Chapter 419 Since I Started Working (Two in One)

Chapter 419 Since I started working... (two in one)

TSMC's lawsuit against SMIC has caused a huge stir in the entire domestic semiconductor industry. People related to the industry and leaders in charge of this field are aware of the huge impact this incident may bring.

Among them, the tears of Bingxin Fang, who was worried about the future development of the industry, were just a small tidbit. More people were paying attention to how SMIC would respond and whether TSMC's lawsuit would be successful.

There were a lot of reports in the industry, but there was not much movement outside the industry.

With the development of the national economy, all walks of life are very lively. The semiconductor industry is certainly important, but its money and resource thresholds are destined to have only a few people who can have ideas, and those who are really willing to get involved are the few who take the few.

Fang Zhuo occasionally looked at Sina.com's report on the SMIC incident. The first article had a lot of clicks and comments, but the second article and then the number of clicks and comments dropped rapidly.

After all, the distance between wafer foundries and the general public is very far, and there is no worrying bottleneck at the moment, so it is normal to behave like this.

SMIC was sued, but life and work must continue.

Fang Zhuo postponed his flight to New York, planning to wait until the second board meeting was over before going to work on Yike's listing.

If the first Bingxin board meeting was to express his stance and to show his firm commitment to the tie-up, then the second meeting was to take some substantive actions.

Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, IDG, and DCM are all well-known. If you want to save effort in the future and have real friends, you can't succeed completely with the attitude of a single meeting.

Fang Zhuo didn't intend to make empty promises, but really considered the pros and cons for them after being tied up.

Just before Bingxin held its second board meeting, Fang Zhuo received news about SMIC again, and couldn't help but sigh.

One week!

For a whole week, SMIC hasn't even formed a team of lawyers to deal with TSMC's lawsuit!

This is definitely a mistake in the internal process, or a lack of understanding from the top management.

If it were me, what would I do if I encountered this?

On the one hand, I would find someone to deal with it, whether it was administrative power or a partner, anyway, I had to exert influence.

On the other hand, he immediately sought the best American business lawyers at all costs, lobbied the ITC, searched for strong evidence, dragged the lawsuit to ten or eight years, and introduced other factors if necessary, such as SMIC having transgender African-American LGBT employees in the United States.

In short, according to Fang Zhuo's intuition, this lawsuit has room for maneuver.

For example, Cadwalader, the law firm that Yi Ke cooperated with in New York, handled a class action lawsuit in which several customers who bought Apple iPods filed a lawsuit because the battery life did not match the publicity.

According to the feedback Fang Zhuo received from the lawyer, this lawsuit can be easily delayed by Apple for four or five years, and even longer if the other party wants.

Of course, the legal process of this lawsuit is not that important, and the relative publicity carried out by Yi Ke may be a little more important.

However, Fang Zhuo does think that SMIC can use the laws within various American rules to deal with the current problems more familiarly.

November 30th, the last day of this month.

Bingxin held its second board meeting. Before the meeting, Fang Zhuo had a direct communication with Xu Kaiwei of Goldman Sachs in the conference room about SMIC's response. He wanted to persuade Zhang Rujing to do more work through this SMIC shareholder.

"I'm afraid SMIC doesn't want to make a big fuss for the time being. The legal process will be followed, but according to their resolution, they should keep a low profile as much as possible. This is what they meant after the board meeting."

"Their current focus is to go public as soon as possible, the sooner the better."

"SMIC's financial confidence is not enough. Their first round of financing has long been spent, and there are long-term and short-term loans. The board of directors is also worried that it will be more and more difficult to go public if they delay."

Xu Kaiwei hesitated for a moment and said tactfully: "In addition, Mr. Zhang's style of doing things is different from Mr. Fang."

Fang Zhuo understood that Mr. Zhang Rujing was in the technical field after all, and his business operations were sometimes conservative. Moreover, SMIC's internal shareholding was complicated, and there might be some constraints on decision-making.

Then there was no way. With such a matter of life and death and development, it would not work without a desperate heart.

After Xu Kaiwei and Fang Zhuo finished their extra communication about SMIC, they talked about Bingxin's board meeting and reached a consensus in advance.

Fang Zhuo temporarily lost the trust of IDG's Xiong Xiaoge, and seeing that Xu Kaiwei was more capable, he first made some necessary references to the board meeting.

It was still ten o'clock.

The process of this meeting was relatively direct.

Fang Zhuo proposed a suggestion to re-sign the agreement.

First of all, among the four institutions, only Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank signed a ratchet clause when investing. This is a clause used to adjust the valuation and prevent the loss of shares in the next round of financing due to poor business operations.

In layman's terms, it is called an anti-dilution clause.

Fang Zhuo didn't know why there was no such clause in the contract between IDG and DCM at the time, so he took the initiative to bring it up at the meeting and re-signed it.

Bingxin is now facing the expectation that it may really use such a constraint. From the perspective of investors, it is a blessing in disguise.

Xiong Xiaoge from IDG and Connor from DCM listened to the story of Bingxin Legal, and saw Fang Zhuo, Xu Kaiwei, and Zhang Hongli, who had no expression on their faces. Suddenly, they felt a little ashamed.

What happened? What went wrong?

Are there flaws in your own business processes? Why did those two companies sign contracts before?

The legal story is over.

"As for this ratchet clause, Lao Xiong and Connor shouldn't object, right?"

"This is for your good, but after much thought, it's not the best."

“The ratchet clause is not a panacea and only takes effect when the next round of financing is valued.”

Fang Zhuo simply said these few words, then turned to signal his legal affairs department to continue talking about the core content of today's preparation - the Valuation Adjustment Mechanism (VAM) of the gambling agreement.

VAM is relatively famous in later generations and is widely used.

But now, it is a new thing that capital combines with domestic conditions in the field of equity investment.

Last year, Morgan Stanley invested in Mengniu, using the company's profits as a bet for the first time, creating VAM.

What Fang Zhuo now proposes is to combine the valuation of VAM and ratchet clauses, agree on a time limit, evaluate the valuation at maturity, and set up equity redemption.

Because the ratchet clause involves the next round of financing, but VAM does not need to do this, it is an on-site representation of legal affairs.

This kind of creation also takes into account that it is difficult for semiconductor projects to make quick profits, so it is more appropriate to talk about valuation.

"In five years, a 50% increase in valuation can be regarded as a guarantee of harvest despite droughts and floods."

"Do you have any other questions?"

Fang Zhuo allowed time to digest, and when the basic techniques were discussed in the conference room, he asked aloud.

"Mr. Fang, it took you five years to achieve a 50% improvement. Don't you have too little confidence?" Connor raised an objection. He felt that the time was too long and the target was too small.

When venture capital makes equity investments, their goal is to increase the value by at least several times.

Now it takes five years to achieve 50%. Again, it would be better to use this money to invest in other projects.

Fang Zhuoyan expressed his sincerity in a concise and concise manner: "I tried my best. I will sign it if I like it."

Connor felt the sincerity of the young president, so he put away his temptation, tried his best, and signed whatever he lost his temper.

This VAM comes from Bingxin's implementation of the bottom-line clause in the contract. Compared with the current situation and general expectations, it has shown its sincerity.

According to Connor's understanding, this is an exchange between the two parties. The stock promotion at the last meeting has become binding. Otherwise, if he helps to raise Yike's stock, this guy will cash out and run away...

By then, he would have made more cash out than he had invested in the ice core.

Now at least I can ensure that I have a better exit mechanism.

Even Connor was convinced, and the other three families naturally had no objections.

Now I can think about it optimistically. Even if Mr. Fang cashes out his shares, he will still be able to enjoy some soup without losing his money.

In this way, you can already make a lot of money.

80% of the content of the second Bingxin Board of Directors was the legal interpretation of the contract terms, and 20% was the negotiation and consent of the presidents.

In just two hours, the board of directors came to an end, and subsequent supplementary terms will follow the normal process.

Hang Lung 23 has set up a lunch reception, but Fang Zhuo will not participate because he has to go to the airport immediately to fly to Luzhou, and he needs to communicate with the local government about the recent ice core assessment of the future. In addition, he also wants to communicate with the University of Science and Technology of China. The treatment of Hu Zhengming.

The teams from Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank stayed for lunch, and Su Wei, Vice President of Yike, attended the reception.

DCM's Connor has been somewhat subtle since he learned about the tacit understanding and did not want to participate in additional communication.

IDG's Xiong Xiaoge also had work to catch up on, so he and his team took a flight back to the capital in the afternoon.

"Mr. Xiong, Bingxin's agreement this time is really sincere and he has put in a lot of effort."

Liao Yu, who was traveling with him, expressed his opinion after getting on the plane. Well, he would not be thrown off the plane.

"Liao Yu, you think Fang Zhuo is sincere, right?" Xiong Xiaoge asked.

Liao Yu nodded without hesitation: "Yes."

"Then let's take a longer look at the timeline of this action. Fang Zhuo was generally optimistic about SMIC's listing. He invited Qiu Ciyun, SMIC's senior vice president, to work on a new project together, and everyone invested in it."

"When the project was launched, all funds were in place, and all contracts were signed, something happened to SMIC, and the prospects took a turn for the worse."

"At this time, Fang Zhuo stood up and said, don't be afraid if you leave your money with me. I will sign a redemption clause for you, but you have to let it go for five years. In these five years, we will work together to complete the project."

Xiong Xiaoge opened the magazine: "Liao Yu, do you think the sincerity you feel is a bit insincere?"

"Mr. Xiong, I don't think so." Liao Yu gave a negative answer, "Mr. Fang's sincerity may only be 60%, but how can you demand 80% sincerity in the business field from the beginning?"

Xiong Xiaoge sighed: "Fang Zhuo probably thinks so too, so he is extremely confident."

Liao Yu shut up. If he continued speaking, it would be time for Mr. Xiong to drive him away again.

Five minutes later, Xiong Xiaoge, who had not even finished reading the first page of the magazine, suddenly said: "Investing in ice cores may be the most failed investment operation in my career."

Liao Yu was slightly shocked. He knew that Mr. Xiong had always regretted Tencent's investment, but thinking about it, the money invested in that investment was far less than this one.

He was thinking about how to respond to his boss's sentiments.

However, Xiong Xiaoge continued talking to himself: "But if Fang Zhuo is there, maybe this investment may be the most successful operation since I started my career."

Liao Yu was shocked. This was Mr. Xiong’s general evaluation of the other party!

He felt that he had learned a lot from both Mr. Fang and Mr. Xiong this time, and he also sighed: "Investors and project parties compromise and assist each other. It's hard and easy."

"It's easy, helping each other." Xiong Xiaoge paused, "It's really hard, unilateral compromise."

Liao Yu: "..."

Sighs are sighs, reality is reality.

No problem.

The four people from IDG arrived in Beijing in the evening.

They came back in a hurry because the investment of two projects had been scheduled for negotiation, and they were in a hurry.

That night, the company worked overtime, and the four people had to communicate with a local startup project in Beijing.

At seven o'clock, Xiong Xiaoge, who had a short rest, sat in his own conference room and listened to the entrepreneur's description of the project.

Entrepreneur Sun Maoqi spoke passionately for a whole hour.

It can be seen that this entrepreneur has a good eloquence and a certain ability to draw a blueprint. However, through the project book and some questions, not only Xiong Xiaoge, but also the other three saw the other party's rough intentions.

This roughness was involuntarily compared with the ice core project that he had just come into contact with. The difference between the two was like putting jade and stone together.

Liao Yu was thinking about how to tactfully expose the entrepreneur's abnormality, because this person was introduced by a relationship in Beijing.

Unexpectedly, after a moment of silence, President Xiong spoke directly and stunned everyone.

Xiong Xiaoge asked gently: "Can you cry?"

"Ah?" Sun Maoqi was at a loss, "What?"

Xiong Xiaoge repeated patiently: "Can you cry? The kind that comes right now."

Sun Maoqi looked at Xiong Xiaoge, then turned his head to look at the other three people. For a moment, he didn't know what was happening in front of him. The investor's request made him very confused.

He said slowly: "Boss Xiong, what does this have to do with the project?"

"You know Fang Zhuo, the president of Yike? He has a strong emotional appeal, and this ability brings him a good leadership charm." Xiong Xiaoge said in a serious manner, "So, our investors have also begun to investigate this."

The outrageous project and the outrageous request are very compatible.

Sun Maoqi's eyes lit up: "I admire Mr. Fang very much. I'll give it a try."

One try, two tries.

Facts have proved that under the watchful eyes of several pairs of eyes, this is really not something that anyone can do.

Xiong Xiaoge smiled and stood up, shaking hands with this entrepreneur who was far inferior in skill.

Sun Maoqi was not too disappointed, as he knew that such a request was a rejection of himself.

Instead, he asked curiously: "Can Mr. Fang of Yike really cry when he says he will cry?"

"Mr. Fang is the one who has the best control of his emotions among all the entrepreneurs I have met." Xiong Xiaoge replied, "Part of his personal charm lies in expressing different emotions in different occasions, so he has always been trusted by investors."

Sun Maoqi left with yearning.

"Is this guy a liar?" Liao Yu found it funny. "Boss Xiong, you always thought that Boss Fang was also a liar because of that registration website."

"No, a big liar is not a liar. This guy is too bad." Xiong Xiaoge shook his head. "Fang Zhuo said last time that he wanted to take me to invest. Later I thought about it. He has such a keen sense of smell. If nothing else, at least he can identify liars."

Liao Yu was surprised. Boss Fang also wants to invest? Then we are not in the same business.

But saying that he wants to take Boss Xiong to invest together is really a bit too much.