It was supposed to be Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Tesla and Disney all rolled into one, and its US debut last October was billed as “a historical moment in tech and consumer culture” comparable to the day the iPhone maker or Google went public.
它本该是苹果(Apple)、亚马逊(Amazon)、Netflix、特斯拉(Tesla)和迪士尼(Disney)的集合体，去年10月，它在美国初次登场被称为“科技与消费文化领域的历史性时刻”，可与iPhone制造商或谷歌(Google)上市当日相媲美。This breathless publicity surrounding China’s LeEco group was matched only by the ambitious claims of its founder and chief executive Jia Yueting at its San Francisco launch event: “We have blazed a new path in the internet content domain,” he said.
围绕乐视(LeEco)的这种大吹大擂的宣传，也只有其创始人兼首席执行官贾跃亭在旧金山产品发布会上的豪言壮语才配得上，他表示：“在互联网内容领域，我们也进行了全新的探索。”Far from blazing a path, however, LeEco’s hype diverged substantially from reality. Its American adventure has left a trail of cancelled deals, disgruntled employees and a vast and empty would-be car plant in the Nevada desert.
然而，乐视并没有开辟出什么新道路，实际上其天花乱坠的宣传与现实相去甚远。乐视在美国的冒险只留下一连串被取消的交易、不满的员工，以及内华达沙漠里一块巨大但空空如也、本来要建汽车厂的工地。
Analysts have expressed grave doubts about its high spending on a sprawling strategy to conquer the US consumer electronics market by offering TVs and phones at discount prices and developing a “super bike”, electric cars and virtual reality headsets.
分析人士对乐视的战略深表怀疑，他们觉得乐视把摊子铺得太大且开销巨大，意图以廉价销售电视和手机以及开发“超级自行车”、电动汽车和虚拟现实耳机等手段征服美国消费电子市场。LeEco is one of a series of high-profile Chinese companies founded by a newly minted tycoon that burst on to the business scene with bombast and big ambitions but saw the dream fade when the company ventured overseas.
中国一些由新晋富豪创办的公司行事高调，创始人满口豪言壮语、胸怀大志，但当公司进军海外时，却只能眼看着美梦破碎。乐视就是这样一家公司。Faraday Future, the electric vehicle company backed by Mr Jia, was set up to make electric vehicles in Nevada. But last month, with the factory half-finished, it laid off 325 employees — most of its US workforce — and blamed difficulties in raising capital for the decision.
贾跃亭投资的电动汽车公司“法拉第未来”(Faraday Future)在内华达建工厂就是要生产电动汽车。但上月，工厂才建了一半，该公司就解雇了325名员工（占其美国员工的多数），并将这一决定归咎于融资困难。LeEco went to the US just seven months ago as part of its design to be a global company, initially to sell smartphones and other hardware. Before that, its businesses were mostly domestic. Leshi Internet Information and Technology, the Shenzhen-listed unit, provides a range of internet services, including advertising and ecommerce.
乐视7个月前才进军美国，起初是要销售智能手机和其他硬件设备，这是其成为跨国公司大计的一部分。在那之前，乐视的业务大多在中国国内。在深圳上市的乐视网信息技术有限公司(Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp)提供一系列互联网服务，包括广告和电商。Back in China, the company’s billionaire founder has had to scramble to find additional financing for his increasingly disparate tech empire. Two weeks ago, Mr Jia said he would step down from the helm as chief executive of Leshi while remaining chair of both it and LeEco, the unlisted parent group. The chief financial officer also quit, citing “personal reasons”.
在中国国内，乐视的亿万富翁创始人不得不为他这个日益多元化的科技帝国努力寻找新资金。两周前，贾跃亭表示，他将卸任乐视网首席执行官一职，但将继续担任乐视网和未上市母公司乐视的董事长。乐视网财务总监也因“个人原因”辞职。LeEco’s tale threatens to become one of vaulting ambition that overleaped itself — and possibly its funding. The company, whose name means “happy ecosystem” in Chinese, has run up almost Rmb19bn ($2.7bn) in debts.
乐视的经历看来可能演变成一出因野心大过自身实力——或许也大过自身融资能力——而失败的故事。该公司的英文名LeEco在中文里的意思是“快乐的生态系统”。目前，乐视背负着将近190亿元人民币(合27亿美元)的债务。Its plans began to unravel as early as its US launch event — the unveiling of its self-driving car had to be abandoned at the last minute when the prototype crashed on the way.
从召开美国发布会那时开始，乐视的计划就开始受挫，当时由于原型车在运送途中发生车祸，乐视不得不在最后一刻放弃展示其自动驾驶汽车。Faraday Future, the US electric vehicle maker, is a ghost factory. The old Yahoo campus in Silicon Valley, bought by LeEco for $250m last June, has been put up for sale. LeEco gave up on its $2bn bid for US TV-maker Vizio, blaming “regulatory headwinds”. Last month, LeSports cancelled its live streaming in China of a European Champions League football match, sparking concerns over whether its broadcasting rights had been cut because of unpaid bills, although the company denied the interruption had anything to do with debts. Last year, it was late paying its bills for rights to broadcast English Premier League games in China.
在美国的“法拉第未来”就是一个鬼厂。乐视去年6月以2.5亿美元在硅谷收购的原雅虎(Yahoo)园区，如今挂牌出售。乐视还放弃了以20亿美元价格收购美国电视制造商Vizio的计划，原因是“监管阻力”。上月，乐视体育(LeSports)取消了欧洲冠军联赛(European Champions League)一场足球比赛的视频直播，这令外界担忧其是否因未付清账单而被切断转播，不过该公司否认事情与债务有关。去年，乐视曾延迟支付英超联赛(English Premier League)在华转播的费用。LeEco’s movie arm, Le Vision Pictures, is also struggling. Bought out for $1.41bn, four times its net asset value at the time — it was already a partial owner — Le Vision backed the action blockbuster The Great Wall starring Matt Damon, which underwhelmed at the box office.
乐视影业(Le Vision Pictures)也正步履维艰。乐视影业是乐视以14.1亿美元全盘收购的，当时这个收购价是资产净值的4倍，当时乐视已持有部分股权。乐视影业投资了马特?达蒙(Matt Damon)主演的动作大片《长城》(The Great Wall)，但票房不尽人意。Mr Jia has resorted to using his own stock to plug debts at Leshi, popularly known as the Netflix of China. He has pledged to lenders as collateral almost his entire 25.67 per cent stake in Leshi; his older brother, Jia Yuemin, has similarly put up the bulk of his shares and affiliate Leshi Holdings, a related party company wholly owned by Jia Yueting, is also completely pledged.
贾跃亭希望用自己的股权堵住乐视网的债务缺口，乐视网被称为中国的Netflix。他将其在乐视网的25.67%股权几乎全部质押给银行；他的哥哥贾跃民也将大部分股票质押，贾跃亭全资所有的关联方公司乐视控股(Leshi Holdings)也被整体质押。But cash flow in the group remains a problem, as shown by the lay-offs and the unfinished electric vehicle factory in Nevada. Last year Leshi lost Rmb337m at the operating level, on revenues of Rmb21.9bn. At its peak in May 2015, Leshi was valued at $22.15bn. It is now worth little more than a third of that, and shares trade on a bubbly 106 times trailing earnings.
但集团的现金流仍存在问题，在内华达的裁员和未完工的电动汽车工厂就是例证。去年，乐视网营收219亿元人民币，营业亏损3.37亿元人民币。乐视网的估值在2015年5月达到最高点，为221.5亿美元。如今，其估值仅为当时的三分之一多一点，其股票的往季市盈率高达106倍。“LeEco is split into a massive number of companies and moves money between them,” says one lawyer, adding that not all pay their bills on time. The LeEco empire, headed by unlisted LeEco Holdings, counts at least 39 subsidiaries in mainland China that are at least 51 per cent-controlled by Leshi Holding.
一位律师表示：“乐视分成了数量众多的公司，资金在各公司之间转移。”他补充称，并非所有公司都会按时付款。整个乐视帝国以未上市的乐视控股为首，设在中国内地的由乐视控股至少持有51%股权的子公司最起码有39家。Mr Jia himself has acknowledged problems with the capital structure. “We’ve been blindly charging ahead, burning money to expand,” he wrote in a rare moment of candour last November. “Our capital structure is irrational, and the scale of external financing cannot meet the rapid amplification of our financial needs.”
贾跃亭承认资本结构存在问题。“我们蒙眼狂奔、烧钱追求规模扩张，”他曾在去年11月直言，“我们的资本结构不合理，外部融资规模难以满足快速放大的资金需求。”Mr Jia, who is worth $3.5bn according to Forbes, began his career as a worker in a sleepy provincial tax bureau before heading to Beijing to make his fortune as an entrepreneur. By 2015, he had supplemented his video-streaming and movie platforms with a sporting and auto division.
根据《福布斯》(Forbes)排行榜，贾跃亭资产净值35亿美元。他最初在一成不变的省税务局工作，后来到北京创业致富。2015年，他在视频流和电影平台以外增加了体育和汽车业务。Not everyone bought into his dreams. An ex-employee of Le Vision Pictures in Beijing says: “LeEco only sugarcoats some basic concepts and then promotes and advertises itself heavily, but in essence, there’s no innovation at all.”
不是所有人都相信他的梦想。乐视影业在北京的一位前员工说：“乐视只是对一些基本概念进行了包装，然后大力的促销和推广，但实际上，根本没有创新。”There are suggestions of profligacy as well. Describing Mr Jia’s modus operandi in streaming, one peer talks of coming across content deals signed up at hefty prices. “Two years ago, they created such a bubble. I said: ‘If they follow through on every commitment they’ve made [on content licensing], they would go bankrupt’.”
还有人说他过度烧钱。说起贾跃亭在流媒体领域的做法时，一位同行提到他见过贾跃亭以高价签下的内容协议。“两年前他们吹起了这个泡沫。我说：‘如果他们兑现（内容授权协议中的）所有承诺，他们会破产的’。”Mr Jia has, however, proved adept at raising funds — so much so that he is known to many as “the PPT CEO”, or PowerPoint chief executive, for his rousing investor presentations. At one such marathon session in December, he convinced Chinese real estate developer Sunac to pony up $2.4bn in return for shares.
不过贾跃亭十分擅长募集资金，他向投资者推介时极富感染力，因此被许多人称为“PPT CEO”，即“PowerPoint首席执行官”。去年12月，经过一场马拉松式会谈，他说服中国房地产开发商融创(Sunac)出资24亿美元换取乐视股份。Speaking to reporters afterwards, Sunac chairman Sun Hongbin said: “After my conversation with Jia, I had the impetuous urge to invest because the important thing is [Mr Jia] has a good strategy and vision — especially his strategy in the auto industry.”
融创董事长孙宏斌事后向记者表示：“我第一次跟老贾谈了六七个小时，谈完以后，就约柳总，跟柳总也做了一个汇报。第一次我就特别有投资冲动，我从来没有这样过。因为老贾的战略思路特别清楚，他的逻辑都是对的，打法也是对的。比如做汽车，先从最高端的做，然后再往下做。”Many, including Nevada’s state treasurer Dan Schwartz, would demur. According to Mr Schwartz, lack of funds halted construction of the $1bn car plant in November. Faraday Future, the US car start-up backed by LeEco, owed “tens of millions of dollars” in missed payments to its contractor, he added. LeEco has denied both statements.
包括内华达州财长丹?施瓦茨(Dan Schwartz)在内的许多人可能不同意这种看法。根据施瓦茨的说法，由于缺乏资金，原计划投资10亿美元建造的汽车厂在去年11月就停工了。他还表示，法拉第未来拖欠了承包商“数千万美元”。乐视否认了上述两种说法。“Nothing has happened at the Faraday Future site,” Mr Schwartz told the FT. “It’s embarrassing for the state of Nevada that we effectively backed an airball. There is nothing there.” Nevada granted Faraday Future $200m in promised tax incentives for locating its plant there, spread over 15 to 20 years, depending on performance and local hiring conditions.
施瓦茨向英国《金融时报》表示：“法拉第未来所在的厂址毫无动静。对于内华达州政府来说，我们实际上支持的是一记‘三不沾’投球，这十分令人尴尬。那里什么都没有。”内华达州因法拉第未来将工厂建在该州而承诺向其提供2亿美元税收激励，其时间跨度依公司业绩和在当地招工情况执行15至20年。Richard Windsor of independent research consultancy Radio Free Mobile sees little chance of success in the field. “Building cars is quite difficult as Apple has found out, so I don’t see why LeEco should do [it].”
独立研究咨询公司Radio Free Mobile的理查德?温莎(Richard Windsor)认为，要在该领域取得成功的几率很小。“正如苹果所发现的，造车是相当困难的。因此，我看不出乐视为何要做这件事。”The question now is to what extent LeEco’s finances can be bolstered by Sunac’s cheque. “The problem is not that they have not got the money, it’s that they cannot get it out of China,” says Mr Windsor — a reference to China’s capital controls designed to halt capital flight and bolster the renminbi.
如今，问题在于融创的支票对乐视的财务状况能有多大支撑作用。温莎表示：“问题不在于他们没有钱，而在于他们没法把钱转移出中国。”他这话是指中国旨在阻止资金外逃并支撑人民币汇率的资本管控措施。With the Vizio deal scrapped and Yahoo’s old Silicon Valley site headquarters up for sale, Sunac’s $2.4bn — which otherwise could have bankrolled the two deals — will instead help support the balance sheet, he says.
他说，随着收购Vizio交易取消、以及雅虎硅谷旧地挂牌出售，原本会为这两宗交易提供资金的来自融创的24亿美元，将帮助支撑乐视的资产负债表。
Axing the two deals does, however, deal a blow to Mr Jia’s US ambitions. “And from what I know of the founder, that would be taken as a very bad thing — to remain as a Chinese company,” says Mr Windsor.
然而，砍掉这两宗交易确实是对贾跃亭美国抱负的一大打击。温莎表示：“以我对这位创始人的了解，依然只是一家中国公司会被认为是一件非常糟糕的事。”So far, Mr Jia seems undeterred, even if his goal of entering what he calls the “$100bn club” and becoming “the first Chinese company and the first A-share company to break through US$100bn in operating income” is still a distant prospect.
到目前为止，贾跃亭似乎并未气馁，尽管他那进入所谓“千亿美元俱乐部”、成为“中国最早突破千亿美金营收的公司或A股市场上最早突破千亿美金市值的公司”的目标仍遥遥无期。As he said philosophically at the time of the US launch: “Some say that LeEco is the Chinese Netflix and some say that it is Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Tesla and Disney all together. Others say LeEco is crazy to come to the back yard of these companies to get their piece of the pie?.?.?.?The path is long and arduous — but isn’t the meaning of life perpetually trying to explore the unknowns of the world?”
正如他在美国发布会上富有哲理的讲话：“有人说，LeEco是中国的Netflix，也有人说，LeEco是苹果＋特斯拉+三星＋亚马逊＋奈飞＋迪斯尼等等，还有人说，今天LeEco居然要来到这些伟大公司的主场打擂，肯定是疯了……前路漫漫，荆棘重重，但，生命的全部意义不就在于永不停歇地去探索未知世界吗？”