Oct 2017 Short Attack
2017-10-26 Prescience Point https://www.presciencepoint.com/research/research-archives/cheetah_mobile-cmcm/
2017-10-27 CMCM's fast refutation http://ir.cmcm.com/2017-10-27-Cheetah-Mobile-Responds-to-Recent-Allegations
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Nov 2018 Short Attack
CMCM ex-partner Kochava 'discloses' some phenomenons, where he prematurely points his fingers to CMCM and one other company for good measure, see
2018-11-26 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/android-apps-cheetah-mobile-kika-kochava-ad-fraud
In the business of disclosing security vulnerabilities etc, the finder USUALLY contacts the involved companies w/o raising the flag in public. Finder may receive a finders fee.
The behavior Kochava exposes with the public disclosure, breaches the unwritten rules in this field. So called 'Zero day' disclosures are rare and using the yellow press even more so :)
Who knows how they get compensated for it. They surely got their dime here IMHO. Simply unethical in this business.
CMCM made three PR regarding the orchestrated and algo lead short attack
1) 2018-11-27 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheetah-mobile-responds-to-recent-article-regarding-app-installation-attribution-300755861.html
2) 2018-11-27 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheetah-mobile-further-responds-to-recent-articles-regarding-app-installation-attribution-300756450.html
3) 2018-11-28 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheetah-mobile-responds-to-kochavas-misleading-statements-300757227.html
And guess who has outed themselves?
Prescience Point showed up on 2018-11-28
1)
We predicted last year that $CMCM would face questions over what we believe are its fake "revenues" and significant ad fraud practices. Our report here: https://t.co/ZvWjTLNZf9
— Prescience Point Capital (@PresciencePoint) November 28, 2018
2)
Fantastic reporting this week from @CraigSilverman @BuzzfeedNews on alleged ad fraud being committed by @CheetahMobile $CMCM https://t.co/ERJ9UysfSY
— Prescience Point Capital (@PresciencePoint) November 28, 2018
3)
"This is theft — no other way to say it" @kochavamobile tells @BuzzfeedNews about $CMCM. We agree - @CheetahMobile has many questions to answer for what we find to be suspect financial reporting and ad fraud practices https://t.co/ugFifI0WZ6
— Prescience Point Capital (@PresciencePoint) November 28, 2018
On 11/27 the SP wasn't even able to get above the 5min 8ema on around 10M traded shares, about 143M OS (reduced since 3Q18).
On 11/28 they seemingly enabled their algo around 10am after the gap-up.
The company lost more than 1/3 of their MCAP on 11/27 and only little has been recovered.
On 11/28 C was $6.64, a 17% loss compared to $8 previous support.
But I assume they started way earlier around $10, so factual loss on 11/28 is still 33.6% and on 11/27 was even around 50%!
Good algos were employed here, that's for sure :)
Ambulance chaser joined the coordinated attack as usual
1) 2018-11-28 https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181128005744/en/
2) 2018-11-28 https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/18/11/r12767961/cheetah-mobile-investor-alert-faruqi-faruqi-llp-encourages-investors-w
Compared to 2017-10-26, this may take a while longer...
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CMCM's new AI driven Business
2017-05-26 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheetah-mobile-invests-in-robotics-business-300464519.html
2017-06-26 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/orionstar-wins-challenge-to-recognize-one-million-celebrity-faces-with-artificial-intelligence-300494265.html
In May '17 CMCM invested into OrionStar https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=432245050
Please note from CMCM's 2017-10-27 short refutation
CMCM started to plan their adware mobile-phone helper-all exit strategy in early 2017, knowing that this revenue source will no t match their growth trajectory and is declining.
CMCM entered the AI driven application market w/ and w/o hardware involved.
1Q18 CC:
Timeline as planned was to start selling new products in 4Q18,
but company is now ahead of their plan:
Translator launched July 2018 https://pandaily.com/cheetah-mobile-launches-the-most-affordable-ai-translator-at-40/
GreetBot launched in August 2018 https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/29/cheetah-mobile-and-orionstar-release-greetbot-ai-receptionist-robots/
On 11/22/18 post 3Q18 CFO gave a nice interview https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-11-21/china-s-cheetah-mobile-aims-to-become-ai-driven-company-cfo-says-video
CFO mentioned TikTok investment will gain around $86M https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.photogrid.tiptap&hl=en_US
Bytedance is the Tik Tok creator https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/18/tech/bytedance-china-tiktok/index.html
and on 11/26 Bytedance generated $43M sold + $43M holding for CMCM https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1597835/000119312518333486/d652620d6k.htm
one of CMCM's big wins of investments https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bytedance-and-nba-announce-global-partnership-to-deliver-customized-mobile-friendly-content-powered-by-artificial-intelligence-300755383.html
hope they buy the remaining portion of OrionStar, for which they do have an option.
Bottom line, company is moving away from the adware biz as planned long time ago anyways and their AI driven apps + tools are well received and already selling.
Such a transition is never easy, but seemingly CMCM managed it best so far - not being damaged by quarterly negatives. The shift and R&D being paid by the exiting adware revenues.
Recent CMCM News
- Cheetah Mobile Inc. Files Its Annual Report on Form 20-F • PR Newswire (US) • 04/18/2024 11:39:00 AM
- Cheetah Mobile Announces Second Half and Full Year 2023 Unaudited Consolidated Financial Results • PR Newswire (US) • 03/21/2024 08:00:00 AM
- Form 6-K - Report of foreign issuer [Rules 13a-16 and 15d-16] • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 01/12/2024 11:25:32 AM
- Cheetah Mobile Further Invests in Beijing OrionStar • PR Newswire (US) • 01/12/2024 11:17:00 AM
- Form 6-K - Report of foreign issuer [Rules 13a-16 and 15d-16] • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 12/04/2023 02:05:46 PM
- Cheetah Mobile Announces Acquisition of Controlling Stake in Beijing OrionStar • PR Newswire (US) • 12/04/2023 01:56:00 PM
- Form SC 13D/A - General statement of acquisition of beneficial ownership: [Amend] • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 10/13/2023 12:41:39 PM
- Form 6-K - Report of foreign issuer [Rules 13a-16 and 15d-16] • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 08/18/2023 10:12:18 AM
- Cheetah Mobile Announces First Half 2023 Unaudited Consolidated Financial Results • PR Newswire (US) • 08/18/2023 08:00:00 AM
- Form 6-K - Report of foreign issuer [Rules 13a-16 and 15d-16] • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 08/02/2023 10:02:31 AM
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VAYK Discloses Strategic Conversation on Potential Acquisition of $4 Million Home Service Business • VAYK • May 9, 2024 9:00 AM
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Kona Gold Beverages, Inc. Achieves April Revenues Exceeding $586,000 • KGKG • May 8, 2024 8:30 AM
Epazz plans to spin off Galaxy Batteries Inc. • EPAZ • May 8, 2024 7:05 AM