Runfeng..." Fang Zhuo flashed a lot of information in his mind and came to a conclusion, "Ni Runfeng wants to use capital means to get Changhong. "

Ni Runfeng is the chairman of Changhong and the head of Changhong.

However, Changhong is a state-owned enterprise, and its actual control is not in the hands of the chairman who has brought Changhong to where it is today. If it accrues bad debts, it can significantly lower Changhong's stock price, and then carry out low-cost operations in the capacity of management. acquisition.

Liang Mu quickly understood what Mr. Fang meant and said in a daze: "Restructuring state-owned enterprises and stock market acquisitions, is Ni Runfeng taking a risky move?"

"I guess he may have lost control with this move." Fang Zhuo shook his head slightly and made a judgment.

Changhong's receivables of such a scale are suppressed. Once it is out of control, someone will be responsible.

Liang Mu flipped through the information again and still said in shock: "Ni Runfeng is so courageous!"

"The army is in danger, so long as we win, that's all. His courage..." Fang Zhuo's eyes moved, but he didn't say the second half of his thoughts.

However, when Liang Mu heard this, he already guessed what Mr. Fang meant. There was someone behind him.

Fang Zhuo pondered over his analysis of Changhong, and considered whether the future ice core could benefit from the process. If Changhong is not Changhong, ice core must be ice core.

He doesn't care whether Ni Runfeng can succeed or not, he only cares about the say that this fixed market demand exerts on the upstream of the industrial chain.

The big shop bullies the customers, the big customers bully the shop, and the offensive and defensive changes are all adapted to local conditions.