E-commerce leader Alibaba has always been a very active headline grabber, but these days its penchant for making news is getting a bit out of control, reflecting an M&A strategy that also looks increasingly overcharged and lacking focus. One might compare Alibaba these days to a creature that has suddenly developed a huge appetite and is devouring everything in sight. That’s my assessment today based on the company’s involvement in 3 major headlines, one involving web browsers, another electric cars, and a third that’s actually related to its core e-commerce services.
Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700) is wasting little time in its search for synergies with its growing stable of strategic partners, with word of a new tie-up between its popular WeChat instant messaging service and its search partner Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU). The new partnership will see WeChat provide exclusive access to its huge volumes of user-generated content for indexing by Sohu’s Sogou search engine. The alliance comes just 9 months after Tencent and Sohu announced an equity tie-up that saw the 2 companies combine their search businesses to form China’s third largest player. Read Full Post…
Leading restaurant ratings site Dianping has been making steady headlines these last 3 months, including the latest reports that it’s investing in an app that lets users order and pay for take-away food over their smartphones. The tie-up looks relatively modest and has Dianping investing about 50 million yuan ($8 million) in Dazuiba, whose name means “big mouth” in Chinese. More broadly speaking the deal seems to reflect a few recent trends for Chinese Internet M&A, including the rapid disappearance of attractive targets and a growing preference for strategic investments instead of outright acquisitions. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Eyes Strategic Stake In China Chipmaker Rockchip (Chinese article)
JD.com Launches VNO Service, Includes Free E-commerce Data (Chinese article)
Wireless carrier China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) was in the headlines last week with its launch of a financial product similar to savings accounts, becoming the latest in a long string of companies to enter an area dominated for decades by state-run banks. At the same time, separate reports said the central bank was nearing a plan to introduce its first major regulation of these new products, in another widely expected move. Read Full Post…
You know that things are bad when leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) doesn’t issue a press release trumpeting its recent receipt of simultaneous broadcast rights for the highly hyped return of the US television series “24”. That’s my conclusion after having to read about this relatively big win for Youku in the news headlines rather than a company press release. In fact, Youku Tudou may deliberately want to downplay this latest triumph to avoid attracting Beijing censors who have recently started banning some popular US television series from online video sites. Read Full Post…
The buying binge by China’s 3 leading Internet companies continues this week, with news that social networking (SNS) giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) is purchasing 11.3 percent of mobile mapping firm NavInfo (Shenzhen: 002405) for 1.17 billion yuan ($183 million). Anyone who thinks I may be mistakenly recycling an old report with this news isn’t too far from the truth, as this particular deal looks quite similar to a different recent investment by e-commerce leader Alibaba in online mapping firm AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP). Read Full Post…
Security software maker Cheetah Mobile is trying to add some spring to its sputtering New York IPO with newly released data showing it was quite profitable in the first quarter, with mobile revenue accounting for 17 percent of its revenue. It’s hard to interpret too much from these newly announced numbers since no year-ago figures were given in the report I read. But what seems clearer is that Cheetah is trying hard to revive interest in its public listing, which is rapidly stumbling as the current window for IPOs in New York and Hong Kong quickly closes. Read Full Post…
Just a day after getting some extremely worrisome news that could see many of its most popular offerings censored, leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) has announced a more positive development in the form of a $1.22 billion investment led by e-commerce leader Alibaba. The move is part of Alibaba’s recent buying binge, which has already included a handful of investments of this size, as it tries to get into every area of the Internet imaginable. The tie-up does have some positive elements that could help Youku Tudou, and comes as a slight surprise since media were reporting just a month ago that the company was preparing to sell a similar stake to Alibaba rival Tencent (HKEx: 700). Read Full Post…
In a move that seemed almost inevitable, leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) and top telecoms equipment maker Huawei have joined hands to create a set-top box for Internet TV, with plans to launch the product later this month. I’m calling the move inevitable, because Youku Tudou was one of China’s only major online video sharing services that had yet to launch an Internet TV initiative, and Huawei was one of the few remaining hardware makers without such a plan. This alliance looks potentially interesting as it combines 2 leaders in their respective areas, though their relatively late arrival to the game could put them at a slight disadvantage. Read Full Post…
Three of China’s shyest tech CEOs have made rare appearances on their microblogs over the past week, emerging from the shadows after difficult periods for at least 2 of their firms. Liu Qingdong, CEO of e-commerce giant JD.com, was the first to come out of his shell, ending a 19 month self-imposed silence. He was followed by NQ Mobile’s (NYSE: NQ) CEO Lin Yu, whose microblog had gone silent since a scandal last year that saw the security software maker came under a short seller attack. Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) CEO Pony Ma also made a relatively rare posting on his microblog, though in this case his appearance was mostly promotional as he trumpeted another major milestone for his company’s popular social networking services. Read Full Post…
