Cash-starved LeEco seeks buyer for Silicon Valley land it bought from Yahoo less than a year ago

Cash-starved Chinese internet conglomerate LeEco is reportedly looking to sell its 49-acre plot of land in Silicon Valley, less than a year after the company bought it from Yahoo, according to media reports.

On Friday, Reuters reported that LeEco plans to sell the land to Chinese real estate developer Genzon Group for US$260 million, citing unnamed sources. LeEco bought the land from Yahoo for US$250 million last June.

The site, which LeEco originally purchased to build an “EcoCity” capable of housing 12,000 employees, was meant to become the company’s US headquarters and an “open campus” that would replace its current 800,000 square-feet office in San Jose, according to the company.

Genzon confirmed that it was in talks with LeEco to buy the site, but declined to reveal further details.

A LeEco spokesperson said the company is working to secure a “development partner” but declined to provide further details as the company was still in the “initial planning stage”.

The move comes in the wake of LeEco’s cash crunch late last year. In November, chief executive Jia Yueting wrote in a letter to staff that the firm was rapidly running out of cash due to a “weak capital structure”, and partially blamed the crisis on expensive ventures such as its electric car unit.