82: Chapter 82 MediaTek visits again

"Not going to after-sales service is the right choice," Shen Guoming gave a thumbs up in approval.

"Channels are the flesh and blood, technology is the bone. Transsion has snatched quite a bit of market share overseas; now that the bones are hard, it is time to lay out the offline market. It just so happens that real estate is cheap now, so buy some important locations in advance and prepare well. Anyway, you are not short of this bit of money."

Shen Fei nodded silently.

He looked at his son, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

He had not been without thoughts of working in technology before, but the two mobile phones he developed independently had absolutely no competitiveness against MediaTek's turnkey solutions. Because in the end, they completely flopped...

"Xiaofei, you are doing better than I did. I wanted to work in technology back then, but the conditions didn't allow it. After experimenting, I ultimately had to choose to give up. You are the one with the capability. It has only been a short while, and you have already built up solid experience."

"It is still thanks to the foundation you laid, Dad," Shen Fei said.

Shen Guoming patted his shoulder and then said, "If I had laid a good foundation, that incident wouldn't have happened. This is purely your own capability; keep up the good work. I hope to see the day when Transsion becomes a global brand."

Just as Shen Guoming was feeling sentimental there, his phone vibrated; Huang Tianya called again.

"President Shen, people from MediaTek are here to visit, saying they want to talk about chip cooperation. They must have noticed that the chips we provide to Huawei are different from the public version, and that enhancement program... perhaps..."

Before Huang Tianya could finish his sentence, the corners of Shen Fei's mouth curled up. He reckoned MediaTek saw their performance boost was so significant and became very interested in this technology, believing it to be their chance to rise again. So they...

He put down the phone and said to Shen Guoming beside him, "People from MediaTek are here to visit, saying they want to talk about chip cooperation. They probably got suspicious after seeing its performance and conducted tests..."

"Then what will you do?"

"Tell the truth." Shen Fei waved his hand and smiled nonchalantly, but Shen Guoming seemed to see a hint of cunning in it!

"Anyway, we already disclosed it at the press conference that we did optimize the chips. Moreover, our self-developed chips are about to succeed. By then, they can do whatever they want; if cooperation goes well, we continue, if not, then so be it."

Shen Guoming ignored MediaTek; he immediately realized the key point here. He hurriedly grabbed Shen Fei and asked, "Self-developed chips? Are you confident..."

"Our fast-charging chip, Taishan PM100, has already entered the tape-out stage. The Taishan 900 has also completed design and is currently undergoing small-scale optimization. We expect to use advanced processes, and it can be mass-produced next year. By then, Transsion mobile phones will be completely autonomous from system to chip. If MediaTek is sensible, there will still be a place for them to have some soup; otherwise, they can just become our subsidiary."

Hearing this goal, Shen Guoming was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter. The laugh was hearty and proud.

"Good! Good! Good!" He said "good" three times in a row. "This is the son of me, Shen Guoming; this is the attitude a successor to China's technology should have."

"It is time to tell the international supply chain that the times have changed."

...

On the other side, in the Transsion conference room, the air was filled with the scent of sandalwood. Shen Fei had specially asked for it to be lit, saying it could help people think calmly.

But at this moment, sitting opposite him, MediaTek Vice President Lin Wenxiong could not calm down at all.

Since May, he had realized something was not quite right. Transsion's shipments in Africa continued to increase, but their procurement volume remained the same, far lagging behind their market growth rate. He had been investigating this matter, but... it was not particularly important.

Because the preliminary results were a bit absurd—the whole industry was rumored that Transsion was buying up large quantities of waste mobile phones and then using second-hand chips to scam those Africans. But he always felt something was wrong.

Until later, a large pile of inventory chips appeared on the market, once again disrupting MediaTek's plans, and most of these chips pointed to the same enterprise. That's right, it was Transsion Technology!

This made him take it a little more seriously. Just as he was preparing to go to their door and question them, the mate series was released. At the press conference, another even more shocking bombshell was dropped, directly admitting the existence of a piece of black technology: stable overclocking algorithm.

Consequently, his attitude changed once again. After communicating with Tsai Ming-kai, he brought out this brand-new proposal. And both were very sincere: one was a "Letter of Intent for Strategic Investment."

MediaTek would invest 1 billion USD at a valuation of 5 billion USD to acquire 20% of Transsion Technology's equity. This valuation was the highest one he had secured after multiple communications with Tsai Ming-kai.

You have to know that last year, Transsion's valuation was only 200 million Chinese Yuan, and when Huaxin Investment bought in, it was only 500 million Chinese Yuan. Now they are at a full 5 billion USD, an increase of about 68 times. The sincerity was indeed very sufficient.

Of course, the other contract was the "Memorandum of Understanding on Chip Technology Cooperation": Transsion would authorize MediaTek to use the chip performance enhancement technology, and MediaTek was willing to pay a royalty fee of 0.5 USD per chip or a 15% share of net profit from sales.

The contracts were both very sincere, but Shen Fei did not sign any of them.

"President Shen, a valuation of 5 billion USD. During this financial crisis, this price is already an astronomical figure, and we can guarantee that as long as you sign, the funds will be in place immediately."

Lin Wenxiong was very anxious; these were the terms he had fought for. As long as the other party signed, they could secure 1 billion USD. Shen Fei should be very clear about how sincere this investment was. Last year, when they invested in Huawei, 50% of the shares only cost 2 billion USD. Now Transsion was worth more than them, and the key was that Transsion had no technical reserves.

Seeing that Shen Fei did not express any stance, Lin Wenxiong hurriedly leaned closer to Shen Fei and said anxiously again:

"And President Shen, this is not a simple financial investment; we just want to further close the relationship between our two companies. After MediaTek buys in, we will not interfere with your company's operations, and we will add some support to help you better utilize our chips. As long as you sign this, it means Transsion will become our super priority customer. The latest platforms will be supplied with priority, none other. The price will also be 20% lower than the market, our communication patents can also be cross-licensed, or even supplied for free... Samsung does not have these conditions."

Shen Fei still did not express any stance, and no one else in the conference room did either. MediaTek's proposal was indeed sincere, but compared to the human money-printing machine opposite him, President Huang, he still needed more practice.

Seeing that not a single person in the entire company expressed a stance, Lin Wenxiong became more and more anxious, and more and more...

Finally, Shen Fei picked up the teacup on the table and gently blew away the tea froth. "President Lin, thank you for MediaTek's high regard." He put down the teacup and bluntly rejected the other party. "But Transsion does not need strategic shareholders, especially upstream suppliers that can hold us back; of course, we don't need other shareholders either. We have President Huang as an excellent investor, and that is enough."