Li Shufu, spent 10 billion yuan, bought a "mobile phone"!

Jili + Meizu, can it create 1+1>2?

Source | Rongzhong Finance

Author | Wu Qiong

Source/Official Website

What kind of sparks will be sparked by the veteran car companies with a market value of 100 billion yuan and the former "domestic god machine" Meizu?

For Geely, who is not good at software, on the one hand, Li Shufu wants to enter the mobile phone market, in the face of the mobile phone market that is already the Red Sea, it is difficult for new brands to enter the competition, acquire Meizu, and use its existing popularity and technical foundation, which is a good way to "curve entrepreneurship".

On the other hand, the acquisition of Meizu may become its way out of the counterattack in the new energy vehicle track, and mobile phones, as an important part of the intelligent ecosystem, can use Meizu to help Geely strengthen the ecosystem and help enhance the competitiveness of Geely's intelligent electric vehicles. According to people familiar with the matter, the purchase price is not clear because the transaction has not yet been closed. How much is the "small and beautiful" Meizu worth today?

But for Meizu, being acquired by Geely may be a last resort. Meizu, which has a market share of only 0.1%, can get a new life after being acquired by Geely?

Geely made a mobile phone, first buy a Meizu

Geely has finally made new progress in making mobile phones.

Recently, it is reported that Geely Group's mobile phone company is negotiating with the mobile phone manufacturer "Meizu" for acquisitions. Someone close to the deal said that "the deal is still ongoing and DD (due diligence) is being done".

In response to market rumors, Geely Holdings officially responded that it would not comment on market rumors, and that the high-end mobile phone research and development business of the interstellar era is progressing in an orderly manner, hoping to create an open and integrated ecological partnership. The Meizu side also responded that "thank you for your concern for Meizu technology." For the ambiguous response of both sides, many netizens believe that silence is the default.

The story of Geely's entry into the mobile phone market begins in September last year.

In September 2021, when mobile phone manufacturers are building cars, Geely Group established Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. and signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone to officially announce its entry into the field of mobile phones. The project is headquartered in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, positioning the high-end smart phone market, integrating global technology and resources, and serving the global market.

According to Tianyan, the registered capital of Xingji Times is 80 million yuan, the legal representative and CEO is Wang Yong, who was the vice president of ZTE, and after leaving ZTE, he also joined ASUS as deputy general manager of China. The company's business scope includes the second type of value-added telecommunications services; technology import and export; import and export of goods; import and export agents; Internet game services.

In addition, the company is suspected that the actual controlling person is Li Shufu, accounting for 57.85% of the shares. On January 10, 2022, the registered capital of the company increased to 715 million yuan, an increase of 10%.

In the four months since its establishment, the Star Age has progressed rapidly.

On December 18, 2021, Xingji Times completed the strategic financing with the participation of Geely Group, Ningbo Boma and Jingkai Investment. In addition, Xingji Times has also invested in Shanghai Platinum Star Technology Co., Ltd. The company was also established in September 2021, and the actual controller is also Li Shufu. However, at present, the company's specific business scope has not been disclosed.

In terms of talent, at the same time that Geely announced its entry into the mobile phone field, Xiaomi's chief MIUI architect also announced on its personal social platform that he would leave Xiaomi, who had worked for 11 years, to join the new Geely mobile phone team; the products led by Star Era CEO Wang Yong in ZTE include ZTE's TD-SCDMA mobile phone; Zhang Yadong in the management team of Star Era also served as the general manager of ZTE's PHS product line, vice president of mobile phone research and development, and general manager of mobile broadband products. There is also news that "Geely is digging people from Xiaomi at two to three times the price", "Geely is digging people from OPPO, in various fields".

In terms of intellectual property rights, The Star Era has applied for four trademarks of The Carry-on Screen, UPUPHONE, UPON and Visitor, which are internationally classified as scientific instruments, and the current trademark status is awaiting substantive examination and trademark application.

According to media reports, "Geely will set up a new mobile phone brand, the product will be listed this year, and there will not be too much bundling with the original brand." If Meizu is acquired, the latter's existing FLyme OS has matured, which will be a powerful complement. ”

According to people familiar with the matter, the purchase price is not clear because the transaction has not yet been closed. However, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, has said that it will invest 10 billion yuan in the field of mobile phones. Many netizens joked, "Meizu finally surrendered to 10 billion." ”

From "domestic divine machine" to "Zhuhai small factory"

For Meizu, being acquired may be an unavoidable fate.

In the increasingly volume mobile phone market, Meizu has almost been forgotten. However, it has also had highlight moments.

Meizu was founded in 2003, initially dedicated to MP3 business, is a representative of domestic MP3 high quality. In 2007, Meizu began to change direction, abandoning the MP3 business and fully developing high-end smartphones. Soon, Meizu ushered in its first highlight moment.

In February 2009, the Meizu M8 was launched, switching from the MP3 market to the smartphone market as quickly as possible. In the barbaric era of the development of smart phones at that time, Meizu was the earliest layout in the domestic camp. The M8 also became the first large-screen full-touch smartphone in China and was named one of the top ten mobile phones of the year in 2009.

At that time, in front of almost every Meizu store, there were people who lined up early to buy machines. This kind of pomp and circumstance can only be seen when the iPhone is on the market. With better features than the iPhone and half the price, the M8 not only conquered Chinese consumers, but also began to occupy the global market, and France Telecom ordered 50,000 M8 mobile phones at a time.

Just two months later, the sales volume of the M8 has reached 100,000 units; in five months, the sales of the M8 exceeded 500 million yuan, and it was also named "domestic divine machine".

In the years since, Meizu has entered the fast lane of development, and sales and market share have continued to rise. However, in the face of fierce competition from many domestic rivals such as Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, lenovo, etc., Meizu is facing increasing market pressure. As a result, Meizu began to learn from Xiaomi's scale effect, introduced Ali's strategic investment, and under the stimulation of Alibaba's shareholding, Meizu's mobile phone shipments once exceeded 22 million. At the same time, Meizu also ushered in a second highlight moment.

In order to cope with market pressure, Meizu decided to abandon the "small and beautiful" road and began to build the charm blue brand, moving towards "big and complete". The emergence of charm blue has indeed played an effect, from 2015 to 2017, Meizu and its charm blue released 25 mobile phones. Among them, 14 mobile phones were released in 2016, and Meizu shipped 22 million units that year, which was the highest shipment in Meizu's history and ranked eighth in the global market.

However, Meizu has never been able to forget the dream of "small and beautiful", and closed the charm blue brand in 2018, and Li Nan, an executive responsible for the charm blue brand, has also left.

"Small and beautiful" has always been difficult to gain a foothold in the market. Without Charm Blue, Meizu's sales have plummeted, and many retail stores around the world have closed. Sainuo data shows that in 2018, Meizu mobile phone shipments were only 9.48 million units, while last year, its shipments were still around 20 million units. From the perspective of market share, in the first half of 2020, Meizu accounted for only 0.5% of the domestic mobile phone market, and fell to 0.3% in the third quarter. By the third quarter of 2021, Meizu's specific market ranking is no longer visible, but it shares 3% of the market share with other mobile phone manufacturers.

On September 10, 2021, Charm Blue Technology announced that after 1269 days, the Charm Blue brand officially returned. It has to be said that Meizu finally compromised to the fierce market competition. But at this time, the mobile phone market, which focuses on cost performance, has long been a red sea. Embracing "big and complete" again can no longer be the same day. In the face of difficulties, perhaps being acquired is the best way out.

The acquisition of Meizu is not just for the sake of making mobile phones

Some netizens said, "The tram is actually a large electronic product, which means that Geely has begun to plan for the future of the tram, and the direction is consistent with Huawei and Xiaomi."

At the time of the establishment of the Star Era, Li Shufu once explained the entry into the mobile phone market, "The mobile phone is a rapid iteration of the portable mobile terminal, is the electronic product market verification and software innovation application carrier, not only allows users to share the innovative results as soon as possible, but also can transfer a safe and reliable part of the results to the car application, to achieve close interaction between the car machine and mobile phone software technology." In the future, cross-border to build a user ecological chain, according to the law to build a corporate moat has become a major trend, mobile phones can link the Internet of Vehicles, satellite Internet, to create a rich consumption scenario, to strengthen the ecosystem, to provide users with a more convenient, more intelligent, Internet of Everything multi-screen interactive life experience. ”

The acquisition of Meizu will also help Ji use its mature consumer goods thinking to help Geely build intelligent cars. Geely's entry into the mobile phone market is not really to get a piece of the mobile phone market, but to build an intelligent ecosystem. Just like Xiaomi and Huawei entering the automotive market, it is an important part of building an Internet of Everything ecosystem. For Geely, mobile phones are a link that needs to be supplemented.

"The mobile phone business is of great significance to the entire Geely automobile industry. The better development of mobile phones can bring better development of vehicles and machines, and the better development of vehicles and machines can promote the continuous improvement of the level of intelligent cockpits, which can help the competitiveness of intelligent electric vehicles to continuously improve. Li Shufu said.

This acquisition of Meizu is not only because Meizu is in trouble, but also Geely. Since 2015, Geely has attached great importance to the new energy track and began to transform from traditional cars to new energy vehicles. And has launched geometry, polar star, maple leaf and other brands, but the response is flat. On the one hand, Geely Automobile Geely seeks change, but the transformation is difficult. On the other hand, mainland new energy vehicles have entered a new stage of accelerated development, with Xiaopeng, Weilai, ideal as the representative of the new car-making forces, Baidu Xiaomi as the representative of cross-border enterprises suddenly emerging, as well as Huawei's intelligent car solutions are also making rapid progress, the goal is to be commercialized in 2022, and to achieve true intelligent driving from 2025 to 2030.

For traditional car companies such as Geely, it is no problem to do hardware, but there are still some deficiencies in the development of software systems and the operation of content ecology, which is an indispensable ability in the new energy vehicle track. Some people in the mobile phone industry have analyzed that "mobile phones are the core traffic entrance in the intelligent interconnection ecology". Although Meizu is now reduced to "Zhuhai small factory", but Meizu FLyme as the "forerunner" of domestic customized UI, with its past excellent achievements, still has a small role, after the acquisition of Meizu, Geely has 100% of the right to speak, according to the needs of the automotive business independent layout, through its intelligent ecosystem GKUI and FLyme deep integration, enhance the experience of Geely car and machine system, catch up with this wave of new energy waves.

However, at its peak, Meizu's market valuation reached 12.97 billion yuan. After several ups and downs, Meizu, which has gradually been marginalized in the mobile phone market, how much can it get from the hands of Geely, which is eager for car-machine collaboration and spends 10 billion yuan to make mobile phones?

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