Alibaba to take over China's YouTube

November 06, 2015 21:56

Billionaire Jack Ma's Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba today announced a multi-billion-dollar deal to take over video streaming service Youku Tudou as it seeks to spread its online empire.

Alibaba is snapping up Youku Tudou, China's equivalent to YouTube, in the latest of a string of acquisitions as it sets its sights far beyond its core eBay-style transactions business.

In a "definitive merger agreement", Alibaba will pay $27.60 in cash per US-traded American depositary share in Youku Tudou, the companies said in a statement, without giving the overall value.

The price is 35 per cent higher than the share price on October 15 just before the takeover bid was first announced.

The agreed price is slightly up from the first bid of $26.60, an offer that had a total deal value of about $4.6 billion (4.2 billion euros) according to Bloomberg News.

Alibaba already owns more than 18 per cent of Youku Tudou, which offers mostly professionally produced video content licensed from copyright holders.

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