Global Monopoly of Technology

Chapter 680 [The North American technology giants who have been tossed into misery]

Verizon headquarters on October 13, 2017.

"God, America's technology industry is going to be ruined by those pig-brained decision-makers, no, this is an insult to pigs!!"

The company's CEO, Lowell McAdam, was furious on the spot after reading a report submitted by the person below. Number and growth trends of Azure-5 handsets in North America.

Data shows that more than one million Azure-5s have flowed into all parts of the United States in the last month alone. What scares Lowell McAdam is the growth trend behind it, which means that it will continue in the future. Growth means not doing any countermeasures, and there are more than 12 million units in one year.

As one of the four major operators in North America, Verizon is the wireless communication service provider with the most users. It has such a high signal coverage rate and an LTE network covering the United States. At the same time, the company is also the main sales channel for Azure mobile phones. One of them is an important partner of Cote d'Azur and a major advertiser of Bluestar Technology.

All in all, there is a strong partnership.

At present, a large number of unlocked versions of Azure-5 smartphones have been resold from Mexico to North America, which has caused Verizon to suffer heavy losses, not only his family, but also another major operator, AT\u0026T Group. Operators have suffered varying degrees of loss.

This has to say about the sales of Azure series smartphones in the North American market. Azure mobile phones are divided into unlocked and unlocked versions. Another way of saying is that they are retail versions or contract versions.

The retail version or unlocked version of the Azure mobile phone is the single flagship store established by the Cote d'Azur itself. It is a buyout product and is not bound by a contract. Of course, it is more expensive.

Most international brands are full-band, of course Azure smartphones, with dual-band, tri-band, etc., support automatic network switching, whether in China or in North America, as long as the card is inserted, of course, there must be The premise is to be within the signal coverage.

However, the shipments of the retail version of the self-owned channel of the company's own physical stores only account for a little more than 30% of the sales of Azure mobile phones in the United States, and nearly 70% of the shipments are through several major North American operators and other channels. The dealers completed, that is to say, the contract machines for Wei accounted for 70% of the sales.

As for why Cote d'Azur's own channel retail stores can't do as local operators in North America, it's because they sell cheaper, and their sales network is huge, plus home field advantage,

You have to play according to the rules of other people's games.

The contract machine is cheaper than the retail version, but is it really cheap?

Intuitively, it's two or three hundred dollars cheaper, but it's actually more expensive.

The model differences brought about by different regions are basically based on mobile phones sold by operators in many developed countries, while in China, on the contrary, it is mainly based on retail channels.

However, in most other countries, operators control the entire mobile phone sales channel. It is not easy for Côte d'Azur's own channels to open up a market share of nearly 30% in the North American market.

The contract phone on the North American side can be understood as a domestic activity similar to charging a phone bill and sending a mobile phone. Verizon's Azure contract phone requires a two-year event. In other words, if consumers in North America buy this contract phone, This means that the specified minimum consumption amount must be guaranteed during the contract period.

For example, the monthly package cost is 78.2 US dollars, that is, whether the user uses 50 yuan or 78.2 US dollars, the package fee of 78.2 US dollars will be deducted every month for two years, that is, the minimum cost is 1876.8 US dollars. There will be extra charges for calls.

It seems that the operator sells the contract phone cheaper than the retail version, but in fact it is more expensive. As long as the user buys the contract phone, the operator can guarantee a stable income of 1876.8 US dollars for at least the next two years, and only a lot more.

But this kind of contract machine, which is cheaper on the surface and actually more expensive, sells better than the retail version. In addition to the operator's own channel advantages, the vast majority of consumers in North America do not know how to do calculations, and may also account for a lot of them. factor.

On the contrary, they feel that the contract machine is beneficial, and they can only say that happy education is good, otherwise, how can the capitalists of the old and the United States harvest the IQ tax.

However, no matter how stupid the mass consumers in North America are, it is understandable that when Wang Yi imposes tariffs, the price of products has skyrocketed.

Local consumers can clearly see that a mobile phone has soared directly from more than 2,000 US dollars to nearly 4,000 US dollars.

Well now, the Azure-5 mobile phone is being sold in Mexico, and the price is several tens of dollars cheaper than the price of the contract phone before the additional tax is added, which means that it is cheaper than a thousand dollars all of a sudden, and it is not necessary to spend much. Minimum contractual limits for phone bills or other value-added services.

Even if the local consumers are a pig and their IQ is in a hurry, they will know which one is more affordable.

But it is miserable for North American operators like Verizon. Every time they sell an Azure-5 in Mexico, they have to lose a profit that they should have made. The gray forces have been diverted.

The stock market does not lie. In the past few days, the stock prices of several major North American operators such as Verizon and AT\u0026T Group have plummeted.

Verizon's stock price has plummeted 18.9% in the past few days, and its market value has dropped from $220.8 billion to only $179.07 billion; AT\u0026T Group is even worse, because the company has a larger share, so it plummeted 20.2%, The market cap has dropped from $207 billion to $165.18 billion now.

The share of the Azure series of smartphones in the North American market exceeds 60%, so it is not surprising that such a big impact on local operators has occurred.

What makes them uneasy is that there is a high probability that the stock price will plummet further. Investors in the old and the United States are extremely realistic. Before the Nielsen report came out, the stock prices of several major operators in North America were quite strong. , pull the hips directly as soon as the report comes out.

If the next Q4 financial report comes out, the performance will be impacted as a result, and investors will definitely suffer a further plunge in the stock price when investors look at this spicy performance report.

Lowell McAdam Thunder is not unreasonable. He plans to step down as CEO next year. As a result, he understands that Wang is so tossed, how can KPI be completed? How to get the option stock dividend reward? Can you not be angry?

But he still calmed down the anger in his heart as soon as possible. In order to be able to make a perfect curtain call, for KPI performance, and for option stock dividend rewards, solving problems is more important than meaningless incompetent rage.

This matter must be resolved as soon as possible. Judging from the current situation, the Q4 financial report will definitely not meet the expectations of Wall Street analysts, but if the problem can be solved before the Q4 financial report is disclosed and the reselling on the Mexican side can be curbed, Adding a long-term positive relative good news to the bad news, there is still a chance to complete the KPI, and the stock price will slowly rise back.

Half an hour later, Lowell McAdam held a temporary external conference call, which was attended by peer operators such as AT\u0026T Group and Sparint.

Just after completing the connection, I heard the voice of my peers scolding.

"How did we elect such a leader? And to endure him for two years and three months, is this God's punishment for Magneto?" AT\u0026T Group CEO Randall Stephenson said on the conference call. The anticipation of speaking gives a sense of powerless despair, and a bit of a breakdown.

Although they are both competitive, they are now participating in discussions together.

There is no way, this wave of salacious operations that Wang understands jumped out to do not only smashed the rice bowls in the hands of each family, but also brought the pots that everyone used together.

Not only a few major operators, but a series of high-tech companies in North America have not been spared. IBM, Salesforce, Qualcomm and other high-tech companies that have close cooperation with Azure Coast or Bluestar Technology have all suffered, understand Wang I feel like I'm helping them, but these high-tech companies in North America don't know how to hate him now.

Lowell McAdam and the others did not hate Luo Sheng because of the large-scale reselling of Azure-5 in Mexico, nor did they scold the Côte d'Azur for being inauthentic.

Because they knew very well that the problem was not with Luo Sheng at all, so what if they hated and scolded him?

Luo Sheng and Azure Coast just did what was in the interests of him and his company. Compared with Wang, the elites in the North American technology and financial circles knew exactly what the problem was.

The problem lies in understanding the king.

Lowell said: "Let's prepare for both sides. We need to increase our efforts on K Street. In addition, we still need to have a good talk with Luo Sheng. I will personally go to interview with Luo Sheng. No, it is best to contact a few more people. For the Silicon Valley tech giants who have major business dealings, call Samuel and others together, so that the possibility of reaching a new consensus will be higher.”

Randall replied helplessly: "That's the only way, I'll take care of the K Street side, I wish you good luck, old man."

Lowell sighed softly, "Oh, I hope so."

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