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Foxconn is an international company that operates in many countries outside of China. Suggesting they are too simple to realize the business climate is differen

Foxconn is an international company that operates in many countries outside of China. Suggesting they are too simple to realize the business climate is different outside of China seems insulting and infantilizing. Their operating income is ~$180 billion USD a year. They are aware that business conditions are different in different countries.

ethbr0 6y ago
The Foxconn deal had $3-4.8B worth of subsidies attached, and investigative reporting says the branch of the company executing on the opportunity couldn't even accomplish basic tasks like "Decide what to build" or "Decide what skills were needed in hired staff." The takeaway is that either (a) everyone who touched the Wisconsin project is an idiot, but an outlier in the company, or (b) the failure to execute in Wisconsin is indicative of the general state of the company. (a) seems like a stretch, given the project's size and visibility. Ergo, (b).
- aeturnum 6y ago
  Leaving a subsidy on the table is not exactly like leaving money on the table for either party. They lower costs and lower the tax revenue from a business, but they don't represent a cost (outside of the cost to negotiate and write the deal). It seems like calling the people involved idiots (or suggesting the entire company is...setting itself up to fail to execute?) requires knowing internal details of Foxconn's financials. A $1bn increase in revenue would be less than a 1% increase for Foxconn overall. That suggests they're probably willing to bear extremely high costs to establish new sites, as long as those sites will eventually yield significant revenue. Their negotiating tactics here seem short sighted from my point of view, but when you're as large as they are you create your own conditions. Edit: Like...this deal seems to allow them to operate any of their businesses in Wisconsin. If they decide not to, they burn bridges in Wisconsin, but they wouldn't care about burning those bridges because burning them means they don't want to do business in the state. It seems like all they lose is their negotiators' salaries, small (for them) facilities costs, and whatever general goodwill they lose.

ethbr0 6y ago

The Foxconn deal had $3-4.8B worth of subsidies attached, and investigative reporting says the branch of the company executing on the opportunity couldn't even accomplish basic tasks like "Decide what to build" or "Decide what skills were needed in hired staff." The takeaway is that either (a) everyone who touched the Wisconsin project is an idiot, but an outlier in the company, or (b) the failure to execute in Wisconsin is indicative of the general state of the company. (a) seems like a stretch, given the project's size and visibility. Ergo, (b).

aeturnum 6y ago
Leaving a subsidy on the table is not exactly like leaving money on the table for either party. They lower costs and lower the tax revenue from a business, but they don't represent a cost (outside of the cost to negotiate and write the deal). It seems like calling the people involved idiots (or suggesting the entire company is...setting itself up to fail to execute?) requires knowing internal details of Foxconn's financials. A $1bn increase in revenue would be less than a 1% increase for Foxconn overall. That suggests they're probably willing to bear extremely high costs to establish new sites, as long as those sites will eventually yield significant revenue. Their negotiating tactics here seem short sighted from my point of view, but when you're as large as they are you create your own conditions. Edit: Like...this deal seems to allow them to operate any of their businesses in Wisconsin. If they decide not to, they burn bridges in Wisconsin, but they wouldn't care about burning those bridges because burning them means they don't want to do business in the state. It seems like all they lose is their negotiators' salaries, small (for them) facilities costs, and whatever general goodwill they lose.