Le.com

Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp. Beijing
  • Le.com
  • LeTV
Public
Traded as SZSE: 300104
Founded November 2004 (2004-11)
Founder Jia Yueting
Headquarters Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
Area served
 China, United States
Key people
 Jia Yueting (Chairman & CEO)
Services Streaming media
Revenue Increase CN¥13.017 billion (2015)
Increase CN¥69 million (2015)
Profit Increase CN¥573 million (2015)
Total assets Increase CN¥16.982 billion (2015)
Total equity Increase CN¥3.928 billion (2015)
Owner
Number of employees
 4,885 (2015)
Subsidiaries Leshi Zhixin (40.3118%)
Website www.le.com
Footnotes / references
in a consolidated basis[1]
Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp., Beijing
Simplified Chinese 乐视网信息技术（北京）股份有限公司
Traditional Chinese 樂視網信息技術（北京）股份有限公司
Literal meaning Leshi Internet Information and Technology (Beijing) Company Limited by Shares

Le.com (Chinese: 乐视网; pinyin: Lèshì Wǎng), known legally as Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp., Beijing, is a Chinese technology company, and one of the largest online video companies in China. It is headquartered in Chaoyang District, Beijing.

Leshi Internet formerly trading as LeTV in English instead of Le.com. However, Leshi Internet still operate the brand Leshi Video in Chinese (Chinese: 乐视视频; pinyin: Lèshì Shìpín).

History

Previous Leshi Internet logo, used until January 2016.[2]

Jia Yueting founded Letv.com in 2004. It was subsequently listed as a Chinese national high-tech enterprise and went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on August 12, 2010.[3] Le.com claims to be the world's first IPO company in its sector. As of 24 March 2015, the market value of Letv amounted to RMB 84 billion.[4]

On 5 December 2015, Le.com announced that the listed company would acquire Le Vision Pictures from LeEco, a holding company majority owned by the largest shareholder, founder and chairman of Le.com, Jia Yueting, subject to the approval of the shareholders of the listed company. As at 8 November 2016, the deal has not been completed.[5]

As at 31 December 2015, chairman Jia Yueting and his elder sister Jia Yuefang (Chinese: 贾跃芳) had pledged 630,994,920 number of shares of Le.com, which they owned just 782,545,454 number of shares in total (including shares held by LeEco). By percentage, they owned approx. 42.2% of the total share capital, but 80.6% of them were pledged. At the same time, Le.com borrowed CN¥3.472 billion from Jia family. (although Le.com also had CN¥10.84 million receivable from LeEco, and CN¥74.33 million payable to Le Vision Pictures)[1] The leverage of Le.com had made some media worried the financial health of both Le.com and Jia's privately owned LeEco.[6] During 2016, Le.com also recapitalized by some private equity funds; former subsidiary LeSports was also recapitalized in 2015, making the stake held by Le.com, was diluted to just 10.34% stake.[1]

On 13 January 2017 Sunac China (via Tianjin Jiarui Huixi (Chinese: 天津嘉睿汇鑫企业管理), a subsidiary of Tianjin Yingrui Huixi (Chinese: 天津盈瑞汇鑫企业管理), which Sunac China had a contract with Tianjin Yingrui Huixi that Sunac China used Tianjin Yingrui Huixi as a proxy to invest in China in order to bypass the law on restriction on foreign investment) bought 8.61% stake of Le.com from Jia Yueting, for an approx. CN¥6.041 billion (CN¥35.39 per share), with a condition that Jia Yueting released the pledge of the shares of Le.com and should kept the pledge ratio below 50%. After the deal, Jia Yueting owned 25.84% shares of Le.com (additional 0.6% was owned via LeEco), while Tianjin Jiarui owned 8.61% stake as the second largest shareholder.[7]

In a separate deal, Tianjin Jiarui bought 15% stake of Le Vision Pictures from LeEco, and Jia and LeEco undertake to inject Le Vision Pictures to Le.com on or before 31 December 2017, unless it was delayed by China Securities Regulatory Commission or related regulatory authorities.

In a third deal, Tianjin Jiarui acquired part of the stake of Leshi Zhixin from Le.com and a minority shareholder, private equity fund Xinle Asset Management Tianjin (Chinese: 鑫乐资产管理(天津), a fund for employee ownership[7]), for CN¥2.302 billion and CN¥2.648 billion respectively. After the transaction, Leshi Zhixin would issue 10% new shares to Tianjin Jiarui for an additional CN¥3 billion (share capital and share premium combined). After the deals, Le.com would still be the largest shareholder but for 40.3118% only, it was followed by Tianjin Jiarui for 33.4959% and LeEco for 18.3805%; Xinle would owned just 1.9777% as the fifth largest shareholder,[7] as well as 5.86% would be owned by the others,[8] including two new investors: private equity fund Ningbo Hangzhou Bay New District LeRan Investment Management (Chinese: 宁波杭州湾新区乐然投资管理) for 4.0434% stake and Huaxia Life Insurance for 1.1310% stake.[7]

In February 2017 Le.com formed an agreement with a supplier Truly International Holdings (SEHK: 00732) for capital increase. Truly would own 2.3438% stake in Leshi Zhixin for CN¥720 million.[9][10]

Products and services

Video streaming service

Le.com's video streaming service currently offers over 100,000 episodes of TV dramas and over 5,000 movie titles. The site draws an estimated 250 million pageviews per day, 350 million users per month, 100 million daily content viewers on mobile devices, and 10 million daily content viewers on large-screen TVs.

One of the most popular shows on Le.com's service has been the Go Princess Go series.[11]

Le.com's online video streaming service has been receiving positive response in China. While Le.com mainly focuses on TV and movie streaming, its LIVE and LeVidi services focus on live broadcasting and short videos from YouTube and other content providers, respectively. [12]

For its streaming service in the United States, Le.com partners with content providers Machinima Inc., Tastemade, Seeso, and Indieflix, among others.[12] Its services Le, LeVidi, and LIVE are often marketed collectively as EcoPass.

Flat screen TV

Le.com produced flat screen smart TV via a non wholly owned subsidiary Leshi Zhixin (Chinese: 乐视致新; pinyin: Lèshì zhìxīn). The subsidiary also owned a minor stake (20.09%) in TCL Multimedia (SEHK: 01070), a subsidiary of TCL Corporation for 52.10% stake.[13]

LeCloud

LeCloud, previously Letv Cloud, invented the VaaS (Video-as-a-Service) model in 2014, similar to other "as a service" technologies like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.[14] VaaS model is based on cloud computing, big data, and video technologies. It is founded on Internet-wide content aggregation, combining aggregation, distribution and derivative capabilities.

The LeCloud team and Microsoft jointly held a press conference in Beijing in May 2015 and announced that the two parties have inked a deal for solution compatibility with Microsoft Azure.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "2015 Annual Report" (PDF). le.com (in Chinese). Shenzhen Stock Exchange. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  2. ↑ "Letv rebrands name to LeEco, introduces a new brand logo". Digit. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  3. ↑ "Jia Yueting | leaders | China Cultural Industry Association". www.chncia.org. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  4. ↑ "LeTV Creates E-tail History by Notching up Sales Worth USD 280 Million in a Single Day". The Telegraph India. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  5. ↑ "关于继续推进重大资产重组事项及后续工作安排说明的公告" (PDF). le.com (in Chinese). Shenzhen Stock Exchange. 9 November 2016 [Written on 8 November 2016]. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  6. ↑ "LeEco unit suspended from trading after shares plunged amid layoff fears". SCMP.com. 7 December 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "关于公司重大事项暨引入战略投资者的公告" (PDF). Le.com (in Chinese). Shenzhen Stock Exchange. 14 January 2017 [written 13 January 2017]. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "MAJOR TRANSACTION - IN RELATION TO INVESTMENT IN TARGET SHARES OF LESHI INTERNET,LESHI PICTURES AND LESHI ZHIXIN" (PDF). Sunac China. Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  9. ↑ "DISCLOSEABLE TRANSACTION IN RELATION TO INVESTMENT in LESHI ZHIXIN" (PDF). Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Truly International Holdings. 14 February 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  10. ↑ "关于放弃控股子公司增资的优先认购权的公告" (PDF). Le.com (in Chinese). Shenzhen Stock Exchange. 14 February 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  11. ↑ Huang, Zheping. "This viral internet comedy about time travel and bisexuality has suddenly been banned in China". Quartz. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
  12. 1 2 "About Le.com". Le.com. Le Technology, Inc. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  13. ↑ "2016 Interim Report" (PDF). TCL Multimedia. Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 30 August 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  14. ↑ "Letv Cloud Reaches Cloud Computing Deal With Microsoft Azure". ChinaTechNews.com. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  15. ↑ "Letv Cloud Announces the Worldwide Video-as-a-Service Model in London". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
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