B station received a strategic investment of US $ 400 million from Sony.
On April 9, Chinese barrage video site Bilibili (Nasdaq: BILI, commonly known as Station B) announced that it had received a strategic investment of $ 400 million from Sony. At the same time, the two parties will also cooperate in many fields, especially in the field of animation and mobile games.
According to the agreement, Sony will subscribe for 17,310,696 newly issued Class Z common shares at a total consideration of approximately US $ 400 million through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony. The purchase price is USD 23.1071 per Class Z common stock, which is equivalent to USD 23.1071 for each B deposit American Depositary Share (ADS). The transaction is expected to be completed soon, and Sony will then hold approximately 4.98% of the total issued shares of Station B through its subsidiaries.
This round of financing is 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 its stake in Station B.
At present, Chen Rui, chairman of the B station, is the largest shareholder with a shareholding ratio of 15.1%. Tencent is the second largest shareholder of Station B.
For this cooperation, Chen Rui, Chairman and CEO of Station B, said: “We are very pleased to reach cooperation with Sony, a global leader in entertainment and technology. This strategic cooperation will help us bring better content and better service experience to users, especially in the field of animation and games. We look forward to working together with Sony in a wider field to meet the growing user needs Cultural and entertainment needs. “
Sony and B have a long history of business cooperation in animation, games, music and other fields.
Since 2014, Station B and Aniplex, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony, have carried out a number of cooperation in the procurement of animation copyrights, and announced in 2016 that they are the sole agent of Aniplex ’s mobile The game “Fate / Grand Order” (Fate / Grand Order). 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.
It is worth noting that in the fourth quarter of 2019, the gaming business revenue of station B increased by 22% year-on-year to 870 million yuan. Currently, station B has more than30 unique game reserves, and will further promote the overseas distribution business of games.
As of press time, the share price of Station B rose by more than 7%, standing at $ 28.