Zhou revealed in an internal email that privatization is a prudent decision made by 360 after repeatedly considering the current global and China capital market environment, and it is also an important step to accelerate the overall business upgrade and expand the business development space. To this end, the board of directors of 360 Company will set up a special committee composed of independent directors to evaluate the offer, and the special committee will hire independent financial and legal consultants to help with the evaluation.
After the news was announced, Qihoo 360' s share price rose 12. 13% to close at $74.06.
It is worth pondering that there is such a passage in Zhou's internal letter, "These developments are inseparable from the support of the international capital market, and 360 people are also grateful, constantly innovating with our unique spirit of struggle, and repaying the international capital market with high-speed performance growth. However, many of us believe that 360' s current market value of $8 billion does not fully reflect 360' s corporate value. "
Obviously, although from 20 14, 360 moves frequently-400 million US dollars invested in Coolpad and 200 million RMB invested in Tuo Lei, it still did not arouse the half-hearted stock price return. You know, before 20 14, 360 broke through the valuation of 100 billion dollars with an annual profit of 100%. At that time, it ranked third (Ali was not listed yet).
Therefore, after 360 announced privatization, some people ridiculed in the circle of friends, "After 360 spared no effort, privatization may be the only opportunity to awaken the stock price." Up to now, affected by privatization, the share price of 360 has soared 1 1%, and this is just the beginning.
Although the ridicule of the circle of friends lacks goodwill, Zhou is indeed worthy of anger. Because no matter compared with rival Xiaomi, or compared with today's A-share darling LeTV and Storm Video, in 360' s mind, they never think, "Where are they strong?" Because they don't believe that Xiaomi, LeTV and Storm Video are better than them.
Regarding privatization, Zhou first made a statement on 20 1 1. At that time, Citron, a short-selling organization, released many short-selling reports on 360. At that time, Zhou told reporters that he did not understand the privatization of China Stock Exchange. He believes that listed companies have greater transparency. In addition to enjoying the huge returns from foreign capital markets and investors, we must also accept the assessment of the capital market and bear the fluctuation of market value. Zhou stressed that Qihoo 360 will stick to the road of listing.
But now, Qihoo 360' s attitude towards privatization has changed dramatically. In addition, Qihoo's board of directors reminded shareholders and other investors considering trading the company's shares that the company only received this non-binding privatization proposal and has not yet made any decision. There is no guarantee that the buyer will give the final official quotation, and there is no guarantee that any transaction will be reached in the future.
Zhou said that the operating income of 360 20 14 is equivalent to RMB 8.6 billion yuan, and the net profit is 2 1 100 million yuan. At the end of 20 14, the company's total assets reached 20.6 billion yuan, and its cash exceeded10 billion yuan, so its overall financial situation was very healthy. Privatization is the inevitable choice for 360 Company to maximize its value.
But now, the privatization of China Stock Exchange is not an isolated case. In addition to Stormwind, which has been popular in A-shares recently, Mindray Medical, jiayuan and Renren, which are listed in the US, have also chosen privatization.
Wang Ran, the founder of Yi Kai Capital, once said that it is inevitable that most Internet companies will return to A shares. There are four kinds of Internet companies that are more suitable for listing abroad: First, there are very bullish benchmark companies abroad, such as Didi and Kuai. Uber; Second, the market value is large enough. For example, in today's market environment, a company with a market value of 100 billion like Alibaba chose to go public in the United States. Obviously, companies that cannot be listed in China due to national industrial policies and other reasons may be "life is worse than death" in the United States because of the uncertainty of relevant domestic policies, but at least they have the opportunity to be listed abroad; The fourth is the judgment made by personal reasons.
"It is inevitable that the vast majority will come back." Wang Ran judged, but he also said that everyone came back not to go public on the GEM, but in two directions-"the merger or backdoor of the New Third Board and A shares." Previously, Feng Xin, CEO of Stormwind Technology, also said that it is an irreversible process for Internet companies to return to A shares. "My advice to them is to come back after death. 99% of companies listed in the United States and (China) have lost money."
In fact, the huge difference in the valuation of enterprises between domestic and foreign capital markets is considered to be the driving force for the delisting of Chinese stocks in this round. According to the report of Zero2IPO Research Center, the valuation of China stocks is still generally low, but the performance of many China stocks has increased rapidly, which is in sharp contrast with their share price performance. In addition to being underestimated, the adjustment and reconstruction of the company's development strategy and structure is also an important reason for the privatization of China Stock Exchange.
Compared with Qihoo 360' s opening price of 20 1 1 on the day of listing, it set an opening price of 27 dollars on the day of listing, which was 86.2% higher than its issue price of 14.5 dollars. It closed at $34, up 134.48% from the issue price, with a market value of $3.96 billion. Based on the market value of the day, Qihoo 360 once surpassed New Oriental, Sohu and Shanda, ranking sixth among all Chinese stocks. By 2013,360, the stock price soared, and the market value exceeded10 billion dollars for the first time; In 20 14 years, its share price once exceeded 100 USD.
However, in the past year or so, 360' s share price has continued to weaken, and has now fallen to half of the peak of 2065438+March 2004. In the past 52 weeks, Qihoo's highest share price was $65,438 +004.5438+0 and its lowest share price was $44.56.
This may be related to the decline of its demographic dividend in the PC Internet and its "failure" in the mobile field. It can be seen that the total number of monthly active users of Qihoo 360' s PC-based products and services has slowed down, while in the field of mobile security and search, competitors such as Cheetah, Baidu, Tencent and sogou have made great efforts. On the mobile Internet, 360 has begun to look for "new portals" in the layout of hardware fields such as mobile phones, smart routers and children's bracelets.
Zhou also said that 360 privatization is not only a capital operation, but also an important boost for 360 to enter a new stage of development.
However, as a competitor of Qihoo 360, Fu Sheng, CEO of Cheetah Mobile, recently said that as an Internet company listed in the United States, Cheetah is also hesitant to go to A shares and Hong Kong stocks. "A shares are certainly attractive. I have seen the stock market several times and feel that it is unfair everywhere. The company's income is not directly proportional to the stock, but you gradually feel unnecessary. It is the most important thing to put your mind right and do what you should do. "
From the perspective of the dollar fund, the management and founding partner of Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund also said in an interview with the media recently that for the dollar fund, it is not just a simple matter of "taking over" to dismantle VIE and turn it into RMB fund, and the interests between investors of the dollar fund and RMB fund are "120% contradiction". If we want to dismantle VIE, we must sit down and have a new round of business negotiations.