LeEco

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Not to be confused with Le.com.
Leshi Holding
乐视控股
LeEco
Company typePrivate
IndustryConglomerate
Founded8 September 2011; 12 years ago (2011-09-08)
FounderJia Yueting
Headquarters
Beijing
,
China
Area served
Worldwide (China, India, USA and Russia mainly)
Key people
Jia Yueting (managing director)
ProductsAutomobiles, bicycles, mobile phones, televisions, film productions, virtual reality
BrandsLeMall.com, EcoPass
OwnerJia Yueting (92.07%)
Subsidiaries
WebsiteChinese website
US website

LeEco (Chinese: 乐视生态; pinyin: Lèshì Shēngtài) is a Chinese multinational conglomerate corporation founded by Jia Yueting, the founder of Le.com (aka LeTV). The group maintains ventures in consumer electronics, automobiles, film and other business. The holding company of the group is known as Leshi Holding (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 乐视控股(北京)有限公司; pinyin: Lèshì Kònggǔ Běijīng Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī).

LeEco has expanded to countries outside of China, such as the United States[2][3] and India.[4]

From 2016 onwards,[5][6] LeEco has been experiencing significant financial problems.

History

Le.com, formerly Letv (Chinese: 乐视网; pinyin: lèshì wǎng; lit. 'Leshi Network'), was founded by Jia Yueting in Beijing in 2004 and was the first streaming video company in China to go public. Jia later founded Leshi Holding as a sister company of Letv to provide media content and products that linked to its services. Both Letv services and Leshi products were marketed internationally under the Letv name until January 2016, when media services began under the Le.com name (Chinese: 乐视视频; pinyin: lèshì shìpín; lit. 'Leshi Video') and electronics products were labeled LeEco.[7]

In July 2016, it was announced that LeEco would acquire American television manufacturer Vizio for $2 billion. Vizio was to be operated as an independent subsidiary in southern California, while Vizio's Inscape Data Services was going to be spun out into a privately held company.[8] The acquisition was later cancelled.[9]

LeEco officially expanded into the US market in November 2016, beginning sales of mobile phones, televisions, headphones, and eventually "smart bicycles" on its privately owned marketplace LeMall (Chinese: 乐视商城; pinyin: lèshì shāngchéng).[10] It previously expanded into India in 2015.

Billionaire CEO Jia Yueting announced in November 2016 stagnation and management problems in a letter to his employees. He plans to invest US$10 million and to reduce his base salary to US$0.15 in order to allow the company to expand into the United States.[11][12] These issues within the company included cutting 10% of its workforce and considering selling non-core business units such as LeSEE and real estate ventures.[13]

On 23 November 2016 Compal Electronics confirmed that LeEco failed to pay a debt of NT$ 4.25 billion, which was rescheduled and paid in-time.[14]

In late November 2016, LeEco announcent a partnership with American telecommunications company AT&T to include its Internet-based cable TV streaming service DirecTV Now on LeEco "ecophones" and "ecotvs".[15]

On 1 December 2016, LeEco started selling products in the United States through national retail chains Amazon.com, Target, and Best Buy, as well as continuing sales and after-sales support through its LeMall.com marketplace.

In late 2016, the chairman Jia Yueting admitted that the company was facing acute financial troubles, stating: "We blindly sped ahead, and our cash demand ballooned. We got over-extended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited." The company has indicated that it will raise billions of dollars from investors, but did not specify where the money would come from or how it would be allocated.[5]

In late November 2016, a town hall meeting was held at the Silicon Valley headquarters with executives attempting to calm employees down in response to its press coverage and company status. Executives told employees that the media was misreporting the story and that this was just "YT being YT". Employees were assured that there will be no layoffs and were promised year-end bonuses and raises.[16]

In early December 2016, layoffs were conducted in Hong Kong, India (80% of workforce) and the US. At the time, the company did not want to attract media attention to the US operations. Therefore, only India and Hong Kong layoffs were reported. However, multiple reports concluded that the first wave of layoffs in the US started as early as November 2016, with the recruiting team being the first to let go, following employees from different departments.[17]

On 5 January 2017, Haosheng Electronic Technology (NEEQ: 838701) announced that they sued LeMobile for non-performing debts of CN¥11,020,393.22 and US$5,929,259.14 respectively.[18]

On 13 January 2017, a 15% stake of Le Vision Pictures was agreed to be sold from Leshi Holding to Tianjin Jiarui, a subsidiary of Tianjin Yingrui Huixin (a company managed by Sunac China in order to bypass restriction on foreign investments) for CN¥1.05 billion. In a separate deal, Tianjin Jiarui acquired rights to nominate a member to the board of supervisors of LeMobile.[1] LeEco's minority stake in the TV manufacturing subsidiary of Le.com (Leshi Zhixin) would also being diluted to 18.3805% due to the subscription of new shares by Tianjin Jiarui and other investors.[1]

In April 2017, the company announced that it had scrapped its acquisition of Vizio, citing "regulatory headwinds", but that it would "continue to explore opportunities".[19][9]

On 22 May 2017, an email sent to CNBC revealed an internal meeting with employees in the Silicon Valley global office to lay off more than 325 employees, 70% of the workforce. At the time of its US expansions, LeEco owned its Silicon Valley office. Since the financial crisis, the company had to give up their ownership and sell their property to Han's Group, based in Shenzhen. The company now pays a monthly rent and will only occupy 1/4th of the office, leasing out the remaining spaces for other potential companies by new owners.[20]

A Shanghai court froze CN¥1.24 billion of LeEco's assets in July 2017 due to defaulted payments on a LeView Mobile loan to China Merchants Bank.[6][21]

Subsidiaries or Announced Acquisitions

LeMusic

LeMusic's (Chinese: 乐视音乐; pinyin: lèshì yīnyuè) establishment was announced in Hong Kong in 2015.[22] Yin Liang (尹亮), core creator of LeEco's music business, was appointed chief executive officer of the new music company, while Lei Zhenjian was appointed chairman. Its model includes a pay-per-view live concert model which has produced over 300 concerts as of 2015.[23]

LeMobile

Letv 1s model

LeMobile (Chinese: 乐视移动; pinyin: lèshì yídòng), a subsidiary of Leshi Holding,[24] produces high-end smartphones under the LeEco brand. Its most recent smartphones include the Le Pro 3 and Le S3.

On 21 September 2016, LeEco unveiled the Le Pro 3 in China.[25] It went on sale in China and the United States in early November 2016. LeMobile will launch both aforementioned models in India in December 2016.[26]

List of LeEco Smartphones [27][28][29][30]
Model Code Release date Screen size CPU RAM AnTuTu Expandable

storage

NFC Battery Headphone port
Le 1 X600 5.5" MediaTek Helio X10 2.0 3 GB 58,000 - - 3000 mAh 3.5mm analog jack
Le 1 Pro X800 5.5" Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 4 GB 92,000 - - 3000 mAh 3.5mm analog jack
Le Max X900 6.3" Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 4 GB 82,491 - Yes 3400 mAh 3.5mm analog jack
Le Max Pro X910 2016.01 6.33" Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 4 GB 141,300 - - 3400 mAh 3.5mm analog jack
Le 1s X500 2015.06 5.5" MediaTek Helio X10 2.2 3 GB 57,239 - - 3000 mAh 3.5mm analog jack
Le 1s X501 2015.06 5.5" MediaTek Helio X10 2.0 3 GB 55,198 - - 3000 mAh 3.5mm analog jack
Le 2 X520 2016.04 5.5" Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 3/4 GB 74,563 - - 3000 mAh USB Type C (CDLA)
Le S3 X522 2016.10 5.5" Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 3 GB 74,563 - - 3000 mAh USB Type C (CDLA)
Le 2 X526 2016.10 5.5" Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 3 GB 88,563 - - 3000 mAh USB Type C (CDLA)
Le 2 X620 2016.04 5.5" MediaTek Helio X20 3 GB 84,000 - - 3000 mAh USB Type C (CDLA)
Le 2 Pro X620 2016.04 5.5" MediaTek Helio X25 4 GB 99,948 - - 3100 mAh USB Type C (CDLA)
Le Max 2 X820 2016.04 5.7" Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 4/6GB 138,000 - - 3100 mAh USB Type C (CDLA)
Cool1 C106 2016.09 5.5" Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 3 GB 77,000 - - 4060 mAh 3.5mm analog jack
Le Pro 3 X720 2016.09.21 5.5" Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 4/6GB 163,594 - Yes 4070 mAh USB Type C (CDLA)

LeSEE

Leshi Holdings[24] set up their electric vehicle branch in January 2015, LeSEE (Leshi Super Electric Car Company) and launched a concept model with Faraday Future at CES 2016. It also showed the Chinese-manufactured derivative at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show, the Le Supercar.[31][32] The Le Car luxury vehicle with engineering talent from Lotus has also been shown.[33] It also tried to lure in more talents in the field to develop their own products such as hiring Ni Kai (Chinese: 倪凯), who was the former director of Baidu's driverless car project.[34] In April 2016, LeEco presented it's very first model of its self-driving car named LeSEE (Super Electric Ecosystem) during a press conference in Beijing.[35]

Its future is uncertain as of late 2016 when construction for the Faraday Future plant in Nevada stopped and suspicions of financial woes within LeEco and Faraday Future rose. LeEco announced in the last week of December 2016 that they had broken ground for a US$3B (20B yuan) factory in Huzhou, Zhejiang.[36] CarNewsChina reported that LeEco said the site will be 4,300 acres in size. LeEco plans to build a vehicle factory, a battery factory, and a traction motor factory. LeEco expects production rate to be around 200,000 cars a year at first, and then work up to a full capacity of 400,000 cars a year.[37]

Film studios

LeEco is the owner of Le Vision Pictures. On 5 December 2015, it was announced that the film studio would be sold to Le.com. As of 8 November 2016, the deal was still in the phase of valuation.[38]

In September 2016 the company announced the acquisition of Dichotomy Creative Group and the creation of Le Vision Entertainment, a US-based film studio.[39]

Le VR

Le VR (Chinese: 乐视虚拟现实; pinyin: lèshì xūnǐxiànshí) is a company that invests in virtual reality technology. Its products are currently only available in China.

Sister companies

LeEco Global Holding

Jia Yueting, also owned 28.83% shares of Hong Kong listed company Coolpad Group (as the largest shareholder and chairman of the board) via Cayman Islands-incorporated Lele Holding (and its subsidiary LeEco Global Holding), which had no parent-subsidiary relation with China-incorporated Leshi Holding (Beijing), the parent company of mainland China part of LeEco.

It was reported that LeEco Global Holding opened a call centre in Russia in 2016.[40]

Le.com

Leshi Holding (Beijing) owned 0.6% shares of Shenzhen listed company Le.com, which the largest shareholder was LeEco chairman Jia Yueting.

LeRan Investment Management

Ningbo Hangzhou Bay New District LeRan Investment Management, a private equity fund, was partially owned by Jia Yueting and Leshi Holding (who also owned the management company (general partner) of the fund). LeRan Investment Management was the shareholder of Leshi Zhixin for 3.9486% stake, which Leshi Holding (Beijing) owned 17.9497%.

LeSports

LeSports is a sports video streaming service.

References

  1. ^ a b c "MAJOR TRANSACTION - IN RELATION TO INVESTMENT IN TARGET SHARES OF LESHI INTERNET,LESHI PICTURES AND LESHI ZHIXIN" (PDF). Sunac China. Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  2. ^ "LeEco to start selling smartphones in the U.S. - leecophones.com". LeEcoPhones.
  3. ^ "Letv plans to invades U.S. smartphone market - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  4. ^ "China's LeTV plans foray into Indian smartphone market – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  5. ^ a b "China's cash-strapped LeEco in talks to gain $1.4 billion from investor". CNBC.com. 29 December 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  6. ^ a b "LeEco's assets frozen by Chinese court as debts mount". Engadget. 4 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  7. ^ "Letv rebrands name to LeEco, introduces a new brand logo". Digit. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  8. ^ Bishop, Bryan (2016-07-26). "Vizio acquired by Chinese tech company LeEco for $2 billion". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  9. ^ a b "LeEco's abandoned Vizio acquisition is just the latest in a series of missteps". Ars Technica. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  10. ^ "LeEco to enter the USA market this fall". GSMArena.com. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  11. ^ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/07/is-leeco-really-in-trouble/
  12. ^ "Chinese Billionaire Cuts Salary to 15 Cents Amid Cash Crunch". Bloomberg.com. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  13. ^ 宋静丽. "LeEco plans to cut 10 percent of workforce - USA - Chinadaily.com.cn". usa.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  14. ^ 澄清媒體報導內容 2016-11-23 公開資訊觀測站
  15. ^ 张健合. "LeEco partners with AT&T - USA - Chinadaily.com.cn". usa.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  16. ^ "'It's All Over Now But the Screaming': Inside the Unraveling of LeEco in America". 18 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017 – via www.gizmodo.com.
  17. ^ "What the Hell is Going On at LeEco?". 11 April 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2017 – via www.gizmodo.com.
  18. ^ "涉及仲裁公告" (PDF). Haosheng Electronic Technology (in Chinese). National Equities Exchange And Quotations. 5 January 2017. Retrieved 6 January 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "LeEco deal to buy Vizio for $2 billion falls through". CNET. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  20. ^ "LeEco employees are being called to a Tuesday meeting, and massive layoffs are expected". 22 May 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2017 – via www.cnbc.com.
  21. ^ "Chinese Court Freezes LeEco Assets Over Late Debt Payments". 3 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  22. ^ "Letv Establishes Music Company". ChinaTechNews.com. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  23. ^ "Ecosystem | LeEco". LeEco. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  24. ^ a b "关于相关事项的提示性公告" (PDF). le.com (in Chinese). Shenzhen Stock Exchange. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ "LeEco Le Pro 3 unveiled with Snapdragon 821 SoC, 6 GB RAM and 4070 mAh battery". MobiGyaan.com. 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  26. ^ "LeEco to launch Le Pro3, Le S3 in India in December". www.themobileindian.com. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  27. ^ Kimovil.com. "Compare prices for LeEco (LeTV) smartphones". Kimovil.com. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  28. ^ "LeEco - Chinahandys.net". Chinahandys.net (in German). Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  29. ^ "【乐Pro3手机】乐视手机Pro3，纤薄长续航-乐视商城". www.lemall.com. Retrieved 2016-09-30.
  30. ^ "LeEco - NerdsHeaven.de". www.nerdsheaven.de. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
  31. ^ Mark Harris (26 February 2016). "Inside Faraday Future: is it really a big player in the future of electric cars?". The Guardian.
  32. ^ Tycho De Feijter (12 May 2016). "What We Know About The LeSEE Tesla Killer From China". Forbes. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  33. ^ Jonathon Ramsey (26 August 2015). "Le Supercar hopes to be China's answer to Tesla". AutoBlog.
  34. ^ http://www.allchinatech.com/former-leader-of-baidu-driverless-car-joins-tech-giant-leeco/
  35. ^ Dunne, Michael J. "What You Should Know About Billionaire Jia Yueting's $1.8B Play To Build A Chinese Challenger To Tesla". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-11-30.
  36. ^ Lambert, Fred (2016-12-29). "LeEco breaks ground at $3 billion electric car factory in China amid setbacks in the US with Faraday Future". Electrek. Retrieved 2016-12-29.
  37. ^ "LeEco Starts Building Its 20 Billion Yuan Car Factory In China". CarNewsChina.com - China Auto News. 2016-12-28. Retrieved 2016-12-29.
  38. ^ "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). le.com (in Chinese). Shenzhen Stock Exchange. 9 November 2016 [Written on 8 November 2016]. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  39. ^ Kilday, Gregg (September 14, 2016). "Adam Goodman, Zhang Zhao Join Forces to Create Le Vision Entertainment". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  40. ^ "Китайский LeEco нашел вход в Россию" (in Russian). comnews.ru. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2017.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=LeEco&oldid=799783045"