TCL is a household name in both the TV market and smartphone market but they are actually different companies. TCL TVs are made by TCL Electronics while TCL phones are manufactured by TCL Communications. Now, TCL Electronics plans to acquire the latter as part of its AI x IoT strategy.
The decision was made at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). The acquisition (actually more of a merger) according to Business Wire will result in TCL Electronic’s addition of new arms including TCL smartphones, tablets, wearables, and connectivity in addition to its TV business. TCL Electronics also plans to spin off its ODM business for TVs which has actually been manufacturing TVs for Samsung since 2008. 
With TCL Electronics focusing on TV and mobile communication businesses, it will enter into the smart home, internet services, and smart commercial displays markets that is valued at more than 1 trillion Chinese Yuan. The smart home market has big players such as Xiaomi and Huawei. It will be interesting to see what new products TCL will churn out to compete with them.
The business transformation is expected to be finished by the end of August said CEO of TCL Electronics, Kevin Wang.
It has also been reported by ITHome that TCL Electronics and TCL Communications have some of their supply chains overlapping, so the acquisition will help in the optimization of logistics, capital flow, and information flow for better efficiency.
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