Speaking of China's mobile phone market, we may now be like a number of family treasures, Xiaomi, Huawei, Glory, OPPO, VIVO, etc., but there is a former king do you remember? This is once the model of the original purpose of smart phone Meizu, but the decline of Meizu in these years is obvious to all, in this case, Meizu has disappeared from everyone's vision for a long time, until recently the network rumors Geely began to acquire Meizu? What should we think about this? Is being acquired by Geely really the best home for Meizu?
First, Geely bought Meizu mobile phones?
Recently, according to 36Kr and other media reports, Geely Group's mobile phone company is negotiating with mobile phone manufacturer Meizu touch on the acquisition. Several people close to the deal said: "The deal is still ongoing and DD (due diligence) is being done. "In terms of the purchase price, the price is not clear as the transaction has not yet been closed.
According to the news of the surging news, Geely responded to the surging news on the rumors of the acquisition of Meizu mobile phones: "We do not comment on the market rumors, the high-end mobile phone research and development business of the Xingji era is progressing in an orderly manner, and we hope to create an open and integrated ecological partnership." ”
Meizu responded to the surging news that "there is no relevant news at present."
Although the replies of the two parties feel a little strange, but in fact, this reply is not to admit or deny, which is more or less the default attitude from the perspective of news public relations, and the report of this "Finance" is that its reporter confirms that the above information is true from the insider of the relevant transaction.
On September 28, 2021, Geely officially announced that Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xingji Times"), founded by Li Shufu, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone to officially announce its entry into the field of mobile phones. According to the information of Tianyancha, Xingji Times was registered on September 26, 2021, and the major shareholder is Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holdings, with a registered capital of 80 million yuan.
The project is headquartered in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Geely calls it a global high-end mobile phone project, the goal is to build a global brand, position high-end smart phones, and serve the global market. In addition, the company has applied for 4 trademarks, some Chinese and some in English: Comer, Portable Screen, UPON, UPUPHONE. The two English trademarks, UPON and UPUPHONE, may be the brand name of Geely mobile phones.
Speaking of Meizu, I believe most people are also very familiar with it, as China's earliest MP3 brand, Meizu was once synonymous with small and beautiful electronic products, and released China's first full-touch screen smartphone Meizu M8 on February 18, 2009, and has achieved consumer recognition, laying the status of its own smartphone. According to the product list on Meizu's official website, a total of 7 mobile phones were released between 2011 and 2014, an average of less than two a year. At the beginning of 2015, Meizu obtained Ali's investment, and thus embarked on the route of "large and complete" from "small and beautiful". From 2015 to 2017, Meizu and its Meizu brand released a total of 25 mobile phones, especially in 2016, 14 mobile phones were released, once Meizu was one of the top five mobile phone companies in China's mobile phone industry.
Second, is being acquired by a large factory the best destination for Meizu?
To be honest, although the current Geely acquisition of Meizu has not really hammered, but Meizu's current situation is likely to be acquired is the best destination, why do we say so? What should we think?
First of all, Meizu has lost the opportunity to change its life against the sky. Before that in fact, we will have 1-2 pieces of content every year to track the development of Meizu, from 2016 Meizu through the machine sea tactics to reach the peak of the market, from the top five Of China's mobile phones of that year, to now almost no news, Meizu mobile phone these years can be described as Wang Xiao'er New Year is not as good as a year, in fact, 2015, 2016 is the biggest year of Meizu opportunities, affected by the machine sea tactics, Meizu has actually gradually built a foundation that can compete with Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. This can be said to be the best opportunity for Meizu, if you seize this opportunity, within a few years Meizu should be able to establish a market influence that is not weak. However, Meizu does not have so many market expansion advantages, from a small and beautiful company to grow into a large mobile phone company in a short period of time, Meizu actually lacks sufficient market control capabilities, whether it is quality control, marketing or after-sales have appeared too big a step to keep up with the phenomenon, and then the word of mouth collapses, Meizu will continue to decline towards the abyss. Today, in 2022, the entire Chinese mobile phone market is not the state of the year, in today's increasingly expensive chip prices, Meizu is actually facing a step wrong, step by step dilemma no matter what it does, and then want to change your life against the sky may not be so easy.
Secondly, Geely's acquisition of Meizu is also in line with Geely's own strategy. As we all know, Geely is the most famous car-making enterprise in China, as a well-known car company Geely's layout in the new energy vehicle market over the years is also obvious to all, and in the entire car-making industry, a market consensus has basically been formed, which is that smart cars will be the most core development direction in the future, and smart cars are the next generation of intelligent terminals that can follow the mobile phone, which directly means that in addition to the traditional transportation function, the car in addition to a "third space" in addition to the family and the company. The value will become more and more obvious, the car may become an earlier than the home intelligent scene, which is the market repeatedly emphasized the intelligent cockpit, especially once the development of automatic driving technology gradually matures, the intelligence of the car's interior space is very critical. As an automobile company, making hardware is the strength of automobile companies, but the software of making software, especially this kind of human-computer interaction software, is not the part that traditional car-making companies are good at, and it is precisely the part that Meizu is best at, Meizu can effectively help Geely realize the product design of smart cars, plus once the smart car is realized, Meizu's mobile phone can also become a super smart key to control the entire car, so as to achieve symbiosis and co-prosperity between Meizu and Geely.
Third, is being acquired by a big factory really the best destination for Meizu? We analyzed the process of Meizu's decline earlier, and the reasons why Geely is interested in Meizu, but whether it is Geely to acquire Meizu, one thing is very clear, that is, being acquired by a big factory may be the best choice for Meizu. Because, the current Meizu has actually lost the ability to re-grow itself, on the one hand, from the perspective of the capital market, the venture capital investment in the capital market has become more and more realistic, not that you have a good idea to get enough capital support in the era, especially Meizu in fact, these years have not even given the capital market a sufficiently attractive story, which makes it difficult for Meizu to really get effective support from the capital market, without the support of the capital market. Whether it is product research and development or market expansion, which is a money-burning business, Meizu undoubtedly can't afford to burn this money. On the other hand, Meizu's own development has actually fallen into a dead end, which is what we said before a step wrong, step by step, and extended is a step slow, step by step, because Meizu did not catch the general trend of market development before, from the current point of view, Meizu has not found its own advantages in each market track, the lack of advantages makes Meizu can only follow the trend in front of those industry-leading enterprises, which is easier to be eliminated by the facts. For the current Meizu, it may really need the intervention of a large factory, completely break the previous vicious circle through the entry of external forces, and subvert the previous model from the two aspects of capital and research and development, only in this way can it be possible to achieve the comprehensive renewal of Meizu.
Meizu really needs to think of a way at the moment, and if it can be acquired, it may be a good ending.