Chapter 678: [North American tech giants tossed into misery]

Chapter 680 [North American tech giants tossed into misery]
October 13, 2017, Verizon headquarters.
"God, the American technology industry is going to be ruined by the decision-makers of the pig brains, no, this is an insult to the pigs!"
The company's CEO Lowell McAdam was furious on the spot after reading a report submitted by the people below. This material report is a recent statistical report on the inflow from Mexico through big data. The number and growth trend of Azure-5 mobile phones in North America.
The data shows that in the last month alone, more than one million Azure-5s have flowed all over the country. What makes Lowell McAdam fear is the growth trend behind it, which means that it will continue in the future. Growth means no coping strategies, and more than 12 million units in a year.
Verizon, as one of the four largest operators in North America and the largest user of wireless communication service providers, has this extremely high signal coverage and has a nationwide LTE network. At the same time, this company is also the main sales channel for Azure mobile phones. One is an important partner of the Cote d'Azur Company and a major advertiser of Blue Star Technology.
In short, it is right to have a strong partnership.
A large number of lock-free versions of Azure-5 smartphones are now being resold from Mexico to North America, which has caused Verizon to suffer heavy losses, not only from his family, but also from another major operator, AT&T Group. In fact, North America The four major operators have suffered varying degrees of loss.
This has to say the problem of the sales of Azure series smartphones in the North American market. Azure phones are divided into unlocked versions and unlocked versions. The other version is the retail version or the contract version.
The retail version or the unlocked version of the Azure mobile phone is a monolithic flagship store built by the Côte d'Azur. It is a buy-out product. There is no binding constraint, and of course it is more expensive.
Most international brands are full-band, and Azure smartphones are of course, there are dual-band, tri-band, etc., support network automatic switching, whether in China or North America, as long as you plug in the card, you can use it, of course. This premise must be within the signal coverage.
However, the shipment of the retail version of the own channel of the Cote d’Azur company’s own physical store only accounts 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 North American operators and other channels. Dealers completed, which means that the contract machine accounted for 70% of sales.
As for why the Côte d’Azur’s own channel retail stores can’t compete with local operators in North America, it’s because they sell cheaper, and because of their huge sales network, plus home advantage, they have to play according to other game rules.
The contract machine is cheaper than the retail version, but is it really cheap?
It is indeed cheaper by two or three hundred dollars at the intuitive price, but it is actually more expensive.
The differences in modes brought by different regions are basically based on mobile phones sold by operators in many developed countries. On the contrary, in China, they are mainly based on retail channels.
But in most other countries, operators control the entire sales channel of mobile phones. It is quite difficult for Côte d'Azur's own channels to pry up nearly 30% of the North American market.
The contract machine on the North American side can be understood as a similar domestic mobile phone charging activity. Verizon’s Azure contract machine requires a two-year event to be bound. In other words, if North American consumers buy this contract machine, This means that the minimum consumption quota must be guaranteed during the contract period.
For example, the monthly package fee is US$78.2, that is, whether the user uses 50 yuan or US$78.2, the monthly package fee will be deducted from US$78.2 for two years, that is, the minimum will be US$1876.8 If you exceed the phone bill, you will have to pay extra.
It seems that operators sell contract machines cheaper than the retail version, and in fact are more expensive. As long as users buy contract machines, operators can guarantee a stable income of at least US$1876.8 over the next two years, and only a lot.
However, this kind of contract machine that is cheaper and more expensive is actually better than the retail version. In addition to the operator's own channel advantages, most of the masses of consumers in North America don’t know how to count and may account for a lot. factor.
Instead, they feel that the contract machine is affordable, and they can only say that happiness and education are good, otherwise how can the old and beautiful capitalists collect IQ taxes.
But even if the mass consumers in North America are stupid, it can be understood that Wang Yi has imposed tariffs and the prices of products have skyrocketed. Even if the operator wants to make a profit, it will not be less beautiful to modify the numbers.
Local consumers can clearly see that a mobile phone has soared from more than 2,000 US dollars to nearly 4,000 US dollars. If these two large and intuitive fluctuations are not visible, they are really blind.
Ok, now Mexico is reselling Azure-5 phones, which are tens of dollars cheaper than the price of the contract machine when there is no additional tax, which is equivalent to more than a thousand dollars cheaper, and there is no need to consume much. The contract limit for the minimum amount of phone bills or other value-added services.
Even if local consumers are in a hurry and their IQ is in a hurry, they will know which one is more affordable.
But for the North American operators such as Verizon, it is miserable. Every time an Azure-5 is resold in Mexico, they will have to lose a profit that should be earned by themselves, and the profit is just like this. Mexico and local gangs The grey forces passed away.
The stock market will not be deceiving. In these few days, the stock prices of several major North American operators such as Verizon and AT&T Group have plummeted neatly.
Verizon’s share price has plummeted by 18.9% in the past few days, and its market value has fallen from the previous $220.8 billion to the current only $179.07 billion; AT&T Group is even worse, because the company’s share is larger, so it has plunged 20.2 %, the market value fell from 207 billion US dollars to the current 165.18 billion US dollars.
The share of Azure series smartphones in the North American market exceeds 60%, and it is no surprise that local operators have such a big impact.
What makes them uneasy is that there is a great probability that the stock price will further plummet. Investors on the old and American sides are extremely realistic. Before the Nielsen report came out, the stock prices of several North American operators were quite strong. , The report directly pulls the crotch.
If it comes out in the next Q4 financial report, the performance will be impacted. When investors look at this spicy-eye performance report, the stock price will definitely suffer a further plunge.
Lowell McAdam's Thunder is not unreasonable. He plans to step down as CEO next year. As a result, Wang has such a toss, how can he complete the KPI? How can I get the stock option dividend bonus? Can you not be angry?
But he calmed down his anger as soon as possible, in order to be able to call the curtain perfectly, for KPI performance, for option stock dividend rewards, solving problems is more important than meaningless incompetent anger.
This matter must be resolved as soon as possible. Judging from the current situation, the Q4 financial report will certainly not meet the expectations of Wall Street analysts. However, if the problem can be solved before the Q4 financial report is disclosed, the reselling in Mexico can be curbed. Adding a relatively long-term 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 conducted a temporary external conference call, and it was the AT&T Group, Sparint, and other peer operators that joined the meeting.
As soon as I completed the connection, I heard the voices of my peers scolding.
"How can we choose such a leader? Should we endure him for two or three months, is this God's penalty for magnesium?" On the conference call, AT&T Group CEO Randall Stephenson's expectation of speaking gave a feeling of powerless despair and a sense of collapse.
Although they are all competitive, they are now discussing together.
There is no way to understand that this wave of operation that Wang jumped out not only smashed the rice bowls in the hands of everyone, but even brought the pot that everyone used together.
Not only a few major operators, a series of high-tech companies in North America have not been spared, high-tech companies such as IBM, Sai Fushi, Qualcomm and other companies that have close cooperation with the Cote d'Azur or Blue Star Technology have been affected. I think it's helping them, but these high-tech companies in North America don't know that the teeth he hates are tickling.
Lowell McAdam did not hate Luo Sheng because of the large-scale reselling of Azure-5 in Mexico, and UU read www.uukanshu.com did not scold the Côte d’Azur for being unreasonable.
Because they knew that the problem was not Luo Sheng, what if they hated or scolded?
Luo Sheng and the Cote d'Azur have only done things that are in the interests of him and his company. Compared to Wang, the elites in the North American technology and financial circles know exactly what the problem is.
The problem is in understanding Wang.
Lowell said: "Be prepared for both ends. K Street needs to work harder. In addition, I still need to talk to Luo Sheng to have a good talk. I personally went to interview Luo Sheng. No, it is better to contact a few more The Silicon Valley technology giants with major business contacts, call Samuel and others together, so that the possibility of reaching a new consensus will be higher."
Randall replied helplessly: "It's the only way. I'll take care of it on K Street. Good luck old man."
Lowell sighed: "Ah, hope so."
...
(End of this chapter)