207: Chapter 207 Texas Instruments Exits the Market

No one made a sound.

Rich Templeton threw the low-score report onto the center of the table.

"The performance of Transsion's Taishan 900 is three times that of Qualcomm."

"Our best mobile CPU has only one-third of their performance."

"Why didn't any of you tell me about such a big deal? How long has it been, and you still haven't taken it seriously?"

The employees below all remained silent. It wasn't that they didn't know how to report it; it was clearly because the CEO had tacitly allowed it.

After all, whenever an employee wanted to resign, it was approved... The company's main strategy was to ignore the outside world, focus on doing their own thing, and operate at a low cost.

Right now, a large portion of the people at Transsion Semiconductor and HiSilicon came from Texas Instruments...

It's truly curious why their technology is advancing so quickly. If we had just held up their resignation contracts a little bit, wouldn't we have avoided this result?

Just as everyone was muttering there, Rich Templeton threw out a second report.

"Although the K3V1's performance is slightly worse, it still crushes us compared to Transsion."

"And they have integrated communication basebands, far surpassing us in signal capabilities."

"In terms of communication patents, they have long surpassed us. Now, the number of communication patents they apply for annually is enough to match our total for three years."

"What is the intelligence department even doing?"

Rich Templeton followed these thrown reports with a tirade of verbal abuse.

Everyone thoroughly understood that this wasn't about the chips; it was clearly an excuse to vent his anger.

After all, if he really wanted to stop it, the head of the intelligence department would have been replaced a long time ago.

Sure enough, another report was slammed heavily onto the floor by him.

"And our OMAP chips used to be the standard for Nokia and Motorola."

"What about now?"

"Nokia is slow to transform; they are already dying."

"Motorola has been acquired by Transsion and is already stone cold. Who is left among our customers?"

The people in the conference room remained silent, letting him vent.

Anyway, after this meeting, they would have to look for new jobs.

Rich Templeton stopped after a few words and stared at them bluntly.

Finally, the Vice President in charge of the mobile chip business, Greg Delagi, bit the bullet and spoke: "CEO, we still have..."

"Still have what?" Rich Templeton threw another report over. "Still have BlackBerry? BlackBerry is barely scraping by itself! Who else? Tell me!"

Greg Delagi opened his mouth but couldn't say anything.

The facts were right before their eyes.

Texas Instruments' OMAP chips were once the kings of the Smartphone. When the iPhone was released in early 2007, it used Texas Instruments' chips.

Nokia's N-series, Motorola's Milestone series, all used OMAP...

But what about now?

Apple first turned to Samsung, then switched to using its own A-series chips. Samsung has its own Exynos, Huawei has the K3, and Transsion has the Taishan...

As for the remaining manufacturers, they either turned to Qualcomm or MediaTek, and some were jumping back and forth with Old Huang.

But the leather-jacket-wearing Huang now belongs to the Chinese side. Their new chip released this year, the Tegra2, has already adopted Transsion Semiconductor's 28nm process and is equipped with Transsion's communication baseband, snatching quite a bit of their market share again.

Even Samsung bought this chip; no one needs Texas Instruments anymore.

"CEO, there is one thing that perhaps..." The Vice President in charge of legal affairs, John Merrick, raised his hand. "We disassembled that Motorola S2, and the MT900 chip inside is indeed a rebadged Taishan 900."

Rich Templeton looked at him with an intrigued expression: "And then?"

"Then we discovered..." John Merrick thought for a moment, "The design concept of this chip is very similar to a pre-research project we abandoned in 2008. If we were to sue them for infringement, we would have a 30% chance of success."

"30%?" Rich Templeton sneered, "John, you've worked in the legal department for 20 years. When have you ever accepted a 30% win rate?"

John Merrick lowered his head.

"But if we don't sue, the business will really rot in our hands today," someone whispered.

Rich Templeton looked at that young man, a newly joined analyst whom he valued.

But now, acting like an actor, he asked: "What is your name?"

"David, David Anderson."

"David thinks we should sue." Rich Templeton looked at him with a smile.

The other party nodded: "We have over 3,000 patents related to communication basebands, many of which are fundamental."

"No matter how strong their baseband technology is, they cannot bypass these patents. Even if we can't win the lawsuit, we can drag them out for a few years and collect some patent fees along the way."

Whispers erupted in the conference room.

This idea seemed feasible.

But before Rich Templeton could speak, another person stood up.

It was the previous Chief Technology Officer, Richard Templeton, who had retired three years ago and had been specially invited back today. He was also Rich's father.

"Shut up!"

A single sentence silenced the entire conference room.

The old CEO walked up to Anderson and stared at him.

"Do you know how many communication patents they have in their hands?"

Anderson was intimidated: "This... we don't have specific data..."

"The public data is 12,000." The old CEO took a piece of paper out of his pocket and slapped it on the table. "This is the number of patents they obtained globally last year. Just in the field of communication basebands, there are 4,000. You want to sue them for infringement? Do you know how many of the technologies we use to produce every single chip are their patents?"

Anderson's face turned pale.

"Do you know that they hold a patent for multi-mode basebands that is the core of our chips and cannot be bypassed?"

The old CEO's voice grew louder.

"You want to sue them, and they will turn around and sue us. Every charge will stick. By then, who will be paying whom patent fees? The money we make from selling chips might not even be enough to pay their patent fees."

The conference room was deathly silent. A single sentence had persuaded everyone.

The old CEO looked around at the engineers, his eyes filled with disappointment.

"I joined Texas Instruments in 1968 and worked here for forty-two years. I watched this company grow from a geological exploration company into the world's largest semiconductor enterprise. We invented the integrated circuit, the single-chip calculator, and the digital signal processor. We have always been the rule-makers, not the followers."

He pointed at the report on the table. "And now? A Chinese company, having transformed for only a few years, has forced us to the point of having to survive by engaging in patent trolling. If you don't feel ashamed, I do."

After saying this, he turned and left, the door slamming shut behind him.

Rich Templeton did not think for too long and said straightforwardly.

"Notify the board of directors to convene a special meeting. The meeting topic..." He looked at the engineers who had regained their fighting spirit: "Selling the chip business."