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.
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| Company type | Unlisted public company (formerly listed) | ||||||||
| SZSE: 300104 (formerly) | |||||||||
| Founded | November 2004 | ||||||||
| Founder | Jia Yueting | ||||||||
| Headquarters | Chaoyang District, , China | ||||||||
Area served | China | ||||||||
| Services | Streaming media | ||||||||
| Owner |
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| Subsidiaries | Leshi Zhixin (former, now associate company) | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| 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 Web Information Technology (Beijing), Company Limited by Shares | ||||||||
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Leshi Internet formerly did business as LeTV in English instead of Le.com. However, Leshi Internet still operates the brand Leshi Video in Chinese (Chinese: 乐视视频; pinyin: Lèshì Shìpín).
History
edit
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 12 August 2010.[2] Le.com claims to be the world's first IPO company in its sector. As of 2015, the listed company claimed the market capitalization of itself was US$12 billion.[3]
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.[4]
As of 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)[5] 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.[5]
On 13 January 2017 Sunac China, via a China-incorporated company Tianjin Jiarui Huixi (天津嘉睿汇鑫企业管理) as a proxy for the Caymans-incorporated listed company, bought 8.61% stake of Le.com from Jia Yueting, for an approx. CN¥6.041 billion (CN¥35.39 per share). 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. In a third deal, Tianjin Jiarui acquired part of the stake of Leshi Zhixin from Le.com and a minority shareholder, for CN¥2.302 billion and CN¥2.648 billion respectively.[7] After the deals, Le.com would still be the largest shareholder of Leshi Zhixin, but for 40.31% only, followed by Tianjin Jiarui for 33.50% and LeEco for 18.38%.[7][8] In September 2018, Tianjin Jiarui also acquired additional stakes of Le Vision Pictures and Lerong Zhixin (Chinese: 乐融致新; pinyin: Lèróng Zhìxīn; former Leshi Zhixin) from Jia's private company LeEco. The stakes were auctioned by the liquidator of LeEco.[citation needed] Despite the stake that held by Le.com was unchanged at 36.4046%, Tianjin Jiarui suppressed Le.com as the largest shareholder (46.0507%) of Lerong Zhixin.[citation needed]
In February 2017 Le.com formed an agreement with a supplier Truly International Holdings for capital increase. Truly would own 2.3438% stake in Leshi Zhixin for CN¥720 million.[9][10] However, in August Truly sued Leshi Zhixin in civil court in order to recover a paid-in investment of CN¥240 million, claiming the terms of the investment agreement had been breached.[11]
In July 2017 Jia Yueting resigned as the chairman and CEO.
In July 2018, Leshi announced that it was at risk of being suspended from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange due to negative net assets.[12] In April 2019, the company announced that they received a legal notice from a local arbitration chamber that requesting the company and sister companies such as LeSports, etc., to refund CN¥1.4 billion in total to two investment managers: a limited company 深圳市平银能矿投资管理 for CN¥1.335 billion and a limited partnership 嘉兴华启一期投资管理合伙企业 for CN¥65.00 million respectively.[13]
On 14 May 2020, Le.com was delisted by the exchange.[14]
On 28 January 2021, The former CEO of LeTV posted that he will be ready to return to China.
Products and services
editVideo streaming service
editLe.com's video streaming service currently offers over 100,000 episodes of TV dramas and over 5,000 movie titles.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
One of the most popular shows on Le.com's service has been the Go Princess Go series.[15]
Le.com's online video streaming service has been receiving positive response in China.[by whom?] 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.[16]
For its streaming service in the United States, Le.com partners with content providers Machinima Inc., Tastemade, Seeso, and Indieflix, among others.[16] Its services Le, LeVidi, and LIVE are often marketed collectively as EcoPass.
Flat screen TV
editLe.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, a subsidiary of TCL Corporation for 52.10% stake.[17]
LeCloud
editLeCloud, 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.[18] 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 agreed to a deal for solution compatibility with Microsoft Azure.[19]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Letv rebrands name to LeEco, introduces a new brand logo". Digit. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
- ^ "Jia Yueting | leaders". China Cultural Industry Association. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ "LeTV Creates E-tail History by Notching up Sales Worth USD 280 Million in a Single Day" (Press release). LeTV. PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015 – via The Telegraph India.
- ^ 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) (in Chinese). le.com. 9 November 2016 [Written on 8 November 2016]. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016 – via Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
- ^ a b "2015 Annual Report" (PDF) (in Chinese (China)). le.com. 18 March 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016 – via Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
- ^ "LeEco unit suspended from trading after shares plunged amid layoff fears". South China Morning Post. Hong Kong. 7 December 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
- ^ a b c 关于公司重大事项暨引入战略投资者的公告 (PDF) (Press release) (in Chinese (China)). Le.com. 14 January 2017 [written 13 January 2017]. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2017 – via Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
- ^ "MAJOR TRANSACTION - IN RELATION TO INVESTMENT IN TARGET SHARES OF LESHI INTERNET, LESHI PICTURES AND LESHI ZHIXIN" (PDF) (Press release). Sunac China. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2019 – via Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing.
- ^ "DISCLOSEABLE TRANSACTION IN RELATION TO INVESTMENT in LESHI ZHIXIN" (PDF) (Press release). Truly International Holdings. 14 February 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2019 – via Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing.
- ^ 关于放弃控股子公司增资的优先认购权的公告 (PDF) (Press release) (in Chinese (China)). Le.com. 14 February 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2017 – via Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
- ^ 信利国际弃投乐视致新 追讨逾2亿投资款. 澎湃新闻 (in Chinese (China)). 30 August 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017 – via Sina news portal.
- ^ Borak, Masha (16 July 2018). "LeTV might be delisted from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange". TechNode. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
- ^ 陆一夫 (17 April 2019). 赵泽 (ed.). 乐视网再被讨债 平银能矿索赔13.35亿元. 新京报 [The Beijing News] (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 17 April 2019.
- ^ 终止上市！乐视，再见 (in Chinese (China)). Xinhua News Agency. 14 May 2020. Archived from the original on 14 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
- ^ Huang, Zheping (22 January 2016). "This viral internet comedy about time travel and bisexuality has suddenly been banned in China". Quartz. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
- ^ a b "About Le.com". Le.com. Le Technology, Inc. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
- ^ "2016 Interim Report" (PDF). TCL Multimedia. Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 30 August 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
- ^ "Letv Cloud Reaches Cloud Computing Deal With Microsoft Azure". ChinaTechNews.com. 9 January 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ "Letv Cloud Announces the Worldwide Video-as-a-Service Model in London". MarketWatch. Retrieved 29 October 2015.