从接近破产到5年前上市，展讯重获生机的历程离不开任命新CEO、获得政府支持以及一系列的好运气。
展讯是一家无晶圆厂IC公司，成立于2001年，业务重点是移动手持设备基带芯片。2007年，在成长为最大的中国IC公司后，展讯上市了。不过事情并没有按照预想的发展，展讯在纳斯达克的股价比现在Facebook股价下降得还要厉害，到2008年底已经跌至每股73美分。展讯公开发行股价下跌，加上其他中国无晶圆厂芯片公司股价下跌以致难以完成季度财务目标，让很多人相信中国貌似潜力无限的市场实际上不过是一时繁荣的烟花。
5年间展讯股价的沉沉浮浮
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到2009年第一季度的时候，展讯基本上“没有客户”了，现金也只能“支撑两个季度”，李力游如是说，他于2009年2月，在展讯最黑暗的日子里接手管理公司。
在李力游的带领下， 展讯正酝酿着一次奇迹般的东山再起。
2011年展讯营收为6.7亿美元，今年预计将增长到7亿美元。展讯上周四早上的股价为19.5美元。上个月中国移动招标的6款TD-SCDMA手机中，展讯拿到了其中5款的design win(参阅国际电子商情报道：
中移动TD手机招标品牌/芯片商/IDH大揭密)。李力游还提到了台湾的竞争对手，他说“联发科技只拿到了一款。”
展讯的曲折历程体现了中国年轻无晶圆厂IC公司的脆弱性，也体现了国有企业的少数订单能够快速改变他们的命运。展讯的重获生机也展示了中国市场的速度和能量，这体现在接受美国教育的中国工程师和管理者们逐渐回到中国。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
本文下一页：李力游那灰姑娘般的经历
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• 2012展讯新产品推介会在深圳召开
• 2011年无晶圆IC厂全球25强排名，增长明星是展讯通信p1Zesmc
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灰姑娘般的故事
正如展讯从灰烬中重生，其CEO李力游也是如此。
李力游从北京一所大学毕业后(注：应是中国科学技术大学)，在1986年拿到全额奖学金来美国马里兰大学学习。到美国的时候他口袋里只有100美元，当时也只会讲一点儿英语。他还记得到马里兰那天，试着从一家商店购买地铁票，说了“地铁(Subway)”。和商店营业员交谈一阵子后，他才发现，商店只卖潜艇三明治(submarine sandwiches)。
时间前进到上周，李力游和电子工程专辑记者在午餐时见面。他看起来精神抖擞，但其实他之前在法国网球公开赛上和法国电信的高层们交谈完，从巴黎乘飞机，早上才在上海降落。
展讯在2008年的没落源自全球金融危机、手持设备行业残酷的竞争，以及采用中国自有TD-SCDMA标准的手持设备在中国市场上接受速度缓慢。
李力游说，“领导企业转身比成立一个新公司还难得多。”
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李力游不接受展讯员工提到的各种理由，他承认，“我们失败了就是自己的原因，我们只能怪自己。”
事后来看，李力游意识到展讯开始相信自己IPO后的各种报道，他们不再拜访客户和开拓业务。更糟的是，没人在管公司最基本的业务运营，比如质量控制和客户服务。
李力游并不是2009年空降到展讯的。他由投资人亲自挑选，而且不情愿地答应回来中国。之前他在美国生活了20年，在GE Mobile、爱立信、罗克韦尔、Mobilink电信和博通(2002年Mobilink被博通收购)工作过。
李力游在第三次被劝说时同意了回到中国担任展讯的CEO，回国后的前九个月，他在展讯数个不同的岗位上工作过。这九个月乔装的职业生涯证明是很有用的，让他成为了一个真正了解公司情况的管理者，在上任只用最小的内部变动(开除了几个副总裁)便快速管理起了公司。李力游说，“今后的三到五年里，中国将出现世界级的半导体公司。”他还补充道，展讯会是其中之一。
世界级的抱负
什么样的芯片公司才是“世界级”的？
李力游说，首先，营收必须在10亿以上。对展讯来说，下个财年就能达到这一数字。“一旦营收达到10亿，你就加入了世界级俱乐部。”
还要有像高通那样“完善”的产品组合。展讯将在年底之前发每一种可能的基带IP，目前开发正在进行中。
第三，需要一个能够“更好集成美国技术”的团队，李力游说。展讯的使命是“用中国态度提供美国技术”。
最后，世界级的公司必须能够展现自然成长的能力，特别是在全球移动手持设备的总体市场正在扩张的情况下。
李力游还抱怨了大多数美国业内观察人士认为“展讯是中国市场上唯一玩家”的批评。他说，中国移动有6.6亿用户，“这比美国和欧洲市场加起来还大。”
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
本文下一页：参考英文原文：How Leo Li led Spreadtrum's turnaround,by Junko Yoshida
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• 手机识人：高帅富、发烧友、沉默的大多数
• 2012展讯新产品推介会在深圳召开
• 2011年无晶圆IC厂全球25强排名，增长明星是展讯通信p1Zesmc
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How Leo Li led Spreadtrum's turnaround
Junko Yoshida
SHANGHAI, China – It’s taken a new CEO, Chinese government support and plenty of good fortune for Spreadtrum Communications to recover from its near-death experience after going public five years ago.
Spreadtrum, the fabless company established here in 2001, focuses on baseband chips for mobile handsets. It went public in 2007 after being touted as the top Chinese IC company. Things did not go as planned. Spreadtrum’s Nasdaq stock price tanked worse than Facebook’s, plunging to 73 cents a share by the end of 2008. The decline of publicly-traded Spreadtrum and other Chinese fabless companies that also had problems hitting quarterly financial targets, convinced skeptics that China's seemingly infinite potential was just so many fireworks.
By the first quarter of 2009, Spreadtrum was left with virtually “no customers,” and had only enough cash to “last only for the next two quarters,” explained Leo Li, who took the helm at Spreadtrum in its darkest days in February 2009.
Under Li, Spreadtrum is on the verge of a miraculous comeback.
Revenue in 2011 totaled $670 million, and the company expects revenues to grow to more than $700 million this year. Spreadtrum’s stock price as of Thursday morning (June 7) was $19.50. Spreadtrum has grabbed five design wins among six TD-SCDMA smartphone models selected by China Mobile last month. A “MediaTek chip got designed into only one model,” noted Li, referring to its Taiwan chip rival.
Spreadtrum’s turnaround illustrates the vulnerability of China’s young fabless IC companies and how a few contracts from state-owned enterprises can quickly reverse their fortunes. Spreadtrum’s apparent recovery also shows the speed and energy of the Chinese market as reflected in the steady return of Chinese engineers and management executives trained in the United States.
Cinderella story
Just as Spreadtrum rose from the ashes, so has CEO Li.
Li came to the U.S. in 1986 to study at the University of Maryland on a full scholarship after graduating from a Beijing university. He arrived with $100 in his pocket. Speaking little English then, Li remembered that on the day he arrived in Maryland he tried to buy a subway ticket at a store that said “Subway.” After a heated discussion with a clerk, Li discovered that the shop sold only submarine sandwiches.
Fast forward to this week: Li showed up for lunch with EE Times looking fresh as a daisy despite having just landed in Shanghai that morning after a long flight from Paris where he was hobnobbing with France Telecom’s executives at the French Open. Spreadtrum is now as important a guest for France Telecom as big name mobile handset makers.
A “turnaround is much more difficult than starting up a company,” Li said. Spreadtrum’s early decline in 2008 resulted from the global financial crisis, relentless competition in the mobile handset market and slow market acceptance of handsets based on China’s home-grown TD-SCDMA standard.
Li brooked no excuses from Spreadtrum employees. “We failed because of us,” he acknowledged. “We have only ourselves to blame.”
In hindsight, Li realized Spreadtrum started believing all the publicity generated by its IPO and stopped visiting its customers and expanding its business. Making matters worse, no one was overseeing the company’s fundamental business operations like quality control and customer support.
Li didn’t exactly parachute into Spreadtrum in 2009. Instead, he was handpicked by VCs to turn the company around and reluctantly agreed to return to China. He’d spent the previous two decades in the United States working for GE Mobile, Ericsson, Rockwell, Mobilink Telecom and Broadcom (Mobilink was acquired by Broadcom in 2002).
Li finally agreed on the third request to become Spreadtrum’s CEO after holding down several other posts in his first nine months there. That career path turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the experience made him a true company insider who was able to quickly take charge with a minimum of housecleaning (a couple of vice presidents were fired). Today, Li likes to say, “In three to five years, the world-class semiconductor companies will emerge in China.” Hopefully, he adds, Spreadtrum will be one of them.
World class aspirations
What makes a chip company “world class?”
First, Li said, revenue needs to be $1 billion or more, adding that Spreadtrum will get there by the end of its next fiscal year. “Once you reach the $1 billion goal, you are in the club.”
Also required is a portfolio as "complete" as a competitor like Qaulcomm. Spreadtrum is currently working to develop every conceivable type of baseband IP by the end of this year.
Third, a team is needed that is capable of “integrating the U.S. technologies better,” Li said. Spreadtrum’s mission is to offer “U.S. technologies with [a] China attitude.”
Finally, world class companies must demonstrate the ability to grow organically, particularly since the total available market for mobile handsets is constantly expanding.
Li also complained that critics, mostly U.S. industry observers, have pegged Spreadtrum as only player in the Chinese market. He countered that China Mobile has 660 million subscribers. “That’s bigger than the U.S. and European markets combined.”
责编：Quentin
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