Trading name Le.com
LeTV Traded as SZSE: 300104 | Type Public Founder Jia Yueting | |
Founded November 2004; 12 years ago (2004-11) Headquarters Chaoyang District, Beijing, China | ||
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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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
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. 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.
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.
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) The leverage of Le.com had made some media worried the financial health of both Le.com and Jia's privately owned LeEco. 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.
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.
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), 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, as well as 5.86% would be owned by the others, 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.
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.
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.
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.
For its streaming service in the United States, Le.com partners with content providers Machinima Inc., Tastemade, Seeso, and Indieflix, among others. 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.
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. 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.