Alibaba merger deal with the South China Morning Post could be completed before this Christmas, as reported by Quartz.
The rumors started to gather pace earlier this year that Alibaba Group Holding is interested in meeting the buyout of Hong Kong based newspaper, The South China Morning Post. The talks went quiet after a while but in the past month or so, it all has been reignited. However both parties declined to comment on these rumors and stated that there is no link in between them as of yet. According to Quartz, the merger deal could be completed as early as Christmas or before that would see the online retailer buying the Hong Kong newspaper company.
A person familiar with the matter stated in an interview to Quartz that the Chinese tech giant and Hong Kong based English newspaper will be signing their merger deal agreement before this Christmas. Alibaba Group is currently looking to bolster its media division. The company entered the entertainment media industry through Alibaba Pictures and now wants to invade the print media industry as well. This acquisition will see the company boosting its media division.
The company will add the newspaper division of the South China Morning Post Group in the list of its other media businesses that include Youku Tudou, CBN, and many other media properties that it owns and runs. This news came from another source that briefed Quartz with his/her information.
It was previously unclear whether the company, Alibaba, is willing to buy SCMP newspaper or the founder, Jack Ma, himself. The person has now cleared it that Alibaba is pushing the deal to happen as soon as possible and it is the driving force behind this merger deal which also has the support of its investment division. It is believed that the editorial side of the South China Morning Post newspaper would still be independent as the Chinese tech giant is not interested.
Quartz further adds, “In addition to the century-old daily newspaper, The SCMP Group also owns the Hong Kong distribution rights to Cosmopolitan and other magazines, an advertising and marketing unit, and a major stake in the Bangkok Post. It is unclear whether Alibaba will purchase these assets as well.”
When the deal is signed between both parties in the coming days, this deal would become the first acquisition of an international China news property by a Chinese owner. It would be exciting to see as of how the business would work out once the acquisition is completed as the status of Hong Kong, which says ‘one country two systems’ is tricky.
No comments:
Post a Comment