March 19, 2007

Welcome to the Hoover's APAC 50, a monthly list of the companies in the Asia-Pacific region that are most searched on Hoover's. Derived by tracking the search requests of Hoover's subscribers, the Hoover's APAC 50 provides insight on which companies are being watched most closely by corporate executives, as well as sales, marketing, and business development professionals, who represent a large portion of Hoover's customers.

The news behind the biggest movers on this month's Hoover's APAC 50 involves high profile partnerships and recent initial public offerings.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (From #155 to #33)

China is everywhere in the business news these days, as is solar power. So perhaps it comes as little surprise that Chinese solar power would be making waves, too. Recent months have seen a surge in IPOs by Chinese firms in the solar power business. JA Solar Holdings went public on February 7; Solarfun Power Holdings and Trina Solar had their IPOs back in mid-December; and Canadian Solar (yes, that's a Chinese company) made its debut in November. But the king of Chinese solar may be Suntech Power: it predates all of the recent IPO firms, and it's the biggest and most profitable of all of them.
News | Financials

LG Group (From #65 to #34)

Increasingly, more people around the world are going online through their mobile phones rather than through computers. The LG Electronics unit of Korea-based conglomerate LG Group hopes to capitalize on this trend through an alliance with Internet stalwart Yahoo!. The deal, announced in February, calls for LG to distribute Yahoo! services on tens of millions of LG phones in more than 70 countries worldwide. The phones will come with various Yahoo! services -- including e-mail, instant-messaging, and mobile search software -- already installed.
News | Financials