Chapter 455: Cyrix Cooperation and Special Care for Tel Aviv Beauties

"Hi, Mr. Li, welcome to visit us!"

In the conference room of Cyrix, Li Xiaofan met Jerry Rogers and Tom Brightman, the founders of Cyrix.

The two founders are engineers who started their business from Texas Instruments TI eight years ago. The company's initial product was to provide high-speed x87 math coprocessors for 286 and 386 processors.

They have huge ambitions to compete with Intel and intend to defeat Intel on their own track.

Four years ago in 1992, Cyrix launched the first batch of knock-off 486CPU products, aiming to compete with Intel's 486S series products. The performance of their CPU products is slightly worse than the Intel 486 CPU, but the performance is much better than the 386 CPU, so they have a large market in cheap PC computers.

Two years ago Intel released its first Pentium processor, Intel 486 prices began to drop, and Cyrix copycat products gradually lost their appeal.

This year, Cyrix launched a new generation of self-developed M1 processor. The biggest selling point of the M1 CPU processor is that its integer performance is significantly better than Pentium. This seems to be a good idea when most applications and games rely on integer operations. advantages. For a while, Cyrix even tried charging extra for the added performance, but that strategy failed after a while.

The newly released "Quake" at that time was a very popular game around the world and the flagship of the new generation of 3D games.

In actual tests, game developers and players found that the CPU processor products of Cyrix and AMD lost to Intel's Pentium processors, and Cyrix's products even lost to AMD.

This makes Cyrix CPU products almost lose credibility in the eyes of many gaming enthusiasts. As a result, the company soon lost procurement contracts from large PC computer OEM manufacturers, which was a particularly heavy blow to Cyrix at the moment.

To make matters worse, Cyrix is ​​a fabless chipmaker that relies on third parties like TI to help manufacture its CPU processors, and these companies prioritize the most advanced product lines for their own companies. Products have greatly affected the efficiency and quality of Cyrix processors.

At the same time, due to the previous infringement lawsuit with Intel, which caused losses to the company that was already short of funds, the company faced the prospect of imminent bankruptcy.

Later, the company's management struggled to hold on until the next year. In 1997, Cyrix was forced to sell to National Semiconductor for $550 million.

This visit by Li Xiaofan and the others was introduced by Dr. Zhang Rujing. Dr. Zhang and the two founders of Cyrix, Jerry Rogers and Tom Brightman, were former colleagues of TI.

After a brief exchange of greetings, Li Xiaofan went straight to the point and said to Jerry Rogers and Tom Brightman, the two founders of Cyrix:

"You two, I came to visit you today to ask if your company is currently short of funds and does it need new investment?"

Li Xiaofan's words made Jerry Rogers and Tom Brightman overjoyed. They are currently facing a shortage of funds.

Because their CPU processor failed in the actual test of the "Quake" game, their company lost many orders from PC manufacturers, and the lawsuit with Intel cost a lot of energy and money.

Cyrix's bleak prospects have made Wall Street investment institutions avoid it, and investors who were originally interested have lost their voices.

Jerry Rogers and Tom Brightman have known Li Xiaofan, an upstart Internet investor from Asia, since the day Yahoo went public.

Recently, with the listing of the Pacific Online Bookstore project on Nasdaq, Li Xiaofan is in the limelight.

Jerry Rogers happily said to Li Xiaofan: "Mr. Li, to be honest with you, our company is indeed encountering some difficulties at present, and our company is in great need of new investment!"

"Jerry, have you calculated the new round of financing needs? Do you have a financing business plan?"

"Mr. Li, we have made a preliminary estimate that our Cyrix company currently needs an investment of approximately US$100 million. If you are willing to invest, we are willing to sell 20% of the shares, which means that the post-investment valuation is US$500 million..."

"One hundred million US dollars, 20% of the shares, seems a bit expensive. Is there still room for negotiation? If our Yifan No. 2 Venture Capital Fund invests in, we hope that your company will set up R&D centers in Singapore and mainland China. Are you interested in exploring the huge emerging markets in Asia and China?”

The two founders, Jerry Rogers and Tom Brightman, said that if Li Xiaofan is really interested, they can sit down and discuss it in detail.

Previously, OEM computer manufacturers like those in Taiwan were one of their main customer groups, and Taiwanese OEM computer manufacturers sold a considerable number of computer products equipped with Cyrix CPU processors to mainland China.

Therefore, they are very interested in the huge emerging market in mainland China.

This time, the initial contact with Cyrix was relatively smooth. After Li Xiaofan signed the confidentiality agreement, he got the financing business plan of their Cyrix company.

Li Xiaofan stated that he would discuss further after he returned to Singapore to discuss with the company's management and the members of the investment decision-making committee of Yifan Venture Capital Fund.

The next day, Li Xiaofan and Lin Muchu and others flew from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, Israel to visit Mirabilis Technology Company, which developed ICQ products.

At Ben Gurion International Airport, he and Lin Muchu and others went through the world's most stringent immigration inspection.

After the plane landed, Li Xiaofan lined up to hand over his passport to the staff at the immigration counter responsible for immigration inspection at the airport.

The staff looked through Li Xiaofan's passport and found that there were visas and entry and exit records of Muslim countries such as Malaysia in Li Xiaofan's passport. After asking a few simple questions, he took Li Xiaofan's passport and told him to wait in the lounge next to him, saying that someone would call him for questioning later.

After Li Xiaofan waited in this lounge for a long time, an Israeli beauty called Li Xiaofan's name with his passport and took him to a special office, which is the legendary "small black room".

However, this "small black room" is very clean and tidy, with air conditioning and TV, quite comfortable, and a little cozy.

After the Israeli beauty carefully looked through all the visas and entry and exit records in Li Xiaofan's passport, she began to ask questions like a machine gun.

"Mr. Li, where were you born and where do you live now?"

"I was born in Mingzhou, China, and currently live, work and work in Singapore."

"Which airport did you fly from?"

"San Francisco International Airport."

"Why did you choose to fly from San Francisco International Airport?"

"Because I was discussing a project in San Francisco before, we have a branch and office in Silicon Valley..."

"What are you doing in Israel?"

"Discuss a project."

"What project?"

"Your Israeli Industrial Research and Development Center MATIMOP introduced me to a technology startup called Mirabilis, which is engaged in Internet software. I came here to discuss cooperation this time."

"Do you have relatives in Israel?"

"No."

"Who bought the suitcase you are using now? When and where did you buy it?"

"I bought it myself at Takashimaya Department Store on Orchard Road in Singapore at the beginning of this year."

"Did you pack your luggage yourself? Did anyone help you?"

"Yes, I packed it all by myself."

" What's in your suitcase? "

"Some clothes for traveling, a laptop, a few books, and some toiletries..."

"When was the last time you used this suitcase?"

"I used it five days ago when I flew from Singapore to San Francisco..."

"Are there any electrical appliances in it? If so, who bought them? Has anyone else used them?"

"Just a laptop, which I bought myself this year and no one else has used it."

"Do you have any friends in Israel?"

"The founders of Mirabilis Technology Company who I'm going to meet this time, my colleagues have contacted me through email and phone before, and we haven't met yet."

"Have you ever helped others carry things? Or have you ever given your luggage to someone else to look after?"

"No!"

Finally, the Israeli beauty asked the key core question:

"Have you been in and out of Malaysia many times?"

The visa and entry and exit records of Muslim countries in Li Xiaofan's passport are their focus.

"Yes."

"What are you going to do?"

"The Pacific Online Bookstore project I created has a branch project in Malaysia..."

...

After asking all the questions, the Israeli beauty asked a question again to test whether Li Xiaofan was telling the truth and observe the changes in his expression.

The whole questioning process took more than half an hour.

Although it was a private questioning, Li Xiaofan felt that this Israeli beauty was quite professional, kind and polite. It might also be related to her beauty. He didn't feel uncomfortable.

The only uncomfortable thing was that he wasted a lot of time.