TOM Online
Encyclopedia
TOM Online is a mobile Internet company in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, 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
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...

. The TOM Group
TOM Group
TOM Group Limited is a Chinese-language media company in the Greater China region, with business interests across markets in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong...

 is the majority shareholder. It is a subsidiary of the TOM Group
TOM Group
TOM Group Limited is a Chinese-language media company in the Greater China region, with business interests across markets in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong...

, controlled by Li Ka Shing
Li Ka Shing
Sir Ka-shing Li, GBM, KBE, JP is a Chinese business magnate based in Hong Kong. He is the richest person of East Asian descent in the world and the eleventh richest person in the world with an estimated wealth of US$26.0 billion on 10 March 2011...

.

The company, then named TOM.com, was first listed on the HKGEM on March 11, 2004, and on the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

 on March 10, 2004. It set a record in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Stock Exchange
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in Hong Kong. It is Asia's third largest stock exchange in terms of market capitalization behind the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange and fifth largest in the world...

 when it listed: shares closed at 3.35 times its offer price on the first day of trade.

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. Morgan Stanley said in a report in March that the fair value
Fair value
Fair value, also called fair price , is a concept used in accounting and economics, defined as a rational and unbiased estimate of the potential market price of a good, service, or asset, taking into account such objective factors as:* acquisition/production/distribution costs, replacement costs,...

 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."

The company has since been taken private.

TOM Online exclusively offers the Chinese version of Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...

, which has been modified for the Chinese market and seems to include a text filter for political keywords.
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