Asian Tech Press (Oct 15) -- The former US-listed Sina Corp, China's Twitter-like platform Weibo's parent company, reportedly intends to acquire some stakes in Shanghai-based game developer Yoozoo Games.
Xu Fenfen, the current chairman of Yoozoo, has accepted a deposit from Sina to buy the shares, according to Chinese media outlet The Beijing News on Thursday, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The source also said that the new Youzu building, which is outside of Yoozoo, has also been sold.
Meanwhile, the source revealed that the deal between Sina and Yoozoo has been going on for several months and is expected to be officially made public by the end of this year.
However, the source noted, "Sina is not interested in the intellectual property of "Three-Body Problem" and at present Xu is still seeking investors interested in the famous sci-fi IP."
In early June this year, a source close to Sina's senior management confirmed to the media that Sina was negotiating at the group level to acquire some of the shares of Yoozoo, looking at some of the IPs in its hands.
Industry sources believe that as Sina's going private has been completed in the first half of this year, and the acquisition of Yoozoo may pave the way for a domestic listing.
Since the unfortunate death of Lin Qi, the founder and former CEO and chairman of Yoozoo, in December 2020, his shares in the company were inherited by his three children. While Xu Fenfen, the mother of Lin's children, became the new de facto controller of the company and took over the chairmanship.
According to an announcement of Yoozoo, at the time of his death, Lin directly held 219,702,005 shares of the company, accounting for 23.99% of the total share capital of the company.
In June 2021, Yoozoo had issued a notice regarding the unusual share price, stating that Xu Fenfen the legal guardian of the heirs of Mr. Lin Qi, the former controlling shareholder and de facto controller, was planning major matters related to the transfer of shares and had recently made significant progress in advancing.
