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)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 14. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Sina Announces $600 Mln Convertible Note Offer, Share Repurchase (PRNewswire)
Chinese Internet Firms Sue Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) For Online Piracy (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Huishang (HKEx: 3698) In Flat Debut On Weak Demand For China Bank Stocks (English article)
Sony (Tokyo: 6753) To Expand Console Game Business Into China (English article)
Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Reports Q3 Financial Results (PRNewswire)
Training Company Tarena Prepares IPO After New Hire (English article)
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Says To Find New JV Partner For Skype In China (Chinese article)
The microblogging realm has been buzzing these past few days with speculation on a brief China visit late last week by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt, who checked out counterfeit goods at a gadget market in Beijing’s Zhongguancun high-tech area. Equally interesting was the inclusion in Schmidt’s group of 2 former Google executives who now work for Xioami, the fast-rising smartphone maker that hopes to someday become China’s equivalent of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Read Full Post…
I’ve been watching with interest this week as e-commerce leader Alibaba has discovered a sudden urgency to grow its business in the social networking (SNS) space, with founder Jack Ma leading the charge. In the last few days, media have reported that Alibaba has made a major new acquisition in the sector, and Ma is also trumpeting the importance of the company’s recently launched Laiwanginstant messaging service that will compete with Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) hugely popular WeChat service. All this comes after Alibaba earlier this year signed a landmark agreement to buy a major stake in Sina’s(Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo service, often called the Twitter of China. Read Full Post…
Update: After originally posting this item, a Renren spokesman has gotten in touch to deny there are any talks for asset sales to Baidu beyond the original Nuomi sale.
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is the subject of a new flurry of news bits, including growing ties with social networking leader Renren (NYSE: RENN) and a new financial services initiative, spotlighting the sudden urgency it feels to grow beyond its core search business. The Renren news bits are the most interesting to me, because they highlight the importance of social media to the growth strategies of most major Chinese Internet companies and could also presage an eventual acquisition. The financial services initiative also reflects the sudden rush by Chinese web giants into this area, though Baidu looks a bit late in its arrival to the space. Read Full Post…
These last few months have seen an interesting friendship chronicled online between 3 major Internet figures, with the top executives from leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA), e-commerce leader Alibaba and online game operator Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) spending increasing time together. The camaraderie between Alibaba founder and Chairman Jack Ma, Sina CEO and Chairman Charles Chao and Giant Chairman Shi Yuzhu has been chronicled on Sina’s Weibo microblogging service, where the 3 have been seen engaging in an array of activities that often look more like hobbies than the businesses each has become famous for leading. Read Full Post…
Oriental Morning Post owner set to merge with Jiefang Group
As a Shanghai resident with a personal interest in the media, I’ve become quite familiar with my local media scene that is largely dominated by 3 state-owned companies. That’s why I was intrigued and even a little excited to read that 2 of those companies might be preparing to merge, hinting at a broader coming consolidation that could produce a handful of new national media giants capable of challenging stodgy old names like CCTV and Xinhua. Of course there’s no guarantee that any of these newer names would be any more creative than the existing giants, since all come from backgrounds as state-run enterprises that are often far less innovative than their private sector peers. Read Full Post…
Much is being written about Twitter’s upcoming IPO, including what the mega-offering by one of the world’s top social networking services (SNS) might mean for China. The early consensus seems to be that Twitter won’t find much business in China, where its site is currently blocked due to sensitive content. At the same time, leading Chinese web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) is most likely following the IPO very cosely, as it could help to boost the valuation of its own Weibo service, often called the Twitter of China. Read Full Post…
I want to mark this week’s return to work for most of China with a look at 3 new foreign partnerships announced over the past week, 1 each involving home appliance maker Haier (Shanghai: 600690), the Twitter-like Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo and telecoms equipment maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063). All 3 of the tie-ups are different in nature, but they do look innovative and encouraging and should have positive implications for each company’s future development. Read Full Post…
Social networking apps (SNS) have become the flavor of the day among Chinese Internet firms, especially in the mobile space, and it’s rare to go more than a week or two without reports of a big new move by a major player in the space. Amid all that chatter, I was intrigued to read the latest report of an interesting new tie-up between leading microblog operator Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo and appliance maker Hisense (Shanghai: 600060) into the unlikely field of smart air conditioners. Read Full Post…
