81: Chapter 81 Acquisition of Bird, Li Xiangdong Out of the Game

"Transsion is offering 150 million to acquire the Bird brand in its entirety, along with our patent library and over 300 offline stores nationwide."

The assistant's voice grew lower and lower. This offer was indeed a bit low because it didn't assume the corresponding loans...

"Additionally... to ensure it doesn't cause excessive social impact, they are also willing to accept 70% of our employees, about 1,000 people."

"150 million... What a ruthless heart Shen Fei has!?"

"That's a full 150 million, and it's not even enough to pay off the bank loans."

"Just for this little money, he's taking away the hard work we've built up over several years."

General Manager Li Xiangdong felt a sudden surge of grief. When he had prepared to acquire Transsion back then, he had at least offered 200 million...

Now, in Shen Fei's hands, it was only worth 150 million.

"Such a small amount of money, over 1,000 employees... Is he giving charity or is he humiliating me?"

The assistant didn't dare to respond. After all, he wouldn't allow this old madman before him to humiliate his "new boss."

Although the results weren't out yet, he believed that with the efforts he had made during this period, he would definitely be able to join Transsion Technology. Not to mention being a secretary... surely he could be a middle-level leader?

Even a grassroots position would do!

...

The office door was pushed open, and two people in uniforms walked in: "Mr. General Manager Li Xiangdong, we are from the Hangzhou Procuratorate."

The young man in the lead presented his credentials.

"Due to suspected commercial bribery, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, and other charges, we are legally inviting you to come with us for an investigation."

"This is the arrest warrant. Please cooperate with our actions."

When the handcuffs were put on, General Manager Li Xiangdong did not resist.

He looked at the cold metal on his wrists, and suddenly remembered the scene of his first argument with Shen Guoming.

At that time, the two were still arguing over the transition to making Feature phone.

Although the Xiaolingtong was hot, the technical content of that product was far inferior to a Feature phone. Unsurprisingly, as the radical, he won!

And he had also exerted the level expected of a person in power; Shen Guoming's faction was completely purged by him.

At the same time, the company's other shareholders also believed that those people were too conservative, and that he was more suitable to lead the company to greater heights, but now...

He had witnessed the glory of Bird, and also personally pushed it into the abyss.

"Let's go," the prosecutor said.

The wheelchair was pushed out of the office and through the corridor. The office building was now in a mess; all the offices were empty, and documents were scattered all over the floor.

Previous valuable work equipment like computers had long been moved away, leaving only scattered tables and chairs.

When passing the R&D department, General Manager Li Xiangdong suddenly said: "Stop for a moment, let me take one last look."

He looked toward this largest laboratory. A few months ago, it was still full of engineers debugging that Bird Max mobile phone.

Now, only a few pieces of obsolete test equipment remained in the laboratory, along with other ordinary functions.

"Those engineers... did Transsion poach them all?" General Manager Li Xiangdong asked with a heartache.

"We took them all," the assistant replied. "Transsion established an East China R&D Center in Hangzhou. However, among these people, besides Engineer Wang and Engineer Zhang, most of them didn't get in..."

The secretary took a look and also spat in disdain.

"They deserve it. One by one, to join Transsion, they actively signed contracts and even offered to take pay cuts, only to end up being dispatched to the Africa R&D Center."

General Manager Li Xiangdong closed his eyes.

Serves them right!

...

Outside the building, the police lights were still flashing.

But the reporters, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately aimed their lenses at General Manager Li Xiangdong after he was pushed out.

"General Manager Li, Bird is bankrupt. Do you have anything to say?"

"What do you think is the reason for losing to Transsion in the Africa market?"

"There are rumors that you were suspected of commercial bribery to open up the Africa market..."

General Manager Li Xiangdong raised his head and suddenly smiled as he looked at those lenses. He had originally wanted to hysterically curse Shen Fei, but when the words reached his lips, in the end...

"I lost, but I didn't lose to Shen Fei, nor did I lose to Transsion Technology. I lost to the era."

He looked at the four large characters of "Bird Technology" on the wall once again.

"Five years ago, we won against foreign brands with price wars. Three years ago we won against domestic peers with channels."

"But now..."

He looked at the handcuffs on his wrists again: "The era changed too fast. The Smartphone era arrived suddenly. Now, it's about technology, innovation, and ecosystem."

"Bird has none of these. We focused solely on grabbing market share but neglected R&D..."

The reporter quickly took out a notebook and wrote all these words down.

"Shen Fei did the right thing," General Manager Li Xiangdong continued. "Building his own system, his own battery factory, creating a full industrial chain... Although it's slow, this is the only way."

"If all manufacturers were like Transsion, the mobile phone market would look different in 10 years. I hope that when I get out, I can see a different industry."

He looked at the prosecutor with a hint of relief: "Let's go."

The police officer on the side didn't say much; he had seen too many people like him. Simply put, it wasn't that he knew he was wrong, but that he knew he was about to go in.

The police car door closed, and it drove away from the Bird headquarters.

...

At the same time, at the Transsion headquarters in Yangcheng.

Shen Fei and Shen Guoming sat in the conference room looking at the big screen, watching the real-time data.

The Mate had been released for a week, and sales had already exceeded 1.2 million units. The transsion s1 was also sweeping the board in Africa, with cumulative shipments already reaching 2 million units.

As of now, the global monthly sales of the Chuan Yin Group have stabilized at around 3 million units.

"Dad, the acquisition of Bird is complete," Shen Fei placed a document in front of his father.

"150 million, brand, patents, channels, all taken. Of course, most importantly, the office building is also ours."

"The core team has also joined. Some capable ones, after restructuring, have joined our team, and the rest have been dispatched to the Africa market."

Shen Guoming looked at the familiar Bird LOGO and didn't say anything for a long time.

After all, it was a place where he had once worked. He had also once harbored dreams there, wanting to exert his abilities, but in the end... he could only say his ability wasn't enough.

But from today on, this brand was back in his hands, but it also meant it would be shelved from now on.

"You... are you a bit sad?" Shen Fei asked softly.

"Sad about what?" Shen Guoming immediately suppressed the sense of loss in his heart, then shook his head.

"The business world is like a battlefield; victory and defeat are common occurrences. General Manager Li Xiangdong didn't lose because of ability, but because of vision. He thought Feature phones could still be made for another 5 years, not expecting Smartphones to come so fast."

"Of course, his biggest failure was due to his spite. He wanted too much to prove that kicking our faction out back then was the right choice, wanting to stifle us as much as possible."

"But in the end, he lost to you."

Then he looked at the allocation table for those engineers again: "It's a good thing that Bird's technology and talent can continue in Transsion."

"Even if it's just in Africa, it's still better than leaving this shell there."

Shen Fei nodded: "He did have vision, buying all those stores. That actually saved me quite a bit of trouble."

"I plan to renovate them, using some as Transsion specialty stores and some in better locations as after-sales service centers."

"Bird previously had deep channels in third and fourth-tier cities, which just happens to make up for our shortcomings."