Alibaba Confirms South China Morning Post's $266 Million Acquisition; Deal Political?
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced late Friday, that it has agreed to the acquisition of South China Morning Post and SCMP Group Ltd's other media assets, for $266 million, according to Reuters.
The South China Morning Post is an English-language broadsheet in Hong Kong and ran stories about the possibility that the then-Communist-Party-heir-apparent and current Chinese President Xi Jinping was missing for two weeks due to being part of an assassination attempt, revealed Fortune.
This story ran three years ago, and did not make it into mainland China's controlled and censored media market where several International media websites are blocked.
The deal has lead to a lot of dread and has raised questions over the independence of the paper's editorial.
Lu Qibao, the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda boss has enthusiastically praised the giant Internet company's success. This offsets the authoritarian and corrupt reputation the country has abroad, reported The New York Times.
"We have many iconic brands and archetypal individuals with many stories that people love to hear," said Liu in January, in a conference of officials.
Alibaba and similar success stories, he said, should be seen as "shining calling cards for the image of contemporary China."
The SCMP Group Ltd said Monday, in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing, the main reason behind the sale is the "uncertain" future for traditional publishing and that from the business, and Alibaba would be able to unlock the business' greater value.
"I think it will be interesting to see if the existing reporters and editorial staff would like to continue to stay," said James Sung, who is a political analyst at City University of Hong Kong. "It's worth watching."
The control of the 112-year old newspaper will be transferred from Robert Kuok, a Malaysian tycoon, to billionaire Jack Ma with an all-cash purchase. Kuok has owned South China Morning Post since 1993.
In recent years, Alibaba has invested or acquired content and media companies. In June, for an undisclosed stake in domestic financial media firm China Business News, the company agreed to pay $194 million.