Tencent Poised to Increase Universal Music Group Stake to 20%

Rebecca Davis editorAlibaba Group announced Tuesday that it will close down its streaming platform Xiami Music on Feb. 5, as it struggles to keep up with competitors Tencent Music and NetEase in China’s competitive digital music sector.Xiami Music will cease operations due to “business development-related adjustments,” pivoting to become more of a music industry service provider, the company said in an official statement posted to social media, thanking its fans.

Variety Staff Follow Us on TwitterUniversal Music Group has announced a strategic expansion of its Sub-Saharan Africa leadership team, with Sipho Dlamini and Elouise Kelly named CEO and COO of Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, respectively, and Chinedu Okeke named managing director of Universal Music Nigeria.Dlamini will continue to oversee all of UMG’s operations within English-speaking Africa.

James McClain Elon Musk is officially no longer a Los Angeles homeowner. The Tesla and SpaceX tycoon began 2020 with six Bel Air houses to his name, but in June he sold the largest of them for $29 million to Chinese billionaire William Ding.

Slash has said he’s optimistic that 2021 will see new releases from both Guns N’ Roses and his band with Myles Kennedy.The guitarist said he’s recently been working with bassist Duff McKagan on material expected to form the first new Guns N’ Roses album since 2008’s notoriously delayed ‘Chinese Democracy’.A follow-up to 2018’s ‘Living The Dream’, which would be the guitarist’s fifth solo album and fourth billed as ‘Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators’, could also be on the cards,

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese social media firm Kuaishou and post-production and VFX company Motion Magic Digital Entertainment have both taken further steps towards initial listing of their shares.Kuaishou, which may be the world’s second most downloaded video sharing app after Bytedance’s TikTok/Douyin, is reported to have set a date and target price for its previously announced IPO in Hong Kong.

The United States on Monday imposed additional visa restrictions on Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses, taking further action against China in the final month of U.S. President Donald Trump’s term.

AMC Entertainment Monday unveiled plans to change its board structure in an agreement with majority shareholder Wanda America Entertainment, a division of Dalian Wanda Group of China.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefJessica Chastain’s “Ava” has skipped a theatrical release in China, but is instead to get the widest possible online outing in the Middle Kingdom. From Saturday it is available on China’s four largest generalist streaming platforms: Tencent Video, Alibaba-owned Youku, iQIYI and Mango TV.The maneuver was piloted by Los Angeles and Beijing based Leeding Media.

Vivendi said Friday that aTencent-led consortium had exercised its option to acquire an additional 10 percent stake of Universal Music Group. TheFrench entertainment and telecom conglomerate confirmed the deal was based on an enterprise value for UMG of €30 billion, or $36.76 billion at current exchange rates, which values the 10 percent stake in the music major at $3.7 billion.

Rebecca Davis editorChinese regulators have approved a deal for Alibaba’s investment arm to buy 5.26% of Mango Excellent Media for $946 million (RMB6.2 billion), tying together two of the country’s top online video platforms at a time when the battle for local streaming supremacy is ramping up.Alibaba owns Youku, China’s number three streaming platform, while TV producer Mango Excellent — which has ties to the influential state-run TV network Hunan Broadcasting System — owns the immensely

A consortium led by China’s Tencent has exercised an option to purchase a further 10% of Vivendi’s Universal Music Group. The deal values the company at €30BN.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSingapore-based mini-conglomerate GHY Culture Media made its debut on the local stock exchange on Friday. In early trading its shares traded up by more than 6%.The company was founded and remains headed by screenwriter and producer Guo Jingyu and has significant mainland Chinese connections.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, MusicUniversal Music Group chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge was one of the first music industry executives to contract COVID-19 this year, entering the hospital shortly after his 60th birthday celebration at the end of February.

For as far back as Pearlena Igbokwe can remember, she's had a single wall, in every home and office that she's occupied, painted a golden hue. "The color of sunshine," she says, revealing her love for the kind of shock of color that can immediately warm up a room and put those within it at ease.

Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman 1984 begins offshore rollout today in such markets as Indonesia, Portugal and the UK — though on a very limited basis in the latter where London cinemas have been re-shuterred as the capital moves into a Tier 3 Covid lockdown.