新用戶登錄后自動創建賬號
登錄據《金融時報》報道,阿里巴巴將以極大折價出售公司在美團-點評網中持有的價值10億美元的優先股。有投資人擔心,阿里巴巴折價售股的做法可能會將這家團購網站的估值壓低到130億美元左右。比起此前聲稱的200億美元,如今美團-點評的估值縮水近35%。
阿里巴巴曾在美團的大股東之列,但美團10月份與騰訊支持的點評網合并讓阿里感到失望。騰訊在合并公司中的股權也價值10億美元。
現在阿里巴巴正考慮將售股所得提供給餓了么,這款點餐應用在某種程度上與美團-點評存在競爭。投資餓了么,阿里便可以進一步在中國高速增長的互聯網經濟中與百度、騰訊等對手競爭。
一旦用戶發現優惠不再,便有改用對手服務的傾向。由于提供大幅折扣的方式未能奏效,移動互聯網購物行業已經開始整合。
這使得圈地之戰更加白熱化,而且正有向關聯行業蔓延之勢。部分美團銷售團隊一直在私下要求一些商家放棄阿里巴巴的支付系統支付寶,而改用騰訊的類似產品。
美團本身正在要求商家與支付寶簽署排它協議,而不是與數月前阿里巴巴推出的新平臺口碑簽約。
公司業務模式的更改也導致沖突加劇。以美團為例,該公司現正在考慮進入影片發行領域,這樣就將與阿里巴巴的阿里影業競爭。這導致阿里巴巴高管對投資人說,他們認為美團創始人王興是“忘恩負義”。在中國,每10張電影票里有4張是通過美團售出的。
然而,本土大戰至少為新投資者帶來了折扣。這里可能包括美國的投資基金老虎環球,以及Facebook早期投資人尤里·米爾納(Yuri Milner)運營的風投公司Digital Sky。這些投資人現在有機會讓互聯網公司互相對抗,從而獲得更好的條件。
但對于那些希望在美團-點評新融資中售股套現的一些現有投資人來說,這就不是什么好消息了。(維尼)
《金融時報》原文:
Alibaba hampers web rival’s fundraising
Henny Sender in Hong Kong
Alibaba is selling its $1bn of preferred shares in MeituanDianping, the online booking and discounts platform, at a steep discount — a move that will put a brake on the Groupon-style company’s fundraising efforts, according to investors.
Meituan-Dianping, which is backed by Alibaba’s ecommerce rival Tencent, had been seeking to raise funds from existing and new investors on terms that gave it a $15bn valuation. But some investors are concerned that Alibaba’s discounted share sale is likely to value the group-buying site at nearer $13bn.
Alibaba was once among the largest shareholders in Meituan but was disappointed by the online group’s October merger with Tencent-backed Dianping, under which with the latter ploughed another $1bn into the merged entity.
Now, Alibaba is considering funnelling the proceeds from its stake sale into Ele.me, a food delivery app that partly competes with the Meituan-Dianping — in a further attempt to take on Tencent, Baidu and other rivals in China’s fast-growing internet economy.
A rapid proliferation of mobile internet buying services has started to give way to consolidation, as the model of offering big discounts has failed to win repeat business. Customers have tended to defect once bargains are withdrawn.
This has exacerbated the turf wars, which are spilling over into adjacent industries. A few vendors have been informally asked by some Meituan sales teams to ditch Alipay, Alibaba’s payments system, in favour of Tencent’s alternative offering.
Meituan itself is asking its vendors to sign exclusivity arrangements with Alipay rather than the new Koubei platform that Alibaba launched several months ago.
Further clashes are being set up by changes to the companies’ business models. For example, Meituan, which accounts for four out of every 10 movie tickets sold in China, is now considering a move into film distribution, where it would compete with Alibaba’s Ali Pictures. That has led Alibaba executives to tell investors that they consider Wang Xing, Meituan’s founder, “ungrateful”.
However, the domestic battles may at least yield bargains for new investors in the rival online services. These potentially include Tiger Global, the US investment fund, and Digital Sky Technologies, the venture capital firm run by early Facebook-backer Yuri Milner. They now have an opportunity to play the internet companies off against each other, to secure better terms.
But that prospect is less welcome to some existing investors who committed a small amount to Meituan-Dianping’s new fundraising in the expectation of selling on their holdings and earning a fee in the process.