"In order to save FF, I made several decisions", on May 7, Jia Yueting, founder of Faraday Future (FF), released a video saying. According to the content of the video, the main decisions include: co-CEO with Matthias, striving for the company to maintain a compliant listing status, accelerating the financing process, opening up the technology chain/industrial chain, and commercializing Jia Yueting's personal IP.
In addition, Jia Yueting also confided in the video many difficulties about entrepreneurship, and said that he will no longer compromise and will stand up bravely. Interestingly, Jia Yueting's decision is still hot, and FF issued a statement rejecting Jia Yueting's important decision - to become co-CEO. FF's official website stated that the company was aware of Jia Yueting's willingness to serve as the company's co-CEO and thanked him for his willingness to provide services, but the company's board of directors is not considering appointing him as co-CEO at present.
So, will Jia Yueting return to power of his FF? Of course, in addition, Jia Yueting's other decision is also worth paying attention to, that is, the commercialization of personal IP, the reason given by Jia Yueting is: to make some money as soon as possible, part of it to repay debts, and part of it to save the company to subsidize car manufacturing, and strive to complete the basic operation of FF to give investors and shareholders confidence.
Jia Yueting wants to return to power?
On April 26, FF announced that the company received a letter from Nasdaq on April 24, because the closing price of the stock was below $0.1 for ten consecutive trading days, which did not comply with the Nasdaq listing rules, so Nasdaq staff decided to delist FF's shares from the Nasdaq market.
Regarding the risk of FF's delisting, Jia Yueting first said that he and the company's management will do everything possible to restore compliance and strive to maintain the listing qualification. According to its disclosure, FF has submitted an appeal to Nasdaq on May 1 to maintain its listing qualification through rectification and compliance. Subsequently, he also reviewed the three stages of development after FF's listing, and pointed out that the direct cause of the current crisis was the problem of capital, and the root cause was the problem of confidence and trust.
During the review process, Jia Yueting mentioned that in the first stage after FF's listing, SPAC directors used a large number of fictitious short-selling reports and other excuses to set up a special committee, so as to almost completely control the company. "For their personal interests, they framed and suppressed the Chinese start-up team, including me, and improperly drove out many Chinese core executives, and even I myself was almost squeezed out of the company by them, it only took more than a year, they and individual top decision-makers in the management almost burned out the nearly $1 billion raised from the listing, the mass production of FF 91 was greatly delayed, and investor confidence suffered a major blow."
In Jia Yueting's view, the important reasons for this series of problems after FF went public may include its lack of direct control over FF. "In 2019, I voluntarily gave up my position as CEO and hired a professional manager as CEO, and after the establishment of the special committee, I was further deprived of the company's main top management decision-making power. I have no right to participate in the final decision-making of the three decisive functional lines and business lines of the company's core finance, legal affairs, and supply chain, until today," Jia Yueting said, "Recently, many people have been saying that if YT can really control the company, even if it has half of the control, and becomes the co-CEO, FF may have succeeded a long time ago." ”
Therefore, there is also a request for Jia Yueting to serve as the co-CEO of FF, but this "important decision" has subsequently been denied by FF.
Commercialization of personal IP Jia Yueting is going to bring goods?
In addition to the meaning of returning to power FF, Jia Yueting also mentioned a key message in this video - the commercialization of personal IP. Jia Yueting said: "I have made a tangled decision that is not consistent with my personal pursuit, I will start to commercialize my personal IP, make some money as soon as possible, part of the debt, part of the company, to subsidize the construction of cars, and strive to support the basic operation of FF, to give investors and shareholders confidence." ”
At present, live streaming is a more efficient way to monetize video traffic, and previously, Luo Yonghao also verified the feasibility of this path. At the same time, since the beginning of this year, the "founders" and entrepreneurs of the automotive industry have become the darlings of traffic. At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, which opened not long ago, Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi Automobile, and Zhou Hongyi, founder of 306, have become one of the most concerned "car models" at the auto show.
As one of the earliest entrepreneurs in the field of new energy vehicles, Jia Yueting undoubtedly has the potential in this regard. Jia Yueting is very active on Chinese social platforms. He first successfully attracted the attention of public opinion by criticizing Xiaomi Auto, and then recorded four videos to respond to some questions raised by netizens. For example, he mentioned that he has guaranteed about $12 billion in debts for the LeTV system and has repaid more than $10 billion (which cannot be verified); Again, the day when he succeeds in building a car and pays off his debts is when he returns to China, and so on.
At present, the number of fans on Jia Yueting's Douyin account has reached 1.431 million. However, the commercialization of personal IP may still be a difficult road for Jia Yueting, especially in the United States, how to gain the trust of domestic consumers, which is the first problem he has to solve. You must know that Jia Yueting's relinquishment of the CEO position in 2019 and the application for personal bankruptcy reorganization to transfer personal holdings to creditors' trusts are all in order to de-Jia Yueting FF, and then improve the trust of the outside world in FF, so as to continue to promote follow-up financing and IPO.
So what do you think of the future of Jia Yueting and his FF?