Think again, all parts of the computer, from CPU to mouse, are changing with each passing day, and floppy drive is still the standard of the computer.
Deng Guoshun and John Cheng discussed the opportunities in this field, and then they got the knowledge of * * *.
The capacity of floppy disk is very limited, but it is1.44m. In an interview with the website afterwards, Deng Guoshun recalled: We really felt that the file exchange between laptop and other computers was slow and inconvenient, which was tantamount to a "digital island". ...
Finally, I made up my mind to start a business. Deng Guoshun summed it up as "courage and stubbornness in Hunan people's blood" and the simplicity of technical people's thinking, so don't worry too much.
1999, they returned to Shenzhen. Rented a 96-square-meter two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartment in Luohu Fishery Building. It is said that the rent is 3000 yuan. "The lobby is the conference room, the big room is the manager's room, and the other room is the development room and bedroom."
Deng Guoshun recalled that he stayed indoors for almost half a year, "cooking behind closed doors" and used up four computers.
The scheme was to use flash memory chips as the storage core, but at that time, flash memory could not be bought in Chinese mainland, so Deng Guoshun bought a 32M MP3 player from Monti for S $244, and then split it into four 8M flash memory chips, making the first four 8M samples.
Choosing a name is a relatively simple job. Deng Guoshun named it "USB flash drive". If a product series is involved in the future, it is called "excellent series".
The historical record is:/kloc-0. In May, 999, Deng Guoshun, John Cheng and Shen * * * jointly invested to establish Netac Computer with a registered capital of 300,000 yuan. Shen only accounts for 1%, and Deng Guoshun and John Cheng split it 50/50.
This innovation attracted much attention at the Shenzhen High-Tech Fair that year. The USB flash drive fell from a height of 3 meters, safe and sound. It is as small as a key and can be hung around the neck. It is reported that Deng Guoshun received 6,543,800 yuan+200,000 yuan of venture capital fund support.
The appearance of the product is only one aspect of the problem, and then the process of seeking venture capital.
I have been asking Dune Street in Silicon Valley that a venture capitalist is interested, but the premise is that the company will be located in Silicon Valley, but Deng Guoshun refused, on the grounds that in the long run, it is possible to control costs in China.
Later they found Trek, who is Toshiba's general agent in Singapore. On the premise that Netac asked Cui Ke to do OEM work, Cui Ke expressed his willingness to invest, which was in line with Deng Guoshun's thinking.
In an interview with Win Weekly in 2003, Deng Guoshun recalled: Later, we reached an agreement, and Netac asked Cui Ke to do OEM work, and Cui Ke contributed 3 million yuan, accounting for 20% of the shares. 1February 1999, we signed a confidentiality agreement with it. The content of the agreement is clear: the technology is ours and the patent is ours. "The so-called rumor is just that our competitors are speaking ill of us."
Netac traces back to official website: In March 2000, he participated in the German CeBIT exhibition, which caused a sensation.
In July of that year, Deng Guoshun put the first advertisement on the Pacific computer network. Two products are priced at 599 yuan for 8M and 999 yuan for 16M. Dozens of floppy disks are stacked together, highlighting the capacity of flash drives; Next to the USB flash drive is a pen, which is used to compare the volume. This advertisement cost 6000 yuan.
From June 5438 to February 2000, USB flash drive was listed by IBM as the only recommended storage product for its wireless application solution.
"We don't have much experience ... the two of us simply think that this thing will be much better after it is made. That kind of mentality is like a child piling wood in the sand and dreaming that it will be a palace. " Finding out who will sell it is a matter that needs careful consideration. Deng Guoshun decided to cooperate with small agents, who are also in the early stage of starting a business and have enough motivation. As a result, more than 40 agents have been developed throughout the country.
The previous year was basically to cultivate the market, including publishing and doing activities, and received few orders.
Deng Guoshun has gone through the same course as an entrepreneur. "I think the most beautiful sound in the world is the ringing of the fax machine." During the Christmas period from June 5438 to February 2000, the company received the largest order in history, 30 pieces, worth 1 more than ten thousand yuan.
Of course, IT products have more efficient sales methods. In March, 200 1 year, Netac formed an alliance with Lenovo and bundled them for sale, which became the standard configuration in the V-series notebook computers subsequently launched. In May, the company began to make a profit.
April, 200 1 year, USB flash drive was released, and June, USB flash drive was released.
This year, Netac began to cut into the industry segmentation. In an interview with the media, Deng Guoshun recalled that banks, industrial and commercial departments, tax departments, telecommunications departments and government procurement started slowly ... In addition to leading technology, industrial design should also be excellent, so as to ensure success. From this year to the end of the year, monthly sales began to last over 10 million.
"The appearance of Netac USB flash drive will end floppy drive."
Previously, the floppy drive business represented by Sony was huge. According to CCID Consulting's data, in 200 1 year, domestic floppy drive sales exceeded100000 units, most of which were OEMs. The annual production capacity of domestic floppy disks should be above 3 billion.
At the beginning of 2002, Samsung announced that it would completely eliminate floppy drives in South Korea. Desktops and laptops are no longer equipped with floppy disks randomly, and the new configuration is a USB mobile hard disk with startup function.
Later, Intel added instructions to the released microprocessor to stop supporting floppy drives and promote USB interface products developed by Intel.
In 200 1 year, there are more than 10 enterprises producing flash drives in the market; In 2002, the number soared by more than ten times, and the competition was fierce.
Deng Guoshun later wrote an article recalling: For Netac, which just started, Leuven, founded in 1992, was undoubtedly my first strong opponent since I started my business. In the second half of 200 1 2000, the competition between Netac and Leuven became fierce, and the two sides fought for advertisements, sales and prices. The two sides also fought a war of words on the patent issue. ...
However, in 2002, due to some business reasons, Luwen faded out of the market.
"Repelling Reuben made me realize that a war of words can't do business. Whether in the company or when interviewed by reporters, I often say: be standardized. "
On July 24th, 2002, China National Intellectual Property Administration officially approved the patent application for the Flash electronic external storage method and device of Netac data processing system.
In September 2002, the company sued Acer in China, and in June+February 5438, the two sides reached a settlement.
At the same time, Beijing Huaqi Company and its foundry Shenzhen Fuguanghui Electronics Co., Ltd. were sued. In June 2004, Netac won the case in the first instance. Huaqi refused to accept the judgment and appealed.
Feng Jun recalled: "When the problem first appeared, I called Deng Guoshun on the same day, and there were more than 50 calls in a dozen. But when he saw me, he just didn't answer the phone. Later, I called the driver on his phone. I said I was Feng Jun, and he hung up. If I flew to him, the problem would have been solved long ago. "
Deng Guoshun talked about this lawsuit in an interview with Knowledge Economy:/kloc-How can more than 0/00 manufacturers accept it? I can't accept it if I want to! Only a few large ones can be accepted. We are more about regulating the market, and now many enterprises are short-term behaviors and fighting price wars.
In 2002, Netac increased its capital, and its registered capital was changed from 8.88 million yuan to120,000 yuan. Shenzhen Tongcheng Venture Capital contributed100,000 yuan to subscribe for Netac and contributed 243,438+00,000 yuan. In the second year, Shenzhen Venture Capital received part of the investment from another shareholder, and its shareholding ratio rose to 23.62%.
According to the research report of JSB Research Company, the sales volume of Netac USB flash drives in 2002 was1378,600, accounting for 50.06% of the national market.
In March 2003, at CeBIT exhibition in Germany, Netac and JMTek announced the formation of a strategic alliance and the establishment of a joint venture company to expand the global market. JMTek, located in Seattle, USA, is in a leading position in the flash disk market in the United States.
In July 2003, the flash drive control chip-"XinYou 1" came out.
In the face of some rumors at that time, when interviewed by this website, Deng Guoshun reacted strongly: If "I have a heart" can really be bought for 20,000 yuan, then I would rather buy it for another 20,000 yuan, so it is unnecessary for Netac to hire a research and development team of more than 100 people.
He said that our "Heart No.1" has passed the inspection in China National Intellectual Property Administration and applied for a national patent. Those who question the idea of "having one mind" are actually challenging China's intellectual property system.
In July of the same year, seven new products were released, including OLA visual USB flash drive, key USB flash drive, Music Wizard MP3, OSD ultra-stable large-capacity USB flash drive, ODI encrypted III large-capacity USB flash drive, USB2.0 high-speed USB flash drive-U2C, USB2.0 high-speed USB flash drive-U2D, IDE electronic hard disk and so on.
"If the mouse can achieve a $900 million career, why not the flash drive?"
In March 2004, Netac launched a new product promotion campaign with Miss Universe 2003 China Wu Wei as its image spokesperson. In July 2004, Netac filed a lawsuit against Sony Electronics (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. and its agent Shenzhen Shensheng Information Technology Co., Ltd. on the grounds that the patent number ZL99 1 17225.6 was damaged.
On February 7th, 65438, Netac's invention patent "Electronic external storage method and device for flash memory of data processing system" was authorized by the United States. U.S. patent U.S. Pat.No. US6829672 and China patent ZL99 1 17225.6 belong to the same invention patent, and their protection scope is the same.
Lu Pan, director of Netac Law Center, said that the authorization of the patent right was obtained after four years and two months of rigorous examination by two examiners of the US Patent Office. On the issue of intellectual property rights, "it is not excluded that the United States will sue infringing manufacturers."
In February 2006, Netac filed a lawsuit against PNY Company of the United States on the grounds of patent infringement in the United States. 6,829,672b1,accepted by the United States federal court for the eastern district of Texas. This case is called "the first case of overseas patent rights protection of IT enterprises in China".
PNY Technologies, Inc, an American technology company, was established in 1985, mainly providing memory products, flash memory products, consumer products and services. PNY's full range of flash memory products based on personal computers occupy a leading position in the US retail market.
Deng Guoshun has undoubtedly become a news figure. In an interview with Tencent Technology, he revealed that this law firm is an American Morgan-Lewis law firm with a history of more than 100 years. In terms of intellectual property rights, they won many cases.
Morgan Lewis Law Firm (Morgan, Lewis &; Bockius LLP) is a global law firm with over 65,438+0,200 lawyers. In the same period, an office was opened in Beijing.
A settlement was reached with Sony in May 2006; In June, a settlement was reached with Huaqi Information.
Netac now indicates that a series of original basic invention patents and other core patents owned by our company have been widely used in digital electronic products such as flash drives, mobile phones, digital audio and video playback devices (including MP3/MP4), televisions, digital cameras, digital photo frames, flash cards, solid-state drives, GPS navigators and automotive electronics.
"These application fields have a huge market, patent infringement cases are widespread, and the scope of infringement is very wide."
There is a key point in this: China undertakes more than 80% of the production and supply of flash drives in the world, and the export proportion of products is increasing year by year. Therefore, it is feasible and promising to seize infringing goods in time by using patent customs protection measures and then make profits through negotiation or litigation.
In February 2008, just before the court's decision, PNY and Netac reached a mediation, and then signed a patent licensing agreement. This authorization was summarized by the media as Netac became the first China enterprise to sign a patent license agreement with a foreign enterprise as a patent holder.
The company realized patent license income of 65,438+0,046,5438+0./kloc-0.60 million yuan, 28,654.38+0.30 million yuan and 4,009,965,438+0.00 million yuan, accounting for 3.79% and 3.79% of the main business income respectively. The number of patents granted increased gradually, with an increase of 170. 18% in 2007 and 42.55% in 2008.
The company has signed patent licensing agreements with Toshiba, Kingston, American PNY, Group Alliance and other enterprises.
"I firmly believe that as long as China enterprises persist in technological innovation, they will make great achievements. If you don't want to be the subject of the rules, you should be the maker of the rules. " In the discussion of the 7th SME Financing Forum on June 5438+February 2008, Deng Guoshun said that the launch of GEM would inject new impetus into private investment. "Let everyone see the hope of the GEM, and everyone's hopes are coming."
Prior to this, on June 5438+ 10, 2008, Shenzhen Netac Technology Co., Ltd. was established in the form of overall change. As of February 3, 2007, the book net assets of124,073,900 yuan, converted into 50 at the ratio of 1: 0.4030.
With the opening of the Growth Enterprise Market, Netac's landing on the Growth Enterprise Market seems smooth.
It is planned to issue 65,438+0,680,000 shares, and the total share capital after issuance is 6,680,000 shares. The public shares to be issued account for 25. 1.5% of the total share capital after issuance.
The company's product sales revenue mainly comes from the sales of flash drives, mobile hard disks and other products. According to public information, in 2008, the company's product sales revenue decreased year-on-year. Among them, the sales revenue of flash drives was15,989.170,000 yuan, down by 28.48% over the previous year. "Because the overall decline in the sales amount of flash drives is greater than the increase in mobile hard drives, the company's product sales revenue has declined."
Of course, IC is essentially a price reduction industry. During this period, the purchase price of 1G flash memory decreased from $3.2 at the beginning of 2008 to 1.2 at the end of the year, with a decrease rate of 62.5%. The sales price of the corresponding products also dropped from 55 yuan in early 2008 to 22.5 yuan/piece.
The gross profit of product sales decreased from 84.69% in 2006 to 565,438+0.065 and 438+0% in September 2009, while the gross profit of patent licensing business gradually increased to 65,438+05.365,438+0% and 27.34% respectively.
The so-called patent pool is "a collection of intellectual property rights formed by putting multiple intellectual property rights-mainly patent rights-as the objects of cross-licensing into a package license."
According to the prospectus, patents will be invalid due to the expiration of the protection period, and some patents may be declared invalid after being tried by relevant departments. However, because companies generally take "patent pool" as the main body of patent license, it will not affect the overall patent protection effect of issuers.
In other words, Qualcomm, which sells standards, is a model. Qualcomm has more than 65,438+00,65,438+000 American wireless technology patents, and has authorized more than 65,438+065 communication equipment manufacturers worldwide. In 2006, the operating income was $7.53 billion, of which the patent license fee accounted for 654.38+0/3 of the income.
As of September 30, 2009, Netac has been granted 1 16 patents, including 79 invention patents, and another 220 invention patents are still in the process of application. The company's patent authorization and application involve China, the United States, Europe, South Korea, Japan and other dozens of countries and regions around the world.
The forward-looking research is solid-state hard disk and USB3.0.
At present, there are about 20 companies engaged in the design and development of solid-state hard disk control chips in the world. The mainstream capacity is 32GB, and the unit capacity price is about 10 times that of traditional hard disks. The large-scale industrialization of SSD has not yet begun.
The company predicts that flash drives with USB3.0 interface will appear in 20 10 years, which can reach 10 times the speed of existing USB2.0 flash drives. By 20 12 years, USB3.0 interface flash drives will occupy about 80% market share of flash drives.
In June+February, 5438, Netac was awarded the certificate of designated production unit of commercial cipher products by the National Cryptography Administration. Of course, there are various requirements for encrypting documents.
The raised funds are invested in the expansion project of flash memory application and mobile storage technology research platform; Expansion project of flash memory application and mobile storage product development platform; Patent application/maintenance/operation project; Marketing network expansion and brand operation projects. The total investment of the project is 213.38 million yuan. If the actual raised funds are greater than the investment capital requirements of the above projects, they will be used to supplement the company's working capital.
As of September 30, 2009, the total number of employees in the company was 265,438+00. Among them, there are 49 R&D personnel, including 7 masters, 25 undergraduates and others 17. All R&D personnel account for 23.33% of the company's total employees.
From June 5438 to September 2009, the main business income was188,720,500 yuan, and R&D investment was 8,679,700 yuan, accounting for 4.60% of the main business income.
Deng Guoshun and John Cheng hold 30.90% and 22.05% respectively. After the issuance, the shareholding ratio was further diluted to 23. 13% and 16.50%. Deng Guoshun is the chairman and general manager, with permanent residency in New Zealand, China and Hongkong, and a member of the Standing Committee of Nanshan District People's Congress.
The company has 46 shareholders, including 45 natural person shareholders. No strategic investors.
According to shanghai securities news, in September 2004, Shenzhen Venture Capital transferred its limited 3.62% equity of Netac to founders Deng Guoshun and John Cheng at a price twice the investment cost. In February 2005, Shenzhen Venture Capital transferred its remaining 20% equity to Pu Tian, a natural person. Although it has achieved high returns in a short period of time, it has nothing to do with this problem.
On February 23, 2009, at 65438, Netac announced that the IPO price of the company's A shares was set at 39.00 yuan/share, corresponding to a price-earnings ratio of 76.47 times. The value of 6,543,805,450 shares held by Deng Guoshun reached 602,550 yuan.