Tag Archives: Twenty-First Century Fox

MEDIA: China’s ‘Business Insider’ Reels in SMG

Bottom line: Wall Street Round-Up’s new venture funding from China Media Capital testifies to its rapid rise, using a similar formula to the popular US-based Business Insider financial news aggregator.

SMG backs Wall Street Round-Up

A fast-rising financial news website that looks like China’s answer to the popular US site Business Insider has just netted its latest funding, in the amount of a relatively modest 100 million yuan ($15 million). But what’s attracting the biggest interest in this story is the source of the funding, which is coming from China Media Capital (CMC), the new media investment arm of the aggressive Shanghai Media Group (SMG).

As a member of the media, this story is of particular interest to me because of the controversial nature of the funding recipient, called Huawerjie Jianwen, or roughly Wall Street Round-Up. The company was founded as a financial news blog in New York in 2010 by a group of young entrepreneurs, but its rapid rise didn’t begin until they returned to China in 2013 and re-registered the company here in Shanghai. Read Full Post…

MEDIA: China Entertainment Draws Billions From Fox, Others

Bottom line: Chinese video- and entertainment-related companies will continue to attract big investments and valuations over the next year due to their strong growth potential, even as sentiment cools towards other new media companies.

Mango TV eyes major new funding

Investor sentiment may be rapidly cooling towards many Internet areas in China, but entertainment is one that still remains quite popular. That’s my latest read on the markets, following news of major new financing for 2 companies and a new Sino-foreign co-production deal in the hot video and movie-making sectors.

Up-and-coming online video operator Mango TV is at the center of the biggest news in terms of value, with media reporting it’s aiming to raise a hefty 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) in just its second funding round. Movie ticket booking app Weiying Shidai is in a smaller but still sizable fund-raising headline, with reports that it has just raised 1.5 billion yuan in its third funding round. Last but not least is word of a film co-production deal between local studio Huace (Shenzhen: 300133) and global giant Twenty-First Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOX). Read Full Post…

MEDIA: Fox, Warner Eye New China Film Tie-Ups

Bottom line: Rupert Murdoch could soon announce a new China film tie-up after meeting with President Xi Jinping, while Warner Bros’ new China production venture could see mixed results due to the market’s challenging nature.

Warner, Murdoch salivate at China film market

Media heavyweights Rupert Murdoch and Warner Bros are both in the headlines, each snooping around the fringes of China’s film market in search of ways to exploit the nation’s booming box office. In the latest sign that Murdoch may be set to re-enter the market after an earlier withdrawal, the aging head of Twenty-First Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOX) was in Beijing late last week where he got a rare private meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. That meeting was chronicled in an upbeat report by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party.

Meantime, Warner Bros was doing its own dance with China’s state establishment, announcing a film-making joint venture with a private equity fund owned by the nation’s second largest traditional media company. That deal saw Warner and China Media Capital (CMC) announce the formation of Flagship Entertainment Group, which will produce films in China for both the domestic box office and also overseas markets. Read Full Post…

ENTERTAINMENT: Huayi Eyes Studio Status with Ping An Tie-Up

Bottom line: Huayi Bros could be moving towards an eventual goal of becoming China’s first major Hollywood-style studio through its massive new 30 billion yuan partnership with Ping An Bank.

HUayi goes to the movies with Ping An

It’s become quite common in China these days to see non-entertainment companies pour millions of dollars into entertainment-related ventures, most notably film-production deals. Everyone’s goal is to repeat the success of recent box office hits like “Monster Hunt”, which are earning big money by drawing on a fast-growing Chinese box office that could pass the US to become the world’s largest in the next decade.

But even I was surprised to see the size of the latest mega tie-up, which will see Ping An Bank pair with the highly successful independent movie producer Huayi Bros (Shenzhen: 300027) in a massive partnership with 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) in investment. That’s quite a large sum of money for the entertainment space, and is roughly comparable to how much e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) said it would pay last week for 20 percent of retailing giant Suning (Shenzhen: 002024). Read Full Post…

MEDIA: Luxury Slowdown Clips Phoenix’s Wings

Bottom line: Sputtering demand for luxury goods and cars is likely to hamstring Phoenix Satellite TV’s earnings for at least the next year, as the company increasingly loses ground to new media rivals.

Sliding luxury demand undermines Phoenix

The recent slowdown in China’s luxury goods market is claiming one of its first victims in the media realm, with Phoenix Satellite TV (HKEx: 2008) warning that a sudden chill in luxury ad sales has wiped out its profits in the first half of the year. The news certainly doesn’t bode well for traditional media companies, which are a favored place for luxury goods makers to advertise. Car makers are another major source of ad revenue for these older media companies, and rapidly slowing sales in that sector also means that names like Phoenix and even some new media high-flyers like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) could be looking at a difficult period ahead. Read Full Post…

FUND RAISING: Bona Film Cashes Out of NY, LightInTheBox In Shoe Tie-Up

Bottom line: A new strategic investment in LightInTheBox by a major shoemaker is a vote of confidence in its turnaround story, while Bona Film’s buyout offer caps a week of record privatization activity for US-listed Chinese firms.

LightInTheBox gets new strategic partner

Last week’s privatization frenzy for US-listed Chinese firms saw one more company join the queue on the final day of the week, with movie maker Bona Film (Nasdaq: BONA) adding its name to the list of companies looking to end their relationship with fickle New York investors. That final offer brought the number of US-listed Chinese firms receiving buyout offers last week to 5, which must surely be a record for such bids in a single week.

Meantime, another interesting deal has seen underperforming e-commerce company LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB) receive its own big new investment from one of China’s leading shoemakers. That deal saw Aokang Shoes (Shanghai: 603001) buy about a quarter of LightInTheBox’s shares, hinting at a major new direction for the foreign-focused e-commerce company and also implying it’s unlikely to de-list from New York anytime soon. Read Full Post…