Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is once again showing the world its ineptitude outside its core online search business, reporting massive losses on overseas initiatives and announcing a new tie-up with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) that also looks like little more than talk. Chinese media, citing one of Baidu’s latest SEC filings, are reporting the Chinese search leader has lost a hefty 700 million yuan, or more than $100 million, on its overseas initiatives in the last three years, mostly from its Japan search initiative that isn’t going anywhere fast. (Chinese article) Also disconcerting is the fact that the losses have grown over each of the last 3 years, from about 200 milliion yuan in 2008 to 260 million yuan last year. I don’t know enough about its Japan operations to comment too knowledgeably, but considering Baidu’s previous record of failure in almost everything it does outside its domestic search business, I wouldn’t be surprised to see its Japan search initiative shuttered in the next 1-2 years. While the Japan business struggles, Baidu’s newly announced tie-up with Microsoft looks silly at best, and in reality seems to smell of desperation by both sides. That tie-up will see Microsoft supplying English-language search services to Baidu through its struggling Bing search engine, launched with fanfare a couple of years ago as a rival to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) but which has made little impact on the market since then. (English article) To state the obvious, the English language search market in China is tiny and insignificant, and the small number of people who actually conduct English-language searches there are much more likely to go to Google or Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) than to Baidu, which has no name in that space. These kind of desperate initiatives are just the latest examples of Baidu’s inability to diversify beyond its Chinese search business, which will leave it highly vulnerable when the market starts to slow or if another credible competitor comes along.

Bottom line: Baidu’s struggling Japan business and its new Microsoft tie-up are the latest examples of its inability to execute significant initiatives outside its core search business.

百度财报称海外项目拓展亏损巨大，近期则宣布与微软<MSFT.O>进行一项看似意义寥寥的合作，再次证明其开拓在线搜索以外业务方面的笨拙。中国媒体援引百度近期向美国证交会（SEC）提交的文件称，百度过去三年在海外市场累计亏损近7亿元人民币，主要原因是其日文搜索引擎发展较缓。令人担忧的事实还包括，在过去三年，百度海外亏损额每年呈递增趋势，从2008年亏损约2亿元到去年亏损2.6亿元。我对百度日本运营不够了解，因此不敢妄加评论，但鉴於百度除国内搜索外的其他业务几乎全部失败的纪录，如果该公司在未来一两年关闭日文搜索业务，我不会感到惊讶。而百度日前宣布与微软合作，此举看似十分愚蠢，实际上可嗅出两家公司的绝望。微软将利用其必应(Bing)搜索引擎，向百度提供英文搜索服务。微软几年前大张旗鼓推出必应，以此与谷歌<GOOG. O>进行竞争，但在市场中并未掀起什麽波澜。显而易见的是，中国的英文搜索市场规模小且无关紧要，况且在中国需要进行英文搜索的那一小部分人，更可能使用谷歌或雅虎<YHOO.O>，而不是百度。这种绝望性质的项目只是百度无法开拓国内搜索以外业务的最新例证，如果中国国内搜索市场开始放缓或百度在其中遭遇强劲对手，百度的业绩则极易受到冲击。

一句话：百度日本运营陷入困境及其与微软合作的最新举措，这都是百度开拓国内搜索以外业务的无力表现的最新例证。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Baidu’s Mobile Plan: Do We Need Another OS? 百度手机操作系统计划有没有市场？

◙ Baidu’s Takes a $300 Mln Spin on Travel Market 百度斥资3亿美元进军旅游市场

◙ Baidu’s Latest Botch: Microblogging 百度“微博”的倒掉

I haven’t written for a while about Lenovo (HKEx: 992), which seems to have rediscovered its appetite for questionable M&A in difficult Western markets with its just-completed joint venture that will effectively see it take over NEC’s (Tokyo: 6701) troubled PC business. (English article) First, let’s move past the slick announcement and say what this deal really is. The two sides are calling the new alliance, which saw Lenovo give NEC $175 million in shares in exchange for 51 percent of a joint venture containing NEC’s PC assets, a partnership. But in reality, it’s the first step in a process that both sides hope will eventually see Lenovo take over NEC’s PC business, which is quickly becoming irrelevant everywhere in the world except for its highly protected home market in Japan. The big problem behind this deal is that Japanese customers, both corporate and consumers, aren’t stupid: they will quickly realize that NEC — which now holds a quarter of the Japanese PC market — is no longer a Japanese brand after this tie-up and will abandon it in droves, much the way US and other global consumers abandoned IBM-brand PCs after IBM (NYSE: IBM) sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005. I expect to see similar results with Lenovo’s other recently acquired Western brand, Germany’s Medion (Frankfurt: MDN). (previous post) Luckily for Lenovo, it’s only investment in this NEC deal is the $175 million it put into the joint venture, and even that was only in shares. Lenovo is probably hoping that when the dust settles, there will still be enough business left from the legacy NEC operations to justify this move. But realistically speaking I see a 50 percent chance or less for this tie-up to succeed, and doubt Lenovo’s share of the Japan PC market will top even 15 percent 5 years from now.

Bottom line: Lenovo’s new joint venture with NEC is likely to fail, with NEC-brand PCs set to rapidly lose share in the Japanese PC market in the next 5 years.

我很长时间没有写关於联想<0992.HK>的文章了。联想收购NEC的PC业务，成立合资公司後，好像又重新对并购西方国家企业感兴趣了。首先，让我们看看，这桩并购到底是什麽实质内容。首先，联想发行新股支付NEC 1.75亿美元，换取与NEC旗下PC部门组成合资企业中51%的股权。但事实上，这仅仅是联想在收购NEC的PC业务上迈出的第一步。除了在受到保护的本土市场，NEC的PC业务在其他市场都已经沦落到无足轻重的地步。这桩交易背後的一个大问题是，日本消费者，无论是公司还是个人，都不蠢：他们将很快认识到，占据日本PC市场四分之一的NEC电脑产品，在这一交易之後不再是日本品牌了，他们会逐渐放弃这个品牌，就像美国和其他国家消费者在2005年联想收购IBM的PC业务後放弃IBM品牌一样。我觉得联想收购的其他西方企业品牌，如德国Medion公司<MDNG.DE>，也会面临类似下场。但对於联想来说，幸运的是其对NEC的投资只是其对合资公司投入的1.75亿美元。联想可能希望，尘埃落定後，NEC品牌还会有足够多的生意。但老实说，我觉得这个结盟成功的机率至多不过50%，对五年後联想在日本PC市场能占到15%份额也表示怀疑。

一句话：联想与NEC的合资公司可能失败，未来五年，NEC品牌的PC可能很快在日本失去市场。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Lenovo Makes Strange Move Into Germany 联想进军德国令人摸不着头脑

◙ Lenovo’s Game Console — Yet Another Plan 联想：新推游戏机，这次能行吗？

◙ HP Looking For China Formula 惠普寻找中国方程式的答案

While the rest of the world fixates on the latest twists and turns in the Guo Meimei-Red Cross scandal, I thought I’d turn my attention to a couple of cross-border M&A deals in the low-profile but lucrative food sector, one involving global giant Nestle (Zurich: NESN) and the other China’s Bright Food. The Nestle deal has the Swiss giant in talks to purchase Hsu Fu Chi (Singapore: HSFU), a Singapore-listed Chinese candy maker with a market capitalization of $2.6 billion. (English article) The other deal has Bright, which has been on the acquisition trail for a while (previous post) considering an offer for Australia’s Treasury Wine (Sydney: TWE). From a general perspective, I like cross-border food deals as they’re usually straightforward because they involve simple products most often confined to a single market. In the case of multinationals like Nestle buying into China, such deals are also probably welcome by the Chinese government, since having a name like Nestle behind a product offers guarantees of quality control in a market plagued by a continuous stream of scandals over tainted food. For Chinese companies like Bright looking to expand globally, such deals are relatively easy to execute and operate as they usually involve healthy companies and disruption to operations are minimal. My one concern in Bright’s case is that, in its clear enthusiasm to buy an overseas company after several failed efforts, it could end up overpaying when it finally completes a purchase and then, in its eagerness to show investors it made the right decision, implement management and other changes that create unexpected problems. But at least for now, both of these deals, if they happen, look like positive steps for all companies involved, and we could see other multinationals like Kraft (NYSE: KFT) follow on the inbound M&A trail, and Chinese names like Tsingtao Beer (Shanghai: 600600) follow on the outbound trail in the next 1-2 years.

Bottom line: Potential cross-border M&A by Nestle and Bright Food look like smart deals in the straightforward consumer foods sector, augering more such deals in the next 1-2 years.

当大家都在关注郭美美和红十字会丑闻时，我更想关注低调但利润丰厚的食品行业的几宗跨国并购案，其中一宗与全球食品巨头雀巢<NESN.VX>有关，另一宗与中国的光明食品集团有关。雀巢正洽购新加坡上市的中国糖果制造商徐福记<HSFU.SI>，後者市值为26亿美元。光明考虑收购澳大利亚葡萄酒公司Treasury Wine<TWE.AX>。整体而言，我看好跨国食品公司并购，由於产品线简单，市场单一，因此并购往往直截了当。在食品跨国并购案中，例如雀巢入境收购中国食品商，此类交易也可能受到中国政府欢迎，因为拥有“雀巢”品牌名称，相当於提供了质量管理保证，而中国食品市场安全问题频发。而对於希望拓展海外市场的光明等中国企业，此类交易通常有品牌形象良好的企业参与，因此并购相对容易进行和操作，运营中断的可能也较小。我对光明并购澳洲葡萄酒商的担忧是，光明此前几宗海外并购失败後，其明显的并购热情可能导致其出价过高，随後，由於光明急切希望向投资者证明其决策正确，在进行管理和其它调整时或造成意想不到的问题。但至少目前看来，如果上述两宗并购得以实现，对所有相关公司都是积极举措，预计未来一两年，卡夫食品<KFT.N>等国际品牌将在中国展开并购，而青岛啤酒<600600.SS>等中国食品商也将出境并购。

一句话：雀巢和光明食品可能进行跨国并购，应该是消费者食品公司的明智之举，预计未来一两年将有更多类似并购交易。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Diageo’s China Baijiu Bid: Aiming for the Middle 帝亚吉欧瞄准中国中档白酒市场

◙ Bright Food Sets Table for More M&A Bids 光明食品：高举并购大旗

◙ Unilever Helps China See the Light Behind Free Markets 联合利华帮助中国向市场经济迈进

While drinking my morning coffee this Monday, I came across a China Daily report on the huge migration of young urban professionals to the suburbs of major cities like Beijing and Shanghai in search of affordable homes, and thought about who was likely to benefit from such a move. Based on my own childhood growing up the suburbs of Washington D.C., one of the clearest beneficiaries will be supermarket chains that serve as one-stop-shops for suburban folk who often have to travel big distances to do their buying. The phenomenon seen by the China Daily (English article) is everywhere you look in China’s major cities today, and I even visited one such emerging suburban “mini-city’ over the weekend while visiting a friend outside Shanghai. Everything was still under construction, but you could clearly see the sprawling development taking shape. As China’s cities become more congested and housing there becomes less affordable, look for a growing number of cost-conscious young people to take up residence in these developments, which are also more child friendly. This should come as a huge opportunity for major supermarket operators like Lianhua (HKEx: 980), a unit of Shanghai Bailain (Shanghai: 600631), which told the China Daily it is preparing to open 800 suburban stores over the near term to cater to the trend. The flight to the suburbs should also help more mid-tier names like Sun Art, which is preparing a $1 billion listing in Hong Kong (English article), as well as global names like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Carrefour (Paris: CA), which specialize in sprawling suburban stores. Others, including restaurant chains McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) and Subway, are also experimenting with drive through restaurants that cater to more car-oriented suburban dwellers. (previous post) Of course, the big risk in all this is that a bursting real estate bubble could significantly slow the development of new properties, both in the cities and suburbs. But even if that happens, expensive downtown properties — a speculator favorite that often never even play host to real tenants — are likely to suffer the most, with the move by young professionals to the suburbs likely to emerge as a more enduring trend.

Bottom line: The move by young Chinese professionals to the suburbs in search of affordable homes will fuel a boom for new supermarket development over the next decade.

周一早晨，我在喝咖啡时看到《中国日报》有篇关於许多年轻人在北京和上海等大城市郊区买房的报导，我在思考谁可能从中获益。根据我童年在华盛顿郊区长大的经验，最明显的受益方之一将是提供“一站式”服务的超市连锁店，因为郊区居民往往要走很远才能购物。《中国日报》谈到的这个现象如今在中国各大城市随处可见，我甚至在周末拜访上海郊区的朋友时，亲眼参观了一座郊区“迷你城市”。一切都还在建设中，但明显可以看到规模庞大的开发进程。随着中国城市变得更加拥挤，市区住房价格越发难以承受，越来越多的年轻人为节省成本而搬到郊区居住，而郊区也对儿童更为友好。对於上海百联集团<600631.SS>旗下的联华超市<0980.HK>等大型超市运营商而言，这一进程中蕴藏巨大商机。联华超市对《中国日报》表示，公司计划近期在城市郊区开设800家门店，以满足这一需求趋势。高鑫零售（Sun Art）等中型超市、沃尔玛<WMT.N>和家乐福<CARR.PA>等全球连锁品牌也将从中获益。麦当劳<MCD.N>和赛百味等快餐店也在试行汽车餐厅，以吸引更多驾车的郊区居民。当然，此举最大风险是房地产泡沫破灭可能促使市内和郊区的新楼盘建设明显放缓。但即使发生这种情况，昂贵的市区楼盘受到的冲击将更大，而年轻人搬到郊区居住的趋势可能有增无减。

一句话：中国职场年轻人为寻找负担得起的住房，纷纷搬到郊区居住，这将在未来十年推动超市行业迅速发展。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Wal-Mart Buys Into China E-Commerce 沃尔玛进军中国电子商务

◙ McDonald’s Revs Up for China Drive-Thru 麦当劳寄望“得来速”汽车餐厅拓宽中国市场

◙ Welcome to the China Dollhouse: Barbie Packs Up Shanghai Camper

China’s vibrant budget hotel sector, still suffering a bit from Expo hangover (previous post), has taken its latest move to ease the pain with the acquisition of a mid-sized player by 7 Days (NYSE: SVN), one of the industry’s leaders. (company announcement) In this case, 7 Days is buying Huatian Hotel Group (Shenzhen: 000428), a decidedly mid-tier player with 21 hotels in 12 mostly mid-sized cities, for $21 million. This deal looks like a perfect fit for a major player like 7 Days, complementing its own much larger stable of hotels more concentrated in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and its home base of Guangzhou. Indeed, it was the big-city concentration that led 7 Days and fellow operators like Home Inns (Nasdaq: HMIN) to suffer a case of “Expo hangover”, as their business flattened after a huge bump during Shanghai’s World Expo last year. 7 Days’ deal comes just a month after a much bigger deal that saw Home Inns acquire the Motel 168 in a transaction that valued that company at about $500 million. (previous post) It also comes amid another consolidation-type play by travel Website Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP), which is linking up independent hotel operators into a national alliance under the Starway brand. (previous post) All this activity looks very healthy for a relatively fragmented industry with huge growth potential as millions of Chinese look for affordable vacations to take advantage of their rising wealth. As industry leaders Home Inns, 7 Days and China Lodging Group (Nasdaq: HTHT) drive this growing consolidation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the big global hotel brands like Marriott (NYSE: MAR) or Accor (Paris: AC) step in and either try to buy up one of these firms or form some other kind of tie-up.

Bottom line: 7 Days’ purchase of a regional hotel operator marks the latest consolidation in a vibrant Chinese budget hotel sector still recovering from Expo hangover.

在中国经济型酒店依然承受着上海世博会结束带来的余痛之际，7天连锁酒店<SVN.N>以2,100万美元收购了一家中等规模的同业者——湖南华天之星酒店管理有限公司，给整个行业带来了好消息。对於7天连锁酒店这样的大型业者来说，此举堪称完美搭配，因为7天连锁酒店主要集中於北京、上海、广州等大城市，而其所收购的公司主打二、三线城市市场。正是那种“大城市策略”，让7天连锁酒店和如家<HMIN.O>等在上海世博会期间迎来业务高峰的酒店企业，经历了世博会之後的下滑阵痛。一个月前，如家以5亿美元收购了莫泰168酒店59%的股权。与此同时，旅游网站携程<CTRP.O>还在“星程”品牌下整合了全国各地一些独立运作的酒店。所有这一切，对於一个散兵游勇众多但增长潜力巨大的行业来说，确实是个好现象。在如家、7天和汉庭<HTHT.O>引领此次行业整合风潮之际，我觉得万豪国际<MAR.N>、雅高<ACCP.PA>等国际大型酒店集团可能也会有所行动——要麽收购其中一家企业，要麽也组成类似的同盟。

一句话：依然经历着上海世博会结束余痛的中国经济型酒店行业已进入整合期，7天连锁酒店的收购举动便是最新明证。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Ctrip Tries Its Hand at Brand Management 携程尝试品牌管理

◙ Home Inns Finds Room at Motel168 After All 如家最终收购莫泰168

◙ Lenovo Lodges? Perhaps, Says Liu 联想进军酒店业？

There’s more noise coming from the solar sector as it adjusts to the new reality of oversupply that has seen panel prices drop steadily in recent months. Two of the sector’s major players, Suntech (NYSE: STP) and JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO), have just announced major moves, reflecting a new reality that has forced them to lower costs by adopting more flexible sourcing models and attaining better economies of scale. In Suntech’s case, the company announced it was ending a 10-year solar wafer supply agreement with MEMC just halfway through the agreement. (company announcement) The original deal was signed by Suntech to ensure its supplies at then-reasonable cost when wafer prices were still steadily rising. Now prices are falling, and clearly the original deal makes much less sense for Suntech, even though it will incur more than $200 million in costs related to the early termination. In the second deal, JA Solar said it will buy wafer maker Silver Age for $172 million, a move it says will more than double its wafer-making capacity. (English article) This is the kind of move JA and other major players need to make to increase their economies of scale by acquiring smaller players and driving industry consolidation. I would look for more major moves like these two, including possibly an acquisition in the $1 billion or higher range, by the end of the year as these companies quickly wake up to the new reality that their industry needs to become more efficient in order to ensurer its long-term viability.

Bottom line: Suntech’s termination of a burdensome supply agreement and JA Solar’s purchase of a wafer maker mark the solar industry’s latest restructuring, which is set to accelerate.

太阳能行业已经供大於求，近几个月太阳能电池板价格稳步下降。尚德电力<STP.N>和晶澳太阳能<JASO.O>刚刚宣布大动作，说明现实情况逼迫它们采取更灵活的采购模式，并努力实现更好的规模效应。尚德电力宣布终止与美国MEMC公司的硅片供货合同，而这份为期10年的合同刚刚进行到一半。尚德当时签署该合同是想以合理的成本确保硅片供应，当时太阳能硅片市场价格还在稳步上升。如今市场价格正在下降，所以对於尚德电力来说就没有必要维持这份合同了，虽然终止合同会给它带来超过2亿美元的损失。晶澳太阳能称，它将以1.72亿美元收购银禧集团有限公司，这将使其硅片生产能力增加一倍以上。晶澳太阳能等公司需要收购较小型公司，推动行业整合，来扩大其规模经济效应。预计随着更多太阳能电池企业意识到行业现实状况，未来会出现更多类似尚德和晶澳这样的案例，还可能出现价值超过10亿美元的收购个案。

一句话：尚德电力宣布终止一份让其不堪重负的供货协议，晶澳太阳能收购一家硅片制造商，标志着太阳能行业整合重组势头正在加速。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Yingli, Trina Sparkle With Big New Orders 英利和天合光能突出重围

◙ Solar Makers Shine Hopes on New US Commerce Secretary 中国太阳能生产商寄望於新任美国商务部长

◙ China Backs Solar Firms With Europe Financing 中国继续支持国内太阳能企业

After a steady stream of bad news in one of their industry’s worst-ever downturns, solar panel makers Yingli (NYSE: YGE) and Trina (NYSE: TSL) have at least temporarily broken out of the gloom with announcements of two major new deals. The more significant of the two has come from Yingli, which said it will sell 110 megawatts worth of modules to a state-owned Chinese hydropower producer. (English announcement) This deal comes just a month after Yingli secured a $180 million loan from two Chinese state-owned banks. (previous post) These two announcements in such close succession seem to be telling the market that China is finally stepping up to assist its carefully nurtured but struggling solar sector, and that Yingli is perhaps particularly well connected to take advantage of future government support. Investors certainly seem to have liked the news, bidding up Yingli shares by 7 percent in Thursday trade in New York, though they are still down by about a third from their levels in March and April. In the other deal, Trina announced it will sell 55 megawatts worth of modules to be used at an auto-making plant in France. (company announcement) This deal looks much more typical of normal sales in the market, which have tended to go to European and American buyers who now account for the lion’s share of global solar panel sales. Investors also welcomed the Trina news, bidding its shares up by a more modest 3.5 percent, amid a broader rally that saw most solar shares gain 1-2 percent. Look for more solar deals to come from Chinese buyers a in the months ahead, as Beijing ratchets up its buying to support this sector. It will be especially interesting to see who wins those deals, as those companies will be the best-connected ones with the greatest chance of weathering the current downturn.

Bottom line: A new major deal for a domestic hydropower maker to purchase solar modules from Yingli shows Beijing is turning up its efforts to support its struggling sector.

在经历行业有史以来经历的最严重衰退之际，英利<YGE.N>和天合光能<TSL.N>公布了两项新签署的重大协议，至少是暂时突出重围了。其中英利所签署的这一项协议尤为重要——将向中国一家水电开发商供应11万千瓦组件。而此前一个月，英利从两家国有银行获得了1.8亿美元贷款。这麽短时间内的这两件事，似乎是在告诉市场，中国终於开始悉心培养举步艰难的太阳能产业，而有着广泛关系网的英利公司尤其能利用好政府的支持。投资者肯定喜欢这个消息——周四英利在纽约的股价上涨7%，不过经历过3月份和4月份暴跌三分之一後，该公司股价依然较低。而天合光能获得的协议则是向法国一家汽车制造商供应5.5万千瓦组件。这看起来是市场中很正常的一笔交易，因为如今欧洲和美国制造商购买了全球大部分的太阳能电池板。投资者也对天合光能的这个新消息感到振奋——在大多数太阳能公司股价上升1%-2%之际，天合光能的股价上升了3.5%。随着中国政府积极扶持下，未来一个月期待会有更多来自中国买主的太阳能协议。看看谁会赢得合约是很有意思的一件事情，看上去关系网强大的企业最有希望赢得协议，抵御住目前的市场严寒。

一句话：国内一家水电开发商从英利购买太阳能组件的消息说明，中国政府开始扶植太阳能产业。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ China Comes to Rescue With Yingli Loan 英利获贷款承诺 政府终出手相助

◙ Solar Makers Shine Hopes on New US Commerce Secretary 中国太阳能生产商寄望於新任美国商务部长

◙ Trina Doubles Warranty in Search of Sales 天合光能：延长产品质保年限以提振销售

Chinese media are reporting there’s been another big move at the top of China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), a further indication that long-serving Chairman Wang Jianzhou could be preparing to retire. The latest move will see Xi Guohua take over from Wang as party secretary for China Mobile’s state-owned parent, arguably the second most important position at the company after the chairmanship itself. (Chinese article) Xi’s appointment comes just a year after Li Yue took over the president’s position at the listed company from Wang. This latest move would leave Wang with just the chairman’s title, and will no doubt add fuel to talk over the last year or so that he will soon retire from the company, which seems likely. So, what does it all mean? Probably very little, to be honest, as the top posts at all the major telcos are all held by party officials, many with engineering and technical backgrounds. Li was trained as an engineer, and Xi appears to have spent most of his recent career at the country’s telecoms regulator in various posts. The appointment of such well-connected bureaucrats would normally look good for a company in this highly-regulated market, except that the top ranks at China Mobile’s two rivals, Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) and China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA), are also dominated by such bureaucrats. I would say to look for Wang’s retirement by the end of this year, which will deprive it of a charismatic leader but little else. After that happens, look for the company to maintain its current direction which, as I’ve previously reported, could see it finally start to aggressively promote its 3G service if and when it signs a deal to offer an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone for its 3G network.

Bottom line: The latest appointment at the top of China Mobile points to the departure of Chairman Wang Jianzhou by year end, but don’t look for any major changes in company strategy.

中国媒体纷纷报导中国移动<0941.HK><CHL.N> 高层的人事变动情况，进一步说明，王建宙董事长可能要退休。最新一轮人事调整中，奚国华将取代王建宙出任中国移动党组书记，这是中国移动内部仅次于董事长的一个职位。而一年前，李跃取代王建宙，出任了上市公司中国移动的总裁职位。如此一来，王继凯仅剩董事长头衔，这毫无疑问地让人们更加确信，他将很快退休。那麽，这一切又都意味着什麽呢？说实话，也许没什麽，因为这些大型电信企业的高层领导，都由党内官员担任，其中很多是工程和技术背景。李跃是工程师出身，奚国华职业生涯多数时候是在中国电信监管部门担任过多个职位。在这样一个受到高度监管的行业里，安排这些关系网广泛的官员任职，对这家公司看起来是好事。我估计王建宙会在年底退休，期待这家公司沿着现行的方向前进，大力推行3G服务，并拭目以待该公司是否及何时与苹果合作推出适用於中国移动3G网络的iPhone。

一句话：中国移动最新的高层人事变动情况说明，王建宙可能在年底退休，但估计公司其他战略不会有大的变动。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Apple’s COO Comes Calling on China Mobile 苹果首席运营官造访中移动

◙ China Mobile Finally Pushing on 3G 中国移动终於要大力推动3G业务

◙ Unicom, China Telecom Come Nipping at China Mobile’s 3G Heels 中国联通和中国电信紧盯中国移动3G市场