Netease Inc (網易) is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the US of its Youdao (有道) arm that could raise at least US$300 million, people familiar with the matter said, propelling its expansion into a crowded online education arena.
The company is working with Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc on the share sale with a goal to list as early as the third quarter, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
One of the people said that a deal could value Youdao at about US$2 billion, while another person added that the firm could file confidentially in the next few weeks.
Netease — Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) closest competitor in the world’s biggest mobile gaming market — is delving deeper into adjacent sectors, from e-commerce to media content.
Its Youdao arm, founded in 2006, explored several business models before settling about five years ago on becoming an Internet education platform. It offers everything from online dictionaries to math courses and prep classes for important certification tests.
The company completed its first round of financing in April last year at a post-money valuation of US$1.12 billion, its Web site said.
Deliberations are at a preliminary stage and details of the share sale, including the fundraising size and timeline, could still change, the people said.
Representatives for Netease, Morgan Stanley and Citi declined to comment.
Netease is trying to court investors during a volatile time for raising capital, roiled by US-Chinese trade tensions and worries about a global downturn, but it wants to grab a bigger slice of a market that is projected to boom in coming years, and to make headway against rivals from New Oriental Education & Technology Group (新東方教育) to VIPKid and iTutorGroup.
Online revenue from children at nurseries and students attending kindergartens up to high school, also known as the K-12 group, could rise 38 percent a year through 2022, Bloomberg Intelligence cites iResearch as saying.
“Revenue contribution from online courses will likely increase for reputable tuition providers as more students from lower-tiered Chinese cities pay for access,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Catherine Lim and Sheng Tan Zhu wrote on Monday. “New digital teaching technology may raise the learning efficiency of online students and increase their academic performance, fueling stronger demand.”
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS