This article only represents the author's own views.

A leading Chinese tutoring company that has shapeshifted between education services and e-commerce over the last two years has decided to draw distinct lines around its businesses. New Oriental Education (EDU.US; 9901.HK) was forced back to the drawing board two years ago after a government crackdown on its core work of academic tutoring for school students. The group’s online tuition arm, rebadged as East Buy Holding Ltd. (1797.HK), ventured out into e-commerce product sales and livestreaming, while retaining some educational activities.

Those blurry business outlines are about to sharpen up, after East Buy announced last Tuesday that its residual tutoring operations were being sold to its education-focused parent, leaving the e-commerce firm better able to focus on selling private-label products and livestreaming. The statement said the move was designed to avoid business overlap and to delineate the group’s activities more precisely. Under the deal, East Buy gets 1.5 billion yuan ($210 million) for its tutoring business and sheds 153 million yuan in net debt.