The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 26. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) Faces Antitrust Probe In China (English article)
Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) Receives Buyout Offer At $11.75 Per Share (PRNewswire)
ICBC (HKEx: 1398) Says Approved For Subsidiaries In New Zealand, Peru (HKEx announcement)
Huawei To Market ‘Honor’ As Independent Smartphone Brand (English article)
China Mobile (HKEx: 941) To Officially Launch Commercial 4G On Dec 18 (Chinese article)
Media are hailing the big first-day gains of 500.com (NYSE: WBAI) and Sungy Mobile (Nasdaq: GOMO) in their New York trading debuts, saying the strong performance reflects a return of investor confidence to Chinese Internet stocks after a 2 year pause. I agree with that assessment somewhat, but would also offer the contrarian viewpoint that this pair of offerings was quite small, and thus the gains for both companies could have been easily influenced by the big banks underwriting the deals. Read Full Post…
My emotions were mixed on reading recent news of a major factory relocation by leading car maker Geely (HKEx: 175), reflecting a larger transformation of China’s cities from centers of industry to ones of commerce and modern living spaces. On the one hand, I felt some nostalgia knowing that yet another factory would be leaving one of China’s big cities, slowly stripping away a flavor so closely associated with Chinese urban landscapes. But on the other hand, these urban factories are part of history and really have no place in 21st century cities, where they are a major source of noise, congestion and pollution. Read Full Post…
The ongoing crackdown against corrupt officials at major state-owned enterprises continues to pick up momentum, with word that a top official at aluminum giant Chalco (HKEx: 2600) has resigned after being targeted in a probe. News of this latest probe comes at the same time another former high-level executive from leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) has just been formally sentenced to life in prison after his own trial for corruption. Other major state-owned enterprises whose top executives have become targets of recent corruption probes include that oil giant PetroChina (HKEx: 857; Shanghai: 601857; NYSE: PTR) and shipping leader Cosco (HKEx: 1919; Shanghai: 601919). Read Full Post…
Baidu reportedly near deal to buy Zongheng literature site
Internet stalwarts Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) are back in the M&A headlines with news of relatively small acquisitions, indicating the market may be running out of big targets as we prepare to end a landmark year for major deals in China. I’ve been reporting on Chinese Internet companies for more than a decade, and during most of that time would be lucky to see 1 or 2 major acquisitions or equity tie-ups in any single year. But all that changed this year, with top Internet names like Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (HKEx: 700) emerging as major buyers in a series of deals collectively valued at billions of dollars. Read Full Post…
Smartphone makers may soon be getting an ally from China’s cash-rich Internet companies, with word that e-commerce leader Alibaba is preparing a massive giveaway in a bid to boost its mobile business. This move looks strikingly similar to something Alibaba did nearly a decade ago, when it made the strategic decision to offer its e-commerce services for free on its newly launched Taobao platform. That decision was derided by eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), its chief rival in China at the time, which said that giving away services for free was not a real business model. As Chinese Internet historians know, eBay ultimately lost that battle and Alibaba has gone on to become one of the world’s biggest e-commerce companies. Read Full Post…
More mixed signals are coming from the IPO space, with listing candidate 500.com raising the price range for its shares indicating that demand is better than previously thought. The lifting of the range for its American Depositary Shares (ADSs) comes just a day after 2 recently listed Internet companies, Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) and LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB), announced new quarterly results that showed both were losing money. In what could be another piece of IPO news, Internet aspirant Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) has made a high profile move outside China by opening an R&D center in the US, leading me to speculate that perhaps the company could be eying an offshore IPO in the next year or two. Read Full Post…
A series of moves surrounding leading e-commerce firms Alibaba and Jingdong are raising speculation that the pair could be accelerating towards highly anticipated IPOs that have become stalled for different reasons. Alibaba wants desperately to list in Hong Kong, but was thwarted after a disagreement with local regulators. Now media are speculating that a recent personnel move involving one of those regulators could breathe new life into the Hong Kong listing plan. Jingdong, meantime, tried to launch an IPO last year but failed due to lack of investor interest. Now media are reporting the company is on the cusp of a major acquisition, indicating it may be trying to raise its profile as it prepares for another IPO attempt.Read Full Post…
Charismatic Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun has had huge success getting China’s gossipy media to promote his company, and now he’s succeeding in getting many of the country’s other high-tech leaders to talk about his firm and its trendy smartphones. In the last week alone, Xiaomi’s name has cropped up several times in connection with other Internet and tech executives on Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, often called the Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) of China.
Lei himself and several of his lieutenants were tweeting nonstop during his company’s high profile promotion on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms during the Nov 11 Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza, though that’s nothing unusual. But others who joined in with their own comments included executives from leading Internet company Tencent (HKEx: 700), and also from stodgier smartphone rival Huawei, which looks just slightly envious of Xiaomi’s trendy image. Read Full Post…
First it was smartphones, then it was Internet TV, and now wireless routers have become the latest flavor of the day for Chinese web firms as everyone looks to drive traffic to their sites and services in the fast-evolving market. I previously wrote when security software specialist Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) entered the router space in June, and now a new report says smartphone maker Xiaomi, search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and game specialist Shanda are preparing to enter the sector as well. Meantime in a separate but related telecoms move, leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) is making a feeble move into the international market with a relaunch of its Jego service that it suspended shortly after an original roll-out earlier this year. Read Full Post…
China’s restless car market is showing signs of new stress, with automakers revving up spending at the nation’s top advertising auction this year as competition heats up and growth slows. Meantime, German car maker Daimler-Benz (Frankfrut: DAIGn) has already moved into the slow lane in recent years due to poor execution, but hopes to turn things around with a new ground-breaking tie-up with its main China partner, Beijing-based BAIC Motor. Read Full Post…
