More about the China connection from IDG/The Industry Standard:
CMGI's Asia Strategy
Internet holding company CMGI will bring all the companies it owns to Asia through a joint venture.
By Stephen Lawson
HONG KONG ? U.S.-based Internet holding company CMGI will bring all the companies it owns to Asia through a joint venture with Hong Kong-based Pacific Century CyberWorks, or PCCW, the companies announced today.
The 50-50 joint venture, CMGI Asia, will extend to Asia all 18 companies in which CMGI has a majority stake, as well as all future CMGI acquisitions, officials of the companies said in a press conference at PCCW headquarters in Hong Kong.
The deal brings together one of the major Internet venture companies with the tech-investment company that may have the highest profile in Hong Kong, as the two stake their claim on a regional market that many observers say is heading for explosive growth. It will also bring to Asia a range of services that may help to kick-start the development of electronic commerce in the region.
By leveraging CMGI's Internet expertise and PCCW's Asian connections and experience, the companies hope to bring a full set of Internet services to the region, including Japan.
"We will be capturing Asia's Internet market as it enters its take-off stage," says Richard Li, chairman of Pacific Century Group, PCCW's parent company. CMGI's model of a one-stop shop for everything from generating Web traffic to fulfilling e-commerce orders and serving customers will eventually be available to companies throughout Asia over PCCW's Network of the World, or NOW, the satellite-based broadband service, Li says.
The companies will begin by expanding four prominent CMGI ventures to Asia: Web portal AltaVista, customer-profiling developer Engage Technologies, personal Internet broadcasting company iCast, and 1ClickCharge, a service that enables easy Internet purchases. Deals with these four have already been inked, and work is in progress for the other 14 CMGI companies.
CMGI officials say they hope to capture a huge market opportunity emerging in the region.
"PCCW and CMGI have the opportunity to create one of the first truly global Internet companies," says Hans Hawryz, executive VP of strategic planning at CMGI.
With the planned geographic reach of NOW stretching from Moscow to Australia, "the Asian companies can eventually grow to be bigger than the U.S. company," Hawryz says.
Executives of both companies emphasize that they will localize the products and services developed in the U.S. to make them culturally appropriate to the various countries in the region. Eventually, CMGI Asia could spawn new ventures of its own, they add.
CMGI Asia, in which CMGI and PCCW will each hold 50 percent of the shares, will itself form joint ventures with each of the U.S. companies that CMGI brings to Asia. CMGI Asia will hold a 60 percent stake in each of those companies, officials said.
Asked how much CMGI and PCCW intend to invest in the joint venture, Li says a share placement made today, which raised approximately $380 million, will be sufficient to fund the venture for a while. Further investments are possible, he says.
Stephen Lawson writes for the IDG News Service. |
