trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/5xsgFr6r_9_CLC0ea7MxKw2 content esgSubNav
In This List

SoftBank to up stake in Brazil's Banco Inter; Alibaba buys NetEase's Kaola

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 50: InfoSec spending up, again…

Blog

Broadcast deal market recap 2021

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Volume of Investment Research Reports on Inflation Increased in Q4 2021


SoftBank to up stake in Brazil's Banco Inter; Alibaba buys NetEase's Kaola

S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a wrap-up of Asia-Pacific media and communications deal announcements, completions and updates from Sept. 3 to Sept. 16.

TOP NEWS

* SoftBank Group Corp. struck a deal to double its stake in Brazilian online bank Banco Inter SA, a person familiar with the transaction told Bloomberg News. SoftBank acquired an 8.1% stake in Banco Inter for about 760 million Brazilian reais earlier in 2019 and will purchase additional shares from members of Banco Inter's controlling families, including from the Menin clan.

* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is buying NetEase Inc.'s import online shopping platform Kaola for approximately US$2 billion. Following the transaction, Kaola will continue to run as an independent brand. Alibaba also agreed to invest US$700 million in NetEase Cloud Music alongside Yunfeng Financial Group Ltd. NetEase will continue to be the controlling shareholder of the music streaming app following the deal.

* Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa agreed to sell the majority of his shares in Zozo Inc. to Yahoo Japan Corp., which launched a ¥400 billion bid for control of the online fashion retailer. Yahoo Japan, a subsidiary of SoftBank, offered to acquire up to 50.1% of the shares in Zozo for ¥2,620 each. Maezawa, who agreed to tender 30.37% of the outstanding shares in Zozo, will retain a 6.39% stake after the transaction is completed.

TECHNOLOGY

* Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. Ltd. acquired Biu Xiaoyuan, a social media app that targets students, but declined to comment on the deal, 36Kr reported.

* GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd. is in discussions to combine Indonesia-based digital payment company OVO with its local peer DANA, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A deal would see Grab buying a majority interest in DANA and merging it with OVO to overtake its rival PT Go-Jek Indonesia in the online payments market.

* ByteDance fully acquired online encyclopedia service Baike.com, KrASIA reported, citing Chinese media. ByteDance first acquired a 22.2% stake in the Wikipedia -like service in early August, then moved to purchase the remaining 77.8% stake it does not own in Baike.com in late August. The acquisition of Baike.com is instrumental to ByteDance's plan to compete with Baidu Inc., the dominant search engine in China.

* In other ByteDance news, the company denied a merger of its short video apps Huoshan and Douyin, according to 36Kr. The denial comes after LatePost reported that the two apps will be merged to compete with Kuaishou, a rival short video app backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd.

* ByteDance also acquired a 22.48% stake in Chinese video conference technology developer HexMeet for an undisclosed sum, Do News reported. HexMeet's products include software development for conferencing platforms and apps, and hardware production.

* Sohu.com Ltd. issued an initial nonbinding proposal to fully acquire its majority-owned unit, online game developer and operator Changyou.com Ltd. The Chinese internet company offered to purchase all class A ordinary shares it does not already own in Changyou.com, including American depositary shares, at US$5 per share or US$10 per ADS in cash.

MEDIA

* QMS Media Ltd. completed its acquisition of TLA Worldwide (Aust) Pty. Ltd. and TLA-ESP Ltd. (U.K.). The expanded entity will see TLA CEO Craig Kelly become QMS Sport Australia's new chief executive. Meanwhile, QMS also completed its purchase of Stride Sports Management Holdings Pty. Ltd.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* Australia-based telco United Networks Ltd. agreed to acquire 100% of Broadland Group, which comprises Broadland Solutions Pty. Ltd. and Broadland Victoria Pty. Ltd., and its related entities for consideration of 266,554,433 United Networks shares. The 100% script offer is subject to United Networks shareholder approval at the annual general meeting on Oct. 21.

* The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's decision to block the proposed merger of Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty. Ltd. and TPG Telecom Ltd. has hurt competition in the telecom industry, the telcos said in court during their legal appeal. Vodafone lawyer Peter Brereton reportedly said that "the pro-competitive effects of this merger are imperiled by the ACCC's opposition to it." According to Reuters, the hearing continues for the next several weeks, with company executives and industry experts due to testify.

* CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. is in preliminary talks for a potential merger of its Indonesian telecom business with Axiata Group Bhd.'s XL Axiata, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources. The discussions are still at an early stage and the parties have not made any agreement on the deal structure.

* Axiata Group and Norway's Telenor ASA agreed to end talks regarding a noncash merger of their Asian telecom and infrastructure assets due to deal "complexities."

* Spark New Zealand Ltd. subsidiary Qrious Ltd. completed its acquisition of NOW Consulting, the New Zealand-based data consulting division of WhereScape Inc. The merged entity will combine the data, analytics and customer engagement capabilities of Qrious with NOW Consulting's data integration, engineering and visualization to provide data services.

Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.