4 ms·

On the one hand, what's being alleged doesn't actually sound...particularly bad? I don't see any obvious ethical concerns, and if it's against French law then t

by Lazare 4y ago

On the one hand, what's being alleged doesn't actually sound...particularly bad? I don't see any obvious ethical concerns, and if it's against French law then that should be litigated in court, not on a blog post. But on the other hand, the evidence presented to support these allegations seems awfully weak. For example, to make the claims work the author flags a list of people as being on "Team France" merely because they are French nationals, or in one case, merely because they happen to be on another board with someone who is a French national? Weird, messy fights for control of public companies happens all the time; this doesn't even sound particularly interesting, even if the wildest claims being made are true. Not sure if the author is just extremely naive, know there's nothing going on here but is trying to manufacture a controvery, or is just bad at writing and left out some key information. Whatever the case, I'm just left confused why I'm meant to care. (Also, I'm more familiar with US finance. Maybe this really is unusual in France? Because poison pill provisions and standstill agreements and such are routine in the US. As are boards with power over things like, eg, issuing more shares.)

walterbell 4y ago
> I'm just left confused why I'm meant to care. Semiconductor supply chains have been of recent interest due to unpredictable supply shortages, sanctions, export controls, diversification of electronics manufacturing from China to SE Asia, and billions of national investment in duplication of Asian fabs on US, EU and Japanese soil. Those who care about semiconductor supply chains include those whose businesses depend on availability and integrity of computers, automobiles, aircraft, cellular networks, mobile phones, satellites and other communication systems.
DrBazza 4y ago
Semiconductor companies are of national strategic interest. Some countries have been slower than others to realise this. Politics moves at a glacial speed when it comes to technology.
roenxi 4y ago
This is political mechanics, it is interesting for the same reason kernel-code deep dives are interesting. Europe has consistently failed to get a toehold in the high tech industry, which is quite stupefying considering the technical and social advantages of the Europeans. There are questions to ask - eg, we know what happens to the Elon Musk equivalent in China (Jack Ma, disappeared for a bit and moves to Japan for the healthy fresh air). What would happen to him in Europe? This article is a glimpse of why all the serious tech players end up being Asian and American. PS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Shou_Dao https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Shou_Dao - I can see the spirit of Elon in this article, truly I can.
- ohgodplsno 4y ago
  Europe has much less of a hero worship problem, and the very idea of having to deal with an Euro Musk is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. There's always been very few public figures, the world's richest man is french, yet is not always spamming on Twitter. The reality is, there's different specialties. Sure, serious tech players are American and Asian. Serious hardware players are European (TSMC and Samsung's foundries are non-existent without ASML, and therefore Apple doesn't get to make the M1), serious banking sector tech players are European, serious healthcare tech sector players are european, etc.
  - roenxi 4y ago
    > and the very idea of having to deal with an Euro Musk is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I mean, who would? I like my enemies poor and ineffective.
ohgodplsno 4y ago
The author plays really loose with the meaning of nationalisation too. Because boy, we can definitely show you what proper nationalisation feels like. What happened was, the NSIG bought a block the same size as Bpifrance did (a public, state-ran investment bank), the state didn't like it because China has a habit of coming in, draining companies dry of wealth and IP and leaving, and said fuck off. Nothing really surprising about any of this. If Intel or Texas Instruments was about to be controlled by foreign powers, the US would intervene in the exact same way. Probably even harder actually. Bpifrance's involvement: https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/le-role-trouble-de-bpifrance-dans-la-bataille-de-gouvernance-chez-soitec.N1778062 https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/le-role-trouble-de-bpi...
- stuaxo 4y ago
  Yeah - I kept waiting for the nationalisation and bit and it just didn't happen.

by Lazare 4y ago

walterbell 4y ago

> I'm just left confused why I'm meant to care. Semiconductor supply chains have been of recent interest due to unpredictable supply shortages, sanctions, export controls, diversification of electronics manufacturing from China to SE Asia, and billions of national investment in duplication of Asian fabs on US, EU and Japanese soil. Those who care about semiconductor supply chains include those whose businesses depend on availability and integrity of computers, automobiles, aircraft, cellular networks, mobile phones, satellites and other communication systems.

DrBazza 4y ago

Semiconductor companies are of national strategic interest. Some countries have been slower than others to realise this. Politics moves at a glacial speed when it comes to technology.

roenxi 4y ago

This is political mechanics, it is interesting for the same reason kernel-code deep dives are interesting. Europe has consistently failed to get a toehold in the high tech industry, which is quite stupefying considering the technical and social advantages of the Europeans. There are questions to ask - eg, we know what happens to the Elon Musk equivalent in China (Jack Ma, disappeared for a bit and moves to Japan for the healthy fresh air). What would happen to him in Europe? This article is a glimpse of why all the serious tech players end up being Asian and American. PS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Shou_Dao https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Shou_Dao - I can see the spirit of Elon in this article, truly I can.

ohgodplsno 4y ago
Europe has much less of a hero worship problem, and the very idea of having to deal with an Euro Musk is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. There's always been very few public figures, the world's richest man is french, yet is not always spamming on Twitter. The reality is, there's different specialties. Sure, serious tech players are American and Asian. Serious hardware players are European (TSMC and Samsung's foundries are non-existent without ASML, and therefore Apple doesn't get to make the M1), serious banking sector tech players are European, serious healthcare tech sector players are european, etc.
- roenxi 4y ago
  > and the very idea of having to deal with an Euro Musk is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I mean, who would? I like my enemies poor and ineffective.

ohgodplsno 4y ago

The author plays really loose with the meaning of nationalisation too. Because boy, we can definitely show you what proper nationalisation feels like. What happened was, the NSIG bought a block the same size as Bpifrance did (a public, state-ran investment bank), the state didn't like it because China has a habit of coming in, draining companies dry of wealth and IP and leaving, and said fuck off. Nothing really surprising about any of this. If Intel or Texas Instruments was about to be controlled by foreign powers, the US would intervene in the exact same way. Probably even harder actually. Bpifrance's involvement: https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/le-role-trouble-de-bpifrance-dans-la-bataille-de-gouvernance-chez-soitec.N1778062 https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/le-role-trouble-de-bpi...

stuaxo 4y ago
Yeah - I kept waiting for the nationalisation and bit and it just didn't happen.