Bottom line: 21Vianet could get a new privatization offer from Tsinghua Unigroup by year end, following withdrawal of a previous bid; while Xiaomi chief Lei Jun may start selling non-core assets to raise money for his struggling company.
Buyout group scraps 21Vianet bid
Data center operator 21Vianet (Nasdaq: VNET) has finally done the inevitable and formally scrapped its de-listing plan, becoming the second company to do so among some 40 US-listed Chinese firms trying to privatize from New York. This particular move has been coming for a while now, and signs appeared as early as May that 21Vianet was abandoning its privatization plans. But new Chinese media reports are casting some light on why this particular bid collapsed, and it appears the reasons are linked to struggling smartphone maker Xiaomi, whose chief and co-founder Lei Jun was helping to finance the deal. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Tsinghua Unigroup’s bid for Micron could move it towards a goal of becoming China’s first world-class IT products and services provider, though it could face potential rival bids and objections from Washington.
Unigroup makes bid for Micron
After puttering around with a few high-profile deals in $1 billion neighborhood, Tsinghua Unigroup has suddenly turned up the volume in its drive to assemble a Chinese IT giant with a massive $23 billion bid for US memory giant Micron (Nasdaq: MU). I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t see this particular deal coming, and I have some doubts about whether it will actually close due to its large size and also potential political sensitivities.
But Unigroup, which has already formed telecoms technology deals with US tech giants Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), has certainly shown it’s serious about try to assemble a major IT products and services provider. China is currently one of the world’s top consumers of such products, which power most of the world’s electronics and internal company networks. But despite that position, the country has yet to produce a company that can compete with such global giants as Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) in the chip space, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) in IT services. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Intel’s latest drive to fund wireless-related Chinese start-ups is part of a growing strategy to promote its struggling telecoms chip business, but it could face big obstacles due to China’s lackluster record at innovation.
Intel launches incubator at Shenzhen event
I have to commend Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) for its perseverance in the telecoms space, with news that the fading microchip giant is adding an incubator initiative to its drive into the sector using China as a backdoor. But that said, this latest project looks pathetically small, with Intel earmarking a meager 120 million yuan, or less than $20 million, to the initiative.
This project is just one of several recent initiatives for Intel in China, and we should point out that many of the companies it’s targeting would probably be happy for just $1 million or less to fund their early development. But that said, this particular initiative looks mostly like a public relations ploy than anything really substantive, and Intel might be advised to get a little more aggressive if it’s serious about promoting a China-based ecosystem for its struggling telecoms chip business. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Intel’s new Chengdu investment is the latest step in its bid to find a market for its mobile chips, by working with China to create a major domestic designer of mobile device chips.
Intel in major upgrade of Chengdu plant
Global tech leader Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is showing growing signs of placing its bets on China, with word that it’s planning a major upgrade at one of its 2 Chinese chip plants in the interior city of Chengdu. This latest move comes just 2 months after Intel announced another similar-sized investment aimed at consolidating China’s wireless chip sector, leading me to suspect that these 2 moves could be related. When the final picture becomes clearer, I expect we could see similar upgrades also occur at Intel’s newer plant in the northeast city of Dalian, with China poised to become a major center for the company’s belated push into wireless chips. Read Full Post…
A significant move of consolidation occurred in China’s fragmented microchip design sector last week, when global leader Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) purchased a strategic minority stake in a Chinese company formed through the recent combination of 2 midsized players. The step will bring together domestic smartphone chip designers RDA Microelectronics and Spreadtrum, with Intel’s huge financial resources, R&D muscle and global sales network. Read Full Post…
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), the sputtering “Wintel” pair that once dominated the high-tech industry, are both in the China headlines today, as each tries to reverse its downward slide in the important market. In the first case, Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella is visiting China in his first overseas trip since assuming his current title, and is quickly finding himself quite busy putting out fires on a number of fronts. In the latter case, Intel is paying a hefty premium for a Chinese cellphone chipmaker as it attempts to find a place in a critical sector that is rapidly overtaking its core business making chips for traditional PCs. Read Full Post…
Two more US-traded Chinese firms are on the cusp of de-listing, with online game operator Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) and chipmaker RDA Microelectronics (NYSE: RDA) just announcing they have wrapped up buy-out deals that will pave the way for their imminent privatization. These 2 de-listing stories were announced months ago and are completely expected. But the bigger underlying story is the lack of major new privatization announcements in the last half year. In a similar development, major new IPOs by Chinese firms in New York have slowed considerably since a boom of offerings in April and May, indicating the broader deal-making market may be entering a new, more stable phase. Read Full Post…
There’s a flurry of news in the fund-raising realm, led by word that online lottery company 500.com has sharply cut the size of its upcoming New York IPO following recent successful trading debuts for 2 other companies. At the same time, struggling online clothing seller Vancl has reportedly raised a new $100 million to keep funding its operations, as it looks for elusive profits. Meantime, Nasdaq-listed chipmaker RDA Microelectronics (Nasdaq: RDA) may be moving in the opposite direction of 500.com, with word that it has received a buyout offer that would see its shares de-listed from the Nasdaq. Read Full Post…
