Shanda’s New Deal: Spinning Off Literature 盛大文学拟分拆上市

By newsdoug on April 19, 2011

Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA) Chairman Chen Tianqiao may be confused about what he wants his company to be, but don’t anyone ever call this guy boring. Just a couple of years after spinning off his core online game business into Shanda Games (Nasdaq: GAME) Chen is loudly floating the idea of spinning off his online literature company into yet another publicly listed company called Cloudary Corp. (English announcement; English article; Chinese article) I’ll be the first to admit I was quite amazed to see that Shanda Interactive shares shot up 17 percent on the news, as this seems like just another of Chen’s shenanigans to get more money from investors. Certainly someone seems to like Chen’s strategy of monetizing his different businesses, which does make it easier for investors to choose which parts of the company they want to buy into. But let’s look at the numbers: Shanda Interactive and Shanda Game stock are both down slightly over the last year, even after the one-day rally, versus a 10 percent rise for the Nasdaq. Chen may certainly be a dealmaker, but he needs to focus on making products that can excite consumers if he really wants to attract investors.

Bottom line: Initial investor enthusiasm for Shanda’s online literature spin-off will quickly fade, leaving the market with yet another Shanda dud if and when its online literature unit makes an IPO.

盛大网络<SNDA.O>董事长陈天桥可能也搞不明白，他究竟想让公司变成什麽样，但你绝不能说他是个乏味的人。盛大游戏<GAME.O>分拆上市没两年，他又大张旗鼓地宣扬旗下盛大文学分拆上市的计划。盛大网络股价受此消息激励而飙涨17%，这真的令我感到吃惊，因为我觉得，这听起来不过是陈天桥圈钱新招而已。当然，有的人似乎支持陈天桥将旗下不同业务“货币化”，因为这样便于投资者选择更具体的投资方向。但我们不妨来看看数字：盛大网络和盛大游戏股价即便在周一大涨後，较上年同期仍略跌，而同期Nasdaq指数却上扬了10%。陈天桥也许擅长融资交易，但他如果真的想吸引投资者，就应该把注意力放在如何推出吸引消费者的产品方面。

一句话：投资者对盛大文学分拆上市的追捧气氛将迅速消退，若盛大文学真的进行首次公开上市(IPO)，无非是盛大又一个失败的产物。