Rebirth of the Wild Age

When Song Weiyang left the United States, Google had announced an auction listing.

That battle, the reaction was like throwing a boulder into a pit. The old shareholders and underwriters standing on the edge of the pit were splashed with excrement and urine at the bottom of their trousers. From the soul to the body, they were disgusting by Google.

Song Weiyang is also an old shareholder, but strictly speaking, he belongs to the founding shareholder and is a beneficiary like Larry and Sergey.

Shareholders, including Sequoia Capital, do not want to continue to increase their holdings at the IPO stage because they have no confidence in the auction listing. The facts are not too far apart. Due to the bad news on Wall Street, Google’s release price was at least $40 lower than expected. And even if it was issued at a low price, it only rose by 18% on the opening day, which is completely inconsistent with Google's excellent performance.

The situation at that time was so miserable that no investment institution was willing to participate in the auction. Google has to raise money on its own, otherwise the new IPO shares will be sold out, and the company’s employees will also eat a quarter (all early employees who have received equity incentives, which can be purchased at ultra-low prices at auction. These employee shareholders At least 500 people or more).

Before Song Weiyang left the United States, he gave Larry and Sergey a reassurance: "If no one responds to Google's IPO auction, then I will pay $50 million to support it!"

Larry and Sergey were so moved, they both said that Song Weiyang was the most trustworthy friend and partner—at least they said that.

Waiting room.

Song Weiyang was reading with Erlang's legs upright, and suddenly reminded in a low voice, "Boss, Huawei's President Ren is over there!"

Song Weiyang raised his head and looked forward, only to see Mr. Ren and two middle-aged men sitting in the corner without saying a word.

"Mr. Ren, you have also come to the United States." Song Weiyang walked over with a smile.

"Boss Song?" Mr. Ren looked a little surprised, stood up and shook hands and said, "Long time no see, please sit down!"

Song Weiyang sat down and said, "Come to the United States to negotiate?"

President Ren nodded and said, "Well, I will confirm it in the end, but the negotiation still broke down."

Song Weiyang smiled and said, "It's good if the negotiation breaks down, so why sell Huawei?"

"Perhaps." Mr. Ren smiled bitterly.

Since Song Weiyang invested in Huawei a few years ago and became a shareholder of Huawei, he was told of this negotiation as early as New Year's Day. The content was: Huawei was sold to Motorola at a price of 7.5 billion US dollars.

You heard it right. At the end of 2003, Mr. Ren wanted to sell Huawei as a whole.

Negotiations have been going on for several months, all the contracts of intent have been signed, and the relevant procedures have been completed. In order to celebrate, the negotiating teams of the two sides also bought flowers and clothes to wear, and ran and played table tennis on the beach. As a result, at this time, Motorola’s new chairman took office and directly rejected the acquisition that had already signed a contract. He would rather pay a huge amount of liquidated damages than buy Huawei.

As for why Mr. Ren wanted to sell Huawei, the reason is simple, internal and external difficulties!

The root cause of everything is the cold winter of the Internet. Not only is the global Internet industry declining, but telecommunications-related industries are also suffering. In 2002, Huawei’s sales experienced negative growth for the first time, and Mr. Ren chose to expand against the trend. He drew too much capital to invest in research and development. He also opened a large number of overseas branches, hoping to seize the market in the cold winter of the Internet.

At a time when funds are severely strained, Huawei can't afford to pay wages at all, and can only continue to fool employees with their salaries in exchange for stocks. This caused a strong backlash from many employees, because the market situation made them panic and they had no hope at all. They were even more afraid that their previous stocks would also be lost, so a large number of employees chose to resign to cash in on their equity.

After resigning, many employees joined the company of the traitor Li Yinan and used technology and resources to compete with their old company Huawei.

The leak happened in the night, and Mr. Ren’s old partner Zheng Baoyong was diagnosed with brain cancer at this time. Cisco also jumped out to sue Huawei for infringement. Many European and American customers stopped cooperating with Huawei. It took nine months for the lawsuit to reach an out-of-court settlement.

"Huawei really has no money?" Song Weiyang asked.

With a tired face, Mr. Ren said: "We have money. Cut off some R&D projects and lay off some overseas institutions. The money saved can be fully supported."

Song Weiyang nodded and said: "It's the strategy to shrink. Alibaba did the same two years ago, and it hasn't come back. By the way, since Huawei is so short of money, why not learn ZTE to make mobile phones and PHS?"

"Huawei of course also makes mobile phones. After a while, Huawei mobile phones will be on the market, just in time to catch up with the worst market environment." Mr. Ren smiled bitterly. He didn't want to make a mobile phone at the beginning, and said that anyone who made a mobile phone would be fired, but he still couldn't escape the law of true fragrance.

"I just started making mobile phones now, so you are really unlucky." Song Weiyang couldn't help teasing.

Mr. Ren said: "Who would say no, people are unlucky and can even squeeze between their teeth when they drink water."

Last year, the prosperity of domestic mobile phones reached its peak, and now it has begun to flourish and decline, and vicious competition has reached an unimaginable level. Take the Panda mobile phone as an example. The sales in the first two quarters of this year were more than 900 million yuan, while the net profit was only a pitiful 1.5 million yuan. Selling nearly 1 billion yuan of mobile phones, only earning 1.5 million yuan, domestic manufacturers have made mobile phones into Chinese cabbage!

The reason is that more and more mobile phones are being made, and domestic brands can only continue to reduce their prices for promotion-as long as they don't lose money, they have to sell even if they lose money, because the loss of rushing to stop production is even greater!

For domestic mobile phone manufacturers, since I sell cabbage prices, don't require my products to have black truffle quality. All kinds of cutting corners, various lowering of standards, and even perfunctory quality inspections have caused domestic mobile phones to become more and more garbage, and the reputation of the market has been ruined by these people.

The quality of Shenzhou mobile phones, which have always been strictly controlled, has been negatively affected by domestic word-of-mouth. This situation often occurs at the sales counter-a few friends come together to buy a mobile phone. Buying domestically produced goods is too rubbish, it will definitely cause problems in two or three months!"

Compared with the self-defeating of domestic mobile phones, Motorola and Nokia continue to introduce new products and continue to develop new features. The price of its old models has also been reduced, even to the point where they are similar to domestic mobile phones. Consumers naturally choose good quality and cheap old foreign phones.

In terms of sales in the first quarter of this year, China’s mobile phone sales are increasing, but net profit and market share have fallen severely.

In the case of serious financial difficulties, Huawei spent more than half a year on research and development, and it was about to launch Huawei mobile phones, but it encountered such a nonsense market environment.

Song Weiyang asked: "Huawei is about to launch a 3G mobile phone, right?"

President Ren hesitated and nodded: "Well, it's a 3G mobile phone. Originally, I planned to develop both domestic and foreign markets. Based on the current situation, Huawei mobile phones can only focus on foreign markets. China is also developing 3G mobile phone technology, right?"

"Yes, it has been developed since last year, but I'm afraid it won't be put into commercial use. Power should be a kind of technology accumulation." Song Weiyang nodded.

Although domestic mobile phone brands are totally rubbish, there are still a few companies that are serious about technology, including China, ZTE and TCL as representatives. The quality of ZTE and TCL mobile phones was not good at first. That was because the foundry was blindly engaged in J8. Last year, TCL even built its own mobile phone production line. Unfortunately, the market environment changed just after it was put into production.

As for the research and development of 3G mobile phones, there are probably these companies currently doing: China, Huawei, ZTE, Datang, Lenovo, Amoi, Hisense and Southern High-Tech.

Only Huawei can be put into commercial use in a short time.

Since 2004, Huawei has been selling mobile phones. The reason why it is not well-known is that it mainly sells customized phones. Operators that have launched 3G services around the world are potential customers of Huawei. Most of the mobile phones are directly marked with the operator’s trademark. You can only see Huawei’s LOGO when you open the battery panel.

"Why China's 3G mobile phones are not going to be put into commercial use?" Mr. Ren asked very curiously.

Song Weiyang didn't hide it, and smiled: "Because I am not optimistic about the 3G market, I want to jump directly to the 4G era."

Mr. Ren said: "Very strange idea."

Song Weiyang smiled silently. Although he didn't make mobile phones in his previous life, he knew the market situation of 3G mobile phones too well. A friend of Song Weiyang once represented a 3G mobile phone in Hong Kong City and lost money. When he returned to the mainland to drink, he complained: "I might as well donate the money I lost from selling the mobile phone to the casino on the island of Australia!"

Well, this friend of Song Weiyang was miserable by Huawei at the time.

In order to conquer the 3G market in Hong Kong, Huawei not only invested in helping operators build networks, but also sent a large number of mobile phones to Hong Kong Island residents for trial. Say it is a trial, in fact, it means sending mobile phones and sending phone bills, and citizens can make 3G calls without paying a penny. Such a good thing caused the 3G mobile phone brand represented by Song Weiyang's friend to have no market at all during that time.

However, Huawei's 3G mobile phones still suffered a miserable loss. It should be said that all 3G mobile phones are miserable.

The production of mobile phones in China requires a license, but except for the very strict licenses for the first batch of mobile phones, all subsequent licenses can be obtained on a curve. The most direct way is to spend money. At that time, many domestic manufacturers thought that 3G could do a good job, so they spent huge sums of money to buy 3G mobile phone licenses. As a result, they lost all their pants.

It was not until Jobs led the smartphone revolution and the APP model was mature that 3G services became profitable ~ www.readwn.com ~ mobile phones began to sell well.

During this period, Huawei has invested 5 billion yuan a year in the research and development of 3G technology at most, but there is almost no market return.

Song Weiyang suddenly thought: "President Ren, how about we merge the chip labs of China and Huawei to form a chip design company together?"

Mr. Ren felt a little bit interesting, and asked: "How do you do it?"

Song Weiyang said: “The patents previously obtained by the two parties belong to each other. If the other party wants to use it, it must pay the patent fee at the market price. As for the value of the laboratories of both parties, let professionals calculate when they merge, and Huawei’s chip laboratory affirms It’s more valuable, and China Technology can put out some more cash. The separated and merged chip company is an independent operation. If continuous investment in research and development is required, then Huawei and China will continue to inject capital in proportion to their shareholding. In this way, it can be avoided. Repeated R&D investment with each other to achieve technical exchange of what is needed."

"How to avoid business disagreements and competition?" Ren Zong asked.

Song Weiyang smiled and said: "The chip company operates independently. It should be a laboratory that we invest together. Everything is implemented in accordance with market rules. As for the shares, half of the family will not take advantage of anyone. Moreover, China Science and Technology guarantees that it will not Do basic telecommunication products, and will only do civilian products in the future."

Mr. Ren was a little embarrassed and said, "I'll go back to a meeting and discuss it."

Song Weiyang is not in a hurry. Since the research and development of 3G only invests money and has no income, Huawei has tried to sell HiSilicon for many times, and even packaged and sold its mobile phone business. In the end, it was not that Mr. Ren was far-sighted, but because he could not find a buyer, no one was willing to take over the money-losing goods. Huawei could only survive until the 4G era.

Song Weiyang wants to merge the chip divisions of Huawei and China for a simple reason. He is interested in the top technical talents of Huawei.