This round of financing is another important strategic investor introduced by Station B since its listing, following Tencent and Ali.
Sony joined the strategic investment station B after Tencent and Ali.
On April 9, Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as “Station B”) announced that it had obtained a strategic investment of US $ 400 million from Sony. At that time, Sony will hold a total amount of issued shares in Station B through its subsidiaries. 4.98%.
According to the agreement, Sony will subscribe for 17,310,696 Class Z common shares newly issued by Station B at a total consideration of approximately US $ 400 million. The purchase price is The share of Class Z common stock is 23.1071 US dollars, which is equivalent to 23.1071 US dollars per B-site American Depositary Share (ADS). This transaction is expected to be completed soon.
In addition to strategic investment, the two sides said that they will also cooperate in multiple areas, especially in animation and mobile games. In addition, Recently, Station B has also reached a strategic cooperation with Sony Music, and users can watch Sony Music ’s music library MV at Station B.
Sony is one of the three major players in the world ’s video game industry, and one of the six major Hollywood film companies in the United States. The PlayStation, etc., the two sides have a long history of cooperation in the fields of animation, games, and music, so Sony ’s strategic investment in Station B is not surprising, there are many matches between the two sides Business.
First of all games, Since 2014, Station B has cooperated with Sony ’s wholly-owned subsidiary Aniplex in animation copyright procurement, and announced its exclusive agency in 2016 Aniplex’s mobile game “Fate / Grand Order” (Fate / Grand Order), this game also plays the role of “bearer” in the B station game business. According to the financial report of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019 of Station B, its gaming business revenue was 870 million yuan.
Second is the content, whether it is animation or music, Sony Group has a huge resource library, after the cooperation between the two parties will further provide content for station B. These richer and more popular content can help the B station to pry the wider crowd, which is also required for the B station to accelerate the circle.
And for Sony, multiple cooperation between the two sides can also help it open more convenientlyAfter all, for all “outsiders”, the domestic market is faced with the inevitable problem of “localization”.
It is worth noting that this round of financing is also another important strategic investor introduced by Station B since its listing, following Tencent and Ali. In October 2018, Station B received a US $ 320 million investment from Tencent; in February 2019, Alibaba announced that it would invest in Station B.
Head picture from: Station B