Cheetah Mobile Off To Fast Start After Adding 58.com Founder To Board

China's Cheetah Mobile ( CMCM ) is off to a fast start in 2018 after shaking up its board of directors late last year and adding Microsoft 's ( MSFT ) voice-activated digital assistant to a mobile app.

New York-listed shares in Cheetah Mobile soared by 11.2% Thursday to close at 16.94 on the stock market today , continuing its run-up.

Cheetah Mobile on Dec. 28 added Michael Yao, chairman and chief executive of internet content firm 58.com ( WUBA ) to its board. Cheetah Mobile also named Michael Zuo of investment firm Matrix Partners to its board.

Shares in 58.com, the so-called Craigslist of China, have surged 173% the past 12 months, though they retreated 1.7% to 81.87. 58.com is China's largest online market place for classifieds.

Cheetah Mobile owns the Clean Master utility app for smartphones that use Google's Android software. Cheetah Mobile in early December added Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant tool to its CM Launcher app for Android. Analysts say it's the first time Microsoft's artificial intelligence technology has been deployed in an Android launcher app.

IBD'S TAKE:Cheetah shares are extended after breaking out Jan. 4 from a cup-with-handle base that formed over the course of 201 days. Shares now are up 35% over their pivot point. The stock's Relative Strength rating from IBD now stands at 96 out of a possible 99 and the company is ranked fifth in the Computer Software-Security Group.

Cheetah Mobile stock has been in the doldrums since hitting a high of 33.75 in June 2015. Cheetah Mobile had been beset by a slowdown in revenues from its utility apps while margins were affected by investment in content driven products, said a recent Instinet-Nomura report.

Cheetah Mobile in November sold its News Republic assets to Toutiao, a leading news aggregation platform. Beijing Bytedance Technology, which owns Toutiao, invested in Cheetah Mobile's live streaming platform.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.