Reinventing the Millennium

The financial turmoil has swept the semiconductor industry, and as the world's leading foundry company, Taiji has not been spared.

It is reported that Taiji’s revenue forecast for November is very pessimistic, believing that it will suffer a year-on-year decline of more than 30%. In November last year, Taiji recorded revenue of US$900 million in a single month.

This news has not been verified, but the news of layoffs started by Taiwanese reporters is actually presented in front of Fang Zhuo.

Taiwanese journalists have always been Bingxin's key target for tracking talent. Since the completion of the factory construction in 2004, they have used headhunting companies to make frequent contacts.

However, the results in the first two years were not good. The attitude of Liang Mengsong, who had not left Taiwan Journal at that time, was the epitome of it - Is Ice Core a wafer fab popping up in any corner?

Later, with the news of breakthroughs in 130nm, 90nm, and especially 65nm processes, Bingxin's high salary became more attractive. It is obvious that Bingxin is the second SMIC in the mainland that can be considered.

In the four years from 2004 to 2008, Bingxin only recruited less than 40 engineers from Taiji, which was an unprecedented setback in recruiting people.

This time, under the leadership of the new head Cai Lixing, Taiwan Journal began to use performance and other criteria to eliminate internally. The number on the surface is 5%, but Bingxin’s headhunter has verified it through various sources, and there may be more.

This means that Taiji, which has nearly 30,000 employees, may gradually export thousands of talents to the industry.

Fang Zhuo liked President Cai's decision very much.

In fact, President Cai's situation this year is similar to that of many leaders who take over from founders. They often have to pay attention to and prioritize the numbers on the statements. Otherwise, shareholders will not be satisfied with the stock price, and he himself will not be satisfied with his achievements. Satisfied, the position will also not be so stable.

Under this circumstance, manpower optimization plans that were designed to help backward employees progress have become weapons for layoffs.

As usual, layoffs already underway will obviously peak after the year.

In addition to Taiwanese, the world's leading OEM, UMC, which is lagging behind and known as the "two heroes" with Taiwanese, has also started layoffs on a large scale.

Unlike Texas Instruments, which is far away, Taiwanese engineers and UMC engineers who are located in the treasure island have many fewer geographical difficulties when choosing the mainland as their base. Moreover, there are also many Taiwanese high-level officials in the ice core.

After a quick look, Bingxin’s chief technology officer looks like Professor Hu, the former CTO of Taiwan Journal.

Take another look, the co-CEO of Bingxin looks like Dr. Liang, the former senior R\u0026D director of Taiji.

If you take a closer look, many key middle-level managers look like their former colleagues.

They are all laid off and re-employed in Bingxin, so it seems that it is not unacceptable for us to come here.

Based on various factors such as these, Fang Zhuo held several online meetings with Bingxin in succession, requesting that when it comes to accepting unemployed employees, it must be faster than slower, and it must be quickly and quickly to get people over first.

Ice core capacity utilization is also declining?

No problem, I can hold on.

The classic countercyclical investment in semiconductors starts with accepting the heartbroken employees of a rival company.

The expected number of employees required by the German factory and Ice Core Factory No. 4 will depend on the situation in this wave.

Fang Zhuo really wanted to return to China to preside over work in this area. However, on the one hand, he also needed to be responsible for the laid-off and re-employment work in the United States. On the other hand, he celebrated Xiao O's victory with his golf friends in Silicon Valley.

From September to November, the situation between Omar and McCain completely reversed, and finally change took the stage.

Considering the current situation and the gap between the two economic camps, this reminds Fang Zhuo of Clinton's previous campaign slogan-"It is The Economy, Stupid", which is quite similar but has the same purpose.

The first black leader in history was born, but he faced a financial crisis that needed to be solved.

Due to some factors, Fang Zhuo did not go to Chicago to watch Xiao O's victory speech even though he received the invitation.

However, others swinging golf clubs in Silicon Valley knew the candidates for O'Neill's economic team faster than the media.

Sure enough, Geithner will become the new fiscal steward, and Summers, the director of the New York Economic Institute, will be in charge of the Economic Committee. Regarding Summers' re-employment, this is really beyond Fangzhuo's expectation.

The relationship between these two is too close.

In addition to them, Christina Romer will serve as director of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Barnes, a senior adviser in the campaign team, will serve as internal affairs adviser.

Geithner, Summers, Romer, and Barnes, these four are O'Brien's shadow economic cabinet.

Fang Zhuo was not very familiar with the latter two, but he got a clear signal. Both Geithner and Summers hoped for a rapid recovery in the financial industry, and Geithner was already working on his financial rescue plan. plan.

If we want to save the financial industry, we must face up to and resolve toxic assets.

Geithner plans to bring in private capital to work with the administration to detoxify the vast toxic assets.

Last month, George W. Bush struggled to pass the 700 billion bailout bill in Congress. He is now focusing on this and intends to use 100 billion as official funds in the plan to leverage private capital.

In order to better attract private capital, the main risks will be covered by the administration, and the book profits will also be very considerable.

To put it simply, a toxic asset worth US$20 million was auctioned, and the winning bid was US$10 million. Private capital only needed to spend US$750,000 to obtain an equity, and the remaining US$9.25 million was funded by the administration, of which , US$8.5 million was a loan, and US$750,000 was obtained for the same equity.

If this toxic asset makes a profit, it really has an actual value of US$20 million. Private capital invests US$750,000 and gets a profit of US$5 million. The other half of the profit of US$5 million goes to the administrative staff of US$750,000.

An investment of 750,000 is equivalent to the effect of 10 million dollars, and it is possible to obtain assets of 20 million US dollars.

That's Geithner's plan in a nutshell.

Of course there are risks involved. This 20 million asset is toxic after all, and it may end up being worthless. You will lose $750,000, and the rest of the loss will be borne by the administration.

However, as a friend, Fang Zhuo is willing to take huge risks worthless to support Geithner.

It failed to help during the financial crisis and even caused a bit of chaos. This time it must be our duty to do so.

Fang Zhuo was swinging his club on the golf course, carefully considering the risks and responsibilities, and couldn't wait to see Geithner take office.

On November 9, news of bankruptcies and layoffs were still spreading in all walks of life around the world. There were not too many news that made Fang Zhuo feel the same. Qimonda seemed to be really going to file for bankruptcy. Stringer, the head of Sony, The sighs are an example, and AMD's search for wafer fab buyers is an example. After all, AMD founder Sanders has a famous saying: "A hero must have his own wafer fab"...

Sweep goods, play golf, sweep goods, play golf, sweep endless goods, play endless golf.

That night, Fang Zhuo, who really couldn't spare the time, finally treated Mr. Yu Hong to a dinner that was two days late.

"I'm too busy, there are too many things to care about." Fang Zhuo hurriedly walked into the restaurant and first informed him of the good news, "LG Electronics' sales ban on ITC is about to come down."

Yu Hong was surprised: "Really? So fast? It's not even half a year yet."

Generally speaking, this process takes at least half a year.

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly: "That's what my friend said. I'm not sure whether this news will be implemented in the end."

Yu Hong probably knew about her boss's social contacts, and sighed: "Mr. Fang, you have so many friends, what about the HTC ones?"

HTC was sued later.

"This still needs to wait. Moreover, Mr. Wang from HTC called me again. He sincerely wants to meet me and talk about cooperation." Fang Zhuo said with a smile, "I don't like to kill everyone, and I am always easy to be soft-hearted. .”

Yu Hong was very calm: "Yeah."

"The most important thing is that the Android camp needs to be promoted. It seems that it is enough for one LG Electronics to be suspended." Fang Zhuo took a sip of soup.

LG Electronics is really feuding with Yike.

Yike's mobile phones have been banned in the Korean market, and I'm afraid I won't be able to log in there for a while. Unfortunately, there is still a Samsung in South Korea who has learned the essence. When Samsung finishes selling its touch screen smartphones, even if it can enter the market , the degree of competition at different times is naturally different.

"When will the ban on sales be announced?" Yu Hong asked.

Fang Zhuo thought for a moment: "I think the middle of next month is good. LG and distributors will definitely stock up on large quantities of goods for Christmas. If we seize this opportunity, we can pay more."

Yu Hong felt that the boss's "feeling" seemed to affect ITC's tone in announcing the ban time.

She nodded slightly: "Then we can prepare to contact Verizon to see if we can connect with this operator."

Verizon was interested in partnering with Yike, but chose LG because of T-Mobile's exclusive sales time.

However, the market response to LG's mobile phone products has been mediocre, and it is about to face a sales ban. This may be an opportunity for Yike and Verizon to renew their relationship.

Verizon used to be very stubborn, but times have changed and the nation's second-largest telecom operator has become much more moderate.

Fang Zhuo followed this topic and continued: "Sony's Stringer called me. He also wanted to rely on Android, but he was unwilling to let go of Microsoft's WM system. What do you think of its trend?"

"Sony Ericsson's market share also declined a lot in the third quarter. Similar to Nokia and LG, only Samsung suffered a small loss." Yu Hong mused, "It's not impossible to tread two boats, but can Sony Ericsson be able to concentrate on making products now?" I’m afraid it’s a big pass.”

Today is different from the past. Smartphones from Yike and Apple have already established their brands. However, the economic situation has brought additional pressure.

Sony, which is behind the Sony Ericsson phone, is also very sensitive to pressure and may not necessarily be able to deal with situations calmly.

"Well... the old knight is not in a high mood. Fortunately, I told him the good news that the financial income has doubled several times, and he probably feels better." Fang Zhuo shook his head.

"How much did he invest?" Yu Hong discovered that the boss really let anyone pay if he caught him.

"Not much, Xiao Tou Yiqing, one million US dollars." Just as Fang Zhuo was about to talk about the concept of whether you manage your finances or whether your finances care about you, his secretary Liu Zonghong knocked on the door and walked in, handing the phone to him.

Fang Zhuo glanced at the number. It was the vice president from Deutsche Bank.

After a few minutes of talking on the phone, he put down the phone and said, "It's an informal invitation from the German Bank. I want to talk about the loan to build the factory again."

"Is there going to give in?" Yu Hong knew this.

Fang Zhuo nodded and smiled slightly: "It's interesting to say that the German Bank rejected Qimonda's call for help and was unwilling to fund it. Instead, it took the initiative to find foreign manufacturers like us."

"Chasing the rise and the fall, everyone knows that Qimonda is in trouble and is unwilling to wade into muddy waters." Yu Hong said calmly, "Qimonda doesn't know the specific amount of losses, and I don't know which bad guy in the stock market has been shorting Qimonda. Menda.”

Fang Zhuo glanced at Xiao Yu, who was looking at him. He didn't want to make blind guesses about this kind of thing. He could love whoever he wanted, and it was not illegal to be short.

Just as he was about to change the topic, his phone vibrated again.

This time it was from China.

"It's from Lao Xiong." Fang Zhuo said before pressing the phone.

"I just met with Mr. Li again this morning." Xiong Xiaoge continued without courtesy, speaking in domestic time, "Compared to last time, Mr. Li's attitude has softened a lot. I think there is hope that we can talk about Yike. It’s a matter of acquiring Dangdang, but he wants to see you and talk face to face.”

"Talk in person? Is he really willing to sell?" Fang Zhuo pondered, "I don't have time to go back now, Silicon Valley is very busy."

"I don't know if he is really willing, but he just wants to talk face to face." Xiong Xiaoge said.

Fang Zhuo didn't think there was anything in common at this moment, so he still declined politely: "I'm really busy here and can't go back. Bingxin was doing important things a few days ago, so I didn't even go back."

"He insists on this." Xiong Xiaoge was also a little helpless. He was about to sell the company. What else was there to talk about? Mr. Fang couldn't say anything good.

Fang Zhuo said unceremoniously: "Then you tell him directly, either he comes to Silicon Valley to meet me, or he looks for other companies. I am going to Europe next month and I don't have time to waste talking about friendship in person. above."

Xiong Xiaoge said "Yeah", now is a buyer's market.

Dangdang, which has built a warehousing and logistics system, can be a good complement to Tesco. However, other than Tesco, I am afraid that no one else will rush to take over such an e-commerce platform.

Xiong Xiaoge quickly ended the call.

Yu Hong heard the one-sided content nearby, but she was able to piece together the general outline and asked in surprise: "Dangdang is also going to be sold?"

Fang Zhuo shrugged: "It's an economic crisis."

Yu Hong thought about it, yes, recently in the United States, we have seen that many well-known global brands are having a hard time, and many of them have gone bankrupt.

"I suspect that Lao Xiong will talk to Qingzi directly after the phone call." Fang Zhuo guessed while eating.

"Although Mr. Li has some disagreements with you, I still have to call you to communicate with you about this kind of thing." Yu Hong said.

Fang Zhuo looked at his phone and considered whether he should take the initiative. It was not easy for everyone.

After dinner, just when Yu Hong was about to end her conversation on the mobile phone, Fang Zhuo's phone lighted up again. This time it was really from the head of Dangdang.

Fang Zhuozhen didn't know how to communicate with this person.

Fortunately, Li Guoqing didn't really want to make small talk. He just asked a question with some sadness: "Fang Zhuo, to be honest, if Dangdang survives this test, do you think it will be able to gain a foothold in B2C?"

Fang Zhuo said "Huh": "Well, I haven't thought about it much."

Li Guoqing was silent for a while and sighed: "Tell me, how can I beat you once?"

Fang Zhuo thought for a long time and asked, "What was your last question?"

"Dangdang's current situation is not good. It's really hard to endure." Li Guoqing's true feelings were blocked, "Since I want to sell, what Mr. Xiong said makes sense. It's not a shame to sell to you."

Fang Zhuo finally relented: "Well, Qingzi, if you still want to start a business next time, you can give me a call."

Li Guoqing said: "What? You still want to invest money in me?"

"No, I can give you some valuable advice." Fang Zhuo said seriously.

Li Guoqing said "ha" without saying anything else, ending the phone call where he was struggling mentally.

I thought I would be as angry as ever, but I didn't expect that the actual phone call would be... that's it.

Just sell it, take the money, leave, and find another place to create glory again.