On the morning of July 4, 2022, Meizu Technology held the signing ceremony in Hangzhou announcing that Geely had taken a 79.09% controlling stake in Meizu Technology. The two parties will work together to provide users with core products of multi-terminal, full-scene, immersive and integrated experience.
Li Shufu (Chairman of StarTimes) said, at present, the new round of technology and industrial revolution has given birth to numerous new industries and new models, and the technological innovation and ecological integration of the consumer electronics industry and the automotive industry is inevitable. In the future, the track of smart cars and smartphones will no longer be monotonous, and the two will no longer go their own way. Still, they will be an integrated relationship with multiple terminals, full scenes and immersive experiences for common users. Through the layout of the cell phone business, the consumer electronics industry and the automotive industry are deeply integrated, and the cross-border creation of a user ecosystem can achieve super synergy.
Huang Zhang (Founder of Meizu) said that in the past nearly twenty years, Meizu Technology has always adhered to the focus and ultimate craftsmanship, maintaining the persistent pursuit of products, Meizu Technology and Star Era work closely together and will strive to create better products for everyone. It is believed that with the original heart of pursuing love, the tomorrow of Meizu Technology will be better and better.
According to the introduction, after this strategic investment, Meizu Technology will continue to maintain its operation as an independent brand. Mr. Huang Zhang will continue to contribute to the development of Meizu Technology as a strategic advisor of Meizu Technology products, and the senior management team of Meizu Technology will remain stable.
The information shows that Star Era was established in September 2021 with a registered capital of RMB 715 million, the company’s legal representative is Wang Yong and the chairman is Li Shufu. Geely Group (Ningbo) Co., Ltd. is the largest shareholder, holding 32.3% of the shares. Geely Group Chairman Li Shufu personally holds 6.15% of the shares. The company is dedicated to high-end smartphones, XR technology products, wearable innovative terminal product development and ecological construction.
It is understood that in addition to recruiting talents for digital product assembly, machine operation, digital product quality inspection, digital product packaging, logistics and transportation in the Wuhan factory, Star Era is also actively setting up its R&D team. At present, there are already Xiaomi, OPPO, ZTE background staff joining this team. And the company has also recently applied for a number of trademarks, namely “satchat”, “UPON”, “comer”, ” UPUPHONE”, and “Walkable Big Screen”.
For Meizu, after Alibaba took a stake in Meizu in 2015, it started the sea of machines tactic in order to pursue the increase in sales, and by 2016, the shipment of Meizu cell phones had reached 22 million units. However, behind the growth in sales, there was also a decline in profitability and product power.
After the founder Huang Zhang’s comeback, he immediately launched Meizu 15/16/17/18 series, and even cut off the Meilan brand, which had made a great contribution to the high-end market. But unfortunately, after entering the full-screen era in 2018, the cell phone market has hit the ceiling, and the first-tier manufacturers have also brought the horse-trade effect to the extreme so Meizu’s vision of focusing on the mid-to-high-end market has not been well realized.
With the acquisition of the wealthy Geely, Meizu is expected to re-bloom next. At the same time, thanks to Geely’s profound technology accumulation and market layout in the automotive field, there will be more synergy between Meizu and Geely in terms of automotive intelligence, car networking and smartphone interaction in the follow-up.
In the press release, StarTimes also said that Meizu Technology is one of the innovators and pioneers of technology life products and software ecological services, and has been cultivating the consumer electronics industry for nearly 20 years, and is the originator and pioneer of China’s smartphone industry.
After the strategic investment in Meizu Technology, Meizu Technology will get more industry chain and ecological resources support, Flyme system will be continuously iterated and upgraded to create better smartphones, and will accelerate the cross-phone era and open a new integration in cross-platform and cross-terminal, bringing better Internet experiences for users.
Next, the two sides will work together to become the world’s first full-ecology technology company with multi-terminal, full-scene and immersive core technologies, helping users to break the boundary between the physical and digital worlds, flow freely in the whole scene, and to realize the “Star Age Crossing” by giving full play to their experience and accumulation of over 20 years of consumer electronics R&D. “.
StarTimes and Meizu Technology will work together to define a new convergence track and deeply integrate with the broad travel technology ecology. Both parties will cover different consumer electronics segments on the basis of maintaining brand independence while building a user ecological chain across borders to achieve super synergy.
Sources: REUTERS and MEIZU and GEELY Press Releases, WEIBO
