It seems quite appropriate that we’re ending 2013 with word of yet another acquisition and New York IPO plan in China’s Internet space by leading search site Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), capping a year that will go down as the most active for Chinese online M&A in the sector’s short but colorful history. It’s certainly appropriate that Baidu’s name is connected to both of these final news bits for the year, since the company and e-commerce leader Alibaba were the 2 most active drivers of this year’s M&A wave. Read Full Post…
On this day before Christmas, e-commerce giant Jingdong is making new noises that indicate it may make another attempt at an IPO in the new year, with word that it finally became profitable in the first three quarters of 2013. Meantime, the small but longtime Nasdaq-listed Linktone (Nasdaq: LTON) has announced it plans to voluntarily de-list from the Nasdaq to save cash, continuing the steady stream of departures by many underappreciated US-listed Chinese firms. Unlike other firms to de-list in the current wave, Linktone’s move isn’t a true privatization and looks more like a pure effort to save cash, indicating the company may be struggling financially. Read Full Post…
A major homecoming for the top executive at e-commerce giant Jingdong is topping the news this week in China’s microblog airwaves, which have been humming with gossip in the run-up to the Christmas holidays. Internet watchers will know I’m talking about Jingdong’s talkative founder Liu Qiangdong, whose voice suddenly disappeared from the microblogging realm for much of this year. Now we’re learning that his silence was due to his quiet departure from China for the US, where he spent a year in a study program.
Elsewhere in the microblogging world, a couple of high level executives at UnionPay, operator of China’s leading electronic payments network, and game operator 4399 are drawing attention to the fact that Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging service may be past its peak and losing its luster. I’ve also noticed this trend, which spotlights how China’s Internet seems much more susceptible to fads than in other parts of the world. Read Full Post…
I’ll end the week with a lighter look at an emerging trend in the China corporate world, which has seen some of the nation’s biggest tech personalities make high-profile bets with their equally successful peers from more traditional sectors. The latest in these high-tech wagers has seen Lei Jun, the charismatic founder of fast-growing smartphone maker Xiaomi, make a bet with Dong Mingzhu, often considered China’s most successful business woman as the chairman of appliance giant Gree (Shenzhen: 000651). These bets are mostly for entertainment and publicity on the one hand; but they do also represent the very real challenge that traditional industries are feeling from e-commerce and other emerging high-tech business models. Read Full Post…
Newly listed car website Autohome (NYSE: ATHM) got an early Christmas present, as its shares soared in their trading debut in what’s likely to be the final IPO by a Chinese firm on Wall Street this year. Meantime in other IPO news, online literature company Shanda Cloudary could be moving closer to its long-delayed listing with talk that its longtime CEO has resigned. These 2 news bits cap a bumpy year for Chinese IPOs in New York, where new offerings were nearly non-existent for most of 2013 before a sudden flurry of activity in the last 2 months. Read Full Post…
CNNIC says China Internet users cross 600 mln mark
It’s a quiet news day on this Black Friday after the US Thanksgiving holiday, so I thought I would close out the week with a couple of interesting items that show how quickly the China’s Internet market is still growing and how e-commerce’s influence is rising. The rapid growth is showing up in the latest government data that says China’s Internet community has officially passed the 600 million user mark, further bolstering the market’s position as the world’s largest. At the same time, another new report involving Shunfeng, a leading domestic parcel delivery firm, is revealing a potential new trend that could see e-commerce firms form new alliances with their suppliers and logistics companies. Read Full Post…
Charismatic Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun has had huge success getting China’s gossipy media to promote his company, and now he’s succeeding in getting many of the country’s other high-tech leaders to talk about his firm and its trendy smartphones. In the last week alone, Xiaomi’s name has cropped up several times in connection with other Internet and tech executives on Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, often called the Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) of China.
Lei himself and several of his lieutenants were tweeting nonstop during his company’s high profile promotion on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms during the Nov 11 Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza, though that’s nothing unusual. But others who joined in with their own comments included executives from leading Internet company Tencent (HKEx: 700), and also from stodgier smartphone rival Huawei, which looks just slightly envious of Xiaomi’s trendy image. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 16-18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Peugeot Mulls Faurecia Sale With Dongfeng (HKEx: 489) Tie-up: Sources (English article)
Alibaba’s Yu E Bao Tops 100 Bln Yuan in Funds (Chinese article)
Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Prices Offering of $700 Mln Convertible Senior Notes (PRNewswire)
Sinopec (HKEx: 386) Says Parent Buys More Company Shares (HKEx announcement)
Renren (NYSE: RENN) To Downsize Gaming Business (English article)
There’s a flurry of news in the fund-raising realm, led by word that online lottery company 500.com has sharply cut the size of its upcoming New York IPO following recent successful trading debuts for 2 other companies. At the same time, struggling online clothing seller Vancl has reportedly raised a new $100 million to keep funding its operations, as it looks for elusive profits. Meantime, Nasdaq-listed chipmaker RDA Microelectronics (Nasdaq: RDA) may be moving in the opposite direction of 500.com, with word that it has received a buyout offer that would see its shares de-listed from the Nasdaq. Read Full Post…
A couple of items from China’s booming auto market are shining a spotlight on the sector’s big potential and also the looming risk of a government-led slowdown in a bid to control the nation’s worsening air quality. In the former category, online information provider Autohome has just made its first public filing for a New York IPO, becoming the latest in a sudden burst of tech firms to raise money outside China. The second news bit looks a bit more ominous, with media reporting the city of Beijing is sharply cutting its quota for new car sales in a bid to improve local air quality. That could be the first sign of a looming slowdown for national auto sales if other cities follow suit, which could easily happen. Read Full Post…
In the more than 2 years since I started this blog, today marks the first time I’m writing about telecoms equipment and services provider UTStarcom (Nasdaq: UTSI), which has just announced that a plan to privatize the company has derailed. The reason I point out this fact is that when I first started writing about Chinese tech firms a decade ago, UTStarcom was an investor darling, riding high on a low-end wireless technology. But investors quickly abandoned the company after it failed to find a new blockbuster product, and now it appears that even its potential rescuer has decided to give the company a pass. Read Full Post…
