Richard Li
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- This is a Chinese name; the family name is 李 (Li)
- This article is about the businessman. For the film director, see Li Han Hsiang.
Richard Li Tzar Kai (Traditional Chinese: 李澤楷; pinyin: Lǐ Zékǎi) was born on 8 November 1966 in Hong Kong, the younger son of successful entrepreneur Li Ka-Shing and brother of Victor Li.
He is chairman and executive director of PCCW Limited and Pacific Century Group in Hong Kong. He is also chairman of Singapore-based Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited.
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[edit] Media Empire
Rather than enter into his father's business, Richard Li enter into the media business . He cut his deal-making teeth building STAR TV into Asia's first satellite broadcasting service with a loan from his father, Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing. He then sold it to global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for US$950 million in 1995 and turned his attention to the Internet.
He sparked a frenzied buying spree for Hong Kong technology stocks in April 1999 when he announced he would turn sleepy telecommunications equipment distributor "Tricom Holdings" into Asia's premier Internet company under the name PCCW. The stock had recorded a 1,286 percent gain in a single day.
Since then, his business acumen and background easily won him a US$12 billion loan in 2000 to help buy Cable & Wireless HKT.
On August 2000, Li was seen as a saviour when his flagship PCCW outbid rival Singapore Telecommunications for HKT in a US$28.5 billion deal, Asia's largest corporate takeover, he was dubbed "Superboy" (小小超) by the local media.
However, as local euphoria surrounding HKT's takeover waned and global tech and telecom shares tanked, shareholders' praise soon turned to criticism.
In August 2006 Li paid HKD$280 million for a 50 % stake in Chinese business paper Hong Kong Economic Journal. Li promised no changes to the editorial content nor layoffs in the short term.
[edit] Scandals
Li suffered embarrassment in March 2001 when newspapers revealed he had never earned a degree from California's Stanford University, contrary to PCCW's claims. He joins the ranks of fabricators such as Dennis Lee of Elipva/Sttarfire [1] and Michael Chong Soon Yew [2].
He endured another setback on February 2003 when PCCW made an approach to acquire Britain's Cable & Wireless, which was rebuffed. PCCW later denied making a formal offer, which has led to an investigation by the Hong Kong stock exchange.The company was later cleared mainly due to insufficiency of evidence.
Li gave up his spot as PCCW's chief executive officer on July 25, 2003 but remains as chairman and executive director. Jack So, who left his chairman position at Hong Kong subway operator MTR Corp, took up the job of group managing director of PCCW.
Li came under strong criticism from shareholders and the Hong Kong community when the stock price of PCCW fell some 90% from its 1999 highs during the Global technology and telecom sell off in 1999-2000.
PCCW luanched NOW TV, and thanks to that now all Hong Kong people have to pay in order to watch world events such as World Cup. Li is now in the process of selling PCCW, and has come under some criticism for lack of transparency in the sale.
[edit] Membership
Besides his business duties, Li is a member of various non-governmental organizations:
- Governor of the World Economic Forum for Information Technologies and Telecommunications
- Member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) International Councillors' Group in Washington DC
- Member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for International Development at Harvard University.
- Member of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission and the United Nations Information and Communication Technology Advisory Group.
