Xunlei’s Shrinking IPO Disappears 迅雷无限期推迟IPO时间

By newsdoug on July 22, 2011

Xulei's IPO plan implodes Yesterday I wrote that video- and music-sharing site Xunlei’s New York listing plan was fast shrinking, and today it looks like it’s disappeared completely, the victim of a perfect storm of market- and company-related factors. In a tersely worded statement, Xunlei said simply that it had delayed the offering “due to market conditions”. (company announcement) The offering’s downfall came swiftly, and marks a stunning turnaround for a company that just over a month ago said that it hoped to raise up to $200 million. (previous post) It already boasted Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) as previous backers, and went on to add News Corp (Nasdaq: NWSA) media mogul Rupert Murdoch to the list, though that backing may have lost some importance in light of the current scandal surrounding Murdoch’s newspapers in the UK. But then shaky accounting practices at Chinese companies became a major concern in the market over the last month, and Xunlei’s own confession that weak accounting practices could constitute an investor risk did little to help its case. Add to that a lawsuit by seven major global record labels over music piracy (previous post), and the offering quickly shrank by more than half, from the previous $200 million to about $75, by the time Xunlei finally decided to scrap the deal, at least for now. The company is likely to relaunch this offering when market sentiment improves, and would be well advised to clean up its accounting books and the content traded on its site before it makes such an attempt. Of course, those kind of clean-ups could be costly — wiping out substantial amounts of revenue and significantly shrinking the company’s prospects. Still, I would expect to see Xunlei return to market in the next 2-3 months, this time in a much lower-key offering and probably seeking a much lower valuation than it previously hoped for.

Bottom line: Xunlei’s withdrawal of it IPO reflects both company and market issues, but it is likely to make a second, more low-key, lower-valued bid in the next 2-3 months.

昨天，我写了一篇关於视频和音乐分享网站迅雷纽约上市计划迅速缩水的文章，而今天，迅雷看似将彻底无限期推迟IPO，成为市场和公司因素“完美风暴”的受害者。迅雷在一份简要声明中称，鉴於目前的市场情况，该公司决定推迟上市时间。迅雷IPO急转直下，而一个月前该公司还表示，希望融资规模能达到2亿美元。迅雷曾宣称，其支持者包括百度<BIDU.O>、谷歌<GOOG. O>及新闻集团<NWSA.O>媒体大亨默多克，鉴於默多克因窃听丑闻缠身，这种支持似乎已不那麽重要了。过去一个月来，中国赴美上市企业会计丑闻成为市场的主要关注点，而迅雷承认，会计问题或构成投资者风险对其亦无益。此外，全球七大唱片公司起诉迅雷侵权。该公司IPO规模迅速缩水逾一半，从先前的2亿美元降至迅雷最终决定暂停IPO计划时的7,500万美元左右。如果市况转好，迅雷或将重启IPO，并可能会被建议提前清理会计账本和网站内容。当然，这种清理行动成本可能很高，会使其营收大幅减少，并导致公司前景大打折扣。不过，我预计迅雷未来两三个月将重归IPO轨道，届时迅雷料将更为低调上市，并可能大幅下调融资规模预期。

一句话：迅雷暂停IPO计划是出於公司和市场原因，但未来两三个月，该公司很可能会再次筹备上市，但将更低调，融资规模更小。