The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 298 Returning to China
Microsoft is very rich. With the advantage of monopolizing the entire computer operating system, they have a steady stream of cash flow. Every computer manufacturer has to pay software fees to Microsoft.

Precisely because this has been the case for the past 20 years, Microsoft understands better than other companies how terrible it is to gain a monopoly in the operating system field, which means that no matter how many wrong choices your company makes, there is always a chance to get back up.

For Microsoft, if they gain a monopoly advantage in the smartphone operating system, they will get more cash flow and more capital to waste.

The Windows mobile operating system that Microsoft originally planned to develop was operated in this way. Mobile phone manufacturers needed to pay a licensing fee of US$50 for each device, while Android at the time implemented a free policy.

Now because Mphone and MOS are coming fiercely, Microsoft naturally cannot operate in this way. When Microsoft negotiates with small and medium-sized mobile phone manufacturers, the fee is only 15 US dollars. For large manufacturers, the price can be lowered, or even free.

Capital knows very well when profits are important and when scale is important.

Therefore, even if the funds for the third-line battle are very tight, Microsoft can still grit its teeth and spend a large amount of cash and stocks to complete this acquisition. This is the confidence that cash flow brings to Microsoft. With cash flow, both financing and loans are particularly easy. Microsoft can Leverage taken to the extreme.

"Selling Weibo to Microsoft is a strategic retreat for Newman, because Newman cannot resist the pressure from Washington. Both Kerry and Bush hope that Weibo can play a greater role in the vote at the end of this year. role.

Newman doesn't want to take sides between the two, and he doesn't dare to take sides, but Microsoft is different.

Ballmer, what is Microsoft's attitude towards the Donkey Party and the Elephant Party? asked Paulson.

To be honest, Paulson himself is a loyal supporter of the Elephant Party and has a very long history. When Nixon was in charge of the White House, he was a White House staff assistant. Later, he was invited by Bush to be the Secretary of the Treasury. This is inseparable from his being a supporter of the Elephant Party. .

Of course Paulson is a member of the party establishment.

There are executives at Goldman Sachs who support the Elephant Party, but there are more supporters of the Donkey Party.

Paulson asked Ballmer from the position of the Elephant Party. He and Bush had a close personal relationship. Before agreeing to Bush to take over as Treasury Secretary, Bush had twice asked Paulson privately if he wanted to come to Washington to work. The position is Finance Minister.

Ballmer has been in Amerikan's high-level circles for many years, so he naturally knows who Paulson is: "Microsoft's position is that we have no position, and we will accept all legitimate and legal advertising and promotion activities."

Giants like Microsoft don't want to get involved in this kind of thing. Although it won't be a problem for them, it is very possible for them to be involved in party disputes and be skinned.

So what if I win the bet?There will always be times when bets lose.

Paulson is satisfied with Ballmer's answer. It is enough that Internet companies can be neutral. The Party's base is not originally based on these Internet companies.

Microsoft's successful acquisition of Weibo has caused huge stimulation to other Internet companies, especially Baidu, which bid the most aggressively this time. Baidu poached a group of people responsible for Weibo products from Tencent.

Their idea is that since I can’t buy Weibo, I’ll recruit people to rebuild an application similar to Weibo.

Baidu felt that this was not enough, and even announced that it would enter the mobile operating system market. It announced that it would only make operating systems and not smartphones, which is similar to Huawei's car manufacturing.

"Pony, actually you can also consider returning to China. This is just a suggestion, not a requirement. It's your choice whether you want to stay in Silicon Valley or return to Pengcheng.

When I returned to China, I considered some external risks, so I wanted to stay in a safe and secure place. Whether you have similar concerns requires your own judgment. "

After getting his doctorate, Zhou Xin returned to China.

He considered where his next stop would be after leaving Silicon Valley. He had previously considered Lion City, Xiangjiang and Neon, but Neon was the first to rule it out. Neon is also unsafe. You can't expect Neon to stand by your side. Not Amerikan.

Then there are the Lion City and Xiangjiang. The Lion City has similar considerations. The interests of the Lion City and Amerikan are no less tied than Neon.

As for Xiangjiang, there are only financial and service industries here, which is meaningless in Xiangjiang. Even if Zhou Xin is not engaged in the chip business, if he wants to invest, the opportunities in Huaguo are far greater than those in Xiangjiang.

Therefore, Zhou Xin thought it would be better to simply return to China and use Shenhai as his next base. Xinxin's headquarters is also in Shenhai, and then move the emerging investment headquarters from Yanjing's Financial Street to Lujiazui. His business territory will be based in Shenhai. .

After returning to Shenhai, Zhou Xin felt a little fresh because he lived in Shenhai 15 years later for a period of time. There are many differences between Shenhai now and 15 years later. Even the whole of Zhangjiang is because of Xinxin The arrival was almost unrecognizable.

Pony Ma himself returns to China once a month, so after Zhou Xin returned to Shenhai, Pony came to Shenhai to meet Zhou Xin before returning to Pengcheng. After hearing this, he looked serious: "I understand, I will make arrangements. What follows.”

Microsoft's acquisition of Weibo is good for Microsoft. The stock price continues to rise, and it has the momentum to return to its peak. Wall Street analysts and Silicon Valley media all have the same view, that is, Microsoft has made money:

"Some people think that Microsoft's acquisition of Weibo is a loss, and the price offered by Microsoft is too high. In my opinion, people with similar ideas do not understand Weibo's global status. The last time there was such a global Internet application It goes back to Quora, and even earlier to Yahoo.

Microsoft only spent less than 300 billion US dollars to win it, which is a great deal. You must know that Weibo has more than 5000 million users worldwide, and this number is still growing rapidly.Even Face Chat, which is only popular in China and has less than 1000 million users, enjoys a valuation of more than 100 billion US dollars. Weibo’s price of more than 200 billion US dollars is high? "

This is what a Wall Street analyst said when communicating with a client. He responded to the client's question about his pursuit of Microsoft, saying that he did not understand and believed that Weibo was not worth so much money.

It was a success for Microsoft, but a shame for Tencent. Selling such a potential application at such a low price made Pony deeply feel what it means to be in a world where people can't help themselves.

Including after hearing that Zhou Xin returned to China, he had similar feelings, thinking that Zhou Xin was preparing for a rainy day to some extent.

Zhou Xin turned to comfort him: "But you don't have to worry too much, they are unlikely to do anything to you, American is not to that extent yet.

At most, they will openly investigate Tencent and then ask you to go to Washington to attend a hearing, so you don't have to worry about your personal safety. "What Zhou Xin is worried about is that he is the key to the smartphone-chip industry chain-mobile operating system, which is the entire mobile Internet field. Once he encounters an accident, other industries will most likely survive, but the development of the chip industry chain will definitely be slow. Even stagnation.

Hu Zhengming is very capable. Whether it is business management or technology R&D management, these two core keys in the chip field, his ability is no less than Zhang Zhongmou or Zhang Rujing. Hu Zhengming even has his own advantage, which is recruiting talents.

As a professor who has been teaching for more than 20 years, Hu Zhengming has a large number of contacts in academia and industry. He knows very well who is the most suitable person at each stage.

But Hu Zhengming also has flaws. He has no future vision and is at risk of being led into the ditch, especially after the 20nm process.

Once Zhou Xin encounters an accident, the more short-term risk is that the inheritance division will cause the company to be unable to operate normally, and then the system advantages will be lost after being divided.

The long-term risk is the lack of discerning strategic direction guidance.

Therefore, Zhou Xin has to go back before 08. As for why he needs to remind Pony, it is because Tencent has been so successful in the field of enterprise software in the past three years, whether it is enterprise instant messaging software or enterprise shared documents and enterprise offices. Software has gained a large market.

The data of these American companies are in the hands of Chinese companies. They may apply to investigate Tencent on security grounds at some point, and there is no guarantee that there will be no accidents.

Pony smiled bitterly and said: "President Xin, you are back. Everyone is a grasshopper on the same line. I will definitely have to come back. To be honest, I can't guarantee that the people below have not done anything extraordinary.

Tencent has expanded so fast in recent years. I have been traveling between Pengcheng and San Francisco all year round. I often don’t recognize Tencent’s senior executives, let alone ordinary employees.

I am certain that there are professionals sent from above among Tencent’s employees. I have no idea what data they have obtained or what actions they have taken while working at Tencent. I don’t even dare to check.

It's okay if we have a good relationship now, but once the relationship between the two parties is bad, these are all evidences, and Tencent will also face a crisis. "

What Pony said is true. The bigger the company, the less information the upper management knows and the less true it becomes.Companies of Tencent's nature have long been considered by China to have great strategic value, because Tencent can freely enter and exit companies in many countries around the world and help them provide corporate services.

You must know that technical documents can be stored in shared cloud documents.

Pony continued: "In order to control costs, our development center was located in China. Although Tencent's enterprise products, both we and Americen have done testing to ensure that unknown data transmission will not occur in the software, but there are There is no secret door here. Only by touching the physical end can the secret door be activated to obtain some data. I don't know or even dare to think about it.

So I'd better come back. "

Zhou Xin didn't expect this. Pony had never told him about these before. He could vaguely feel the geopolitical risks hidden in enterprise software, but he didn't understand it as concretely as Pony. From his understanding, this kind of thing is indeed a problem. possible.

So he made a quick decision: "Pony, so that we can split enterprise software and other software, we need to split Tencent into several pieces.

We just sold Weibo to Microsoft, so we have every reason to break up Tencent. "

Pony nodded: "I think so too. I originally planned to communicate with you this time about how to split up Tencent. Since it was mentioned, let me tell you my thoughts.

I think it’s not just about splitting enterprise software and public software, but also splitting domestic and foreign software.

It was split into four parts and then listed on Nasdaq and Hong Kong stocks respectively. "

Pony’s idea is what Byte does. It’s Douyin in China and Tik Tok abroad. Of course, this is just a way to deceive you. Even if you want to trick you, even if your registration is overseas and your capital is overseas capital, as long as the data is in China, You are still a Chinese company.

Zhou Xin said: "I agree, go ahead and do it. You have already thought very comprehensively."

There was no fanfare when Zhou Xin returned to China, but everyone who should know knew that Shen Hai was extremely happy when they found out that Zhou Xin was returning to China permanently and would stay in Shen Hai in the future. This was the best investment target for Shen Hai. .

"It's a good thing that Zhou Xin returned to China. Don't say that only rich people immigrate abroad. Nowadays, aren't there also people who go out to study for Ph.D.s and then come back?

Although Zhou Xin is young and energetic, and does many things based on his own preferences, his essence is still patriotic, which is a good thing. We need to promote more positive examples like this.

In addition, Zhou Xin alone can support US$1000 billion in investment, and Zhou Xin is in Shenhai. This means that for Shenhai, there will be a steady stream of investment projects that Zhou Xin will directly or indirectly explore. "

"I understand that I must ask the people below to improve their service awareness and service attitude, and not to create any traps. In addition, regarding investment promotion, we will specifically study some policies to continue to give full play to Shenhai's core driving position in the national economy.

Take advantage of Zhou Xin's return to China to make Zhangjiang a high-tech industrial park comparable to Silicon Valley. "

The Chinese side has high hopes for Zhou Xin's return to China and has given it a very high evaluation. The previous Hanxin incident can be completely overturned.

"In addition, Xinxin has done well in the semiconductor field in recent years. I have heard many comrades from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission say that the cooperation model between Xinxin and Huahong is good. This kind of state-owned enterprise provides capital, and private enterprises or foreign companies are responsible for the specific management. and business model have worked well in the semiconductor field.

Have you explored this area?
What I mean by exploration is, can only Xinxin do this model well, or can private companies and foreign companies other than Xinxin do this well? "

"According to an internal report from Shenhai Science and Technology Investment last year, state-owned enterprises like Huahong are responsible for providing money, equipment, and personnel, while private enterprises are responsible for providing management, finding sales, and introducing technology. Currently, only the effect of Xinxin is Yes, the cooperation between Huahong and NEC has obviously failed, and the cooperation project between Shougang and Motorola in Tianjin is also unsatisfactory."

(End of this chapter)