Intended acquisition of cognitive boundary HUITONGDA NET (09878) aims to empower the retail industry with full-stack capabilities to become the "leading player".

On November 18, 2025, HUITONGDA NET (09878) announced that it had signed an equity acquisition agreement with the technology company "Cognition Boundary" focusing on e-commerce and retail intelligence. After the completion of the transaction, Cognition Boundary will become a subsidiary of Huitongda Holdings, and its financial statements will be officially incorporated into the listed company. This acquisition is seen as an important capital move for Huitongda to strengthen its "industrial empowerment" capabilities. Its "5+ Empowerment" system for the sinking market coupled with Cognition Boundary's leading capabilities in the "BI+AI" field will generate a significant 1+1>2 value multiplication effect. Key points of the acquisition: "5+ Empowerment" combined with "BI+AI" to build a full-stack AI empowerment system. Huitongda's "5+ Empowerment" model developed over the past few years (+technology, +data, +training, +goods, +marketing) has been its moat that distinguishes it from traditional To B platforms. This acquisition of Cognition Boundary injects "new energy" into these five parts simultaneously, enabling a leap from "basic digitalization" to "full-stack AI intelligence": First, in terms of "+technology," Cognition Boundary's AI intelligence system and BI system developed independently will deeply integrate with Huitongda's self-developed "Qianchengyun AI Big Model," which received algorithm filing from the National Internet Information Office in May 2025. This integration will create a more customized Agent cluster with stronger retail scene grounding capabilities, directly driving efficiency improvements in core business areas such as inventory, turnover, pricing, and product selection for 251,000 member stores, leading to a significant increase in operational efficiency for individual stores. Secondly, in terms of "+data": Cognition Boundary manages over 16,000 e-commerce stores with annual controlled sales volume exceeding 140 billion RMB of actual e-commerce operation data, which will be integrated with Huitongda's offline sinking market data to construct a unique "online + offline + community" full-domain data platform in the industry, providing precise decision-making support from macro trends to micro products for member stores and upstream brands. Thirdly, in terms of "+training," Cognition Boundary's team of 150+ e-commerce operation experts will be fully integrated into Huitongda's system, providing more practical and scenario-based e-commerce operation and digital training for over 250,000 township husband-and-wife stores and a thousand brand factories, truly sinking the capability to "sell products" to the grassroots level. Fourthly, in terms of "+goods," the top brand resources served by Cognition Boundary will interchange with Huitongda's existing supply chain commodity pool, further enriching the supply of high-quality goods in the sinking market, potentially enhancing Huitongda's control over core product categories and strengthening the competition of its own brand and intelligent supply chain goods. Fifthly, in terms of "+marketing," Cognition Boundary's mature AIGC content tools and marketing automation capabilities, stacked with Huitongda's existing Agent, will strengthen the "AI sales intelligence" and "digital sales staff," systematically improving the digital marketing efficiency for member stores on various platforms such as e-commerce, community seeding, short videos, etc., truly achieving "AI helping you find customers, sell products, and create content." Competitive barriers go from "deep" to "deep and broad." The most eye-catching strategic fit of this acquisition is that Cognition Boundary is a leading company in the deep integration of "BI+AI," while Huitongda, having integrated mainstream big models since the beginning of 2025 and reached a comprehensive cooperation with Alibaba Cloud in August, requires an AI team that understands e-commerce and can quickly land its projects. The strong alliance between the two parties, highly complementary in terms of technology roadmap, customer structure, and business model, will establish an unshakable leading barrier for Huitongda in the "retail industry Internet + AI" track. For Huitongda's core business and upstream partners, the benefits brought by this acquisition are multidimensional and comprehensive. For 251,000 member stores, evolving from "using systems" to "AI helping you make decisions," individual store efficiency and profit margins are expected to undergo a significant boost; for upstream brand manufacturers, gaining more accurate insights into the sinking market data and channel control will accelerate the penetration of high-margin own brands at the town level; enhancing the value chain of upstream and downstream, Huitongda's barrier effect will be greatly strengthened. At the same time, with the addition of Alibaba Cloud and Cognition Boundary's top-level AI and operational capabilities, Huitongda's own brand and supply chain business's commodity pool, pricing power, and marketing efficiency are also expected to increase simultaneously, opening up a thorough expansion space for gross profit margin and market share. Huitongda has already established a triple-layer barrier in the sinking market of "network scale + supply chain capability + digital service." The addition of Alibaba Cloud (infrastructure layer) and Cognition Boundary (application layer + e-commerce practice layer) top-level AI and operational capabilities not only deepens the barrier but also widens it, exponentially magnifying the competitive advantages. Strategically demonstrating textbook-level execution tied to industrial upgrading Starting from the self-developed SaaS product integration with mainstream big models at the beginning of the year, the self-developed model filing in May, the comprehensive cooperation with Alibaba Cloud in August, to the acquisition of the industry-leading Cognition Boundary in November, each of the company's steps aligns closely with the strategic focus of "empowering member stores and industrial upstream partners in a full-stack manner," demonstrating a clear execution path and strategic determination. In the industry's view, Huitongda's acquisition of Cognition Boundary is not just a simple "technological reinforcement," but a significant move in its upgrade from a "downmarket industrial Internet company" to a "Chinese retail industry full-stack AI empowerment platform." This acquisition not only strengthens Huitongda's AI application level's scenario-based operational capabilities but also drives the company to establish a full-stack AI output system from foundational models and mid-tier tools to front-end scenario AI Agents. Currently, Huitongda's market value remains at a historically low level. However, with the acquisition of a 57% stake in Cognition Boundary for 456 million RMB, according to the disclosed agreement and performance commitments, Cognition Boundary's net profit attributable to the parent company in the next three years is expected to be no less than 85 million RMB, 100 million RMB, and 115 million RMB, respectively. These indicators are undoubtedly beneficial for Huitongda's AI and related services revenue growth, revenue structure optimization, and profitability enhancement. Furthermore, as the two parties deepen their integration, the commercialization of AI products will continue to accelerate, leveraging the high certainty growth dividend in the domestic economic development cycle. In summary, Huitongda's fundamentals are expected to experience a double increase in profitability and growth, with a huge potential for valuation recovery. The long-term investment value is evident.