Lenovo's acquisition of Nanjing Sharp has become a foregone conclusion

While Samsung and Hon Hai competed for Sharp shares, Lenovo had already targeted Sharp's TV business in Nanjing.

According to sources, Lenovo's acquisition of the Nanjing Sharp plant has basically been finalized, diluting the attention of the outside world, while Lenovo has once again traveled to Nanjing to carry out an inventory of the Sharp plant. Both parties have clear intentions in buying and selling, and only sign a contract after the merger and acquisition price and other details are met. The projector business outside the TV business, or by another domestic company Digital China took over.

It is worth noting that Lenovo not only hopes to acquire Nanjing Sharp Electronics Co., Ltd. (NSEC), which is responsible for television production, but also to acquire a 51% stake in Sharp Electronics Development (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. (SERD), which is responsible for TV business development. Obviously, Lenovo does not simply want to put the production line in the bag, but also hopes to cooperate with Sharp in the research and development of smart TV, to make up for its own technical shortcomings.

Gamble smart TV In May 2012, Lenovo officially launched a smart TV, but compared with the big red smart phone business, the performance of Lenovo smart TV can only be described as dismal, once the media said that Lenovo smart TV only sells more than 1,200 Taiwan, although Lenovo's officials immediately refute, but always refused to disclose specific sales information.

Insiders pointed out that Lenovo’s weak performance mainly stems from the lack of core channels. Traditional home appliance manufacturers not only settled in traditional home appliance stores, but also have TV franchise stores in third and fourth-tier cities, and their channel construction is relatively complete. More importantly, in terms of advertising promotion, the investment and in-depth of traditional household appliance manufacturers are also better than the association.

According to sources, Yang Yuanqing once expressed dissatisfaction with the speed of smart TV market and channel promotion on several occasions before and after the television business became inconsistent. Last month, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing admitted at the company’s third fiscal quarter financial report that Lenovo’s smart TV sales were not large and was still in the stage of loss and investment. However, he stressed: “We believe there is still good prospects in the future. ."

Negotiations have reached the final stage. From the outside world, Nanjing Sharp is a company. However, in fact, Nanjing Sharp has already been split into Nanjing Sharp Electronics Co., Ltd. (NSEC), which is responsible for television production, and Sharp Electronics Co., Ltd., which is responsible for TV business development. (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. (referred to as SERD), and the two companies are involved in some projector business besides TV business.

For Sharp and Lenovo, the negotiation on NSEC business is not complicated. According to sources, according to Sharp's plan, NSEC will still take orders for Sharp TV after it is sold. This is for the current association where sales are not outstanding. Very attractive, reducing the risk of mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to this, Lenovo had been selecting TPV for its production of display products for long-term production of television products. As the world's largest personal computer monitor and fourth-generation LCD TV OEM brand, TPV has a high market share and stable quality. However, there is not much influence in the television business. The acquired Philips brand and its own AOC brand have not been able to rush into the mainstream market.

Although Nikkei BP reported that Sharp's market share in China is only 5%, but in the consumer group, Sharp TV is still regarded as a giant in the field of flat-panel televisions. Compared with TPV OEM, the propaganda effect of the same production line with Sharp TV will be a big plus for Lenovo TV.

Outside of production, both parties are also interested in joint venture R&D. It is reported that Nanjing Sharp is already one of the centers of Sharp's R&D. Lenovo hopes to use Sharp's R&D advantages to strengthen its own shortcomings, but the details of the current negotiations on SERD are still not available. know. Sources said that the two sides are nearing completion of their negotiations and Lenovo hopes to acquire 51% of SERD's shares in cooperation.

The source also revealed that, unlike earlier reports by Japanese media, Lenovo will not use SHARPAquos's trademark to sell smart TV products.

Differing from the general judgment of the outside world, Lenovo will have a temporary slowdown in the smart TV business after this lesson. However, under the direct intent of Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's smart TV business is actually in an accelerated operation. In addition to negotiating closely with Nanjing Sharp, Lenovo has also accelerated its recruitment of channels, hoping to penetrate the market at level 3 or 4 as soon as possible.

What is a smart TV?

It is not difficult for Lenovo to bet on the confidence of smart TVs. Lenovo had encountered similar problems when it entered the smart phone market. The sales of the first generation of music phones were extremely low, but Lenovo quickly became one year after adjusting its direction. It is the second largest in the country and the fifth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

Can television services behave as if they were mobile phones? In fact, it remains to be seen whether the smart TV is a blue ocean or the Red Sea. Industry insiders told Tencent Technology that whether smart TV can lead the replacement tide is the major development direction of TV in the future. Whether it can bring higher premiums and there is still no accurate answer. But what is certain is that the growth rate and absolute sales of smart TVs cannot be compared with those of smart phones, and the update frequency is slower than that of mobile phones or even PCs.

Research data from Display shows that the development speed of smart TVs is extremely fast. In 2011, the sales volume of smart TVs in China was 4 million units, in 2012 it was 16.75 million units, and in 2013 it is expected to reach 26 million units. From 2011 to 2012, it has expanded by a factor of three and is expected to reach 26 million units in 2013.

Although the number has risen extremely fast, the total TV sales have not increased at such a high rate. According to the data released by the Electronic Video Industry Association, the retail volume under the color cable in 2012 was about 42.25 million units, which was the same as in 2011. This means that, in the current market situation, the growth rate of smart TVs in the Chinese market is fast, but the total demand is not large.

It is reported that after Lenovo announced its transition to PC+ in April last year, the four-screen strategy has been an important development direction of Lenovo. At present, apart from television, the three screens - PC, mobile phone and tablet have performed well, leaving only television services still unresolved. There is improvement. Lenovo has conceived a new set of integrated gameplay. Smart TV is already the market that Lenovo must win.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in the beginning of the year, Lenovo displayed Horizon, a 27-inch living room desktop computer. After the meeting, Yang Yuanqing complained to developers that TV should be implemented on Horizon. Obviously, the smart TV business will be one of the core development services of Lenovo in the near future.