October 13, 2017, Verizon Headquarters.

"God, America's tech industry is going to be ruined by the decision-makers of that bunch of pig brains, no, it's an insult to the pigs!!"

The company's CEO, Lowell McAdam, was furious when he read a report submitted by someone below, which was a recent big data report on the number and growth of Azure-5 phones flowing into North America from Mexico.

Data shows that more than a million Azure-5 units have flowed into the United States in the last month alone, and what scares Lowell McAdam even more is the growth trend behind it, which means that it will continue to grow in the future, which means that there will be more than 12 million units in a year without any coping strategy.

As one of the four major operators in North America and the wireless communication service provider with the largest number of users, Verizon has this extremely high signal coverage, has an LTE network covering the whole United States, and this company is also one of the main sales channels of Azure mobile phones, is an important partner of the Cote d'Azur company, and is also a major advertiser of Bluestar Technology.

In short, there is a strong partnership.

At present, a large number of unlocked Azure-5 smartphones are being resold from Mexico to North America, which has caused Verizon to lose a lot, not only to him, but also to another major operator, AT&T Group, in fact, the four major operators in North America have suffered losses to varying degrees.

This has to talk about the sales of Azure series smartphones in the North American market, Azure phones are divided into unlocked and unlocked versions, and the other is retail or contract versions.

The retail or unlocked version of the Azure mobile phone is the single flagship store established by the Cote d'Azur itself, which is a buyout product, without contract constraints, and of course it is more expensive.

Most international brands are full-band, and of course Azure smartphones are also, with dual-band, three-band, etc., supporting automatic network switching, whether in China or North America, as long as the card is plugged in, it can be used, of course, there must be a premise, to be within the signal coverage.

However, the shipment of the retail version of the Cote d'Azur's own physical stores only accounts for a little more than 30% of the sales of Azure phones in the United States, and nearly 70% of the shipments are completed through several major operators and other channel dealers in North America, which means that contract phones account for 70% of sales.

As for why Côte d'Azur's own channel retail stores can't compete with local operators in North America, it's because they sell cheaper, and their sales network is huge, plus they have to play according to other people's rules of the game.

Contract machines are cheaper than retail versions, but are they really cheaper?

It's really two or three hundred dollars cheaper in terms of intuitive price, but it's actually more expensive.

Basically, many developed countries are dominated by mobile phones sold by operators, while in China, on the contrary, retail channels are the mainstay.

However, in other countries, most operators control the entire mobile phone sales channel, and it is not easy for Côte d'Azur's own channels to leverage close to 30% of the North American market.

The contract machine in North America can be understood as a similar activity in China to charge phone bills and send mobile phones, and Verizon's Azure contract machine requires a two-year event, in other words, if consumers in North America buy this contract machine, it means that the minimum consumption amount must be guaranteed during the contract period.

For example, the monthly package fee is $78.2, that is, whether the user uses a 50 yuan phone bill or a 78.2 dollar phone bill, the package fee of 78.2 US dollars will be deducted every month for two years, that is, the minimum phone fee is 1876.8 US dollars, and additional fees will be charged if it is exceeded.

It seems that the operator sells the contract machine cheaper than the retail version, but in fact it is more expensive, as long as the user buys the contract machine, the operator can guarantee a stable income of 1876.8 US dollars for at least the next two years, and only a lot more.

In addition to the operator's own channel advantages, the vast majority of mass consumers in North America do not know how to count, which may also account for a lot of factors.

On the contrary, they think that the contract machine is affordable, and they can only say that happy education is good, otherwise how will the capitalists of the United States reap the IQ tax.

However, no matter how stupid the mass consumers in North America are, they can understand that the king will impose tariffs and the price of products will skyrocket, and no matter how much the operators want to make profits, they will not be less able to make the numbers look better.

Local consumers can clearly see that a mobile phone has soared from more than $2,000 to nearly $4,000.

Now, Mexico is reselling Azure-5 phones, which are dozens of dollars cheaper than the price of contract phones before the additional tax, which is equivalent to more than a thousand dollars cheaper all at once, and there is no minimum contract limit on how much phone bill or other value-added services must be spent.

Even if the local consumer is a pig and the IQ is urgent, they know which one is more affordable.

But for North American operators like Verizon, it was miserable, and every time they resold an Azure-5 in Mexico, they had to lose a profit that they should have earned, and the profits were diverted by the gray forces of Mexico and local gangs.

The stock market is not deceiving, and in the past few days, the stock prices of several major North American operators such as Verizon and AT&T Group have plummeted neatly.

Verizon's stock price has plummeted 18.9% in the past few days, from $220.8 billion to only $179.07 billion, and AT&T Group is even worse because the company has a larger share, so it has plummeted 20.2%, from $207 billion to $165.18 billion.

With more than 60% of the North American market, it's no surprise that the Azure series of smartphones has had such a big impact on local operators.

What makes them uneasy is that there is a high probability that the stock price will plummet further, and investors in the United States are extremely realistic, before the Nielsen report came out, the stock prices of several major operators in North America were quite strong, and the report directly pulled the crotch.

If the next Q4 financial report comes out, the performance will be impacted, and investors will definitely suffer a further plunge as soon as they look at this spicy-eyed performance statement.

It is not unreasonable for Lowell McAdam to be angry, he plans to step down as CEO next year, but he understands that Wang is so tossed, how can the KPI be completed? How do you get options and stock dividend rewards? Can you not be angry?

But he still calmed down the anger in his heart as soon as possible, in order to be able to close the curtain perfectly, for the KPI performance, for the option stock dividend reward, it is more important to solve the problem than the meaningless incompetent rage.

This matter must be resolved as soon as possible, judging from the current situation, the Q4 financial report will definitely not meet the expectations of Wall Street analysts, but if the problem can be solved before the Q4 financial report is disclosed, curb the scalping in Mexico, and add a long-term positive relative good news to the bad news, there is still a chance to complete the KPI, and the stock price will slowly rise back.

Half an hour later, Lowell McAdam held an impromptu external conference call, which was attended by fellow operators such as AT&T Group and Sparint.

As soon as I completed the connection, I heard the scolding voices of my peers.

"How did we choose such a leader? And to endure him for two years and three months, is this God's divine punishment for Magnesium? On the call, Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T Group, spoke in anticipation of a sense of powerless despair and a bit of a breakdown.

Although they were all in competition, they were now discussing together.

There's no way, this wave of commotion that Wang jumped out to do not only smashed the rice bowls in the hands of each family, but also brought the pot with everyone to serve.

Not only a few major operators, but a series of high-tech companies in North America have not been spared, IBM, Saifushi, Qualcomm and other high-tech companies that have close cooperation with the Cote d'Azur or Bluestar Technology have all suffered disasters.

Lowell McAdam did not hate Luo Sheng because of the large-scale resale of Azure-5 in Mexico, nor did they scold the Cote d'Azur for being inauthentic.

Because they know very well that the problem is not Luo Sheng at all, even if they hate and scold?

Luo Sheng and the Cote d'Azur have only done what is in his and his company's interests, and compared to Wang, the elites of North America's technology and financial circles know exactly what the problem is.

The problem lies in the king of understanding.

Lowell said: "Let's make preparations at both ends, K Street should increase its efforts, in addition, we still need to talk to Luo Sheng, I will personally go to interview Luo Sheng, no, it is best to contact a few more Silicon Valley technology giants who have major business dealings with it, and call Samuel and others to go together, so that the possibility of reaching a new consensus will be higher." ”

Randall replied helplessly: "That's the only way, I'll be responsible for this side of K Street, good luck old man." ”

Lowell sighed, "Well, I hope so. ”

……

Chinese Net