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TOM Online (HKGEM: 8282) NASDAQ: TOMO is a private mobile Internet company in China, operating the popular Chinese-language Internet portal (www.tom.com) and offering a variety of online and mobile services, including wireless internet and online advertising. The TOM Group is the majority shareholder.
History
It is a subsidiary of the TOM Group, controlled by Li Ka Shing.
Listing history
The company, then named TOM.com, was first listed on the HKGEM on March 11, 2004, and on the NASDAQ on March 10, 2004. It set a record in Hong Kong when it listed: shares closed at 3.35 times its offer price on the first day of trade.[1]
Tom Group, which owned 66 percent of the company, announced in March 2007 that it would pay HK$1.57 billion to buy out minority shareholders in the company, valuing each share at HK$1.52. A vote on the deal was scheduled for June 8, but was postponed to August 10.[2] Morgan Stanley said in a report in March that the fair value for Tom Online would be HK$1.90 per share. The delay in the vote was seen by an analyst that the company was "not confident about getting approval from majority shareholders for the deal... The general feedback in the market is that the price suggested is quite low."[3]
The company has since been taken private.[4]
The domain tom.com attracted almost 1 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.
Mass amounts of spam are sent from tom.com email addresses, many purporting to offer translation, Web site design, and CAD services. Most if not all include forged from addresses to make them appear as if they are originating from Gmail or Yahoo email accounts, but all of the email links contained in the spams are tom.com addresses. Tom.com allows spammers to operate freely.
Censorship controversy
Tom Online partnered with Skype to provide Skype Voice over IP (VOIP) communications services. A Skype senior executive admitted in early 2006 that Tom Online filters Skype text messages, including such phrases as "Falun Gong" and "Dalai Lama", according to an article in BusinessWeek in January 2006. Since late September, users in China trying to download the Skype software are redirected to the TOM site from which a modified Chinese version can be downloaded. Activists in China are warned about the possibility that TOM's versions have or will have more trojan capability.[5]
In October 2008, Canadian research group Citizen Lab released a new report detailing that it had found TOM's Chinese-language Skype software filtered sensitive words and then logged these, with users' information to a file on computer servers which were insecure. Skype president Josh Silverman said it was "common knowledge" that Tom Online had "established procedures to meet local laws and regulations... to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed offensive by the Chinese authorities."[6]
References
- ^ Bonnie Chen, "It's a steal!", The Standard, November 07, 2007
- ^ Steven Lee, "Wireless net woes put Tom Online into red", The Standard, July 25, 2007
- ^ Steven Lee, "Tom Online tries to save delisting bid", The Standard, June 08, 2007
- ^ Ben Kwok, "Bigger pond for Li firm", 'Lai See' South China Morning Post, July 04, 2008
- ^ Dynamic Internet Technology Inc. Alleges Skype Redirects Users in China to Censorware Version - Ten Days After Users Are Able To Download Freegate Software Through Skype, TMCnet, September 24, 2007
- ^ China 'spying on Skype messages', BBC News (3 October 2008)
External links
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