Millet chief scientist resigns: R & D is better than storytelling |

According to 2019 adjusted earnings, millet P/E ratio should reach 27~34 times, while Apple's current P/E ratio is 18.34 times. Meanwhile, millet's marketing cost in 2017 is 5.2 billion yuan, which is 2 billion yuan higher than R&D expenses.

Investor News reporter Liu Luyang

Lei Jun's establishment of Xiaomi has been the eighth year since.

In these 8 years, Xiaomi experienced the “growth-recession-reversal” development path. It completed the transition from start-up companies to technology “unicorns.” In the first half of 2018, Xiaomi became a hot spot for the entire capital market. On May 3, Xiaomi Group, which has been rumbling about listed rumors, admitted that Xiaomi has officially submitted IPO application documents. With the continuous update of the prospectus, more details about Xiaomi's listing have gradually surfaced.

However, at the end of April of this year, Lei Jun’s internal e-mail made the list of things that should have been all happy and intriguing.

The contents of the internal mail mainly include two aspects: On the one hand, it is re-emphasizing the commitment of all users at the Xiaomi 6X conference: The comprehensive net profit of Xiaomi's overall hardware business will never exceed 5%; On the other hand, the CFO's weekly appointment The fund was the senior vice president of the company; Co-founders Zhou Guangping and Huang Jiangji (KK) resigned from the company.

And Zhou Guangping and Huang Jiangji, one of the eight co-founders of Xiaomi, left at this moment and whether there was conflict between Xiaomi’s internal senior management level. To this question, a reporter from “Investor” asked the relevant department of Xiaomi Brand. The person in charge, but the other party said 'the company is still in silence, many things are not yet answered.'

Millet grows large rice

According to relevant disclosures, Xiaomi performed a total of six rounds of financing during these years. In addition to round A, rounds B, C, E, and F included a number of small rounds, totalling a total of US$1.58 billion; If the price conversion, round A investors (amount to 10.25 million US dollars) after the completion of the E round, the added value has exceeded 500 times (based on 0.1 billion US dollars as the basic calculation basis); F in the end of F2, Xiaomi valuation It has reached 40 billion U.S. dollars. If we say 'make money', it is actually not an IPO. We can understand this as 'millet's luck', so when some people say 'millet becomes bigger,' many early investors are Laughed.

In the prospectus disclosed this time, Lei Jun holds approximately 31.4% of the shares. If Xiaomi's market value reaches 100 billion U.S. dollars, Lei Jun’s worth will reach 31.4 billion U.S. dollars, ranking more than Wang Jianlin in the Forbes Rich List. Li Ka-shing.

According to Morgan Stanley, one of Xiaomi Group's Hong Kong IPO-led contractors, the fair value of Xiaomi is between US$65 billion and US$85 billion. Based on 2019 adjusted expected earnings, its price-earnings ratio should reach 27~34 times. The current market value of Apple is 913.17 billion U.S. dollars, with a P/E ratio of 18.34 times.

However, under the prevailing market conditions, there are also some people who are worried about the excessive valuation. Chan Meng Capital executive director Shen Meng has publicly stated to the media: 'The millet's halo is bigger, it is also an Apple or Google imitator. The revenues and valuations now exposed are too high, especially the P/E ratio figures are too high.'

Chief scientist resigns

In the personnel change e-mail, Lei Jun said that the two founders chose a new lifestyle for personal reasons. ' However, the reporter found that the departure of Zhou Guangping and Huang Jiangji was as early as six months ago. It began to appear.

On November 24, 2017, Xiaomi made the biggest personnel adjustment in three years. Lei Jun himself, Xiao Bin No.2 figure Lin Bin, and millet marketing founder Li Wanqiang all changed their jobs. Lei Jun delivered his directly managed R&D and supply chain work. Responsible for Lin Bin, Lin Bin served as the president of Xiaomi Technology and also served as the general manager of the mobile phone.

The change means that Lei Jun, who took over the job from Xiaomi’s vice president Zhou Guangping on May 18 of last year, handed over the mobile phone business to Lin Bin after a year and a half. Six months later, Xiaomi appointed the CFO’s weekly senior vice president. President, Zhou Guangping Huang Jiangji resigned.

In addition, Xiaomi also promoted a number of 'Zhao Zhuangpai' executives. All of this has a common purpose: to prepare Xiaomi for listing.

However, the departure of the elderly is certainly a good thing for Xiaomi’s new students? Because the recent departure of Baidu’s chief scientist, Wu Enda, and the CEO Lu Qi’s, the impact of its market value evaporation has not yet dissipated, and there is no chief scientist’s millet. Which way?

R & D costs less than Huawei's 4%

Is the departure of the chief scientist able to explain the slacking of Xiaomi's R&D work? This may not necessarily be. However, through the financial statements, Xiaomi's sincerity as a self-proclaimed tech company is indeed somewhat puzzling.

According to Xiaomi’s prospectus, the company’s R&D expenses in 2017 was RMB 3.2 billion, which is still at a relatively low level in the industry. Taking into account Xiaomi as a top technology company in China, R&D expenses are only 3.57 of the Huawei mobile phone competitor. %. Recently, Huawei released a heavy technology GPU Turbo, whose research and development cost was nearly 90 billion yuan. In contrast, millet's research and development expenses for three consecutive years is not as much as the fraction of this technology. And in Xiaomi's research and development expenses Employee compensation also accounts for a portion.

Because of this, some troubles were also found on Xiaomi.

May 10, Coolpad began to rise in revolt, announced that the millet variety of mobile phones infringed its patent-infringing required to stop selling millet phone, compensation for economic losses, and said it might take the judicial process.

After carefully studying the Xiaomi prospectus, we can see that in 2017, Xiaomi’s mobile phone revenue was 80.6 billion yuan, and intellectual property payment expenses was 3.4 billion yuan, accounting for 4.2% of the revenue. From the average industry level, Xiaomi’s company type was Taiwan's mobile phone patent rate should account for 8% to 10%, that is, patent fees should be handed over 8 billion yuan, which is much worse with the disclosure of millet, indicating that Millet may still have a lot of patent fees have not been paid .

If the patent problem cannot be solved, Xiaomi will enter the European and American markets in the future, and the intellectual property issue will become a time bomb. If the patent is purchased alone, Xiaomi’s profit space and valuation will be greatly reduced. Some analysts believe that, In 2017, Xiaomi’s average mobile phone profit is 11 US dollars. According to the average industry level, the company pays the patent fee. The current average price of Xiaomi is 900 yuan. If you remove the royalty fee of 60 yuan, then every cell phone of Xiaomi has almost no profit. of.

Lei Jun was previously known as 'Reebs' by netizens because he was dressed in a similar costume to Jobs at a press conference. He is good at telling stories and packing his own 'Reebs'. It has been a sensation to lead Xiaomi from 0 to 1 over the years. Admiration. However, relying on marketing to tell stories is clearly not enough for a company that aims to become the world's No. 1 technology company. Xiaomi, as an extremely rich local company, carries many Chinese people’s pride. Can Xiaomi after listing be capable? Get rid of scientific research shortcomings to become a genuine technology company? We will wait and see.

2016 GoodChinaBrand | ICP: 12011751 | China Exports