China's E-commerce Company Alibaba to buy Hong Kong's South China Morning Post

 

Chinese Internet Giant Alibaba is to buy Hong Kong-based newspaper the South China Morning Post (SCMP)

The price being paid has not been revealed. According to Thomson Reuters, SCMP has a market value of HK$3bn ($392m; £258.5m)

Alibaba will remove the paywall from the paper's website to make its content freely available

Alibaba said the title was unique because it covered news from China in the English language.
Such coverage is in demand by readers globally who want to understand the world's second-largest economy, said Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group's executive vice chairman.

In a letter to readers, Mr Tsai said: "We see the perfect opportunity to marry our technology with the deep heritage of the SCMP to create a vision of news for the digital age."
He added: "Only through additional resources will the SCMP be able to stay true to its core values of quality, integrity and trust."

South China Morning Post (SCMP)was founded in 1903 but profits and sales have in recent years been hit by the same declines as newspapers in many countries

China's Alibaba buying Hong Kong's South China Morning Post for $266 million

E-commerce company Alibaba is buying Hong Kong's South China Morning Post for 2.06 billion Hong Kong dollars ($266 million), it said Monday Dec 14,2015, in a deal that's stirred concern the English-language paper's reporting may be softened under new Chinese owners.

The Chinese e-commerce giant is paying cash for the newspaper and the SCMP Group's other media assets, including magazines, outdoor advertising and digital media, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The deal was announced on Friday Dec 11,2015 but no amount was given for the transaction.