Yokohama Electron (7)
Sunday was free, so the four of us went sightseeing in Tokyo together.
Work was important, sure, but you had to know how to enjoy yourself, too.
We started with Asakusa, one of Tokyo's most famous tourist spots.
Sena looked positively thrilled.
"Was it fun?"
"Yeah, yeah."
"Where did you go yesterday?"
"Hmm, Shinjuku and Harajuku... Oh! We went to Ikebukuro, too."
"Why there?"
"Sojin..."
Then Sojin clapped a hand over Sena's mouth and said, "Ah, nothing. It was nothing."
"Nothing?"
"J-just a nice cafe and a bookstore."
Seonwu nodded as if he understood, though it was obvious he was just playing along.
"Right, Ikebukuro is famous for its cafes and bookstores."
"......"
What exactly was in Ikebukuro that she was trying so hard to hide it?
Had they secretly gone to a club without telling me?
They'd clearly done plenty of shopping, too, because our lodging was stuffed with bags by the time we got back.
"So what did you buy all this stuff for?"
"Gifts for the kids, and some other things."
"......"
Well, fair enough.
People said Japanese consumers weren't spending these days, so if my little sister was going to help prop the economy up, I supposed I could let it slide.
Considering the damage I'd done to Japan myself, maybe spending this much was only right.
"Where's my present?"
"Huh?"
Sena looked momentarily flustered at my question.
Her eyes darted around for a second, and then she puffed up her cheeks in a cutesy show of innocence. "Isn't the mere existence of your adorable little sister a huge gift already, Oppa?"
"......"
Could I return that gift?
"Seriously, Japan is cheap. I think it's even cheaper than Korea."
That wasn't wrong. Japanese prices had become famous for being low lately.
Seonwu sounded almost impressed. "When we were kids, Japan was an insanely rich country."
"It was."
There had been a time when Japan was an economic and cultural powerhouse you simply couldn't surpass.
But the per capita GDP gap that had once been threefold had now nearly vanished. If you compared entry-level pay and median income among actual workers, Korea was even higher.
That was partly because Korea had done well, but it was also because Japan had done badly.
After the bubble burst, Japan became a strange country where prices hadn't risen in thirty years, and wages hadn't risen either. Japanese kids now grew up having never once experienced inflation in their lives.
What kind of country even was this?
I turned to Seonwu. "How did the meeting with the game companies go?"
"Continue Capital really is something else."
"How so?"
"We hadn't even done anything yet, but just the fact that they knew we were backed by Continue Capital made it easy to get meetings."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Everyone kept asking what our relationship with Continue Capital was."
That was why reputation mattered so much in this industry.
By evening, we headed to Odaiba.
We strolled through the seaside park, taking in the night view.
Making money was great, but spending a quiet day like this with a friend and my little sister felt pretty good, too.
I'd already met Chairman Song Gazuki, but my work in Japan still wasn't finished.
Seonwu and I were staying behind, while Sena and Sojin had school on Monday, so I planned to send the two of them home first.
I asked Sojin, "Did you have fun?"
"Yes. It was so much fun, thanks to you, Oppa."
Good. I was glad she'd enjoyed herself.
Sena let out a long sigh. "It's such a shame we have to head back already. Can't we stay just a few more days?"
"Nope."
"Huuuuuh."
Sena made a very determined case for skipping out on responsibility.
Not a chance.
Whether you studied hard or not, you couldn't just skip school. Well, I had skipped enough classes to avoid flunking outright, anyway.
That was exactly why my grades had turned out the way they had.
[WST] Legend Games and Enple locked in a lawsuit. Tom Keaton appears as a witness.
Excerpt
Tom Keaton, CEO of Enple, appeared in court as a witness in the trial between Legend Games and Enple.
He had once testified before a congressional hearing, but this was the first time the CEO of Enple had taken the stand in a courtroom.
For that reason, public attention was fixed on what he would say from the witness stand.
Over the course of four hours, Tom Keaton answered the judge's questions and laid out Enple's position.
When asked whether Enple had engaged in unfair or excessive censorship against developers on Enstore, he said, "Enple has always put users before money. If we don't enforce strong screening on apps, we won't be able to guarantee user privacy and safety. If Enstore turns into a mess, it'll be terrible not only for users but for developers as well. Maintaining a marketplace where users can trade and use services with peace of mind is extremely important."
He also addressed the Enstore commission at the heart of the lawsuit.
"Enple opened Enstore for developers. Charging a commission for that is perfectly fair, and economically natural. Enple maintains a wide range of programs and services needed for app development, and those require revenue. If we allow outside payments for each vendor, that would be no different from asking Enple to give up every source of income it has."
Above all, what drew the most attention was the question of monopoly.
The judge asked, "Don't Enphone and Enstore dominate the market?" and Tom Keaton argued, "Enple is already locked in fierce competition with rivals like Guble, Yuseong, and Xiaomi. Enple's share of the global smartphone market is only 15 percent. Therefore, Enple cannot be considered a monopoly."
...
Whatever the outcome of the trial, Enple had now been pushed into a fight with a competitor called Legend Games.
Legend Games had lured in game companies with cloud gaming and low payment fees, and Enple could no longer simply cling to its 30 percent commission forever.
There was one more variable, too.
Legend Deck.
Legend Games had announced that it was building a handheld gaming device and formally confirmed its partnership with ADM and Yuseong Electronics.
CEO Tom Scott said Legend Deck would be a device spanning both console and mobile gaming, and that won a wave of support from gamers.
Enple still held a monopolistic position, and everyone thought of it as a monopoly. But no matter what, it had to avoid being branded a monopoly by a court.
That was why Tom Keaton had gone to court himself and spent four hours explaining Enple's position. Unfortunately, public opinion hadn't been kind.
There were even rumors that, separate from the courtroom battle, they'd already lost the war for public opinion.
Tom Keaton didn't like the situation at all.
As someone who had come up through SCM management, he liked systems where every gear meshed cleanly with the next. Lately, though, he kept getting the sense that something had gone out of alignment.
And the reason was Continue Capital.
After returning from court, Tom Keaton received a report from his secretary.
"Representative Han Miru met Chairman Song Gazuki in Japan."
Tom Keaton frowned. "For what reason?"
"It seems they discussed acquiring a stake in Yokohama Electron."
"......What?"
He was well aware that the Insight Fund was in trouble. Enple had invested a billion dollars there, after all.
Until last year, the companies the Insight Fund had backed were nearly doubling in value, and the investment had been praised as a brilliant one.
But that assessment had since fallen to the floor.
Enple was already debating whether it should pull its money out.
He knew they were probably going to sell off Yokohama Electron to deal with the crisis, but he hadn't expected Continue Capital to step forward and try to buy it.
Why would Continue Capital want to acquire a semiconductor equipment company?
He quickly ordered his people to look into it.
According to rumors, Continue Capital had formed a consortium with Yuseong Electronics and the PIF. Hardware, software, and capital strength—they had every piece they needed. It was a combination with no obvious weakness.
What Yuseong Electronics had gained from acquiring Dongwoo Precision and NP Semi was already well known.
So maybe there's something to this acquisition, too?
What would this mean for Enple's strategy going forward?
Enple was the company that sold the most devices in the world, but it didn't manufacture a single product itself.
It outsourced everything, from components to finished goods.
To manufacture things directly, you'd have to manage factories and huge numbers of employees. Enple's strategy was to shove those headaches onto other companies and focus only on the high-value parts of the chain.
Since Enple bought in massive quantities at once, countless suppliers lined up for the chance to deliver parts.
By making multiple vendors compete over the same component, Enple drove down costs and secured supply stability.
There was, however, one component whose production it entrusted exclusively to a single company: the APU, the brain of the device.
The company that made it was PSMC.
Semiconductor manufacturing mattered just as much as design technology did, if not more.
At present, the only companies capable of producing semiconductors on a 7-nanometer process or below were PSMC in Taiwan and Yuseong Electronics in Korea.
But Enple couldn't exactly hand production of a core component to its rival, Yuseong Electronics. And since PSMC still held the technical edge as well, Enple had been working with them for a long time.
They had even paid out of pocket to create a dedicated production line just for Enple.
But now Yuseong Electronics's APU design capability was surging.
What if it overtook PSMC in manufacturing technology?
At that point, Enple might end up depending on Yuseong Electronics in the future.
After some thought, Tom Keaton contacted PSMC Chairman Howard Chen.
Tom Keaton: "Are you aware that Continue Capital is trying to acquire Yokohama Electron together with Yuseong Electronics?"
Howard Chen: "Yes. I just heard the news myself, and I'm looking into it now."
Tom Keaton: "What do you think the reason is?"
Howard Chen: "I'm not sure yet."
Tom Keaton: "If Yokohama Electron changes hands, what happens?"
Howard Chen: "I don't think much will change right away. They won't be able to arbitrarily halt shipments or cut off the business relationship."
Howard Chen: "If they tried something like that, Yokohama Electron would collapse first."
Tom Keaton: "Then what's the goal?"
Howard Chen: "Yokohama Electron is currently developing and testing a new NIL-based piece of equipment. It may be connected to that."
At that moment, something clicked in Tom Keaton's head.
After acquiring Dongwoo Precision, Yuseong Electronics had been developing non-contact NIL technology. Their plan was to use it to replace EUV in advanced process nodes.
"Could they be trying to complete the technology they're developing now through the acquisition of Yokohama Electron?"
Howard Chen: "I can't say for certain, but it's possible."
So what was the right move?
If they just sat on their hands, Continue Capital and Yuseong Electronics would swallow Yokohama Electron with ease.
Tom Keaton thought for a moment and then said, "How about this?"
Howard Chen: "Do you have an idea?"
He proposed it to Chairman Chen.
"Why don't Enple and PSMC form a consortium and make the acquisition themselves?"
If those two companies joined forces, neither their technology nor their capital would lose out to anyone else in the field.
Tom Keaton thought of the young Asian man he'd met before.
I can't let him have his way.