Sony Corporation of America (SCA) is investing approximately $400 million into Bilibili, a major Chinese online video and mobile gaming platform. The deal will see SCA acquire 17,310,696 newly issued Class Z ordinary shares from Bilibili priced at $23.1071 each, resulting in a 4.98% ownership transfer with a lock-up period of six months.
Bilibili is well known for its animation and has steadily grown into other areas such as esports, music, and documentaries, boasting over 130 million monthly users. This should come as no surprise as the organization leverages the power of both Tencent and Alibaba, with a three-year contract to broadcast domestic esports games for League of Legends.
Tapping into the power and size of the Chinese market is a common trend among video game companies, and we have seen similar ventures over the last year. Blizzard has recently made major waves when it was revealed that the upcoming Diablo Immortal was being produced by NetEase, a Chinese Internet technology company.
Of course, problems can arise when these types of joint projects pit the desires of consumers against those of the country where a company is trying to develop their market share, as Blizzard experienced last year when it came to Hearthstone esports player Blitzchung.
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