Li Ning is focused on cleaning up its inventory and Gome on boosting its online presence.
In a typical Gome store, half the floorspace is dedicated to special product displays.
Investors in Hong Kong-listed Suning and Gome have run for the exits amid plunging first-half profits.
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Since Bain Capital converted its bonds to equity in September 2010, Gome shares have fallen almost 30%.
Gome said 51.89% of shareholders voted against the resolution to remove Chen, while 48.11% were in support.
Now Gome founder Wong Kwong Yu, second-richest on our list last year, is under investigation for stock manipulation.
With this in mind, I fired up GOME (as it shall henceforth be known) and two further things became immediately clear.
Huang Guangyu, the founder and still-largest shareholder of the electronics retailer Gome, was tried last week on bribery and insider trading charges.
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Curiously, Americans will still have to buy the XPS One by mail--or shop for it in Japan's Bic Camera or China's Gome stores.
More fundamentally, Zhang took on the early domestic leader in appliance sales, Gome, and now has it pinned firmly in the runner-up role.
Gome Electrical Appliances Holding's jumped 2.3% in Hong Kong despite the electronics retailer announcing that it had swung to a net loss in 2012.
Huang's company Gome, which is listed in Hong Kong, has been under the control of its Chief Executive Chen Xiao since his arrest.
Gome and Suning, the two biggest electronics chains, offer discounts online.
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Yet its pain pales into comparison with that felt by the likes of online retailers like Suning, Gome and 360buy.com, which are struggling to clear inventory from their warehouses.
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In the lunch session at his headquarters, Zhang cheerfully reminds me of a question I asked during my last sit-down with him six years ago, about how he would catch up with Gome.
It was followed in the top 10 by Suning Appliances, whose major shareholder is Chinese billionaire Zhang Guiping, and Gome Appliances, which is controlled by jailed Chinese billionaire Wong Kwong Yu. (For information about the Forbes China Rich List, click here.) The association ranking is based on sales.
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In other news involving Hong Kong-traded China stocks, Gome fell by 4.6% yesterday after it said on Friday net profit dropped 88% in the first quarter on weak sales. (See story here.) The company also said on Friday that it would increase its investments in e-commerce, as competition heats up with rivals Suning, Yahoo-invested Taobao and others.
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