Bottom line: Samsung's new $7 billion investment in a chip expansion in Xi'an should help to earn big government goodwill, which could help position its smartphone division for a rebound in China.
A major new China investment by chip maker Samsung (Seoul: 005930) is spotlighting just how important the market has become to the company, and So...
Bottom line: Best Inc is likely to make its New York IPO in the next two weeks, but its shares will price in the middle of their range and debut weakly due to stiff competition in the logistics sector.
It's been a quiet year so far for major Chinese IPOs in New York, but all that looks set to change soon with several major offerings coming down ...
Bottom line: The rumored departure of LeEco's mobile chief is likely to be followed by the official closure of its smartphone division and sale of its Coolpad stake by the end of October.
As we approach the first anniversary of the crisis that has seen the rapid demise of LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104), the latest headlines are hinting at the...
Bottom line: JD.com's Thai joint venture looks like a smart move into Southeast Asia, though it shouldn't move too aggressively abroad and instead focus on becoming profitable.
China's big Internet companies have a pretty varied record for expanding abroad. At one extreme there's Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which is using its big cash pot to buy a wide...
Bottom line: Focus Media could make a bid for Sina's core web portal assets within the next year, following their co-investment in a fashion public relations specialist.
It's a relatively slow time during the final dog days of summer here in Beijing, so I thought I would zoom in on an interesting new investment in a company called Bazaar ...
Bottom line: Baidu could announce a sale of its takeout dining unit to Ele.me by the end of the month, in a smart exit that will leave the industry with two major players and could result in a major write-off for Baidu.
In a move that's been a long time coming, media are reporting that search giant Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is on the cusp of a de...
Bottom line: Unicom's choice of 14 partners for a mixed-ownership reform plan involving its Shanghai-listed unit is far too many, and is ultimately likely to fail when those partners become frustrated and sell their shares.
What I feared might happen has come to pass in a mixed-ownership reform plan being crafted by China Unicom (HK...
Bottom line: Alibaba's move into unmanned coffee shops could stand a strong chance of success due to its relative simplicity, while WeChat's move into Hong Kong convenience stores should also be relatively well received.
Convenience stores are shaping up as the next battlefield in the wars for supremacy between Internet titans Alibaba (NYSE: BA...
Bottom line: Yu'ebao's further lowering of investment limits shows the Ant Financial-owned fund is growing too unwieldy, and the company would be better advised to diversify its wealth management product portfolio.
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma is quickly discovering that his super-aggressive promotional ways can sometimes yield too much...
Bottom line: A peak-time outage for Mobike highlights how popular the shared bike service has become in a very short time and its vulnerability to hiccups, even though bigger issues are more likely to threaten its longer-term survival.
We'll end the work week with a story about work itself that shows just how pervasive shared bike services have b...
Bottom line: Tencent could be forced to take more measures to control addictive play of its popular "Honour of Kings" game, which could take a short-term toll on its gaming business.
Internet juggernaut Tencent (HKEx: 700) has been in nonstop headlines lately for its smash hit game called "Honour of Kings", along with its stock price t...
Bottom line: Smartisan's new funding and plans to produce 5-6 smartphones a year look like an anomaly in the highly competitive market, and it's unlikely to survive as a standalone entity over the next 5 years.
I was a bit surprised to read that a clear second-tier smartphone player, the uppity Smartisan, has received 100 million yuan ($147 milli...
Bottom line: Unicom's mixed-ownership reform plan could prove a dud if it chooses too many partners, which looks likely based on the latest reports.
I haven't written for a while about a highly anticipated plan to inject some new life into perennial laggard telco China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE; CHU) through a Beijing-led pilot progr...
Bottom line: Ctrip's offline travel alliance campaign looks like a shrewd move with good chances of success, while Tongcheng's move back into profits shows the sector is heading into a new stable period.
A couple of travel-related stories are in the headlines today, led by a blitz into the offline realm by leading online agent Ctrip (Nasda...
Bottom line: Sohu's plan to list its Sogou search unit has a 50-50 chance of happening this year, while AirMedia's 2-year-old privatization plan is likely to close within that period.
A couple of IPOs are in the headlines as we head into the new week, led by an often-discussed offering by perennial third-place search engine Sogou, which is...
