Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 279 The Straightforward Game Changer (Part 2)
"Hey."

"I've thought about it, so I'll give you face."

"But don't let Lu Mingyu call me. I have limited time and don't have time to talk to him. Let Cai Mingjie call me instead."

"I only have ten minutes."

After making a phone call, Chen Xuebing paced back and forth on the rooftop.

Less than five minutes later, he saw an incoming call, a slight smile appeared on his lips, and he answered it.

Hearing the voice on the other end, he finally responded with an "um".

"President Cai."

Across from him, Cai Mingjie chuckled: "Regarding the price reduction last time, President Chen showed great vision, Cai Moupei..."

"If I didn't have a broad vision, MediaTek would have been operating at a loss long ago."

Chen Xuebing didn't want to start the conversation from the beginning, so he retorted directly, "President Cai, you've heard about yesterday's test, haven't you?"

Upon hearing this opening statement, the person on the other end realized that Chen Xuebing probably had no intention of republicanism in answering the call.

"Heh, Mr. Chen wants to show off his power to us?"

"You could say that we have reached an agreement with the ministry, and the Tang Dynasty's monopoly is now practically meaningless to us."

Cai Mingjie paused for three seconds before saying, "We don't care about these things. The cooperation with Datang is just one of our projects."

Chen Xuebing smiled slightly: "No, I think President Cai should be concerned about your future. Qualcomm and Ericsson will never license WCDMA and CDMA2000 to you so that you can flow your technology into the Chinese counterfeit market. This would be difficult to regulate and collect patent fees, and it would also disrupt the market and directly damage their core revenue. So your only way out is TD. You spent so much money to acquire ADI's mobile phone division, and you still have to cooperate with Datang according to the 30/70 ratio. President Cai, don't tell me you don't understand this."

"So what if I understand? We can get the license for TD technology! If Mr. Chen insists on fighting, we can still go to war in the 3G era! By then, SMIC may not have the capacity to support you with advanced process chips. Will you still be able to continue the price war with us?"

Although SMIC's process technology has barely reached 90nm, its yield rate is far behind TSMC's, and its cost is much higher.

Chen Xuebing, however, was quite relaxed: "President Cai, you're pretending to be ignorant again. In the 3G era, it's all about technology and software ecosystem. If it were just about chip prices, you would have developed smartphones long ago. Let me be frank, your foundation in this area is almost zero. We don't even consider MediaTek a competitor."

“President Chen.” Cai Mingjie’s voice suddenly became calm. The more Chen Xuebing explained, the more it showed that he had ulterior motives, so he was not very flustered.

"Just say what you want to talk about."

Chen Xuebing continued at his own pace: "The so-called technical cooperation between ADI and Datang should have been going on for some time now, right? You should be very clear about Datang's technological foundation, right? Mr. Cai, do you think there is still hope for cooperation with Datang?"

Cai Mingjie understood: "President Chen wants to cooperate with us?"

He could hardly believe it as he spoke.

“MediaTek and Spreadtrum are the most direct competitors, how could they possibly cooperate?”

In the entire turn-key market, it's now just MediaTek and Spreadtrum. It's either you or me, so where is the possibility of cooperation?
Even if it were possible, there would only be one outcome: annexation!

With MediaTek's accumulated wealth over the years and a market value of over 30 billion US dollars, who will acquire whom?

"Rather than cooperation, we're giving you a way out," Chen Xuebing said with a smile. "Hand over ADI to me. You're no longer useful to me. In the market, Spreadtrum can help you raise prices, giving you some breathing room. In the 3G era, I'll guide you. We'll cooperate in developing smartphone chips."

Chen Xuebing exudes a powerful aura. Although MediaTek is a large company, its profit structure is too simple. Now, he has completely strangled it, leaving it with no way out.

MediaTek still has some advantages in chip R&D capabilities. By conducting R&D in Taiwan, it will not be squeezed out by foreign markets. It's just that it took the wrong path in its past life. If there is in-depth cooperation, it can still impart knowledge and resolve doubts.

Moreover, in the past, when Huawei was first sanctioned, MediaTek, relying on its fabless (focused on chip design) model, was not on the US foundry (chip manufacturing) restriction list and helped Huawei purchase hundreds of millions of chips from TSMC. MediaTek and TSMC have also had a deep cooperation for many years, so keeping this backup plan may not be without its benefits.

"Heh." Cai Mingjie chuckled dryly: "President Chen, your statement is too arbitrary. It's still early, and the outcome is uncertain."

"If we wait until you lose, who will talk to you? I might not even be interested in an acquisition then. You're a Taiwanese company with a bunch of physical assets left, which I don't really want to take over."

After finishing his speech, Chen Xuebing glanced at his watch and gave his final ultimatum: "1.5 million US dollars, payable in installments. I don't want the WCDMA patents and ADI's global sales outlets. In addition, we can establish a joint venture R&D company with MediaTek, license the TD underlying layer and Kunlun smartphone system to MediaTek, and sell Turukey in the 3G era. We will negotiate the price and jointly formulate the rules."

The door opened wide for MediaTek.

Cai Mingjie, however, was somewhat incredulous: "President Chen, just two sentences are not enough to prove anything, are they? We don't even know what technology you possess, so how do we know if you're trying to scam us?"

"Don't tell me you haven't had someone come and see our smartphones. The company that probably knows Spreadtrum best is MediaTek," Chen Xuebing pointed out incisively.

“We can discuss the contract slowly, but I’ll only give you five minutes to consider the intentions,” Chen Xuebing continued. “If MediaTek is going to stick with Datang to the bitter end, I guarantee that I will take over your market completely within three months. You should know how Tianyu sided with us, right? What we showed Tianyu was just an engineering sample. Now the finished product is in my hands, and I’ve also secured most of the supply chain. If I go door-to-door to demonstrate to them, none of you will survive.”

There was a long silence.

“US$1.5 million is too low, impossible. We spent US$3.5 million to acquire ADI.”

"I've already said, I don't want ADI's overseas customer base, and I'll give you the WCDMA patents too. All we want is the design team and the RF patents. How much more do you want?"

What about the brand?

MediaTek focuses on the low-end market, and its acquisition of the ADI brand is aimed at enhancing its brand image.

"Let's put the brand into the joint venture. We can use the chips we develop together under our own brand. But I want to announce a full acquisition. Now you need to get ADI's people to cooperate with me in announcing the acquisition intention."

As soon as Chen Xuebing said this, Cai Mingjie immediately realized what was going on.

"Oh, you're having a meeting today, right? You want to use this to bring down the Tang Dynasty."

"Heh, not just crush, but utterly crush." ​​Chen Xuebing smiled shrewdly. "President Cai, don't forget, you're also a shareholder of Spreadtrum, holding 11.2%, which is higher than MediaTek, right? Do you know why I've kept your shares until now? Spreadtrum can double your net worth, and of course, I can also make your Spreadtrum shares worthless."

"You! Mr. Chen, are you going to challenge the law?! I can unite with the other shareholders."

Chen Xuebing chuckled: "I forgot to tell you, I'm about to invest over a billion yuan in Spreadtrum to cooperate with Huawei. The company's management will support me becoming the controlling shareholder, and the minority shareholders will all listen to them. You can't stop me."

A controlling shareholder has many ways to manipulate the interests of a minority shareholder.

"If Mr. Tsai cooperates and facilitates the collaboration between MediaTek and Spreadtrum, Spreadtrum will go public as scheduled, and we will all be happy to see it happen."

"As for the chairmanship of MediaTek, with Spreadtrum's support, you can continue to hold the position steadily. I have already given you many reasons on how to convince your board of directors."

"Make a choice. You have three minutes left."

Without hesitation, Tsai Ming-chieh immediately asked, "How should the market be divided now?"

“You, Bird, withdraw, we’ll take over. For the rest, let’s maintain the current situation for now. Let’s raise chip prices to $11 each, so everyone can make a profit.”

Spreadtrum now has a rising future sales champion, Tianyu, plus the established sales champion, Bird, and nearly half of the market in Huaqiangbei. No matter how many more there are, SMIC's production capacity cannot be maintained for the time being. After all, SMIC also needs to make DRAM memory, and it is impossible to rashly give too much production capacity to them.

With $11 mentioned, the profit margin has nearly doubled, and the $10 billion annual profit he proposed to Spreadtrum could potentially double or triple.

More importantly, Spreadtrum's business model needs to change, and its focus needs to shift to telecommunications companies, instead of keeping its sights on the turnkey market.

As for how the 3G era will be divided, he has already left a door for a joint venture for MediaTek. Now it depends on MediaTek's sincerity.

The other side is also making its own plans.

Based on this calculation, the two companies' businesses are almost evenly split, and profits can recover to previous levels, so MediaTek can still enjoy a good period of time.

This is the key factor in persuading shareholders.

As for himself, he gets a share of the profits from both MediaTek and Spreadtrum.

Moreover, the technical situation on Datang's side is not optimistic. Before even signing a contract, they are forcing ADI to share its technology with Datang in exchange for patents. They must be really desperate. If they continue to cooperate, MediaTek may not be able to find a way out and may even lose opportunities.

"Okay! I'll cooperate with you for now! I'll have Lu Mingyu handle the specifics; we'll discuss it at Zhanxun!"

Tsai Ming-chieh was afraid that if others went to Zhanxun, they wouldn't even be able to see Chen Hsueh-bing.

Chen Xuebing smiled.

"alright."

Chen Xuebing pushed open the back door of the venue with one hand, casually draping his suit jacket over his arm.

Zhou Huan was still talking animatedly up there.

Some people noticed his return, and many eyes turned to him.

Some people who knew a little about the situation looked at him with a knowing look.

They're really young people; they can come and go from such a big venue so easily.

Zhou Huan tried every means to scold him on stage, but the man just laughed loudly and left, insisting that he wouldn't listen, which left Zhou Huan speechless.

No one could have imagined that Mr. Chen, who had only been out for a dozen minutes, had negotiated such a huge business deal.

Chen Xuebing didn't care at all. He simply returned to his original second-row seat and whispered to Wu Ping and Chen Datong next to him.

Everyone was watching his performance.

Even Wang Jianzhou couldn't help but look over here.

Everyone saw that Wu Ping and Chen Datong initially reacted very strongly, but he gradually calmed them down.

Then, all three of them smiled and faced the stage.

Zhou Huan saw everything clearly from the stage. Suddenly, the phone on the table vibrated. He saw the caller's name, but he didn't want to answer, so he hung up.

His eyes then searched for White, the head of ADI, and noticed that White had also taken a phone call.

My heart skipped a beat.

I quickly skipped over the long speech.

"I urge all parties in the industry chain to strengthen cooperation, accelerate the industrialization of TD technology, and ensure commercialization before the 2008 Beijing Olympics!"

"That's all I have to say! Thank you!"

Zhou Huan hurriedly stepped off the stage, holding his phone.

The host introduces the next speaker, a prominent figure.

"Next, please welcome Mr. Wang Jianzhou, President of China Mobile Communications Group Corporation, a leading figure in China's mobile communications industry and a strategist who has been deeply involved in the telecommunications field for decades and led China Mobile to achieve leapfrog development!"

Logically, China Mobile's speech should have been the final one.

Vice Leader Zhang opened the meeting, followed by Datang, and after several important alliance members spoke, China Mobile spoke, and then the deputy director of the Ministry of Information Industry took the stage to summarize, and the meeting ended.

But today, Mr. Wang came to make a show of it, specifically requesting to speak early, intending to leave after he finished speaking.

Wang Jianzhou's prepared speech was also quite provocative, aiming to directly point out that the TD industry is not yet mature.

The questions posed to Chen Xuebing were originally intended for the entire audience.

But Wang Jianzhou hesitated at this moment.

Chen Xuebing said he had to answer his questions and asked him to wait, then left and didn't come back to him.

What can he say now?
If we follow the original manuscript exactly, our relationship will definitely sour.

If China Mobile really takes over TD, what will happen next?
He stood up somewhat speechlessly, glancing at Chen Xuebing.

The others, however, were full of expectations for Boss Wang and applauded.

Chen Xuebing originally had his own sequence of words, but when his eyes met those of President Wang, he realized something.

His thoughts raced, and under everyone's gaze, he stood up again, walked up to Wang Jianzhou, and blocked his way.

"Mr. Wang, let me speak."

The applause fell silent instantly.

Wang Jianzhou's brows relaxed: "Have you thought about how to answer me?"

He came here today to cause trouble, and he wasn't planning to care about what other people thought.

"I've thought it through," Chen Xuebing nodded and smiled.

Mr. Wang then raised his hand towards the stage, and Chen Xuebing smiled and slowly walked onto the stage.

The hundred or so people below had no idea what was going on.

Where is Mr. Wang?

What does it mean? ?

"Ahem." Chen Xuebing exchanged a glance with Deputy Leader Zhang in the first row, and a single sentence drew everyone's attention back:
"What President Zhou just said was very good. We should all work together."

"However, I still have some objections regarding the ownership of ADI's technology, so I just went out and had a phone call with Mr. Tsai from MediaTek."

"Ten minutes ago, I finalized the acquisition of ADI with Mr. Cai. ADI is no longer Datang-ADI, but Spreadtrum-ADI."

Wow!
The whole audience was shocked.

Zhou Huan, who was in the front row making a phone call with his head tilted to the side, froze, put down the phone, and stared at the stage.

Deputy Leader Zhang's expression also changed slightly. He glanced back at Wu Ping and Chen Datong, and then looked in Wang Jianzhou's direction, his expression thoughtful.

Chen Xuebing, however, became relaxed and at ease, leaning on the stage with one hand and laughing:
"Is $3.5 million expensive? I don't think so. TD needs a mature chip design team and some technological supplements, so let's buy it."

"This is not an intention to oppose the Tang Dynasty. It's just that we feel the Tang Dynasty's goals are set too low. Industrialization and commercialization are very simple issues. If it's just about discussing this issue, today's meeting only needs a few companies to attend, and everyone else can leave."

"Our goal should be to develop this technology and take it abroad."

You could hear a pin drop down there.

That's too arrogant!
Some smaller manufacturers, in particular, looked at each other, feeling somewhat awkward.

But it's also a contradiction.

They came here today hoping to hear such a confident and assertive statement.

The Tang Dynasty's strategy of attacking from a high position while simultaneously attacking from a low position was rather uninteresting to everyone.

But at that moment, Deputy Leader Zhang in the first row suddenly raised his hands and started clapping.

The people from the Ministry of Industry immediately applauded.

Xu Zhijun then followed.

ZTE, Potevio, Lenovo.
Applause began to rise, then grew into thunder.

Although we don't know Mr. Chen's net worth, what he said was exactly what everyone wanted to hear from Wang Jianzhou today.

Amid the applause, everyone realized that the TD industry landscape dominated by Datang was truly about to change.

Mr. Chen smiled and continued speaking.

"Just now, Mr. Wang from China Mobile asked me a few questions from the audience."

"They asked us if we had our own standards, how we planned to develop them, and how much capital we could invest."

He said with a smile, "I feel that Mr. Wang is very disappointed with the technological progress of TD. If I don't answer these questions well, Mr. Wang will probably leave immediately."

Laughter erupted from below, and some people noticed that President Wang was also laughing, which made the laughter even louder.

Such a statement, which did not conceal the shortcomings of TD in the slightest, was straightforward and invigorating to everyone.

"Alright, then I'll answer a few questions from Mr. Wang."

Chen Xuebing's expression gradually turned serious: "First, regarding independent standards, I can say definitively that we do have them. Datang has them, Spreadtrum has them, and HSDPA technology is being rapidly integrated into the protocol stack. Yesterday's test showed that TD can fully meet commercial standards. We will soon apply to the Ministry for off-site testing."

"Secondly, there is the issue of money. I am not here today on behalf of Spreadtrum alone. First, I would like to announce some good news."

"Our Long March Capital has reached an agreement with the National Social Security Fund and Central Huijin to raise 42 billion yuan to invest in the 3G industry!"

"In addition, Spreadtrum will invest 30 billion yuan with Huawei to establish a joint venture to develop a smooth iteration of LTE technology!"

"Including the acquisition of ADI, the total technology investment is close to 10 billion!"

"Talking about scale without talking about time is just being dishonest. We will implement all three of these collaborations within three months."

Chen Xuebing pointed his finger at the stage, his voice resounding.

Courage.

The manufacturers in the audience all felt the impact of those two words.

Several manufacturers with investments exceeding 10 billion yuan attended the meeting, but none dared to so openly invest so heavily in TD technology.

The applause rose again.

Chen Xuebing smiled at Wang Jianzhou: "I wonder if Mr. Wang is satisfied with this answer?"

Wang Jianzhou was clearly in a better mood. He glanced around the room and joked loudly, "It's passable, but it shows some sincerity!"

Laughter echoed continuously.

Lenovo's CEO, Mr. Liu, clapped his hands without any hesitation: "Great! Great!"

When Deputy Leader Zhang heard about Wang Jianzhou's change in attitude, he smiled. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Zhou Huan, whose face was ashen, and made a decision in his heart.

"In addition, Changzheng Capital will actively seek financial cooperation with private and local governments to continue investing in the industrial development of TD. I promise everyone here that the commercial environment of TD will bring considerable returns to those who actively participate."

Chen Xuebing looked at the audience and raised three fingers.

"Of course, promising not to disclose numbers is also a lie."

What exactly constitutes "considerable"?

"Let me translate for you: what's impressive is that once TD is commercially piloted, it will reach 30 million users within a year!"

(End of this chapter)