Speculations are rife that China Mobile may purchase Tencent. Recent visit by Jianyu Wang, China Mobile CEO, to Tencent added to the speculation . However, Tencent denied the rumours.
On 31 December 2008, Wang visited Tencent. After which there were some speculation that China Mobile involvement was not going well in Internet industry. It triggered the speculation that China Mobile would accelerate entering into Internet market by acquisiton of Tencent.
Tencent however denied this and said that Wang was there only to visit and not to hold any negotiations. According to Tencent’s website, during the visit, Zhi Liu, CEO of Tencent introduced business model of the company, new product design and research. On 2 January, China Mobile announced that they didn’t have any plan on acquisition of Tencent.
China Mobile is one of the biggest operators in China mobile telecommunication market. Tencent also ranks third in market value of worldwide Internet enterprises.
So far, Tencent already has entered into cooperation with China Mobile in SP and mobile internet fields. Although Wang did not hold meeting for collaboration, but there are still some possibilities of cooperation between the two companies, experts felt. (Translated by Alice He)
