After meeting many buyers in the past six years, can the Hammer smartphone revive?

After Luo Yonghao gave up his legal representative position and the management of Hammer Technology collectively withdrew from the board of directors, the media once again revealed that Hammer Technology, which had just received 800 million yuan in financing, was seeking to take over, and has currently contacted many companies including Baidu, Huawei, Alibaba, 360, etc.

This incident happened on the night when the court officially ruled that Gionee was bankrupt, and the industry was once again entangled in the future and fate of Hammer. In the past year or so, the domestic mobile phone market has been turbulent, with life and death going round and round, especially the huge debt owed by "deadbeat" Jia Yueting's LeTV mobile phone to suppliers, service providers and banks, which brought a catastrophic credibility crisis to the mobile phone industry. The caution of financial institutions in this industry has caused many mobile phone companies to fall into the crisis of bank account freezing and are on the verge of bankruptcy.

What is even more shocking is that Gionee, the oldest mobile phone company in China, has been declared bankrupt by the court. Gionee fell into a debt crisis in December last year and officially hired a restructuring consultant to formulate a restructuring plan last week. As of August 31, Gionee's total debt was 20.2 billion yuan and it had 648 creditors.

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In 2017 alone, Smartisan Technology suffered a loss of 400 million yuan. Can the Smartisan smartphone be revived after the era of Luo Yonghao?

Which of the giants will take over Hammer Technology?

Regarding the rumors about the merger of Hammer and 360 mobile phones, 360 Chairman Zhou Hongyi has already refuted the rumor, and he also denied that Luo Yonghao went to the 360 ​​building to meet Zhou Hongyi privately.

Will Alibaba take over Smartisan Technology? This story has to start from 2016.

2016 was an extremely extraordinary year for Luo Yonghao, 44 ​​years old. In that year, Samsung Note7, the world's number one mobile phone, exploded, and Xiaomi, the originator of Internet mobile phones, lost its first place and was surpassed by Huawei, OV, which had strong offline channels.

This year, the supply chain crisis was fully exposed, and Zhongtianxin, the foundry of Smartisan T2, went bankrupt. Although Luo Yonghao finally started to "make money" by teaching English part-time, it still could not make up for the loss of mobile phones. Although Smartisan Technology transferred its equity to Alibaba, it still had a hard time facing the asset-heavy mobile phone supply chain.

At that time, the entire mobile phone industry was generally short of money. On the one hand, the LeEco mobile phone crisis began to emerge, and a large number of mid- and upper-stream suppliers were involved. The financial pressure made these suppliers more cautious, and most of the cooperation that could be deferred payment was changed to cash payment. Second- and third-tier mobile phone brands, including Hammer, did not have much capital reserves and were more affected. On the other hand, the deterioration of the industry's operating environment made banks more "reluctant to lend", and overall loans to the mobile phone manufacturing industry shrank.

In the context of tight financing in the entire industry, second- and third-tier mobile phone brands like Hammer have limited say in front of suppliers and banks. In a public occasion, Qiyingmen talked about Luo Yonghao with a teacher who also graduated from New Oriental English. This person thought that Luo Yonghao was very passionate and demanding about technology, but he over-consumed his own brand in the early stage, which made investors cautious. Financial institutions did not lend money to Luo Yonghao. In addition to the problem of Hammer's own capital chain, the entire mobile phone industry has too thin profits, high investment and low output, and banks' risk assessments will often fail.

There was no chance of getting a bank loan, the road to indirect financing was not smooth, and the road to direct financing was also bumpy. Alibaba had promised to invest in Smartisan Technology, but the negotiations dragged on for several months and it suddenly announced that it would abandon the investment.

In 2017, Zheng Gang, the founding partner of Zihui Ventures, a former investor of Smartisan Technology, recounted the difficulties Smartisan faced in raising funds in his WeChat Moments, and complained that Alibaba’s delayed funding almost killed Smartisan. Zheng Gang said, “Alibaba almost killed us!! We knew that a startup company couldn’t afford to delay, but we worked on it for half a year and finally said no! So amazing! Damn! If it wasn’t for Zihui’s persistence, how could you have made $1 billion on Momo!!”

Although Smartisan's Bullet SMS later supported Alipay, some media commented that Luo Yonghao approached Alibaba in order to jointly deal with Ma Huateng. However, after the previous unpleasant cooperation, will Alibaba "take over" Smartisan again? It is reported that Smartisan has not reached an agreement with Baidu and Huawei, and the negotiations with Alibaba are stalled due to price issues. As for Baidu and Tencent, they both tried to enter the mobile phone industry many years ago, but eventually gave up halfway due to genetic problems.

As for Smartisan and Xiaomi, the feud is even deeper. In July 2016, Luo Yonghao appeared at an event in Geek Park and publicly extended an olive branch to Lei Jun, saying that he should not slander Xiaomi and that he and Lei Jun had no feud. The media speculated that this might be a possibility of capital operation, although a few years ago, there were rumors that Lei Jun wanted to invest in Smartisan Technology but was rejected by Luo Yonghao.

But so far, Xiaomi is planning its Internet transformation after its listing, and there is no indication that Xiaomi is likely to invest in another mobile phone manufacturer.

Smartisan Technology has not been sentenced to death

Unlike Gionee, which was declared bankrupt, Luo Yonghao has not yet developed a gambling habit, but is obsessed with products. Moreover, there have been many rebounds in history.

Since Hammer was short of money and desperate, all kinds of rumors seemed possible. I remember that in September 2016, Hammer's net assets were only 200,000 yuan. From the T2 to the M series, Luo Yonghao repeatedly faced financial constraints - this time was even worse. Luo Yonghao later recalled, "We almost went bankrupt and once faced the dilemma of not being able to pay salaries."

Five years ago, passionate Luo Yonghao smashed a Siemens refrigerator, a global brand with 161 years of history, with a hammer, and became famous overnight. As a rights defender, Luo Yonghao's tough guy image shines.

Five years later, in 2016, the most valuable asset in the hands of Hammer, which was founded only four years ago, is probably Luo Yonghao's face. If he fails to deliver on his promises to the supply chain and consumers, Luo Yonghao will not only face a financial crisis, but may also face a credibility crisis similar to that of Jia Yueting. If a person loses money, he can earn it again, but if he loses his credibility, he may never recover.

This year, in the media's lens, whether at the airport or the mobile phone supplier's park, the once rebellious and eloquent crosstalk artist Lao Luo is either walking with a hunched back or frowning...

There is a joke circulating among the media: When Luo was in dire need of money, the calls he received were either from people urging him to deliver goods or asking for payment. Even the scammers who used to sell him insurance and personal loans blocked him. Therefore, Luo always thought that the Hammer phone was a green phone and there was no harassing call.

Gradually, people began to forget Lao Luo.

After being silent for half a year, Lao Luo suddenly became rich!

When God closed a door, he also opened a window for Luo Yonghao. Just when the media was about to put Hammer on the death list in 2017, Luo Yonghao suddenly started to speak out.

At 19:30 on May 9, 2017, the Smartisan Nut Pro was launched in Shenzhen, China. Although many media were not invited, it was still praised by mainstream media as "the most reliable new product launch conference of Smartisan Technology."

At the press conference, Luo Yonghao, who was always arrogant, put aside his arrogant attitude and learned to be courteous and humble. He said, "The first thing to thank for the success of Nut Pro is JD.com... Since Smartisan Technology first released a new product in 2012, this is the first time that Nut Pro has achieved sufficient supply."

In 2017, the Hammer smartphone was promoted to the “dark horse” camp. With its low price, main feelings and unique personalized design, it reversed its development situation and gained many “Hammer fans”.

Public data shows that the supply of Nut Pro has doubled to tripled. From its launch in May 2017 to September of that year, Nut Pro sales have exceeded 1 million units. Hammer finally achieved satisfactory sales and "recovered", and in August 2017 announced that it had received 1 billion yuan in financing led by the Sichuan Provincial Government. Luo Yonghao and his Hammer finally achieved a V-shaped reversal.

In Luo Yonghao's words, Smartisan Technology almost went bankrupt in 2016, and at best it made a comeback in 2017, and it will become a big success in 2018...

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long. According to the “Smartisan Life and Death Crisis” published by NetEase Technology, Smartisan’s monthly payments were getting less and less, and were not enough to cover employee expenses. With layoffs, broken capital chains, and unsalable products, Smartisan Technology has actually started a company-wide layoff plan. “The first wave was mainly in R&D and supply chain, followed by marketing. The third wave of layoffs has also begun, and only 40% of the staff will be left in the end.”

Some netizens revealed that dozens of people held up banners reading "Smartisan, give me back my hard-earned money" under the Smartisan Technology's Beijing office building. Smartisan Technology has not yet responded to this.

Public data shows that Smartisan Technology has been in a state of loss from 2012 to 2016. In 2015, it lost 462 million yuan, in the first half of 2016, it lost 192 million yuan, and in the whole year, it had a net loss of 428 million yuan. The amazing thing is that Smartisan Technology has been established for more than 6 years, and has been rumored to be closed down and acquired many times, and has been constantly exposed to capital chain crises.

But every time, Smartisan Technology has "survived". In the past six years, Smartisan Technology has incubated projects such as VR, air purifiers, TNT, cloud office, and Bullet SMS. Will it encounter a new "buyer" again this time? We will continue to pay attention to this.