chinadotcom corp. Thursday took stakes in
two more Asia Web sites, a sign that it plans to continue its acquisitions at a dizzying speed.
The company purchased a majority holding in Taiwan’s Yes!Net and a minority stake
in MusicAsia.com. The two buys mark the 22nd and 23rd investment in the
company’s portfolio.
MusicAsia.com is a portal and online shopping site, while Yes!Net is a
Taiwan-based Net company offering software downloads, domain registration,
search engine services and news, among other content features.
chinadotcom (CHINA) has divided its investment strategy into incubation, acceleration, and
partnerships to foster the entry of external companies to the Asian markets.
While the minority stake in MusicAsia.com represents chinadotcom’s fourth
incubation investment, the company has ranked its 80 percent equity swap for
Yes!Net a full acquisition in its list of 11 such buys.
“With our comprehensive regional investment program, chinadotcom Corp.
has established a strategy for accelerated growth whereby the incubation of
Internet businesses has become the fourth element of our integrated Internet
business model,” said Ian Henry, president, international of chinadotcom.
Rajeev Gupta, an Internet analyst at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, said that
the investment strategy supports chinadotcom’s “build, sell, distribute”
business model in the aim to become a central Asia Net business.