172: Chapter 172 The American Test

Facing this realistic question, Lei Jun smiled and replied: "Director Liu, I have been an entrepreneur for over 20 years, and I have failed many times."

"But every time I failed, I learned something.

At Kingsoft, I learned management. At Joyo, I learned e-commerce. As an angel investor, I learned how to judge people."

He stared at Liu Ting and the others, then confidently replied: "If Xiaomi fails, I will also learn a lot. But the problem is, it won't fail; otherwise, all my previous learning would have been in vain."

After all, he still had a trump card. The Smartphone was good, and 1999 was a great price, but this price was far from the lower limit; most people still wouldn't shell out that much money to buy a phone.

He still had a trump card plan, but the enemy was too formidable. He couldn't release this news in advance, otherwise...

Time is of the essence; after this round of financing, he would need to integrate the supply chain and launch this trump card product.

Liu Ting looked at him, scrutinized him for a moment, and suddenly smiled: "Director Lei, I believe in you."

...

That night, Lei Jun posted on Weibo:

"Xiaomi's Series A financing is complete, with a valuation of $750 million. Thank you to all the investors for your trust; Xiaomi still has a long road ahead.

The direction is set, the future will be even more glorious, and I am also grateful to the Mi Fans who have always supported us. Without you, there would be no Lei Jun today.

Let's walk into the future together. I hope we can reach the day we ring the bell together."

The attached image was the character "Mi" composed of Mi Fans' IDs, symbolizing that it was because of the Mi Fans that Dami Company existed.

A perfect marketing campaign built on financing made the Mi Fans ecstatic, and they left comments one after another.

"$750 million, about 5.1 billion RMB. The next step is a unicorn company. Congratulations to the God of Lei!"

"Director Lei, now that you have money, hurry up and mass-produce the first-generation Xiaomi. A few tens of thousands of units at a time is impossible to snatch up."

"It's the first time I've seen fans' names in an announcement. I'm so excited."

"5 billion? Stop bragging. It's just capital hype again. How could a small company be worth that much?"

"Valuation is something only fools believe."

Regarding these questioning comments, Lei Jun didn't need to reply; these people were taken care of by the Mi Fans in the comment section.

Because 750 million was just the beginning; Xiaomi would definitely go public, become the top domestic brand, and among them, there would be lucky fans who would ring the bell with Director Lei.

...

On September 5, 2010, Motorola again announced the sales of the Motorola S2 for its second month on the market: 1.65 million units.

Sales not only didn't drop but actually rose slightly.

The MT900 chip was also crowned as the strongest self-developed chip in the United States.

The continuous hot sales completely made Steve Jobs unable to sit still; Motorola was stealing their entire market.

Consequently, a joint letter written by Steve Jobs himself was submitted to the US Department of Commerce.

...

"Has the situation with Motorola been investigated clearly?" Jensen asked.

Jensen was still involved in this matter; after all, he was reliable, and perhaps he could persuade the FBI...

"It's clear. Their actual controlling party now is Huaxin Investment from China.

Under this empty shell, there is only the Motorola brand; the core technical team, production decisions, product planning, and communication patents have all been transferred to China.

It is authorized centrally by Huaxin Investment, with an authorization period of three years."

"This... is it legal?"

"It's legal. We investigated it before; Huaxin acquired the shares through regular channels and now holds 100% of the shares."

Someone frowned. How could such an important enterprise fall into the hands of China? What were those capitalists doing?

Although Motorola was losing money, the patents in its hands were still invaluable. Even if it really couldn't continue operating, it should have been digested internally first.

US capital should have eaten up the important things before selling off the shell.

But now...

"Then what do we do? Let a Chinese company use a United States brand to sell phones in the United States and make our money? Making money is one thing, but they are also stealing our information."

Director Jensen didn't know how to speak up. He had also chaired the last meeting, and it had been handled quite perfectly.

But after it ended, he still received a phone call.

A call made jointly by several capital firms: "The die is cast, there is no need to interfere further."

He originally didn't want to wade into this muddy water today, but this was chaired by the CIA and FBI personally...

Seeing that they couldn't find a way, the FBI person in charge said directly: "Find a reason to block it."

Jensen frowned and asked: "What reason?"

"National security. Their phones contain core components not manufactured in the United States, and the database is not located in the United States. They might be eavesdropping on relevant information, which does not meet United States standards. This is a very normal reason."

But Jensen immediately smiled bitterly, his eyes shifting, and he began to add some "mud": "Bob, phone chips, national security—isn't this reason too far-fetched?"

Bob Allison slammed the table directly: "Even if it's far-fetched, we have to use it. We can't just let them keep stealing the market."

"Go investigate. See if their chips have problems, if the system has vulnerabilities, and if data is leaking. These Chinese manufacturers can't be perfect; we can always find a loophole."

After the meeting, Jensen told a few people about the new situation, including the warnings those people had given...

Although this information couldn't stop it, it at least made the FBI and CIA pay attention. The methods couldn't be too violent; the original plan needed to be optimized again. After all, they were preparing to force their way in, and then...

On August 6, the news came out.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news first: relevant departments in the United States are investigating Motorola and may ban its phones from continuing to be sold in the United States. The reason is: national security.

Everyone might not understand why a United States brand would infringe on national security. In fact, three months ago, Motorola's mobile phone business completed its handover, and now it belongs to an independent company. The controlling party of this company is China. The so-called pride of the United States, the MT900, is actually a Chinese chip; they are lying to us.

Once the news came out, public opinion was in an uproar. Many old Motorola fans looked at this phone and suddenly felt it was a bit "hot to the touch," but the perfect user experience continued the brand value of Motorola, and they still decided to support it. After all, this phone was really easy to use.

"What does national security have to do with me? I only know that Motorola was about to go bankrupt, the Chinese saved it, and now they are finding excuses to ban it?"

"Isn't this obviously bullying honest people?"

"What national security? Can the phone explode?"

"I only know that Motorola's sales made Apple feel afraid. This must be them acting behind the scenes."

"A Chinese company controlling a United States brand is wrong to begin with."

"National security is the most important."

In China, this news also hit the hot search list immediately. #Motorola May Be Banned# #Motorola Captures 3 Million Sales in US Market#

In the comment section, netizens were arguing, but the content...

"Good ban. I say don't even bother with national security; just use false advertising. The most advanced in the semiconductor industry is 30-something nanometers; this 28nm from Transsion is definitely false advertising. Can our China produce 28nm chips? The Hanxin incident was only a few years ago; have you forgotten?"

"Should have been banned long ago. Who told them to use a United States brand to deceive Americans? Do they really think it's like being at home!"

"This is the familiar comment section. When can Transsion fix the backbones of these people? My whole family will switch..."

"The person above doesn't want to buy it, just say so [Dog head]."