The first successful overseas mergers and acquisitions in the Beidou industry

Absrtact: We are the first company in the Beidou industry to succeed in overseas mergers and acquisitions. On its internationalization of the road, together with the Chairman Guo Xinping playful with a so far so to describe. What are the reasons for overseas mergers and acquisitions? For this

The first successful overseas mergers and acquisitions of the Beidou industry. On its internationalization of the road, the chairman of the Guo Xinping playful with a "so far so" to describe. What are the reasons for overseas mergers and acquisitions? In this respect, 3sNews exclusive interview with the chairman of the Guo Xinping and hemisphere chairman Jonathan W. Ladd. Guo Xinping said that the core technology development is the first, internationalization is to let technology into China, and then take the product out of China.

In February this year, Beijing, the public think strong Technology AG invested 20 million U.S. dollars to acquire the Canadian hemisphere GNSS (hemisphere) company's high-precision product sector, the acquisition of content including international patents, talent, channels, brands, etc., this is the first successful overseas mergers and acquisitions of the Beidou industry quality enterprises.

In recent days, by "the opportunities and challenges faced by the international application of Beidou", the timing of the symposium was held in Beijing, and the 3sNews, the president of Guo Xinping and hemisphere GNSS chairman Jonathan W. Ladd (Jon), had an exclusive interview with Mr. Uncover the experience and inspiration that this successful takeover has brought to the development of the industry.

In the interview, the reporter noticed such a detail, the head of the industry leader of the halo of Jon took out his own business card, above has been printed on the "Together think Strong" logo. The former Novatel president and chief executive, the industry banner of Hexagon and Ashtech executives, has a new identity--a senior advisor to the company and chairman of hemisphere GNSS. How did Jon get into the crowd? As a private enterprise, why should all the people think strong to internationalization development? What are the difficulties in the process of merging hemisphere and how to solve them? This article will be one by one to uncover the story behind you.

Interview scene (left one for hemisphere GNSS chairman Jonathan, left third for the president of the Guo Xinping)

The reason of

mergers and acquisitions--internationalization changes value chain division of labor

China has a huge market and depth, for the development of Chinese enterprises to provide a broad space for development, do not rely on overseas markets. Such a vast local digestion space, why do we have to carry out overseas mergers and acquisitions? Guo Xinping's answer is both comprehensive and profound. He reviewed the history of the development of Chinese enterprises, and considered that in the initial stage of market opening, the economic environment was difficult, relying on the cost advantages such as labor force, resources, intellectual property rights and asymmetric valuation, to acquire the opportunity of Division of labor in the global value chain.

Economic globalization fundamentally changes the living environment of enterprises. Guo Xinping that High-tech enterprises can survive only if they are internationalized. Internationalization is an effective way for Chinese enterprises to seize the opportunity and seek long-term development. Because internationalization means companies have access to richer resources, broader markets, a more diverse talent supply and a more challenging innovation environment. "We used to sell things to foreigners with low costs," Guo Xinping said. Now, we are relying on technology, service and good brand. Chinese companies no longer rely on low costs, if we only rely on low-cost competition, is dead. We must change the role of Chinese companies in imitating the following, change the division of Chinese companies in the global value chain, and change the impression that "made in China" has left the world low added value. “

The process of

acquisition--target aiming at core technology

Guo Xinping The development of the enterprise analogy into a voyage, originally is sailing, now to do power voyage, the difference between the two is there is no engine. If the development of the enterprise simply depends on the industrial environment, called occasion, there is a saying, "A tornado, pigs can be heaven." But if the environment is not good, we need to rely on external forces to sail. Guo Xinping said, "The goal of our acquisition is to complement the core technology, for enterprises to install the power of the engine voyage, build an aircraft carrier in order to move to the world." ”

As a result, the company focused on the acquisition target of the core technology of the leading enterprises. At present, the core technology is still in the hands of a few international enterprises. Although many domestic companies also have a lot of technology, but the new technology from the laboratory to engineering to commercialization has a long way to go, and international enterprise product technology has withstood the long-term market test. For these reasons, Guo Xinping will eventually gaze at the world's top three high-precision satellite navigation and positioning chips and OEM board enterprises, while hemisphere GPS is the ideal acquisition object.

Among the leading international companies in the core technology, who is likely to become the object of acquisition? Hemisphere, the top three in the field of high precision, Guo Xinping that it is the only chance for Chinese companies to acquire. In addition, he and hemisphere have more than 10 years of friendship, mutual understanding.

After locking in the acquisition, Guo Xinping began to do collaborative analysis, which is the work that must be done before the acquisition. By analyzing market share, strategy, core technology, product capability, marketing and customer service, he believes that the hemisphere and the public are completely complementary.

The key to

mergers and acquisitions: International acquisition team to enhance trust

After the target is locked, in hemisphere has not announced the purchase news, Guo Xinping with the report to the United States and Canada, personally with the other side direct communication. Therefore, when the acquisition window of the arrival of the time, the public think strong immediately seize the opportunity.

At first, Jon was not involved. When the takeover intention was finalized, Guo Xinping began inviting international teams to join the takeover group. "Jon is very well known in the industry, has very good credit, and his involvement is very important." Guo Xinping said, "You know, we are from China, we are new, we are good or bad people, the other party does not understand." And there were more than 10 companies competing with us, and mergers were difficult, and many people had stereotypes about China because they didn't understand. ”

In this regard, Jon also admits, "at the beginning of the acquisition, hemisphere people are worried that they do not understand China, do not understand China's enterprises, but also about China to occupy the world's intellectual property rights are rife with rumors." People do not like change, change will affect people's lives, people feel that they do not adapt. They worry that Chinese companies are only buying them for intellectual property rights, and then they don't care. ”

Jon says he knows the hemisphere company well. When he was managing Novatel, the two companies were in a city-Calgary, Canada. So he was very knowledgeable about the people of the company, about their culture, about their technology. Hemisphere High Precision Department is a very good team, he understands Guo Xinping's idea, that is, the introduction of high-precision advanced technology to China, the right product needs to be brought to China's manufacturing, industrial design and engineering, and then through the hemisphere international sales platform, all products to the world. So when Guo Xinping asked him if he would like to make an acquisition together, he readily agreed to join the merger group.

The key to successful acquisition is to build trust, first to win the trust of the buyer. Jon recalls that it was Guo Xinping's sincerity that touched him and the object of the takeover. Guo Xinping willing to spend a lot of time and everyone exchanges, gradually won the other side of the trust, on the basis of mutual understanding, people's discomfort slowly disappeared. He will "promote Beidou navigation global layout development, become the space information world's leading enterprise" vision, share to this team, so that everyone is full of vision for the future. In this way, Jon and Guo Xinping led the International acquisition team to promote the integration of the two companies.

In the end, he won the top more than 10 international companies to bid, the acquisition of 20 million-dollar price includes a full range of high-precision products, 40 international patents and 30 international patent licensing of intellectual property, over the world over 50 countries and regions of the sales channels, as well as international well-known brands "hemisphere Trademark。 In the process, hemisphere engineers did not lose one person, it can be said that the combination of thought and strong achieved a perfect overseas acquisition.

Behind the merger case-the Beidou is the dream of the world

After the completion of the acquisition, hemisphere GPS was renamed hemisphere GNSS, which means that the new company's products are no longer limited to GPs. Speaking here, Guo Xinping said, when he was at the beginning of the acquisition, he and the other management team, engineers to explore the company's vision, the Beidou became an important factor to impress them. In fact, the Beidou is the world's dream. The operation of Beidou is an opportunity not only for enterprises in China and even the world. Because the Beidou is the newest and most modern equipment system, with the most advanced signal, it can do what many other systems cannot.

In the current situation of hemisphere GNSS, Jon believes that everyone is very satisfied with the status quo, two things can be explained. First, in the last nearly a year of the takeover, no one on the team left. Not only that, but also constantly attract all aspects of talent to join, even from the competitors of high-end technical personnel and marketing talent is also attracted to come. They are willing to give up the stability of the well-known companies to join the growing team, just because they believe that the Big Dipper vision and dream, can bring new creations and achievements. Second, the team is now very busy, and is working to develop a new generation of Beidou receiver technology and software, the engineers are not even to go home. Because the opportunity here, we all want to be steadfast and focus on doing the current work.

Guo Xinping that this merger does not explain that all the people think strong has been completely ashore, and does not mean that the public think strong in the internationalization of the road to a great success. He specifically used an English to describe the current situation, "so far so well", the future development there is a gradual running-in stage, synergy and matching work is not an overnight, still need time to test. The internationalization of the public think strong road is still very long, the overseas mergers and acquisitions is just a good start.

Future Market Outlook

Now, the focus of the North bucket of strong products, main high-precision and professional market. In today's "CHINACM China Precision" Construction plan, the Beidou system positioning accuracy from 10 meters to the centimeter level, and covers the global operation. Based on the Beidou system, to provide global users with completely free of the precision of the Asian-meter-level accuracy of free open services, as well as decimeter-level, CM-level precision value-added licensing services, to promote the Beidou product in-depth more areas of application. To form a north-dominated, compatible with GPS and other systems of the global satellite navigation market new pattern.

Jon says hemisphere GNSS will provide a new generation of chips compatible with Beidou, GLONASS, Galileo and GPS, fusing signals from these four world-class systems to achieve optimal stability. At the same time, there is a dedicated team responsible for the use of a strong handheld devices such as the western version of the market, marketing international markets, such as South America, Europe and North America. These technologies are attractive to emerging markets, mainly in the area of data acquisition and measurement. International core technology into China, and then bring China's products to the international market, this is the best model.

Jon believes that at present everyone is working together to meet the opportunities brought by the Beidou. Even though the status quo is imperfect, it is moving in a benign direction. From a commercial point of view, everyone hopes that the Beidou globalization process can be speeded up. Market research shows that the Beidou will become the most active GNSS market in the next 10 years. In the face of such an opportunity, all the people think strong has been ready for the development of Beidou, using a variety of technology research and development of various products. In Guo Xinping's view, to use the hemisphere GNSS in more than 50 countries in the international channel and strength, will be the strong products to the world. If synergy is not good, it becomes a burden;

The overall layout of

The investment of research and development, the exerting force of the market, make the combination of thinking strong face huge financial pressure. Guo Xinping in this respect, but also revealed that in the four quarterly results will be presented a different from the previous report card. He admits that at present the Beidou is still in the early stage, the difficulties faced by Beidou enterprises are temporary, the whole industry will be in a painful transition. He also witty preaching, the transformation process is like a V word, the people think Strong is the earliest into the ditch, but also the first to climb out of the ditch.

Guo Xinping holds the idea that businesses should store water at source, and that water quality will be compromised if it is fetched downstream. Strengthening core technology means storing water at source. Enterprises should not only have today's competitiveness, but also for tomorrow's competition leave room. As at the outset, the 2007-year-old, when the Chinese position was released, was already planning China's precision. 2011, China's position platform online, together with the release of High-precision single point positioning technology---ippp. Now after the acquisition of hemisphere, the time is ripe, then released the Chinese precision. Beidou high-precision Market, will be the most important future of the market.

We have witnessed difficulties and crises, and seen the future and hope. Through the transformation, it has found the right way for development, namely "1-2-1" strategic layout-a core competitiveness, two business direction and a service platform. One of the core competencies is the core components of Beidou; two business orientations, namely high-precision applications and mobile interconnection applications; A service platform is the navigation and location service platform. In this strategic layout, the public think strong in the gradual exerting force, "so far so well" is only a smile on the road ahead, but also rely on step to continue to go on, in order to laugh to the last