More than 900 employees were laid off in four months, and the most popular top merchant has fallen to this point!

As the end of the year approaches, there are more and more things to ask for wages and debts. But I didn’t expect that the one who got involved in this incident was Amazon 3C seller!

This big seller is also very well-known. It has been invested by Xiaomi and cooperated with Tencent to release products. It is Black Shark Technology.

1. If 80% of the employees are laid off, only 2,000 compensation will be given?

On January 10, several Black Shark Technology employees said on social media that Black Shark Technology lay off employees and did not issue compensation, and many employees had no choice but to come to the door to pull banners to recover compensation.

Some employees flocked to Black Shark Technology CEO Luo Yuzhou left a message on Weibo, asking him for compensation for layoffs.

According to the content of the message, Black Shark originally planned to pay 6 job cuts, but the first payment has not yet been received. Some employees who were laid off said that they have only received 2,000 yuan in layoffs.

Luo Yuzhou, CEO of Black Shark Technology, has also become a large-scale debt collection site:

"The compensation is 2,000 yuan. Please come out and reply positively. It's not about hiding a text message!"

"Mr. Luo, we understand the compensation in three months, and I endure it even though I have to give it six months. But what I have been waiting for is only 2,000 this month... I have to push people to the point where I am now pulling banners. A general employee will also celebrate the New Year!"

"Hello, please pay the compensation. The previous three months have been agreed upon, but later it was unilaterally changed to 6 months. Now it is only 2,000. The peripheral department has been replaced by you, and the Internet department has been operated separately. Do you want to make a fuss?"

Black Shark Technology’s explanation to its employees is:

Since the company encountered huge operating difficulties, it has been committed to fully repaying compensation during this special period. The resignation compensation for this month cannot be paid in full at the agreed amount. We will continue to try our best to find ways to solve the funding problem and strive to pay the remaining resignation compensation as soon as possible.

So the Internet became a large-scale debt collection site. It is said that Black Shark Technology laid off nearly 80% of its employees in five batches, and the compensation needed to be paid ranged from 70 million to 80 million yuan.

2. What is the origin of Black Shark Technology?

Black Shark Technology is a mobile phone technology brand focusing on gaming e-sports. It even laid out cross-border e-commerce early on. In addition to mobile phone products, there are various peripheral products such as cooling back clips, gaming headsets, game accessories, charging cables, mobile phone accessories, etc., which comprehensively cover the needs of game users.

Black Shark Tmall flagship store

It is said that before the incident, Black Shark Technology's assets had been sold and transferred, and the legal entities of several affiliated companies stepped down, and the original office in Shanghai had also been withdrawn. Black Shark Technology has not released new products for 14 months, and its official blog has never been updated since October last year.

From August to December, Black Shark Technology has decreased from more than 1,000 in August to more than 100 people, and only a few departments such as the Internet and functions have been retained.

In fact, Black Shark Technology has had its highlight moments.

In 2017, Wu Shimin, who served as the president of Huawei's mobile broadband terminal product line and director of Huawei's Beijing Research Institute, noticed the market changes and founded Black Shark Technology, focusing on the development of gaming phones.

In 2018, Black Shark Technology received an angel round investment from Xiaomi Group and Nanchang Jinkai Group, a subsidiary of Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone. At that time, Tianjin Jinxing Investment Company, wholly-owned by Xiaomi, invested 11 million yuan, accounting for 21.94% of Black Shark Technology's shares.

In the same year, Black Shark Technology's first product was released, with sales reaching hundreds of thousands of units, and its sales and revenue that year exceeded previous expectations. The domestic gaming mobile phone market in 2019 increased by 50% compared with 2018, with sales of more than 1 million units, and Black Shark ranked first with a market share of 47%.

Black Shark Technology has found a way out in the homogeneous competition market with differentiation of gaming phones, but the good times have not been long. With the popularity of gaming phones, its peers including Nubia Red Devils, Asus ROG, and Lenovo Saver joined, and Black Shark Technology's market share has gradually declined.

At this time, the management contradictions of Black Shark Technology were highlighted and the stranded Tencent’s acquisition plan was siege , and it eventually entered the abyss of large-scale layoffs and difficult operations.

3. Why did Tencent give up the acquisition?

The industry says that Tencent's plan to acquire Black Shark Technology is stranded, which is the fuse that triggered Black Shark Technology's massive layoffs.

According to former employees of Black Shark Technology, the funds provided by Tencent were misappropriated by the company . It said that this is also a statement with high credibility within the company:

"For example, Tencent gave 100 million equipment, and there may be tens of millions in the middle. The company's leaders used it for their own use. In the end, the hole became bigger and bigger and bigger and could not be covered. So Tencent stopped acquiring it."

Since Tencent's plan to acquire Black Shark has been stranded, there have been constant internal turmoil in Black Shark.

In addition to fund misappropriation, Black Shark Technology also has chaos in employee management.

Therefore, in mid-2022, all the original public relations team members of Black Shark Technology also left one after another.

...

With internal and external troubles, Black Shark Technology has gradually entered today's situation.

A well-known brand in the industry has no halo now. It seems that the era of eliminating a company has not called any hello, but it seems that it has already informed it, but the authorities in the situation do not know it!

In fact, for companies, no matter whether there are acquirers or not, they should maintain their lowest bottom line, that is, they must have cash flow. Otherwise, if they go bankrupt, they will have a bottom line in an instant, and if they do a good job of internal management, Black Shark Technology may not have reached its present day!

I hope every entrepreneur can be alert.