46 years old, Huang Zhang bid farewell to the rivers and lakes: officially sold the company

The rivers and lakes have not been there for a long time.

Until this Meizu officially sold -the investment community was informed that the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration released Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Xingji Times") to acquire Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. ("Meizu Technology") equity case Public announcement, 79.09% of the equity of the Xingji era, who was in charge of Li Shufu, entered Meizu.

After turning around, Huang Zhang failed to hold the Meizu who was founded.

Born in Meizhou, Guangdong, Huang Zhang, who did not graduate from high school in his early years, came to work in Shenzhen. At the beginning of the new century, he made the first bucket of gold with MP3. When the iPhone was just now, Huang Zhang led Meizu to the smartphone, and it was red. In the era when the cottage was rampant, Meizu stood out, and even before Lei Jun founded Xiaomi, he made a special trip to Zhuhai to ask Huang Zhang for advice.

However, the rivers and lakes of the mobile phone rose, and the heroes came out, and Meizu quietly fell off the team. Huang Zhang has been out of the mountain many times, but he did not have the ability to turn the tide. Floating, the rivers and lakes are no longer the familiar rivers and lakes. He finally made the last choice -let go.

One generation of domestic machine legends, sadness and curtain

Huang Zhang left the field, Li Shufu took over

More transaction details flow out--

Before the transaction, the founder of Meizu Huang Xiuzhang (Huang Zhang) and Taobao (China) Software Co., Ltd. ("Taobao China") held 49.08%and 27.23%of Zhuhai Meizu, respectively to jointly control Zhuhai Meizu. After the transaction is completed, Huang Xiuzhang's holdings of Zhuhai Meizu will be reduced to 9.79%. Taobao China will withdraw from the shareholding and control of Zhuhai Meizu. In the acquisition of Fang Xingji, 79.09%of Zhuhai Meizu will be held to obtain separate control of Zhuhai Meizu.

At this point, Huang Zhang officially bid farewell to Meizu actual controller, which also means that a generation of "mobile godfather" quietly curtain.

As the acquisition party of Meizu, the Xingji era was established in September 2021. The registered place is Hubei Province, China. The largest shareholder is Geely Group (Ningbo) Co., Ltd.. The controller is Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group.

In this regard, Meizu Technology has also made an official response: "The Astrology era led by Mr. Li Shufu has signed an agreement with Meizu Technology on strategic investment." This transaction still needs to perform the approval procedures of relevant regulatory agencies, and the transaction details are still negotiating. middle.

"Car Madman" Li Shufu bought Meizu to make mobile phones. In September 2021, the Astrology Age founded by Li Shufu and the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone signed a strategic cooperation agreement, formally announced that it would invest 10 billion yuan to specialize in the high -end mobile phone market.

At that time, Li Shufu explained the reasons why Geely created mobile phones: "Mobile phones are fast iterative portable terminals, which are applied carriers for electronic product market verification and software innovation. Part of the results are transferred to the application of the car to realize the close interaction of car and mobile phone software technology. "In his opinion, mobile phones can connect to the Internet and the satellite Internet to create a rich consumer scenario and strengthen the ecosystem. Chain, build a corporate moat.

As early as this year, there were rumors that Geely's mobile phone company was in contact with Meizu to negotiate acquisitions and was conducting due diligence. At that time, many Meizu fans expressed their concerns, "Meizu, which has a deep brand of family business and how to smooth the transition of the Age of Star in Geely, is a huge test."

You know, after investing in Ali, there was an olive branch that Meizu extended to the acquisition in the investment direction, but when he heard that he wanted to make the right to speak, the stubborn Huang Zhang first rejected it.

However, Geely has changed from rumors to reality. Many Meizu fans have a sigh of relief, "Meizu has both the beauty of Apple and the soul of Samsung, or a domestic mobile phone Huangpu Military Academy, and has a good reputation system. This wave, Geely earns."

Of course, it is more regret. "Sometimes a hero with blood is difficult to end well, and dreams will eventually be shattered." Witnessing Meizu's brilliant years, fans witnessed the scene of selling themselves. Many young people's first mobile phones may be Meizu.

"The most soul manufacturer of the Android camp is gone." It is right and wrong. Today Meizu is no longer the brand with faith, and its market share is at stake. "For the current Meizu, this may really be a good destination." Perhaps as most netizens said, the acquisition was considered a more decent ending.

Starting from MP3, creating "small and beautiful" Meizu

How can the godfather of the mobile phone be made in the past

Black, people talk about Huang Zhang again.

In 1976, Huang Zhang was born in a rural family in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. Although he had not been in college, he was extremely obsessed with electronic products. He had caused a sensation because of secretly dismantling the only TV in the village. At the age of 16, Huang Zhang took a hundred dollars in Shenzhen alone, worked as a managing worker at Yantian Port Pier during the day, and held a "home appliance maintenance" at night to secretly study.

Many VCDs came from the pier at the time. Occasionally, Huang Zhang unexpectedly received an appreciation of a manager of Singapore joint venture Aegean. He became a technician and has since entered the electronic consumption industry. In just a few years, Huang Zhang has grown all the way to the general manager of the company, leading the company to successfully transform and rely on MP3's reputation.

But the conflict quickly appeared. When Huang Zhang was about to invest in research and development, Singapore's major shareholders asked to increase advertising investment and get up quickly. In the eyes of Huang Zhang, the product should be spoken by technology and function, and there is no need to bombed by advertising. The opinions were left, and Huang Zhang was in a hurry and resigned and left. Later, Huang Zhang chose to start a business.

In 2003, Huang Zhang founded Meizu in Zhuhai, focusing on MP3 products. In June of the same year, Meizu's first MP3 was listening to the product, relying on excellent sound quality and high cost performance to obtain a large number of fans. At the most glorious time, in 2006, Meizu MP's sales over 1 billion years broke through 1 billion, becoming the first domestic MP3 brand, and it was swept by young people.

At that time, the company was smooth and smooth, but Huang Zhang smelled a crisis with a keen product -MP3 was about to be under the river. To this end, the company needs to find another product immediately to get rid of the dependence on MP3. At that time, on the other side of the ocean, Apple's founder Jobs appeared in a iPhone, which quickly caused the global mobile phone revolution. Seeing this direction, Huang Zhang quickly transformed and entered the field of smart phones.

There are many ways to make mobile phones at that time, such as the ready -made MediaTek solution, which is efficient and fast. But these methods do not conform to Huang Zhang's pursuit of perfection. As a result, he led the team to start the Meizu mobile phone independently. It took two years. In 2009, Meizu launched the first domestic large -screen full -screen smartphone -Meizu mobile phone M8. In just 5 months, sales have exceeded 500 million yuan, causing a sensation.

Picture Note: Meizu M8

After the first product won, Huang Zhang did not rush to launch new products. He has the ultimate pursuit of the product design. Every time he makes a new mobile phone, he has no hesitation to invest in manpower, material and financial resources, and polish it carefully. It took two years, Meizu was launching M9 late, entering the Android system.

In addition, Meizu also customized a mobile phone operating system based on the Android system -Flyme OS, once walking at the forefront of domestic mobile phones.

It was a grass -reckless era that belonged to the Chinese smartphone, and it was easy to make money. However, Huang Zhang's character was almost paranoid, and he had been pursuing quality and innovation. At the time of the cottage of the streets, it appeared to be "the chicken group". Meizu was once known as the apple of China, and Huang Zhang was also regarded as "China Jobs" by fans. Under the leadership of Huang Zhang, Meizu was labeled with "small and beautiful" labels in the industry with its unique design and boutique routes.

Huang Zhang is undoubtedly an excellent product manager. Although he is not good at doing marketing, he is willing to invest a lot of energy at the Meizu Forum. Since 2003, Huang Zhang has often published posts with the ID of "J.Wong". It has been soaked in the forum four hours a day. Sometimes he is still posting at night at night. He often discusses technical issues and fans all night.

At that time, Meizu's fans had a common name- "Meiyou", which was no less enthusiastic than the fruit powder at that time. There is an interesting story circulating between Meiyou: There was a fan who moved to 4 provinces, three trains, 1 car, and 1 car. From Fuyang, Anhui to Linyi, Shandong, he only got a Meizu mobile phone as soon as possible.

In the early days of the rise of domestic smartphones, Huang Zhang was like a godfather, surrounded by a large number of fans. But it was surprising that Huang Zhang suddenly retreated at highlights -in 2010, Huang Zhang withdrew from the company's daily management and gave the daily work to the then CEO Bai Yongxiang. Unexpectedly, after many years, retreating and out of the mountain will become his most frequent keywords.

The era that belongs to Xiong has gone far away

46 years old, Huang Zhang retreats

Just as Huang Zhang's retreat, China's mobile phone industry was quietly changing.

In April 2010, Lei Jun entered the mobile phone industry and founded Xiaomi Company. One year later, Lei Jun, wearing black T -shirts and blue denim trousers, stood in the center of the stage and took out Xiaomi 1 to declare that Xiaomi's first mobile phone was born.

At this time, Huang Zhang, who had retired from Huang Zhang, appeared in the Meizu Forum to "crusade", saying that Lei Jun had obtained many Meizu's business secrets under the banner of angel investors. Lei Jun knows. Huang Zhang even thought that Xiaomi's MIUI system had stole the essence of Meizu system. Since then, the knot between Lei Jun and Huang Zhang has formed.

As a foreigner in the mobile phone industry, the Internet model of Lei Jun impacted the traditional manufacturing industry. In just three years, Xiaomi's mobile phone shipments exceeded millions of units. At that time, Huawei, OPPO, Vivo and other domestic mobile phones made a lot of attacks. The "small and beautiful" Meizu began to be thrown out of the first echelon of the mobile phone industry.

What followed was that the internal crisis of Meizu broke out -Ma Lin, the former vice president of Meizu, drove some of the backbone jump, and the people in the software department gone away in about a week. Watching Meizu's increasingly declining market share, Huang Zhang, who retired for four years, chose to go out of the mountain. He bluntly said on the social platform: "It is a mistake that he has not controlled the company for many years."

In February 2014, Huang Zhang posted a Weibo: "Hello everyone! I just returned from Mars to the earth, I will tolerate this world with the most open heart. Everyone know At the beginning, I have to tell more people to know that in addition to Xiaomi mobile phones, there are better Meizu mobile phones to choose from. "

Immediately, Huang Zhang held the first meeting of the Spring Festival in the conference room on the fifth floor of the company. "There is a little regret that it is a bit late." He once admitted at the employee conference. For the first time, Huang Zhang changed his previous attitude to refuse external investors. He not only took out 20%of personal shares to start ESOP (company employee holding plan), but also began to actively introduce capital. Among them, the most sensational is the introduction of Ali.

In February 2015, Meizu Technology and Ali Group jointly announced that Alibaba Group invested US $ 590 million in Meizu. In addition, Haitong Kaiyuan also invested in Meizu 60 million US dollars. Meizu has received a total of $ 650 million, which is the first time that Meizu has introduced strategic investment. It is rumored that although Ali proposed a harsh gambling box at the time, Huang Zhang still chose to accept it.

After obtaining Ali's investment, Meizu officially embarked on the "large and complete" rapid development path, launched the sub -brand Meilan, and layout on the three product lines of high -end, middle and low -end. A miracle scene happened, and after Huang Zhang came out of the mountain, Meizu's sales also leapt more than 20 million units from 4.4 million units.

However, just a few months later, Huang Zhang claimed that staying up late to meet and need to rest. He gave the company affairs to CMO Li Nan and retired again.

But Meizu's subsequent machine -sea tactics gradually disappointed fans who had been faithful. In 2016, Meizu held 11 conferences throughout the year and released 14 mobile phones. A total of 12 groups of artists were invited to perform. The rhythm was staggering. At that time, the media reporters of the technology circle teased that they were not at the Meizu conference, but on the way to Meizu conference. However, this big fanfare has only exchanged sales of 22 million units. In 2017, Meizu's operations began to fall into trouble, and more than 2,500 offline stores closed more than 500.

In desperation, Huang Zhang came out again. On February 10, 2017, on the day of Huang Zhang's birthday, he announced on Weibo to re -create a dream machine to welcome Meizu's 15th anniversary.

To this end, Huang Zhang deliberately separated Meizu and Mei Lan, allowing Li Nan to master the charming blue and create a dual brand. At that time, Li Nan took out the representative Charm Blue E3 and became the most competitive product since Meizu since Huang Zhang came out of the mountain. However, Meizu PR7, who was highly hoped by Huang Zhang, was tragically "Waterloo", and Meizu's sales fell to less than 20 million units throughout the year.

Until 2018, Huang Zhang completely took over Meizu affairs. But this time, Huang Zhang, who was the company's soul, was unable to turn the tide, and the management ability and pattern were questioned. Bai Yongxiang, Li Nan, and Yang Yan, who are known as the "Three Swordsmen" of Meizu, all stepped down. For a time, the company's internal situation was self -evident.

But Huang Zhang was still full of energy. In January 2019, he updated a Weibo: I want to make a 855 game mobile phone. How big do you like, how big the charming friends do you like, 6.2 inches or 6.5 inches? Below Weibo, Huang Zhang and netizens discussed fiercely around the elements such as batteries, prices, and size. This scene seemed to return to Meizu to develop M8 again.

The wheels of the times rolled over, and Meizu still failed to return to the glory in the past. According to data released by BCI, from December 28, 2020 to January 31, 2021, Meizu's market share is only 0.1 %, and Meizu has almost declined in the mobile phone market.

In the eyes of Meizu and Meizu fans, Huang Zhang has always been Meizu's spiritual leader, and he has also rescued several times when Meizu was in danger. However, in the wave of reshuffle of Chinese smartphones, Meizu eventually became a "Zhuhai Factory".

In February 2021, Meizu's internal letter showed that the founder and the former Meizu CEO Huang Zhang stepped down, and the CEO was changed to his brother Huang Feipan. Huang Zhipan said in the internal letter that Meizu Technology achieved "turn loss into profit" in 2020, completed the annual performance goals promised to the company's board of directors, and will adhere to the mid -to -high -end brand line in 2021. When Geely intends to acquire Meizu this time, Huang Zhang did not show up again.

This is a silent farewell.

Recalling that in 2009, Meizu was strong. Some media commented on Huang Zhang like this: saying that he was a paranoid and was a bit lighter, and the lunatic was just right. He was more persistent than Jobs. People in the circle are well known that Huang Zhang has the craftsmanship of carpenters. Many furniture in the family is created by him. It is said that after the first retreat, he "likes to design products at home all day, cultivate land in the garden, and hold children. Play HIFI. "

This time, Huang Zhang gave Meizu's dominance to Li Shufu, and he might really live a retreat.

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