Understanding the Infernal Affairs of Coolpad, 360, and LeTV

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Coolpad Group announced that the company's board of directors was informed by the controlling shareholder that it would sell 18% of its shares to a subsidiary of LeTV. After the transaction was completed, LeTV spent 2.18 billion yuan to acquire a stake in Coolpad, accounting for 18% of the shares and becoming the second largest shareholder of Coolpad.

Judging from the behavior of Zhou Hongyi, the founder of Coolpad's partner Qihoo 360, Zhou Hongyi was not aware of LeEco's investment in Coolpad. On the evening of June 28, Zhou Hongyi posted a message on WeChat Moments: "Whoever stabs me in the back and tries to screw me, my principle is to fuck him back" with a picture of a volley of bullets. Jiang Chao, who was certified as the executive director of Coolpad Group by Weibo, posted a very fierce Weibo post and attached a screenshot of Zhou Hongyi's Moments, but the post was quickly deleted.

At present, Jiang Chao's latest Weibo post reads, "I have never fought alone, because I am one of the hundreds of millions of losers. We must have the courage to fight against any dark forces. Even if I fall first one day, I will still be an outstanding representative of the losers and the backbone of the country."

So far, Coolpad, LeEco and 360 have been caught in the vortex of capital war, and neither 360 nor LeEco has issued any official announcement. So how do you view the capital war among the three companies?

Coolpad

In its transactions with 360 and LeTV, Coolpad divided the Coolpad Group into three parts, and two of the parts cooperated with Internet companies. This should be seen as Coolpad's self-rescue behavior after facing the Internet boom and the end of the operator's bundling sales strategy.

Through cooperation with 360 and LeTV, the company can inject fresh Internet blood, become more dynamic and combat-ready. This also serves as a warning to traditional mobile phone companies and hardware companies, such as TCL, Haier, Hisense, etc. These companies may need to cooperate with Internet companies to save themselves in order to survive in the future war, otherwise they will face death.

LeTV

For LeTV, this investment is a very cost-effective deal. It only spent 2.18 billion yuan to acquire 18% of Coolpad's shares, while Coolpad's own shares were diluted to 20%, which means that LeTV may control Coolpad in the future.

Meanwhile, although LeTV phones have already been released, only tens of thousands of them are sold each time, indicating that LeTV has shortcomings in the supply chain. In addition, in order to enter overseas markets, the shortcomings in patents must also be made up. Coolpad has both supply chain advantages and patented technology, which is very beneficial to the development of LeTV phones. In addition, Coolpad still sells tens of millions of phones each year, which is conducive to the pre-installation of LeTV terminals.

In addition, LeTV's stock price has fallen by more than 40% in a row. Emergency investment in Coolpad will help stabilize the stock price. Judging from the closing on the 29th, Coolpad can continue to rise even when the broader market and ChiNext have been plummeting.

360

360 was undoubtedly the party that suffered the most in this transaction, because Zhou Hongyi spent US$454 million, or more than RMB 2.8 billion, to obtain 49.5% of the shares of Qihoo, while LeTV only spent RMB 2.18 billion to obtain 18% of Coolpad's shares and indirectly achieved controlling stake in Qihoo.

Obviously, Zhou Hongyi overpaid for this deal. However, 360 had no way to change the decision of Qihoo's parent company, nor did it have the right to interfere. So Zhou Hongyi made angry remarks in his WeChat Moments.

At the same time, this also means that 360 is still stepping up the integration of employees between Coolpad and 360 in the Qihoo team. When developing mobile phones, Coolpad released such a news of selling stocks that is not conducive to stabilizing the morale of the team. This will have a negative impact on the stability of Qihoo, new product development, and future marketing.

At the same time, 360 and LeTV are also direct competitors. Both adopt the approach of selling mobile phones through the Internet and both hope to provide free hardware and charge for services. Obviously, Qihoo is no longer the company that exclusively enjoys Coolpad's supply chain and patented technology, which is negative for 360.

But I believe Zhou Hongyi will not give up like this. Whether he will start a war or increase investment to control Qihoo is still unknown. However, as long as there is a well-coordinated team and better products, the market balance will tilt in this direction.