Wingtech Acquires Nexperia: Will the New Company Fly?

This case is about Wingtech, a China-based mobile phone and intelligent devices manufacturer. Early in 2019, Wingtech CEO Xuezheng Zhang faced one of the biggest challenges of his career. Founded only 13 years earlier, Wingtech was one of the world’s top producers of high-tech consumer products. But Wingtech didn’t produce its products’ key component: microchips. Instead, the vast majority of chips were imported from American and European manufacturers. Facing growing hostility from an increasingly anti-China U.S., and the very real possibility of crippling disruptions to the microchip supply chain, Wingtech had just completed the purchase of highly regarded Netherlands-based chip manufacturer Nexperia for USD3.6 billion. Now Zhang faced a daunting set of highly consequential new questions. To what extent should he try to integrate the two geographically and culturally distinct companies? How could he convince Nexperia’s highly competent leader, who had been unenthusiastic about the deal, to stay? Zhang had seen great success as an entrepreneur. How should he lead as the CEO of a global high-tech firm?