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Rumored Yahoo sale of 48.6 acres to emerging tech player LeEco is symbolic of a global trend
If LeEco isn’t on your radar, you can rest assured that they soon will be. The Chinese tech company with global ambitions is reportedly buying 48.6 acres of undeveloped land from Yahoo in Santa Clara, CA according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Yahoo had originally purchased that land back in 2006 for the hearty sum of $106 million, intending it to be the site of their future headquarters, but that was in a different world. In the last decade, Yahoo has fallen onto hard times while companies like LeEco have helped kick-start a global tech phenomenon. The sun is setting on the West, but it is rising in the East.
It definitely seems to be the case. As once-massive companies like Yahoo crumble away, new innovators like LeEco are expanding from being the “Netflix of China” to making TVs, bikes, smartphones, and even self-driving cars. Silicon Valley is still the fertile crescent for tech startups in America, but the rate of these is slowing down. Meanwhile, Chinese startups are growing like wildflowers and becoming major players in the industry. It’s an effect we can see all over the place, a global drama encapsulated in this land exchange between Yahoo and LeEco.
Yahoo intended to build 13 office and research buildings on the property when they purchased it, but construction never even got started. Now the company is pressured to sell off assets as they struggle against Google and Facebook for ad revenue. The company that they’re allegedly selling this land to just set up their American base of operations in San Jose to research autonomous vehicles and continue their U.S. expansion efforts, and they are already hungry for more property in the state. According to rumors, LeEco beat out the likes of Google and Apple for this land deal. The company’s 43-year-old CEO Jia Yueting made waves last month when he called Apple “outdated” for failing to continue innovating.
The “Eco” part of the company’s name is short for “ecosystem,” because that’s what LeEco is seeking to create. One of their major projects is an initiative to build autonomous taxi replacements that would offer their Netflix-like service to passengers. The “Yahoo” part of Yahoo’s name is the sound you make when you jump out of a plane right before you realize you’re not wearing a parachute.
What are your thoughts regarding Yahoo selling off their land to a Chinese tech company? Is it true that players in the east are funding the next generation of innovation while western companies rest on their laurels? Let us know your take on the purchase in the comments below, and as always stay tuned to Android Authority for all the latest happenings in the tech world.