Tag Archives: Hollywood

MEDIA: Wanda, Baidu Spurned by Film Partners

Bottom line: Wanda will look for new Hollywood assets after being rejected in the bidding for a stake of Paramount, while the departure of a member of the group buying Baidu Video is a minor setback and a new investor will be easily found.

Paramount abandons stake sale plan

A couple of headlines are showing that China’s love affair with the film and video industries isn’t always so smooth, with the collapse of 2 major deals involving cinema giant Wanda and online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). The far larger of the 2 developments has seen leading Hollywood studio Paramount scrap plans to sell a strategic stake in itself, ending a deal that reportedly had seen Wanda emerge as one of the most likely buyers. The Baidu deal is quite a bit smaller, and has seen one of the buyout partners withdraw in a plan to spin off its relatively minor Baidu Video business. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Baidu Welcomed in Milan, Rebuffed in Hollywood

Bottom line: Baidu’s Robin Li could announce a deal later this week to buy 40 percent of soccer club AC Milan, while his company’s pursuit of Paramount was likely killed by internal fighting at the Hollywood studio.

Paramount spurns Baidu, Wanda

Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is in a couple of major entertainment headlines as the new week begins, led by word that it could finally announce a highly anticipated deal that would see it buy a major stake of European football club AC Milan. At the same time, separate new reports are saying that the company was rejected in a recent bid for a strategic stake in Hollywood giant Paramount, the studio arm of Viacom (NYSE: VIAb). Those same reports are saying Wanda Group, another Chinese entertainment aspirant, was also rejected in pursuit of a similar deal. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Sogou Chases News, Hollywood Sues Xunlei

Bottom line: Sougou could gain some momentum in the search market this year following some innovative new tie-ups with WeChat, while Xunlei’s stock will remain under pressure as it gets dogged by more piracy issues.

Sogou launches news feature on WeChat

More than a year after emerging as China’s third-largest search engine with the merger of 2 second-tier players, Sogou is finally making an interesting move by launching a news app that takes advantages of its ties to Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700). The move looks particularly promising, since the rapid rise of another similar app called Today’s Headlines shows that this is clearly an area with strong demand. The move could pose a serious challenge to the high-flying Today’s Headlines, which earlier this week was named as one of China’s top 10 mobile apps for 2014. (previous post) Read Full Post…

Alibaba Eyes Hollywood: Investment Coming?

Alibaba’s Jack Ma heads for Hollywood

New reports are saying that Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) CEO Jack Ma, flush with cash just weeks after his company’s blockbuster New York IPO, is headed to  Hollywood to talk deals with the industry’s top players. The reports focus mostly on the potential for new content-purchasing deals, as Alibaba looks for a spot in China’s booming market for movies and online video. But what caught my attention was a brief mention in the reports that Ma may be looking for something bigger on his trip, namely a stake in a major or mid-sized Hollywood studio. Read Full Post…

Fosun In Hollywood, ‘Transformers’ Clears China Way

Fosun invests in Studio 8

A day after I wrote about a conflict that threatened to delay the premier of the new “Transformers” movie in China, media are reporting the commercial dispute in the matter has been resolved. Meantime, leading Chinese private equity investor Fosun International (HKEx: 656) is also catching the Hollywood fever that has been infecting Chinese media companies lately, announcing a major new investment in a start-up production house led by a former Warner Bros (NYSE: TWX) chief. Both of these stories show that the through train connecting China and Hollywood continues to gain momentum, and even Beijing is getting on board to help solve business disputes that could otherwise cost millions of dollars in lost sales. Read Full Post…

Pangu Trips Up ‘Transformers’ China Debut

Dispute threatens “Transformers” China debut

Everyone loves to talk about the huge potential of the China box office, but equally noteworthy are behind-the-scenes risks due to the market’s many unique uncertainties. Regulation is one of the biggest risks due to Beijing’s strict censorship policies. Now legal issues are also coming into the spotlight with news that a company is trying to delay the Chinese premier of the new “Transformers” movie due to a business dispute. We’ll have to wait and see if the complaint by a company that paid for promotional space in the film wins its request for the delay, which could translate to big headaches for US film studio Paramount. Read Full Post…

Shanghai Street View: Star Scams

Shanghai hatches Hollywood-style star scam

Shanghai is working hard to reclaim its place as Asia’s entertainment capital, and has made big progress in that direction through recent major tie-ups with 2 of Hollywood’s leading stars, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and DreamWorks (NYSE: DWA). But that drive to the stars took on a new dimension over the past week when local media exposed a major local scam that feeds on people’s hopes of becoming celebrities.

Before coming to Asia a decade ago, I worked and lived in Los Angeles for most of the 1990s and got a first-hand look at the inner workings of the world’s entertainment capital. That included a thriving field of fake talent agents and other scam shops that sell the Hollywood dream of fame and wealth to ordinary people who secretly harbor dreams of stardom. Read Full Post…

Huayi Bros Jumps On Hollywood Bandwagon

Huayi goes to Hollywood

The list of major Chinese entertainment firms jumping on the Hollywood bandwagon has just gained an important new member with word that Huayi Bros (Shenzhen: 300027) is on the cusp of investing in a major new production house. I’ve been following the China media scene for more than a decade now, and can say that Huayi was one of the nation’s earliest major players to emerge in a space that was extremely difficult for years due to tough restrictions and extreme fragmentation. But Huayi has shown not only an ability to survive, but also to thrive in a market where the movie theater business is suddenly booming and online video has quickly become an important new revenue source. Read Full Post…

Baidu Cranks Up Anti-Piracy Campaign

Baidu cleans up Yingyin

Just days after announcing a new acquisition designed partly to rid its various sites of piracy, leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has removed all pirated material from one of its popular video sharing sites. The timing of this move looks quite interesting for a number of reasons, including the fact that Chinese media are saying Baidu has just been fined by Beijing for piracy violations. The move also comes just 6 weeks after Baidu was sued for piracy by China’s leading video sites, which took the action in an unusual alliance with Hollywood’s most powerful trade association. But perhaps most interesting is the fact that the US could soon release its latest list of the world’s most “notorious” piracy sites, and Baidu has no desire to see its name appear on the list. Read Full Post…

News Digest: November 5, 2013

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • Alipay Restructures, Nearly 20,000 Employees Become Stakeholders (Chinese article)
  • Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) Announces Selective Preliminary Q3 Results (PRNewswire)
  • People’s Daily’s Jike Search Engine In Process Of Disappearing (Chinese article)
  • Mindray (NYSE: MR) Announces Up To $200 Mln Share Repurchase Program (PRNewswire)
  • AFM: China’s Top Industry Players to Descend on Hollywood (English article)
  • Latest calendar for Q3 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)