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Media/Entertainment
youngchinabiz.com : latest Business news about Media – Entertainment in China by expert / journalist Doug Young : more than two decades of experience in writting about Chinese Companies
Bottom line: LeTV’s plans to raise new funds at a big discount and for its CEO to sell a big block of his shares reflect their belief that the company’s stock has become overvalued and could be due for a correction.
LeTV plans private placement
Online video superstar LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) is in a couple of headlines that reflect the recent meteoric rise of its stock, with word that it’s planning a major new share placement as its CEO gets set to sell a big chunk of his shares in the company. Both news bits come amid a rally that has seen LeTV shares soar 5-fold since the start of this year, amid a broader huge rally for China’s stock markets. They also come as LeTV embarks on a major expansion that will take it beyond its core video products into a range of new areas including smartphones and smart cars. Read Full Post…
Shanghai may be famous for its entrepreneurial spirit, but its track record isn’t quite so stellar when it comes to nurturing top entrepreneurs. That could be starting to change, however, with word that Dalian Wanda Group, one of China’s most dynamic companies, plans to move its headquarters to Shanghai from its current location in Beijing.
As a longtime foreigner living in Shanghai, I’ve always been surprised by the relatively small number of major private companies for a city of our size. We should certainly be proud of some of our city’s most outstanding entrepreneurs, with names like Guo Guangchang of Fosun Group and Spring Airlines (Shenzhen: 601021) Chairman Wang Zhenghua as 2 outstanding examples. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: CCTV’s new attacks on LeTV and JD.com reflect its growing assertiveness to counter the rise of new media, and could become more frequent in the months and years ahead.
CCTV takes aim at LeTV, JD.com
The rapid rise of new media is posing a serious challenge to China’s traditional media, which is perhaps partly behind a couple of headlines that have state-run broadcasting giant CCTV leveling separate attacks against online video high-flyer LeTV and e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD). The first case has seen CCTV sue LeTV for copyright infringement related to its popular Lunar New Year’s eve TV program. The second has CCTV airing an investigative report accusing JD.com of offering refurbished iPhones over its site that used unauthorized components, causing some to break down. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Rupert Murdoch’s shift in China strategy towards less controversial retail and entertainment projects looks smart, but is likely to meet with lukewarm success due to lack of awareness of 20th Century Fox among Chinese consumers.
Rupert Murdoch eyes China theme park
Rupert Murdoch just can’t seem to ignore the China story for too long, with new reports saying his Twenty-First Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOX) is finalizing plans for a theme park in a country that has been quite elusive for the aging media mogul. The theme park approach certainly looks safer than Murdoch’s previous attempts to enter China with more traditional media like TV and movies, and mirrors what some of the world’s other top media companies have done. Of course that means Murdoch and Fox are coming a bit late to this particular show, and the fact that 20th Century Fox theme parks aren’t exactly a well-known brand means his media empire could face a steep uphill ride finding a Chinese audience. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Online real estate stocks could resume their rebound if their latest forecasts are accurate, while Youku Tudou shares are holding steady despite widening losses on hopes for a merger deal with iQiyi.
Online real estate stocks drop on weak earnings
This week marks the height of earnings season for US-listed Chinese stocks, prompting me to look at a quartet of struggling companies in the real estate and online video spaces that have just reported results. The former category has seen the trio of SouFun (NYSE: SFUN), E-House (NYSE: EJ) and Leju (NYSE: LEJU) all release their earnings over the last 2 days, revealing gloomy results as an ongoing correction shows no signs of easing in China’s real estate market. Meantime, former online video leader Youku Tudou’s (NYSE: YOKU) latest results also look weak, showing the company’s losses ballooned as it continues to search for an elusive model for long-term profitability. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China Mobile Games could be combined with Shanda Games if buyouts for the 2 companies succeed, followed by a re-listing in China that could gain strong interest from local investors.
China Mobile Games joins de-listing queue
The latest news that China Mobile Games (Nasdaq: CMGE) has received a buyout offer won’t surprise anyone, as it becomes the latest New York-listed Chinese Internet firm to receive such a bid due to its low valuation. What does come as a slight surprise is investor reaction to the bid, which saw China Mobile Games’ share price drop to well below the offer price. The could reflect some skepticism about the quality of this particular bid, which is coming from a Chinese securities brokerage.
This deal marks the latest in a long string of similar buyouts for US-listed Chinese firms whose shares have often languished in New York due to lack of interest from western investors who are unfamiliar with these names. Many of the companies are eying quick re-listings in their home China market, where they believe they can get valuations that are as much as double what they were worth in New York. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Focus Media could complete its backdoor listing in Shenzhen within the next month, kicking off a new wave of similar migrations by formerly US-listed Chinese firms looking for higher valuations from local investors.
Focus Media to list in Shenzhen via Hongda
Faded outdoor advertising specialist Focus Media is inching towards its goal of becoming China’s first formerly New York-traded firm to re-list in its home market, with reports that it has selected a Shenzhen-listed company to make a backdoor IPO. This particular migration has been in the works for more than a year now, and could end soon with this backdoor IPO that would see Focus take over the public listing of Hongda Building Materials (Shenzhen: 002211). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The accelerating pace of deals by Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma could be cause for concern, potentially overwhelming the company and Ma and creating headaches as they work to integrate so many new tie-ups.
Alibaba in new deal frenzy
It’s no secret that e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) has been on a buying binge over the last 2 years, snapping up billions of dollars worth of smaller companies and forging new alliances as it tries to get into just about any Internet and media business it can find. But even a veteran industry watcher like myself is getting dizzy this week by the accelerating series of deals, which has seen the company and its charismatic founder Jack Ma in at least 4 headlines involving major new tie-ups in a wide variety of spaces.
One of those is coming in the logistics space, with Alibaba announcing its purchase of a stake in a major Chinese parcel delivery service. Another comes in entertainment, where the company is reportedly in talks for a smart TV joint venture with PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992). Yet another deal is in finance, with Jack Ma reportedly buying a stake in the Hong Kong-listed Reorient Group (HKEx: 376). And all of those deals are coming a day after media reported that Ma has become a new investor in the sports entertainment unit of online video services high-flyer LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Netflix may be in talks to enter China through a joint venture, but is unlikely to reach a deal for at least the next 1-2 years due to regulatory turbulence and tough restrictions in the rapidly changing market.
Netflix eyes China
Investors are getting excited about reports that leading US video streaming site Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is in talks to come to China, in what would be the first such move by a major foreign video operator. The prospect of such a move would indeed be exciting, especially since it could come in partnership with a company closely tied to Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). But I would caution that this particular market is a very tricky one due to China’s strict censorship policies, and also recent resistance to private companies from traditional state-owned TV stations. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Shares of Youku Tudou and Vipshop are likely to remain stable over the next few weeks, as the former moves towards a rumored merger with iQiyi and the latter fends off a short seller attack.
Vipshop likely to fend off short seller attack
Two stories with big implications for individual company stocks are in the news as we begin the new week, led by a denial from Baidu-backed (Nasdaq: BIDU) online video site iQiyi that it’s in talks for a merger with large rival Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU). The other big news has high-flying discount e-commerce site Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS) coming under a short-seller attack, prompting it to issue not one but two separate statements denying the allegations. The week ahead could be bumpy for both of these stocks, which is why I’m weighing in with my own view of what may be happening behind the scenes. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A merger between Youku Tudou and iQiyi looks like a strong possibility because it would greatly benefit both companies, creating a clear market leader to rival LeTV and traditional broadcasters.
Youku Tudou in merger talks with iQiyi?
Rumors that former online video leader Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) is in talks to merge with rival iQiyi have reignited interest in the former’s beleaguered stock, as investors get excited about another landmark deal in the space. Youku Tudou’s shares soared 17 percent in the latest trading session, and have now nearly doubled since the beginning of April.
The sourcing is quite vague on the reported talks for a merger with iQiyi, which is owned by online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). But I would give the reports a strong chance of being true, as this kind of a move seems consistent with past behavior of Youku Tudou’s CEO Victor Koo, who is highly practical and thus would seriously consider selling his company if such a move made financial sense. Read Full Post…
