泰景倒闭揭密：倒在中国市场价格战的血泊中

泰景公司（Telegent Systems）倒闭了，移动电视市场也随之而去。事情似乎有点被夸大了，真实的情况是怎么样的呢？ Telegent总部在美国加州桑尼维尔，是一家模拟电视移动芯片厂商，在中国和美国硅谷拥有大量工程资源，并在中国占有重要地位。该公司奇迹般地兴起和轰然坠落，其实并不能代表全球移动电视市场在萎缩。

采用Telegent方案的ZTE手机upxesmc

实际上，Telegent完全是倒在中国市场残酷的价格竞争之中。该市场波动较大，竞争者数量每天都在增加。当然，此事也暗示了，只有一项看家本领，又没有工厂的芯片公司的通常结局。 泰景还在期待涅磐 接近移动电视产业的消息人士表示，Telegent的银行账户上仍有6000万至7000万美元，将“逐步”退出目前的模拟移动电视芯片业务，但将“在一个全然不同的市场领域重新开始”。 但在中国有许多传言称，Telegent的所有者与展讯(上海)已经洽商了几个月。他们讨论的方案是由展讯收购Telegent。据报道，这起交易一度接近达成，但最终破局，因展讯在美国纳斯达克的股票价格下挫。 电子产业与投资界没准备为Telegent写讣告——现在还不是时候。 有些人仍然对该公司在加州的强大工程师团队抱有信心，也有人对受命收拾Telegent残局的Ford Tamer寄予厚望。Tamer于2010年6月加入Telegent，担任首席执行官。在其加盟之前，Telegent取消了首次公开发行(IPO)计划。Tamer在半导体产业打拼了20年，曾与他人共同创建杰尔系统（Agere Systems Inc）.，并在博通担任高级管理职务。 本文下一页：惨烈的价格战 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载

相关阅读：
• 泰景首推ISDB-Tb移动电视接收芯片，抢滩拉美低成本电视手机市场
• 中国手机行业的竞争延伸至上游芯片市场
• 万利达选择泰景移动电视技术应用于迷你电视设计upxesmc

{pagination} Telegent在2004年成立，短短几年就在新兴的移动电视市场发迹。该公司商业模式的妙处在于，它碰巧决定利用免费的模拟电视广播信号，而当时其它多数厂商对此都没在意。 Telegent在模拟移动电视市场中的做法，与无厂芯片产业中的竞争者明显不同，后者几乎把宝全押在了仍处于萌芽状态的数字移动电视信号。因此，当Telegent在2009年末向美国证券交易委员会(SEC)申请2.5亿美元IPO的时候，据信它已经在模拟移动电视市场占据了几乎100%的份额。据该公司申请IPO时披露的财务信息(2009年11月)，Telegent的营业收入高达1.1112亿美元，净收入为3936万美元。 一名产业消息人士估计，Telegent当时每月售出约2500万个移动电视芯片，平均销售价格为6.00美元。 2009年末至2010年发生的事件，突显移动电视芯片市场的竞争是多么惨烈。觊觎Telegent的模拟移动电视市场的厂商包括：台湾的联发科技，上海的锐迪科微电子，美国的Newport Media，以及其它厂商。 在竞争对手大力削价的打击下，Telegent的移动电视芯片平均销售价格数月内就从6美元锐降至0.80美元。Telegent的优势，作为唯一供应商所享有的丰厚利润率，很快烟消云散。 模拟移动电视的总体有效市场消失，更是雪上加霜。在2014年巴西世界杯之前，拉美正在转向数字电视。菲律宾和泰国等南亚国家也在走向数字化。 Telegent目前在模拟移动电视市场的份额据信约为60%。 Newport Media在2005年以数字移动电视芯片厂商的身份起家，但两年前子开始支持模拟移动电视。据报道，该公司是在模拟移动电视市场掀起价格战的要角之一。 Telegent坚持其模拟移动电视芯片业务，一直未能涉足其它领域，因此幸运地赶上了该产业蓬勃发展的初始阶段。 编译：Luffy Liu 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：Cause of Telegent’s spectacular fall: China dunnit,by Junko Yoshida

相关阅读：
• 泰景首推ISDB-Tb移动电视接收芯片，抢滩拉美低成本电视手机市场
• 中国手机行业的竞争延伸至上游芯片市场
• 万利达选择泰景移动电视技术应用于迷你电视设计upxesmc

{pagination} Cause of Telegent’s spectacular fall: China dunnit Junko Yoshida PARIS – The death of Telegent Systems, Inc. – along with the mobile TV market – has been greatly exaggerated. The almost miraculous rise and spectacular fall of Telegent, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based analog TV mobile chip vendor armed with large engineering resources both in China and Silicon Valley and a big presence in China, isn’t really a cautionary tale about the dwindling global mobile TV market. Rather, Telegent’s fall has everything to do with the bloodbath of price competition in China. The market there is volatile, with the number of competitors growing daily. Of course, this story also offers allegory of what usually happens to a one-trick pony fabless chip company. Sources close to the mobile TV industry said that Telegent, still left with $60 – 70 million in the bank, will “phase out” of the current analog mobile TV chip business but will “restart in a completely different market segment.” There were strong rumors in China, however, that the owners of Telegent had been negotiating with Spreadtrum Communications (Shanghai) for several months. The plan was for Spreadtrum to acquire Telegent. Reportedly, the deal came close once to fruition, but eventually collapsed, when Spreadtrum’s Nasdaq stock value sank in the U.S. market. The electronics industry and the investment community aren’t prepared to write an obituary on Telegent – just yet. Some are still confident in a strong team of engineers remaining in California, while others are counting on Ford Tamer, a hired gun brought in to fix Telegent. Tamer joined Telegent as CEO in June, 2010, after the mobile TV chip company withdrew from its planned IPO. Tamer is a 20-year semiconductor industry veteran who previously co-founded Agere Systems Inc. and held a high-ranking executive position at Broadcom Corp. After the company’s inception in 2004, Telegent struck it rich – in a few short years – on the fledgling mobile TV market. The genius of its business model was the company’s serendipitous decision to leverage the free-to-air analog TV broadcast signals that most other players were not taking seriously. Telegent’s move in the analog mobile TV market drew a sharp contrast to competitors in the fabless chip industry who bet almost solely on still embryonic digital mobile TV signals. Consequently, Telegent, by late 2009 when the company filed for a $250 million IPO with the SEC, was believed to command, tactically, an almost 100-percent share of the analog mobile TV market. According to financials disclosed by the company at the time of IPO application (Nov., 2009), Telegent had a revenue of $111.12 million with net income of $39.36 million. One industry source estimates that Telegent was selling at that time, about 25 million units of its mobile TV chips per month, at an average selling price point of $6.00. Events since the end of 2009 to 2010 illustrate how vibrant, cutthroat and bloodthirsty the mobile TV chip market has become. Several fabless chip companies who went after Telegent’s analog mobile TV market include: MediaTek in Taiwan; RDA Microelectronics in Shanghai; Newport Media in Lake Forest, Calif. and others. Clobbered by competitors who made no bones about undercutting Telegent, the ASP of Telegent’s mobile TV chip went from $6 to $0.80 within months. Telegent’s edge, a big gross margin as a single supplier, quickly evaporated. To make matters worse, the total available market for analog mobile TV units has topped off. Leading up to the World Cup scheduled in Brazil in 2014, Latin America is transitioning to digital. Countries in South Asia – most notably, the Philippines and Thailand – are also going digital. Telegent’s current share in the analog mobile TV market is believed to be around 60 percent. Newport Media, which started out as a digital mobile TV chip company in 2005 but quickly added support for analog mobile TV two years ago, is reportedly one of the key instigators of the price erosion in the analog mobile TV market. Telegent, stuck with its analog mobile TV chip business, has been unable to go anywhere beyond the territory it so prosperously cultivated in the heady moments of its inception.