It is said that Gree recently took the initiative to reconcile US air-conditioning requests, hoping the two sides on the current 12 cases of intellectual property lawsuits to reach a settlement.
A few days ago, "Securities Daily" correspondent to verify the Gree and the United States.Micro Group (50.650, -0.59, -1.15%) PR official said: 'need to verify, the details are not yet clear.' And Gree (41.830, -0.43, -1.02%) Insiders said they did not hear about it.
Informed sources said: 'At present, the relevant lawsuit, the two sides are in initial contact, but because the dispute lasted for a long time and more complicated, the two sides can reach an agreement is still not sure.
Gree and the United States are the two largest white giants in China and even in the world. They have been fighting continuously for years and they have been tearing open their secrets for years. In recent years, with the intense competition in the industry, the struggle between the two giants has escalated. , Now the two giants can put aside the past, right and wrong, really come together?
US Gree reconciliation?
On the issue of reconciliation between Gree and the United States, although neither side responded positively, some insider disclosed that the two sides are indeed already in contact.
A Midea Group executives told the Securities Daily: "It is possible to reach a settlement. From the mutual court case of the two companies, reconciliation is the best way to solve the problem."
Last month, Gree and Midea also put aside their grudges for the first time and established an alliance to protect intellectual property.
Over the years, Gree and the United States has been 'fooling around', from sales to patents, who never bow to whom the two giants head Dong Mingzhu and Fang Hongbo and even repeatedly each other with the two Giant's technology upgrade and the scale of expansion, both sides step on each other's territory, the competition is more intense.
Core Rui Wei (original Thomson Reuters) recently released the 2016 annual patent report shows that in the global home appliance patent list on the United States, Gree, Haier swept the top three.Of the top ten companies in 9 from Asia. In 2015, only three of the top 10 came from Asia.
Gree and the United States in the large-scale acquisition of patents, so that Gree and the United States frequently fired around the patent.
The most recent round seems to play the most fierce, involving both parties in the 12 lawsuit.In June this year, Gree filed a suit against US air-conditioning infringement of its utility model patents and claim 50 million yuan, since the United States in Guangzhou, Suzhou and other places on the Gree initiated 4 lawsuits, claims over 50 million yuan accumulated claims.Reporter was informed that Gree and the United States this round of patent cases around the cumulative total of up to 12 cases, the cumulative claims amounted to several hundred million dollars.
Home appliance industry expert Liu Buchen said: 'Grievances and the United States have been over the past few months, the outside world so far did not see the court hearing, therefore, does not rule out the possibility of both parties to reach an understanding in private. In addition, the previous few patent litigation, indeed There are cases of mutual infringement. In the international community, mutual licensure occurs frequently because of mutual infringement. The so-called 'understanding reached' is in fact mutually patent-granting. '
He said: 'The two major rivals have all joined together as members of the patent alliance, reflecting that both attach great importance to patented technology.'
The gap between the two giants is shrinking
In addition to patents, the two giants in the performance also appeared you chase me rush trend.
Recently, Gree and Midea Group also disclosed three quarterly reports, the two leading companies have shown substantial revenue and net profit growth.
Among them, the first three quarters of Gree achieved operating income of 110.875 billion yuan, the net profit of 15.461 billion yuan; Midea Group in the first three quarters of operating income of 186.949 billion yuan, the net profit of 14.998 billion yuan.
From the three quarterly point of view, the United States and the Group in the revenue scale to more than Gree, but Gree net profit margin slightly better.The two giants in the performance gap gradually narrowed.
In addition, we can see from the newspaper that Midea Group's business diversified more smoothly. In the first half of this year, Midea Group's business composition accounted for 41.47% for consumer appliances, 40.03% for air conditioners, and 20.160% to -0.01% for robots Relatively 10.89%. Relatively beautiful, Gree main income is still relatively simple, in the first half Gree Gree air-conditioning revenue accounted for 78.03% of total revenue.
In the stock price performance, the two listed companies also showed you chase me rush situation, both share price at the same time recently hit a record high .As of November 2 closing, Gree Electric Appliance reported 42.26 yuan / share, the total market capitalization 2542 billion yuan; Midea Group reported 51.24 yuan / share, the total market value of 335.5 billion yuan.