Huawei Will Never Sell Its Smartphone Business: Founder Ren Zhengfei
On Feb. 9, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei showed up at an interview session with a group of reporters in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, where he responded to a series of hotspot issues about the company, including whether to sell its terminal business.
Huawei recently has been reported to plan to sell its terminal business, including mobile phones, so as to tackle the chip crisis. Last November, Huawei has sold its budget smartphone sub-brand Honor to over 30 agents, dealers and government-backed entities in order to deal with the “tremendous pressure” it was confronted with.
And confronted with a chip shortage, Huawei’s mobile phone sales revenue is facing an unprecedented decline. During the interview, Ren stated that Huawei will never sell its terminal business ever again. Ren also said that Huawei can survive under such circumstances since the revenue from other businesses can offset the decline in the mobile phone unit.
Ren also pointed out that a terminal should never simply be understood as smartphones, but the term includes any product that connects people to things.
He revealed that Huawei’s sales revenue and profits have achieved positive growth this year. “I have greater confidence in Huawei’s survival because we have come up with more solutions and means to overcome difficulties,” Ren said.
According to Ren, it is “very difficult” for the U.S. to remove Huawei from the blacklist due to the currently intense Sino-U.S. relations. But he mentioned that it will not be a problem for Huawei to consider.
In terms of the chip shortage issue, Ren did not appear very pessimistic. “The world will eventually set foot into an era of chip surplus. In any case, Huawei will not abandon its ideals of globalization. No matter what sanctions or blockades there are, Huawei will adhere to globalization.” Ren said.
SEE ALSO: Huawei Denies Plans to Sell Mobile Phone Business
Ren also mentioned that Huawei is willing to transfer the 5G technology to the U.S. in its entirety. “We can not only authorize the U.S. to produce with the technology, including the source program, source code, all hardware design secrets, know-how, but also transfer our related chip design technology if they need it,” Ren said. “I’m making a sincere statement, but so far there is not a single U.S. company to negotiate with us.”
He emphasized that Huawei will not make major structural adjustments to personnel and its business, and refuted the rumor about the departure of Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun. However, Ren mentioned that there could be operational sequence changes and a small number of personnel adjustments.
