A new report has suggested that known Chinese automaker Geely is planning on acquiring a local smartphone brand. Sources close to the matter have revealed that the phonemaker in question is Meizu.
According to a 36kr report, multiple independent sources have suggested that the Geely group is currently in talks with Meizu over the possible acquisition. Apparently, “the transaction is still in progress.” In other words, finer details regarding this deal like the total price of the buyout is still unknown as of right now. Notably, this move is somewhat in line with our previous report. We had covered that the automobile manufacturer is planning on launching a smartphone brand.
This move is also completely the opposite of the current market trend, with smartphone brands like Xiaomi and Apple working on cars while the Geely is entering the handset market. As per our previous reports, the company’s chairman and founder had started this bold plan, which will have handsets launching in the year 2023. Furthermore, it was also revealed at the moment that the initial capital investment was around 10 billion Yuan (roughly 1.55 billion US dollars) for the project, with a targeted revenue of about 1.5 billion US dollars within the first year of operations.
With the first handsets launching within just a year, it makes sense that an acquisition of an existing brand will buy the company time over starting from scratch. Meizu already has a dedicated team for its smartphone operations as well. Although, Meizu has seen a decline in recent times, so the acquisition may also bring changes that revitalize its market share. Keep in mind that this is still an unconfirmed report, so take it with a pinch of salt and stay tuned for more updates.
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