Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, December 29

• China tech giant LeEco in talks on $1.4 billion support, starts e-car plant: Cash-strapped Chinese technology conglomerate LeEco is in talks on securing a 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) deal with an unnamed strategic investor, its listed unit said. Leshi Internet Information and Technology  said in a filing to the stock exchange late Wednesday that its parent company had signed a framework agreement with the investor and the two sides were still discussing the final details. It did not disclose the identity of the investor, but the China Business News cited a source familiar with the situation as saying that it was an insurance company. LeEco has been expanding aggressively in a range of businesses including online entertainment, electric and driverless cars and smartphones, but the firm's billionaire chief executive Jia Yueting warned staff last month that it had grown too fast and was facing cash shortages. Following the cash crunch, the firm's sports broadcasting unit said it would cut 10 percent of its staff and restructure its business. This week, LeSports still owed as much as $30 million in payments to the Beijing-based Super Sports Media Group, which holds exclusive rights to broadcast English Premier League games in China.

• AppDynamics posts long-awaited IPO filing: AppDynamics has revealed its filing for a U.S. IPO. The IT company, which helps businesses like Salesforce and IBM with applications management, is targeting a $100 million offering. Despite a competitive landscape, which includes New Relic and Dynatrace, AppDynamics has shown strong revenue growth over the past year. For the nine months ending in October, revenue came in at $158.4 million, compared to $102.8 million in the same period during the year prior, driven by strong growth in subscriptions. Losses widened slightly, with the company losing $95.1 million through October versus $92.4 million in the same period the year before. This means that last year, the losses were almost as high as AppDynamics’ revenue. AppDynamics has raised more than $300 million in funding over the past eight years and its largest shareholders are Greylock Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which each own 20.8 percent of the company. AppDynamics’ last known private market valuation stood at $1.9 billion. Revealing the filing right now suggests that the company is hoping to finally go public in late January or early February.