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Asia-Pacific: SoftBank selling Flipkart stake; China approves Toshiba unit sale

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Asia-Pacific: SoftBank selling Flipkart stake; China approves Toshiba unit sale

S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a biweekly wrap-up of Asia-Pacific media and communications deal announcements, completions and updates from May 16 to May 24.

TOP NEWS

* SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to sell its entire 21% stake in Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd. to Walmart Inc., which plans to buy 77% of the e-commerce company for $16 billion, The Economic Times (India) reported May 22, citing a source familiar with the matter.

* Chinese regulators approved Toshiba Corp.'s pending US$18 billion sale of its memory chip business to a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital LP. Without specifically mentioning China, Toshiba said in a May 17 statement that it has obtained all necessary approvals for the sale of Toshiba Memory Corp., which it expects to close June 1.

TECHNOLOGY

* Baidu Inc. agreed with a number of investors to divest a majority equity stake in its global ad and tools business, or Global DU business. The Chinese search giant will no longer have effective control over Global DU business upon completion of the deal and will be left with 34% of the latter's outstanding shares, the company said May 21.

* South Korea's Kakao Corp. decided will restructure its operations and merge with entertainment subsidiary Kakao M, formerly LoEn Entertainment Inc., Yonhap News reported May 17.

* Rakuten Inc.'s Rakuten TV said May 17 that it acquired TalkTalk TV's off-net transactional base, which comprises customers that are not subscribed to TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC's TV and broadband packages. The deal will allow Rakuten TV to reach more than 3 million users in the U.K. as part of its expansion plans.

MEDIA

* Accenture PLC on May 23 said it agreed to acquire Shanghai-based digital marketing agency HO Communication for an undisclosed amount. HO Communication will be the latest addition to the Accenture Interactive portfolio in Greater China.

* Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. unit Sony Corp. of America on May 22 said it signed an agreement to acquire Mubadala Investment Co.'s 60.2% equity interest in DH Publishing LP, which owns and manages EMI Music Publishing, for US$1.9 billion. Following the transaction, Sony will indirectly own about 90% of the music publishing firm. Sony expects to pay a total cash consideration of US$2.3 billion to consolidate EMI Music, and will assume its debt of about US$1.36 billion.

* APN Outdoor Group Ltd. made a bid to acquire 100% of HT&E Ltd.'s advertising business Adshel in Australia and New Zealand for A$500 million, besting the A$470 million offer of rival oOh!media Ltd., APN said in a May 22 filing to the Australian Stock Exchange.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* India's Department of Telecommunications approved the sale of about 9,000 stand-alone towers of Idea Cellular Ltd. to a local unit of American Tower Corp. for 40 billion Indian rupees, The Economic Times (India) reported May 24, citing a top official from the telecom department.

* Vodafone Group PLC unit Vodafone New Zealand Ltd. is set to gain full ownership of Farmside, the rural broadband and satellite arm of New Zealand-based telecom operator TeamTalk Ltd. This comes after an agreement that would see Vodafone NZ paying NZ$3 million to acquire the remaining 30% stake it does not own in BayCity Communications Ltd., which trades as Farmside, according to a May 16 statement.

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