Xunlei’s Rich Parentage List Grows 迅雷投资方阵容强大

By newsdoug on June 14, 2011

The pedigree for video-sharing site Xunlei, which last week filed for an IPO worth up to $200 million (previous post), just keeps getting richer and richer, in what seems suspiciously like a carefully coordinated campaign of strategic leaks to generate buzz around its upcoming listing. We already knew that this company counts Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) among its backers, which should be enough for people to believe this is a promising player. Now Chinese media are reporting that a fund owned by none other than Rupert Murdoch’s family was also a recent investor, putting in an undisclosed amount that valued Xunlei at $1 billion. (Chinese article) I have lots of respect for Murdoch, whose previous investments have included successful companies like NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) and Phoenix Satellite Television (HKEx: 2008). There’s no reason to think this investment Xunlei chases the spotlight will be any different, especially seeing as Xunlei was already earning money in 2009, posting a profit that year of $5.5 million — a sharp contrast to other video sharing sites like Youku (NYSE: YOKU) and Tudou, which are both still losing money. This selective leaking of information designed to create buzz is clearly in response to the recent cooling in market sentiment towards Chinese Web companies, that’s seen the likes of children’s site Taomee (Nasdaq: TAOM) and Jiayuan (Nasdaq: DATE) sink in their recent debuts. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of these strategic positive leaks coming out in the next week, as the spinmasters behind Xunlei try their best for a positive debut despite the negative market sentiment.

Bottom line: Xunlei backers are hard at work hyping up the company’s IPO, banking on its strong pedigree and balance sheet to buck recently weakening sentiment towards new China IPOs.

上周递交IPO申请、拟筹2亿美元的视频分享网站迅雷的支持者名单正变得越来越强大，看起来是公司有意泄漏相关信息为其上市造势。我们知道，迅雷已经把谷歌<GOOG.O>和百度<BIDU.O>拉进阵营，这应该足以让大家相信，迅雷是一个有希望的企业。如今又有中国媒体报导称，默多克家族拥有的一个基金近期也成为迅雷的一个投资方，其投资对迅雷的估值达到10亿美元。我很尊敬默多克，他以前成功的投资案例包括网易<NTES.O> 和凤凰卫视<2008.HK> 。没有理由怀疑默多克家族的这次新投资，尤其是鉴於迅雷在2009年已经录得550万美元的盈利。相比之下，中国其他视频分享网站如优酷<YOKU.N>和土豆都仍在亏损。在看到淘米网<TAOM.N>和世纪佳缘<DATE.O>上市後的糟糕表现後，迅雷进行上述造势显然是想扭转市场对中国网络公司热情减退的势头。我估计未来一周迅雷还会“泄露”更多类似正面信息，为上市营造良好氛围。

一句话：迅雷的支持者正极力为公司造势，力争扭转市场近来对中国网络公司IPO热情下降的势头。

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