Linktone, a China-based entertainment and news media provider, has recently acquired one of Indonesia’s largest online news portals, Okezone.com. Linktone bought a 99.99 percent share of Okezone from its parent company, PT. Media Nusantara Indonesia (IDX:MNCN).
Linktone also announced that it would move its principal executive offices from Shanghai to Singapore to better pursue its growth in the ASEAN region. Interestingly, the executive chairman and CEO of Linktone is also the president director of MNCN, Hary Tanoesoedibjo. Here we get a glimpse of what the acquisition means for both Linktone and MNCN.
Hary said that the acquisition is in line with Linktone’s efforts to transform itself from a China-focused provider of mobile value-added services into a multi-platform media distributor serving the entire pan-Asian region. He added:
With an average of 150 million page views and 25 million unique visitors per month, Okezone.com is already a popular source of news and other content for web users in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world. I believe that we can leverage Okezone.com’s popularity to help expand [Linktone’s] reach among both consumers and content owners, diversify our revenue base and grow our business across a wider range of end markets in Indonesia.
Linktone also announced the completion of its Innoform company which will help distribute the MNCN owned content and channels outside of the Indonesian market.
MNCN corporate secretary Arya Sinulingga said that the move would help MNCN to focus their efforts on its core businesses, which is the television industry, while Okezone is to be developed as a multimedia company.
[Source: Jakarta Post]
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