M&A Rumors: Sina, Yahoo!, Netease, Shanda, Tencent

From Pacific Epoch:

"China Entrepreneur is keeping the rumor mills busy with its latest article. According to one insider quoted in the article, Yahoo!'s acquisition of Sina met policy obstacles. Sina's influence in China's online media is similar to that of CCTV, so the Chinese government could not allow Sina to come under foreign control. An unnamed source said that Sina has actively pursued merger negotiations with competitor Netease. Although Netease chief architect William Ding said privately that the negotiations have stopped, insiders said that the negotiations are ongoing. According to China Entrepreneur, even Shanda CEO Chen Tianqiao and Tencent CEO Pony Ma are considering the possibility of acquiring Sina."


From China Tech News: Chinese-American Technology Courtship Will Heat Up

"An American takeover of a large Chinese online company just hasn’t happened yet. But recent market conditions have surely increased the probability that there will be a mega-deal. The shares of American companies like Yahoo and eBay hover at 52-week highs, while the shares of Chinese online companies like Sina and Sohu hover not far from 52-week lows."

"You don’t need a crystal ball to forecast that if this situation persists, an enterprising banker will eventually convince an American executive to act. Then the time will arrive for the American to part with some over-valued stock in exchange for some Chinese company's not-as-overvalued stock. There are undoubtedly armies of interested bankers and libido-overloaded Internet executives who are trying their best to do just this. Throw in a dash of Mary Meeker mania and you have all the ingredients for a mile-wide China Internet bubble. "

"It’ll happen. " Read More