E-commerce

China’s Alibaba slap offers clues to hit Amazon

12 Apr 2021

Jeff Bezos’s firm has reason to worry about the $2.8 bln fine for Jack Ma’s e-commerce giant. Beijing’s definition of the appropriate market and focus on data may provide helpful tips to U.S. watchdogs. Still, Amazon has something Alibaba lacks: recourse to American courts.

Capital Calls: U.S. CEO pay

12 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance: The median big-company boss is ending up with $13.7 mln for the 2020 pandemic year, a payout that's heading for a record.

Fine leaves sharp sword hanging over Alibaba

12 Apr 2021

A $2.8 bln penalty for preventing sellers from using rival sites is manageable but sweeping orders to develop healthy competition raises the prospect of further changes that may do serious damage. The message is clear: Beijing wants a bigger say in how tech giants are run.

Amazon win over union pits Bezos against Biden

9 Apr 2021

The $1.7 trln e-commerce giant’s aggressive campaign to stymie organized labor in Alabama paid off. But it puts the founder at odds with the U.S. president, who backed the effort to form a union. Biden’s broader employee-friendly plans may keep Amazon on the back foot.

Capital Calls: Cellebrite good times

8 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The Israeli cracker of mobile-phone encryption is going public via a SPAC at a $2.4 billion valuation.

India’s shopping aisle cleanup risks bigger mess

1 Apr 2021

Amazon and Walmart would have to treat small and large vendors alike and could be forced to shed stakes in their wholesale arms. The leaked draft rules overlook e-commerce realities. And targeting foreigners sits especially uneasily after Reliance’s international cash call.

Capital Calls: BlackRock’s Archegos angle, SPACs

30 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The fallout from the collapse of Bill Hwang’s family office gives regulators reasons to focus on funds, not fund managers; and bosses of blank-check companies don’t take investor questions.

Pinduoduo governance cleanup misses some spots

26 Mar 2021

The $156 bln e-commerce company’s departing founder Colin Huang has given up his supervoting stock. But it’s not clear he’s relinquishing other holds on power. Insiders can exert outsize influence on the board. And Pinduoduo still lacks a finance chief. There’s more work to do.

Founder move confirms Pinduoduo’s coming of age

17 Mar 2021

Colin Huang is stepping back from the $197 bln e-commerce upstart and relinquishing special voting rights three years after taking it public. It’s a bold move by a Chinese tech tycoon as Pinduoduo nips at rivals’ heels. But it leaves a shortage of top talent as rising costs bite.

Capital Calls: New York, Allegro exit

17 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The Big Apple reigns in a new ranking of global cities, but the prize isn’t what it was; shareholders in Polish e-commerce group Allegro sell down early.

Capital Calls: Netflix, ECB, Glass Lewis, Zalando

16 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The streaming service’s password-sharing crackdown twists the knife; the central bank worries about identifying bad loans; the proxy adviser’s sale underscores its place on Wall Street; the online fashion giant’s bold targets.

Stripe’s $95 bln pop raises bar for payments hype

15 Mar 2021

The privately held group run by the Collison brothers raised money at almost triple its last valuation. It seems rich even next to listed peer Adyen. Investors in the companies are betting on a decade of breakneck growth. Rising competition means they can’t all be winners.

Capital Calls: Elon Musk, AstraZeneca

15 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The electric-vehicle maker’s jocular new title of “Technoking of Tesla” tests the theory that deeds matter more than words; fears over the drugmaker’s vaccine risk further delaying the re-opening of Europe’s economy.

Grab listing offers up an uber Uber

15 Mar 2021

Merging with a U.S. SPAC might value Singapore’s ride-hailing-to-food delivery giant at $40 bln. New bets on fintech expand its range beyond its U.S. peer and backer, and put it on a bumpier path to profit. But founder Anthony Tan can count on a Southeast Asian scarcity premium.

Coupang and Roblox fuel anti-IPO fire

12 Mar 2021

Two stock-market debuts support the notion that initial public offerings leave too much on the table. South Korean retailer Coupang’s huge initial price pop is Exhibit A. Games platform Roblox’s steadier first day suggests direct listings are better for finding a market price.

Grocery wars may hoover up JD’s profit crumbs

12 Mar 2021

Quarterly sales at the Chinese online retailer rose 31% to $34 bln from a year earlier. But $146 bln JD is barely breaking even and a push into online supermarkets, where rival Alibaba is muscling in too, will clip profitability. Boss Richard Liu is testing investor patience.

Coupang lives up to Masayoshi Son’s vision

11 Mar 2021

The South Korean e-commerce phenomenon is worth $109 bln after its shares popped 81% on their New York debut. Coupang has qualities synonymous with SoftBank tech bets: fast growth, lofty valuation, and a hyped-up founder. At least its path to profit has been modelled by Amazon.

U.S. SPACs are a first step for Asian tech giants

8 Mar 2021

Walmart’s Indian e-tailer Flipkart is mulling a New York debut via a blank-cheque firm valuing it at $35 bln. Other wannabe issuers in emerging Asia are eyeing dual listings to stay close to home. If China’s any guide, complex structures will materialise sooner rather than later.

Swelling Sea mostly flows in sound new direction

2 Mar 2021

Worth quintuple what it was a year ago, the $127 bln tech outfit is buying an Indonesian lender and won a digital bank licence in Singapore. Expanding in finance brings new risks but sensibly deploys capital to diversify. Venturing into Mexico, though, is a nouveau-riche misstep.

Evergrande contagion tests Beijing’s generosity

26 Feb 2021

China’s $10 bln retailer Suning.com threw a financial lifeline to the troubled property developer. Its founder is now selling a controlling stake as the embattled group faces $5 bln of debt due this year. A government bailout, which may be imminent, would send the wrong message.