My rebirth is different

Page 809

And Effie went to California, she was going to the North American branch of Facebook Games, as well as Blizzard and Valverde.

…………

After arriving at the hotel, everyone washed up, and found a meeting room without taking a rest, and started the meeting directly.

Zhou Mengyi first reported the recent contact with IBM.

"Sam Palmisano has formally notified us on behalf of IBM's board of directors that he is willing to sell the personal computer business unit at a cash price of US$[-] billion, including all employees, fixed assets, patented technology, trademark goodwill, etc.

However, the other party requires two points. One is that the acquisition must be paid in cash after approval, and the other is that the positions, salaries and benefits of existing employees must not be reduced. The number of layoffs within three years shall not exceed 20.00% of the total number of employees. "

Yu Wenfei nodded slightly. To do business in other countries, you have to abide by other people's game rules. There is nothing to say about this.

In Europe and the United States, the power of trade unions is very strong. I don’t know how many Chinese companies suffer from this aspect when they set up factories in Europe and the United States.

However, IBM's personal computer business department is better to talk about. After all, most of the employees are technical personnel. Relatively speaking, most technical people are more restrained and don't like to make trouble.

The auto workers in the United States are the best, and they directly messed up Detroit, a world-renowned motor city...

Detroit used to be known as the "Automobile Capital of the World". It was synonymous with the automobile industry as early as 100 years ago. It was once one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the United States. The first highway and the first department store all appeared here.

Moreover, the headquarters of the three major auto giants General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are located here.

As a result, because there are too many auto workers and the power of the trade unions is too great, several major auto giants are miserable.The worst thing is that not only several major auto giants have declared bankruptcy one after another, but GM has survived with huge government aid. Even the local government of Detroit has declared bankruptcy...

The auto union organizes strikes at every turn, forcing companies to make concessions, allowing workers to get higher benefits and wages, and not allowing companies to fire workers. Those workers who should be eliminated do nothing and get their wages.

In the situation there, it is really hard to tell who is a capitalist and who is a proletarian...

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that more than 80.00% of the population here is African American.Not to mention the law and order in Detroit, even few Americans are willing to go there, the streets are full of idle young people, and murders happen every day!

Sometimes, poor people must have something to hate, this sentence is still very reasonable.

…………

There is no problem with paying in cash, and there is no problem with not laying off employees. The original reason for acquiring IBM's personal computer business unit is because there are a large number of experienced engineers here. This is a valuable asset. Of course, Yu Wenfei will not lay off them.

"Contact IBM. Tomorrow we will start the final negotiation, and the battle will be settled quickly!" Yu Wenfei ordered simply.

Chapter 688 Final Negotiation

"The other party can guarantee that this transaction will pass the review of the Congress and the Foreign Investment Committee?" Yu Wenfei asked with a frown.

Zhou Mengyi smiled, and replied softly: "No one can guarantee this issue, but Peng Mingsheng said that with IBM's influence here, the problem should not be serious, it is nothing more than delaying some time."

Although IBM's personal computer business has been losing money every year in recent years, it is still very famous and has many patented technologies.

In addition, Star Technology is still a company from mainland China, so this acquisition must be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and even go to Congress for consultation.

The so-called market freedom in Europe and the United States is only relative. In many respects, their protectionism is actually stronger than that in China.

Fortunately, Star Technology's controlling shareholder is Xiangjiang Jiale Company, and Star Technology does not have any state-owned background, so it shouldn't be a big problem to pass the review.What Yu Wenfei is worried about is that if this deal is delayed for a year or so or even longer, it will delay his business.

Because in his memory, Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computer business. After the two parties reached a transaction agreement, it took more than a year for the review by the Foreign Investment Committee.

In the middle, IBM did put a lot of effort into lobbying with many political allies.

And Lenovo is also very cooperative, actively or forced to agree to many conditions, such as promising to abandon all IBM's original European and American government customer business, etc...

To be on the safe side, Yu Wenfei had already made preparations, and the "friendship" of the Walton family should come in handy at this time!

…………

The next day, at IBM's New York headquarters, Yu Wenfei met the legendary Peng Mingsheng who saved IBM.

This is a tall, white and fat American old man in his early 50s, with a pair of dark red horn-rimmed eyes on the bridge of his nose. When looking at people, he is used to lowering his head and looking through the upper gap of the glasses frame.

He seemed to be all smiles and a very kind demeanor.

Of course, those who know him well know that at work, Peng Mingsheng is not an "easy-going" person, he does things vigorously and decisively, and does not hesitate to make decisions.

It can be seen from the sale of the personal computer business unit that this matter was promoted by Palmisano.

For another company, which CEO has the guts to sell the company's pillar business, not to mention that although IBM's computer business has incurred losses, its overall sales volume is still the first in the world!

In 2001, IBM's computer business sold $910 billion!

The second-ranked Hewlett-Packard is only 470 billion, and the third Compaq is only 400 billion, which means that the sum of the second and third is not as much as that of IBM.

Of course, among IBM's more than 900 billion, mainframes and servers also account for a large proportion, not just personal computers.

However, Palmisano made a judgment in 2001 that the total share of the personal computer market will continue to decline in the future, and the life of complete computer manufacturers will become more and more difficult, and profits will be greatly reduced.So from then on, he made up his mind to sell IBM's personal computer business.

…………

There are also many people from Yu Wenfei's side today. In addition to the people in the company, there are also a lot of specially hired legal advisors, financial advisors, and acquisition advisors.

The amount of this acquisition is not very large, but there are many things involved, and the acquisition process will be more troublesome, so Yu Wenfei is also very cautious.

Without wasting too much time, everyone came to the large conference room and sat down on both sides of the long conference table to formally start the final negotiation.

The conditions on IBM's side have been set out, and Palmisano has emphasized that it is the minimum condition acceptable to the company's board of directors, and there is no need to discuss the amount.

[-] billion U.S. dollars is not too expensive, and Yu Wenfei doesn't care too much about the amount. What he cares about is how much key technology he can get from IBM with this acquisition!

An IT industry giant company established in "ancient times" like IBM is really a treasure. The company has many core patented technologies.It can be said that if we can get a few more useful patents from IBM, Yuwenfei can save a lot of time in entering the PC hardware industry and mobile phone industry in the future.

The specific conditions, Zhou Mengyi and Peng Mingsheng have almost discussed, Yu Wenfei is concerned about how many technology patents IBM will transfer to the new Lenovo Group this time.

Without discussing the price, Yu Wenfei directly picked up the patented technology transfer manual, which was quite a thick booklet.

Take a look, there are more than 1000 patented technologies densely packed in the catalog index, and the core technologies on THINKPAD are basically included.

For example, the hard disk protection technology is that aps automatically protects the hard disk.This technology allows THINKPAD laptops to maintain system stability in their respective harsh environments, without system crashes or crashes.This is also an important factor why construction engineers and field workers like to use THINKPAD.

The CPU eagle-wing fan technology can help the computer to dissipate heat better and greatly reduce the temperature of the processor.

The automatic update software can automatically connect to the manufacturer's server to automatically update the software, which is very convenient and user-friendly, and improves the user experience.

Magnesium anti-roll frame, which is a know-how in craftsmanship.

And the LCD Display used on the ThinkPad!This is the patented technology of the screen panel.

和以往的LCD相比有下列特征：更宽广的可视角度：上下左右可达170度。更鲜明的高精细画面：比较以前的产品对比度提升1.5倍、亮度为1.3倍，并提供1600X1200 (UXGA)超高解析度及15寸大尺寸画面。

It can be said that these technologies were ahead of all notebook computer manufacturers on the market in 2003!

Of course, there are many technologies that are not so conspicuous and important, but in Yu Wenfei's mind, they are also extremely important.