By Kritika Lamba
(Reuters) -China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Group said on Tuesday it would buy domestic long-form audio platform Ximalaya for about $2.4 billion in cash and stock, expanding its library of content to attract more paying users.
The deal will give Tencent Music access to a diverse creator network that includes professional and user-generated content on topics spanning history, business and entertainment.
It is one of the few sizeable M&A transactions in the technology sector in China in the recent years. An unprecedented regulatory crackdown on private enterprises in the country, starting from late 2021, had cast a chill on dealmaking.
The deal also comes as Beijing has been looking to bolster private-sector sentiment and encourage executives to expand their businesses against the backdrop of a deepening China-U.S. tech war and Chinese economic slowdown.
Tencent has made large investments in long-form content such as podcasts and audiobooks to grow its Super VIP program, which offers a premium experience by bundling high-quality audio, online karaoke and exclusive event access.
Still, 86Research analyst Charlie Chai warned that integration could be a challenge, pointing to Tencent’s $417 million deal for Lazy Audio in 2021 that struggled to unleash the gains that were originally expected.
“The TME-Ximalaya deal could be compromised by similar organizational friction, keeping the latter as mostly an independent entity over the near term,” Chai said.
The deal follows Tencent’s quarterly revenue last month exceeding expectations, driven by subscriber growth in its online music services, particularly in long-form audio.
The company will offer $1.26 billion in cash and Class A shares representing up to 5.20% of its total outstanding stock. It will also issue shares to Ximalaya’s founder investors not exceeding 0.37% of its total share count.
The stock component totals about $1.15 billion based on Tencent’s last closing price on April 24, a day before Bloomberg News reported about the deal.
(Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru and Brenda Goh in Beijing; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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