Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp’s (LeEco, 樂視) shares climbed yesterday after billionaire founder Jia Yueting (賈躍亭) apologized for making “inappropriate” comments about boosting the share price of LeEco’s main listed unit to 100 yuan.
Jia’s remarks, made to investors at a public forum, was the latest slip-up for a technology conglomerate that in the past rew months has struggled to deal with a cash squeeze, pay its suppliers and respond to criticism about its capital-intensive business model.
Jia intended to show the company is committed to achieving rapid growth and boost investor confidence, Leshi said in a filing.
Photo: Bloomberg
The billionaire’s comments earned a rebuke from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which issued a statement later yesterday singling out Jia and his company for violating regulations, and reminding them not to mislead investors with comments that might affect share prices.
“Jia realized he shouldn’t have made any comments regarding the company’s share price, and he apologizes to investors,” the company said.
LeEco’s billionaire founder is known for speaking his mind, be it issuing a challenge to Tesla Motors Inc or declaring his intention to take on China’s largest Internet firms.
Last week, he told investors he expects Leshi’s market value to reach US$100 billion, according to an online transcript of a meeting with financiers.
Jia also asked them for support in lifting the listed company’s share price to 100 yuan, according to the document, which was linked to its Web site.
Leshi shares climbed as much as 8 percent to a two-month high upon resuming trade yesterday after a one-day suspension, before closing up 3.2 percent. They had fallen more than 13 percent since November, around when Jia first revealed LeEco’s cash crunch, through Wednesday’s close.
LeEco, a sprawling conglomerate with interests ranging from electric cars and TVs to entertainment, announced last week it had scored 16.8 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) in investments, mostly from fellow Chinese tycoon Sun Hongbin’s (孫宏斌) Sunac China Holdings Ltd (融創中國控股).
While that alleviated LeEco’s cash crunch, it was unclear how much — if any — of the money would go toward its publicly traded arm.
At the time, Jia would not specify exactly how the funds would be disbursed, apart from saying “most if not all” would bankroll non-listed businesses under the LeEco banner. That may encompass everything from Faraday Future (法拉第未來), the secretive venture that is trying to build a space-age super-car in the Nevada desert, to sports broadcaster LeSports (樂視體育).
LeEco remains one of China’s most outwardly ambitious technology companies. Last week, Jia said he would use Sunac’s investment to “surpass” China’s Internet triumvirate of Baidu Inc (百度), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) — together worth more than half a trillion US dollars in market value.
INTERGRATION: Jensen Huang said that every Nvidia department and function of the company should be using AI, after reportedly saying staff were ‘insane’ not to Nvidia Corp is in a “unique” position in the market, despite facing intensifying competition, chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said during a brief visit to Taiwan yesterday amid a potentially growing challenge from Google for the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market. Huang told reporters that the AI market is “extremely large” and that while there is a lot of competition, Nvidia’s “condition is very strong and our position is very unique.” Huang, who arrived in Taipei on Thursday, was responding to questions about the possible threat posed by Google. According to a report in The Information on Tuesday, Meta has been in
Charming US President Donald Trump one week, angering China the next, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has had a busy start and is riding high in the polls, all on a few hours of sleep a night. However, the honeymoon might end soon for the Margaret Thatcher-admiring leader if a spat with China escalates further and she fails to keep inflation in check. “I believe Prime Minister Takaichi will surely do what she needs to do, so I trust her,” Kozue Otsuka, 50, told reporters at a festival this week for business owners seeking good fortune. While buying a lucky kumade rake featuring
INSULATED: The company said it is less exposed to global complications, as it has built a strong footprint worldwide, and has multiple sources of rare earths and raw minerals Merck Group yesterday said it would ramp up production next year at its new flagship facility in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) to satisfy growing demand for advanced semiconductor materials and specialty gases, and to address supply resilience issues amid mounting geopolitical risks. Merck made the remarks during a news conference before the inauguration of its 500 million euros (US$582.1 million) facility, which is also to supply other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, it said. Merck executive board deputy chair and electronics CEO Kai Beckmann told reporters the company adopted a “local-for-local” strategy about seven years ago to address the cycle time of
TECH TITANS: Amazon’s latest chip joins Google in competing for the 90 percent market share held by Nvidia, which claims it is ‘a generation ahead of the industry’ Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday launched its in-house-built Trainium3 artificial intelligence (AI) chip, marking a significant push to compete with Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market for AI computing power. The move intensifies competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia dominates with an estimated 80 to 90 percent market share for products used in training large language models that power the likes of ChatGPT. Google last week caused tremors in the industry when it was reported that Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc would employ Google AI chips in data centers, signaling new competition for Nvidia. This followed the release last month of
RSS