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A heavy focus on ecosystem development and, increasingly, on overseas expansion has fueled aggressive M&A strategies among China's dominant Internet companies: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, and Xiaomi (collectively, "BATJX"). BATJX acquisitions previously comprised mainly Internet and mobile service firms, but have expanded in scope to include areas such as offline retail, logistics, hardware, financial services, TV and film production, newspaper publishing, property management, sports teams, and cosmetics brands. The BATJX M&A race continues to change the competitive positioning of each of the acquiring companies, and is also providing many target companies a lucrative, early exit option compared to the longer time frame and less certain prospects of an IPO.

To help investors and tech industry enterprises better understand what acquisitions each of the BATJX firms has made over the last 22 quarters, how these deals fit in to each acquirer's ecosystem strategy and improve its overall competitiveness, and what firms, based on the remaining holes in each Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, and Xiaomi's respective ecosystems, are most likely to be the target of future acquisitions, Marbridge has developed the Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, JD, and Xiaomi M&A Matrix.

The Q3 2017 edition of the Matrix covers all major confirmed and rumored BATJX acquisitions (both minority and majority stakes) revealed over the 22-quarter period ending September 30, 2017, as well as a selection of particularly significant M&A deals preceding that period, in Excel (read-only) format. Note that the Q3 2017 issue of the Matrix is the first to include JD.com, and, for reference, continues to cover Qihoo 360. For each firm acquired, the Matrix provides the following information:

• Company Name
• Sector
• Business Scope
• Country (if not mainland China)
• Ticker Symbol (if applicable)
• Stake Acquired (where known)
• Acquisition Price (where known)
• Date of Acquisition / Rumor of Acquisition
• Type of Investment (e.g. pre-IPO Funding, JV, Post-IPO Stake)
• Reference Article in Marbridge Daily

The Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, JD, and Xiaomi M&A Matrix covers the following number of deals (multiple investments in the same target company are detailed separately, but here are counted as a single deal):

• Baidu: ~110
• Alibaba: ~255
• Tencent: ~280
• JD.com: ~75
• Xiaomi: ~135
• Qihoo 360: ~50

The Matrix also includes acquisitions made not directly by a BATJX company, but instead made independently by one of their CEOs/Chairmen or an investment fund controlled by one of their CEOs/Chairmen (e.g. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun's Shunwei Capital or Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma's Yunfeng Capital), and key joint ventures.

During Q3 2017, Alibaba and Tencent were both extremely active in making new acquisitions, while Baidu, JD.com, and Xiaomi/Shunwei each announced a moderate number of new deals. While acquisitions spanned a variety of different sectors, especially noteworthy areas included entertainment media and e-commerce, followed by logistics, artificial intelligence, transportation/automotive, education, smart devices, healthcare, gaming, and online literature.

Q3 2017 also saw steady acquisition-based expansion abroad, with roughly one-quarter of the new deals covered in this edition of the Matrix comprising investments in overseas firms, mainly in the USA, India, and Southeast Asia, but also in Europe and other regions.