Dud Looms With Shanda Literature Offering 盛大文学上市令人不解
I try not to be too surprised when Chinese companies do strange things, but Shanda Interactive’s (Nasdaq: SNDA) determination to go forward with an IPO for its online literature unit, called Cloudary, is leaving more and more puzzled by the day. (English article; Chinese article) First let’s take a look at the facts around this relatively boring online business. Cloudary is currently losing money, posting a net loss of about $600,000 last year, which admittedly was much better than the $15 million loss for 2009. Revenue more than doubled over that period, but still was just a modest $21 million last year. Despite these less-than-impressive figures, Shanda still wants to raise up to a whopping $200 million from this deal, which sounds ridiculous unless it’s planning to sell off most of the company. Now let’s look at the bigger realities. The market for China IPOs has cooled considerably in the last few weeks, especially for second-tier deals like this one, as reflected by the recent flop for Jiayuan (Nasdaq: DATE) a much more interesting play that is one of China’s top online dating sites. (previous post) Considering Shanda’s failure at its only other spinoff, Shanda Games (Nasdaq: GAME), and its recent problems with its Ku6 Media (Nasdaq: KUTV) unit, this upcoming Cloudary IPO has flop written all over it.
Bottom line: Shanda’s planned IPO for its Cloudary online literature unit lacks excitement in general and is poorly times, making this offering a sure-fire flop.
中国公司做出种种奇特举动本来并不新鲜，但盛大互动娱乐<SNDA.O>执意要将旗下在线文学部门Cloudary上市的决定还是让人越来越困惑。首先，让我们看看这桩相当无聊的网上生意到底是什麽情况。目前Cloudary是亏损的，去年净亏损约60万美元，当然要比2009年的亏损 1,500万美元好很多。盛大2010年营收较一年前增加了一倍多，但也就是2,100万美元。尽管业绩平平，盛大仍想通过让该部门上市来筹集2亿美元之多。除非盛大打算把公司大部分都卖出去，否则这个筹资目标听起来确实很荒唐。现在让我们再看看大环境。过去几个星期，中国公司IPO市场大大降温，尤其是对於这类“二线公司”而言，世纪佳缘<DATE.O>最近的逆境便是明证，而世纪佳缘的业务听起来要比盛大文学有趣很多。考虑到另一家从盛大分拆出来的上市公司盛大游戏<GAME.O>吃到的败仗，以及盛大旗下酷6媒体<KUTV.O>近期发生的问题，即将上市的Cloudary可谓看不到一线光明。
一句话：盛大Cloudary本身乏善可陈且上市时机糟糕，肯定会遭遇滑铁卢。
Related postings 相关文章:
◙ Shanda Literature IPO: Watch the Bottom Line *盛大文学IPO: 利润在哪里？
◙ Shanda’s New Deal: Spinning Off Literature 盛大文学拟分拆上市
◙ No Marital Bliss for Jiayuan as IPO Fever Cools 互联网IPO热潮冷却 世纪佳缘美梦破灭
