Tencent Music to buy Chinese audio platform Ximalaya for US$2.4 billion

Chinese music platform Tencent Music Entertainment Group (1698) said on Tuesday it would buy long-form audio platform Ximalaya for about US$2.4 billion (HK$18.72 billion) in cash and stock, expanding its library of content to attract more paying users.

US-listed shares of Tencent Music rose 7 percent in premarket trading.

The company will offer US$1.26 billion in cash and Class A shares representing up to 5.2 percent of its total outstanding stock. It will also issue shares to Ximalaya's founder investors not exceeding 0.37 percent of its total share count.

The stock component of the deal totals about US$1.15 billion based on Tencent Music's last closing price on April 24, a day before Bloomberg News reported about the deal.

Reuters