Reinventing the Millennium

Chapter 930 Obligatory (4k)

The financial turmoil swept across the semiconductor industry, and as a global leader in wafer foundry, Tai Kee was not immune.

It is reported that Taiji is very pessimistic about its revenue forecast for November, and believes that it will experience a year-on-year decline of more than 11%. In November last year, Taiji received a revenue of US$30 million in a single month.

This news has not been verified, but the news of the layoffs initiated by Tai Ji was actually presented in front of Fang Zhuo.

Taiji has always been the key target of Bingxin to track talents. Since the construction of the factory building was completed in 04, it has frequently used headhunting companies to contact.

However, the results in the first two years were not good. The attitude of Liang Mengsong, who had not left Tai Ji at that time, was a microcosm——Which corner of the fab did Bingxin emerge from?
Later, with the news of breakthroughs in 130nm, 90nm, and especially 65nm processes, Bingxin’s high salary became attractive on the horizontal line, and it was obviously the second SMIC that could be considered in the mainland.

During the four years from 04 to 08, Bingxin only recruited less than 4 engineers from Taiji, which was an unprecedented setback in recruiting.

This time, under the leadership of the new head Cai Lixing, Tai Ji began to use performance and other standards to eliminate internally. The figure on the surface is 5%, but Bingxin's headhunters have verified it, and it may be more.

This means that Taiji, which has nearly 3 employees, may export thousands of talents to the industry one after another.

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 succeeded the founders. He often has to pay attention to and give priority to being responsible for the figures on the report. Otherwise, the shareholders are not satisfied with the stock price, and he himself is not satisfied with his achievements Satisfied, the position is also not so stable.

Under such circumstances, the manpower optimization plan that used to help backward employees improve has become a weapon for layoffs.

According to the usual practice, the layoffs already in progress will obviously usher in a peak after the year.

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

Unlike Texas Instruments, which is far away, the engineers of Taiji and UMC, which are located in Baodao, have much less geographical difficulty when choosing the mainland as their base. Moreover, there are also a large number of high-level Taiwan-based companies in the ice core.

Take a closer look, the chief technology officer of Bingxin looks like Professor Hu, the former CTO of Taiji.

Take another look, the co-CEO of Bingxin looks like Dr. Liang, the former senior research and development director of Taiji.

If you take a closer look, you can see that many key middle-level employees are similar to their former colleagues.

They were all laid off and re-employed in the ice core, and it seems that it is not unacceptable for us to come here.

Based on these various factors, Fang Zhuo held several ice core online meetings in a row, demanding that when accepting unemployed employees, he must be fast and slow, and he must be quick and quick to get people here first.

Ice core capacity utilization is also declining?

No problem, hold on.

The classic counter-cyclical investment in semiconductors starts with accepting heartbroken employees from friends.

The expected employee skeleton required by the German factory and the fourth ice core factory depends on the situation of this wave.

Fang Zhuo would like to return to China to preside over this work, but on the one hand, he also needs to be responsible for the reemployment of laid-off workers in the United States, and on the other hand, he is celebrating Xiao Ao's victory with his golf friends in Silicon Valley.

From September to November, the situation of Xiao Ao and McCain was completely reversed, and finally change came to the stage.

Considering the current situation and the gap between the two sides in the economic camp, this reminded Fang Zhuo of Clinton's previous campaign slogan - "It is The Economy, Stupid", which is quite similar.

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

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

However, when others swing golf clubs in Silicon Valley, they know the candidates for Xiao Ao's economic team faster than the media.

Sure enough, Geithner will become the new financial steward, and Summers, director of the New York Economic Institute, will be in charge of the economic committee. Regarding Summers' reemployment, this is beyond Fang Zhuo's expectations.

The relationship between these two is too close.

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

Geithner, Summers, Romer, and Barnes, these four are Xiao Ao's shadow economic cabinet.

Fang Zhuo is not familiar with the latter two, but he clearly got a signal that both Geithner and Summers hope that the financial industry can recover quickly, and Geithner is already working on his financial rescue plan. plan.

If you want to save the financial industry, you must face up to and deal with toxic assets.

Geithner intends to bring in private capital to work with the administration to detoxify the huge toxic assets.

Last month, Xiaobu struggled to pass the 7000 billion bailout bill in Congress, and now he is putting his mind on it, intending to use 1000 billion as the planned official funds to leverage private capital.

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

To put it simply, a toxic asset worth 2000 million US dollars is auctioned, and the winning bid is 1000 million US dollars. Private capital only needs to put up 75 US dollars to obtain an equity stake, and the remaining 925 million US dollars will be funded by the administration, of which , 850 million US dollars as a loan, 75 US dollars to obtain a similar equity.

If this toxic asset is profitable, it really has an actual value of 2000 million U.S. dollars. Private capital will invest 75 U.S. dollars and get 500 million profits, and the other half of the 500 million profits will go to the administration's 75 yuan.

An investment of 75 is equivalent to the effect of 1000 million funds, and it is possible to obtain assets of 2000 million US dollars.

That's a simple description of Geithner's plan.

Of course there are risks involved. After all, the 2000 million assets are poisonous, and they may end up worthless. You will lose 75 US dollars, and the rest of the losses will be borne by the administration.

However, as a friend, Fang Zhuo is willing to take the huge risk of being worthless for Geithner.

The financial crisis didn't help, and it added a bit of chaos. This time it must be obligatory.

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

On November 11th, there were still news of bankruptcy and layoffs in all walks of life around the world. The news that made Fang Zhuo feel the same is not too much. Qimonda seems to be really going to file for bankruptcy. AMD's sighing is an example, and AMD's search for a fab buyer is another example. After all, AMD's founder Sanders has a famous saying that "a good man must have his own fab"...

Sweeping goods, playing golf, sweeping goods, playing golf, endless sweeps, endless golf.

That night, Fang Zhuo, who really couldn't spare the time, finally invited Mr. Yu Hongyu to have a two-day late dinner.

"Too busy, too many things to care about." Fang Zhuo hurried into the restaurant, and first announced the good news, "LG Electronics' sales ban in the ITC is about to come down."

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

Generally speaking, such a process is at least half a year up.

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

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

HTC was later sued.

"I need to wait for this, and, HTC's President Wang called me again, and he sincerely wanted to meet me and talk about cooperation." Fang Zhuo said with a smile, "I don't like to kill everything, and I always tend to soften my heart. .”

Yu Hong was very calm: "Yeah."

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

LG Electronics is really feuding with Yike.

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

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

Fang Zhuo thought for a moment: "I think the middle of next month will be good. LG and distributors will definitely stock up a lot for Christmas, so we can pay more if we seize this point."

Yu Hong feels that the boss's "feeling" seems to be able to affect the tone of the ITC's announcement of the lock-up time.

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

Verizon had been interested in partnering with Ike, but chose LG because of T-Mobile's exclusive sale time.

However, the market response of LG's mobile phone products is mediocre, and it is about to face a ban on sales. This may be an opportunity for Echo and Verizon to continue their relationship.

Verizon used to be stubborn, but times have changed. The second largest telecom operator in the United States has become much more gentle.

Fang Zhuo continued following this topic: "Sony's Stringer called me, and 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 little loss." Yu Hong pondered, "It's not impossible to step on two boats, but can Sony Ericsson now settle down to make products? I'm afraid it's a big pass."

Today is different from the past, Ecco and Apple's smartphones have established brands, but the economic situation has brought additional pressure.

Sony Ericsson, which is backed by Sony Ericsson mobile phones, is also very sensitive to pressure and may not be able to deal with the situation calmly.

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

"How much did he vote for?" Yu Hong found out that the boss really let whoever caught him pay.

"Not much, small investment, 100 million US dollars." Fang Zhuo just wanted to talk about the idea that you don't care about money, and money doesn't care about you. 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, he put down his phone and said, "It's an informal invitation from the German Bank, and I want to talk about the loan to build the factory again."

"Is there going to be a concession?" Yu Hong knew about it.

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

"Chasing the ups and downs, we all know that Qimonda is going to die, and we don't want to go into the muddy water." Yu Hong said calmly, "Qimonda doesn't know how much shortfall it is, and what's more, I don't know which bad guy in the stock market has been shorting Qimonda. Monda."

Fang Zhuo glanced at Xiao Yu who was looking at him, and he didn't want to guess about this kind of thing, whoever he loves, and it's not against the law to sell short.

He was about to change the subject when his phone vibrated again.

This time it was from China.

"Old bear." Fang Zhuo spoke first before calling.

"I just met Mr. Li again this morning." Xiong Xiaoge was not polite, talking about domestic time, and continued, "Compared to last time, Mr. Li's attitude has softened a lot. I think there is hope that we can talk about Yike together. It’s about the acquisition of Dangdang, but he wants to see you and talk face to face.”

"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 really wants to, but he just wants to talk face to face." Xiong Xiaoge said.

Fang Zhuo didn't feel that there was any common language at this moment, and still declined politely: "I'm really busy here, and I can't go back. Bingxin had important things to do a few days ago, so I didn't go back."

"He insisted on this very much." Xiong Xiaoge was also a little helpless, he was about to sell the company, what else was there to talk about, and Boss Fang couldn't come up with anything good.

Fang Zhuo said unceremoniously: "Then you tell him directly, either he will come to see me in Silicon Valley, or he will find another family. I will go to Europe next month, and I don't have time to waste talking about friendship in person. above."

Xiong Xiaoge said "hmm", it's a buyer's market now.

Dangdang, which has built a warehousing and logistics system, can be a good supplement to e-buy, but apart from e-buy, I am afraid that others will not rashly take over such an e-commerce platform.

Xiong Xiaoge quickly ended the call.

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

Fang Zhuo shrugged: "The economic crisis."

Yu Hong thought about it, yes, recently, I have seen many world-renowned brands in the United States have a hard time, and many of them have closed down.

"I doubt that Old Bear will talk to Qingzi directly after the phone call." Fang Zhuo guessed while eating.

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

Fang Zhuo looked at his phone, thinking about whether he should take the initiative. It was not easy for everyone.

After dinner, just as Yu Hong was about to end her mobile phone conversation, Fang Zhuo's phone turned on again, and this time it was really from the head of Dangdang.

Fang Zhuo really didn't know how to greet this man.

Fortunately, Li Guoqing didn't intend to greet him too much, he just asked a question with some regret: "Fang Zhuo, to be honest, if Dangdang survives this test, do you think it will be possible to gain a foothold in B2C?"

Fang Zhuo let out a "huh" and said, "Well, I haven't thought much about it."

Li Guoqing was silent for a while, then 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, and it's really not easy to endure." Li Guoqing's true feelings were blocked back, "Since it is going to be sold, what Xiong said makes sense, and it is not shameful to sell it to you."

After all, Fang Zhuo still softened his heart: "Well, Qingzi, if you still want to start a business next time, you can call me."

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

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

Li Guoqing let out a "ha", didn't say anything, and ended the phone call of psychological struggle.

I thought it would be the same resentment as before, but I didn't expect that after the real call, it would be... that's it.

If you sell it, you will sell it, take the money and leave, and find another place to create another glory.

(End of this chapter)