Chapter 104 - I'm Not Lying to You
Under the coordination of various capital forces, the negotiations with Cyrix finally began.
The night before the talks, Su Yuanshan was so excited he could hardly sleep. He kept reviewing the material with Carly, finalizing their bottom-line positions.
"Asset evaluation reports are just worthless paper. They're only good for annoying people," Su Yuanshan said, gulping down coffee, fully energized. "Tomorrow, in the first round, you go up and intimidate them. In the second round, I'll take over. Let's aim to settle this in two rounds. How's that?"
Carly chuckled, "We're the ones proposing the acquisition. How are we supposed to intimidate them? Threaten them with lawsuits? That's Intel's style, not ours."
Su Yuanshan scratched his head, "You're right. Then tomorrow we'll just be upfront and honest. See what price they ask for."
"Right. The key issue is their FPU patents, which still hold value... that's the tricky part."
"Don't worry. We have Texas Instruments as a common interest partner now. If a lawsuit happens, it's more favorable for us," Su Yuanshan said while massaging his face. He paused and added, "Actually, what I'm really worried about is, what if the government steps in after we reach a deal? That would ruin everything."
Carly rolled her eyes, "It's not like Yuanchip is making a cross-border acquisition... Xinghai is registered in Silicon Valley. Plus, Cyrix doesn't have any military products. Why would the government care? What, are you planning to stuff all of Cyrix's employees into containers and smuggle them back to the mainland?"
"...I'm not a kidnapper."
Carly spread her hands, "Exactly. A Silicon Valley company buying another Silicon Valley company — that's perfectly normal. Why are you so paranoid about the government?"
Su Yuanshan thought, I wish I could trust your government...
But soon, he figured it out. The U.S. had enough self-confidence and strength to ensure that Xinghai "played by the rules." They didn't care much about where the controlling capital came from, especially for companies dealing only in civilian technology like Cyrix, which was already outdated.
Moreover, Yuanchip had its own CPU — with completely independent architecture! A 50 MHz chip that was actually stronger than Cyrix's 486DLC series.
The next day, the first round of negotiations with Cyrix officially began.
...
The asset evaluation report valued Cyrix at only sixty million dollars, but Claude's asking price was 250 million, with additional conditions to maintain Cyrix's relative independence.
"Maintaining relative independence is no problem. But 250 million... Mr. Claude, you've only had two funding rounds — first 3 million, then 20 million — and when you raised the second time, your valuation was just 100 million. That was only six months ago," Carly said with great interest, watching Claude carefully. "And now you claim your valuation has multiplied 2.5 times in half a year?"
Since they were all acquaintances, Claude was completely unbothered. He smiled and said, "In the past six months, we launched new CPUs that fill the low-end market gaps."
"And you also got yourself a lawsuit."
"But we have a good chance of winning."
"But if you lose, you'll go bankrupt. Even if you win, at best it'll be a settlement — and you'll still have to pay sky-high legal fees." Carly twirled her pen and said sweetly, "Besides Xinghai, does anyone else want to invest in you?"
Claude remained expressionless, "Carly, don't forget — we have real products."
"Of course, but your products are too low-end. You're barely surviving in the East — and didn't AMD steal the HP contract you were trying to land?"
"...," Claude's face darkened. Losing the HP deal to AMD was a sore spot.
"We can still do well in the retail market!" Claude protested.
"Maybe. But have you heard? Intel is about to launch a new product."
Claude froze. "Who said that?"
"I did," Su Yuanshan said cheerfully, stepping in. He gestured to Carly to let him handle it.
"According to reliable sources, Intel's newest chip has already begun tape-out. Once they release it, what will happen when older CPUs get heavily discounted and flood the second-hand market? How will that impact your products?" Su Yuanshan asked, speaking casually but pointedly.
Claude's face shifted uncertainly.
"And ultimately," Su Yuanshan continued, "your problem is that you only know how to imitate. You lack core technology and competitiveness. Even if you win the lawsuit and don't have to pay damages, how will you compete against Intel's newer products? Or AMD's?"
"Since the 386 era, Intel has never left breathing room for its competitors."
Claude took a deep breath and studied Su Yuanshan carefully, trying to detect any sign that he was bluffing.
But he was disappointed. In Su Yuanshan's expression, he only saw a calm, faint sense of superiority.
It was the kind of natural confidence that technical experts recognized immediately — the quiet arrogance of someone truly holding advanced knowledge.
Su Yuanshan smiled again, "As for the X86 architecture, we've also been working on it and have made some progress."
"You guys?" Claude immediately looked at Carly.
He couldn't tell if Su Yuanshan was referring to Xinghai or Yuanchip.
Carly shrugged, "Not us."
"Yuanchip has the YX architecture — it's a RISC design, but it's been working pretty well with Linux lately. Just a shame about the ecosystem. Microsoft is tied too closely to Intel and won't support us. Otherwise, just with the YX CPU, I'd dare to compete with Intel on the desktop."
Claude just smiled faintly.
CISC architectures like x86 had inherent advantages in software ecosystems. No RISC could easily replace them.
Claude asked bluntly, "What progress have you made on X86?"
"Plenty of progress. I'm not lying to you," Su Yuanshan said with a grin. "But I can't tell you now."
He leaned forward slightly, still smiling, "Once we become family, then I'll tell you."
"You..." Claude almost laughed in exasperation.
Seriously? This was supposed to be a business negotiation!
He was spouting nonsense like "I have a secret weapon, but you have to join me first" — what kind of childish trick was this?
"Mr. Claude, if you know anything about me, you should know — I never lie," Su Yuanshan said, suddenly turning serious. "We do have a plan. Otherwise... why would I choose you?"
"Honestly, I'm gambling too — betting that after we acquire you, Intel will prefer to settle rather than continue fighting, allowing us to obtain X86 licensing and avoid further complications."
"If that weren't the case, I could simply team up with AMD — they have a much higher chance of winning against Intel."
Carly gave Su Yuanshan a look and tapped her pen lightly.
"Claude, 120 million. That's a fair deal for your investors too."
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