The next step, will it be Sohu video will pplive into the bag?

Abstract: This is a year before and after the negotiation of the acquisition exactly what link? The answer is people, Sohu Video want to integrate pplive, difficult not to do, but difficult in people. May 8, 360 in the form of shares and part of the cash to buy Sogou news will be the uproar,

What is the link between this negotiation and the one-year takeover? The answer is people, Sohu Video want to integrate pplive, difficult not to do, but difficult in people.

May 8, 360 of shares and part of the cash to buy Sogou news on the spread of the uproar, the message at the same time with a message, by selling Sogou, Sohu can get a part of the cash, used to acquire PPLive, complete video layout.

A week down, the rumors of the focus of the Wang Xiaoquan attitude from "unreliable" into "have oral communication", more and more sources claimed 360 and Sohu between the transaction has been finalized, suspense only in the Wang Xiaoquan of my fate. So, the next step, will be the Sohu video pplive into the bag? Look at the surface, this assumption seems to be the case:

1, the industry is well-known, after the merger of excellent soil, PPS, pplive, Thunder and other second-line video manufacturers have been in a limited number of buyers to deal with, of which, although pplive in the early 2011 to announce a high-profile soft silver 250 million U.S. dollars, but by the beginning of 2012, carrying only less than 30 million U.S. It also includes loans to banks. Today, the cash-rich PPS first step to find someone, rumor book funds only enough to stick to the July pplive naturally feel anxious;

2, Sohu Video 2009 set up, started earlier than Baidu and Tencent, backed by Sohu Group, is the mainstream of the video manufacturers, 2011, Zhang also once on the business has expressed affirmation, said Sohu video "Sit two look one". But over the past two years, the combination of excellent soil, Baidu mergers and acquisitions of PPS, music to see the end of the TV, Tencent Video is poised to send, Sohu video in the real business growth is not a bright spot. If there is not a sufficient amount of mergers and acquisitions, the next stage of the video oligarch war, the size of Sohu video, location will be very embarrassing, so, Sohu video is also anxious, may be more anxious than Tao Chuang;

3, pps and pplive history, the scale of similar, PPS sold to Baidu 370 million U.S. dollars, and rumors of 360 of the cash to buy Sogou is 400 million dollars, guess just enough to buy the PPLive Sohu, the subtext is, even the money is ready-made.

Tao and Charles Zhang's microblog statement only denied the relationship with Sogou and 360 cooperation, and did not deny the acquisition itself.

Tao Chuang Weibo:

Zhang Chaoyang Weibo:

Theoretically, there are not a few tentacles in reality. If Sohu really want to collect pplive, that certainly does not need to wait to sell the Sogou to make up the money. As Charles Zhang recently said, "Sohu has 1 billion dollars in cash, or can do something." "If money is not a problem, then what is the link between the negotiations that took a year?" The answer is people, Sohu Video want to integrate pplive, difficult not to do, but difficult in people.

The first difficulty: Deng Ye vs Tao the helm of the Dark War

Compared to Youku potatoes, Baidu pps These two mergers and acquisitions in Koo and gong meaningless leadership, Sohu Video and PPLive integration, the biggest suspense lies in the new helm of the people who spend their homes. is the oldest in Sohu, Zhang's loyal, one hand with the big Sohu video Deng Ye? Or has always been high-profile, self-proclaimed as "China's internet Cross-border legend", claiming that only CEO of Tao Chuang?

According to Tao own statement, PPLive last year's annual revenue in 800 million yuan, last year, the fourth quarter has achieved break-even, in the industry, simple to inquire about, pplive real data is probably the above figures doubled. But still greater than Sohu video about 230 million yuan advertising revenue, according to the previous transcripts, Tau wins Deng Ye.

By contrast, one hand will Sohu video with big Deng Ye win face lies in Charles Zhang's trust, Deng Ye is a typical conservative will not the extension of the soil of the minister. From Sohu Marketing to Sohu Entertainment, and then to Sohu Video, Deng Ye more than 10 years of youth all dedicated to Sohu, it can be said that the original video business to Deng, is also the return of his loyalty. If not after the excellent soil, Baidu PPS merger and management Team collective Exodus, to Deng Ye ability can also ensure that Sohu video business does not have a big problem, but the rapid changes in the pattern has obviously made Deng feel labored. According to Sohu insiders revealed that at present, Sohu CFO Yuchuyan has been involved in Sohu video specific management work, the next step, Zhang will personally grasp the video business, Deng Ye position is very embarrassing. But even so, compared with the foreign Tao, Yao, the Deng Ye is the most reassuring choice.

The second difficulty: 11 high-level turnover management team vacuum

Buying money is only the first step, integration is the key to determining whether a takeover is successful, what is the integration? The pattern and judgment of the leader can be realized smoothly in the integration, depending on the control and execution of the management team, it can be said that having a complete, mature and effective executive team is the foundation of the takeover. Sohu Video, whether this condition?

May 2011, the original Phoenix satellite TV executive Taiwan Chun joined Sohu, bear Sohu Video chief operating Officer (COO), mainly responsible for the content of Sohu video and media business, to CEO Deng Ye Report, a year later, only a few charge of the Chun was elevated, eventually to Sohu Portal did the editor-in-chief; June 2012, Sohu Video responsible for the financial boss he Cheng exit; July, the boss of the sales strategy Cao Yongshou separation, August, responsible for the sale of the eldest brother Min separation; September, the boss of the mobile business Yang left; October, responsible for the market and BD's boss Yu left, the successor of the marketing vice President Xing Dry for several months, As of January 2013, the business has been left unattended, and in February 2013, the boss of the Human resources department, Loxapine, was left unattended, and in March 2013, vice president of sales, Shiang, was left unattended, and in April 2013, CTO Li Gangjiang, who was in charge of product technology, left, and no one succeeded ... The cumulative 11 senior executives are leaving, and the entire video industry has formed a strong contrast.

In other words, Sohu Video is now a company without VP, if Sohu shot at this time, then, it is not so much Sohu video in order to expand market share to win pplive, as the Tao and Yao in the video field the next stage of the voyage to provide a new ship, an empty new ship.

The third difficulty: investors

Buy pplive, how much does Sohu cost? According to the introduction of soft silver investment in the simple calculation, pplive valuation can not be less than 700 million U.S. dollars.

In early 2011, PPLive won 250 million dollars in soft silver investment, the biggest financing of the pplive since its inception, now seems to be the biggest burden: The pplive began to start in the industry retaliatory action to burn money, from 2011 to early 2012, bought a large number of copyright content, including major sporting events of the sports live; From big international companies such as Microsoft, as well as rival companies such as Youku and potatoes, the highly paid-for-tech and sales-oriented people, combined with a lot of advertising and bandwidth spending, have been almost depleted within a year of 250 million dollars. PPLive won 250 million U.S. dollars investment, it is Youku Landing NYSE, online video is the peak of the investment market, and then the stock quickly met cold, so far it is difficult to return to high, this investment has become the main reason for the pplive price. Not long ago, pplive Tao faced with the question of whether the financing has been exhausted, chose to avoid, but also highlight the current financial chain fracture dilemma.

In fact, to solve the problem of cash flow, PPLive has been taking advantage of the high cost of interest rates, using Shanghai cohesion as a borrower, successively from China Merchants Bank, Pudong Development Bank, Bank of Communications and Shanghai Zhangjiang SME Innovation Fund to carry out the high billion in loans, as well as the previous rounds of financing, PPLive's overall price will exceed 800 million U.S. dollars- -Yes, about equal to all the current cash reserves of Sohu.

Sohu naturally understand that the next step, only acquisitions, only to count through the video industry knockout, but to more than one times the price, to purchase the same amount of PPS pplive, is it really cost-effective?