In a barn by the Tame River in Yingge, several young people were looking sad.
"Wells, what on earth do you think?"
"I am not sure as well."
Thatcher and Wells are the founders of arm company, and the barn is where their dream began.
At that time, there was no money, mediocre performance, everyone was panicked, and they were afraid that they would lose their job at any time. They made a decision to change their destiny in a desperate situation.
The company does not produce chips and transfers chip design plans to other companies through authorization.
It is this licensing model that reduces its own R&D costs and R&D risks, and forms an ecosystem with arm as the core in a risk-sharing and benefit-sharing model.
Then, they ushered in the mobile phone era, won the major customer Nokia, launched arm7 and other series of chips, and licensed them to more than 165 companies.
With the explosive popularity of mobile phones, the company has made a lot of money. In 1998, arm holding company was listed on the Blue Lantern Stock Exchange and Nasdaq at the same time.
Problems arise.
Because arm company was reorganized from acorn company,
Apple invested 1.5 million pounds, chip manufacturers invested 250,000 pounds, and acorn itself invested 1.5 million pounds in intellectual property rights and 12 engineers.
With multiple rounds of financing, the founders¡¯ shares are getting smaller and smaller, and they are no longer able to form absolute control. Fortunately, Apple¡¯s top executives support their business philosophy, and they still have absolute control.
But when the company went public, Apple gradually sold its ARM shares. The Internet crisis began, and Apple encountered an unprecedented crisis.
They were developing iPods, but the stock market was down and there were financing problems. They could only clear out their ARM shares to maintain the company's operations.
The Internet bubble is over. Apple is slowly getting through the crisis. ARM is a bit embarrassed. To be precise, the founders are embarrassed.
Weida Company, headed by chip manufacturers, jointly intends to oust them. The purpose is naturally to waive licensing fees.
Having said that, I have to talk about ARM¡¯s licensing model.
They adopt IP licensing, charging one-time technology licensing fees and royalties. Specifically, there are three licensing methods: processor, pop and architecture licensing.
Processor authorization refers to authorizing the partner manufacturer to use the processor designed by the company. The other party cannot change the original design, but can adjust the frequency, power consumption, etc. of the product according to its own needs.
Pop refers to the processor optimization package. The company sells optimized processors to authorized partners to facilitate the design and production of processors with guaranteed performance under specific processes.
? Architecture authorization is to authorize partner manufacturers to use their own architecture, allowing them to design processors according to their own needs.
When semiconductor companies use licenses, they charge a one-time technology licensing fee of a minimum of 1 million US dollars and a maximum of 10 million US dollars, with a royalty commission of 2%-3%.
Originally, the cooperation between the two parties was a win-win situation, but with Apple¡¯s withdrawal, those chip manufacturers were no longer willing to pay the related fees.
The top 10 chip manufacturers and semiconductor factories in the world have joined forces to form an alliance to exempt themselves from licensing fees and royalties, and to give other competitors higher prices.
This is how to achieve a monopoly.
As founders, Thatcher and Wells were definitely not willing to do so because it went against their original intentions, but in the face of the menacing capital predators, they seemed to have no chance to resist.
"Thatcher, I asked you to notify other retail investors and certain institutions in the secondary market. Have they responded?"
"A few retail investors agreed to attend tomorrow's meeting, but most investment institutions did not respond or rejected our proposal."
Wilson suddenly felt a little decadent.
The company¡¯s shares in the secondary market account for 60% of the total number of shares, most of which are in the hands of retail investors and investment institutions. It is unknown whether those manufacturers use their own investment companies to hold shares.
The voting rights currently held by the founders are only 28%, which is far from the security of 34%.
They can only veto those guys' proposals with one vote if they have more than 34% of the voting rights.
Just when they were worried and couldn't think of a solution, the sound of a car was heard outside the barn, and soon a group of people appeared in the barn.
Thatcher and Wells looked at the young man at the front and felt a little familiar.
"You two are Thatcher and Wells, right?"
"Who are you?"
"I am Yi Xiaohai from Han and Tang Dynasties"
Thatcher and Wells had big mouths.
No wonder they feel??Xiaohai looked familiar. The talks were broadcast on TV two days ago, and Yi Xiaohai appeared many times on TV.
It¡¯s just that Yi Xiaohai on TV is particularly mature, but today¡¯s Yi Xiaohai is a bit casual.
¡°Excuse me, what can I do for you?¡±
"You should be worried about removing the chairman."
"how do you know?"
"I have my own information channels. Those are not important. Now I can help Wells keep his position as chairman. I wonder if you are interested in talking to me."
Wells and Thatcher looked at each other and nodded without hesitation:
"Can¡¡"
They have been forced into a desperate situation, and they will try every method.
Besides, they all admire Yi Xiaohai's performance in the acquisition, and they have a good impression of Yi Xiaohai.
¡¡
On the mezzanine of the barn, there were only two people, Yi Xiaohai, Thatcher and Wells.
"How much decision-making power do you have?"
¡°28%¡±
¡°That means the difference is only 6%?¡±
"Yes."
"I can provide 6% of the voting rights, but you also have to promise me a few things."
Wells did not agree, but asked:
"The Han and Tang Dynasties should not hold shares in arm company, right?"
"It really does."
"Yi Xiaobo posted a series of company names. After many layers of cross-fertilization, they were finally the names of offshore companies controlled by Han and Tang Dynasties.
Both Wells and Thatcher were surprised.
In order to seek support, they went through the shareholder list and knew every investment institution and company clearly.
The company listed by Yi Xiaobo has almost 13% of the shares and 6.5% of the voting rights. Both of them have contacted each other, but they have not received a reply.
They did not expect that these companies belonged to Yi Xiaohai, nor did they expect that Yi Xiaohai would come to see them in person.
¡°While Wells¡¯ hopes arose, there were also great worries.
Because Yi Xiaohai¡¯s Hantang Investment belongs to financial capital, and Yi Xiaohai helps them, they may have to pay a high price.
But it should be much better than losing the position of chairman.
Besides, if Yi Xiaohai¡¯s conditions are too harsh, they can refuse.
"Mr. Yi, what are your conditions?"
"Before I put forward the conditions, I want to ask you two questions first."
Yi Xiaohai smiled and stared at the two people:
"Do you think the United States is right to impose a technological blockade on China?"
Wells shook his head:
¡°We don¡¯t know if it¡¯s right or not, we just want to run our own company with peace of mind.¡±
"If one day, China needs your technical support, will you refuse because of the obstruction of the United States?" (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com