Micromax founders not selling out, says CEO - The Indian Express
Micromax CEO Vineet Taneja at the launch of the Canvas Selfie last year. ( Source: Micromax )
Micromax CEO Vineet Taneja on Tuesday said the company was not up for sale and was just looking for looking for strategic partnerships. "This is a company that is owned by four founders and they are not going anywhere," he told IndianExpress.com, before launch of the company's new budget smartphone.
Micromax is in a way returning to its roots by launching the Canvas Spark, an Android smartphone priced at Rs 4,999 but running the latest Android Lollipop operating system. "The insight is very clear: the sub-Rs 7000 smartphone category is growing at twice the rate as the portfolio over it and we are leaders in that segment," Taneja said adding that the company was number one in the mass smartphone market. "That is the right space to be."
Taneja said the 180 million smartphone users in the country will upgrade and there is a huge opportunity there. "We are very, very bullish about this," he said.
On the company's foray into Russia, Taneja said: "You know the Russian economy went through a huge turmoil so things have been quite turbulent overall. But other markets like Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are very good businesses for us, because there the entire Indian approach works for us."
The company was named as India's number one smartphone manufacturer by Research firm Canalys for the Oct-Dec 2014 quarter, a report that was then countered by Samsung. "Well, Samsung and us are neck and neck. The others are a distant third and distant fourth," he summed up.
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