A purchasing deal has officially been locked into place between “Chinese YouTube”  Youku Tudou and fellow Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group. Up slightly from the original offer of $3.5 billion to buy out the company, Alibaba has agreed to pay $27.60 USD per American depository share (ADS) for a total of around $3.67 billion. This comes as a slight discount to the original value set for Youku Tudou at $4.2 billion, yet overall was a 35.1% premium over the closing price of the service’s ADSs when the market closed the day proceeding the initial offer made by Alibaba Group.

The finalized details passed through Alibaba’s board flawlessly, earning a unanimous vote in favor of the final $3.67 billion price and was soon agreed upon by Youku Tudou’s leaders as well. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2016 under the assumption that 2/3 of the remaining shareholders agree to hand over their stakes in the company. Alibaba formerly owned a small stake as well.

Now that full control has been passed over, the e-commerce firm plans on broadening the video service’s reach and integrating it into their other business services such as Alipay to transform it into China’s premier media platform. Victor Koo, Youku Tudou’s chairman, released a statement of delight around the transaction: “We believe this combination with Alibaba maximizes value for Youku Tudou shareholders and significantly benefits our customers, users and team. We are eager to work with Alibaba to grow our multi-screen entertainment and media ecosystem.” He also went on to note, “With Alibaba’s support, Youku Tudou’s future as the leading multi-screen entertainment and media platform in China has been firmly secured.”

via: Billboard

Tags: Alibaba Group, Youku Tudou

Categories: News