Leeco, a majorityinvestor in Coolpad, is in a pathetic shape ( globally and in India) – unpaid dues to vendors and publishers, office closures, layoffs, court cases and negligible presence in the market but it is not affecting Coolpad.
The Mobile Indian caught up withJames Du, Global CEO,CoolpadGroup asked him if the bad state of affairs is affecting Coolpad he said, ” LeEco is just an investor and they don’t have any say in the working of our product strategy. We wish they come outof trouble at the earliest.’
He further added, ” LeEco invested in our company when they were doing well and we have received the complete payment and post that we have been working independently. Yes for smartphones we did try out their user interface (UI) but that was all as now we have launched our new UI which will be used in all our devices.”
CoolPad has just launched Cool Play 6 for Rs 14,999 and plans to launch more and more affordable smartphones in the coming months in India. They also intend to launcha couple of smartphones exclusively for the Indian market.
LeEco’s Rise and Fall:
In 2004, Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp (Leshi or LeTV in short) was founded in Beijing. It got a tag of China’s Netflix. It was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in August 2010.
LeEco’s three key products: smartphones, smart homes and smart cars, and application services based on cloud computing and big data.
January 2016 – LeEco at the Consumer Electronics Show announced its strategic partnership with the controversial American automobile startup Faraday Future, aiming to take on Tesla.
October 2016 – LeEco held a press event in San Francisco to officially launch its ecosystem model which comprised of content and devices.
November 2016 – The glorified image of LeEco began showing signs of breaking down. Stories of LeEco suppliers demanding payments first appeared online. LeEco CEO Jia Yueting sent a letter to LeEco employees, confessing that the tech giant’s “over fast expansion and great capital challenge”.were two reasons for the fiasco.
Chinese media questioned whether LeEco’s fundraising method was a Ponzi scheme. In December 2016, the tech giant was reported to have started large layoffs.
Till date, according to market sources, Leeco has unpaid dues to the tune of INR 40 Crores to Indian Publishers and itsagency as advertising fees.
The company’s officials and senior management are untraceable in India.