The acquisition is part of a series of plans by Geely to enter the smartphone market as well as improve its EV lineup.
Geely has previously announced its plans to enter the smartphone race, intending to battle the contenders BBK Group and Xiaomi. For this to happen, the company either needs to invest in its own factories or acquire an already-established brand. The company chose the latter.
The company has been in talks to acquire Meizu. A company that was once of the highest-selling phones and was a large competitor to Xiaomi. Now, the company is facing losses even in its homeland. We sure hope that Geely makes the company highly competitive again globally. While having more competition is good, part of us wishes that smartphone manufacturers that aren’t from China (Wiko does not count) compete strongly as well. With LG, HTC, and Sony went in the larger market, the smartphone space has been dominated mostly by Chinese manufacturers. Only Samsung and Apple remain that aren’t Chinese
Meizu has initiated efforts to revive their company, even, strangely, collaborating with Sony to bring their FlymeOS to Xperia phones, although that had little effect in actually making them relevant again. Two dying companies don’t make a live one.
Meizu did not announce the acquisition although it has been reported to be complete. Therefore, Geely may be able to bring Meizu back to its toes and become competitive again. In addition, Geely is using Meizu’s resources and R&D to develop technologies for their electric vehicles. Thankfully, Geely has enough resources to support the company. Geely owns Volvo, Polestar (a division of Volvo), and Lotus. Three of the world’s most popular automakers.
One of the first infotainments Geely introduced for their vehicles is the Zeekr 001 which uses the Flyme for Car Infotainment System that was developed by Meizu. In addition to acquiring Meizu, Geely also invested in creating a new company called Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology for the purpose of producing smartphones for consumers. With Meizu’s R&D, the company actually has a good head start.
In line with this, as Xiaomi and Baidou are venturing onto the electric vehicles market, this acquisition appears to be a response to that, as Geely knows that they are going to be a threat and a large competitor to them.
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