Successfully cut ties! Huawei sells off its "Wenjie" trademark at an ultra-low price of RMB 2.5 billion, and its partners are finally relieved

Whose car is it? Seres? Huawei or AITO?

Huawei has always claimed that it does not manufacture cars, but in fact all the core components of its models come from Huawei. To a certain extent, SERES has become Huawei's OEM factory.

For consumers who recognize the Huawei brand, Wenjie is Huawei's car. No matter how Huawei and SERES deny it, "Huawei" is the main reason why Wenjie is so popular.

A recent news seems to have verified the outside world's speculation. On July 2, SERES issued an announcement stating that it would acquire 919 text and graphic trademarks such as "Wenjie" from Huawei and its affiliates for 2.5 billion yuan, as well as 44 design patents.

This news “confirms” one thing: the “Wenjie” trademark is indeed in the hands of Huawei.

The "Wenjie" trademark was first registered by a company called "Beijing Yongan" in February 2021 and was transferred to Huawei in June 2023. It was only in Huawei's hands for a little over a year until it was sold to SERES this time.

This fast-forwarding and fast-forwarding approach to trademarks is not Huawei's style. But after a deeper look, we can see that Huawei is a bit impatient to distance itself from the industry as soon as possible.

According to the official evaluation of SERES, the intangible assets related to the "Wenjie" trademark held by Huawei are worth 10.2 billion yuan, and 2.5 billion yuan is definitely a bargain. If this happened in a state-owned enterprise, it would definitely be accused of losing state-owned assets. Fortunately, Huawei is flexible and does not have these restrictions.

In fact, even this 10 billion valuation is clearly underestimated. As of the close of July 8, the total market value of Seres reached 130.7 billion yuan. In comparison, the total market value of SAIC Group, which has been struggling for decades, is only 154.9 billion yuan.

In addition, Seres is still the leading stock in the A-share market. On June 25, due to rumors of large institutions reducing their holdings, Seres' stock price plummeted by 10%, directly bringing down the entire auto sector and even the broader market. The value Huawei brought to Seres far exceeded the 10.2 billion yuan valuation.

In addition to selling the "Wenjie" trademark at a low price, Huawei also transferred the "Xiangjie" trademark to BAIC in May this year and the "Zhijie" trademark to Chery in early June. So far, the relationship between Huawei and Hongmeng Zhixing's models has finally been sorted out.

Interestingly, after Huawei announced the sale of the "Wenjie" trademark, Changan Automobile Chairman Zhu Huarong released news on July 3, claiming that the establishment of a joint venture with Huawei was progressing in an orderly manner, as if he was deliberately cooperating with Huawei's actions.

On November 25, 2023, Changan Automobile and Huawei signed a "Memorandum of Investment Cooperation" to establish a joint venture; in January 2024, Huawei completed the registration of the new company and named it "Yinwang". Huawei's intelligent driving solutions, smart cockpits, digital platforms, smart car cloud, AR-HUD, smart headlights and other technical assets will all be incorporated into the company.

Announcements from both parties showed that Changan and Huawei will sign the final transaction documents no later than August 31, but until early June, the joint venture between the two parties had not been finalized; and in the past few months, Changan Automobile Chairman Zhu Huarong has repeatedly questioned Huawei's smart car selection model in public, and the outside world has speculated whether the cooperation between Changan and Huawei has changed.

After Huawei sold the "Wenjie" trademark, Zhu Huarong quickly came out to express his position. It seems that Huawei's strategy has worked.

In the past two years, the sales of Huawei have been rising steadily, reaching 44,000 in June. This has caused a lot of arguments, and there are many car companies and car industry leaders who have quarreled with Huawei, but even if they quarrel, few people can deny Huawei's technology.

A car company boss may not like Huawei's style, but he cannot deny Huawei's core technology. There are countless car companies in the industry that claim to be able to independently develop, but the only two that can truly achieve a gap in technology are BYD and Huawei.

The grand strategy "decided" by Huawei's head Ren Zhengfei is not to build cars. However, because of the story of not building mobile phones but building a world-leading company, Huawei, which does not build cars, has been facing a big problem since the day it was born: how to convince partners that it will never build cars.

As the saying goes, "When a knife is in hand, murderous intent arises." When a manufacturer can make all the core components, it is often difficult to suppress the urge to make cars themselves.

Within Huawei, Yu Chengdong is the representative of the "car-making faction".

In addition, Huawei's past aggressive style has also made its partners worried. If Huawei enters the field of vehicle manufacturing, its partners will face tremendous pressure.

Do you think Huawei is a computer manufacturer? I'm afraid few people think so, but in the first quarter of 2024, Huawei accounted for 12% of the PC market, second only to Lenovo.

The computer business is just a "wilderness" business for Huawei, but it has achieved such success. New energy vehicles are a strategic industry. If Huawei starts making cars, many partners will instantly become competitors, and Huawei will feel unprecedented pressure to defeat the top.

Therefore, Huawei's main purpose in selling the "Wenjie" trademark is to reassure its partners.

Partners suspected that Huawei had intentions of building cars. Now that Huawei has even sold its trademark and has truly become a parts supplier like Continental and Bosch, partners should have nothing to say, right?

In fact, Huawei has no choice but to make such a choice. Yu Chengdong once said that Huawei has invested heavily in the field of smart cars and suffered tens of billions of losses. Now that it has decided not to build cars, it must find more partners to "cash in" on its core technologies.

In addition, Huawei's core technologies must be put into use as soon as possible and solve problems in practice in order to be continuously updated, which also requires the support of partners. Any technology will be difficult to sustain without "quantity" support, and Huawei, which has a technical background, knows this best.

So far, there are more than a dozen brands that have adopted Huawei's core components and core technologies. According to Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, more than 30 car models will be equipped with Huawei's advanced intelligent driving next year.

This seems to prove that the core components and solutions provided by Huawei are indeed very attractive. As long as Huawei is determined not to build cars and not compete with its partners for food, it will gain a large number of partners. China's new energy vehicle industry does need complete vehicle manufacturers such as BYD and Geely, but it also needs more manufacturers such as CATL and Huawei that can empower car companies, so that they can make progress together.

Judging from the statement made by Zhu Huarong, Chairman of Changan Automobile, the partners seem to have seen Huawei’s sincerity.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.