LIGHTNOVELONLINE 724 [Autobot Transformation]
Song Weiyang always likes to make some big news. Not long after he and Mr. Liu had a flirtation on CCTV, the sensational news spread across the country that Song Weiyang bought a car!
The price of this car is very expensive, costing a total of 650 million US dollars.
Once upon a time, General Motors ranked first among the Fortune 500 companies in the world, and within a few years there was news that it was about to file for bankruptcy. Before the application for bankruptcy and reorganization was approved, GM was eager to sell assets, and its main sales items were the two brands of Hummer and Saab.
The fuel consumption of the Hummer is too high. Under the influence of the global economic crisis, rising oil prices, and environmental public opinion, the sales of Hummer cars are very bleak. GM sold the tweeters for a long time, and it was difficult to find a successor, until the state-owned enterprise Tengzhong Heavy Industry of Song Weiyang's hometown made a move.
It is a pity that Tengzhong Heavy Industry is a state-owned enterprise, and cross-border acquisitions must be approved. After protracted negotiations, the domestic approval was stuck.
And what Song Weiyang bought was Saab!
This car brand is headquartered in Sweden. It used to make airplanes. It started to make cars after World War II. It was fully acquired by General Motors in 2000.
There are not many buyers of Hummer, but there are quite a few buyers interested in Saab.
But with the global economic crisis and GM's deep debt, potential buyers wanted to keep prices down. GM offered a sky-high price of 800 million U.S. dollars, and buyers landed to pay back the money one after another, and some even countered with a price of 300 million U.S. dollars.
China's BAIC also wanted to buy it, but unfortunately, in the approval process, the scale of the acquisition was suppressed by the higher authorities, and they couldn't even come up with 300 million US dollars.
It was under such circumstances that Song Weiyang, who had cashed out a large amount of funds from Google in advance, suddenly stood up and said that he was willing to invest 450 million US dollars to take over the deal. This made GM very happy. After only two symbolic rounds of negotiations, they couldn't wait to sign the contract, for fear that Song Weiyang would go back on his word.
Song Weiyang borrowed several executives from Geely Automobile and BYD Automobile as consultants, and went to Sweden to reorganize the company's business. He closed down two automobile factories in one go, and spent a lot of severance pay for the employees. At the same time, Song Weiyang decided to shift the focus of his business to China and reached a strategic cooperation with his own Tesla.
Six months later, Song Weiyang, as the chairman of Saab Automobile, signed a transfer agreement with the boss of BAIC in Beijing.
BAIC spent 200 million US dollars to buy the intellectual property rights of two Saab models (old models before 2005), as well as three complete vehicle platforms and power systems.
The public opinion was a sensation!
Originally, when Song Weiyang paid 450 million US dollars to buy Saab, many people in the country said that he was taken advantage of. Who would have thought that in the past half a year, a technical asset that was disassembled was resold for 150 million, which is equivalent to taking Saab for only 300 million US dollars.
Now it's the turn of BAIC to be sprayed as being taken advantage of.
Although ridiculed by the public, BAIC is also very happy. You know, they spent 200 million U.S. dollars in another time and space, and Song Weiyang gave them a 50 million discount. Buying directly from GM will definitely not give you a discount.
BAIC now only spent 150 million US dollars to add two models of BAIC Saab, and even got the vehicle platform and power system.
After another six months, Song Weiyang injected capital into Saab again to acquire Tesla in China.
Dealing with the Swedes is such a pain in the ass they're so stubborn they don't listen to them a lot of the time. Even if Song Weiyang is the chairman, if he makes a decision in person, he will be reprimanded, saying that he does not understand technology, emotion, and Saab's consistent philosophy.
Song Weiyang fired the CEO in a rage, and then a bunch of executives and engineers resigned. What about the global economic crisis, anyway, Sweden's high-welfare state, I am not happy here, so I don't need to kneel down and be angry with you capitalists!
This thing is a pit, no wonder GM can't wait to sell it.
You must know that in another time and space, even if GM has acquired Saab wholly, even if GM is facing bankruptcy, Saab still holds its noble head high. When researching and developing new models, it is clear that GM has a mature navigation system, and Saab has to pay for its own research and development, just to show that its navigation system is different from GM.
In Europe, for a long time, Saab owners have regarded Volvo owners as nouveau riche, and they have their own elegance and feelings.
But in Song Weiyang's view, this kind of sentiment is out of place for a bunch of dilapidated old nobles. You really insist on yourself, and you also learn from the craftsman spirit of Japanese people. You make a lot of bells and whistles, and the resulting cars have various minor problems.
Of course, Saab also has its own advantages, which can be described in one sentence: only after you have a car accident do you know why Saab is so expensive.
Solid, durable, safe and secure.
Song Weiyang was not intimidated by the large number of resignation letters. Anyway, during the global economic crisis, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Volkswagen, Fiat, Toyota, Honda... a bunch of car companies laid off employees. GM has closed 20 factories in one go, Ford is considering selling Volvo, Chrysler has directly closed 30 factories, Honda is about to announce its withdrawal from F1, Fiat's more than 40,000 employees are on long vacation, and Volkswagen's Russian factories have all stopped production.
You resigned, I spent money to recruit again, and now there are professionals begging for jobs everywhere!
Throughout 2009, Song Weiyang spent most of his time in Sweden, personally completing the renovation of Saab.
The Swedish media criticized Song Weiyang's nonsense behavior, and then the Western European media followed suit, and many old Saab car owners publicly protested.
The question is, what does it matter to you people?
The trade union even ran out to make a fuss, saying that Song Weiyang could not close the two factories without reason, causing a large number of auto workers to lose their jobs. They also organized demonstrations for these workers who had received severance pay, blocked Song Weiyang at the company headquarters to force negotiations, and even the Swedish officials were under pressure to communicate with Song Weiyang.
The consultants borrowed from Geely and BYD, who had never seen such a scene, were frightened and at a loss.
Song Weiyang, however, smiled and called the union leaders, worker representatives, and Swedish officials, and conducted a multi-party negotiation in an amicable manner.
The result of the negotiation is as follows: one of the two factories that have been closed will be restored (there is actually one in Sweden), but it will be transformed into an electric vehicle production line. During the renovation period, workers are equivalent to paid vacations, and the severance pay previously given is regarded as advance wages. At the same time, Song Weiyang personally donated 10 million US dollars for the cause of environmental protection in Sweden. Donate $1 million to union causes in Sweden.
Immediately afterwards, Song Weiyang gave speeches everywhere in Europe, promoting energy conservation and environmental protection, and calling for the protection of the earth's ecological environment. His environmental protection organizations in Europe were throwing money like crazy, and those environmental protection organizations praised him one after another. Song Weiyang turned himself into a high-end environmentalist.
By the end of the second year, electric cars with Saab Tesla on their buttocks began to be officially sold in Europe.
Song Weiyang continued to promote environmental protection, continued to give money to environmental protection organizations, and at the same time crazily posted soft articles to build momentum. This newly designed economical version of Tesla is struggling to gain a foothold in Europe, and sales are in a steady and rising trend.
It's a pity that too much money was spent in the early stage, and the economical Tesla will definitely lose money in Europe for several years, and the construction of charging piles is also a long-term and complicated investment. It even attracted collective resistance from the traditional auto industry and oil companies. They did not dare to oppose it publicly, but made various secret stumbling blocks, which made Tesla's charging network unable to expand in many areas.
Then seek new allies, Song Weiyang can still be scared off by such a trivial matter?
For several months, Song Weiyang has been negotiating with power companies in various European countries, dragging the power companies into the water to compete with traditional gas stations. Dr. Ma turned into a big fool, full of economic crisis, consumption downgrade, energy conservation and emission reduction, saving the earth, and described the beautiful picture of the future world full of charging piles replacing gas stations.
If charging piles can replace gas stations, what is the annual profit?
Power companies have entered the market one after another, pushing forward the laying of the charging network with difficulty under the pressure of the traditional energy industry.
In the European and American markets, whether it is Saab or Tesla, Song Weiyang has made up his mind to spend 10 years to acquire Saab at a loss. The real purpose is to make up for Tesla's technical shortcomings, such as car chassis and vehicle platform. .
Where did the lost money come from?
Chinese market!
This approach is the same as Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business. It spends huge sums of money to acquire foreign companies and uses the profits from the Chinese market to subsidize foreign countries. Don't laugh at a hundred steps if you take fifty steps. If you succeed, you can boast of your strategic vision. If you fail, you will be fooled and taken advantage of.
Mr. Song Weiyang, a great environmentalist, changed when he returned to China. He never mentioned environmental protection issues, but publicized the safety of Saab cars everywhere, focused on the mid-to-high-end market of 300,000 to 2 million, and produced all gasoline-powered Saabs. Moreover, he also shut down Saab's North American factory, built a large-scale automobile manufacturing base in China, and transferred the manufacturing and sales of Saab automobiles (gasoline models) to China.
Moreover, in order to expand Saab's brand influence in China, Song Weiyang looked for cooperation with Chinese car companies everywhere, sold all Saab models before 2005, and packaged and sold the power system and other supporting technologies.
Because Saab has a bunch of high-level resignations, including the design director. Song Weiyang also hired Giles Taylor with a high salary as Saab's chief designer, and even gave this guy 5 million shares of the company.
Giles Taylor worked as a designer at Citroen and has since been a core designer at Jaguar. If Song Weiyang does not poach him, this person will jump to Rolls-Royce as the design director, responsible for designing Rolls-Royce Phantom, Dawn, Phantom (new generation) and other models.
By 2012, the Saab Milestone designed by Giles Taylor had achieved unprecedented success in the Chinese market, although its sales in Europe and the United States were not good.
This thing is luxurious and dignified, and its landing price in China is more than 8 million yuan. Not only did Song Weiyang open the Saab Milestone every time he went out, Ma Xiaoyun, Xiao Ma Ge, Ding Sanshi, Liu Brothers, Shen Nanpeng, Zhang Chaoyang, Ding Ming, Rebs and other business leaders, as well as Ma Whampoa's Many student bosses were also fooled by Song Weiyang into buying new cars.
Such a celebrity effect, coupled with the excellence of Saab Milestone, immediately became the new favorite of the rich in China.
By the way, Song Weiyang also changed the Saab logo, the old logo was too ugly!
In Europe and the United States, it was not until 2016, relying on various technological breakthroughs, that the Tesla electric car finally turned a profit, gained wide recognition in the market, and actively fed back to China.
From 2009 to 2015, Song Weiyang devoted a lot of energy to building cars. Some media even joked that Song Weiyang has changed from a leader in technology, a pioneer in the Internet, and a dominator in the beverage industry to a complete car man.
(End of the book.)
(There are also a few postscripts.)