Bottom line: Jiuxian’s raising of a seventh funding round reflects fading investor interest in online wine sellers due to a luxury slowdown, while Baidu’s share buyback plan looks like a good use of cash to support its sagging stock.
I’ve been a financial news reporter for quite some time now, but even I was surprised to read that online wine seller Jiuxian has just raised funds in a new round of G-series funding. This marks the first time I’ve seen the letter “G” in such a context, and I had to do some counting on my fingers to finally figure out the 500 million yuan ($80 million) funding round represents the seventh for this company that apparently has yet to make a profit despite so much private investment.
Baidu
Meantime, online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) was in a spending mode with its announcement that it would dole out up to $1 billion over the next year to support its sagging stock that plunged to a 1-year low this week on a weak earnings report. This particular use of money looks reasonable for a cash-rich company like Baidu. I do find the timing just slightly ironic, since Baidu raised $1.25 billion through a bond offer just a month ago, meaning this latest buyback will be funded by the same investors who have recently been dumping the company’s stock. more information here Read Full Post…
