America's Road to Fame

Chapter 400 Flowing Grass

This morning, as expected, after William Chen woke up, he found that the task of the Future Bank last night had been completed, and he received a chance to draw a high-level lottery.

As for the results of this advanced lottery——

[Flower Grass Seeds] A magical herb - the seeds of streamer grass, which contains a special substance that makes the dye have a streamer effect, and has a wide range of uses.Note: Flowing grass can only survive within the range of the Lord's Heart.

It is another seed that can only survive within the heart of the lord. William Chen remembered that he had received a random seed before, which was also introduced similarly.

However, because the sculpture of Poseidon, the god of the sea in Atlanta, was not completed before, William Chen has not used [Lord's Heart] yet, so he has not tried the effect of [Random Seed] yet.

This time I got another [Streamer Grass Seed], which also needs to survive within the range of [Lord's Heart]. Now it is said that the statue of Poseidon, the sea god located on the central mountain range of Atlan Island, has been completed. When you get to Atlanta, you need to use [Lord's Heart] to see what kind of plants these two seeds can get.

Therefore, after William Chen arrived in Paris and boarded the "Future" super yacht, he began to embark on the same route as the maiden voyage of "Future", with the goal of Atlantis.

This trip, just like crossing the Atlantic Ocean before, was boring. In addition to playing with ten beauties and learning knowledge, there was also sending someone to South Korea to contact Hynix, their second largest semiconductor manufacturer. , put forward a plan to prepare for the acquisition of Hynix.

This will become the world's third largest semiconductor company after Samsung and Intel in the future. It is currently in high debt and on the verge of bankruptcy.

The predecessor of Hynix was Hyundai Electronics. After the merger of Hyundai Electronics and LG Semiconductor, it was independently renamed Hynix in 2001.

Before this time, Hynix was on the verge of bankruptcy because of the same high debt, but they survived that time.

The revenue of South Korea's semiconductor industry ranks second in the world, second only to the United States. Its importance is self-evident. Hynix is ​​one of the iconic semiconductor companies in South Korea.

In the 70s, DRAM memory was just born, and American companies such as Intel and Mostek took turns in the DRAM market. At the same time, Japanese companies were also waiting for opportunities.

In 1983, Hyundai Electronics was established, thus opening the history of Hynix.

The Hyundai Group used to be the largest consortium in South Korea in the last century. Before it was separated, its business types covered construction, automobiles, shipbuilding, semiconductors and other fields.

Later, as South Korea's Samsung, Hyundai Electronics, LG Semiconductor and other companies entered the DRAM market one after another, the industry's production capacity began to overcapacity, and industry profits declined severely.

Due to the collapse of the game console market from 1983 to 1985, the DRAM market dropped to less than 10% of its previous level, and manufacturers such as Intel and National Semiconductor withdrew from the market one after another.

In the mid-80s, Japanese companies began to suppress American companies and dominate the storage market by virtue of low cost and excellent technology.

At this time, South Korean companies were basically in the role of followers. Among them, Hyundai Electronics obtained key technologies from Texas Instruments and other companies in the United States through OEM, and completed the mass production of 1986K DRAM in 64.

In September 1985, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the United States, Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom held a meeting and reached an agreement for the governments of the five countries to jointly intervene in the foreign exchange market and resolve the huge trade deficit of the United States.Because the meeting was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York, it was called the Plaza Accord.

After the agreement was signed, the yen began to appreciate.The U.S. Department of Commerce also launched a 301 anti-dumping investigation, and signed a U.S.-Japan semiconductor agreement the following year, forcing Japan to open up the chip market.Although Japanese manufacturers still have a technological advantage at this time, their low-price strategy has lost its effect.

Relying on the abundant financial resources of the chaebol, the four South Korean manufacturers Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and Daewoo invested more than US$80 billion in the 20s (equivalent to tens of billions of US dollars today), and began to catch up with Japanese companies in technology.

After entering the 90s, the Dutch lithography machine supplier ASML's lithography machine technology began to surpass Japan's Canon and Nikon.Micron and Samsung replaced ASML lithography machines one after another, and Hyundai Electronics followed suit with ASML lithography machines.

As Japanese DRAM manufacturers insist on using Canon and Nikon lithography machines, the gap between South Korea and Japan has gradually widened in terms of technology and cost. In 1997, the Asian financial crisis broke out. Due to the high debt ratio of South Korean enterprises, insufficient foreign exchange reserves, and the tightening of European and American debts, the South Korean won plummeted by 60% within a few weeks at the end of the year, which greatly enhanced the export competitiveness of South Korean enterprises.

In 1998, the market share of South Korean DRAM companies surpassed that of Japan for the first time.

In addition to relying on the strong strength of major financial groups, the South Korean government also played a huge role in the planning of the semiconductor industry. Since 1975, it has promulgated a number of policies to support the development of the semiconductor industry in South Korea.

To boost the competitiveness of South Korea's semiconductor industry, the government merged Hyundai Electronics with LG Semiconductor in 1999, with Hyundai Electronics owning a majority stake.

In this integration, Hyundai Electronics initially refused to pay for the debt of LG Semiconductor, but at that time the huge pressure to merge the two companies came from the South Korean government. In the end, Hyundai Electronics had to make a compromise. After the merger, Hyundai Electronics owed nearly 140 million. billion US dollars, and the debt-to-equity ratio is as high as 160%, which has brought a huge economic burden to the company.

In 2001, as Hyundai Electronics was split from Hyundai Group, the company changed its name to Hynix.In the same year, Micron completed the acquisition of the memory department of Texas Instruments. With the end of the integration of the memory industry from 1999 to 2001, Samsung, Micron, Hynix, and Infineon have nearly [-]% of the global DRAM market share.

At this time, the competition in the DRAM market has become fierce, and the product price is close to the production cost. After the Internet bubble burst, the DRAM price collapsed.

According to IDC data, when the demand for DRAM capacity increased by 2001% in 56, the price of DRAM dropped by 46%.

Under such market conditions, Hynix suffered a loss of US$25 billion, was unable to repay the loan, and its asset-liability ratio was as high as 206%.

Considering the huge forward capital expenditure needs of the semiconductor industry, the South Korean government and creditors led by the South Korean Exchange Bank began pushing for the sale of Hynix.

However, both Samsung and LG refused to take over the debt-laden mess, and only Micron wanted to cash in on the opportunity.

At the end of 2001, Park Chong-sup, then the president of Hynix, reached an agreement with Micron that Micron would acquire Hynix’s entire memory chip business and 30% of other businesses with a stock value of US$25 billion, and would not accept Hynix’s offer. $60 billion in debt.

Although Hynix was desperate at the time, this plan was still unanimously opposed by Hynix's board of directors.

In the end, Micron’s acquisition of Hynix failed, and major DRAM manufacturers began to look forward to the market vacated by Hynix’s bankruptcy.

(End of this chapter)