Disney CEO Bob Iger has joined with four other prominent businessmen to take a small stake in venture firm Thrive Capital.
07.01.2023 - 22:17 / deadline.com
Former China high-flyer Jack Ma’s influence is being further cut, as the Ant Group company he cofounded said he is reducing his voting rights at the financial technology firm as it restructures in line with a regulatory crackdown.
An Ant Group statement indicated that Ma’s previous control over more than 50% of voting rights would be reduced to 6.2%.
Ant, founded by Ma in 2014, operates Alipay, the world’s largest digital payments platform. The platform is used by hundreds of millions of people every month in China and elsewhere.
It is also involved in consumer lending and insurance products distribution.
The Ant Group is an affiliate company of the multinational technology company Alibaba Group, also founded by Ma, which operates the popular shopping platforms Taobao and Tmall.
Ma cofounded Alibaba in 1999, and advanced its reach with the founding of subsidiary the Ant Group in 2014. He built the e-commerce company into a $454B empire, transforming the way Chinese people shop. In the process, Ma became one of the richest men in the world, with a net worth of nearly $42B, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
Ma stepped down as chairman of Alibaba Group in 2019.
Alibaba’s sprawling operations penetrated Hollywood in recent years, taking stakes in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners in 2016 and then STX in 2019. It helped bring films like Green Book to Chinese audiences.
The Ant Group company said it was adjusting its ownership structure so that “no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group.”
“The adjustment is being implemented to further enhance the stability of our corporate structure and sustainability of our long-term development,” the Ant statement said.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger has joined with four other prominent businessmen to take a small stake in venture firm Thrive Capital.
Last week, news broke that “Industry” star Marisa Abela would play Amy Winehouse in Samuel Taylor-Johnson‘s upcoming biopic “Back To Black.” And now there’s the first bit of additional casting news. Deadline reports that Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, and Lesley Manville join the cast of the upcoming film, with production currently underway in London.
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CTV Edmonton reporter Jessica Robb was doing a live remote on the six o’clock news when she began jumbling her words as she spoke to anchor Nahreman Issa.
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Judge Marvin Isgur told parties to the Cineworld bankruptcy Wednesday they need to speed things up as debtors and creditors hash out a restructuring plan for the giant movie chain, including closing theaters, wrapping up lease negotiations with landlords, and advancing an overall sale process.
Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.