Outspoken Billionaire Works to Salvage His Tech Empire in China
- Jia had called Apple ‘outdated’ and ‘extremely slow’
- 43-year-old borrowed against his stock to fund expansions
As China’s Jia Yueting expanded his tech empire, he wasn’t shy about critiquing industry giants. In his first international TV appearance in April, the 43-year-old billionaire called Apple Inc. “outdated” and its innovation “extremely slow.” As for Tesla Motors Inc., he later said it may be a “great” company, but he aimed to surpass Elon Musk and “lead the industry leapfrogging to a new age."
What a difference a few months make. Jia admitted in a memo to employees last month that his LeEco holding company had expanded too aggressively into smartphones, electric cars and other ventures, and was struggling to raise the cash it needed. Jia cut his own salary to 1 yuan (15 cents) and warned of hard days to come. “We blindly sped ahead, and our cash demand ballooned," he wrote. "We got over-extended in our global strategy.”