Vizio buy stars China’s latest breed of web giants 27 Jul 2016 LeEco is buying the U.S. TV-maker for $2 bln. Little known outside of China, Jia Yueting's tech group is trying to take on Netflix, Apple and Tesla all at once. The unabashed global ambitions make it different from more established Chinese giants like Alibaba and Tencent.
Jack Dorsey may want to pull a Marissa Mayer soon 26 Jul 2016 The Twitter CEO's plan to get the $13 bln social-media firm to take wing has been mostly ineffective. Revenue and user growth are slowing. Now would be a good time to find a suitor. The human news feed could find a home on the island of misfit media assets Verizon is assembling.
Vivendi has upper hand in Italian cable tangle 26 Jul 2016 Mediaset says the French group run by Vincent Bollore wants out of a deal to buy its pay-TV unit. Vivendi says the two disagree over numbers. Vivendi's hard-nosed approach may reflect its stronger negotiating leverage. Still, it's bold for a serial acquirer to renege on a deal.
Bankers will miss their Yahoo search queries 25 Jul 2016 It took an astounding seven separate financial advisers including Goldman Sachs and Guggenheim - and eight legal ones - to consummate the $4.8 bln sale to Verizon. A similar number helped other suitors, too. Wall Street may lament Yahoo's disappearance the most.
Yahoo fittingly closes portal on tech M&A misses 25 Jul 2016 The $4.8 bln sale to Verizon caps two decades of deals and non-deals that shaped internet history. Yahoo got lucky with Alibaba, but failed to capitalize on its dominance with Google, Facebook and eBay. Spurning Microsoft also was a mistake. It's a one-company textbook on timing.
Baidu video drama has better-than-expected finale 25 Jul 2016 The CEO of China's top search engine has scrapped a $2.8 bln bid for the group's video arm days after an investor voiced concerns. Selling the loss-making unit would have boosted margins. But shareholders had little insight into the unit's prospects or the boss's motives.
Verizon doubles down on ancient web history 25 Jul 2016 The telecom giant is spending $4.8 bln on Yahoo's core business. CEO Lowell McAdam is betting he can attract digital advertisers by meshing the internet-search firm with AOL, another 1990s high-flier Verizon bought last year. Trouble is, Facebook and Google are too far ahead.
William Hill three-way merger would be big gamble 25 Jul 2016 The $3.6 bln bookmaker is being courted by rival 888 and casino operator Rank. While the suitors could benefit from greater scale, William Hill has less to gain even though it has sacked its boss after poor online showings. Integration risk warrants a hefty, all-cash premium.
Review: Trump foretold his own grander artifice 22 Jul 2016 Despite recent misgivings by its ghostwriter, "Art of the Deal" is a useful volume to revisit as the Republican convention points to the November election. The blustery façade even in 1987 masked a dearth of substance. Potemkin showmanship was, and is, Trump's greatest skill.
China Film IPO is a remake investors can skip 22 Jul 2016 A listing of the state-owned movie distributor could value it at up to $2.4 bln. As growth slows in its core business, China Film wants to be a big player in movie production and cinemas. But it will be tough to catch up with giants Wanda and Alibaba in such vertical integration.
Pandora search for richer station may yield static 21 Jul 2016 The streaming-music service may have rejected a $3.4 bln offer from Liberty Media, satellite radio Sirius XM's owner, saying it's worth a third more. The financial logic of Liberty's purported bid looks shaky. A higher price for Pandora would probably destroy value for any buyer.
Murdoch empire can cope without Fox architect 20 Jul 2016 Roger Ailes is on the exit ramp after an anchor alleged sexual harassment. He shaped Fox News into an asset worth a fifth of the parent enterprise's near $70 bln. His departure is a blow at a bad time. But the younger Murdochs have an opportunity to rejuvenate the network.
Volatile Netflix could turn shorts’ binges to bust 19 Jul 2016 The $42 bln streaming service's shares plunged 15 pct in late trading after Monday's weak earnings. That kind of move tempts those who bet on stocks falling. But Netflix's share price, which has multiplied 80-fold since its 2002 IPO, has spiked up nearly twice as often as down.
Netflix shows its age with cringe-worthy wordplay 18 Jul 2016 The $42 bln digital-streaming service is throwing around the term "un-grandfather" to mean raising prices on customers. Tortuous rhetoric is bad enough when it emanates from Silicon Valley startups. From an established company like Reed Hastings' Netflix, it's embarrassing.
Yahoo’s goodwill flashes warning sign for bidders 18 Jul 2016 The once-mighty internet firm took a near $500 million impairment charge on its $1 bln acquisition of Tumblr. Boss Marissa Mayer's likely last earnings call serves as a red flag for potential buyers: a similarly dismal writedown awaits you, too.
Italian newspaper war has “man bites dog” ending 18 Jul 2016 The battle for Corriere della Sera publisher RCS has delivered a surprise outcome: a share-based offer beat a rival cash bid, and the old guard of Italian corporate finance, led by Mediobanca, got a bloody nose. Italian corporate finance is changing, but remains no less complex.
Tencent’s Chinese Spotify tribute misses key note 15 Jul 2016 The web giant is merging its music-streaming service with a local rival to create a market leader worth $6 bln. It's part of a costly and aggressive push into online content. But unlike its Western role model, Tencent lacks paying listeners. Profits look out of tune for now.
Nintendo’s augmented shares reflect new reality 14 Jul 2016 The runaway success of the Japanese group's Pokemon app has sent its shares up more than 50 pct. That's a big vote of confidence in Nintendo's future mobile games, too. To justify the move, EBITDA will need to top 250 bln yen by 2018-2019 - more than double previous forecasts.
AMC-Odeon deal is both trailer and closing credits 12 Jul 2016 The U.S. cinema chain is buying its European peer for $1.2 bln. The deal ends Odeon's epic stint in private equity hands. It's a further sign of the global ambitions of Wanda, AMC's Chinese backer. And it could be the first of many post-Brexit deals by dollar-based buyers.
Pokemon GO hints mixed reality beats virtual kind 11 Jul 2016 The mobile game where users capture imaginary creatures in the real world is a smash. Within a week of launch GO may have more users than Twitter. Entirely computer-simulated worlds get the attention, but overlaying the digital on the physical may be the disruptive killer app.