Chapter 554: Standing on the wave of great changes in the great era (three-in-one)
Yang Qing believes that Lianxiang's success must be regarded as Intel's success, and this idea and concept should be conveyed to Intel's top management seriously.
Three days later, when the Shenchuan experience store in Shenzhen was in full swing, Yang Qing took Lianxiang's top executives to a collective visit to the United States.
And I met Intel's top executives at Intel's headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, and met with Intel CEO Barrett.
Barrett is not a fool. Of course he knows why Yang Qing and Lian Xiang's team urgently went to the United States to meet with him at this time.
After the two sides exchanged pleasantries, Yang Qing got straight to the point.
He reported to Barrett the difficulties Lianxiang encountered during this period.
The biggest dilemma is not that the number of Lianxiang's agents has decreased, nor that Lianxiang's market share is not wide, but that the market competitiveness of Lianxiang's products has dropped extremely.
Last year, Lianxiang was preparing to acquire IBM. The purpose of acquiring IBM was to integrate Lianxiang's global sales chain and industrial chain, and to increase Lianxiang's global visibility and market share.
Things have reached a critical point, and Yang Qing began to express some hesitation on whether to acquire IBM.
It would be nice if Intel's chips could be more powerful.
Yang Qing said unceremoniously as if venting his anger: "With the successful development of Pangu chips and the widespread application of Yinghuo OS, Shenchuan is madly occupying the market in the Xia Kingdom continent."
"As for Lianxiang, this is due to hardware costs and the sales price has been unable to drop, so its share in the traditional consumer market has continued to decline."
Yang Qing said: "Currently, Shenchuan Computer has turned their attention to domestic centralized procurement, some of which are government agencies, enterprises and institutions of Xia State. In the past, they were mainly our inherent customer groups of Lianxiang."
"There is now a development trend in Xiaguo Mainland, which requires government agencies, enterprises and institutions with centralized procurement to purchase domestically produced computers as much as possible."
"The domestic computer here not only refers to the computer itself being produced in Xia Kingdom, but also requires the computer's chip memory and other hardware to be produced mainly by domestic technology companies."
"So in comparison, Lianxiang's advantages have further shrunk. If our price is more expensive than others, our performance is not as good as others, and it is not domestically produced, I think Lianxiang will definitely suffer Waterloo in the field of centralized procurement."
"Mr. Barrett, centralized purchasing accounts for more than 70% of Lianxiang's profits in Xia Country!"
This data is not fabricated by Yang Qing, but is the actual situation in the country.
Indeed, in recent years, the number of personal computer users in Xia has grown rapidly, but most of the growth has occurred in first- and second-tier developed cities, and the user base has been shared by compatible computers and the like.
There are still only a few users who actually buy branded PCs, and most of Lianxiang's profits come from centralized purchasing.
Yang Qing has been elaborating on the specific situation currently facing Lianxiang. The main purpose of what he said is to tell Intel and Barrett that the cost of the hardware purchased by Lianxiang is too high, which affects the cost of his own products.
and sales volume.
Barrett also listened carefully to Yang Qing's report. Barrett knew very well that Lianxiang is one of the top three PC vendors in Asia (surpassed by Toshiba and Fujitsu last year), the sixth largest PC vendor in the world, and the largest Intel player in the international market.
If Lianxiang's market, one of its purchasing partners, is in crisis, Intel's sales in Asia and Xia Guo will also fluctuate.
After all, Lianxiang's purchase price is the highest among all local PC manufacturers, and the payment is also the easiest. It is much cuter than several PC manufacturers in the United States.
Therefore, ensuring Lianxiang's sales in the Xiaguo market is equivalent to protecting Intel's interests.
Yang Qing has been chattering so much, but in the end he only has one meaning - that is, he hopes Intel can lower the ex-factory price of its products, especially the ex-factory price of some high-end chips with strong performance.
Only when the price of chips is reduced, can the overall cost of Lianxiang's computers be reduced, and only then can Lianxiang have a chance to compete with the Shenchuan Jiaolong series of computers and win the final victory.
In fact, when computers are used in government agencies, enterprises and institutions, the ultimate performance of the computer will not be used at all, so the price advantage is more beneficial than the chip advantage.
When Barrett met with Yang Qing, he smiled the whole time and did not express any opinions.
After Yang Qing spent nearly an hour reporting Lianxiang's current difficulties to Barrett.
Barrett then took a sip of coffee and said to Yang Qing: "Mr. Yang, the issues you are worried about are also the issues we are worried about."
"But our chips have been priced downward by a certain percentage based on the market price, and there is no more room for it."
Barrett is so scheming that he is going to defeat Lianxiang!
Because in the mid-to-high-end field, Lianxiang has no choice but Intel!
This is a monopoly business.
When Yang Qing negotiated with Barrett, he used English throughout the process.
The reason for using English is to show Lianxiang's respect for Intel. Unlike when Changtian Technology negotiated with Intel, even though Wang Xiang's English was not bad, he used Chinese throughout the process and asked the translator to
Wang Xiang's words translated into English.
This is the gap between companies. No matter how weak Changtian Technology is, it must ensure the confidence it should show.
After Yang Qing said so much, I originally thought that Barrett might make even a small concession on price, but unfortunately, no!
Yang Qing opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out.
But Barrett did not completely deny the logic of negotiations between Intel and Lianxiang.
Barrett said: "As far as I know, Mr. Yang, Lianxiang is looking to acquire IBM's personal PC business."
Yang Qing nodded and said, "Yes."
Barrett: "IBM's personal PC business has a complete raw material supply chain and sales market. This should be a good opportunity for Lianxiang."
"We also have a headquarters in Xia Guo. Our marketing specialists will investigate Xia Guo's PC market every quarter. What you just said is very correct. Xia Guo's PC market has indeed grown very rapidly in recent years, but it is restricted by Xia Guo's
The economy is not as developed as the United States and Europe, so the growth of the individual user market is limited."
"IBM ranks third in the global individual user market and is located in mature Western markets such as the United States and Europe."
"If Lianxiang can acquire IBM, it will definitely open up the market in Western countries such as the United States and Europe. This kind of volume is much higher than that in Xia Guo."
"In addition, IBM's supply chain advantage is something that Lianxiang currently does not have. The price of many of the hardware will be 30% or even 50% off your company's current purchase price."
Barrett's meaning was very clear. He was telling Lianxiang that there was a second way to go - that is, to complete the acquisition of IBM as soon as possible and take over IBM's supply chain and sales market.
Although Intel's chip prices cannot be lowered, the prices of other hardware are definitely much lower than Lianxiang's current procurement channels.
In this way, Lianxiang can reduce procurement costs and expand the global market.
At this time, Yang Qing received a text message on his mobile phone.
This is a text message sent by the relevant person in charge of Lianxiang’s visiting team.
The content of the text message is very clear: the team has reached an agreement with Seagate, Kingston and other companies, and will appropriately reduce Lianxiang’s purchase price. If Lianxiang can complete the acquisition of IBM, then Seagate and other companies will abide by the conditions originally negotiated with IBM.
Supply to Lianxiang at a lower price.
Seeing this, Yang Qing knew what Lian Xiang could do.
He nodded and said to Barrett: "Mr. Barrett, it is a great honor to have this meeting with you. I hope our cooperation will reach a higher level."
Barrett nodded happily, "As a large international company, Lianxiang deserves the same treatment as other PC companies in the United States."
This sounds so nice!
Yang Qing now has a very impulsive idea in his heart. He hopes to discuss it with Uncle Liu, or else set Lianxiang's headquarters in California or New York. This is the most important step in Lianxiang's internationalization.
After all, in the past few years, Yang Qing has clearly felt the constraints faced by Xia Guo Company in its international development.
If Lianxiang is a large international company, it can enjoy the same treatment as Dell, HP and other companies. This is the best choice for Lianxiang.
Before the meeting ended, Barrett and Yang Qing left the conference room together.
When sending Yang Qing to the door of the company, Barrett accidentally revealed an even more explosive news.
Barrett said: "We already have quite sufficient evidence to prove that Changtian Technology's Pangu chip may have stolen the relevant intellectual property rights of Intel and Tire Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd."
"At the appropriate time, the relevant media will break the news and seek legal means to solve the problem."
Yang Qing was extremely shocked by this news!
If the matter is true, not to mention Yanjiang Semiconductor Company at that time, even Changtian Technology may be claimed by American technology companies.
After saying this, Barrett patted Yang Qing on the shoulder, seemingly telling Yang Qing to seize the time to acquire IBM according to Lianxiang's plan, which would definitely be beneficial to Lianxiang's development.
Yang Qing was ecstatic.
He knew how it was possible for Xia Guo Technology Company to develop a domestic chip belonging to Xia Guo people in a short period of time!
It turns out that the design and R&D of Pangu chips by Changtian Technology and Yanjiang Semiconductor Company were all based on plagiarism of the knowledge, technology and patent property rights of Intel and other companies.
This news is of course absolutely good news for Lianxiang!
If Changtian Technology cannot further design and optimize Pangu chips, Yanjiang Semiconductor Company will also be unable to produce Pangu series chips again due to legal factors.
Then the entire market of Pangu chips will definitely face a supply cutoff, and the production and launch of Shenship's Jiaolong series computers will definitely be affected.
At that time, the credibility of Changtian Technology and Shenchuan in the entire PC industry will no longer be there.
Both consumers and the country will definitely be quite angry and embarrassed about this kind of thing.
When the time comes, Lian Xiang will definitely be the winner.
Yang Qing felt that his trip was worthwhile, at least he knew the origin of Changtian Technology's chips.
What can be respected and feared about companies that commit technology plagiarism and intellectual property plagiarism?
This time Yang Qing came to the United States, he had another important task - to continue negotiations with IBM and seek to finally reach a consensus on the acquisition with IBM.
December 8, 2004, is destined to be an important day recorded in the history of global science and technology.
Xia Guolianxiang Group Co., Ltd. and IBM of the United States signed an important agreement.
According to this agreement, Lianxiang Group will acquire IBM's Personal Computer Division (PCD).
The total transaction amount is US$1.25 billion. The two parties expect that Lianxiang Group will formally complete the acquisition of IBM's global personal computer business before May 2005.
This marked the birth of the world's third largest personal computer company.
At this point, Lianxiang Group will form a long-term strategic alliance with IBM in the fields of global PC sales services, customer service financing and other fields, and create the world's third largest PC manufacturer with annual revenue of up to 12 billion US dollars.
According to the supplier rankings of the global PC market in the first three quarters of 2004, Dell ranked first in both desktop and notebook computers, with a desktop share of 17.3% and a notebook share of 15.6%.
HP ranked second, followed by IBM in third place, Toshiba in fourth place, and American manufacturer Getaway and Toyo's Fujitsu in fifth place. (Getaway will also be replaced by Acer in the Xiaguowanwan region in the next few years.
Acquired.)
Lianxiang originally claimed to be the number one PC manufacturer in Asia, but this year it ranked third in Asia and sixth globally.
So Lianxiang also felt that his life was not easy.
But if it acquires IBM, Lianxiang will become the third largest PC vendor in the world and the largest PC vendor in Asia!
It will be second only to Dell and HP in terms of shipment volume.
Lianxiang's goal is to surpass HP and Dell to become the world's number one within 2 to 3 years after acquiring IBM.
Yang Qing's inspection trip to the United States was full of rewards. He not only obtained low-price promises from multiple hardware manufacturers, but also obtained important chip vulnerabilities from Changtian Technology and Yanjiang Semiconductor Company. In addition, he also completed the acquisition of IBM.
Yang Qing believes that the upcoming year 2005 will be the year for Lianxiang to take off, and Lianxiang will not take small manufacturers like Shenchuan seriously at all.
The news that Lianxiang acquired IBM's personal computer division directly caused a sensation on Wall Street.
The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post and even many media in Asia are reporting on it.
"Wall Street Journal": A PC manufacturer from Xia State spent heavily to acquire IBM's personal computer division. This transaction will create the world's third largest PC manufacturer, and Lianxiang will target the global PC market.
"Toyo Ilbo": Lianxiang has set its sights on the global market and will build its own PC empire by acquiring IBM with a large sum of money.
The content of the "South Korea Daily" report was even more positive, praising Xia Guo's PC company for going out, saying that this acquisition will also greatly showcase the image of Xia Guo Technology Company to the world.
The people of Xia State were excited after hearing the news. In fact, many netizens did not read the news carefully. Everyone thought that Lianxiang had acquired IBM.
The words "IBM" are forever synonymous with Xia Guo's PC industry. In the eyes of many Xia Guo users, IBM is an unattainable company.
No one would have thought that this company would be acquired by Lianxiang overnight.
Also overnight, Lianxiang's image was completely transformed, becoming a hero company and even a national enterprise in Xia State.
Yang Qing, who had returned from the United States, immediately informed Uncle Liu of the contents of the negotiation.
Uncle Liu immediately summoned Lianxiang’s senior management for a meeting. The entire meeting determined Lianxiang’s three development directions:
The first one is to use the acquisition of IBM's personal computer division as an opportunity to accelerate the globalization of Lianxiang.
Uncle Liu asked Yang Qing and other senior executives of Lianxiang to move Lianxiang's headquarters from Yanjing to California or New York in the United States before May next year. This is an important symbol of Lianxiang's globalization.
"Lianxiang is not a Xiaguo company, but an international company!"
The second one is to firmly pursue the route of majoring in trade and engineering.
Because Uncle Liu has already learned from Yang Qing that all the technologies for the Pangu series chips so-called designed by Changtian Technology are actually from Intel and other semiconductor companies in the United States. This is technology plagiarism and plagiarism!
Inter and other companies in the United States are already preparing to go through legal procedures.
Uncle Liu and Lianxiang's senior management firmly believed that the Xia people could not develop a chip.
If it can't be done, why spend money to do it?
Since the Xia people are bound to be unable to produce chips, they might as well seize the time to expand their trade chain, add more markets, establish good relations with Western semiconductor companies, and honestly do their own processing, production and sales.
The third thing is to cooperate as much as possible with Intel, TiMC and other companies’ legal proceedings against Changtian Technology and Yanjiang Semiconductor Company. This is not only to protect the rights and interests of semiconductor companies such as Intel, but also to protect the rights and interests of Lianxiang.
…
Jiangzhou Changtian Technology Headquarters.
Song Yi handed Chen Xiao the news from many media about Lianxiang's acquisition of IBM's personal computer division.
At this time, Chen Xiao was discussing matters with Zhou Linghua, Wang Xiang and others in the conference room.
Seeing such a report, Chen Xiao still sighed a little.
Although he was reborn, he was reborn in a parallel world.
But there are many historical events and processes that have not changed because of their own appearance.
Among them, Lianxiang's acquisition of IBM's personal computer division is one of the events that Chen Xiao considers significant.
He changed the pattern of global science and technology. Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, future generations have different opinions.
Some people say that this is an important step for Xia Guo's technology companies to go global, establishing Lianxiang's global PC supremacy, and is indeed the pride of the country and nation.
Others say that Lianxiang's move was a bad move, because the PC business has no technical content at all. Spending a lot of money to acquire IBM's personal PC business has restricted Lianxiang's innovation and scientific research capabilities, making Lianxiang and scientific research gradually fade away.
Far.
Twenty years later, when the profits of PCs dropped to the extreme, the side effects of this acquisition became more and more serious, and even almost brought down Lianxiang.
Wang Xiang was very nervous when he saw such news. Because
Everyone with a discerning eye knows that after Lianxiang acquires IBM, it will expand its channel supply chain and have greater bargaining power. It will also own the IBM personal computer division market in the United States and Europe.
Wang Xiang said with a sad face: "Big Mac companies are born, and national companies are born."
The words "national enterprise" were not bestowed upon Lian Xiang by Wang Xiang, but were bestowed upon Lian Xiang by the major media and the public opinion circles of Xia State.
During this period, Lianxiang has completely overshadowed Changtian's technology and production, and has become a veritable national enterprise in the eyes of all Xia people.
Hearing these words, Chen Xiao wanted to laugh a little.
Perhaps under the background of this era, Lianxiang's decision was correct to a certain extent, but it also illustrates a problem - the vision of Lianxiang's senior management is indeed more short-sighted than Chen Xiao imagined.
Chen Xiao analyzed: "Everyone thinks that the personal computer business is IBM's main business? In fact, it is not."
"IBM's main business is its service industry. To put it more bluntly, it is its mainframe computer servers, supercomputer Unix system extension services, and its software business, including Lotus, WebSphere, DB2, etc."
"Looking at it this way, IBM's personal computer business is actually dragging down IBM's development and is their negative equity."
"Moreover, the global PC industry has now entered a stage of intense competition, and IBM's business has been severely impacted by Dell, HP, and PC companies in Toyo and Wanwan regions."
"All PC companies in the world basically use the same hardware brands, which means the homogeneity of PC products is extremely serious."
"I have to admire IBM's senior management for their unique and far-sighted vision."
"They believe that the competition in the future PC market will be more intense and profits will become lower and lower. Rather than being beaten to death by several other companies at that time and having no value at all, it is better to take advantage of the high added value now and
Leading the title of the third largest PC manufacturer in the world, we can sell ourselves at a good price."
"He also received more than 1 billion US dollars in cash and related equity from Lianxiang, which can be used to upgrade his service industry."
"In the eyes of outsiders, this deal is a great Chinese hero company acquiring the giant PC company in the United States, but in my opinion, it is a dim-witted Xia PC company that uses its hard-earned hard-earned money to
Acquiring a US company with negative equity pushed itself into a state of irreversible destruction."
Chen Xiao's analysis made everyone dumbfounded.
No one would ever imagine that there are such naked practical problems behind the seemingly glamorous acquisition.
If Chen Xiao's analysis is truly followed, Lian Xiang's life may be really difficult in the future.
Yang Fei said something out of the blue. Although it was said casually, it reflected the essence of the problem.
Yang Fei said: "To spend more than 1 billion yuan to acquire a company's PC business, to put it bluntly, is the computer assembly business. Isn't this crazy?"
"If you have this money, you can do scientific research and develop your own chips and operating systems, and that's more than that."
This is indeed the truth.
In fact, Chen Xiao did put himself in Lian Xiang's shoes and thought about how to break the situation.
The best way is to abandon your status as a bad guy and seriously think about how to develop in the long run.
Integrated into the Xiaguo technology enterprise matrix built by Changtian Technology.
Unfortunately, Lian Xiang has been reluctant to say this.
But Chen Xiao sneered and said: "Forget it, we are not the CEO of Lianxiang Company, so don't worry about Lianxiang."
"Just finish what you are doing well."
Chen Xiao is preparing to quickly lay out the chip production chain in the new year and extend it to the mobile phone chip industry.
If possible, Changtian Technology will definitely launch its own mobile phone business in 2005.
In order to achieve this goal, Chen Xiao has optimized the chip team at the end of the year and established a chip hardware equipment research laboratory.
This research laboratory is affiliated with chip research and has a professional team.
It is a pity that Xia State's development in this area is too slow. Except for a few outstanding experts supported by Xia State Academy of Sciences, most of the talents can only be recruited from overseas, including of course foreign experts and students from Xia State.
However, there are still many risks involved in this kind of recruitment.
For example, you will spend a lot of energy to identify whether the other person is coming to work to help you with scientific research or is he a spy?
Chen Xiao has always wanted to cultivate his own talents, and he is even preparing to establish a joint training agreement with Xia Guo Academy of Sciences or several other scientific research universities in Xia Guo.
Cultivate talents related to chip equipment and chip research and production according to your own knowledge system.
After all, according to the current knowledge system of Xia University, there is no way to teach high-definition talents.
Most university professors only care about one thing - making money, and have no interest in scientific research at all.
Even if you do scientific research, you are just making money under the guise of scientific research.
How could such a person have the heart to teach his students well?
Masters only have 30% of their skills, so how can you expect your students to have 100% of their skills to break through the siege?
Xia Kingdom Yanjing.
The procurement bidding announcements of Yanjing government agencies, enterprises and institutions have been posted online and in the public resource trading center.
Lianxiang, which was originally at a disadvantage, suddenly became a national enterprise after acquiring IBM, so the probability of winning the bid increased greatly.
The bidding entities will also consider the fact that Lianxiang has become the third largest PC manufacturer in the world.
Dell, HP and many other companies are interested in this tender and have submitted bids as required.
Lianxiang's bidding price was much lower than what the relevant departments originally expected. This is the benefit of acquiring IBM's personal computer division.
Because the purchase channels for most hardware have changed, Lianxiang has stronger bargaining power. After the purchase price of hardware is reduced, the production cost will also be reduced, and of course the product price will also be reduced.
Changtian Technology will not be concerned about this bidding matter.
After all, the PC business entity of Changtian Technology is not Changtian Technology, but Shenchuan Company, a subsidiary of Changtian Technology.
Next comes the bid evaluation, which lasts about a week.
After unpacking the bids from all the bidding companies, experts found that even if Lianxiang acquired IBM, the relevant price had been reduced, but in terms of comprehensive score, Shenchuan still had a huge advantage.
In line with the principle of fairness and justice, many bid evaluation experts still hope that Shenchuan will win the bid.
But at this moment, a piece of heavy news appeared on the front page of the New York Times in the United States.
The New York Times: According to people familiar with the matter, the dual-core design concept and specific design information of the Pangu chip came from Intel. There is definite information proving that Wang Yu, the chief expert and the head of the Changtian Technology chip laboratory, is a commercial spy.