SCMP for Alibaba

11/12/2015

China's e-commerce Alibaba announces that it's acquiring SCMP (South China Morning Newspaper). With the $266 million price tag, Alibaba becomes the parent company of the China's and Hong Kong's flagship English-language newspaper.

Alibaba's acquires SCMP from Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok who has been the media group's major shareholder since 1993. SCMP was first founded on 6 November 1903. Since then, it focuses on pro-political coverage of China.

Alibaba's announcement of the ownership change sparkled concerns from many people in China and worldwide. Among the motives of the acquisition is Alibaba wants to make the country's media coverage to be "objective, fair and accurate", and not just in the optic of Western views.