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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, Qihoo 360, and Xiaomi (collectively, "BATQX"). BATQX acquisitions previously comprised mainly Internet and mobile service firms, but more recently 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 BATQX M&A race is rapidly changing 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 BATQX firms has made over the last 15 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, Qihoo, and Xiaomi's respective ecosystems, are most likely to be the target of future acquisitions, Marbridge has developed the Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Qihoo, and Xiaomi M&A Matrix.

The Q4 2015 edition of the Matrix covers all major confirmed and rumored BATQX acquisitions (both minority and majority stakes) revealed over the 15-quarter period ending December 31, 2015, as well as a selection of particularly significant M&A deals preceding that period, in Excel (read-only) format. 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, Qihoo, 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: ~70
• Alibaba: ~130
• Tencent: ~140
• Qihoo 360: ~40
• Xiaomi : ~70

Major M&A deals executed by formerly independent subsidiaries, such as Baidu's iQiyi or Qunar, are also included in the Matrix. The Matrix also includes acquisitions made not directly by a BATQX 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).

During Q4 2015, Alibaba and Tencent were particularly active in making new acquisitions, Baidu and Xiaomi announced a moderate number of new deals and Qihoo almost none. While acquisitions spanned a variety of different sectors, especially noteworthy areas included entertainment and news media, financial services, e-commerce, O2O, and travel.