The feud continues: Wang Jin sued WeRide Zhixing and requested to liquidate the company

[?Introduction to Yiou?]?The story is far from over.

Author丨Zhang Nan

Editor丨Yang Yaru

The grievances between Wang Jin and the company he founded, "Wenyuan Zhixing", have surfaced again.

According to the self-media "Xinzhixun" report, on February 11, a newly disclosed prosecution document on the OffshoreAlert website, a world-renowned offshore financial database, showed that Wang Zhixing, a shareholder of China's autonomous driving start-up WeRide, recently Jin, filed a lawsuit against WeRide ZhiXing in the court of Cayman (the place of registration of WeRide ZhiXing's parent company) on the grounds of infringement of shareholders' rights and interests. Wang Jin believes that WeRide Zhixing has violated the rights and interests of shareholders and the company should be liquidated in accordance with Article 92(e) of the Cayman Companies Law. If the lawsuit is supported by the court, WeRide's financial assets will be supervised by the court or the legal liquidator appointed by the court and enter the company's liquidation process.

It is understood that when many shareholders of companies registered in Cayman sue to liquidate the company, they will cite "Article 92(e) of the Cayman Companies Law" as the legal basis. Accordingly, Wang Jin believed that WeRide Zhixing issued new shares in an improper manner, diluting its shares from 39 of the company's total shares to 3, and therefore accused WeRide Zhixing of seriously infringing upon the rights and interests of the company's shareholders and violating Wang Jin's legitimate expectations as a shareholder of the company. ?

He claimed in the lawsuit, “Wang Jin and his family held 39% of the shares when they were forced to leave the company in February 2018. Wang Jin was still the company’s largest shareholder after leaving the company. Individual shareholders, but WeRide has harmed the rights and interests of Wang Jin and his family in various ways." In this regard, a source close to WeRide told Yiou Automobile that, in fact, after the Series A and Series A financing. , Wang Jin's shareholding ratio has been greatly diluted, and this dilution is well-founded. ?

Yiou Auto reached out to WeRide for confirmation, but had not responded as of press time. Zhongzhixing said that this was Wang Jin’s personal matter and had nothing to do with the company.

More than two years later, the feud between Wang Jin and Wenyuan Zhixing continues.

It is understood that Wang Jin was the founder and CEO of Jingchi Technology (the predecessor of WeRide). Earlier, he was the general manager of Baidu Autonomous Driving Division (L4) and was one of the first batch of domestic companies to promote autonomous driving. One of the key figures in the industrialization process. ?

In April 2017, Wang Jin officially resigned from Baidu and co-founded the autonomous driving company Jingchi Technology with Han Xu***, the former chief scientist of Baidu’s autonomous driving division. Subsequently, Jingchi Technology successfully completed two rounds of angel round and Pre-A round financing. But the good times did not last long. At the end of the same year, Baidu sued Wang Jin and his company American Jingchi to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court on the grounds of infringement of trade secrets, claiming that they violated the competition agreement by recruiting Baidu employees and failing to return computers and printers by leaving their jobs. Wang Jin was required to stop using trade secrets to engage in self-driving related businesses that compete with Baidu, and to pay compensation of 50 million yuan for economic losses and reasonable expenses. ?

Subsequently, Wang Jin left the company citing family reasons. Jingchi Technology immediately changed its name to WeRide Zhixing, completed a settlement with Baidu, and Han Xu took over the CEO position.

The story is far from over. In early 2018, WeRide stated that the company had signed a non-disparagement agreement with Wang Jin. However, after Wang Jin left the company, he slandered WeRide to investors and violated the agreement, causing the company to lose money in the Series A financing. An expected investment of more than US$75 million. Wang Jin denied this. In the middle of the same year, an autonomous driving company called "Zhongzhixing" was established in Nanjing, which attracted the attention of the industry. After Huang Kun, the former head of hardware at the American company, publicly stated that he was planning to join Wang Jin's new company, and then joined Zhongzhixing, WeRide concluded that although Wang Jin was not the founder of Zhongzhixing, he was the founder of the company. The company’s “behind-the-scenes leadership”

So in November 2018, WeRide filed a lawsuit against Zhongzhixing, Wang Jin and Huang Kun, believing that the three had stolen WeRide’s business. Trade secrets in autonomous driving.

CIIC then fought back and countersued WeRide, requiring it to compare the relevant source code to prove that CIIC did not infringe.

At this time, the situation has evolved into a "war" between the two companies. According to the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, Wang Jin, who was at the center of the incident, could not be served with a summons because his whereabouts were unknown.

In mid-2019, Wang Jin finally appeared in public again, saying that he would return to the front line of autonomous driving and determined to devote himself to it for the rest of his life. He kept silent about his relationship with Zhongzhixing and WeRide, saying only that "Compared with the general trend and industrial significance of the industry, the dispute is too small and too small." The SAE (International Society of Automated Engineers) held in October that year At China's first self-driving public experience event, Wang Jin appeared in his new capacity as CEO of China Intelligent Technology. ?

The destination has been settled, but the feud between Wang Jin and Wenyuan Zhixing is far from over. Currently, its request to liquidate WeRide has entered the trial stage in the Cayman Court, and there may be more variables in the future.

Editor: Yang Yaru

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.