I commented last week that Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Chairman Yang Yuanqing didn’t seem extremely enthusiastic about his landmark deal to buy IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) low-end server business, and now perhaps we know why. It seems that as Yang was discussing that deal, the largest ever for Lenovo at the time, he was close to finalizing an even bigger purchase of Motorola, the faded former cellphone titan that was purchased by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) in 2012. Lenovo is paying $2.9 billion for Motorola, a lofty price but still much less than the $12.5 billion Google paid just 2 years ago. That indicates to me that the company Lenovo is buying is probably just a shell of the Motorola that Google purchased, making the deal look somewhat questionable. Read Full Post…
Tag Archives: Samsung
Lenovo Eyes IBM Servers, Jumps In Japan
After more than a half year of silence, Lenovo’s (HKEx: 992) dream to buy the low-end server business of IBM (NYSE: IBM) is suddenly back in the headlines, in a development that I predicted quite a while ago based on the fact that both sides really want to do this deal. The first time around saw the talks founder and ultimately stall due to disagreement on price. But such a deal makes so much sense for both sides that it’s almost inevitable that it will happen, which leads me to believe that we could see announcement of a preliminary agreement sometime in the first or second quarter. Meantime, Lenovo is also seeing a positive development on the Japan front, where its 3-year-old PC joint venture with local partner NEC (Tokyo: 6701) is doing better than expected. Read Full Post…
ZTE Bounces Back On Bumpy Recovery
Embattled smartphone and telecoms equipment maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is all over the headlines today, led by word that the company has strongly bounced back into the black after a major restructuring to cut costs and realign its businesses. ZTE also announced aggressive sales targets this year for its fast-growing smartphone business, which it hopes will offset much slower growth for its older networking equipment unit. But the upbeat news was partly offset by word that the US is launching a new probe into ZTE and several other smartphone makers, after a US company filed a patent infringement complaint. Read Full Post…
CES: ZTE Eyes Projectors, Lenovo Goes Modular, Huawei Gets Big
It’s the time of year when we get to see where gadget makers are placing their future bets, as they strut their newest wares at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s biggest show of its kind. This year all of China’s “big 3” smartphone aspirants are at the show in Las Vegas, with Huawei, ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) and Lenovo (HKEx: 992) each focusing on different areas for future development. Interestingly, I couldn’t find any official mention of attendance at the event by fast-rising smartphone maker Xiaomi, even as it gets ready to embark on a global expansion in 2014. Read Full Post…
Lenovo Takes Slow Approach To US Smartphones
Executives from China’s top consumer electronics makers are laying out their road maps for 2014 at the world’s top trade show happening this week in Las Vegas, with leading PC maker Lenovo (HKEx: 992) detailing a conservative but smart looking plan to build up its smartphone business in the Americas. The plan was detailed by Lenovo’s Americas head, and will see the company target developing markets in Latin America first before gradually moving to the highly competitive US. Read Full Post…
Smartphone Saturation Shows In Sept Stats
Let’s end the week with a look at some new data on China’s cellphone market, which is quickly becoming saturated with cheap smartphones cranked out by a crowded field of domestic companies. The rush by Chinese firms into the smartphone market over the last 2 years is typical of the herd mentality one often sees in China, almost always leading to classic boom-bust cycles. The smartphone sector was already showing signs of overheating when media reported during the summer that inventory was building up at many smartphone makers. Now the latest figures are showing that sales are slowing sharply for many of those firms, hinting a bust could come soon for players that rely heavily on the domestic market. Read Full Post…
News Digest: October 24, 2013
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 24. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Samsung (Seoul: 005930) Apologizes To Chinese Consumers For Faulty Phones (Chinese article)
- Chinese Lottery Leader 500.com Files for US IPO (English article)
- HNA Group Completes Acquisition of GE Capital’s TIP Trailer Services Group (Businesswire)
- Alibaba’s TMall Announces Same-Day Delivery Service (English article)
- New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) Announces Unaudited Quarterly Results (PRNewswire)
- Latest calendar for Q3 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)
4G, Apple Deal Near With New Smartphone Approval
Local media are buzzing with word that China’s telecoms regulator has just approved 4 smartphones for use on the nation’s upcoming 4G networks, implying the long-awaited issue of 4G licenses could be imminent. But equally interesting is a separate report that says the number of newly approved phones is actually 5, and that the fifth phone was a version of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) new iPhone 5S that can operate on networks using a homegrown Chinese technology called TD. That report says Apple requested its iPhone approval be kept secret; but if true, it means we could soon see announcement of a long-awaited tie-up between the US tech giant and leading Chinese mobile carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL). Read Full Post…
Lenovo CEO Breaks With Old Rhetoric For Big Donation
It’s refreshing to see Lenovo’s (HKEx: 992) chatty CEO Yang Yuanqing finally doing something besides boasting about his big plans for the company, with word that he is donating a big chunk of his annual bonus to ordinary employees. I’m a bit too jaded to believe that Yang’s donation of $3 million is a purely selfless act, since he was quite willing to give the media a detailed account of his decision. Still, the latest news comes as a nice break from the usual chatter about new M&A targets and other global aspirations from one of China’s most successful tech firms. Read Full Post…
HP New China Push Set To Sputter
Perhaps struggling former global PC leader Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) has finally straightened its house, or perhaps it senses that rival Lenovo (HKEx: 992) has become distracted with its recent push into smartphones. Whatever the reason, HP appears to be gearing up for a new push into China, with its announcement of a newly created China chairman position which is being filled with a tech industry veteran. Such a move implies an overhaul of HP’s China operations, and is certainly long overdue for a company whose share of China’s PC market has dropped sharply in the last few years. But the move also looks like too little too late, amid a global trend that has seen PC sales fall sharply due to the rising popularity of smaller devices like tablet PCs and smartphones. Read Full Post…
ZTE, HTC Reflect China Smartphone Stress
I’ve been saying for a while now that China’s booming smartphone market will undergo a major correction soon due to huge oversupply, and now we’re starting to see the first signs of stress from 2 major players. Among domestic manufacturers, media are reporting that struggling giant ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is preparing an overhaul of its handset business to improve its performance in China. Meantime, faded Taiwanese superstar HTC (Taipei: 2498) is also announcing its own major overhaul and making bold predictions about its plans to become a top player in China. Read Full Post…