Just a month after gaining its independence from parent Sina (Nasdaq: SINA), Weibo, Sina’s popular Weibo microblogging service is taking its first steps in the M&A arena, in what is likely to become a fast and possibly dirty consolidation of this sector crowded with players all hoping to become the Twitter of China. Chinese media are reporting that Weibo is merging with Bula.com, a mobile microblogging platform operated by a company called 3G.cn. (English article) I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t know anything 
about Bula.com before reading this article, and details in the reports are scarce. But it sounds like this is a move by Weibo — already China’s most popular microblogging service — to quickly beef up its product offering in the fast-growing mobile Internet space. If that’s the case, then this looks like a smart move by Weibo, which, since receiving its independence from Sina, is no doubt under intense pressure to find a business model that will help it turn a profit quickly and then make an IPO in New York not long afterwards. Before this move, we saw signs last week of the coming consolidation when Baidu officially reorganized its microblogging service, a likely precursor to closing the service in the not-too-distant future. (previous post) We’ll need to see some of Weibo’s financials to know if its strategy is working, but so far I like the direction it’s taking and can imagine a blockbuster IPO for the company by the end of 2012.
Bottom line: Weibo’s acquisition of a mobile microblogging service marks the beginning of a sector consolidation that could end with a blockbuster Weibo IPO by the end of next year.
新 浪微博从母公司新浪<SINA.O>独立才一个月，已经着手进行并购，可能推动微博领域快速整合。中国媒体报导称，新浪微博将与移动微博平台 Bula.com合并。我得承认，在我读到这篇报导前，我对Bula.com一无所知，并且报导里也缺乏细节。不过此宗交易听起来，像是新浪微博试图加强 在移动网络领域的地位。倘若真是这样，算得上是个高招，因为新浪微博在从母公司独立後，肯定面临巨大压力，需要寻求一个恰当的商业模式，帮助其迅速实现盈 利并在美国进行IPO。上周我就看到了微博领域整合的苗头，上周百度正式宣布对其微博产品–“说吧”进行调整，这或许预示其不远的将来将关闭此项服务。我们还需要看到新浪微博的财务表现，才能判断其战略是否奏效，但目前为止，我对其选定的方向表示赞许，并期待该公司在2012年底前进行轰轰烈烈的IPO。
一句话：新浪微博收购移动微博服务，标志着行业整合的开始，新浪微博可望於明年底以前进行IPO。
Related postings 相关文章:
◙ Sina Gearing Up for Weibo Spin-Off 新浪欲剥离微博
After more than a year of dilly-dallying with its 3G system, I’m finally getting convinced that China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), China’s second biggest phone company, is getting serious about finding subscribers for its state-of-the-art high-speed wireless network. The latest sign of its serious intent came this week when Unicom announced it would offer Research in Motion’s (Toronoto: RIMM) popular BlackBerry mobile email devices. (
giants, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Investors are clearly getting the message here, that no one needs to fear lawsuits in Chinese courts, with Qihoo shares actually rising 7 percent in New York trading after results of this latest lawsuit were announced. If China doesn’t add some teeth to its legal system soon, it could face the very real danger that others in China’s private sector will begin to engage in similarly unethical behavior to get an edge over their rivals, causing the entire business climate to sink into chaos.
namely that there’s a huge degree of skepticism that China’s regulator will sign off on this one, even though nearly all observers agree there’s absolutely no grounds to kill this deal on anti-trust concerns. Little Sheep shares, after being halted at HK$5 pending the announcement, jumped to HK$6.15 after terms were given — a more than 20 percent jump but still well below the HK$6.50 offer price. I’ve seen lots of deals like this before and in most cases the stock jumps to just below the offer price when a buy-out is announced. So the fact that such a large gap remains here clearly speaks volumes. China has already shown an increasing willingness to kill deals that see foreign companies swallow up its emerging brands, as evidenced by its veto of Coke’s (NYSE: KU) attempt to buy leading juice maker Huiyuan (HKEx: 1886) two years ago. I’d really like to believe the regulator will let this latest deal pass, but I’m also increasingly skeptical that China will let another of its “famous brands” be swallowed up by an international player like YUM.
We’re finally getting a bit more clarity on e-commerce company 360Buy, and why investors like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) chief Robin Li all recently plowed $1.5 billion into the company, leading its Chairman Liu Qiangdong to proclaim his baby was worth $10 billion. So, let’s backtrack a bit and do a quick analysis of this one. At a media briefing in Beijing, Liu told the world his company hopes to turn profitable next year, and could make an IPO worth $2 billion or more not long after that. (
fast growing space. Yihaodian’s numbers do look impressive: after just three years in business, the company expects to notch 800 million yuan in revenue this year and keep its top line growing at 100 percent or more over the next two years. I expect that Wal-Mart is positioning itself for a potential buy-out if Yihaodian continues to perform well. Given Wal-Mart’s already sizable presence in China, the connections and expertise it has to offer could provide a potent combination for Yihaodian, creating a major new player on the China e-commerce scene.
After soaring 34 percent on its trading debut late last week (
It’s time to take a break from the antics of Alibaba and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and look at some of the other interesting companies in the China universe, which brings me to software outsourcing firm VanceInfo (NYSE: VIT), which has just posted quarterly results and updated annual guidance that look decidedly unimpressive. (
libaba statement
They should change Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) name to Botchdu, as this company seems to mess up just about anything outside its core search business. In the latest botchdu for Baidu, the company announced a “reorganization” for its microblogging service, Baidu Talk, launched just last year, that seems to indicate this latest failed product will eventually be quietly retired to oblivion. (
