Reborn Entrepreneurial Giant.

Chapter 174 Relationship Maintenance

Twitter raising US$5000 million is both a good thing and a bad thing. The founding team or the parent company has given away too many shares, and there is a risk of losing control, which is obviously not conducive to the company's long-term development.

Qu Li didn't care about this because he didn't have a good solution, and he couldn't control an American company from a distance. The founder team could accept it, so why should he be a villain.

The contract was signed, and Qu Li found Christian from Sequoia to understand the situation.

"We don't have to do this. It's their own choice." Christian explained: "The track they chose is good, but the team is not good. If it were you..."

"Does Honor have any financing needs?" Christian suddenly changed the subject.

"There is no such plan at the moment."

“If Honor is preparing to raise funds, please be sure to notify us.”

"No problem, I also hope to sell it at a good price." Qu Li said this, but he actually disagreed. Honor is different from Xiaomi. At this time, it mainly focuses on operator procurement and can confirm orders in advance. Honor actually does this In a sense, there is zero inventory, and the cash flow is very healthy. If other sales channels are not developed, sales will not explode, and there is basically no need for financing.

After half a year of testing, the quality of Honor's products has been tested by the market and has reached qualified standards, which means that it has a basis for sales. Although the patent issue is not perfect, after cooperation with Qualcomm, the European and American markets are considered unimpeded.

Honor will not focus on online e-commerce for the time being, but will choose to cooperate with Jumei Shopee, not only to save costs, but also because scale expansion, good service to operators, and good after-sales are the most important things at present.

In any case, Honor has always been profitable, and the profits are very generous. With 300 million mobile phones, even if the net profit is US$50 per unit, the net profit is US$1.5 million. If it were listed on the A-share GEM, it would have a market value of 1000 billion.

This does not mean that Honor does not need financing at all. Let’s assume that the material cost of Honor mobile phones is US$200, and 1000 million units will require US$20 billion?Calculated based on a 30% advance payment and 40% payment after production, it costs 14 billion US dollars. This money cannot be reduced, right?Honor’s last financing was only US$3.2 million, and the operator’s repayment was still not enough.

Now it’s time to look at Honor G2. Qu Li requested that it be released before November, leaving time for operators T-Mobile and Verizon to stock up. As an operator using the CDMA/CDMA11 network standard, Qualcomm cannot leave its allies without smartphones.

Cooperating with Verizon will naturally harm T-Mobile's interests. Qu Li went to the United States this time and wanted to visit T-Mobile's CEO, but he also had a temper and directly rejected his kindness. Fortunately, he can continue to cooperate, but It is inevitable that the relationship will not be as close as before.

The news that Qu Li received was that HTC will be responsible for developing a customized slider for T-Mobile. Not only that, their general manager also visited Andy Rubin, the head of Android, and it is said that he has become a very good friend. .

Qu Li had nothing serious to do at Google, so he visited the Google duo, and then went to meet Schmidt and Andy Rubin.

"Three of our employees are unwilling to come back. You are really capable." Andy Rubin said angrily. Compared with HTC, Honor's people are too easy to cause trouble.

"I'm sorry, but Honor really needs such a group of people, otherwise it will be difficult for us to carry out a lot of work..." Qu Li apologized. A group of employees assigned to Beijin by Andy Rubin were poached by him into three important Android positions. Development engineers have a deep understanding of this operating system.

"An apology can solve the problem, but don't you know how much it will affect the progress of Android development?"

"I promise there won't be a next time. The main reason is that the Android system is upgraded too fast and there are many compatibility and stability problems..." Qu Li doesn't want to offend Andy Rubin. This will not be of any benefit to Honor, but it is impossible to give away money. After notifying the Google duo, he bought a small gift worth about $[-] for Andy Rubin.

"You gave him gifts but not us?" Larry Page also teased him at the time

"We are all entrepreneurs, and we still have some idealism in our hearts. I don't want to turn our relationship into a philistine one, but for the development of the company, sometimes we need to make some compromises. I think I am qualified to be your friend, but I may not be able to be. Andy Rubin's friend, so..." Qu Li didn't know if the Google duo could understand his explanation. Anyway, he just improvised and found an excuse.

Andy Rubin accepted his gift and apology. Qu Li knew that Musk had picked him up at Larry Page's house and followed him there. It was not to save some money by staying at his house, but mainly because he had something to think about. Chat with Musk.

"I have some money and want to invest in a power battery company in Zhongguo. When I have money in the future, or when Honor can make stable profits, I may transform into a pure electric vehicle company. I want to know from you what standards power batteries need to meet..."

“Isn’t the threshold for power batteries higher?”

"The threshold is high but the initial investment is small. If Honor goes bankrupt, I will not build cars. If I supply power batteries to Tesla, I won't starve to death..."

"Haha..." Musk laughed. He is now the chairman and CEO of Tesla. However, the cost of Tesla's first sports car, the Roadster, was too high, the price exceeded expectations, and the sales situation was not good. By 2012 Only 2250 units were sold in four years.

Qu Li ordered one from Musk and wrote him a check for US$11 on the spot. The specific address will be sent to him via email when he returns.

"Don't worry, I will send you Tesla's specific requirements and design standards for power batteries soon..." Musk promised that Qu Li's request is a trivial matter. If it succeeds, it will be great. If it fails, it will be fine. Not a pity.

After the appointment, Qu Li did not stay overnight at Larry Page's house. He had other things to do. Sun Jianhe came to the United States to represent the Vision Fund and several major shareholders of Spreadtrum to reach a share transfer agreement and purchase 3.8 shares at a price of US$1500 per share. million shares, with a shareholding ratio of approximately 34%.

Spreadtrum CEO Wu Ping rushed to the United States and contacted Texas Instruments through Honor. He wanted to package Texas Instruments' communication baseband project, including their team and patents (excluding non-mainstream solutions such as wimax), which could complement Spreadtrum's GSM/GPRS/ With the accumulation of EDGE/WCDMA and other aspects, we may also be able to learn more from Texas Instruments through acquisitions, including improving the yield rate of baseband chips.

The plummeting share price of Spreadtrum came from the failure of their products. Many partners abandoned Spreadtrum, performance declined, and management was chaotic. Even if there was no subprime mortgage crisis, Spreadtrum's future was not optimistic, so it was sold off.

Vision's aggressive acquisition of 34% of Spreadtrum's shares was naturally announced, but not many people cared about an unfamiliar fund's acquisition of a small company with a market value of less than US$2 million.