The G-line photoresist is the mainstream photoresist at present, and this photoresist is not difficult to develop.

There are many companies on the market that are able to produce G-line photoresists.

Of course, Zhao Ye believes that Academician Li Yiming can lead the team to develop a photoresist, but everything must be prepared with both hands.

"Immediately investigate which company has the ability to produce photoresist and have the possibility of selling the company, and we will buy the company directly!!" After the meeting, Zhao Ye found Ni Annan.

The market for photoresist is small, less than $1 billion in total, and most of the market share is occupied by Japanese and American companies, and other companies don't make much money at all.

For example, there are companies that produce photoresists in Europe, but on a smaller scale.

Instead of buying photoresist from other companies at a high price, it would be better to go directly to Europe and buy a company that can produce photoresist, so that you can not only buy the patent of the photoresist formula, but also have a G-line photoresist production line, and then expand the production capacity.

It is worth mentioning that China and the United States are currently in the honeymoon period.

When Ni Annan heard this, he couldn't help but praise: "Boss, you have a good idea, I'll send someone to investigate immediately!" ”

Zhao Ye reminded: "This time it must be done in secret, and it can't be detected by the RB people, otherwise they will definitely sabotage it!" ”

RB is a good hand at commercial espionage.

Zhao Ye remembered that he had read a report of Sitong Company before, and mentioned RB commercial espionage, just when Sitong Company was developing Chinese typewriters, he had encountered RB commercial spies repeatedly spying on the development progress and technology of Sitong Chinese typewriters.

Sitong then secretly transferred the development team to Hong Kong to avoid the prying eyes of RB commercial spies. Later, the Sitong Chinese typewriter was born, directly turning the RB typewriter brand to the ground, occupying more than 80% of the domestic market share.

Zhao Ye couldn't help but suspect that Canon and Nikon had been staring at the movements of Boundless Microelectronics, and some people did not have a strong sense of confidentiality, and they might be taken advantage of by commercial espionage to find out some news.

Playing yin, Zhao Ye really can't compare to those old silver coins of RB.

Others have rich historical experience, many RB consortia have existed for a hundred years, and dispatching commercial spies is just a routine operation, and they don't know how much technology they have "stolen" in China.

Ni Annan was stunned when he heard this, but felt that what Zhao Ye said made sense, the acquisition of the photoresist company must be carried out in secret!

"Well, I know, don't worry, I will send someone to do this secretly, and even we can register an overseas offshore company to acquire the photoresist company, so that no one knows that the person behind the acquisition of the photoresist company is our Wujiang Group!" Ni Annan said.

When Zhao Ye heard this, his eyes couldn't help but light up, and he immediately nodded and said: "Well, according to what you said, we don't come forward ourselves, but register an overseas offshore company to go to Europe to acquire a photoresist company!" ”

……

With the help of an intermediary company in Hong Kong, an overseas offshore company called Alphabet was soon registered in Bermuda.

After the company was registered, several employees were sent to Inpex in the United Kingdom to negotiate the acquisition.

Inpex develops high-performance photoresist materials in the UK and has a significant share of the European market.

Alphabet's negotiators are all white, and the yellow race is reminiscent of Borderless Microelectronics.

The head of the negotiation is Rex Aiden, 37 years old, who used to work for Goldman Sachs Group and was poached by Wujiang Company with a high salary.

RB cut off the supply of photoresist from Boundless Microelectronics, the situation is serious, Rex Aiden is well aware of his mission, in order to get a high salary and bonuses, he must buy the British company Inpex this time.

Before coming to the UK, Rex Aiden had already made sufficient preparations and learned more about the British company Inpex.

On the second day after arriving in the UK, Rex Aiden started the first round of negotiations with the British company Inpex to see if the other party was interested in selling the company.

Rex Eden offered a $15 million purchase price based on the size of Inpex in the United Kingdom.

Inpex is small and small, not huge, but that's exactly what Borderless Photoresist needs.

At this time, Philip Bourwell, the president of Inpex, was very surprised by the intention of Rex Aiden and others.

"Mr. Aiden, I didn't expect that your company was actually planning to acquire Inpex, and I'm afraid this matter needs to be discussed with the board of directors!"

"Of course, please tell the board members that we at Alphabet are very sincere in acquiring Inpex!"

"Okay, Mr. Aiden, I'll tell them."

……

……

Plans to secretly acquire a European photoresist company have already begun.

At this stage, only a few people know about it.

Zhao Ye pretended not to know, and would go to Wujiang Photoresist Company every day to cheer everyone up, the morale of the company was strong, and it was common for him to work overtime and stay up until 12 o'clock at night.

Zhao Ye's plan to acquire Inpex in the UK is just to have one more set of insurance, not that he does not value the technical development of Li Yiming and others, buying Inpex will only be more helpful to the development team, g-line (436nm) photoresist is only a low-end photoresist, Zhao Ye needs Li Yiming's team to develop i-line (365nm), KrF (248nm), ArF (193nm) and EUV photoresist.

As the saying goes, "the fire at the city gate affects the fish in the pond", at this time, the price of international photoresist has skyrocketed, and many chip companies have suffered an unjustified disaster.

Many chip companies have expressed dissatisfaction with Tokyo Oika, JSR, Sumitomo Chemical, and Fujifilm.

If you suppress Wujiang Microelectronics Company, you will suppress it, but what excuse do you want to deliberately create a shortage of G-line photoresist and raise prices. Do you want to suppress Boundless Microelectronics Company while making a lot of money from us?

Many chip companies are resentful and dissatisfied, which has laid the bane for the four major RB photoresist companies.

As the old saying goes, "the world has been suffering for a long time", who will get rid of the lives of the four major RB photoresist companies?

……

United Kingdom.

Rex Aiden soon returned to Inpex.

Inpex has mostly agreed to accept the takeover.

Now, photoresist prices are soaring, and the company's valuation is naturally skyrocketing. But "the tide receded", the price of photoresist returned to rationality, and Inpex became less valuable.

Therefore, the board of directors of Inpex wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to sell the company and make a fortune.

Of course, they weren't happy with Rex Aiden's offer of $15 million.

In the second round of negotiations, the lion opened his mouth and asked for $30 million.

Rex Aiden certainly disagrees, the price is far more than Inpex is worth.

And Wujiang Microelectronics can still find a way to get some photoresist, and it can continue to produce for three or four months, or even longer. Of course, the premise is to maintain the current production capacity.

Inpex also knows that his bid is a bit high, isn't this just to make the other party want to bargain?

Inpex's expected purchase price is actually around $20 million.

The second round of negotiations was fruitless.

Two days later, a third round of negotiations took place.

Time passed.

Seeing that Wujiang Microelectronics Company was still not defeated, the price of G-line photoresist began to decline.

However, it is still not easy for Wujiang Microelectronics to buy cheap G-line photoresists.

RB's major manufacturers are strictly guarding and keeping a close eye on Wujiang Microelectronics Company.

Rex Aiden started the third and fourth rounds of negotiations with Inpex one after another, and finally at the beginning of 1986, Zhao Ye received good news from Rex Aiden......