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Everyone loves a happy ending, and this was a key element in the stories of my childhood. The Power Rangers defeat the monster of the week, Ash and Pikachu send Team Rocket blasting off again, Ariel the Little Mermaid gets her man and her voice back, Road Runner thwarts Wile E. Coyote’s attempts at capture, as usual … you get the gist.
Of course, now that I’m an adult who has experienced the realities of the world, I realize that happy endings aren’t always happy. Also, happy endings can take on many forms, and sometimes we’re content with an ending that’s happy enough.
That seems to be the case with the legal saga at crypto firm Cake Group, which appears to have finally drawn to a close. We find out more in today’s premium story.
Today we look at:
- The conclusion to the legal battle between Cake Group’s founders
- A startup in the Philippines that’s automating accounting and tax compliance
- Other newsy highlights such as China’s “Big Fund” for the semiconductor sector and Adani Group’s fintech and ecommerce plans
Premium summary
All’s well that ends well, or something like that
Image credit: Timmy Loen
U-Zyn Chua, the co-founder and former CTO of the Cake Group, has sold his remaining shares in the crypto company to CEO Julian Hosp. This ends a six-month legal battle for control of Cake Group, the parent firm of Bake.io, a hybrid decentralized finance (DeFi) crypto exchange based in Singapore.
- Background context: Chua filed a lawsuit to liquidate Cake Group in December 2023, after the company was forced to lay off about 30% of its employees amid falling revenues. This winding-up application was dismissed in April 2024.
- What was settled on: The terms of the sale were not disclosed. However, Chua told Tech in Asia that the amount was “much lower than the original deal” that he and Hosp had tentatively agreed to in November 2023. In a previous deal that fell through, Hosp had agreed to a price of S$32 million for Chua’s shares, which represented half of the voting shares in the company.
- No bad blood: Chua now plans to take a break, but he wants to work on a few things. He also wishes Cake Group all the best and expects that it will do well in the current market. Hosp said he would talk about Cake Group’s current state and plans for the future on Twitter Spaces this week, and made no other statements regarding the deal.
Read more: Cake Group CEO buys ex-CTO’s stake, ending legal feud
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