The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 26-28. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) To Acquire Xunlei Kankan (English article)
- Alibaba On Plan B To List In Hong Kong: Report (English article)
- Disney (NYSE: DIS) To Build Largest Store Ever In Shanghai (English article)
- China’s Yue Xiu To Buy HK’s Chong Hing Bank (HKEx: 1111) For $1.5 Bln (English article)
- ZTE (HKEx: 763) Invests $100 Mln To Build Smartphone Sales Channels (Chinese article)
- Latest calendar for Q3 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)
The list of companies looking to invest in Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging platform continues to grow with word that online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has become the latest suitor to woo the popular social networking site (SNS). Word of Baidu’s interest comes weeks after e-commerce leader Alibaba was also reportedly seeking a similar tie-up with Sina, though that deal was said to have reached an impasse after the companies failed to agree on a price. (
This year will go down as one that most US-listed Chinese companies would like to forget, and now outdoor advertising specialist Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN) is giving a suitable send-off for 2012 with word that its plan to privatize and de-list is nearing completion. This latest development followed earlier word that one of the investors planning to provide $200 million to help fund Focus Media’s plan had backed out of the deal due to concerns about inadequate returns. (
The latest “me-too” war is brewing on China’s vibrant but crowded Internet with word that online video specialist LeTV is rolling out a new set-top box product that will allow consumers to surf the Web on their TVs. This new product roll-out comes just a month after up-and-coming smartphone maker Xiaomi launched its own set-top box product, and not long after PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992) also entered this space that looks promising but has yet to find a major audience. (
New noises are coming from online video site Xunlei and e-commerce giant Jingdong Mall that indicate a US or Hong Kong IPO or other equity sale may be coming soon, as each looks for new cash to fund its money-losing operations. But that said, the latest signals from these 2 Internet companies indicate that neither will be able to tap a rare window in the offshore IPO market that appeared last week when commercially-focused social networking site YY (Nasdaq: YY) made the first successful public offering by a Chinese firm in New York in more than a year. (
The prolonged winter for Chinese IPOs in New York may finally be nearing an end, following the modestly successful listing of commercially-focused social media site YY (Nasdaq: YY). I am calling this listing “modestly successful” because it priced at the low end of its range and rose a modest 8 percent on its trading debut, which would be a good but not a great result under most circumstances. But against the broader background of a deep freeze in US investor sentiment towards Chinese companies over the last year and a half, this kind of performance could actually be considered a major breakthrough and triumph for the battered sector.
Fresh on the release of disappointing quarterly results, online search giant Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is providing yet another news bit that looks like a disappointment on the surface but could be paving the way for an interesting new tie-up in the fast-growing online video space. Company watchers will know I’m talking about Baidu’s latest aborted partnership outside its core search business, with word that the company is buying out Providence Equity Partners from their online video partnership called iQiyi (
