Tag Archives: Groupon

E-COMMERCE: Alibaba Eyes Germany, UK and Video Streaming

Bottom line: Alibaba’s interest in Metro’s China operations is part of its new retail strategy, while the purchase of a British payments company by its Ant Financial unit could give it a strong toehold in the European payments market.

Alibaba in new shopping spree

After a period of relative quiet, e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is suddenly springing into three relatively major headlines simultaneously on the investment front. Two have a European angle, one involving a major potential investment in German retailer Metro and the other in a British financial services provider by its Ant Financial affiliate. The other is a trans-Pacific deal of sorts, and has the company investing in Bilibili (Nasdaq: BILI), a leading U.S.-listed Chinese video streamer.

In all honesty, this particular flurry of deals seems a bit random and it’s almost certainly coincidence that all are in the headlines at the same time. But that said, each does reflect one or more tendencies by this hyperactive company, which I’ve previously said has far more cash than it knows what to do with.  Read Full Post…

IPOs: Pinduoduo Provides Fresh Face for E-Commerce

Bottom line: A new IPO by e-commerce company Pingduoduo could do reasonably well due to its rapid growth and unusual business model, but could suffer from a “flavor of the day” element over the longer term.

Pinduoduo puts new spin on group buying

After years of basically having just two choices to invest in China’s e-commerce market, investors will soon have another new and interesting option with the upcoming listing of a company called Pinduoduo. I’ll admit that I was unfamiliar with Pinduoduo before reading about this upcoming listing. But that said, the numbers do point to a potential high-flyer in the making, including a business model that combines elements of Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) to let people recruit their friends to get good deals on merchandise.

The company is also noteworthy for its ties to social networking giant Tencent (HKEx: 700), whose wildly popular WeChat platform is apparently the main venue where friends can get together to get their deals. This particular deal comes as China’s own homegrown Groupon, Meituan-Dianping, prepares for its own Hong Kong listing in a deal expected to raise up to $6 billion, amid a broader bumper IPO season for China new economy offerings. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Groupon Spurns Alibaba with Comcast Tie-Up

Bottom line: Groupon’s new tie-up with Comcast shows it’s more interested in working with a well-known US-based company than the unfamiliar Alibaba, which could force Alibaba to quietly dump its Groupon stake by the end of this year.

Comcast buys into Groupon

It seems e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) isn’t the only company interested in money-losing group buying site Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN). Less than 2 months after Alibaba disclosed it had purchased 5 percent of Groupon shares, apparently in the open market, a firm backed by US cable giant Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) has just announced plans for its own strategic tie-up with the faded group buying site.

This new move certainly seems to throw some doubt on my previous prediction that Alibaba’s purchase could presage a boosting of its stake in Groupon, or perhaps even an outright buyout bid. While such a move is still possible, Groupon does seem to be signaling that it intends to remain independent. It also seems to be indicating it prefers this more direct approach to forming new partnerships, rather than Alibaba’s approach that looks a bit stealthier since it appeared to buy its Groupon shares without the company’s consent. Read Full Post…

E-COMMERCE: All Eyes on Demand, Purpose for Alibaba Mega-Loan

Bottom line: Alibaba will come close to meeting the top end of its target of raising $3-$4 billion with a new bank loan, and chances are as much as 50-50 that it will use the funds to make bids for Groupon or the stake of itself held by Yahoo.

Alibaba turns to banks for new mega-loan

After first splashing into the headlines with rumors 2 weeks ago, e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) has finally announced its latest cash-raising exercise in the form of a syndicated loan worth at least $3 billion. Following that official confirmation, all eyes will now be looking to see if Alibaba can find more demand to boost the loan amount even higher, and for any indication of what exactly it has planned for the new funds.

Let’s begin by looking at the latest reports, which have Alibaba announcing the loan in a regulatory filing. It’s somewhat noteworthy that the high-profile Alibaba hasn’t issued a formal press release about the loan, perhaps because it’s waiting to see where the final amount will top out. But perhaps Alibaba has also finally realized it’s better not to raise expectations too high with a hype-filled announcement, which can ultimately backfire if interest from smaller banks in joining the new lending syndicate is poor. Read Full Post…

E-COMMERCE: Alibaba Eyeing Buyout Bid with Groupon Investment?

Bottom line: Alibaba is likely to enter talks to buy a strategic stake in Groupon or even make a bid for the entire company, following its disclosure that it has purchased 5.6 percent of the US company in the open market.

Alibaba buys Groupon stake
Alibaba buys Groupon stake

What exactly was leading Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) thinking when it quietly purchased 5.6 percent of Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) shares on the open market without informing the faded US group buying pioneer? That’s the question that will be making the rounds this week, following the surprise disclosure of Alibaba’s purchase that Groupon only learned about through a regulatory filing.

Of course the most intriguing possibility is that Alibaba could be weighing a bid to acquire Groupon completely, which wouldn’t be that preposterous for reasons I’ll explain shortly. Other media are putting a less aggressive spin on the move, saying that Alibaba simply hopes to learn from Groupon’s group buying skills that first propelled it to fame about 6 years ago. Read Full Post…

RETAIL: O2O in Overdrive With JD, Gome, Yonghui Plans

Bottom line: Aggressive spending on O2O initiatives by China’s traditional and online retailers is likely to produce a new boom-bust cycle, and companies should consider more M&A as part of their plans.

Retailers spend millions on O2O

Online-to-offline retail services, often called O2O, have become the flavor of the day for traditional and web-based Chinese retailers over the last year, with at least 3 major new announcements coming out on the topic late last week. Two involved big internal campaigns to boost O2O services at electronics retailer Gome (HKEx: 493) and traditional supermarket chain Renrenle (Shenzhen: 002336), while a third saw e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) make a major investment in traditional retailer Yonghui Superstores (Shanghai: 601933).

Those efforts come just a week after leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) reported disappointing quarterly earnings due to heavy spending on O2O, and more generally as O2O has become a buzzword for nearly all of China’s major traditional and online retailers. The activity surge reflects realization that leading retailers of the future will operate a hybrid model that uses both online and offline channels to sell products and services. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Wowo Transforms Through Food Service Buy

Bottom line: Wowo’s merger with a major food service B2B platform looks broadly positive, giving it a new business with better growth potential than its core group buying service.

Wowo in food transformation

Just 2 months after its delayed and underwhelming New York IPO, group buying site Wowo (Nasdaq: WOWO) is undergoing a radical transformation by merging with a B2B site used by the food service industry. Wowo, which until recently was known as 55Tuan, is billing this particular merger as a purchase of Join Me Group, or JMU, in a deal that it says will create China’s largest food service Internet company. But the reality is that Wowo appears to be the one getting swallowed up by the larger JMU in this deal, which would end its very brief life as China’s first publicly listed group buying site.

Investors who bought into Wowo’s April IPO thinking they were getting a group buying site similar to US leader Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) weren’t impressed by this sudden transformation, bidding Wowo shares down by 8.3 percent and another 4.5 percent in regular and after hours trade after the deal was announced. Still, it’s noteworthy that after the sell-off the shares were still at $10.50, or just a tad above their IPO price of $10. Before rumors of this deal first appeared, the shares had been trading well below the IPO price. Read Full Post…

IPOs: 55Tuan Kicks Off 2015 Listing Parade

Bottom line: 55Tuan’s listing plan stands a 50 percent chance of succeeding due to its modest size and broadly positive market sentiment, but could ultimately fail due to its loss-making status.

55Tuan files for Nasdaq IPO

I spent much of December predicting we’d see the first listing of a Chinese group buying site this year, and now that may happen with the first official IPO filing by a Chinese Internet company in 2015. But my prediction that the listing would come from sector leaders Dianping or Meituan was off the mark, and now it appears that 55Tuan may take the prize as China’s first listed group buying site. It’s still not completely certain that 55Tuan will be the first, since the company made previous attempts at such an offering but ultimately had to scrap the deal due to lack of interest. Read Full Post…

LaShou Story Ends With Sale To SanPower

LaShou bows with sale to SanPower

The end has finally come for group buying site LaShou, though this former Internet superstar survived for far longer than I ever imagined it would before its newly announced acquisition by conglomerate SanPower Group, which owns a number of online and offline retail brands. Of course this acquisition doesn’t mean the actual death of LaShou, and it’s quite possible the company could still make a comeback under its new ownership. But its acquisition marks one of the final big consolidation moves for a group buying sector that saw explosive growth 3 years ago, followed by a major correction that saw most companies either close or get acquired. Read Full Post…

Investors Favor Online Travel With Tujia Funding

Tujia lands new mega-funding

Online travel is quickly taking on a new cult-like status among investors, with word of a major new funding for vacation rental site Tujia. This latest fund-raising frenzy in online travel looks very similar to what happened in group buying about 4 years ago, when investors pumped billions of dollars into a wide range of money-losing start-ups. Internet watchers will know that many of those companies later went bust, raising the prospect that a similar fate could be waiting for the online travel sector. Read Full Post…

Meituan Gets New Funds, Eyes IPO

Meituan raises $100 mln

After a 4 year cycle that saw China’s group buying sector first boom and then crash spectacularly, we could finally see an IPO soon from Meituan, which has emerged as the industry’s leader and a true survivor. Media are reporting that Meituan is close to getting $100 million in new funding — an admirable feat in the current climate that has seen investors largely shun the group of former high flyers. That investment would come just weeks after leading Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700) purchased 20 percent of Dianping, another strong player that has emerged in the group buying space. (previous post) Read Full Post…