Today, Motorola announced a price reduction for its phones, a company-wide decrease of about 10% across its product lines, truly an industry marvel.
However, Motorola wasn't the first to cut prices. Samsung had already done so two days prior, followed by Nokia the day after Motorola's announcement.
Within a single week, over 50% of global mobile brands announced price cuts, attempting to regain market share.
But as they themselves knew, these price reductions were ineffective. The gap of $240 was simply too vast. Sales for major mobile brands continued to decline, with the combined sales of all brands even failing to match that of Zhong Mi phones alone.
This is the industry's downfall!
However, this wasn't the most critical issue. The most pressing concern was the upcoming release of the third-quarter financial reports.
According to US law, publicly listed companies must release a highly detailed annual report approximately once a year, disclosing all operational data to investors with precision down to two decimal places.
Furthermore, quarterly reports are also required, though they don't need to be as comprehensive as the annual reports, only providing a general overview of the company's performance during the three-month period.
These reports are intended to help shareholders understand the companies they have invested in.
As November arrived, it was time to release the third-quarter report for the year, covering July, August, and September.
Such a quarterly report had a significant impact on a company. The future stock price movements would largely be dictated by it.
If the data improved, the stock price would soar; if it declined, the stock price would follow suit. It was akin to a company's final exam.
"President, here is our third-quarter report for your review!" The finance department handed the report to Edward Zamp. He glanced at it once, tossed it aside, and felt utterly frustrated.
The data in this quarterly report was simply unbearable. Although it didn't include the worst-case scenario of October, the September figures alone were dire enough.
Zhong Mi phones had gone on sale on September 22nd, and in that short period, they had sold nearly five million units. This caused Motorola's September sales to drop by about a third compared to August.
Of course, compared to October, this data was much better, as the entire month of October had been dominated by Zhong Mi.
"If this data is released, the stock price will surely plummet. That black kid will profit again!" Edward Zamp clenched his fists, filled with rage.
Edward Zamp was well aware of the Western Mustang Fund's short-selling activities in the entire mobile industry. Therefore, he understood that once this financial report was published, Motorola's sales predicament would be immediately exposed, and the Western Mustang Fund would likely make substantial profits instantly.
If this fund profited, it meant the Jiangnan Group profited, something they could not tolerate.
Edward Zamp then stared at the report for a long time, picked up a pen, deleted the monthly figures, and wrote: "Third-quarter monthly sales exceeded 8.7 million units, a year-on-year increase of over 60%!"
"Yes! This is perfect!" Edward Zamp nodded with satisfaction after reviewing his modified report. This was the power of words!
Although September sales had shown a noticeable decline, when combined with the data from July and August, before Zhong Mi phones appeared, the overall quarterly sales figures looked very impressive.
Furthermore, if these figures were compared not to the previous quarter, but to the same quarter last year, the growth would be exceptionally pleasing.
In an instant, Motorola's third-quarter financial report transformed from a somewhat dismal report into one of triumph.
Quarterly reports were not as stringent as annual reports, as long as basic data falsification was avoided. In fact, regulatory bodies would not scrutinize the accuracy of quarterly reports.
They only needed to audit the annual reports of each company once a year. After all, the data from the quarterly reports would be reflected in the following year's annual report, making the audit of the annual report equivalent to auditing the quarterly reports.
Moreover, financial reports were considered proprietary information crucial to a company's development, so a degree of vagueness was understandable, as long as the annual report was rigorously audited.
Subsequently, Edward Zamp immediately pushed for the release of this report. As Edward Zamp had anticipated, Motorola successfully stabilized its stock price and even saw a slight increase.
It was worth noting that since the launch of Zhong Mi phones, many stockholders and investors had recognized Motorola's crisis. The company's stock price had fallen by 60% from its peak of an 80% surge.
Compared to the Western Mustang Fund's entry point three months prior, the price had only increased by about 20%.
Now, with the release of the third-quarter annual report, the price had risen by another 5%, maintaining a 25% increase. This meant that at the end of three months, specifically by the end of November, the Western Mustang Fund's short-selling operations would be settled, resulting in devastating losses, making them truly miserable.
This was precisely what Edward Zamp wanted. Since he could no longer reverse Motorola's current decline, he was determined to inflict a significant loss on the mastermind, Boss Huang.
In fact, companies like Nokia and Samsung were doing essentially the same thing, releasing quarterly reports that were not highly detailed but instead aggregated the performance over the entire three months, giving these leading mobile manufacturers an appearance of renewed vigor.
Of course, this put our little Swift in a predicament. He immediately made an international call to Boss Huang to seek help and inquire about the next steps.
"What do you propose?" Boss Huang asked directly after listening to Little Swift's tearful account.
"Yes, I request your authorization to negotiate with other fund companies and banks that have lent us shares to extend the term by another three months. By paying an additional 5% in supplementary transaction fees, we can obtain a three-month license."
"This way, we won't have to repay the shares by the end of November, but can continue to postpone it until the end of February. By then, Motorola and Nokia will be forced to release their detailed annual reports, and they will no longer be able to conceal their sales plunge. Their stock prices will definitely fall sharply, and we can make a fortune!" Little Swift explained.
"Agreed, let's proceed with that," Huang boss readily agreed. Little Swift was slightly pleased, but then heard Boss Huang continue, "However, I don't believe your plan will succeed. They will not agree to our extension."
"Why?" Little Swift asked, confused.
"No reason other than the fact that you are black, and in this predominantly white financial world, what do you think their attitude is towards you, the black financial god? Do you think they will give up this opportunity to damage your reputation and also cause our Western Mustang Fund to suffer crushing losses?" Boss Huang's words sent a chill down Little Swift's spine.
"Then, do we have no recourse but to accept this loss?" Little Swift was almost in tears.
"That's right!" Boss Huang's reply was unyielding.
"Then I'd rather not go and humiliate myself!" Little Swift said with a hint of despair.
"No, you still must go!" To his surprise, Boss Huang said, "Not only must you go, but you must do so with great fanfare, making sure the whole world knows you are going to humiliate yourself!"
"Why?" Little Swift felt a pang of anxiety. Was Boss Huang going to abandon him?
"If you don't fall hard enough, how can I make more money?" Boss Huang said with a slight smile. "As for the money lost by the fund, that's the money of US investors. What does it have to do with me, Huang He, or you, Little Swift?"
"How about this: if you are humiliated this time, and the more you are humiliated, the more bonus I will give you! Up to $10 million!"
"$10 million bonus!" Little Swift's eyes lit up. Although his income over the past few years had exceeded $20 million, an additional bonus of tens of millions was certainly not unwelcome.
More importantly, Boss Huang's attitude indicated that he had anticipated such a situation and had likely laid the groundwork, waiting for the prey to fall into the trap.
Yes, the harder he fell, the more Boss Huang would earn. However, Little Swift couldn't understand how Boss Huang would make a fortune using his fall.
The more Little Swift thought about it, the more curious he became, but he didn't know the answer.
"Heh heh, this little guy probably never dreamed that I was the one who acquired a large portion of his shares back then!" Boss Huang said leisurely after hanging up on Little Swift.
When Little Swift had dumped the shares he borrowed with $40 billion onto the market, about $13 billion of those shares were actually absorbed by a single entity.
This entity was funded by Boss Huang's own private capital.
A week before Zhong Mi phones were officially released, Boss Huang had sold all these shares. Due to an overall increase of about 80%, the $13 billion in shares had directly grown to a colossal $23 billion.
Similarly, before the third-quarter financial report was released, these $23 billion had again become mobile phone stocks worth $23 billion.