China’s biggest home shopping group, Alibaba, is looking to expand into the home media market.
The company has purchased a $1.22 billion stake in China’s online video market leader Youku Tudou, to help heighten the user experience. The deal lets them pay approximately $1.6944 per share.
“Alibaba’s investment will strengthen Youku Tudou as China’s largest online video platform and further differentiate our services and user experience. It will help us continue to build an immersive cultural entertainment platform that integrates online and offline entertainment,” said Victor Koo, chairman and CEO of Youku Tudou.
“This is an important strategic initiative that will further extend the Alibaba ecosystem and bring new products and services to Alibaba’s customers,” added Jack Ma, Alibaba’s executive chairman.
Alibaba is on the verge of introducing an IPO worth around $150 billion, so this push into media entertainment could be a great move for the company. And Alibaba’s fortunes strongly affect Yahoo!, which owns a substantial chunk of Alibaba stock.
Source: Variety
