What is Prosus, Europe’s consumer-internet star, for?
Investors question the purpose of the old continent’s fourth-biggest company
FEW FIRMS struggle with too much success. One is Naspers, a South African media group founded in 1915. In a prescient bid to diversify away from newspapers in 2001 it paid $32m for a large stake in a piddly Chinese startup. Tencent, the startup in question, has since morphed into a gaming and messaging behemoth worth over $670bn. Dealing with the windfall presents unique management headaches.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Winner’s curse”
Business September 5th 2020
- What is Prosus, Europe’s consumer-internet star, for?
- Can Wizz Air soar amid the pandemic?
- Can Japan Inc navigate the rift between China and America?
- What does Warren Buffett want with Japanese trading houses?
- How has humans’ relationship with work changed over millennia?
- Can India’s biggest company keep getting bigger?
- Will Beijing derail the TikTok deal?
- Could you build a better TikTok?
From the September 5th 2020 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
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The PayPal Mafia is taking over America’s government
America’s right-wing tech bros are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory
From Apple to Starbucks, Western firms’ China dreams are dying
Economic growth is slowing, competition is stiffening and geopolitical tensions loom
Not all European business is a profitless wasteland
How to spot a corporate star, old-world edition
Will Europe ease up on big tech?
The clash between Silicon Valley and Brussels enters a new phase
How to inspire people
The answer is not another video of Steve Jobs
Can teenagers outwit Australia’s social-media ban?
Enforcing the new law may prove tricky