It’s unknown whether Sun Hongbin and Liang Jun had have a close relationship at Lenovo before, but it’s natural for them to communicate with each other as they both come from Lenovo. The new arrangement announced on May 18th is a sign of separating the listed company Leshi. It’s also Sun Hongbin fulfilling his promise of improving the transparency of the listed company and private company of LeEco.

　　On May 15th Liang Jun had also openly stated that Leshizhixin has a very stable team and that it’s the private business that is having cash crisis. He added that LeEco’s business should be separated from Jia’s own goals. This statement is regarded by many as an olive branch to Sun Hongbin.

　　According to Sunac China and Leshi’s announcements, Sunac China has invested strategically in LeEco’s three subsidiaries. Sunac China has acquired 8.61% of the shares of Leshi at ￥6.041 billion, 33.5% of Leshizhixin’s shares at ￥7.95 billion, and 15% of Le Vision Pictures at ￥1.05 billion. Sun Hongbin revealed at the performance review conference on March 28th 2016 that Sunac China had invested ￥12.4 billion in LeEco.

　　Sun Hongbin has openly stated that LeEco’s strength not only lies in its contents, but also its production ability and TVs. “If LeEco sells 10 million TVs, then it has a rating of two TV channels combined,” Sun said. “These three factors would be a direction for the greater cultural and entertainment industry. We will be able to grasp users’ preference if they use our TV, and thus help out the content makers. We will also be able to make advertisements that target the audience more precisely. And we also have income from the membership system.”

　　With the support from Liang Jun who also came from Lenovo, Sun Hongbin will be able to better control Leshizhixin’s business. And Liang Jun will better carry out the concepts and manage the listed company as the CEO.

　　Jia Yueting and Sun Hongbin

　　The fierce second biggest shareholder and the left-behind LeEco ecosystem

　　In the recent 30 days, there has been a great number of news on layoffs within LeEco’s ecosystem. The most apparent case has been LeSports, the subsidiary with a layoff rate of 70%.

　　On May 8th, Hutchison Whampoa made a public announcement demanding payment from LeEco. That said, Jia is also owing money to Li Ka-shing, one of the richest Chinese businessmen. LeEco was put on the center of attention once again before the YiDao scandal comes to an end entirely.

　　According to Hutchison Global Communications, LeEco’s LeCloud has been delaying payment for a long time.

　　On May 3rd, LeSports did not livestream the first round of the Real Madrid VS Atletico Madrid match at 2:45. The commentators and LeEco’s member users all got the cancel notice at the very last minute from LeSports.

　　However, LeEco later rebroadcasted the second round. Internal staff of LeSports revealed to Tencent Technology that the company might have payment issues with the UEFA Champions League due to financial situations, and the copyright owner cut off the signal to protest.

　　It’s actually a rather mild approach for the copyright owner to protest. In comparison, LeSports acquired Chinese Football Association Super League’s exclusive broadcasting right between 2016 and 2017, but the deal was later cancelled because of payment issues. LeSports has another major sports event at its disposal, the FA Premier League. However, the deal is not exclusive.

　　The second biggest shareholder Sun Hongbin stated directly at the press conference on March 28th that the deal with Chinese Football Association Super League was completely unnecessary because the company poured in 1.3 billion and lost 500 million. “You can’t do this business only because the Chinese audience likes it. This is business. It’s a wrong decision,” Sun said. Yu Hang, COO of LeSports, who was in charge of purchasing broadcasting rights left the company during that period.

　　The former second biggest holder, China Bridge Capital, advised Jia Yueting to focus on the listed company and consider the car business a dream while LeEco was plagued by cash bleed and controversy. But later Jia expressed in an interview that China Bridge Capital is merely a shareholder from the secondary market, and that the company doesn’t have second or third biggest shareholder. Subsequently, China Bridge Capital disappeared from the top ten shareholder list that was issued by LeEco in the Q1 of 2017.

　　Sun Hongbin then poured in ￥15 billion and became Le.com’s second biggest shareholder. Apparently, Sun is a more controlling person. This can be reflected by the fact that the COO of LeSports left the companyafter Sun criticized LeSports.

　　What is Sun Hongbin aiming for?

　　Is it true that Sunac China, a real estate company, only aims to be an investor and work with LeEco to build a so-called real estate ecosystem?

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