LeEco has announced that its Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jia Yueting has become the Chairman of the Board and the Nominating Committee of the leading smartphone maker Coolpad on August 5th. This is after LeEco turned into the largest shareholder of Coolpad on June 17th, with a total of 28.9 percent stake of Coolpad.
On Monday (August 8th), Coolpad’s stock price spiked over 20% compared with that of August 5th, thanks to the news.
“LeEco+Coolpad” is expected be the black horse of the saturated global smartphone market this year with an estimated sales of 50 to 60 million units, becoming one of the top four players in the industry in China among companies such as Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi. It plans to become the NO.1 smartphone supplier in 2017 with an annual sales of 100 million handsets.
Both brands have strong presence in India where Coolpad is already a household name in smartphone and LeEco is welcomed for its smartphone and smart TV products as well as its heavy investments in the country.
This move came after LeEco bought 11 percent share of Coolpad with HK$1.047 billion (US$135 million) in June this year in addition to a HK$2.74 billion (US$353 million) purchase of 17.9 percent shares last June. With a total of 28.9 percent stake in Coolpad, LeEco has become the sole controlling shareholder of the company.
Coolpad’s technologies and patents will speed up LeEco’s global expansion while LeEco’s ecosystem of “platform, content, hardware and application” will be available to existing Coolpad users that are as many as 100 million.
