Ik heb even gescand en als je de jaarverslagen van TT en HERE naast elkaar legt zou ik zeggen dat TT er in alle opzichten (financieel, technologisch, organisatorisch) beter uitziet.
Ik zou het ook kunnen samenvatten als HERE het FC Barcelona van Automotive. Neem alleen al dingen als vrijwillige salarisinlevering, vrijwillig parttime werk, geen vakantiedagen uitbetaald krijgen, etc. Plus een reductie in R&D, ontslagen / reorganisatie en herprioritering van productlanceringen. In tegenstelling daartoe heeft TT gewoon cash en blijft het R&D op zelfde niveau of hoger doen. Ze weten bij TT natuurlijk ook hoe het bij HERE gaat en dat dit het moment is om juist wel te blijven investeren.
Samenvattend in paar bullets
- HERE voert bezuinigingen door en re-scoping (herprioritering) van markt introducties. Bepaalde producten gaan dus later naar de markt. TomTom heeft juist R&D uitgaven opgevoerd. TT heeft engineers binnengehaald met nieuw salarispakket en aandelen, bij HERE lever je in
- TomTom een netto kaspositie van 350 miljoen en geen schulden. HERE heeft half miljard schuld en allerlei maatregelen om geld op te halen en te besparen
- TomTom een realtime mapmaking platform om veel meer kaartwijzigingen te kunnen doen tegen gelijke of lagere kosten. HERE dat zich zorgen maakt over concurrenten met lagere productiekosten (uiteraard TT niet bij naam genoemd)
- HERE haalt 20% van haar inkomsten uit 1 klant. Dit was volstrekt nieuw voor mij. Ik denk dat dit Volkswagen is. Hier ligt dus ook macht die VW over HERE heeft en ook macht die uitgeoefend kon worden in de overname strijd. En daar ligt dus levensgrote kans voor TT en Microsoft.
- TomTom geeft aan massive data te ontvangen van 3 miljoen auto's met HD maps, dat de inkomende data 'exponentieel groeien'. HERE geeft aan dat ze zich zorgen maken of ze wel voldoende toegang hebben tot die data. (zien we hier ook het voordeel van secret Tesla deal?)
- HERE geeft aan andere industrieën dan automotive op te zoeken om afhankelijkheid te reduceren. "resources are prioritized towards those products and markets that have the greatest long-term potential for HERE. (ze gaven al aan dat dat buiten Automotive ligt)
Ik copy/paste even wat dingen.
ORGANISATORISCH
Eerst een heel stuk over een reorganisatie waarin diverse teams zijn samengevoegd, veranderd, etc. Met daarna nog iets van feiten en cijfers: Organizational changes had an impact on teams and roles throughout our organization. When roles were eliminated, we acted as a responsible employer. Our total headcount declined during the year from 8.846 to 8.167
We shifted roles to low cost countries where possible and used the Dutch NOW regeling and German Kurzarbeid. Many employees participated in a global voluntary employee contribution program 'ALL4HERE, designed to save jobs and the protection of HERE's future. Contributions consisted of voluntary part-time work, give back of vacation days and voluntary salary reductions. Other steps to help secure our financial stability were:
- Cancellation of all travel
- Pausing all hiring of employees
- Rescoping of the Go-To-Market (GTM) activities.
FINANCIEEL
HERE had debt of EUR 493 million on its balance sheet at December 31, 2020. HERE Group has access to a revolving credit facility totaling EUR 150 million. As of December 31, 2020, EUR 108 million has been borrowed against this facility. The debt imposes covenants on the HERE Group.
Due to the impact of COVID-19 on HERE’s financial results, the banks in showing support of HERE waived some of the tests in exchange for which HERE accepted a minimum liquidity covenant for Q3 2020 and Q4 2020 testing.
HERE has complied with the non-waived and the new liquidity covenants during the 2020 reporting period. In relation to this refinancing, HERE International B.V.’s shareholders agreed to contribute additional capital of EUR 71 million in January 2020, and EUR 87 million in November 2020 to reduce outstanding debts. The scheduled November 2020 contribution was replaced with a contribution in an equal amount as part of the Mitsubishi Corporation and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation share purchase and was received in May 2020.
HERE International B.V. entered into a subordinated shareholder loan agreement in April 2020 with There Holding B.V. and Intel Holdings B.V. to provide liquidity support. The HERE Group borrowed EUR 125 million, received in three tranches: EUR 60 million in May 2020, EUR 40 million in June 2020, and EUR 25 million in August 2020. The loan is payable at the earlier of July 31, 2023 and the date falling six months after all outstanding balances on its main debt agreement are repaid in full. This overall liquidity support shows the strong support and belief the shareholders have in HERE and our long-term future. HERE’s owners and banking partners showed the confidence to support HERE during the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing additional funding and contractual adjustments.
R&D / BUSINESS
Some offerings we currently provide may be no longer competitive, or another participant may provide a more competitive new offering in the future or new more efficient or affordable ways of map content creation may be introduced which may disrupt our own business model. Our Research and Development function actively searches for ways in which to translate our customer preferences into new technologies for incorporation into future products, while our innovation management process deploys tools, technologies and resources to convert strategies into projects and plans, develop products and relevant communication, and successfully roll out new products to our customers; and the prices our customers are willing to pay for our products may decline. This price risk is, however, mitigated because of long term contractual commitments with customers, especially in our automotive business.
Our plans include making HERE a key player in new and upcoming location-based services, such as augmented reality, new vehicle software systems, and autonomous driving systems. In addition, HERE strives to be deeply integrated in vehicle driver assistance systems. Our competitiveness may be adversely affected if we are unable to effectively collate, process and analyze data, such as end-user behavioral data or sensor data, and to derive intelligence from that data, which could be used to enhance our product offering.
The top three customers account for approximately 20.0%, 8.6% and 4.8% of HERE’s accounts receivable at December 31, 2020 (2019: 13.7%, 7.9% and 4.9%).