Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 128 Pre-IPO Strategic Investment

In order to improve the patent layout in various aspects and the research and development of new technologies, Xu Shenxue, in addition to investing in and establishing R&D projects himself, also likes to acquire existing companies directly or obtain technology and patent authorizations.

No matter what method is used, as long as you can obtain patents and related technologies, it is a good method.

In this case, since Zhiyun Technology obtained financing and then obtained a large amount of cash flow after the successful launch of the C1 mobile phone, it started a mode of self-research and purchasing at the same time.

We gradually acquired Anlong Precision in full in order to produce aluminum alloy bodies.

Then it acquired Wanjin Technology and AuthenTec to develop fingerprint recognition.

Then it acquired Meixiu Company in order to develop beauty algorithms. At the same time, it also used the company's technical foundation to expand the scale of research and development and began to develop face recognition at the software level... This was not for unlocking, but mainly for classifying people in photos in mobile phone albums... It was not very useful, and it was mainly for accumulating technology.

Because if it develops further, it will be 2D facial recognition... This thing can be used to unlock mobile phones. Although the security is very poor, as long as it is not used as a means of payment, then the problem is not big... Anyway, most people can't tell the difference between 2D facial recognition and 3D structured light facial recognition... They think they are all facial recognition and can be used.

To see how good the facial recognition technology is and whether it is safe or not, it is actually very simple. Just see if the payment software will call the 'face recognition' function of this phone to replace the payment password!

If it works, it's safe.

If that doesn't work, then you have to take it easy.

You have to believe that those financial institutions must have considered more and are more cautious than you...

Face recognition, whether 2D or 3D, has its uses. 2D can be used as one of the unlocking solutions for mid- and low-end mobile phones.

The 3D one can be used as a payment-level unlocking solution and is installed on flagship models as a core selling point.

Therefore, Xu Shenxue attaches great importance to face recognition, which is another key technology after fingerprint recognition. Even though it is still far from practical application, Xu Shenxue has already started people to work on it.

In addition to projects such as aluminum alloy body, fingerprint recognition, beauty algorithm and face recognition, Xu Shenxue also acquired and controlled a large number of companies through Zhiyun Technology, a considerable number of which are small high-tech companies or start-ups abroad.

Basically, they are all aimed at solving and improving some key technologies or patents in the existing mobile phone industry chain.

For example, now Zhiyun Mobile is negotiating with VIA for the authorization of some 3G and 4G patent technologies... This kind of authorization is not a simple usage authorization, but a permanent authorization.

This is to solve the patent problem of the communication baseband... This broken thing actually has no big problems with pure technical issues. At least Zhiyun Semiconductor can solve the pure technical problems. It's just that it's more complicated and difficult to make, and the signal of the communication baseband chip may not be very good... But it only takes time to improve, and there is a high probability that there will be no big problems.

The key issue now is that the patent is stuck!

It is almost impossible to get around it, and the only thing to do is to obtain as many patents or authorizations as possible through various means.

As for 3G patents, except for CDMA2000 which is special and almost blocked by Qualcomm, WCDMA still has hope of breakthrough. There is even less problem with domestic TD patents, as Zhiyun Technology has already obtained permanent authorization.

In addition, Zhiyun Technology is also jointly developing future 4G and even 5G technologies based on the TD standard with several major domestic communications companies.

TD-CDMA technology was very poor in the 3G era...but it is different in the 4G era. The technology is still very good and is even expected to become the unified 4G standard in the country.

Zhiyun Technology is working on various basic technologies, chips, communication protocols, etc., and has even made certain investments or layouts in core components such as memory, flash memory, screens, batteries, etc. used in mobile phones.

Of course, the main focus is on supporting domestic technology companies, and it does not mean taking on everything directly... This requires too much funding.

For example, the investment in screens is huge. An advanced screen production line requires an investment of hundreds of billions of yuan. For now, Zhiyun Technology is still a little behind.

All of the above investments directly related to the mobile phone industry are basically carried out through Zhiyun Technology... The investment is huge and the action is fast, mainly focusing on improving the industrial chain of smart terminal devices with mobile phones as the core.

As for other projects, Xu Shenxue carries them out through another private company of his own.

Currently, they are mainly some Internet projects, especially mobile Internet projects... First earn some pocket money and get some cash in hand, and then use it to invest in some industries that Xu Shenxue wants to get involved in, such as drones, electric vehicles... Then make some early layout of the upstream semiconductor industry to a certain extent.

Recently, Xu Shenxue has set his eyes on several targets... but he lacks money. For example, there is a small company in Japan that possesses some key technologies in the mask industry chain... They do not produce masks, but they do produce a key material in the mask industry chain.

Xu Shenxue was very interested in this thing and wanted to take it down.

Then there is an interesting company in Austria, which is a supplier of Zeiss...it produces a kind of manufacturing equipment in the optical field. Note that this company does not actually produce optical lenses, but equipment for producing optical lenses.

When Zeiss engineers hand-rub ultra-high precision lithography machine lenses, they need to use a device from their company!

Although it is not a key core equipment, it is still very valuable in Xu Shenxue's eyes.

In addition, he also contacted a flash memory design company in the United States. Their technology was not very good, but they had many patents in the field of new flash memory, which Xu Shenxue was also interested in.

Some time ago, he had some exchanges with Max in the United States. Max is short of money for electric cars and wants to attract people to invest. Of course, Max values ​​not only Xu Shenxue's money, but also the reputation and size of Zhiyun Technology...

Well, the actual situation is that after he went to the fruit company to seek investment and was rejected, he turned around and found Zhiyun!

Xu Shenxue was also somewhat interested in this... Shares and the like didn't matter, but Tesla's technology was still something worth mentioning, and it would be great if he could get it.

There are quite a lot of companies or technologies that people want to buy... and most of them are in high-tech physical industries, so the money required is a little over 100 million.

----

In order to raise money, Xu Shenxue has asked people to conduct a new round of negotiations with various investors...but it is not a round B financing negotiation in the conventional sense, but a pre-IPO strategic investment and cash-out plan.

The reason why Xu Shenxue is raising funds, attracting strategic investments, and going public in the future is mainly due to his consideration of the combination of interests. It is not the combination of interests between countries, but the combination of interests between capitals. This will make it easier to do many things later.

Because capital never dislikes having too much money, no matter where the money comes from! This kind of interest combination method may not be useful in the later stage, but it is still very useful in the early stage!

For example, if Xu Shenxue wants to set up a chip foundry, he needs to buy a photolithography machine, and this kind of sensitive equipment is not easy to get... But if there is assistance from big international capital, then it will be relatively easy to do... If there is a chip shortage in the future, he can rely on the photolithography machines he stockpiled and purchased in the early stage to barely hold on for a few more years until his own lithography machines are developed!

The same is true for many special corporate acquisitions and mergers involving sensitive technologies.

If you foolishly go for it, it will affect national security and people will directly reject it. You can’t buy it even if you have money... But if you bring a group of financial groups to do it, that’s normal investment behavior!
This world is not black and white...it's gray!
Of course, Xu Shenxue also hopes to cash out through this strategic investment and subsequent listing... No matter how high the market value is, it is all fake. He needs a large amount of real money to start his investment in other fields and the more important "semiconductor backup plan"!
As for Zhiyun Technology's early round B financing negotiations, they had already failed before this.

In September, after the S9 mobile phone was released and achieved good sales results, Zhiyun Technology had already started financing negotiations. After the C2 mobile phone was launched in September and achieved monthly sales of nearly three million, it started formal round B financing negotiations.

However, the previous negotiations all failed, and the reason for the failure was very simple, that is, the valuation of Zhiyun Technology had become too high... so high that many investment institutions could not afford it.

No one would have thought that a company that had only completed its Series A financing would rapidly expand to such a large scale in less than a year.

This makes subsequent financing a bit awkward!

Because the valuation of Zhiyun Technology became too high, even though the investors gave an extremely astonishing valuation of 80 billion US dollars in the first negotiation, they still failed to reach an agreement... Not only did Xu Shenxue disagree, but even a number of investors who had participated in the previous Series A financing disagreed.

They believe that Zhiyun Technology’s current revenue and profits exceed those of Apple’s mobile phone business... Therefore, Zhiyun Technology’s valuation should also be on par with Apple’s mobile phone business.

Because Zhiyun Technology not only has the S series that can compete with Apple's flagship phones, but also a super popular C series.

It also holds certain shares in other subsidiaries, such as 8% of the shares of Weiku Electronics, and owns several wholly-owned subsidiaries with excellent prospects.

Relying on these, Zhiyun Technology has actually surpassed Apple's mobile phone business in terms of both revenue and profit in mobile terminal business and related value-added services.

The current market value of fruit has reached more than 200 billion US dollars and is still increasing. Even if we exclude other businesses and only estimate the mobile phone business, the market value of this business is at least more than 150 billion US dollars.

A mere valuation of 80 billion US dollars is just giving alms to beggars.

After the failure of the B round of financing negotiations.

Zhiyun Technology and previous investors believe that relying on traditional venture capital is no longer reliable... Few investment institutions are willing to give such a high valuation and make a large investment in the B round.

So after some discussion, they decided to start the listing plan directly!

Let’s not bother with all those messy things and just start the listing plan directly.

The listing plan is much simpler than the Series B financing... They are no longer looking for traditional venture capitalists, but some strategic investors with strength and ideals.

After preliminary negotiations with various strategic investors, a preliminary listing valuation of US$120 billion has been given...

This is an incredibly crazy valuation... There has never been a case in human history where a company received a valuation of 120 billion US dollars just before going public.

But Xu Shenxue was still not satisfied!

Then they held a closed-door meeting with Xu Shenxue. There were no company executives or representatives involved. It was a closed-door meeting between Xu Shenxue and decision makers from multiple strategic investors. There were not even minutes of the meeting!

The main purpose of the talks was: How much money does Zhiyun Technology hope to raise before going public?

And more importantly, does Zhiyun Technology have any bigger ambitions?

Stop talking about this cell phone.

We have already valued your mobile phone business at 120 billion US dollars. If it is higher, the risk will be too great and the profit will be too little. It is not worth taking such a big risk... How much is the market value of Apple's mobile phone business?

This mobile phone business really cannot give you a higher valuation... We also know that your mobile phone business is awesome, but this is the reality.

You have to talk about other dreams, and then we will pay for your dreams...

After hearing a series of questions from investors, Xu Shenxue pondered for a long time and said, "We need a lot of funds. In the next one or two years, we will need at least tens of billions of US dollars for technology research and development, expanding production capacity, acquiring related industries, and comprehensive development of the global market."

Then comes the crucial dream part…

Xu Shenxue said: "We will continue to explore and develop new technologies in the future to ensure our leading edge, such as brain control technology, virtual reality technology...smart flying cars, smart cities."

"For example, the future of unmanned intelligent driving flying cars, and even the urban transportation network composed of unmanned intelligent driving flying cars. I am very optimistic about this and I am ready to try it out!"

When a group of investors heard this, they finally felt that this was the right idea... and they all started to become serious!

This is what they want to hear. All those other mobile phones, business notebook plans, smart watch plans, and the messy so-called smart terminal ecosystem are all nonsense!

If other entrepreneurs say this, these investors will listen carefully and give positive comments...

But you are Xu Shenxue, you are not an ordinary entrepreneur... You are the Xu Shenxue who created a valuation of hundreds of billions in just one year, eliminated countless mobile phone manufacturers, became the leader in the field of smartphones, and crushed all the other companies in terms of monthly sales!

You tell me these vulgar things, it doesn't fit your personality!
And you don’t need me to tell you about these things. I can find a general idea of ​​them by looking up information myself, and I can also have a basic judgment about the future.

You don't need to blow...

But if you want to talk about brain control technology, virtual reality technology, smart flying cars, smart cities... then we can talk about your dreams!

(End of this chapter)