Chapter 103 - The Eyes of Capital
Facing the entire Xinghai team, Vincenti and his group from Texas Instruments completely abandoned their gentlemanly demeanor. They smoked heavily, filling the conference room with thick clouds of smoke.
"Forty billion valuation, that's our bottom line," Vincenti said, looking at Carly, but using the corner of his eye to watch Su Yuanshan closely. He knew that although Su Yuanshan rarely spoke, the final signature still had to come from the Chairman.
"Our bottom line is sixty billion," Carly replied sincerely, meeting his gaze. "Mr. Vincenti, yesterday we already presented our market report and previous investment reports. Let's be honest, just the GSM patents under Xinghai are worth over a hundred million — Motorola offered that price."
"I admit your GSM patents have value," Vincenti frowned, flicking ash from his cigarette. "But the technical advancement and market prospects for GSM are still too early to predict. Moreover, your patents are shared with Yuanchip. Even if we highly value technical development and respect your foresight, we cannot detach from current realities."
Carly smoothed her hair with her pen, growing a little frustrated. Xinghai was easy to evaluate — they weren't listed. But TI, as a publicly listed company, had to be responsible to countless investors. Plus, Xinghai faced a very real issue: the acquisition of a company currently embroiled in litigation.
With all these factors combined, TI certainly had grounds to drive the price down.
Logically speaking, offering eight hundred million dollars in cash for 20% of Xinghai's shares — for a company founded just a year ago — would make any founder laugh with joy. But Xinghai was different... Xinghai was never just a scrappy upstart. It had world-class, monopoly-grade products from the very beginning. Then it developed cash cow products, and now it was jointly advancing GSM technology with Yuanchip, involving hundreds of engineers — a scale rivaling Siemens and Nokia.
Thinking of Yuanchip's "magical" leader, Su Yuanshan, Carly firmly believed that once GSM technology matured, Yuanchip would absolutely secure a seat in the new wireless communications era.
She herself came from the telecommunications industry; how could she not see how vast the next generation wireless market would be?
Su Yuanshan's confidence in the mainland had deeply influenced her. She believed that within a few years, the mainland would become a land of infinite business opportunities, practically made of gold.
At that moment, the phone behind Su Yuanshan rang. He answered in Japanese, exchanged a few words, then returned to the table and glanced at Carly.
Carly smiled and nodded at him.
"Mr. Vincenti, I just received a call from Sony," Su Yuanshan said calmly. "They agreed that we may truthfully disclose our cooperation with them during closed-door negotiations."
Vincenti was slightly surprised, and his negotiating team quickly began flipping through documents.
"Your materials didn't show this," he said.
"Of course not. We hadn't made it public — this is tied to Sony's dignity battle. We hope you will keep this confidential as well."
"Naturally," Vincenti nodded.
"Actually, our GPU department has reached a deal with Sony to customize graphics processors for their next-generation consoles. Meanwhile, this GPU will also enter the booming arcade market."
"Before I left, representatives from Yuanchip, Xinghai, and Sony had already started technical alignment. So the GPU team you see now is far from complete..."
"By next year, we will release our first graphics acceleration card — and I forgot to mention, Soyo on the island is one of Yuanchip's partners. We have professional motherboard and graphics card manufacturing capabilities."
Su Yuanshan put down his pen and smiled, "Once Yuanchip acquires Cyrix, it will become the next Apple — no, even more complete in supply chain than Apple. If you still think we are worth only forty billion, then I guess we'll just wait for the Wall Street test."
Smack! Vincenti lit another cigarette.
"If you're still unconvinced," Su Yuanshan added, suddenly smiling slyly, "we can bet on it."
"If Xinghai's compound annual growth rate—"
"No bets," Vincenti immediately shook his head. "I'll contact the board right away."
"...," Su Yuanshan was left speechless.
After the third round of talks ended that morning, Su Yuanshan and Vincenti casually chatted over coffee.
Su Yuanshan found it strange — why had Vincenti refused the bet so quickly?
"We are a tech company, not Wall Street players. We don't gamble," Vincenti smiled warmly. "Frankly, compared to Xinghai, we'd rather invest in Yuanchip."
"Hehe, I'd love for you to invest, but the policies don't allow it..." Su Yuanshan half-joked, half-truthfully said.
Yuanchip had to cooperate with domestic universities and research institutes, some involving sensitive projects. Maintaining clean capital was best.
But the EDA spin-off was fully supported by the government — there was no real pressure at all.
In fact, allowing state capital to enter, even without controlling shares, was completely fine. As long as Yuanchip's nature remained a mainland enterprise, that was enough.
Vincenti smiled, indicating he understood.
"If everything goes well, we'll be allies soon," Vincenti said.
"No, no, you'll be bosses too. So please support us more during the Cyrix acquisition," Su Yuanshan flattered him. "Honestly, Vincenti, you must realize — we don't really need money. What we need is cooperation with you. If it were just about money, I could have demanded a high price — say eighty billion — and you definitely wouldn't have agreed, right?"
"Are you serious about that?" Vincenti raised an eyebrow. "If you really sell it all to us, I'd be happy."
Su Yuanshan laughed, "…Just kidding."
Vincenti also chuckled.
"Honestly," Su Yuanshan continued, "whether this deal succeeds or not, Wall Street will soon show its verdict. We can even bet on that."
He raised his coffee cup: "If TI's stock rises after investing in Xinghai, it proves capital has sharp eyes."
"And if it doesn't rise?"
"It proves capital is blind."
...
Shortly afterward, TI's board responded.
Both sides made concessions, and the deal was finalized with eight hundred million dollars in cash plus some stock compensation.
The day after the agreement was signed, Texas Instruments' stock price soared.
Indeed, capital had sharp eyes.
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