{"id":316862,"date":"2021-11-06T14:31:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=316862"},"modified":"2021-11-06T14:31:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T13:31:09","slug":"in-the-game-of-capitalism-we-have-to-accept-that-america-rules-the-high-tech-world-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/in-the-game-of-capitalism-we-have-to-accept-that-america-rules-the-high-tech-world-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"In the game of capitalism, we have to accept that America rules the high tech world – for now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Netherlands, and Eindhoven in particular, have a lot of things to worry about including housing shortages and winning the war for talent.  Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital<\/a> buying High Tech Campus Eindhoven<\/a> last month isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oaktree acquiring High Tech Campus Eindhoven is a real estate deal. It\u2019s dirt. It will have little or no tangible impact on the companies located there, on the Dutch tech industry, or on Eindhoven’s startup ecosystem. All that was obscured by the hand-wringing of local politicians<\/a>, who somehow conflated Oaktree buying the physical park with Americans now owning the Netherlands\u2019 most valuable companies based at HTCE – including Philips and NXP. If these politicians \u2013 they know who they are \u2013 had bothered to do actual research, it’s apparent that a Dutch or Belgian developer such as Kadans Science Partner<\/a> likely will end up with the property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oaktree co-founder Howard Marks is not a buy-and-hold guy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marks is <\/em>a smart guy and all signs point to Oaktree reinventing and expanding HTCE. Those improvements will likely make it easier for tenants to keep the talent here in Eindhoven that Amsterdam, London, and Berlin covet … and so badly need. Marks is one of the most visible and accessible investors in the world, issuing his famous memos and granting interviews to pretty much any journalist who asks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oaktree\u2019s acquisition of HTCE is an endorsement of Brabant as the Netherlands\u2019 most innovative tech center and its fastest-growing economic engine.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In aggregate, his funds have managed to return about 10 percent each and every year to his investors. Which is a phenomenal performance. The way he does it is pretty simple \u2013 if Marks sees something he thinks is undervalued, he buys it. He sells it once he thinks Oaktree has positioned that asset at or near its optimal value. I agree with HTCE\u2019s Jan-Willem Neggers \u2013 Oaktree\u2019s acquisition of HTCE is an endorsement of Brabant as the Netherlands\u2019 most innovative tech center and its fastest-growing economic engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reporting on this transaction was laughable, with several Dutch outlets<\/a> stating that Singapore\u2019s CIG<\/a> sovereign wealth fund bought the campus \u201cthrough Oaktree.\u201d Yes, CIG, is an investor in Oaktree along with every other big pension fund and sovereign fund in the world. But that\u2019s not how private equity works. Oaktree raises funds with the complete autonomy to acquire whatever assets Marks & Co. believes will produce a huge return. In this case, an R&D research park in the fastest-growing region in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Oaktree reposition HTCE? Most likely. People in the know I\u2019ve talked with seem to think Oaktree will try to attract more biotech companies and pharma research labs. Change is inevitable, but a lot of people would rather resist change than embrace it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karl Marx, that greatest observer of capitalism, wrote that capitalism \u201cremakes the world after its own image.\u201d The truth is, Americans could end up acquiring both of Eindhoven\u2019s dominant tech companies \u2013 NXP and ASML \u2013 because Americans have a lot of capital, and both companies are publicly traded. Eindhoven and the Netherlands as a whole are vulnerable right now simply because it\u2019s faster and easier to acquire crucial technology than it is to develop it from scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Dutch are the greatest innovators in the world. Now, they need to think about how they can be more competitive and strategic.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The 10 American companies with the most cash on hand, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet, have about $700 billion in aggregate burning a hole in their pockets. If they need to pick up a Dutch semiconductor company, they have almost infinite resources to do it.\u00a0NXP was nearly acquired by San Diego-based Qualcomm<\/a> back in 2018. With the semiconductor industry in turmoil, someone will make a run at NXP again. Should government officials interfere? As a private-sector guy, I vote no. Reality is reality and no politician can change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dutch are the greatest innovators in the world. Now, they need to think about how they can be more competitive and strategic… and how they can turn the tables on the Americans and start buying their<\/em> assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Netherlands, and Eindhoven in particular, have a lot of things to worry about including housing shortages and winning the war for talent.  Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital buying High Tech Campus Eindhoven last month isn\u2019t one of them. Oaktree acquiring High Tech Campus Eindhoven is a real estate deal. It\u2019s dirt. It will have little or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1875,"featured_media":507790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7809],"tags":[825,24381,65387,25775],"location":[6763],"article_type":[55242],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-316862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-high-tech-campus-en","tag-high-tech-campus-eindhoven-en","tag-oaktree","tag-singapore","location-netherlands","article_type-column"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"The Dutch media has been buzzing over whether an American asset management firm should be allowed to acquire a Dutch deep-tech research campus. Terry Boyd thinks critics are missing the point.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Terry Boyd","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/terry-boyd\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Schermafbeelding-2019-11-19-om-10.32.48.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Opinion<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Opinion<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["High Tech Campus<\/a>","High Tech Campus Eindhoven<\/a>","Oaktree<\/a>","Singapore<\/a>"],"unlinked":["High Tech Campus<\/span>","High Tech Campus Eindhoven<\/span>","Oaktree<\/span>","Singapore<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 6, 2021","modified":"Updated on November 6, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 6, 2021 2:31 pm","modified":"Updated on November 6, 2021 2:31 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316862"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=316862"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=316862"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=316862"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=316862"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=316862"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=316862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}