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Sept.21 (NBD) -- HNA Technology (600751. SH), a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, said Wednesday it canceled the plan to acquire Amazon-like Dangdang as it hadn't reached agreement with the latter, according to a filing submitted to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

In response, Dangdang said on its Sina Weibo account that HNA Group is a respectable corporation but now it faces some liquidity issues, underlining the termination of the acquisition plan will not affect the bookseller's customers, suppliers or employees.

Dangdang went public on New York Stock Exchange in late 2010. As a publicly-traded company in the U.S., its market value once surpassed 2.6 billion U.S. dollars. However, the company's market value shrank to 546 million U.S. dollars after its privatization in 2016.

Dangdang reaped earnings of 130 million yuan (19.0 million U.S. dollars) and 360 million yuan (52.7 million U.S. dollars) in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and the metric is expected to reach 400 million yuan (58.5 U.S. dollars) in 2018.

Starting as a bookseller and being one of the first online retailers in China, Dangdang is dubbed as Chinese version of Amazon.

Cao Lei, director of the China E-Commerce Research Center, told NBD that the termination of the merger plan apparently dealt a blow to HNA Technology's attempts into the e-commerce sector.

But Dangdang would be a burden for HNA Technology, if these two failed to supplement each other well, despite the fact that Dangdang boasts a large user base and high traffic, Cao furthur explained.  

In early years, the bookseller have reportedly missed the opportunities to partner with Amazon, Tencent and Baidu.

Dangdang is likely to keep seeking for new investors to boost growth, Cao added.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn