After an unsuccessful earlier listing for one of its units, online real estate giant E-House (NYSE: EJ) is preparing to try again with plans for a New York IPO for its Leju division. The company has been quite cagey in this latest listing plan, giving little details about Leju’s background and why the unit deserves its own separate listing. Perhaps that’s because a little checking reveals that this “new” offering is really just a recycled listing for a previous company jointly-owned by E-House and leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA). Read Full Post…
The new week is just beginning, but it could well go down as a pivotal moment in Chinese Internet history with Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) new announcement of an e-commerce alliance with JD.com that could threaten the dominance of sector leader Alibaba. The tie-up, which was first rumored last month, will see Tencent pay $215 million for 15 percent of JD.com, which will also receive some of Tencent’s e-commerce assets including a minority stake of its flagship Yixun.com B2C service. (company announcement) The companies will merge their e-commerce businesses, creating a new player with nearly a quarter of China’s B2C e-commerce market. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 8-10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
If I was a shareholder in e-commerce firm Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), I would definitely sell my stock after hearing about the company’s latest announcement of a tie-up with Walmart-backed (NYSE: WMT) Yhd.com. I personally wasn’t surprised by the nature of the tie-up, which will see the pair cross-promote each others’ services, even though I was a bit disappointed that there was no equity exchange. Dangdang had previously confirmed it would announce a tie-up after rumors of an alliance first appeared a few weeks ago. This kind of hype followed by disappointment is quite typical of Dangdang’s co-founder and CEO Li Guoqing, whose fierce independence could ultimately lead to the marginalization or even death of his company. Read Full Post…
Anti-monopoly regulator may need to brandish veto stamp
After years of fragmentation, China’s Internet has undergone a sudden and radical overhaul over the past year, with 3 major firms emerging as major consolidators. The frenzy of new tie-ups and acquisitions has been a welcome development, helping to cool overheated competition in a wide array of sectors where most companies were losing money.
But with the emergence of Alibaba, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) as the 3 major consolidators, China’s anti-monopoly regulator should start to give closer scrutiny to future deals to avoid too much reduction in the competition necessary to ensure future innovation and consumer choice. Such scrutiny could and should ultimately lead to the veto of some future deals, especially larger ones, by regulators who need to become more assertive in the space. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Just a half year after pooling their online search assets, leading web firm Tencent (HKEx: 700) and the much smaller Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) are reportedly in talks to also merge their video businesses amid a broader wave of consolidation sweeping China’s Internet. I have some doubts about whether this new deal will happen for reasons I’ll explain shortly, though I’m far less skeptical now than I would have been at this time a year ago. If such a deal does happen, it could mark the latest step in what could become Tencent’s eventual acquisition of Sohu, one of China’s oldest Internet companies. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 1-3. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), Tencent (HKEx: 700) Plan Video Business Merger – Source (English article)
JD.com Suffers Data Breach, Says Scale Not Large (Chinese article)
Gap’s (NYSE: GPS) Old Navy Chain Opens First Store in Mainland China (Businesswire)
SMIC (HKEx: 981) Sets Up 500 Mln Yuan Investment Fund (HKEx announcement)
An Independent Suntech (OTC: STPFQ) Sets its Sights On The UK Solar Market (PRNewswire)
Leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) is talking tough in Barcelona at the world’s top trade show, detailing aggressive plans to quickly boost its new 4G service in a bid to take on the massive challenge from Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) wildly popular WeChat mobile messaging service. I’ve previously criticized China Mobile for failing to innovate and relying too much on its highly protected status in China’s telecoms services markets. But this new series of announcements seems to highlight a newer posture at the state-run behemoth, hinting that it may finally start to become more dynamic in response to a growing number of private sector threats. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 28. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) may be rapidly yielding market share to 2 up-and-coming rivals, even as its latest results show it’s still king of the hill when it comes to getting revenue from online advertisers. But the company is still searching for new innovation, with word that charismatic Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun came to speak at an internal event this week as Baidu seeks to rekindle its own “wolf spirit”. Baidu’s quest to become more diversified and has moved into high gear with a spree of major acquisitions over the last year in a wide range of areas. Still, its latest results, while impressive, show just how heavily dependent the company remains on online advertisers. Read Full Post…
