Coolpad

Coolpad Group Limited

Company type	Public company
Industry	Telecommunications equipment
Predecessor	Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
Founded	April 29, 1993 (1993-04-29) in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Founder	Guo Deying
Headquarters	Shenzhen , China
Area served	China, International markets
Key people	Guo Deying (Chairman), Jia Yueting (former principal stakeholder)
Products	Smartphones, mobile phones, telecommunications equipment
Owner	Publicly traded; major shareholders have included Jia Yueting via Lele Holding and others

Coolpad Group Limited (presented as coolpɑd) is a telecommunications equipment firm based in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. Although incorporated in the Cayman Islands, it is publicly traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the symbol . Coolpad stands as a prominent smartphone producer within China and ranks among the leading Chinese domestic brands in international sales.

Following its acquisition by Jia Yueting, Coolpad was integrated into the LeEco Group yet maintained operational independence from LeEco's mainland parent company, Leshi Holding.

Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific

Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (), established on 29 April 1993 in Shenzhen, China, serves as the wholly owned predecessor entity of Coolpad Group. Initially structured as a Sino-foreign joint venture, Shenzhen University Culture Technology Services held a 52% stake while Hong Kong-based Dickman Enterprises owned 48%. Guo Deying (), who first served as Yulong’s chairman, later became the largest shareholder and chairman of Coolpad Group. Guo left Shenzhen University to assume leadership at Yulong. Dickman Enterprises was predominantly controlled by Tsang Dick-man () with a 60% share; Tsang acted as a Yulong director until July 2001.

In 1999, Shenzhen University divested its 52% ownership in Yulong to Guo's wife and mother-in-law. By June 2001, Guo and his wife purchased the remaining 48% from Dickman Enterprises, thereby consolidating full ownership of the company.

Originally specializing in pagers and paging systems, Yulong expanded into mobile phone manufacturing in 2002.

Coolpad Group

Coolpad originated as Yulong’s smartphone brand. In 2002, China Wireless Technologies Limited was formed in the Cayman Islands to hold Yulong’s shares; this entity went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004, enabling mainland Chinese companies to access offshore capital markets.

In 2003, China Wireless introduced China’s first CDMA1X-based smartphone featuring a color display and handwriting input. The following year, it launched the industry’s initial dual SIM-slot phone. In 2005, it unveiled the world’s first dual SIM device capable of simultaneous operation on GSM and CDMA networks.

By 2012, Coolpad was ranked among China's leading domestic smartphone brands alongside Lenovo, Huawei, and ZTE, competing with imported devices from Samsung, Apple, and Nokia.

China Wireless rebranded itself as Coolpad Group Limited towards the end of 2013. Facing the conclusion of its sales agreement with state-owned China Mobile in 2014, Coolpad pivoted towards online retail channels.

In 2015, Forbes Asia included Coolpad in its Fab(ulous) 50 Companies list. However, that year saw a 41% drop in revenue due to weak sales of 3G smartphones; nonetheless, increased revenue from 4G smartphone sales and profits from divesting part of Coolpad E-commerce prevented net losses. Established in December 2014 as a joint venture with Qihoo 360 (holding a 55-45 split), Coolpad E-commerce contributed to this financial stability. In mid-2015, chairman Guo sold shares through an overseas holding company to LeEco Group's competitor Jia Yueting, despite LeEco also manufacturing smartphones via its LeMobile subsidiary.

In December 2016, Coolpad divested an 80% stake in its "Shenzhen Coolpad Mobile Tech" subsidiary—which managed the "ivvi" smartphone brand—to SuperD, a company specializing in VR/AR technology, while retaining a minority interest of 20%.

According to Canalys research data for 2016 and early 2017, neither Coolpad nor LeMobile ranked among China's major smartphone brands.

Following Jia Yueting's acquisition, Coolpad supplied mobile phone components to Lesai Mobile HK—an associate sharing its largest shareholder with Leview Mobile HK. This related-party transaction was renewed in May 2017 with a contract value of HK$192.774 million for the year 2016. Trading of Coolpad shares was suspended from March 31, 2017 after auditors requested further verification concerning the company’s financial statements for that year.

In October 2017, Coolpad diversified into real estate by collaborating with a Chinese property developer to redevelop its former Shenzhen headquarters known as "Coolpad Information Harbor." Jia Yueting resigned from his roles as chairman and board member in November 2017—four months following his departure from sister company Le.com. Two additional non-executive directors including former CEO Liu Jiangfeng also stepped down; Jia divested all his shares by January 2018.

Coolpad redirected its focus towards the US market but dismissed CEO Jiang Chao shortly after his January 2019 appearance at CES. After incurring a net loss of HK$2.674 billion for fiscal year 2017, the company reduced its losses to HK$409 million in fiscal year 2018 despite experiencing declining revenue.

Ownership

In 2015, Jia Yueting emerged as Coolpad's second largest shareholder and subsequently became its principal stakeholder in 2016. By 31 December 2015, Jia held a 17.92% interest through Lele Holding, a British Virgin Islands-registered company under his full control. In August 2016, Lele Holding expanded its ownership by acquiring an extra 10.97% from the company's founder, Guo Deying, increasing its total share to 28.83%, while Guo maintained a 9.22% holding.

Subsequent reports revealed that the 11% stake was actually owned by Le.com via a private equity fund starting in 2016, with ownership shifting to Zeal Limited as disclosed by Coolpad in January 2018. During the same timeframe, Jia divested an additional 18% stake to Power Sun Ventures, which is controlled by Chen Jiajun.

By the close of 2015, roughly 61.95% of shares were distributed among small investors who were exempt from disclosure requirements under Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Ordinance. Board members possessed relatively minor shareholdings: Jiang Chao held 0.59%, Li Bin owned 1.58%, Li Wang had 0.59%, and independent directors Chan King Chung, Huang Dazhan, and Xie Weixin each owned 0.01%.

Controversies

On 17 December 2014, Palo Alto Networks uncovered a backdoor vulnerability affecting numerous Coolpad devices, which they identified and labeled as "CoolReaper".