11:20 PM
admin
Investors have anointed another Chinese Internet titan in Zhou Hongyi, whose Qihoo 360 Technology saw its shares bid up 134% on its first day of trading Wednesday after its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The security-and-browser company, which turned a profit of $8.5 million last year, is valued by investors at close to $4 billion — making Zhou, whose family owned 21.5% of the company before the share offering, not quite a billionaire.
Zhou’s Qihoo joins Victor Koo’s online video site Youku.com as two of the hottest MAKE MONEY NLOG$;IPOs to hit the U.S. markets in recent months, as China’s Internet market keeps producing winners on stock paper, if not always on the balance sheets. Youku.com has yet to turn a profit and is, like Zhou’s business, surrounded by well-funded competition, but investors value the business at $5.3 billion. E-Commerce China Dangdang, only thinly profitable, is not trading at its peak but is also valued at more than $1 billion.
