Weibo’s shares started exchanging hands for the first time yesterday at a price of $16.4, lower than the company’s initial public offering price of $17. The micro-blogging platform sold 16.8 million shares for a total of $286 million, inflating the company’s value to $4 billion Weibo Corp (ADR) (WB), the Chinese micro-blogging platform similar to Twitter, Inc. (TWTR), is set for some exposure in US markets, as it debuted yesterday on the Nasdaq after its initial public offering (IPO). The American Depository Shares for the website are trading under the ticker “WB,” and helped the company raise $286 million, and a valuation of $4 billion through the sale of 16.8 million ADR shares. Trading began at $16.4, lower than the $17 IPO price set by the company. The stock later rallied to an intraday high of $24.48, eventually closing up 19% at $20.24. Following the IPO, which was led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), Alibaba.com Ltd.’s stake in Weibo rose from 18% to just over 32%. Sina Corp (SINA), a huge Chinese internet portal that originally owned over 77% of Weibo, now has a stake of just under 60% in the Chinese micro-blogging platform. Weibo initially priced the initial public offering at the lower end of the $17-$19 range it had previously indicated. The 16.8 million shares that were sold were also short of the $20 million target that the company was initially looking to meet. Weibo’s negotiation of IPO terms occurred on the back of hype that was not exactly seen in the market. In the company’s latest SEC filing, a new risk factor has emerged following new and stricter amendments in Chinese media regulations. In a country where media freedom is normally severely constrained, Weibo has enabled – and is still enabling – millions of Weibo users to express their life’s happenings freely in succinct posts. Compliance with the new rules, however, would require the Chinese social media giant to employ as many as 50,000-75,000 censors to strictly monitor published content on the website, according to research from a Harvard University team.
I don't think Twitter should be worried. I think it will actually be good to have increased competition. It will force Twitter to keep rehashing its own product. It will create a better market for everybody involved.
I think both of those companies should be worried because they are not going to fare well in the near future anyway. As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't invest with either one over the next six months, despite any recent profits.
Why are you so confident about their eventual decline jl1401? Is is too much uncertainty? I think they will go up and down quite a bit. It's hard to say if it is a good investment.
twitter is gone so famous by celebrities by giving their replies, its quite difficult that twitter can go down
Twitter should definitely not be worried. Competition drives innovation so perhaps it will even inspire Twitter to improve and add features people want.
