Chapter 191 Meizu CEO Xie Jingxing

If the 'bet-repurchase agreement' is a shackle, then the shareholders' veto power, board seats and financial audit rights are what really concern Meizu's actual control.

Huang Zhang attached great importance to this point and had imagined the possible bargaining space many times during the negotiation process, so Bai Yongxiang reacted strongly.

Just like the 'three choices' solution proposed by Xie Jingxing, everyone has to compromise and give in, but how to give in is very particular.

According to the general framework of a company's business charter, for investors, the powers of the board of directors and the shareholders' meeting overlap, so they only need to control one of them.

There is no need to discuss the financial audit right separately, as it is regulated in both the shareholders' meeting and the bet-back repurchase agreement.

The so-called financial auditing rights that Ji Gang wants are obviously for the daily management rights, and this right must not be given.

"Considering your shareholding ratio, we can give you the veto power in the shareholders' meeting, but we don't want to make things too complicated. We hope you can sign a 'joint action agreement'." Bai Yongxiang said lightly.

"Mr. Huang has absolute control over the company. As a minority shareholder, we cannot stop him from doing anything he wants to do, which may include circumventing certain operations in the VAM agreement."

Ji Gang frowned: "If Alibaba and Taihe share the veto power at the shareholders' meeting, and Taihe holds a higher proportion of shares than Alibaba, Alibaba will be equivalent to having nothing and still be unable to guarantee its own rights and interests."

"You can make regulations in the company's articles of association, and each of you will have 50% of the voting rights with a veto power." Bai Yongxiang couldn't help but blushing after saying this.

The corner of Ji Gang's mouth twitched. This means that in the future, whenever there is a vote on important issues at the shareholders' meeting, Alibaba will need to fight with Taihe first. The two companies will check and balance each other, and as long as they cannot reach an agreement, they will have to listen to Huang Zhang.

You old man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, you are playing this trick on me, do you really think that you grew up eating grass?!
So let’s talk about financial audit rights.

He immediately rolled up his sleeves and wanted to have a good talk. Shen Xin coughed lightly and prepared to join the battle.

Xie Jingxing suddenly spoke up: "This is too troublesome. Taihe will not make too many demands at the shareholders' meeting. I will join the board of directors."

"It's a bit troublesome. Let's join the board of directors as well."

Ji Gang caught up with Xie Jingxing's thoughts instantly, and looked at him with eyes full of wisdom, and everything was said without words.

Bai Yongxiang opened his mouth but no sound came out. The situation that Huang Zhang personally was most unwilling to accept was that both Taihe and Alibaba joined the board of directors.

With five seats on the board of directors, two are taken up by investors plus him, leaving two seats that can only be given to senior executives.

No matter who it is given to, as long as any one person leans towards the investor, the actual control at the board level will be out of control.

But from Bai Yongxiang's personal perspective, as a member of the board of directors with a "sacred" voting right, his voice within the company is naturally much higher.

The atmosphere was a bit tense, and Li Nan stepped up to respond: "To join the board of directors, you must participate in the daily operations of the company. You are all investors, running around for projects all over the world, and I can't even find you to sign."

He has little experience and there is no need for him to be considered for a seat on the board.

"The real estate agent just recommended a house to me, which is a ten-minute walk from our company."

Xie Jingxing pushed his phone to the center of the negotiation table and looked at Ji Gang: "Taihe has several projects in Southeast Asia. It just so happens that our company has received financing and needs to revive. I will be stationed in Zhuhai for the next period of time and can take care of all aspects."

Good brothers are connected in heart and can reach a tacit understanding without saying much!

"I am indeed not as convenient as Mr. Xie, so we at Alibaba need a veto power at the shareholders' meeting."

Ji Gang looked embarrassed and pretended to give in. After a pause, he kindly suggested, "Besides, since Mr. Xie has the time and understands the product, why not just put him in the title of CEO? This way, everyone can relax and save a lot of communication costs."

With a tug and a pull, a miracle happens.

Alibaba holds a veto power when it joins the shareholders' meeting, which in turn gives it control over the appointment and removal of board members; Xie Jingxing joins the board of directors and will also serve as CEO.

Even though Taihe and Alibaba only hold a total of 15% of the shares, with the support of the "bet-repurchase agreement" and such a dazzling combination of powers, they have the capital to confront Huang Zhang head-on.

On the contrary, Ali + Huang Zhang can kill Xie Jingxing, and Xie Jingxing + Huang Zhang can also crush Ali, and the three parties reach a balance, which is the case with "Republic".

The mobile phone screen lying quietly on the negotiation table was dimly lit, and several sets of carefully selected real estate information were particularly dazzling. Bai Yongxiang and Li Nan were speechless for a long time.

Huang Zhang doesn't want absolute fairness and justice.

The negotiations reached a deadlock and ended at 12:30 a.m. without any results.

The night is long. Under the same starry sky, some people drink and admire the moon while others chat and have secret talks.

The next day, Xie Jingxing was no longer at the negotiation table. Huang Zhang sat in the main seat with a solemn expression. Ji Gang and Bai Yongxiang looked haggard as they did not sleep well last night.

Shen Xin was full of energy and took up the banner. His style was gentle yet firm, and he refused to give in. He calculated on the spot how much it would cost for the company to replace a batch of office chairs, summarized the proportion of investment funds used, and aimed at the financial audit authority.

Huang Zhang was not good at speaking and was clumsily defending and attacking. He smoked two packs of cigarettes but made no progress.

On the third day, he went home to water the flowers, leaving Li Nan to take over the negotiation task, with Bai Yongxiang assisting him. The situation changed subtly.

On the fifth day, Shen Xin and Ji Gang led both teams to withdraw, and the negotiations were on the verge of collapse.

…………

That afternoon, Huang Zhang walked into his spacious office on the top floor of the Meizu Building with a stack of manuscript paper in his hand.

Xie Jingxing had been waiting for a long time. He was wearing a pair of sneakers from a niche fashion brand with a strong sense of design, and a white short-sleeved shirt with an elephant logo printed on it. He looked casual and had a bit of an artistic tone.

"Did you draw this?"

Huang Zhang had no interest in appreciating it and threw the manuscript paper onto the coffee table.

Xie Jingxing recalled: "Speaking of which, I also have an artistic dream... Look at the clothes I'm wearing. They were given to me by a local animal protection charity when I went to Southeast Asia to sketch..."

"Don't talk nonsense to me. I'm asking if you drew this?" Huang Zhang interrupted impatiently.

Xie Jingxing asked back: "How is it, is it okay?"

“It’s ugly.”

Huang Zhang gave his evaluation, then sat down, lit a cigarette, and stared at him with the same dead fish eyes as Xu Sanduo.

"This is the mainstream market trend in ten years. If you think it's ugly, work hard to change it."

Xie Jingxing shrugged, spread out the sketches on the coffee table, and held them up one by one: "This is Apple, this is Samsung, and this is Huawei."

Huang Zhang did not comment. In the eyes of a top product manager like him, no matter how the front of the phone changes, it is just a screen and cannot be moved. No matter how many designs are made, there is only the back.

In the dozen or so design drawings that Xie Jingxing drew, all of them had no physical buttons on the front of the phone, and the ugly bezels and the bangs-like camera above the screen were unsightly.

The camera bump on the back is either a disc or in the upper left corner. Two cameras are the starting point, and three cameras with a flashlight are standard. It's ugly, but the technological updates and market concepts hidden behind the exterior design are very beautiful.

If you want to achieve a full screen, solving video face recognition or under-screen fingerprint is a prerequisite.

The bulge in the camera proves that mobile phone manufacturers have reached the level of professional cameras. The large screen and unified type-c interface vaguely show the direction of market integration and mobile phone hardware interoperability.

It must be admitted that Xie Jingxing is indeed very talented. Putting aside his identity as an investor, he used these design drawings as his resume for the Meizu interview, which at least matched him with the position of product manager.

The more this happened, the more confused and angry Huang Zhang became. He felt like he had been deceived.

They clearly agreed to cooperate to check and balance Alibaba, but ended up stabbing each other in the back at the negotiation table.

This puts him in a dilemma. Internally, he has to appease Bai Yongxiang, who aspires to a position on the board of directors, and externally, he has to maintain a fragile cooperative relationship with Alibaba.

The tripartite joint investment intention agreement was signed a month ago, which means that it is impossible to ask Alibaba and Taihe to leave immediately.

It will take another month or two to find a new investor after the letter of intent expires, and considering various complex factors, Meizu is really on the verge of collapse.

"Why do the suppliers of all Meizu's past products, including the two currently under development, keep changing?"

Xie Jingxing put down the manuscript and asked, "Take chips as an example. Samsung and MediaTek are mixed. As far as I know, Qualcomm's chips are now the mainstream choice in the market."

"Qualcomm's terms are unfair. They bundle all their technology patents and chips together for sale. We don't need some of their technologies." Huang Zhang said in a powerful and vigorous voice.

Xie Jingxing sighed: "So Xiaomi is willing to be a dog and use Qualcomm's full chip solution. It has achieved the ultimate supply chain and shipped 1800 million units a year."

"Meizu cooperated with Samsung when it was making MP3 players in its early days. It was easier for us to understand their technology, which is reflected in our products. Our designs are the most advanced!"

Huang Zhang's eyes were filled with electromagnetic waves, ready to shoot to death this bastard who was bringing up all sorts of issues.

Xie Jingxing crossed his legs and said, "Samsung's mobile phone business is strong. If one day Meizu designs a product that can threaten Samsung's mobile phones, will it still honestly supply chips to Meizu?"

"So we maintain close cooperation with MediaTek. Yes, their chips are not competitive enough at the moment, but they are fully capable of meeting the daily use of mobile phones. There is no need to use Qualcomm and Samsung chips."

Huang Zhang confidently said: "Meizu is the only mobile phone manufacturer that does not rely on Qualcomm to grow. MediaTek is the same as us in the chip field. We are confident that we can grow together with them!"

"Growth is bullshit!"

Xie Jingxing raised his voice: "Let me tell you, Huang Zhang, I have bought dozens of luxury cars since I was a child, and I have never used most of the extreme functions that car manufacturers boasted to me about in my daily driving."

“This doesn’t mean it won’t affect my spending decisions, because I can live without it, but you can’t live without it!”

He slapped the armrest of the sofa and emphasized: "No matter if they are poor or rich, all consumers behave like this when given a choice. If you don't believe me, go do some market research."

"You have your opinion, and I have my attitude!" Huang Zhang tried to maintain his momentum.

"OK? You mean attitude, right? My attitude is that I must be on the board of directors and serve as CEO."

Xie Jingxing sneered and said sarcastically: "It's like you put MediaTek's chip in a flagship phone and sell it for 2000 yuan, and MediaTek sells the same chip to Xiaomi for profit and installs it in the 1000 yuan Redmi phone."

"Stop staring at me with your dead fish eyes. Do you think MediaTek can't do something like this? Before the negotiation, did you also think I couldn't do what I'm doing now?"

He snatched the cigarette box from Huang Zhang, lit a cigarette and took a deep breath: "You are a focused person, brother, I can't bear to see you waste your talent on dealing with people who are sinister because of their interests."

"You focused on product design, while I took my unfulfilled artistic dream and moved forward."

He spoke sincerely, patting his chest loudly: "I am enough. I will deal with the profit calculations. No one can take advantage of us. In three years, every penny dropped from the sky in the mobile phone industry will have to be named Huang!"

Xie Jingxing almost said, "I will protect your smile." Faced with such a touching confession, Huang Zhang remained silent.

After a long while, he asked cautiously, "How do you want to solve the chip problem?"

"First, you have to be a dog for Qualcomm. It's not shameful to kneel down. With the current shipment volume of Meizu's mobile phones, you have to find the right way to kneel down to them."

Xie Jing Xing was very relieved: "You are so noble and stubborn that you have learned not to bend, so I will do this kind of thing. It's just a matter of spending a little more money. If it doesn't work, I will risk my reputation and raise billions of financing."

Qualcomm currently dominates the entire domestic mobile phone market. Many brands, including Xiaomi and Huawei, have to pay Qualcomm 5% of the patent royalties based on the sales price for every mobile phone sold.

There is also a one-time entry fee and platform fee.

In front of Taiwan, domestic mobile phone manufacturers are fighting each other to the death, raising their own talents to rush overseas and dumping their products all over the world. Behind the scenes, Qualcomm takes more than 200 billion US dollars in profits from the domestic market a year, with patent revenue accounting for the bulk of it.

Huang Zhang is stubborn and resolute, but the real reason is that Meizu has no money. With an annual shipment volume of 200 to 300 million units, it has no bargaining power with Qualcomm and cannot afford the expensive patent fees.

Lei Jun has money, ability and resources, which are like amplifiers that can easily multiply all his advantages.

As soon as you start a business, you can negotiate a binding cooperation with Qualcomm, and a stable and powerful supply chain will be created.

"So you still have to be Qualcomm's dog?"

Huang Zhang inexplicably lost interest and returned to the starting point. The story that happened in this office four years ago gradually merged with the present.

But at this moment, the handsome man who was too young in the field of vision had a smile on his face, and a flash of madness and cruelty passed by, and then he returned to his gentleness and indifference.

"We make our own chips." Xie Jingxing said softly.

Huang Zhang suddenly looked up and jumped up from the sofa, with cigarette ashes flying all over the place. He hunched over, covering his burned fingers, grimacing and gasping for air.

"I kneel down all the time, and there are still a lot of articles online calling me a hypocrite, but the number of WhatsApp users has exceeded 3.2 million."

Xie Jingxing picked up the teacup and poured the water. The cigarette butt was extinguished with a "hiss", and a faint white smoke floated on the carpet.

"One billion, ten billion dollars, it can always be done."

He pursed his lips, as if to himself, "It doesn't matter if you kneel down, as long as you can stand up, you will stand up eventually. When we stand up again, it will be their turn to crawl and tremble."

The revenge of nine generations can still be avenged.

——Huang Zhang didn’t think of this sentence.

He admits that he is paranoid, and now someone has interpreted this word more perfectly, not only for Qualcomm, but also for Meizu.

"During your three-year term, you must achieve 50% of Xiaomi's shipments, otherwise you will be laid off." Huang Zhang made a difficult decision.

If he refuses, he will feel more helpless and resentful towards Xie Jingxing than towards Lei Jun, and he will not have another chance to make a decision.

(End of this chapter)