Forget about Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), the US computer giant that overtook China’s Lenovo (HKEx: 992) to retake the spot as the world’s biggest PC maker late last year. In discussing its latest quarterly results released late on Wednesday, Lenovo’s talkative chief executive Yang Yuanqing had scant time to discuss his company’s recent loss of the global PC crown to HP, a previous obsession for him for much of the previous 2 years. (results announcement) Instead, Yang appears to have turned his sights to some equally big targets in the form of Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world’s top 2 makers of smartphones, as Lenovo makes its own aggressive push into the space.
Search Results for: ant
‘Tis The Season To Reorganize 中国互联网企业扎堆重组
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but a lot of Chinese Internet firms suddenly seem to be engaged in a series of major reorganizations. I came to this conclusion after reading this morning that Suning.com (Shenzhen: 002024), one of China’s top e-commerce firms, has just undergone a major structural reorganization as part of what the company says is a regular exercise. (Chinese article) News of this latest reorganization comes the same week that headlines have been buzzing with news of another major reorganization at Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s leading Internet company. (Chinese article)
US Elections Behind, A123 Sale Moves Ahead 美国大选之后，A123出售新进展
After a stormy 2012 that saw growing trade friction between China and the US, I’m happy to see that 2013 is getting off to a better start with Washington’s approval of a potentially sensitive sale of a bankruptcy US technology firm to a Chinese buyer. Many readers will know that I’m talking about the case of A123 Systems, a former high-flying US battery maker that fell on hard times as new energy industries worldwide experienced a broader downturn in demand for their products.
SMS At Start of Long Decline For Telcos 短信业务风光不再
New government data on mobile text messaging, also known as SMS, is underscoring how this former cash cow for China’s telcos is quickly losing its audience, forcing the carriers to quickly look for replacement revenue sources. The new data also adds some new perspective to the high-profile clash between leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) and top Internet player Tencent (HKEx: 700) that erupted last month, as the former accused the latter of stealing its SMS business.
Xiaomi In New Misstep With CCTV 小米与央视的新合作
I quite admire scrappy smartphone start-up Xiaomi for its savvy marketing tactics, but I’m beginning to have doubts about some of its more strategic choices after reading about its latest tie-up with the stodgy China Central Television (CCTV), China’s dominant state-run TV broadcaster. Xioami is in a challenging place in its development, as it tries to make the transition from a niche maker of low-cost, high-performance smartphones to a more mainstream company with a wider range of product and service offerings. The company in many ways is trying to follow in the footsteps of its idol, US tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which also has made the transition in the last 5 years from a relative niche player to the world’s biggest tech company.
Gome Cuts Online, As Dangdang Waits 国美和当当网或加强合作
Just days after announcing it would shutter its Hong Kong stores, we’re getting word that struggling home appliance and electronics retailer Gome (HKEx: 493) is also cutting positions in its online division as it looks to return to profitability. These latest job cuts look particularly interesting to me, as they seem to represent a retreat in the important but ultracompetitive e-commerce space, where rivals like Suning.com (Shenzhen: 002024) and Jingdong Mall continue to add staff even as everyone is losing massive money. In this case, Gome’s online cut-backs could perhaps presage a future strengthening of its current alliance with e-commerce specialist Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), and even result in a future marriage between these 2 companies whose e-commerce and traditional retailing businesses are quite complementary.
Cars: Donfeng-Volvo, VW Chases Low End 东风与沃尔沃联姻 大众进军中国低端汽车市场
A couple of news bits from the auto space are underscoring how competitive the sector has become, with domestic carmaker Dongfeng Motor signing a new tie-up with Swedish truck maker Volvo, as Germany’s Volkswagen (Frankfurt: VOWG) moves closer to entering the low-end market traditionally shunned by foreign names. Both of these cases show that big-name automakers, both domestic and foreign, will have to look for creative new ways to keep their business growing in the hyper-competitive Chinese market, and that the days where companies could simply construct a new multibillion-dollar factory to fuel additional growth may be in the past.
Huawei’s Ren: China’s “Wizard of Oz”? 华为任正非：中国的《绿野仙踪》？
I’m just coming back after a week’s absence, so thought I would mark my return by writing about one of my favorite subjects: Ren Zhengfei, the super-shy founder of telecoms giant Huawei Technologies. I don’t usually believe in conspiracy theories, but if I did I might be starting to wonder if Ren is really the powerful and insightful person Huawei keeps describing for us. Instead, I might be starting to wonder if perhaps Ren was a myth created for public consumption, much like the title character in the famous novel “The Wizard of Oz” turned out to be a modest, largely powerless man instead of the powerful wizard he wanted everyone to believe he was.
Shanghai Street View: Scam City 沪经动向：欺诈之城
I often fill this column with positive stories on Shanghai’s sophisticated approaches to problem solving, but today I want to explore a darker issue that has seen China’s biggest city rapidly emerge as a haven for increasingly sophisticated fraud. Perhaps it’s just my personal view, but it seems like the number of con artists in Shanghai has exploded in recent months, with the result that media reports now appear regularly about the latest sophisticated racket. I’ve also seen growing signs of the problem in my personal life, and recently nearly fell victim to one clever scam which I’ll detail shortly.
Suning Stumbles in E-Commerce 苏宁易购未实现去年营收目标
I’ve been writing for most of the past year about China’s bloody e-commerce battles, and now we’re getting some figures that finally show how bad the situation is with news that up-and-comer Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) has missed its 2012 online sales target by a relatively large margin. This bad stumble reflects the fact that China’s e-commerce market may have big potential, but the overall space is still limited in size. What’s more, with so many big names fighting for a piece of the pie, everyone is having to sell their products at very low prices that ultimately result in lower overall revenues and operating losses.
Lenovo M&A Addiction Targets Sharp 联想或收购夏普南京电视机工厂
Despite his recent promises that he wouldn’t pursue any new major M&A, Lenovo (HKEx: 992) chief Yang Yuanqing appears to be addicted to purchasing global assets, as reflected by the latest news that he is exploring a potential new tie-up with struggling Japanese electronics maker Sharp (Tokyo: 6753). I’ve previously said that Yang’s addiction to M&A will result in some major challenges for Lenovo in the next few years, as it faces the difficult task of integrating various recently acquired assets in such diverse markets as Japan, Brazil and Germany.
