Pricey Purchase Plan for Popular WeChat Account Draws Regulator Scrutiny

ABOUT US

CX Tech is Caixin Global's real-time tech news portal, featuring 24-hour news, short-form analysis, and roundups from business and tech media in China.

TRENDING: Alibaba’s Profit Plunges as E-Commerce Business Falters, AI Investment Jumps; DeepSeek Enters the Multimodal AI Race with Experimental Vision Model

LATEST: DeepSeek Enters the Multimodal AI Race with Experimental Vision Model; Alibaba’s Profit Plunges as E-Commerce Business Falters, AI Investment Jumps; YMTC Moves Closer to Shanghai IPO; Unitree Shares Decline as Founder Flags Limits of Humanoid Robots; AI Companies’ Success Lies in the Apps, Bain’s China Chairman Says; China’s LandSpace Recovers Booster in Reusable Rocket Breakthrough; Spacecom Raises $1.94 billion in Bet on China’s Starlink Rival; U.S. Appeals Court Orders Review of Pentagon’s DJI Designation; Unitree to Debut at 61 Billion Yuan Valuation in Closely Watched Shanghai IPO; Alibaba to Sell Gaming Unit as It Sharpens AI Focus; China’s DJI and Arashi Vision Escalate Battle for 360-Camera Market; Didi Swings to Quarterly Profit, but Overseas Push Weighs on First-Half Results; Z.AI Pushes AI Model With Coding Edge to Rival Anthropic, Open AI; DeepSeek Launches V4-Pro and Raises API Prices by as Much as 1,100%; Tencent Shares Fall as AI Spending Squeezes Profit; Honor’s New Smartphone Doubles as a Robotic Camera Operator; YMTC Overtakes Kioxia by Shipments to Rank No. 3 in Global NAND Market; ModelBest Begins Pre-IPO Tutoring as On-Device AI Competition Heats Up; U.S. Proposes Ban on Domestic Drone Maker Over Alleged DJI Ties; Manus Cuts Ties With Meta as Tencent Emerges as Top Backer

By Shi Rui and Han Wei / Apr 02, 2019 02:31 AM / Business & Tech

Photo: VCG

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange demanded that an online education company disclose more about its eye-popping plan to pay 1.5 billion yuan ($223 million) to acquire a popular WeChat account.

The regulator listed 29 questions on the business operation of the target asset and the buyer’s financing plan and financial facts, requiring a reply by April 5.

Shenzhen-listed Qtone Education Group raised market eyebrows in late March with a plan to make a share-for-share acquisition of “Wu Xiaobo Channel,” a WeChat account focusing on business analysis and opinion articles managed by Hangzhou Bajiuling Culture and Innovation — which is controlled by finance journalist Wu Xiaobo and his wife Shao Bingbing.

The inquiry reflects regulators’ caution over mergers and acquisitions of assets in new-media formats.

The Wu Xiaobo Channel has more than 2 million followers and was valued at 2 billion yuan in a financing round in 2017. The account makes money from several WeChat-related routes: advertising, subscriptions, and even online finance courses.

Share this article

Open WeChat and scan the QR code