The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 30-December 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Autohome Lowers Fund-Raising Target, Sets Price Range For New York IPO (English article)
Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ), LDK (NYSE: LDK) Dispute To Get Re-Hearing (PRNewswire)
Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) Announces Joint Venture with Yabang Group (PRNewswire)
ZTE (HKEx: 763) Eyes $800 Mln In India Revenue Next Year (English article)
3 China Telcos To Spend 100 Bln Yuan On 4G Networks In 2014 (Chinese article)
CNNIC says China Internet users cross 600 mln mark
It’s a quiet news day on this Black Friday after the US Thanksgiving holiday, so I thought I would close out the week with a couple of interesting items that show how quickly the China’s Internet market is still growing and how e-commerce’s influence is rising. The rapid growth is showing up in the latest government data that says China’s Internet community has officially passed the 600 million user mark, further bolstering the market’s position as the world’s largest. At the same time, another new report involving Shunfeng, a leading domestic parcel delivery firm, is revealing a potential new trend that could see e-commerce firms form new alliances with their suppliers and logistics companies. Read Full Post…
Software security specialist Qihoo 360 (Nasdaq: QIHU) has become the latest Chinese web firm to launch a major reorganization lately, joining names like Alibaba, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) in trying to rationalize companies whose rapid growth in the last 5 years has made them unwieldy and sometimes chaotic. This wave of reorganizations reflects the fact that these Internet giants of today look quite different from the companies they were just 5 or 6 years ago. Nearly all the big names have entered numerous new areas outside their original core businesses, even though most lacked the corporate structure to integrate so many different units. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Exxon To Sign Over Part Of Iraq Oilfield Stake To PetroChina (HKEx: 857) (English article)
China To Push Chaotic Petitioning System Online (English article)
Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) Restructures, Zhou Yongyi To Head Wireless Security (Chinese article)
I’ve largely ignored most recent reports speculating on the imminent awarding of 4G wireless telecoms licenses, which has been rumored for most of this year but never seems to happen. But the latest flurry of news seems to indicate that licenses are finally on the cusp of coming, with one report saying they could even arrive on Thursday, which is today. (Chinese article) I won’t comment too much on the exact timing, though this particular set of reports does seem more credible than previous ones, leading me to predict we could see some news either this week or next. Read Full Post…
Neglected online game operator Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) has become the latest Chinese tech firm to launch a privatization bid, leading some to wonder whether other companies in the competitive gaming space may follow. I personally believe that Giant represents a special case, as the company was the source of controversy due to some questionable investments at the height of a recent confidence crisis against US-listed Chinese firms. But that said, China’s massive online gaming sector has become quite overheated over the last few years, with the result that many former high-flyers have seen their sales and stock prices languish. Read Full Post…
Top officials from leading cellphone chip maker Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and web portal Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) were tweeting away on their microblogs last week, in what look like efforts to counter recent negative developments for both. In the former case, one of Qualcomm’s China vice presidents, Shen Jin, was hyping the potential of both 3G and 4G in China, just as his CEO was admitting that Qualcomm has come under pressure in the market due to negative fallout from the recent Edward Snowden spying scandal. Meantime, Sohu founder Charles Zhang was talking about the importance of copyright protection, in what looks like a response to criticism of selfish motives behind Sohu’s role as a lead plaintiff in a recent copyright infringement lawsuit against online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 28. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Regulator To Issue 4G Mobile Licenses On November 28 – Source (Chinese article)
Chinese Bad Loan Manager Cinda Sits On Its Own Debt Mountain (English article)
Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) Buyout May Not Be in Shareholders’ Interests – Law Firm (PRNewswire)
I really would like to compliment Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) from time to time for its China strategy, since I personally have no objections with the world’s largest software maker in general. But it’s often difficult to find anything positive to say about Microsoft’s strange decisions in China, and that’s certainly the case with the latest news about its choice of new local business partner for its Skype instant messaging service. Microsoft made headlines earlier this month when it dissolved a longstanding China tie-up for Skype without naming a new partner for the service; now it has formally chosen new partners in 2 stodgy state-run enterprises, Guangming Daily and Founder Group. Read Full Post…
An interesting trend is emerging these last few weeks as a growing number of investors and governments use offshore venues to probe the business practices of domestic and international firms doing business in China. The latest headlines have global banking giant Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and leading domestic oil producer PetroChina (HKEx: 857; Shanghai: 601857; NYSE: PTR) coming under investigation in the US for such potentially illegal practices. The 2 cases highlight the fact that many foreigners believe they can’t find justice in China in cases of corporate wrongdoing, and thus may increasingly take their cases to other countries where justice systems are more independent and mature. Read Full Post…
I haven’t written about LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) for a while, so it seems like the release of its latest quarterly results might be a good chance for a final look before the lights go off permanently at this struggling solar panel maker. Somewhat appropriately, LDK announced its results on the same day it also said it continues to negotiate with international investors who are still waiting for an overdue payment on their bonds. (company announcement) The bondholders have just agreed to extend their talks for another 2 weeks, but there’s always the very real danger that they could force LDK into bankruptcy when this new deadline expires on December 10. Read Full Post…
