Chapter 2834 Strategic Monopoly

There is a competitive relationship between the mobile phone industries of China and South Korea, but when facing Qualcomm, they can always work together. Regardless of whether it was the early days of 4G or 5G, Qualcomm used its monopoly position in the fields of 4G communications and 5G communications to charge exorbitant patent fees. China and South Korea joined forces to fight against them.

In comparison, South Korea is stronger.

In fact, there is only one company in South Korea, which is Samsung.

But this one is enough.

It is enough to influence the decision-making of the Korean Fair Trade Commission and impose penalties on Qualcomm.

In the past few years, Qualcomm has been treading a tightrope in the European and American markets, but it has been walking steadily. Only in 2009, it was punished by the Korean authorities for monopoly and fined US$200 million... Of course, Samsung was behind this.

Since then, Samsung mobile phones have begun to try to cooperate with Qualcomm. With Qualcomm's full range of chips, Samsung's smartphones have steadily reached a higher level internationally.

Domestic mobile phone manufacturers lack such unique advantages.

Because many experts believe that punishing Qualcomm will lead to a worsening of the business environment. Isn't it prejudice to punish so many domestic monopolies but to punish a foreign company that has a marginal monopoly? Once such a social effect occurs, it will lead to a contraction of foreign investment in the country, causing a small loss but a big loss.

There is real basis for such worries.

Such as South Korea.

Foreign investment in the Korean market has been decreasing year after year. If foreign investment is gone and there is no money, what should we do? Then we can only rely on the large domestic chaebols to continuously invest in new projects, which will further intensify their monopoly.

Zhou Buqi became cautious. He really should be polite before fighting.

Go to the negotiating table with Qualcomm first.

Senior Sister Zhen Yu is in the United States and has already contacted Qualcomm.

I went to the company that morning. It happened to be evening in the United States, and Senior Sister Zhen Yu made an online video call.

Zhou Buqi quickly pushed Mai Feixue and Guan Nanqing in his arms under the table and hid them, and then said with a smile without changing his expression: "Senior sister, you and Aunt Xue don't have to deal with it. I will go to the United States soon. To put an end to Tesla’s delisting, the domestic side will not be involved for the time being.”

Senior Sister Zhen Yu had just taken a shower. She was bare-faced but her skin was well maintained. She held her 1-year-old daughter Mu Mu in her arms and said with a chuckle: "There should be no problem with Tesla, right? What's the specific plan?" It has come out, and I have raised US$270 million for this case.”

Zhou Buqi praised: "Senior sister, it was a wise decision to snatch you over. If I let you get married, I don't know how anxious I would be."

Zhen Yu pursed her lips and joked: "Robbing a common girl."

Zhou Buqi also has his own pride, "I don't even want it if it's given to me for free."

Zhen Yu was not good at flirting with him, so she turned to the topic of Qualcomm, "I contacted Qualcomm, it doesn't seem to be too good."

"What's wrong?"

"Abusing their monopoly market position is their usual style."

"No discussion?"

"Well..." Zhen Yu hesitated for a moment and said slowly, "I contacted Qualcomm's previous director, Mr. Hull, and he has left Qualcomm's board of directors because of disagreements with his ideas."

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows, "Is he also fighting against monopoly?"

Zhen Yu said softly: "Well, he does not support the current strategy. But along the way, Qualcomm has relied on its monopoly of intellectual property rights to continue to grow bigger and stronger. Especially in recent years, the mobile phone industry has developed , Qualcomm’s stock price has increased several times, and now the management has more say. The problems are there, and it is difficult to convince the public if there are objections.”

Over the past few years, a large number of mobile phone chip companies have gone bankrupt.

On the one hand, Qualcomm's products are more competitive.

On the one hand, Qualcomm holds the core patents of 3G communications and is abusing its market dominance to deliberately cause trouble for them.

This is very strategic.

Even if the United States and the European Union impose huge fines because of monopoly, so what?

All competitors are dead!

Qualcomm has become the most competitive chip manufacturer in the smartphone industry.

This huge strategic success has allowed Qualcomm's market value to increase by US$80 billion in three to four years. This is the meaning of playing monopoly to dominate the market. Even if you are fined, how much will the fine be? No matter how severe the EU's fine is, it will only amount to billions of dollars.

Even if the antitrust investigation is indeed established and a heavy fine is imposed, Qualcomm will still make a lot of money.

There may not be intentional connivance from the United States behind this, because judging from the results, most of the chip companies killed by Qualcomm were European companies. The main team of Asda's self-developed 4G chips is actually a European team, which comes from the European mobile phone chip industry that was crippled by Qualcomm.

As for industry reputation…

Qualcomm doesn't care!

Qualcomm is now controlled by professional managers, who are pursuing higher profits and higher stock prices. As for whether a bad reputation will lead to rebellion in the industry in the future, they don't care. They should get the immediate benefits first.

Zhou Buqi said: "Lei Jun told me before that Qualcomm is in crisis now. MediaTek is launching a new 4G mobile phone chip, which seems to be quite competitive. It has contacted many domestic mobile phone manufacturers. You can tell me about this Did they communicate?"

"I told you, but it didn't work." The daughter in Zhen Yu's arms might have been sleepy, so she turned to hand it over to the nanny beside her, and then started a serious video call, "Aren't there still domestic mobile phone manufacturers using MediaTek's 3G chips? ...Meizu was good when it first came out, but now it has no market. If the chip is not good, the product will not be competitive. They don’t think MediaTek can pose a threat, as far as I know.”

Zhou Buqi snorted, "Not necessarily."

Zhen Yu said: "No matter what the situation is, I think it is almost impossible for Qualcomm to change their strategy. This is related to the income of these professional managers. If you really give up the forced bundling sales strategy of Snapdragon chips you mentioned , which will increase strategic risks. Without the reverse licensing agreement, mobile phone manufacturers will definitely increase their efforts in self-research. In addition, with bundled sales, Qualcomm can create at least 500 million US dollars more in profits every year. Qualcomm’s current annual net profit is more than 4 billion US dollars. Once this strategy is abandoned, earnings will plummet, which will lead to a sharp drop in stock prices and the loss of management’s option income.”

There is an antitrust fine, and the fine is Qualcomm's money.

The stock price has fallen, the options are gone, and it is the management's personal economic interests that have been damaged.

People's hearts are selfish.

Of course, I care more about personal interests.

Zhou Buqi said: "I'm going to the United States this weekend. Please help me make an appointment with the president of Qualcomm."

Zhen Yu said softly: "I think you can make the next preparation. I don't think your meeting with him can produce any good results."

Zhou Buqi said decisively: "Then prepare, let's withdraw!"

"Withdraw?"

"If there is no agreement at the negotiation table, then all Qualcomm stocks held by Pluto Capital will be sold. Sell this part of the stock and buy graphics card companies such as Nvidia and AMD. Now artificial intelligence already has a The clear direction is the shift from CPU to GPU. In the next era, artificial intelligence will drive a qualitative leap for graphics card companies.”

"This..." Zhen Yu naturally had no doubts about his subsequent judgment, but this strategy seemed a bit unhuman, "Sell all Qualcomm's stocks? That's 3% of the shares!"

Zhou Buqi hummed: "If we can't reach an agreement, then I can only take the path of confrontation and push China and South Korea to join forces to build Qualcomm. By then, Qualcomm's stock price will definitely plummet. Once China and South Korea take action, Maybe there will be a knock-on effect in the EU. If you sell it quickly, you can still sell it at a high price.”

Zhen Yu was a little worried, "Will it be a bit radical?"

Zhou Buqi said: "That's it! If they don't give me face, I won't give them face either. Half of Qualcomm's mobile phone chip shipments go to the domestic market. If they dare to resist, domestic mobile phone manufacturers will defect to MediaTek. That’s the fatal blow. If Qualcomm is in the hands of professional managers, don’t think too highly of them. They don’t dare to take the risk of the stock price being cut in half.”