Reborn Entrepreneurial Giant.

Chapter 207 Shopee UK

"Isn't this a big step?" Wu Ping was a little dissatisfied with Qu Li's radicalness. He acquired Infineon's wireless communications department with a revenue of nearly 10 billion euros. They are a typical snake swallowing elephant. They are a small company, can they digest it? This kind of giant?

“Everything you do has risks, it just depends on whether it’s worth it.”

“My idea is to acquire first, control costs and the size of the European division through layoffs, and then learn from Infineon’s advanced experience and technology to develop domestically. Under the influence of one another, I will complete control of this company in about five years. …”

“I think it’s feasible!” Spreadtrum President Li Liyou supported Qu Li’s idea

"Then it's up to you, I will fully cooperate." Wu Ping was gradually marginalized, and Li Liyou became the suitable candidate for the next CEO of Spreadtrum in Qu Li's heart.

As the founder of Spreadtrum, Weizhi CEO Chen Tong did not express any opinions and acquiesced to Qu Li's transformation plan for Spreadtrum.

"Where are Freescale and Texas Instruments?"

"Just wait a minute. Infineon takes priority. The United States is very wary of China's development in the high-tech field. Don't let Texas Instruments and Freescale get into trouble."

If these two companies are determined to sell the baseband chip business, there is a high probability that Spreadtrum will prevent Spreadtrum from acquiring the German company. This will require a time lag to implement the matter before they can react.

"What about Infineon?"

"We use cash and stock to acquire Infineon's wireless communications division, and then supplement its cash shortage through private placement, which should allow them to escape from bankruptcy."

"So the key is price."

"Infineon's share price will definitely fall below 1 euro, and the initiative is in our hands."

"I'm afraid they need a lot of funds."

"I heard that Andrew from Xiangjiang Investment is planning to raise funds on Wall Street. What about us?"

This time, it made 5 million euros in the Volkswagen Group in less than a week, but it still lacked a little capital to rescue Infineon.

"No matter what, Infineon will shift its focus to automotive electronics..."

"I think they will do this. Infineon's current CEO Bauer was promoted from the automotive electronics department. He..."

Although Qu Li and the others have not come into contact with Infineon, they already have a full understanding of the company by collecting information from public information.Many things are doomed at this time, and Infineon, which is about to go bankrupt, does not have many options.

"We seek a seat on the board of directors of Infineon, but we don't need a controlling stake. Will Mr. Wu condescend to work for the Vision Fund..." Qu Li meant implicitly. In fact, he wanted him to leave Spreadtrum and join Vision Fund, and then push him to become a member of Infineon. of board members.

"Of course!" This is a very good choice

Qu Li would not participate in the negotiations with Infineon. He did not want to be too closely tied to the Vision Fund, so he went to the headquarters of T-mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, and had a chat with the CEO to maintain a good cooperative relationship between the two parties. Apple chooses Vodafone in Europe.

Honor G2 has started to be shipped to operators around the world. During this return visit, Qu Li collected some feedback and made improvements in future cooperation.

As a start-up, Honor has many problems, including weak after-sales service. Fortunately, it has been able to accumulate user favorability through replacement and repairs.

Honor's European headquarters is in Ireland mainly for tax avoidance reasons. Germany has the largest number of employees, mainly responsible for sales and service (operators).This visit to T-mobile was not part of the plan. I just wanted to inspect the European e-commerce market.

Britain, France and Germany account for 70% of the entire European e-commerce market. British people like online shopping the most. From a company level, Amazon is the undisputed leader. It has established a British website and a German website, and its market share ranks first.

Qu Li soon left Germany and flew to England. Shopee's European headquarters is still in Ireland, and Amazon's European headquarters is in Luxembourg.The difference is that neither Honor nor Jumei have strong needs for tax avoidance, because these two companies have been recognized as high-tech technology enterprises and only need to pay corporate income tax at a preferential tax rate of 15%.

Riyue Fenghua, which was supposed to be a traditional enterprise, was also recognized as a high-tech enterprise because of its e-commerce business. Tax incentives are a powerful tool to promote Jumei's growth.

Of course, Shopee does not have such good treatment in Europe and the United States, so tax avoidance is necessary. In the United States, it uses conventional means such as R&D investment to avoid taxes. In the EU, it can use the Irish Dutch sandwich model.

Of course, tax avoidance is just a detail. If you can't open the market in Europe and make money, tax avoidance will become a joke.So Shopee is actually registered in Ireland and is headquartered in London. The talent advantage here is more obvious and there are more Facebook users.

I accidentally revealed that along the development path of Facebook, the four countries of Britain, France, Spain and Italy have more users and faster growth, avoiding Germany, Amazon’s central sphere of influence on the European continent.

"Our strategy in the UK is the same as in the United States, attracting users through low-price group buying activities on Facebook..." Brady also came to the British platform. This is their first international station and is very popular.

Shopee's strategy is to focus on self-operated and private brands, supplemented by third-party "white label" products, to provide cost-effective products without brand premiums. Because it has to be purchased in advance, there is great pressure on funds and inventory. Fortunately, there is room for financing. , and there is no shortage of foreign exchange in the country, and there is no bottleneck in Yangcheng.

Qu Li looked at the London company. Both Jumei and Amazon have a culture of frugality. Qu Li never even stayed in a five-star hotel. The rent and decoration costs of the London company seemed not high, and they had the style of a start-up company.

Well, although Jumei is listed on the market, in terms of size, it is really a start-up company and cannot afford luxury.Moreover, Shopee will not blindly pursue scale in the early stage. The first task is to achieve breakeven. Survival is the most important. It is difficult for vertical e-commerce to survive in China, but there seems to be a lot of room for survival in Europe and the United States.

Qu Li mainly learned about the supply chain and logistics distribution issues, including the customs clearance procedures in EU countries. It is really difficult for a small company to sell Chinese goods to Europe. Fortunately, there is a subprime mortgage crisis, and a large number of The foreign trade company went bankrupt, and Shopee’s job was attractive enough.

Qu Li participated in the interview to find out whether he was a racist or hostile to the Chinese government. This was something he would never allow. However, due to the long-term negative publicity in the media, there is no shortage of such people in European and American society.

After staying in the UK for nearly a week, I participated in interviews with hundreds of people, and finally established the framework of Shopee UK Company. Among them, more than one-third were Chinese mid-level and senior managers arranged from China and recruited locally who can speak Mandarin. Shopee from the United States arranged One-third, one-third are from the EU, and the average age is no more than 35 years old.

The personnel were arranged, and before they were familiar with the work, Qu Li flew to the United States. Honor G2 will be officially sold in T-mobile stores. Android 1.0 will be released for the first time. Google Android and Honor are both being tested.