Chapter 398: Glimpse (Two in One)

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

As the saying goes, don't talk about deep things when you are not close to each other. The head of Changhong should not ask the person he met for the first time about running away.

However, if the dog jumps over the wall and the situation is critical, then maybe he will catch anything he encounters.

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

But on second thought, he can act whether he is in good condition or not, and he has some accomplishments in this area.

After such a series of seemingly long but actually short brain circuits, Fang Zhuo chuckled softly: "Mr. Ni, are you going to expand overseas markets?"

He didn't wait for Ni Runfeng to answer, and continued: "If it's other things, we have a long-term cooperative law firm Cadwalader, which is very professional and capable. I can introduce it to you. The lawyers there have played a big role in many lawsuits of our Yike."

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

Fang Zhuo felt strange when he heard this, which was a bit untrue and mixed with the sigh that seemed to be said to himself.

He pondered for a while, thinking about the difficulties of his own fundraising, and he felt a little empathy. It is really not easy to run a business.

"Mr. Ni, this is the contact number of Martin, a lawyer from Cadwalader Law Firm in New York. According to what you said, if APEX is likely to default, you must find a reliable law firm and lawyer in a foreign country." Fang Zhuo was also worried about the project. There was no way to help the head of Changhong, so he could only provide a reliable suggestion.

Ni Runfeng really wrote down the phone number, asked a few questions about Yi Ke's previous lawsuits, thanked the young president, and then curiously asked about the 10 billion investment in semiconductors that was widely circulated in the media.

When he first saw this report, he thought it was absurd and thought it was a rumor, but more and more reports proved that it was true, and he was very curious.

The biggest curiosity was how Fang Zhuo could raise so much money.

Changhong, such a big company, had a full-year revenue of only 12.59 billion last year, and Fang Zhuo was quietly going to make a 10 billion investment!

"It's nothing, actually. Yike has done well in the overseas market. Several international venture capitalists trust me. I don't understand technology, but a vice president of SMIC is willing to work on the project together. The venture capitalists think it's reliable, so they invested." Fang Zhuo said lightly.

Ni Runfeng looked at the young president in surprise and smiled, "I admire you."

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

Fang Zhuo had been wary of Ni Runfeng's sudden mention of New York. At this moment, he was moved and asked, "Mr. Ni, what chips are used in color TVs?"

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

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

"Our sales last year exceeded 11 million units." Ni Runfeng smiled.

"Then which manufacturer do you buy chips for your color TV?" 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 are from South Korea and the United States. They have to be divided into different models." Ni Runfeng replied.

Fang Zhuo nodded and pondered.

This Changhong is definitely not well developed. It will become weak in a few years. Not to mention that it cannot compare with the industry leader in the 1990s, it is definitely not as powerful as it has been in the past two years.

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

Because Bingxin does not involve IC design or IC packaging.

This process is that Philips designs a solution suitable for the product function, the wafer factory produces it, 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 has also learned about the current market situation with Qiu Ciyun.

Take SMIC as an example. Last year, 90% of its sales were overseas, and it was connected with major foreign manufacturers because there were few IC designers in the mainland and it was unable to provide customers with excellent solutions.

The reason why wafer fabs are 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 bring competitive advantages.

The surface area of ​​a 12-inch wafer is about 70,659 square millimeters. If a chip with an area of ​​100 millimeters is made, about 640 chips can be made after removing the scraps.

In actual production, if the yield of the foundry is 85%, 544 chips can be made. If the yield is 90%, the number is 576, and if it is 95%, it is 608.

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

The level of process technology is so intuitively reflected in the product cost, which further determines the survival of the foundry.

Intel 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 better 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 factor of yield rate, Fang Zhuoyou is considering whether the needs of end customers in the market will in turn 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, right? The company that may default on payment is also operating in New York, right? 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 in the United States.”

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 conditions 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 leader 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." Fang Zhuo said with a smile, "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 and nodded in acknowledgment: "Yes, we also wanted to enter Walmart at that time, but we only found Kroger through connections. We initially gained a foothold with the sales of Kroger, and then continued to invest in chain supermarkets such as Walmart, while also taking into account the layout of secondary channels and online channels, which led to Yike's current overseas sales."

Liang Mu pondered: "Can this be called great minds think alike?"

"There is actually no difference between APEX selling DVDs and us selling M1. The most important thing is to rely on low-price strategies relative to products in the US market to compete. Coincidentally, Sony is a victim." Fang Zhuo couldn't help laughing "But the future development will be different. Our player and online music are combined to form a very good moat. APEX is not like that. It is still just a distributor."

"Moreover, for the sake of profit, it is still making money out of nothing. It first takes small batches of goods in exchange for domestic trust, and then takes large quantities of goods and defaults on payments."

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

"Changhong." Fang Zhuo pondered for a moment and said meaningfully, "Scamming 700 million US dollars at once, this doesn't look like a scam at all."

Liang Mu picked up the pen honestly, as if a student was listening to a teacher's lecture.

"You are such a big company. You sent goods worth 100 million, but they didn't pay back or paid less. You sent 200 million, but they still didn't pay back. How can you send 500 million later?" Fang Zhuo analyzed, "This is a bit like Zhou Yu fighting Huang Gai."

"Why? Is there any interest transfer?" Liang Mu was puzzled. "Does Ni Runfeng need to do this? Isn't this way of interest transfer too direct?"

"Such a move may cause so many bad debts. Changhong is a listed company. Ni Runfeng..." Fang Zhuo's mind flashed a lot of information 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.

But Changhong is a state-owned enterprise. Its actual control is not in the hands of the chairman who brought Changhong to its current state. If the bad debt provision is used, the stock price of Changhong can be greatly lowered, and then a low-cost acquisition can be made as a management.

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

"I think he might get out of control with this move." Fang Zhuo shook his head slightly and made a judgment.

Changhong's accounts receivable of such a scale are suppressed. If it can't be controlled, someone will be responsible.

Liang Mu looked through the information again and was still amazed: "Ni Runfeng is really brave!"

"It's a risky move. It's okay if he wins, but his courage..." Fang Zhuo's eyes moved, and he didn't say the second half of the sentence.

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

Fang Zhuo pondered and reviewed his analysis of Changhong, considering whether Bingxin could benefit from it in the future. Changhong or not, Bingxin would get Bingxin.

He didn't care whether Ni Runfeng could succeed, but only thought about the right to speak that this fixed market demand exerted on the upstream of the industrial chain.

A big store bullies its customers, a big customer bullies the store, the offensive and defensive situations change, all of which are based on local conditions.