Yahoo Finance Alibaba Snaps Up South China Morning Post
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has agreed to buy Hong Kong's flagship South China Morning Post newspaper.
The announcement, following weeks of speculation , sees the retailer take control of the 112-year-old English language publication as well as licences to the Hong Kong editions of Esquire, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Harper's Bazaar.
Financial details were not disclosed. The Post is thought to have a market value of around 3 billion Hong Kong dollars or £260m.
The deal sees Alibaba founder Jack Ma mirror the decision of Amazon's Jeff Bezos to buy the Washington Post for $250m (£163m) in 2013.
It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) may raise concerns in Hong Kong where changes in the Post's editorial line are seen as a barometer for press freedom in the former British territory now under Chinese rule.
But Joe Tsai, executive vice chairman of Alibaba group, pledged in a letter to readers that the newspaper would be "objective, accurate and fair" adding that "day-to-day editorial decisions will be driven by editors in the newsroom, not in the corporate boardroom".
Mr Tsai added: "The SCMP has iconic status in the region, with a strong reputation internationally for the quality and credibility of its journalism over the years.
"Like many print media, however, the SCMP faces challenges amid the dramatic changes in the way news is reported and distributed. But these changes play to Alibaba's strengths, which is why we believe the two companies complement each other well."
Once one of the world's most profitable newspapers, the paper's fortunes have declined with the rest of the newspaper industry, with SCMP's net profit falling last year to 137m Hong Kong dollars (£11.6m).
It has been owned by Malaysian sugar tycoon Robert Kuok since 1993.
Alibaba is well known for its annual Singles Day shopping extravaganza in November - which this year smashed sales records after a glitzy launch by Mr Ma with James Bond star Daniel Craig.
The group has been expanding into the media sector to cater for growing demand for online content among its Chinese consumers, including a deal hoovering up the shares in video-streaming website Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU - news) that it did not already own.
