Sina Prepares to Take Weibo Public Despite Government Crackdown

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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Weibo, the Chinese social-media platform often compared to Twitter, may go public in the United States in the second quarter. The move comes as the Chinese government cracks down on the expression of politically sensitive messages online.

Chinese Internet company Sina Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) reportedly is planning to raise around $500 million in a U.S. initial public offering. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs have been hired to handle the U.S. listing, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Back in April, Alibaba struck a deal with Sina to take an 18% stake in Weibo for $586 million. And last month, Barclays valued Weibo at $4.1 billion.

However, recent increasing competition among social-media platforms has raised concerns about falling engagement of users. A government research group said in January that the total number of microblog users in China fell 9% year-over-year to 280.8 million in 2013. However, Sina said that its third-quarter daily active users grew 11.2% to 60.2 million from the previous quarter. That makes Sina Weibo the country’s largest microblogging outlet. One of its main rivals is Tencent’s WeChat messaging application.

Another reason engagement has fallen is that China has signaled that it considers online dissent as a threat to the authority of governing Communist Party. In September, spreading false rumors online became a jailable offense, and some microbloggers have been arrested since.

Sina shares were up almost 6% in premarket trading Monday, to $77.28 in a 52-week range of $45.54 to $92.83.

Photo of Trey Thoelcke
About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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