The King is dead. Long live the King.

choi

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_is_dead._Long_live_the_King.

In the left lower corner of the front page, today Financial Times (FT) proclaims, "Taiwan's HTC has over taken Nokia in terms of market value, highlighting a shift in the mobile phone industry as new entrants have challenged the Finnish company's dominance. Credit rating agency Moody's on Thursday cut Nokia's rating, citing its weakening market position and uncertainty over its transition to Microsoft's Window Phone software. Report, page 13.

(1) Robin Kwong, Smartphone Growth Helps HTC Surge Past Nokia in Market Value. FT, Apr 8, 2011, p 13 (title in print).
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78586c86-6108-11e0-8899-00144feab49a.html
("HTC has become the third most valuable smartphone maker" aftrer Apple and Samsung)



(2) A commentary in The Lex Column (p 12)  of the same newspaper:

"HTC

"Remember Creative Technology? The Singaporean purveyor of digital music devices was considered a leader in the field until it was pureed by Apple. The company, now worth one-twelfth of its peak market capitalisation of S$2.3bn six years ago, has printed losses for 16 of the 24 quarters since then.

"Its mistakes seem to have been noted by HTC of Taiwan, which is taking on Apple--and others--in smartphones. Where Creative was scattergun, aiming at a variety of market segments through MuVo and Zen brands, HTC hsa honed in on the high end. Creative went big on features; HTC priotisedlooks over function. It produced design-heavy handsets such as incredible, Desire and Evolution. For an intrisically covetable product, this was the right way to go. Most significantly, HTC hooked up early with a credible technology partner: Google's Android operation system. Which is on course to take almost two-fifths of the global smartphone market this year, according to Gartner. Only Samsung can rival HTC's unit sales growth since 2007, in terms of global handset share (from zero to 8.4 per cent). Analysts expect first-quarter figures on Friday to beat management's guidance on almost every line.

"Only 3 of 738 Taiex companies have done better than HTC's 213 per cent return over the past 12 months. This week its market capitalisation edged ahead of fast-fading Nokia to $34bn; as recently as November 2007, the gap between the pair was $150bn in the Finns' favour. Plenty of Challenges lie ahead. Motorola recently launched the first tablet to run the new version of Android, while HTC's debut tablet has not yet hit the shops. But for now at least, as a case study in how to take a nibble out o apple, HTC could hardly be bettered.

Note:
(a) In January 2011, market capitalization of Apple topped $300bn while Samsung (listed at Korea Stock Exchange) was $145bn.
(b) Nokia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia
(In 1865, Fredrik Idestam established a groundwood pulp mill in the town of Tampere, southwestern Finland, and started manufacturing paper. In 1868, Idestam built a second mill near the town of Nokia, fifteen kilometers (nine miles) west of Tampere. Both mills were by (two different) rivers, as source of hydropower production. In 1871, Idestam renamed and incorporated the share company Nokia, at (town of) Nokia)

Quote: "Nokia, a public limited liability company, is the oldest company listed under the same name on the Helsinki Stock Exchange (since 1915).[27] Nokia’s shares are also listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (since 1988) and New York Stock Exchange (since 1994).

(c) HTC Corporation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Corporation
(宏達國際電子股份有限公司; formerly High Tech Computer Corporation; section 1 History)

It is well known in Taiwan that Cher WANG 王雪紅--born in 1958 and a daughter of the second wife of once the richest and self-made plastics man WANG Yung-ching/YC WANG 王永慶 (1917-2008) who had three wifes--stepped out of the shadow of his father to start out in a totally different field 闖出一片天: electronics. Her husband is General Manager Wenchi CHEN, VIA Technologies 威盛電子公司總經理 陳文琦 (she is chairperson in both HTC and VIA). Together the couple made the list of 2001 richest person(s) in Taiwan.

in Taiwan - The World's Billionaires 2011. Forbes, Mar 10, 2011.
http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires/list?country=95

For Taiex, see Taiwan Capitalization Weighted Stock Index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Capitalization_Weighted_Stock_Index

(d) Please take notice that HTC is listed in Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) 臺灣證券交易所. Until a few years ago, the acronym was TSE. The change was made to avoid confusion with Tokyo Stock Exchange whose acronym was also--and is--TSE.

TWSE stock prices tend to be a couple of bucks a share. So it is especially unusual for a TWSE scompany to rival a company in other stock exchanges in market capitalization.
(e) Armed with the news, you may appreciate the Acer board more.

Mark Lee and Janet Ong, Acer Sets Sights on Apple, HTC After HP Chase Stumbles. Bloomberg, Apr 1, 2011.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/acer-sets-sights-on-apple-htc-after-ex-ceo-lanci-s-pursuit-of-hp-stumbles.html
(Acer CEO "Gianfranco Lanci tried to make Acer Inc the world’s largest laptop maker by outselling Hewlett-Packard Co. The board says he should have set his sights on Apple Inc and HTC Corp instead")
Song Jung-a and Christian Oliver, Samsung Issues Gloomy Forecast. FT, Apr 8,
2011, p 16.
("paragraph 1: "Samsung Electronics on Thursday lowered its outlook for the
first quarter, saying that weak sales of televisions and flat panels will
reach a two-year low")

That is why Warren Buffet has had no desire to get into tech stocks. And when he did--possibly the only time (at urging of LI Lu?)--he may come out losing badly.

China's carmakers | Dream deferred; A Chinese car company carrying great expectations stalls. Economist, Mar 24, 2011.
http://www.economist.com/node/18441175?story_id=18441175
(In BYD "Mr Buffett seemed to have picked another winner." But * * *)



------------------------------Separately
Kathrin Hille, Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Paul Taylor, Access Denied; China and the US; The Thwarting of telecoms equipment maker Huawei’s American ambitions exposes the deepening distrust between the two powers. FT, Apr 8, 2011, p 7.

My comment:
(a) Accessing FT website requires registration. I am not providing the URL. If you do read this article, you may want to start about one third down, beginning with the paragraph: “Things has clearly gotten much worse for Huawei,” says Mario Mancuso of Fried Frank, a global firm, and former undersecretary of commerce.

Before that paragraph was a summary of Huawei’s hits and misses in US, for the benefit of those who are not familiar with China or Huawei.
(b) Generally speaking, there is no single shocker. What is surprising is
(a) that Huawei has decided to keep trying, remaking itself in the process to be “transparent;”
(b) that Huawei acknowledged mistakes in doing business in US: “The company’s executives admit that they were ill advised and that communication strategy needs to change.”

For example, in acquiring 3Leaf without notifying and seeking approval from Committee on Foreign Investment in US (CFIUS), Huawei might be viewed as sneaky in US. Until today, Huawei said it did not think going through CFIUS was necessary, and that if anything, the inaction was an oversight.
--
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※ 修改:．choi 于 Apr  8 13:51:43 修改本文．[FROM: 129.10.0.0]