Tencent Chases a Faded Giant in Myspace 腾讯竞购末路英雄Myspace

I have to say that the latest reports that Tencent (HKEx: 700) is mulling a bid for News Corp’s (Nasdaq: NWSA) faded social networking site Myspace left me a bit puzzled. (English report; Chinese report) My only explanation is that China’s leading Internet company has way too much cash in its coffers and doesn’t know what to do with it. In many ways, Myspace is like former Internet giant AOL, which looked unbeatable in its heyday and is now struggling just to stay alive. Then again, Tencent’s interest shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, following its bid last year in another faded social networking giant, Friendster. Luckily for Tencent, it ultimately lost in the bidding war for that company, and if it’s lucky Tencent will lose in the bidding for Myspace as well. Who knows: perhaps all these bids are just a performance for Tencent to show shareholders it’s looking for overseas investments to expand the business. But my guess is that these attempts are really serious, and could leave Tencent with major liabilities if it ever succeeds in buying one of these faded giants.

Bottom line: If Tencent is smart, it will stop chasing washed-up Internet giants and focus its overseas M&A efforts on young firms with good growth potential.

不得不说，最近有关腾讯<0700.HK>打算收购新闻集团<NWSA.O>旗下没落的社交网站Myspace的报导着实让我有点摸不着头脑。我唯一的解释只能是，这家中国领先的互联网公司实在是现金太多了，不知道该如何花。在很多方面，Myspace就好像昔日的互联网巨头AOL——鼎盛时看起来无坚不摧，如今却苟延残喘。但腾讯的收购意向不应该太让人意外，因去年它就曾竞购另一家没落的社交网站巨头 Friendster。幸运的是，腾讯对那家公司的竞购没有成功。如果腾讯再次输掉Myspace竞购战，那也会是一桩幸事。但谁知道呢，也许腾讯竞购这些公司只不过是演戏给股东看，告诉他们公司在寻找海外投资对象，以扩展业务。不过，我猜腾讯还是认真的，而如果腾讯成功购得这些昔日巨头中的任何一家，恐怕都要承担与之相关的大规模债务。底线是，如果腾讯够聪明，那就不要再追逐这些互联网业过气明星，而要把海外并购力量集中在增长潜力良好的年轻公司身上。

一句话： 腾讯如果聪明会放掉追求过时老网行，而会注意年轻而有前途的公司上。

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◙ Facebook’s China Tie Up: No Big Deal

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◙ Snaptu: Facebook’s China Back Door? Facebook在中国走“後门”？