New entrants into the mobile phone manufacturing industry, especially smartphones, face obstacles in the patent race, both old and new.
Firstly, there's the patent barrier held by traditional phone manufacturers, and secondly, the patents held by Apple and Android companies on touchscreen smartphones.
Of course, a single phone manufacturer doesn't need to own all the patents needed to manufacture a phone. Many hold a subset of their proprietary patents, trading them with other manufacturers for patents and licensing them to produce phones.
Even without any patents, you can still manufacture phones if you can obtain relevant patent licenses, though you'll still have to pay the patent owner. For example, Apple initially obtained some of its traditional mobile phone patents for the iPhone through licensing...
Even after exiting the mobile phone manufacturing industry, companies like Nokia and Ericsson have continued to generate substantial revenue through patent licensing.
However, the problem is that if you're just an ordinary manufacturer with a modest market share—in other words, just trying to capitalize on the profits—this approach might be acceptable.
However, if a company like Honor Electronics stands out from the crowd, without sufficient patents, other manufacturers will inevitably exploit this to strangle it.
A prime example is Apple and Google in the original universe. Initially, the iPhone and Google-powered phones posed a significant threat to traditional phone manufacturers, leading to numerous patent lawsuits.
Then, in July 2011, Apple and five other companies teamed up to purchase 6,000 Nortel patents for $4.5 billion. Through subsequent acquisitions and licensing deals involving their smartphone patents,
they finally secured the necessary patents. Similarly, in August 2011, Google, in its original universe, acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion to support Android manufacturers, primarily for the company's 17,000 granted patents and 7,500 patent applications.
Today, thanks to Barron's early planning, Android companies boast a patent portfolio comparable to Apple's in touchscreen smartphones.
Although Honor Electronics already holds the relevant patent licenses from Philips, that only guarantees the "security" of their own phone production.
Android companies, on the other hand, need to support the entire Android ecosystem. Otherwise, with Nokia's Symbian, Microsoft's Windows, and Google's upcoming mobile operating system, how can these phone manufacturers avoid patent lawsuits for releasing Android phones, even if Android currently holds an advantage in touchscreen smartphones?
With survival at stake, traditional phone manufacturers will undoubtedly resort to this tactic.
Therefore, it's crucial to plan ahead. Ivanta's idea is to acquire the struggling Motorola to expand Android's patent portfolio and provide licensing to other Android manufacturers.
However, through Ivanta's introduction, Baron learned that Motorola isn't in the same shape it would be three years from now, struggling to survive due to persistent losses. Therefore, the price tag for acquiring Motorola would be significantly higher than the $12.5 billion Google paid for Motorola in his previous life.
After all, they only needed Motorola's patents. Barron had no interest in the brand or its product line, so this matter could wait.
Furthermore, the Android Alliance was primarily comprised of traditional phone manufacturers like Samsung and Sony Ericsson. Even Honor Electronics, with its patent license from Philips, didn't have a pressing need for mobile phone patents. Even if there were occasional patent lawsuits, hiring a team of lawyers to drag out the litigation for two or three years would be more cost-effective than spending the extra money to acquire Motorola.
Therefore, he persuaded Ivanta to wait a little longer...
As for Google's potential upcoming mobile operating system...
Compared to the current Android companies, Google, while more well-known and powerful, wouldn't be able to easily catch up, not only in mobile phone patents but even in operating system applications. Why was Google so desperate to launch a mobile operating system?
It was because, despite the release of touchscreen smartphones by Apple and Honor Electronics, coupled with the widespread adoption of 3G networks, they saw a potential shift in users' daily internet habits from PCs to mobile devices.
However, for a search-centric company like Google, on PCs, it could serve as a gateway to the internet, accustoming users to first visiting Google.com to search for information and websites. However, on mobile, users rely on various apps for various functions. Furthermore, those apps often treasure their users and content, making them less accessible to search engines like Google and Baidu. This, in turn, meant that Google lost its advantage as an internet gateway.
This is similar to how, in the past, Baidu, the three giants of China's internet industry, fell behind in the mobile internet era. Its market capitalization is no longer comparable to the other two, even falling short of newcomers like ByteDance and Meituan.
Back then, Google had Android, a gateway to the mobile internet. Now, things are completely different...
On
October 20th, in cities across America, protesters carrying banners took to the streets, their faces etched with anger. They chanted slogans and verbally attacked then-President George W. Bush.
Just days earlier, the US government had decided to once again use treasury funds to bail out the US financial system, reeling from the subprime mortgage crisis.
Many Americans viewed this as a continued use of taxpayers' money to help Wall Street capitalists.
In Manhattan, New York, in a building just past the protesters' path, two suited men shook hands after signing an agreement.
"It's a pleasure working with you, Mr. Stumpf."
"Welcome to us, Mr. Hurst. This will be a wise decision."
That day, the British Fortune Time (BFT) Fund reached an agreement with Wells Fargo to invest $20 billion in the bank. BFT would purchase 800 million new shares in a private placement at $25 per share.
Following this capital injection, BFT's stake in Wells Fargo would reach 16.7% of its total equity.
BFT would also appoint a representative to the Wells Fargo board, holding one vote.
Wells Fargo was raising funds through this new share issuance to complete its acquisition of Wachovia. After this acquisition, Wells Fargo would become one of the Big Four banks in the United States
, joining JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America.
Currently, Wells Fargo's market capitalization ranks last among these four, but within a few years, it will become the leader.