The world of cell phones is so vast and encompasses so many brands that there is always room for surprising moves to happen, one way or another. The last one is made by Meizu, a Chinese mobile phone company that already had an official presence in our country, then retired and changed hands. And who bought it? So Volvo.
Let’s see, not exactly, apologies for the terrific summary we marked with two words. The purchase was made by Geely, a company of Chinese origin which is, among others, the largest shareholder of monsters like Mercedes-Benz, which is a co-owner of Smart and which also holds the majority of Volvo’s share capital. A real engine giant that has now been made together with Meizu and, of course, also with Flyme for Car.
Geely strengthens its smartphone division with Meizu, and incidentally keeps an interface for vehicles
Anyone outside of the automotive world will ignore the fact that a Chinese automaker is the major shareholder of Mercedes-Benz but, as we mentioned in the introduction, it’s not the only brand under its economic umbrella. Geely also bought Volvo from Ford Motor Company in 2010 and is co-owner of Smart.
Other vehicle brands owned by Geely are Polestar, Proton, London EV and, watch out for this lotus. Of course, they also have their own brand, Geely, whose main sales are in their native China. Once we’ve decided who Geely is, which is also listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, it’s time to talk about the deal that’s finally been done.
Already in January, it was announced that Geely was looking for a way to sneak into the world of mobile phones through the purchase of Meizu. The two companies have since been negotiating and facing each other with the various regulatory bodies, and eventually the purchase was made official. Geely now owns the Meizu brandwhich a few years ago officially marketed several of its phones in Europe.
With the purchase of Meizu, Geely also secures full ownership of the team responsible for developing ‘Flyme for car’, the version of Meizu’s proprietary cloak that serves as an “infotainment” system for vehicles. From now on, Meizu is part of the Geely framework and will serve as a reinforcement for Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology, a company created ex-professed in 2021 by Geely for the manufacture of mobile phones.
We’ll see if this acquisition helps Geely build a brand like Meizu, which in recent years has resisted coming to life with models like the Meizu Zero but it has not regained the luster of previous years. Or who knows, maybe it will end up integrating into the Geely structure to encourage the creation of a new brand in the near future. We will be attentive.
Through | ArenaEV
