Material Empire

Snyder is undoubtedly more important to his own interests than shareholders' interests.

In fact, the idea of ​​selling Nice did not come from Snyder. If he could choose, he would be more willing to keep Nice. If the Nice company is sold, he will take it seriously, and the new owner will definitely not give him such a position. And if the Nice company is still in the hands of the original shareholders, even if it is in such a downturn, he can still bear at least a vanity name and appear to have some identity in front of people.

However, the shareholders of the company will not take this into account. In their view, Nice has no hope of rising, and it is better to sell late. As for the impact on the identity of Snyder after the sale, what is the relationship with them?

This contradiction between shareholders and managers is a very popular "agent-agent problem" in economics. There is a difference in interests between the principal and the agent, so that the operation of the enterprise cannot reach the theory. Of the best.

Snyder doesn't understand any principal-agent model. He only knows that if the Chinese are willing to acquire the Nice company, and at the same time they are willing to let him stay in the management position of the Nice company, then these two are the new owners of his future, A new owner who can benefit himself.

"Mr. Shaw is right." Snyder organized a sentence in his heart, and then pretended to be reserved. "As a professional manager who has served in Nice for many years, I have deep feelings for Nice. I also hope that we can continue to contribute to the development of Nice. If your company intends to acquire Nice and is willing to continue to inject capital into Nice, then our interests should be completely consistent and sufficient communication can be conducted. "

"We are very pleased that Mr. Snyder is willing to cooperate with us in good faith." Qin Hai spoke, and Snyder had already submitted the book to the table, why did he not accept it? "We came to discuss the acquisition of Nice with a sincere desire. We hope to receive the brand, equipment and technology of Nice in full, including all technical personnel. Our preliminary estimated purchase price is $ 320 million. What does Mr. Snyder think of the price? "

"This price is lower than the board's expectations, however. Given the sincerity of Mr. Xiao and Mr. Qin, I am willing to convince the board to ask them to accept such a price." Snyder said.

In fact, the purchase price of 320 million US dollars is already higher than the expectations of the board of directors, and Snyder is fully confident that the board will accept this price. However, negotiation is like this, no matter how good the conditions are, you have to pretend to be embarrassed. In order to gain more benefits for yourself.

Qin Hai did not expose Snyder's lies. He was not unaware that the board of directors of Nice Company valued the company. Therefore, it was not without conditions that he wanted to acquire them at a premium, and this condition was very difficult.

"Thanks to Mr. Snyder for his cooperation." Qin Hai first affirmed Snyder, and then said: "Please ask Mr. Snyder to explain our acquisition conditions in detail when reporting to the board. We hope We can get all the assets of the Nice company. After the acquisition is completed, we will divide the Nice company into two and leave some of the assets in the UK. Continue production; another part of the assets needs to be dismantled and shipped back to China in order to make full use of China ’s Cheap labor resources. This condition needs to be explained before the acquisition. "

"Disassembly?" Snyder's eyebrows were slightly frowned. "Mr. Qin means. Do you plan to ship some equipment back to China?"

"Yes." Qin Hai nodded and said.

"That was the case." Snyder understood. No wonder the two Chinese would be so generous. It turned out to be such an idea.

Semiconductor technology is cutting-edge because the equipment involved is very complex. According to the classification of the "International Semiconductor Equipment Materials Industry Association", semiconductor manufacturing equipment can be divided into seven categories: plate-making equipment, wafer preparation equipment, film growth equipment, pattern processing equipment, doping equipment, microchip assembly equipment, testing device. Each type of equipment contains several sub-categories, such as the so-called "pre-process" stage of semiconductor manufacturing, which requires the use of exposure machines. Coating, developing device, wet etching equipment. Degumming machine, dry etching equipment. Diffusion / oxidation furnace, ion implanter, sputtering station, extended resistance meter, Fourier infrared meter, scanning electron microscope, and dozens of different devices.

With the power of one country, it is very difficult to include all these equipments. Western countries can also build such a huge semiconductor equipment manufacturing system by heating up. Then, in order to restrict China's development in order to strategically maintain its advantage over China, western countries have imposed embargo restrictions on a considerable portion of semiconductor equipment, which has blocked China's channel for developing the semiconductor industry. Although China has developed some equipment through self-reliance, it still has a lot of shortcomings compared with foreign standards.

Although Nice is only a second-tier company in the international semiconductor market, its semiconductor manufacturing equipment is far more advanced than Chinese companies. Qin Hai bought the Nice company at a high price in order to obtain the equipment and ship it back to China.

Snyder was no stranger to these situations and realized Qin Hai's plan. But he had to admit that this was a problem that Qin Hai gave him, because even if the second-hand equipment already used by the Nice company was still in the scope of limiting exports to China, the difficulty in shipping these equipment back to China was very huge.

"Mr. Qin, I'm sorry, you should know that part of our company's equipment is on the Batumi restricted shipping list. If you want to dismantle these equipment back to China, it is difficult to pass Batumi's review." Ned said.

"Isn't Batumi dissolved?" Xiao Weihao reminded softly.

"Yes, Batumi has been dissolved, but this does not mean that the restricted list has been cancelled." Snyder said, "Without hiding the two, the Americans are launching a Wassenaar arrangement. As far as I know In this case, this arrangement will fully inherit Batumi's control list and rules. "

The so-called Batumi, whose full name is "Paris Coordinating Committee", is a multilateral export control coordination committee initiated by the United States in November 1949. It is named after the United States Embassy based in Paris. Batumi's members include the United States, Western European countries, and Japan, which subsequently joined. Its purpose is to curb the development of socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and China.

In the Batumi organization, there are three control lists, namely the International Atomic Energy List, the International Military Product List, and the Industrial List, which involve industrial machinery, electronic equipment, transportation equipment, metal materials, minerals and manufactured products, chemical products, and petroleum products. , Weapons, atomic energy materials and equipment, etc. When member states need to export the above products and technologies to restricted countries, they must first submit an application to Batumi and obtain the unanimous consent of all member states before issuing export licenses.

Batumi is a product of the Cold War, so with the end of the Cold War, Batumi is increasingly lacking a reason to exist. On March 29, 1994, Batumi member states held a high-level meeting in Wassenaar, the Netherlands, and decided to dissolve Batumi. The decision came into effect on March 31, and Batumi finally came to an end.

However, people with a good eye can see that the emergence of Batumi is nominally to curb the development of military forces in socialist countries, and is actually to protect the technological advantages of Western countries, so that Western manufacturers can rely on this advantage on a global scale. Capture excess profits. The dissolution of Batumi does not mean that Western countries will abandon this policy idea that restricts the development of socialist countries. Therefore, the so-called Wassenaar Arrangement came into being.

The Wassenaar arrangement is a succession to Batumi. Its origins can be traced back to the Wassenaar conference before Batumi's dissolution, but the "Wassenaar Agreement" was finally formed in November 1996. The Wassenaar Agreement provides for multilateral control of "conventional military products" and "dual-use items". The so-called dual-use items refer to both military and civilian items and technologies, including advanced materials, material processing, electronic equipment, computers, telecommunications, and information. Safety, sensors and lasers, navigation and avionics, marine, propulsion systems and spacecraft, etc. As for which scope belongs to dual-use goods, it depends entirely on the two tongues of the participating countries.

At this time, the Wassenaar agreement has not been officially signed, but as a member of the European high-tech industry ~ www.readwn.com ~ Snyder can still know some of these details. Because of this, he knew how difficult it was to ship Nice equipment to China.

Qin Hai and Xiao Weihao glanced at each other. They have already heard about the Wassenaar agreement. It is not surprising to hear Snyder say it now. However, Snyder could think of the Wassenaar agreement so sensitively that they did not expect it. It seems that the Cold War nerves of the other party are still very tight.

"Nice is a civilian product company, whether it's Batumi, or whatever Wassenaar arrangement you just mentioned, is there no restriction on civilian products? I think there will be no other than us The investors will be willing to pay such a price to acquire Nice, which Mr. Snyder should know. "Qin Hai said.

"Of course I know." Snyder was no longer pretending to be, the conversation between smart people, it would be boring to be stupid, just a waste of words.

Qin Hai's meaning is very clear. He actually thought of the problem of limited transportation, and knew that there were great difficulties in shipping these equipment back to China. It is for this reason that he will pay such a high price. Now he tossed this hot potato to Snyder and let the other party choose: either accept the price and find a way to help Qin Hai get these equipment; or ... then only hehe. (To be continued)