Jack Ma, Shi Yuzhu Take 20% Stake in Wasu Media
Sina Tech, 4/08/14
Chinese media company Wasu Media Holding (000156.SZ) announced today that Yunxi Investment, an investment firm controlled by Jack Ma, chairman of e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group, and Shi Yuzhu, chairman of game developer Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA), has invested over RMB 6.53 bln in cash to acquire 20% of Wasu through the purchase of more than 286.67 mln newly issued shares.
Alibaba and Wasu have also announced a partnership though which the two companies will cooperate on the acquisition and distribution of original content, video, games, music, education, cloud computing, big data and other technologies, jointly developing a media industry chain. According to Alibaba, the two companies will also focus on distribution, marketing, content and user acquisition in the video space. Future cooperation will explore capital, technology, and other partnerships.
Wasu currently has 15 mln cable TV subscribers in Zhejiang Province, as well as an additional 5 mln users across 18 cities in the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Heilongjiang, and Hebei.
Editor's Note: The largest shareholder in Yunxi Investment is Alibaba co-founder Simon Xie, who supplied a majority of the company's registered capital via a loan made to him through Alibaba's B2C e-commerce site TMall. According to Wasu, despite Xie's majority investment status, Ma and Shi hold final decision-making authority over Yunxi. For more background on this topic, please see "Rumor: Alibaba to Purchase 20% Stake in Wasu Media" MD 3/03/14 issue.
Keywords: Giant Interactive Jack Ma Shi Yuzhu television GA Alibaba Group 000156.SZ Wasu Media Holding M&A Simon Xie
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